How to get back on track

 April has been a tough month in our household. We were on the back foot from the start with the end of daylight saving and our toddler now waking between 4.30am-5am every morning since. Add three bouts of sickness, a peak work period and hosting a 2 year old birthday party in the mix, and other aspects of life started to slip as we shifted to survival mode. Sometimes life just happens - even for Leadership Coaches :)

As we come out the other side, there are three key elements that have helped me navigate the challenges and to get back on track as quickly as possible.

1. Celebrate the wins

Recognising and celebrating our wins builds confidence and motivation, while helping to improve our general state and wellbeing. Positive reinforcement establishes a mental link between effort and reward, thereby reinforcing the behaviors that contributed to achieving success.

While I definitely haven’t checked off all the wins I was hoping for, there have still been plenty of achievements and experiences. Recent top highlights have included:

• Facilitating a CliftonStrengths Crash Course for 11 leadership program facilitators in Melbourne to improve their self-awareness, confidence and performance as a team. Participants shared they left the session feeling particularly empowered about their strengths individually and as a team. 
• Marking eight years together with my best friend, partner and soulmate, Ben. Enjoyed a local dinner out together to reflect on the year that’s been and what lies ahead.
• Celebrating our daughter’s second birthday, going to her first Wiggles Concert and hosting a party with friends and family.
• Achieving a ‘distinction’ in my latest Graduate Certificate (Leadership and Strategy) assessment on Managing, Developing and Implementing Strategy. 
• Finalising our most significant annual planning document for Northern Beaches Council, before it goes out for community engagement next week - 162 pages later, stoked for this one to be done!
• Maintaining my schedule of coaching clients and working with them to achieve some key wins, particularly around focusing efforts to accelerate their progress.
• Onboarding a new Membership Engagement Director for the LEAD Rotary Fellowship. 
• Enjoying a wonderful solo sunrise walk along the beach, surrounded by a sky of pinks and oranges. 

Upon pausing to reflect, it’s still been a pretty great month and I head into May feeling energised, grounded and grateful. Even if you’ve been in survival mode yourself lately, chances are you’ll be able to find some highlights too - sometimes the small things are the big things. 

2. Create new systems

This has been a big one! With toddler wake up time now so early in the morning, I’ve lost a key window where I used to plan my day and tick off my most important task. Add in a couple of weeks with sleepless nights and it hasn’t been simple to shift my most productive time to evenings instead. It means I’ve lost a lot of accumulated time this month where I would usually work on my business.

Since morning wake times haven’t improved, I recognised my usual systems are no longer serving me and that something had to change if I want to progress on my business goals. As a result I have reorganised my daily schedule so I now expect to engage with my daughter first thing in the morning - playing with puzzles and having breakfast together - while early, it is a nice time to connect. Once Ben wakes up he takes her on a walk to a local cafe for coffee, giving me some of my own productivity time each morning. Our previous system of a morning family sunrise walk is on pause until our toddler sleeps a little later. While a truly valuable system, I was left with no other time before work to be productive, something that isn’t sustainable over the long term. 

During most evenings I’ve now blocked out time to study. While evenings aren’t naturally my most productive time, the structure of online study means I can tick off small modules at a time and maintain progress for the course.

The other system I have had to change is my approach to social media. After experiencing success with batching content development, I found I was losing momentum while in survival mode to keep batching up! I’ve now broken down the extent of batching so I can still plan content in advance, yet build a more attainable habit for content creation and maintain momentum. 

While reviewing and updating current systems, it’s also been key to identify the systems that shouldn’t change. While our daily family walk is on pause, I have maintained my gym schedule with both yoga and pilates. My step count might be a little lower in the short term, but I’m keeping up my core strength and flexibility.  

If you feel like you’re off track, ask yourself these three questions:

• Are my systems still serving me?
• Do I have enough time to progress my most important goals?
• How can I maintain energy and momentum?

Never be afraid to review and build new systems. 

3. Communication is key

We can find ourselves in ‘survival mode’ or off track from our goals for many reasons, be it work demands, sickness, unexpected events - the list goes on. Part of getting back on track is doing our best to communicate what we can and cannot do right now. 

For the weeks where my daughter was sick, this involved reviewing what was on my plate in the short term and stepping back from a couple of evenings meetings. This created space for me to have an early night and get a headstart on my own sleep before any disruptions. While I was disappointed to miss the meetings, energy management had to come first - otherwise I would be starting the following day with an empty tank (and don’t worry, some days felt like that too!). I communicated as early as I could to the meeting organiser and shared updates on any of my action items in advance of the meeting. 

Ben and I also kept active channels of communication as we worked through this period together. It was tough to pause our morning family walks, however by communicating the flow on effects it was clear we needed to better divide and conquer. 

Similarly, I ensured I was clear with my manager as to what I could deliver and when I needed flexibility with my working arrangements. As a Manager myself, I can’t emphasise enough how important transparency is so alternate plans can be made to ensure the team reaches their goals. Communicating can feel hard, particularly if you're someone who doesn't like to let other people down. Over the years I’ve come to realise that nothing is insurmountable, people are understanding and everyone appreciates good communication. 

If you’ve found yourself off track, be kind to yourself. It’s always tough when you feel behind or that challenges keep getting in your way. And remember, celebrate the wins, create new systems and communication is key. You’ve got this! 

If you need help getting back on track and want to chat, please reach out. You’re not alone and there are simple strategies to get you back on the right path :)