21 Nov 2014  •  Our News  •  3min read By  • Emma Sillars

When inspiration strikes…

Every once in a while, you have a day where you feel parts of your brain kicking into action that have lain dormant for weeks (or in my case, months or even years). I had one of those days when I attended one of the Practice Plan’s Workshop Tour events to see motivational speaker Joy Marsden in action. In the past, whenever I’ve heard the words ‘motivational speaker’, my toes have curled, but, to my surprise, Joy was an absolute revelation.

If you have already attended one of the Workshop Tour events then I’m sure you’ll know exactly what I mean, but for those that are still awaiting your turn, you’re in for a treat!

Without giving too much away, here are just a few of my favourite points Joy made on the day:

  • Shut Up and Move On – or as Joy refers to it, SUMO! This one is very similar to an old mantra of mine, KYMS or, in other words, Keep Your Mouth Shut (even though I’m not one to practice what I preach very often). This is where Joy spoke about how we have a tendency to get stuck in a negative thought cycle, where the same thoughts just go round and round in our heads. Her advice to ‘shut up and move on’ encourages you to draw a line under things and stop dwelling on the past.
  • We write our successes in the sand but carve our failures in stone. This is one we can all probably relate to. Why are we so hard on ourselves if something doesn’t go to plan?
  • Silence your inner critic. At some point, we all have that little voice in our head that tells us we’re stupid, have messed up or are out of our depth, and we can’t help but listen to it. We say horrible things about ourselves, things that we would never dream of saying about our friends, and we need to stop this!
  • The more you focus on something, the bigger it becomes. This can work in both a positive and a negative way. How many times have you lain awake in the middle of the night, worrying about a problem, and it just gets bigger and bigger in your mind? Take control of this by taking your focus off the negatives; if you don’t they’ll just continue to grow.
  • Put things into perspective. When faced with a problem or when you find you’re beating yourself up because something went wrong, step back and ask yourself ‘how important will this be in six months’ time?’ Often you’ll find taking this step helps you put things into perspective a whole lot more.
  • Do the ‘nasty’ first. Tackle the worst jobs and get them out of the way so that they are not hanging over you. Then you can carry on with the stuff you really want to get involved with.

Catch the opportunity to hear Joy Marsden at one of our final two Workshop Tour dates, or head on over to our events page to learn more about other upcoming events.

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