Hey friends 👋🏻
Here are Doable ideas, Reflections and Mindfulness to try out this week.
Doable ideas 💭
Try doing a monthly review this week. I promise, it’s life-changing. And you will thank yourself by the end of the year.
It’s the easiest way to make sure you don’t fall off track and let life rule you over.
All you need is 2 sections: reflection and planning.
Reflection:
- List your top 3 personal milestone from the past month
- List your top 3 professional milestone from the past month
- Your most valuable lesson learnt
- Did you spend your time as intended?
Planning:
- Key projects for next month
- What’s your 1st work priority?
- What’s your 1st personal priority?
You do have 5-10 minutes to get this done.
Reflections 🪞
How can I push through my mental barriers?
Mindfulness 🧘🏻♀️
Getting into a flow state is a good way to practise sustained attention:
When the challenge (the task) meets your capability, your brain is engaged and stimulated. You let go of your ego, agenda and you start exploring opportunities.
You go to places that surprise you.
^ me in flow when I was producing one of my tracks this week
When’s the last time you experienced flow? How can you make it happen more often?
January Recap
I’ll be honest: I’ve never felt this busy since I decided to ditch my accounting career and prepare for the music therapy audition (back in 2019).
I’m not here to boast the opportunities I had or how productive I could be, but to give you some context, in the past 30 days I:
1/ submitted 3 tracks (100% created by myself) for a music competition
2/ created a free mental health quiz for my business
3/ got invited by a university to talk about over-reliance/indulgence on music
4/ got invited to write an article for a mental health magazine
… while I tried to maintain good habits, weekly video and newsletter publishing.
The past 2 weeks have been particularly overwhelming as multiple deadlines were approaching. There were times I couldn’t focus at work, couldn’t sleep, and couldn’t tap into my creativity.
But I made it through.
I got everything done, and more importantly – I have evidence for myself that I’m capable of achieving things I thought was impossible.
Self-care isn’t that glamorous
In case you need a reminder (too), self-care isn’t just about writing the night off and indulging in a bubble bath with a glass of champagne. If you’ve been procrastinating on your projects, self-care might mean actually getting them done so that you can take your mind off things.
And yes, don’t ignore your physical health. Getting early daylight, enough sleep and daily movement are ongoing maintenance.
A gift for you 🎁
I've noticed that a lot of people struggle to take control of their emotions (and their lives!), even after they've tried therapy and different self-care activities. I'm launching a scorecard to help people identify the best ways they can get the results they want even if they have high stress tolerance level. It's pretty simple: you answer some questions and automatically receive customised recommendations. I've only just set it up, so I'd really love some feedback please. Here's the link:
Experiments/Projects for February 🔬
Following the success (and the cost attached) I had in sprinting through multiple projects, I’m going to test if I can optimise my sleep schedule, diet and workout routine (read: maximising efficiency and effectiveness) so that I can allocate more time and mental energy in my business.
I’m also taking one weekend off – will be flying to Auckland to visit my friend. It’ll be interesting since 1/ I haven’t been flying since Feb 2020, and 2/ it’s hard for me to chill and relax.
Ideas Worth Pondering 🧠
Self-care is like breathing. It shouldn’t be a luxury.
Video This Week 🎥
Watch the #shorts here to find out why I designed a free mental health quiz for you:
P.S. if you think anyone you know would benefit from the quiz, please share around: https://www.strikeachordmt.com/quiz 😘
Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
- Claim your peace of mind with these handpan guided meditation soundtracks.
- Work 1:1 with me to improve your health and wellbeing with music therapy. No waiting list!
Be awesome x
Venus