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Have things felt a little bit crazy for you? Are you going through a hard time? Well, you're not alone. It’s been more than two years since the pandemic started, and it’s unclear if it will ever end.  I was honored to be invited to put my story in for 100 Empowered Voices: Stories of COVID-19 Lockdown, volume 3, which was published in the UK. It's compiled by Carol Azams. In this blog, I will share with you the five ways I kept my business and life going during the pandemic that I shared in the book. If you feel that life's a bit crazy right now and has been since 2020, you're not alone! When the pandemic hit, I was on the other side of Canada and had a whole week of business scheduled. I had to cancel it all. On and on, the pandemic has continued, with no in-person events, mastermind discussions, and programs. As a specialized coach of female business leaders, community and connection are crucial to my work; COVID restrictions and lockdowns changed it all. I needed to find a new way forward. As difficult as it has been in business. In 2020, the fabric of our family was torn apart suddenly by the death of my father. I was unanchored, struggling personally with the loss, and heartbroken seeing my mother without her husband. The loss compounded as my children continued at home without the daily structure of school and friends. Life felt overwhelming. I can't lie; there were dark moments, but I knew I needed to rise and change things, not only for myself but for my family and my business. I love what I do, and it fuels me. This fuel allowed me to create strategies to help me through the pandemic-related business upheaval and create space to allow myself and my family to heal. I employed five strategies that allowed me to protect my mental health and stay on track, enabling me to create a new business success model. It is these five ways that I want to share with you. It's important to note this can be used at any time. Anytime there is some struggle or obstacle or a consistent strain in your life, you can come back to these five ways even if it's a small thing that's happening in your life. These five different ways will really help you to move forward and to make life easier. 1. Change your perspective As a coach, I know perspective is vital. Instead of feeling stuck, we can look to our point of view, and if it’s not supporting, helping, or keeping us in a positive frame of mind, we can change it. COVID created the opportunity of a perspective shift from: "I’m restricted! I have to stay at my home.” To, “I now have time to get caught up and enjoy my passions." To go from "I can't do business like I was. It’s going to be so much work." To, “Here is an opportunity to streamline things and do less travelling.” Ask yourself, what’s your current view of your situation? What are some new perspectives you could have? Try them on; new perspectives shift you from being a victim of your circumstance to step into more positive energy and resourcefulness. 2. Look inward. Don’t look to outward things to calm yourself and to make you feel good. Instead, we need to go inward into ourselves and reflect on what we need right now. Do you need meditation? Prayer? Sleep or reading? Maybe you want to spend time with yourself and your passions. Look inward to see what you need because that's where you can feel fulfilled and recharged. Focusing on yourself will build your inner strength. I slowed down, joined Grief Share at my church, took naps and went on hikes. Going inward is going to develop your emotional stamina and increase your emotional and energy bandwidth.  3. Show gratitude. Negativity doesn't serve anyone. We all know those people who complain about the weather today and something else tomorrow. All this attitude does is welcome more negativity and more stress into your life. You’re doing yourself a disservice by focusing on the negatives. I faced ongoing business challenges throughout the pandemic, including my Facebook account being permanently disabled; consequently, I lost 15 years of friendships, photos and some of my business pages and groups. I did not let it stop me. I showed up in gratitude, sharing my first-hand experience and instructing others how to protect their Facebook profiles, groups, and pages by doing a two-part blog series in addition to an episode on my Dynamic Women Podcast. Was I ticked? Of course! But staying focused on that didn't help me to get my Facebook page back. I also lost all of my Facebook ads. I looked at it as a chance to start fresh and to only add back in friends and connections that add value to my life. (Side note, if I didn’t add you back it could just be that I haven’t found out you were missing yet.) 4. Focus on systems. You might be feeling overwhelmed, talking about your problems, and concentrating on the challenges that are happening in your business. You're focusing too much on what’s wrong. When in fact, you should be focusing on how to fix it with your systems. When we focus on what's wrong, we are not seeking to understand how to improve it. For systems, I’m referring to step-by-step processes combined to tell you how you will do something. I spent time looking at how I was running my life and business. Our family embraced positive habits and routines. I brought in two Virtual Assistants and started to hone the systems and processes we used while also delegating and empowering more. We can move forward more easily when we run on consistent, repeatable actions and procedures.  5. Get creative. COVID has been challenging. It is hard to take the blinders off when we are feeling stress. Yet, we can move forward by putting our energy into being creative. For example, perhaps you can get creative in cooking or making sales and shift the lens in approaching challenges. I got creative with the in-person Confidence Summit. I moved it to an online platform and brought in the Confidence Fast Start Online Course and Experience box that I shipped to attendee’s homes. It became a new creative experience. I knew we all needed to connect and feel part of a community. It was a huge success and expanded my coaching practice. Now I ask you, which of these five strategies will you implement into your life and business? Reach out to me and share your response. Even if you can only pick one right now, imagine how much better your life would be! I could have chosen to be unmotivated and spiral down from the events of Covid time, but I decided on taking action with these strategies. So can you. If you need more support with some coaching to take action, reach out to me. Let's have a chat to see what your needs are and how I can help you to reach your goals faster.
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