May 19, 2023 | My Blog
Picture this: you’ve got check-ins, check outs, quotes and breakfast to sort out. You’re juggling a million things, and sometimes it feels like your head is about to explode.
We’ve all been there, right?
As a Tourism Professional, you’re a hero taking care of others, but are you using those superpowers for yourself? It’s time to check in and see if your mental fitness is on point.
Mental health is a big deal these days. It refers to your overall psychological well-being. It includes your emotional, social, and cognitive health.
Mental Fitness on the other hand, refers to your ability to cope with stress and challenges. It’s all about building resilience, handling stress like a pro, and keeping your well-being in check, both on and off the job.
Now I want you to stop for a minute, take a good, hard look and ask yourself if, right now, any of these are happening to you?
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Feeling overwhelmed or stressed?
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Trouble sleeping?
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Appetite going haywire?
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Feeling irritable or angry?
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Trouble concentrating?
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Feeling anxious or down?
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Decision-making becoming a mission impossible?
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Social activities taking a backseat?
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Risky or unhealthy behaviours creeping in?
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Scary thoughts of self-harm or suicide?
If any of these ring a bell, don’t wait another minute – reach out to a trusted friend, family member, or a mental health professional.
Let’s get into building that mental fitness of yours. It’s like hitting the gym, but for your mind. Here are some tips to boost your mental well-being:
Me- time is non-negotiable.
Make self-care a priority. You deserve to pamper yourself. Sweat it out with exercise, indulge in hobbies, or simply chill in nature. Whatever floats your boat and makes you feel alive. You do you!
Stress.
Find what helps you unwind—deep breaths, journaling, talking it out. Anything goes, as long as it leaves you feeling lighter and easier to breathe.
Be your own cheerleader.
Ditch the negative self-talk and celebrate your awesomeness. Celebrate your wins, strengths, achievements, and all the things that make you unique. You’re a superstar.
Surround yourself with uplifting people who radiate good energy. Friends, family, and colleagues who’ve got your back.
Learn the art of saying no and create a work-life balance that works for you. Set clear boundaries to protect your well-being. Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Level up your skills!
Engage in activities that ignite your brain and make you grow. Dive into fascinating books, learn new skills, chase your passions, and set goals that light a fire within you. Your personal growth is a epic adventure.
Bounce back like a champ!
Life throws curveballs, but you’re a pro at finding solutions. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. Develop those resilience muscles and keep that positive spirit alive.
Fit body, fit mind!
Take care of your physical health too. Good food, enough sleep, and getting your body moving are building blocks for your overall well-being.
Embrace your Zen!
Practice mindfulness. Be present in the moment, notice your thoughts, emotions, and sensations without judgment. Dive into activities that bring you back into the now.
Seeking support is a sign of strength, not weakness.
If you’re stuck, reach out to a pro who can be your mental fitness coach. You’re never alone on this journey!
Building mental fitness is all about finding what works for you and embracing the journey. Be patient, kind to yourself, and take small steps forward. If you struggle, the bite you have taken might be too big, take a smaller bite.
Working towards every day being 1% better than yesterday is the way forward. You’ve got this!
Make a positive change. Book your free Discovery session with me today.
Apr 27, 2023 | My Blog
Working in hospitality makes setting boundaries seem impossible.
The first thing they tell you is to set clear working hours. HA! Guests go out at 05:00 on morning drives, check in at 23:00 at night and have questions about their safaris at all hours, not only because of the time difference but also because many people plan their holidays outside of THEIR working hours.
So how the heck do you do that?
1. Balance work times realistically:
Plan short, medium and long term as far as possible:
- Short term: If you know you are going to have to check guests in late tonight, take a short rest or break earlier. Have a nap after tea or plan to sleep in a bit the next morning. Make sure that you get to balance the “overtime” with some downtime. Go on a game drive, have coffee with friends.
- Medium term: If you have to work after-hours on a quote or a deadline, plan to take some off time when you are less likely to be disturbed but as soon as possible. Then make sure that you limit distractions and if you can, go offline for a day or so. It makes a massive difference.
- Long term: Plan your breaks ahead. Even if it’s just a short trip somewhere, the intention is to completely break from your work environment and give yourself some time to recalibrate.
