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Productivity Hacks - Must Have Strategies for High Performing Leaders & Speakers  Has your productivity taken a nose dive? Have you been procrastinating or not achieving at the level that you could each day? Are you feeling “BUSY” but not productive? Due to the growing uncertainty in the world, It is easy for distraction to increase and for your productivity to take a downward dive. This is because when uncertainty increases, We often try to reclaim back certainty, And sometimes this comes through as activities that distract us or aren't the most resourceful uses of time. If you are ready to level up and achieve more in a day, in this article I am going to share with you 3 Pro Strategies and a Golden Strategy at the end to skyrocket your productivity. Let's get started! PRO STRATEGY #1 Reverse-Engineer Your Life & Goals Strategy number one is to reverse-engineer your life and goals. As Stephen Covey explains, "Begin with the end in mind", and as Simon Sinek explains, "Start with why." So, what I invite you to do is to think about: at the end of your life, who do you want to be remembered as? When people are going to your funeral, and they are celebrating you, what are they celebrating about you? What characteristics and personality traits are they celebrating? What achievements are they celebrating about you? What are they celebrating about how you showed up for them? Think about who you want to be, what you want to achieve, and what you want to gain by the end of your life. Then, reverse engineer this. In the next five years, what's possible? In the next three, what's possible? In the next year, what’s possible? There's a quote from Bill Gates that says, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” So, I invite you to reflect on your long-term goals. If you reverse engineer your life, it means the goals that you have this month, this week and this day are all working towards you becoming that version of you, gaining those achievements, and gaining those things that you're working towards at the end of your life. So, reverse engineer your goals to get more done. PRO STRATEGY #2 Take Breaks - Reflection & Intention The second way to skyrocket your productivity is to take breaks and create reflection and intention time. Taking breaks might sound a bit contradictory to you wanting to do more, but the fact is, the more breaks you have, the more you can actually achieve. As we know from high performance research, even if you take a 30-second break when you have a block of 50 minutes of productivity, it's going to increase your focus and productivity substantially. So, take breaks. Even more than that, create time for reflection and intention. Often, I'll take time throughout the day, which are called Transition Habits to go: Have I done the stuff I wanted to do in this block of time at the level that I could have? Am I focused and achieving my goals at my optimal energy? If I wasn’t as productive or focused, I would then ask myself: How can I make the rest of today count? How can I make this next block of time even better? Sometimes, because we have an off morning, we make the whole day not productive. Therefore, it is empowering to ask yourself at different points in the day and in between different projects, how can I now bring my productivity to another level? Create time to reflect and then set an intention for the next block of productivity ahead. This way, you're going to be way more aligned, way more productive, and you'll do less busy work and more of your life's work. Take breaks. Let yourself rejuvenate. Reflect and set intention and become more productive. PRO STRATEGY #3 Create Visual Calendars The third way to achieve more is to have visual calendars. A lot of us in this day and age, because we grew up with TV, visuals and advertisements, we are quite visually prone. We have more of a visual communication style, or we have more of a visual way of learning. So, what we need to be aware of is that we set our environment up for success. We have visual calendars with our bigger goals. We have our inspiring end-in-mind whys in front of us. We have a daily visual calendar that has what our goals are each day. Whether this is on your laptop, or whether this is visually in your room, it is important to visually see your progress and goals. I know for me, I love to have all my different goals on my wall, with different key quotes, my future visions, and how I want to show up that month. I have a daily calendar on the wall also, which has different colours for different things that I do. For example, my one-on-one coaching is one colour on the calendar and my group coaching, or my live events, are in different colours. Create colour coordination on your calendars to give you more of a snap overview about how you planning to spend your time, and if you're spending your time in the most productive way. Have visual colours and calendars light up your space and help you be more productive. Golden Strategy Activate Accountability Before I had my team behind me, before I got coaches and mentors behind me, it was just myself on the journey needing to keep myself accountable. Trust me, this isn’t the most fulfilling road to take. Now, because I have people who I'm going to be having meetings with and where I will be sharing what I've achieved, and because I have more goal end dates and I need to get certain things done for my team on time, I'm way more productive. So, ask yourself, who can be my accountability buddy? Maybe hire a coach to support you. A lot of high performers come to me wanting to grow their public speaking and leadership skills, but also just to have more accountability overall in life so they can level up a lot faster and effectively. Maybe you can have more dates with your partner or friends where you talk about what you've achieved. You can also talk about what