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Tag: dreams

Benefits of Being on Facebook

Benefits of Being on Facebook

Published 04/30/2016

Hello everyone!

It’s been an exciting past couple weeks since launching my book on simple slow living, through the Danish concept of Hygge – The Cozy Life. Thank you everyone who has downloaded or bought the book and for your beautiful kind words. We made it to #1 in 3 Kindle Categories, and I even got the Amazon Best Seller orange ribbon! It’s my dream to make a difference and inspire others, and I have more books on the way! If you haven’t checked out this book yet, (shameless plug), I really think you should. It’s life changing 🙂

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I kept stalling on updating this blog because I had too many ideas floating in my head – I had a bit of paralysis, but I said screw it, I am going to just start with one and keep going. Today, because my blog post about the benefits of NOT being on Facebook was my most visited blog post, I wanted to update you all on the Facebook situation.

I was off Facebook for about two years, but I’ve recently logged back on. It started with my job, I was doing some Social Media work, and I needed to promote our business on Facebook, and I didn’t want to start a new personal account (I hate multiples and unconsolidated things), so I chose to log back in to use my account. It wasn’t for personal reasons, and I was very reluctant but I signed on anyway. I started realizing the benefits of Facebook from a business perspective.

Then I signed up for a Self Publishing course to help me get my book out, and with that you get access to an online Facebook Mastermind Community. This community has been INVALUABLE. As a new author, with no knowledge on self publishing, I was able to gain access to hundreds of brains all in one supportive place.

*Side note, if you’ve ever had a dream to write your own book, I HIGHLY recommend signing up for Self Publishing School. Everything is there for you, step by step. Let me know if you end up signing, I’d love to hear/help out.

Then I discovered there were several other entrepreneurship groups, that I decided to join. Another one of my dreams is to be my own boss and make money for myself. So another one of my favourite groups was the Screw The Nine to Five community. Wow, what a great bunch of people to speak to who just ‘get’ you. You help them, they help you, and your dreams come true!

I’m not in the habit of posting personal things on Facebook anymore, except for the occasional shared post because I like the message. I’ve been reading that people are posting less and less personal information on Facebook than they used to. Of course Facebook probably doesn’t like that, because they like to gather and use our personal information. But I think that’s a good thing for us. I don’t really use, or even want to use, Facebook very often, except for work related things.

So in a nutshell – the new Benefits of Being on Facebook (as an entrepreneur)

  • Sharing news regarding book or business announcements to a wider audience
  • Joining business and interest related communities, to learn from others and share a space with people who ‘get’ you
  • Sharing articles/videos about particular causes you believe in to spread the word
  • More exposure to potential people who would be interested in your business
  • Increase web traffic to websites or this blog for example!
  • Amazing communication tool to stay in touch with old friends of far away loved ones
  • Learning new things!

What about you? Are you on Facebook? What are your pros? Cons? I’d love to hear!

xo

Pia

 

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Turn Your Current Job Into Your Dream Job

Published 08/26/2014

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Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. – Confucius

Sometimes I look back to where I used to be and where I am now, and while I still have a long way to go and many many more dreams to pursue, I have carved out my work situation in a way that I get to do what I specifically love doing for a living and I want to share with you how I’ve done that. Aside from entrepreneurship where we can start our own business doing what we love, there are some tips and tricks on how you can turn your current job, into one you will at least enjoy a lot more (that’s if you’re currently in a job you don’t necessarily like, or would prefer to be in a different job). Which will eventually lead to new opportunities.

I’m really only speaking from my own experience, but I’ve witnessed other people do the same, so I will share this anyway. And I’m fully aware that some work environments may not allow for any of these techniques, but if it helps one person, I am happy 🙂

Five Steps To Guide You Toward Your Dream Job

1. The number one rule you first need to adopt is to make decisions that are in line with your dreams and values, and do not compromise that. Check out this post on how to make difficult choices and this post on living according to our values. That means knowing what those values are and doing a little soul searching. Take some time to write out a list of what you value the most, what your strengths are and what fires you up.

2. Look at your current job situation and see how you can use those values and skills to enhance the current working environment or job role. For example, my value of connecting and developing people was important to me in a workplace. My first ‘job’ out of university was in Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). This is a quite technical, data oriented part of HR. Definitely not my interest or strong suit. But I had a passion for people and making them happy in the workplace. A few things I did to incorporate those skills were:

  • Get my entire team to do an “About Me” powerpoint presentation over a conference call to get to know one another (most of us were remote workers and we didn’t know each other at all). This brought us closer together as a team.
  • I joined the Events Committee and took part in creating fun company events or lunch and learns.
  • I became the Diversity Champion Lead of our Vancouver Location to help promote and celebrate the diverse cultures of our company and set up related events.
  • I had/have a huge love of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), so I set up a team building event to discover my team’s working styles so we could communicate and work better together

None of these were related to my actual job role. And I made sure they didn’t take time and work away from what I actually had to get done. Most of it was done on my spare time.