2. Establish a consistent sleep schedule:
Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even if your work schedule is inconsistent. This can help you maintain good sleep habits and avoid burnout. Also don’t discount the benefits of a quick nap
3. Create a self-care routine:
Schedule time for exercise, meditation, hobbies, or other activities that help you relax and recharge. Some of my favourite memories are of playing cricket with other staff in the afternoon after guests went out on game drive. It’s only now I’m realising what that did for my own fitness, mental health and our team as a whole.
4. Prioritise time with family and friends:
Scheduling regular time with your loved ones is tricky, because you can’t necessarily adjust your work schedule. My folks and I talked about it soon after I started at the Lodges, and they got quite used to my hasty goodbyes once they understood that guests interrupted at any time. Plan regular catch ups (even if it’s virtual) with them where everyone understands that things might change at any moment, with the condition that you will reschedule as soon as possible. Spending time with the people you care about can help you maintain perspective and stay grounded.
5. Learn to delegate:
According to research from the Shadowmatch Team, the number 1 softest habit is Propensity to Hand off! Be willing to delegate tasks or responsibilities to others on your team, especially during busy periods. This is something you need to plan for as sometimes people don’t have the skills and then things swing back at you. In the end we need to build and empower people around us and if this can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and prevent burnout, double win!
6. Establish limits on work-related communication:
- Consider setting boundaries around when and how often you check your work email or take work-related phone calls. For example, you may decide not to check your work email after a certain time in the evening or on weekends.
- The same when you’re off. Your staff and co-workers need to understand when and, for what they can contact you. I often see managers who are super frustrated with staff calling them during their off times for some trivial thing that might have waited until they get back to work or be easily resolved by the relief person but because the boundaries aren’t clear that person is nervous/scared or uncertain, and they break into the Manager’s off time. The trouble is that this does not allow your head to switch off and you therefore don’t get the break you need to completely relax and recharge.
- Put some principles in place that counts for everyone.
- At what level will the lodge call you for advice when you are on leave?
- Is there a phone tree of next responsible person before they get to you?
7. Take Breaks during shifts
Make sure to take breaks during your workday, even if they are short. This can help you recharge and stay focused. My favourite time was always after Game Drives went out and the staff went for a short rest before dinner. There is a silence that settles, when nobody is around that totally helped ground me.
8. Communicate your boundaries to others and respect each other’s boundaries:
If you need to, have an open discussion with your co-workers, managers, and clients about what your work-life boundaries are, so they can respect them and support you in maintaining them.
9. Learn to say no:
It’s not easy to do when there are only so many people to get the job done but be selective about the tasks and projects you take on, and be willing to turn down opportunities that don’t align with your priorities or capacity.
The funny part is that setting and maintaining your boundaries doesn’t have to be an epic battle, sometimes it’s as simple as going off the WhatsApp group.
What is the smallest possible step you can take to get you to a better work-life balance?
Feeling overwhelmed? Let’s talk it out – I’m here to listen and support you https://calendly.com/marildawiegand/discovery-session
Apr 25, 2023 | My Blog
When COVID hit, my Mom said:
“Now, you are going to really see the people around you”
At first, I didn’t get it. But during those crazy months that followed, her words rang true.
Some folks who should have stepped up, went quiet. Others we thought were rock-solid fell apart. Some people got angry or gave up altogether.
It was confusing, frustrating, and sad.
But then there were others who quietly stepped in to help. They innovated, solved problems, and supported those in need.
Suddenly, people who weren’t usually in the spotlight became our guides and heroes.
We started leaning on people we might not normally have, for support. Contacts and colleagues turned into friends and became part of support structures.
We figured out who we could really count on, both personally and professionally. And sometimes, those were different people for different situations.
Now, three years later, it feels like we’re in the middle of another shift.
The world wants to go back to how things were, but for many of us, that’s just not possible anymore.
At a recent dinner, we were talking about how much everything has changed. When I said that COVID felt like a hard reset, someone disagreed and said, “I think it’ll take more than a pandemic to change things.”
I was stunned. But later, as I lay in bed, I realized that we all experience the world in different ways.
Where some of us experienced lock down as a forced holiday with barely any loss of income, others experienced our entire world being shattered and tilted on its axis.
Personally, I had some major paradigm shifts that turned my worldview upside down.
But I was lucky to have superheroes in my life who helped me through it. We were able to support each other, even though we were all going through different things.
I’m so grateful for the tools and lessons I’ve learned, and for the chance to grow both personally and professionally.
Things still get wobbly sometimes, but I feel stronger than ever. And most importantly, I have a tribe of people I can count on.