you haven't achieved to keep you more accountable for the weeks ahead. Ask yourself where you can set up accountability meetings with other people, or accountability deadlines, so that you can achieve more. This will change everything and be an absolute levelling up for you and your productivity. Woohoo! I trust that this blog article has inspired you to level up and provided strategies for you to sky-rocket your productivity. I invite you to like and comment below if you resonate or have any questions, and share this article with anyone you feel is going to benefit from this. As always, if there are any topics or any other challenges I can support you with, simply message me at www.jodydontje.com/connect. I'd be happy to support you. I'm here to serve. Remember, every day you have a choice: You can choose to be ordinary, or as Denise Burchard explains “YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE EXTRAORDINARY”. So, go out there and choose to be EXTRAORDINARY. Be Brave. Be Vulnerable. Be Kind. With kindness,  
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4 Ways to Gain more Speaking Experience - Must Have Strategies for Speakers & Leaders  Are you new to public speaking? Would you like to learn where you can start to practice your public speaking skills? Do you want to get your foot in the door with free events that could eventually lead to paid events? If you answered YES to any of these, this blog is for you. I've been public speaking for over 10 years now and have gained a diverse range of experience in front of all sorts of audiences. When first starting out, there were a few key places that led to more opportunities, including paid public speaking opportunities. I decided to write this article for you to introduce you to 3 key places where you can practice public speaking, plus enjoy my Golden Strategy at the end of this article below. PRO TIP #1 Clubs: Rotary & Toastmasters The first type of place you can apply to do speeches at are clubs, such as at Rotary Clubs. You can reach out and offer your services for free. You can run a workshop or give a presentation just for the people in the rotary, or maybe they can help you organise an event where you add value to the local community. You will be amazed at how welcoming clubs can be with free speakers, it is a win-win situation! So, reach out to your local club, such as a Rotary Club and see if you can add value. Just make sure the topic is related to something that will help them or help the local community. Another club that you can apply to gain experience at is at a Toastmaster Club. Now, if you're not part of Toastmasters or you don't want to be, that's okay. You could still apply, possibly, to do a Test Speech. A Test Speech is when you do a speech where the people who are practicing their evaluation skills can listen to your speech and give an evaluation. So, not only will you practice your public speaking skills on the stage with other people, you can also gain feedback instantly. Which is a pretty awesome circumstance. So, have a look at which local clubs you can speak at. PRO TIP #2 Local Schools A great place to gain opportunities to practice your public speaking skills are at your local schools. Whether it's primary or high school, you can get your foot in the door by reaching out to the school that you studied at or a school that you connect to the values of. You can offer a workshop or a class for the teachers or you can do a workshop for the students. Look into what that school is needing. Look into the national curriculum in your country, in your region, and see where you can fit in something that you are an expert in or that you have experience in to make a difference to them. Especially if you're doing it for free, schools will be more open to having you add value in some way. Just check what type of documentation you may need if you want to run a workshop with children, such as Working with Children Check. Overall, start a conversation with schools and see if you can get your foot in the door. Coming from a teaching background, working in over 57 schools across four different countries, I know I appreciated when people would come in and offer perspective to our students. So, have a look at how you can add value in schools. PRO TIP #3 Networking Events Another strategy to gaining speaking experience is going to networking events, attending other events, and talking with people in the audience or directly with the event organisers. Seek out what a gap might be and offer your services for free. I've gained a lot of speaking gigs that led to paid speaking opportunities just because I went to an event, saw that there was room for improvement in a certain area or was curious to find out if they had certain topics that people might need, and offered my skills to the event organisers or event manager. The very first time I did this I was so nervous and was completely surprised when the event manager excitedly and instantly shared "Yes, we would love to have you! We'd love to organise to have you speak. Are you available in the next few weeks?" You'd be surprised with how easily networking events can lead to opportunities where you can gain free and even paid opportunities to speak. You can use Eventbrite, or you can use Meetup to have a look at different places that might be available for you to network at or visit, whether online or offline. So, have a look at events that might be happening in your region or country and be brave with offering your voice and value. Golden Bonus Tip Run your Own Event Well done for making it to the end for my bonus strategy; my bonus golden strategy is for you to consider running your own events! Yes, you can do it! You can use Eventbrite, Meetup or any other event marketing platform and run your own events. If it is online, you can use Zoom, and if it is offline, you could host an event in your home, at a local library