If you want to be less surprised by what life throws at you, you have a choice.

Everyday we're being challenged to stay close to ourselves.
The news, social media, opinions of friends are ‘coloring‘ us every day.

And knowing our thoughts & ideas influence our behavior, we respond in a certain way.

So, if you have made big plans, for instance:

‘financial freedom within 3 years'

it's very difficult following that dream if you're cluttering your brain everyday by short-term outside factors.

And because of this, most people are losing focus.

And it doesn't have to be this way.

Nurture your focus for less surprises

To enhance the feeling of being more aware in the everyday choices you're making, you can implement a way to incorporate your values in your everyday life.

So I created a 5-step plan for you for this.

Also one note: Be nice to yourself in this. Do not push this.

Ready? Here we go:

Decide which values are important to you. Choose 3. If you google on ‘life values' you will find lists of 200 examples and I want to challenge you to choose 3.
My 3 core values are: Gratitude, Kindness, Optimism.
Write down these 3 core values and hang them somewhere you can see them every day.
Then I want you to grab your agenda and check the upcoming week if you can incorporate those values in each activity of the week. So for instance, for me it's:
Gratitude: I practise gratitude everyday by journalling in the morning (2 mins) and then pick out 1 or 2 things during that day I'm grateful for, without writing it down.
Kindness: In my work as a coach, in my social media presence, in my relationships with my partner and friends I want to be as kind as possible.
Optimism: Every day there's something that might set me back: how can I turn this into a positive? How can I bring positivity into the world, without it being toxic?
So, write this down for yourself.
And then I want to ask you to be honest to yourself: does your work or your business and your personal life represent your 3 values?
I've once had a job were I had to bring bad news in a horrible way to people, I left that job flustered, because it was so against my core values. Be honest to yourself and for inspiration listen to Oprah's Whispers podcast.
If, after this, you want to change a part of your career, business and life, be kind to yourself, do not rush things, be gentle and take your time. You have enough time.

Enjoy taking some time this week to get close to yourself and to not let life and business surprise you. Because with this exercise, you will learn to be more aware what happens around you, and that feeling is the most fun of all!

In this week's podcast

A bit later than expected, but yes, there's a review of my Q2 online.

Every quarter in my podcast, I'm taking the time to look at my personal life & business and review how it's been.

I'm sharing everything about my (mental) health, finances and upcoming plans + a framework for how you can do this for yourself too.

Enjoy listening!

Listen on Youtube

Listen on Spotify

Do you have a question for me for on the podcast?
It's really easy to submit yours:

Submit your question here

Happening in my business this week:

Monday and Tuesday I presented MuseumNext, a lovely online event and this time it was about Fundraising.
My favorite presentation was by the Tank Museum, they have completely embraced the creator economy and created a really nice income stream on youtube with now over half a million subscribers (and they've done much more, really inspiring to see how the level of fundraising has grown for the past few years. Check the Tank Museum Youtube out here.
One of my favorite private clients has booked another year of coaching with me and I am beyond thrilled. I'm raising my private coaching rates soon, so if you want in, let me know (we can start as soon as now, or later this year).
Also, there's 20 people who are joining my free masterclass on how to build a profitable art business (without fundraising or lobbying). You can join here.

Have a good Thursday and talk soon!

All the best,

Sarah

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Do you want to take charge of your (freelance) business and be in control of your revenue, clients and your offer?

You are in control of your business.

I’ve created a form in which we can see if you are going to be a fit for one of my programs. Filling this out won’t mean you have to buy, this is just seeing if we can work together.