Ubuntu says:“ I am because you are”
For me, this means that I’m not alone.
… and neither are you.
Reach out: https://calendly.com/marildawiegand/discovery-session
Mar 24, 2023 | My Blog
My Career Coaching clients are not only young people trying to figure out what they should be doing with the rest of their lives.
In fact, almost all my clients are older than 30 and, for various reasons, at crossroads.
In this blog, we unpack an issue that has been on my mind for a long time. Whether you are in a current job and applying for a new one and/or unemployed and need to reset, at some stage you are going to be looking for available jobs and possibly having an interview.
If you’ve ever searched the employment pages, you’ll know it is a daunting task which nobody really prepares you for.
Let’s break the thought process down a little.
As someone who have done many interviews over the years with people so desperate that they will take any kind of job available, I want to ask you to be truthful with yourself and the new company from the beginning.
Ask yourself why are you applying for this particular job?
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Do you have the knowledge and skills to do the job. If you do, great. If you don’t, what skills do you need to learn if this is your dream job?
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Do you really want this job or is it just something that is comfortable and a pay-check. You should be challenged, excited and having fun while still having challenges that allows you to grow.
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Will the job give you what you need to be fulfilled?
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Will the company value your values?
A big piece of applying for new jobs is the interview process and this is where the water really gets muddy.
I hear clients telling me how they prepare for their interviews. It’s fantastic that you take the time to do all this preparation. A lot of people don’t and it could very well be the reason why you get the job.
Preparing is a good thing, it helps calm anxiety, it helps you focus, and you look professional when you know something about the company and what they stand for.
But often what happens is that you want the job so desperately that you force yourself into that space, like putting on a pair of ill-fitting shoes.
Telling the interviewer what you think they want to hear is fruitless as:
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You’re guessing what they really want and
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You’re not being your true self.
The reality is that you don’t know what/who they want and the honesty, vulnerability and the real you that you are hiding under intended professionalism might be the very thing that they are looking for. If you don’t show that, you might both lose out on what could be a beautiful partnership.
Putting your real self out there is scary and uncomfortable. We worry about what people might think of us and that we are “not good enough”. So we don’t do it, we show our harsh, business side and not our soft underbellies.
Years ago, Marius and I worked at a Game Lodge that was just plain horrible. We each thought that the other wanted to be there and instead of being honest with ourselves and each other we were trying to make it work while we were both intensely unhappy.
Then we got an interview at another lodge. Halfway through, the Owner of the new lodge who was interviewing us, sat back laughing and said “I feel like I’m being interviewed”. Unconsciously we had both learnt what we didn’t want and were peppering him to make sure we were clear on what we were getting into.
Without being arrogant, the questions to ask yourself is:
Do they deserve me and Do I fit here?
If you have the knowledge, you can do the job, do you fit into what the company stands for and how they do things?
So what to do?
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When you are interviewing for a job, part of your research needs to be to see if you might fit. Skills can be learnt but company culture is much harder to change. This means you will need to fit in with them and not the other way around.
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Don’t be hesitant to express what is important to you in both your professional and private life. Boundaries are critical to our mental health.
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Remember that if you get offered the job, it doesn’t mean you must take it. The interview is for both of the parties to see if there is synergy. If something bugs you, don’t do it.
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If you show your true self and you don’t get the job, understand that you didn’t fail to get the job. You simply didn’t fit the interviewers’ criteria. This is in fact something to be grateful for, as it means you don’t need to go through the heartache and pain of trying to fit into a place you shouldn’t have been in the first place.
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Remember to hold people accountable. If they, for instance, promise during the interview there will be training provided, ask more detail about it. So many clients end up in a devastating situation when they are struggling with the demands of the job for which they didn’t get the promised training.
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Don’t make assumptions. Ask the questions to make sure you know what you’re getting into. I took a job once thinking I was going to be a Front of House in Reception, just to get to the lodge, in the middle of nowhere, where I’m expected as the Front of House in the Restaurant. The only discussion during the interview was when I was asked if I could run a restaurant, to which I said I’d never done it by myself. That job nearly broke me.
Of course, we all have responsibilities, and you need a job to pay for those responsibilities. You also shouldn’t shy away from challenges that are uncomfortable because this is where you grow.
But go into this with your eyes open and a plan.
We spend more than half our waking hours at work. It makes less than no sense to waste that time in a job or at a place that you hate or don’t fit and yet we have all been there at some stage in our lives.