or look for room availability in your local area. Inspire local people, friends and colleagues, to join your event for free. Not only will you make a difference and gain experience with speaking, but you can also learn the process of marketing and the process of starting conversations even before you get on stage. If you don’t want to run an event publicly, maybe you're in an organisation who would be open to having you run workshops or do more presentations. Ask your boss and team if you can run your own event inside of the organisation that matches their values and what they are needing. You'd be surprised that when you put yourself out there, how much success and vibrancy comes back. So, give it a go. Put yourself out there and run your own events, workshops and presentations. You got this! Woohoo! I trust that this blog article on where to gain more speaking experience added value to you. I invite you to like and comment below if you resonate or have any questions, and share this article with anyone you feel is going to benefit from this. As always, if there are any topics or any other challenges I can support you with, simply message me at www.jodydontje.com/connect. I'd be happy to support you. I'm here to serve. Remember, every day you have a choice: You can choose to be ordinary, or as Denise Burchard explains “YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE EXTRAORDINARY”. So, go out there and choose to be EXTRAORDINARY. Be Brave. Be Vulnerable. Be Kind. With kindness,  How to Have More Joy in Life and Work - Must Have Strategies for High Performers  Have you ever been around low energy people and felt the lack of joy? These people aren't very vibrant, and they look like they’re not enjoying life. Is this something that you sometimes feel also? One of the growing problems that people are facing is a thing called terminal seriousness. It is a real problem! This doesn’t mean that we cannot feel other emotions, because all emotions are valid and we cannot be joyful all of the time. It does mean, however, that some people have a baseline of seriousness or anxiety, and others of joy and vibrancy. If you would like to learn how to have more joy in your life, then this article is for you. If you wish to inspire others to be more joyful, then it’s important that you reclaim that next level of joy also. There's extensive research on how joy brings more passion and positivity into work and life, and people who have more passion and enjoyment in their work and in everyday life are mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and even physically healthier overall. I would love to share a part of my “ABCDE of Joys Toolkit” below, and as usual I have included a Golden Strategy for you at the end of this article. PRO TIP #1 Celebration Joys Do you celebrate yourself enough? Do you allow yourself space to feel the wins along the journey? The first type of joy that I coined in my “ABCDE of Joys Toolkit”, which I teach to my exclusive members, is Celebration Joys. Celebration Joys is where you create space to celebrate your growth, achievements and reaching a specific milestone in your journey. Celebration Joys is where you feel the enjoyment of progress and not just hold out for the end result in order to feel good. One of the biggest issues that my high performing members face is burnout or this feeling of 'it's a never ending struggle' towards their goals. One of the ways to overcome this is to lean into Celebration Joys by taking the time to rejuvenate and celebrate the joys along the way. Celebration Joys can be big or small. Celebration Joys could be as simple as you send through an email you've been procrastinating on, and you then take some time to do a little dance to celebrate yourself. Maybe a Celebration Joy is when you finally get that sale, or you finally finish that project, and you go out with your friends or with your partner to celebrate you. Celebration Joys are crucial for your long-term success and fulfilment. So, I invite you to write a list of all the big and small ways you can celebrate yourself and the different milestones that you will celebrate along the way. It is time that you give yourself the credit that you deserve. PRO TIP #2 Big Joys The second type of joy for you to immerse into are called Daily Joys. Daily Joys are just that; they're the joys you can enjoy daily. I invite you to sit down and ask yourself: What aspects of my job do I enjoy? What aspects of my relationships do I enjoy? What are the things during the day that I enjoy? What are ways that I can have more joy each and every day? Maybe you really enjoy savouring that cup of tea or coffee during your break. Maybe you really enjoy that conversation that you have with your colleague at lunchtime. Maybe you really enjoy the evenings when you can relax with your partner. Maybe there are little things throughout the day that you love and enjoy, such as playing music to get your body moving throughout the day, to get the energy flowing. I want you to think about all the different joys that you can enjoy every single day, and at the start of the day, think about, "How can I live those daily joys more often today?" Give yourself permission to experience joy every day. PRO TIP #3 Daily Joys "The big joys are the bigger joys, the bigger goals that you are working towards. So, while you're celebrating along the way, while you're enjoying those daily joys, what are those bigger joys that you are working towards? Is it that next big milestone in your business? Is it finding that dream partner and getting married? Is it that promotion or new job? Is it buying that home or new car? Is it going on that big vacation and adventure? Ask yourself, what are the bigger joys that I can look forward to? Life can be tough if we don't have things to look forward to in the future. So, what are those bigger joys that every day you are working slowly