Another example is from a friend of mine who worked in the IT department, but had a huge passion for health and exercise. He created a company exercise team/program where employees could participate in various sports or exercises during lunch hour, or various monthly challenges like the Monthly Ab Challenge. This would build upon his passion of  helping people live a healthy lifestyle even though it isn’t directly related to his current job. Check out his blog here.

The main point is to keep building on your skills by adding new things.

3. Add these new special skills to your Resume. Now that you’ve got some experience under your belt related to what you love to do, add them to your Resume.

4. Connect with people who have similar interests and values. Through the power of filtering, when we obsess over certain things, we start to open doors that lead us in that direction. Someone, somewhere, will be looking for someone with your skill set. Meet lots of people. Join meetup.com and attend events and meet like-minded people. Keep your eyes open for job opportunities that allow you to grow your skills and apply for them. That’s where finding a good mentor can help you get there.

One note about rejection and failure. Try not to worry about it. As much as we hate it, it will happen at one point or another. But the opposite of happiness or success is not failure, it’s boredom. Just keep sticking to your guns, because the people who reject us aren’t a good match for us anyway. We want to be in a situation where our passion is appreciated.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4. Eventually you will keep building and building to the point that you’ve flipped your working situation around. You’ll either end up in a new job that allows you to build upon your strengths and passions, or if you’re lucky enough your current job will build a space for you to flourish. This might even lead you to starting your own side business because now you have actual ‘work experience’ to back you up. The road can go in several directions from this point, but that’s what makes life so exciting!

That’s it! I just want to mention again that Step number one is the most important, and you have to be really strict on choosing things that line up with where and who you want to be. Sometimes you’ll be presented with a shiny opportunity, but it won’t be related to where you want to go. Don’t get side tracked. Stay on course and you’ll eventually end up where you need to be.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear them. If you liked what you read, please subscribe!

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What would your life look like if you had a Terminal Illness?

Published 04/16/2014

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A dear friend lent me a book which I have just finished called The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield and it was life changing! If you haven’t picked this one up yet, I highly recommend it. It’s about breaking through the resistance that stops us from creating the things (and life) we are meant to do. I’ve read many similar books, but this one beats it into you and gives you a good kick in the butt and reality check!

Resistance will try everything to stop you from following through on your dreams through fear, procrastination, distractions, self medication, self doubt etc. This book lays out practical tips for overcoming these (and more), but also gets right into the heart and soul of how we can get past resistance in order to be a professional, as well as tap into our higher realm. It applies to not only artists, but writers and entrepreneurs – anyone who wants to create something. In fact, this is the book that got me to start this blog, something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time now. The chapters are short and it’s an easy read, so there’s really no excuse!

Anyway, one chapter entitled Life and Death wowed me. It talks about Tom Laughlin (an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator and political activist) whose speciality is working with people who have been diagnosed with cancer. His findings are that,

“The moment a person learns he’s got terminal cancer, a profound shift takes place in his psyche. At one stroke in the doctor’s office he becomes aware of what really matters to him. Things that sixty seconds earlier had seemed all important suddenly appear meaningless, while people and concerns that he had till then dismissed at once take on supreme importance.”

Patients realize that working all those long hours in the office didn’t matter and they start to recognize that the people they care about are much more important, as well as the dreams and passions they once had earlier in life. They are faced with asking about the meaning of life. Tom Laughlin says that our consciousness shifts from the Ego (our everyday brain that thinks, plans, and runs the show of our day-to-day life” to the Self which is a greater entity (our dreams, intuitions, “archetypes of the unconscious,” and the “sphere of the soul.”)

Once we realize what is really important, “Superficial concerns fall away, replaced by a deeper, more profoundly grounded perspective.” Tom teaches his cancer patients how to live out their dreams, and when they do, by some sort of miracle, cancers go into remission!

I strongly believe that when we are ill, our bodies are trying to tell us something. Imagine having to be one way (ie. an accountant because your family expected it from you) that was inconsistent to who you really were (a painter), and how much stress (whether we know it or not) that causes on our bodies. Yikes! I think about this a lot. About the Deathbed. Sure, it’s a little morbid perhaps, but it’s SO IMPORTANT for our health and well-being that we live our lives and make choices that are in line with our values and who we want to be.

Please check out this amazing book! http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/

How would your life change if you found out you had a terminal illness? Let me know in the comments below or send me an email at lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com.

If you liked what you read, please subscribe!

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