You deserve to be happy in your job. Fight for that happiness, it’s totally worth it!
Nov 15, 2022 | My Blog
Building your business: Planning of Instinct?
11 November
I was watching a spider fixing its web the other day from our stoep.
I wondered how it knew which strand was the next it needed to build.
At first it appeared that the spider was moving about randomly without a plan. As I continued to watch I could see a pattern emerge. The spider was doing one strand at a time but in various directions, then occasionally reinforcing some strand again while all the time returning to, and working from, the centre of the web.
This busy little guy made me think about the challenges of being an entrepreneur.
Do most of us have a plan with the next steps once we’ve decided to build something? Or was it mostly instinct and we live and learn as we go on?
Some of us are lucky enough to have training or get some level of education but so much is learnt on the fly. We make mistakes. We get things wrong. We also get things right and learn what works best while always keeping our eyes open for new opportunities.
It has long been a gripe of mine that small business doesn’t have the support that bigger business has. Sadly, the reality of small business teaches you that when it’s just you, you’ve got to learn quick. You need to hustle as nobody is going to play fairy god mother or teach you what big business has spent many years and tons of money to develop.
The trouble is that the very attributes that makes you brave enough to start your own business, also potentially trips you up when you don’t take the time to plan your vision properly.
As a small business owner (regardless of how long you’ve been operating) ask yourself these questions:
- What is the problem that I am trying to solve?
- How might I solve the problem for the client?
- Who am I trying to solve the problem for?
- Why am I, as a person, doing this?
- What criteria is needed to make this solution direction work for me and my family?
These are high level questions and the deeper you dig into answers to these questions, the more solid your plan will be in the end. This is the centre of your web where you need to keep returning to when you bring all the strands together.
There are many different processes that can help you with unpacking and exploring the above.
Having instinct, passion, courage and yes, next level stubbornness will without a doubt be foundations of your business success.
But jumping in blindly without taking the time to process your thoughts, ideas and asking the tough questions is setting yourself up for a whole lot of tears and drama.
Don’t do it.
Set yourself up for success.
Being an entrepreneur is hard enough without starting on the back foot.
People say: “Trust the Process”
Different things work for different people in different situations, however.
So I’m saying: “Trust A process”
You don’t need to build this web by yourself. Find a process with people who will work for and with you.
Oh, and by the way… a process takes time. It isn’t a pill you drink, and your headache disappears. You must invest the time and effort into the process to make it work. It’s uncomfortable, frustrating, and confusing before it brings clarity and actions.
So much more important to find people that will challenge you, guide you and build with you.
Building that web takes time, you build it one strand at a time, strengthening and iterating as you go but returning again and again to the centre to ensure the integrity of your structure.
With this stronger, better web you will be more likely to catch the opportunities when they come flying at high speed.
Need to bounce some ideas? Book a free explore session here.
Nov 7, 2022 | My Blog
Blog: Blog Moments
This morning I had another blog moment.
For years I’ve been getting moments where something happens, and I think… this is something… I should write about it. I never did.
During Covid I finally had no excuse. I had the space to let it happen and, mostly from the support of beloved husband Marius Swart, found the courage to write it down.
I’ll be going about my day and suddenly I get these moments where something happens, and I have an awareness. In that moment something suddenly clicks, and I feel like this is something I need to put out into the world.
This is an interesting (and fickle) process because as sharply as it happens it is also super easy to talk myself out of actually writing it down and posting the blog.
I tell myself things like:
- “ The idea isn’t finished and I need to think about it some more”
- “ Do I actually have something to say and if I do why would anyone read it?”
- “What’s the point?”
- “It’s so complicated because I not only have to get the story right but also design the correct picture for the website and get it posted… why bother?”
The funny part is that all the above are good questions. It could both discourage me so that I chicken out but could also challenge me to write a better story, it all depends where my head is at that moment and how strongly the message presses on me.
During my own Fulfilment coaching sessions my coach, Pieter de Villiers, constantly reminds us:
“Stop chewing bubblegum, get off the couch and do it”
It’s one of my most hated, favourite quotes. It takes away all the fluff, excuses and noise and smacks you in the face.
So, I’ve said that I want to write a blog every 2 weeks.
And here is the beginning.
Expect more blog moments.
I’m still chewing bubblegum, this totally helps me process, but I’m definitely getting off the couch.
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