towards? Golden Bonus Joy Adventure Joys What are your Adventure Joys? Let’s look now at the things that light you up and give you that deep sense of adventure, variety, and excitement. What gets your adrenaline running, or gives you a sense that you are trying something new, pushing your boundaries, and putting yourself out there? Perhaps your Adventure Joys are outdoor adventures like going on that hiking trip you want to go on or going on that diving adventure you've been looking forward to in the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe an Adventure Joy for you is going to the new restaurant you've always wanted to try or joining a new fitness class. Maybe your Adventure Joys is playing new music or trying a new dance. Perhaps it is learning that new skill that you’ve wanted to learn, such as Public Speaking. What are the adventures and the variety that you can create in your life? When you have more adventures, you're going to feel a greater sense of vibrancy, excitement, and enjoyment overall. So, what are your Celebration Joys? Your Daily Joys? Your Big Joys? Your Adventure Joys? Woohoo! I trust that this blog article on joy has added value to you. I invite you to like and comment below if you resonate or have any questions, and share this article with anyone you feel is going to benefit from this. As always, if there are any topics or any other challenges I can support you with, simply message me at www.jodydontje.com/connect. I'd be happy to support you. I'm here to serve. Remember, every day you have a choice: You can choose to be ordinary, or as Denise Burchard explains “YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE EXTRAORDINARY”. So, go out there and choose to be EXTRAORDINARY. Be Brave. Be Vulnerable. Be Kind. With kindness,  How to Have Healthy Boundaries - Must Have Strategies for High Performers  Have you ever felt like you need to set healthier boundaries with people? Your boundaries are EVERYTHING. Without healthy boundaries, you: ❌Give away your power ❌Live in the shadow of others ❌Are reactive to other peoples needs ❌Face burnout & exhaustion ❌End up with regrets ❌Put yourself last ❌Never reach your full potential I know how it feels to have a lack of boundaries... I know how it feels to people-please and try to live a life completely for others and disregarding your self. I know how it feels to be reactive and share too much, Or to not speak up when boundaries are crossed. I know that sometimes it feels like we are being "kind", But as Brene Brown explains: "𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀." If you want to learn how to have healthy boundaries, I'd love to share how you can create Four Different Types of Boundaries in this blog article. I've covered this topic in a previous video and article before, however this is such an important topic and I know many of you struggle with this as high performers. So, let's get started. HEALTHY BOUNDARY #1 The Boundary of Saying "No" "NO" is a full sentence. So many of us struggle to say no. Even if we don’t directly say the word "no" in everyday life and in professional settings, many of us cringe at the thought of declining an offer, such as taking on extra work. This very lack of “no” is detrimental. It's exhausting. You burn out. You get overwhelmed. You become a nasty person because you are just spreading yourself too thin. If this sounds like you or sounds like someone that you know, have hope; there are ways to overcome this. There are two big parts that we first need to understand about why you're having issues with saying "no". The first big part of having issues with saying "no", is because you're coming from a trying-to-prove-yourself space. You feel like you need to keep proving yourself. You need to keep showing your worth. You need to keep showing that you're capable, you're competent, whether that’s personally or professionally. But the fact is, with what you are doing and you as a person right now, you are enough. If you're taking on too much, it doesn't make you any more enough as a person. It just makes you exhausted. So at the core, one of the things I'd love you to work on is to begin to feel like you are enough and you are worthy just as who you are. Reach out to a great coach that can support you around this. Know that you are enough and you don't have to prove anything. The second part of why saying "no" is a challenge can be that you are trying to "people-please". That you're trying to keep the peace. Keep everybody happy, be the saviour, be the helper. This pattern and need to please would have come from your childhood. I invite you to reflect on where in your childhood you took on the role or were given the role, from your family, from your parents or from your guardians, where you had to be the fixer, the saviour, the good girl, the good boy. I invite you to go down a healing journey with realizing there are great parts of you that come from that mask of giving and not so resourceful parts, such as over pleasing others. If you spread yourself too thin and you say yes to everything, it's actually not truly kindness. As Brené Brown explains, "True kindness has boundaries." So, what I invite you to do is to work on feeling enough as you are and healing your "people-pleasing" mask that you wear. To realize that all emotions are valid and if people are feeling different emotions, besides joy, that's okay as well. You are enough. You don’t have to please everyone. HEALTHY BOUNDARY #2 Linguistic Boundaries Have you ever word-vomited over other people? Do you share too much or interrupt others? Linguistic boundaries are the boundaries of words, whether that is sharing personal stories about yourself or others, vulnerable information, asking questions or for advice, or just over talking in general. Perhaps you find that you start to talk, talk, and talk in the workplace, for example, when people are focusing. Therefore, as a result, people are doing that to you. Do you feel you are being distracted you from your work, distracted from me-time, and distracted overall? Perhaps you haven’t created linguistic boundaries between yourself and others. It’s important to remember that being respectful of other people’s information, space or their time is paramount to building trust. It’s okay to have silence, and it is okay to first see if someone seems open to the conversation before you start. In order to create linguistic boundaries, the first communication tool to play with is asking permission before sharing or asking something of another people who may be preoccupied with something else. Whether we're asking a question or sharing something, ask if that person is available for you to do so. Check in that the person is ready, willing, and able to hear you, to give advice or to really be in a conversation with you at that moment, because they could be focusing on other things. Then, ask other people to do the same for you. For example, my partner and I, when we both started our own businesses platforms of helping others from home, we realised that sometimes we just walked into each other's space and started to talk talk, and talk. As a result, this would distract the other person from what they were doing and we wouldn’t fully be present with each other in that moment. So, we started as a rule that we would check in before we walk into each other’s space and start to share. For example, we would knock on the door and check in that they have a moment before we go inside and share. The other person could then easily ask, "can I have 5 or 10 minutes to finish this off first, honey?" This way we create more respect for each other’s space, more present conversations, and create a more open dialogue. This process of asking permission and checking will improve your overall communication skills and social awareness. So, play with increasing your linguistic boundaries. HEALTHY BOUNDARY #3 Physical Space Boundaries Physical space boundaries are crucial for you to value and respect yourself and others more. If you don't have anywhere which is your own, there is no space or time that's just for you, I invite you to see where you can start to change that. We all need our own space, no matter how extroverted or how introverted our qualities might be, we all need our own space to just be, to focus on us, to be alone. Otherwise, we are people-pleasers who are living in the eyes of others, we become reactive or reliant, and we start living through other people. This can lead to us not even knowing who we are. I invite you, within the workplace or in your home, to see where you can create your own space or time for yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally, an actual space where it's just for you. If you have a shared space and that’s unavoidable, asking for that space for a certain amount of time to be just yours. For example, asking to use the living space for 30 minutes of mindfulness. We all need physical space, and we all need to respect each other's physical space as well. This can mean, once again, asking permission. Knock on each other’s doors. Respect other people's space. This can depend on the culture that you've grown up with for this to be normal or not, but whatever your cultural background and experience, I invite you to look at where you can create your own space for you. Golden Bonus BOUNDARY Emotional Boundaries Are you sharing your vulnerable story or opening up to people who aren't emotionally ready to hold space for you? Are you asking emotional questions to people who are just not ready for those types of conversations? It’s important we understand that everybody is on their own emotional journey, and not everybody is emotionally safe. If you realise that some of your family members, friends, or colleagues aren't emotionally safe, you can either slowly start a vulnerable conversation to open them up to that awareness or find other people who you can be emotionally safe with. Some people are not going to give us what we need in terms of the emotional and vulnerable sharing space. This can be tough to accept when it’s someone close to us, however we do need to accept that some people don't want to change and that's okay, that’s their journey. Therefore, it is even more important for us to surround ourselves with people who can hold emotional space. So, to take care of your emotional boundary is to ask permission once again before you share something emotional. Make sure that they're willing, able and are ready to hold space for you. Furthermore, ask for what you need from them before you share. For example, tell them politely that you don't want their advice and you just want them to listen. Ask them if they have 15 minutes just to sit with you right now and hear your shares. If you don't articulate your needs, they're not going to know how to be there for you emotionally. So, be aware of your own emotional boundaries, ask for what you need, and respect other people's emotional boundaries. Woohoo! I trust that this blog article on healthy boundaries has added value to you. I invite you to like and comment below if you resonate or have any questions, and share this article with anyone you feel is going to benefit from this. As always, if there are any topics or any other challenges I can support you with, simply message me at www.jodydontje.com/connect. I'd be happy to support you. I'm here to serve. Remember, every day you have a choice: You can choose to be ordinary, or as Denise Burchard explains “YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE EXTRAORDINARY”. So, go out there and choose to be EXTRAORDINARY. Be Brave. Be Vulnerable. Be Kind. With kindness,  |
Jody DontjeGlobal Public Speaking and Emotional Fitness Coach. Tedx Talk Speaker. Humanitarian. Archives
September 2021
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