Mindset Mondays — Daily Intentional Habits For Practitioners Who Are Moving Online
To live a more intentional, purposeful business life doesn’t require grand gestures, but small habits and slight changes to your working routine. Take a look at these daily intentional habits that allow you to live with more purpose and calm as you transition your practice to being it’s best online self!
Set Up Routines
Before you can start adding in intentional business habits to your online life, you need to have daily routines in the practice that are to do with getting new clients and actually seeing existing clients and doing the work with them. These are two really critical parts of having a practice and making a fulfilling, meaningful living. Other parts that are unique to practitioners are factoring in ongoing training/supervision time and everyday admin like invoicing, banking, recording hours for re-accreditation purposes.
So starting with a routine is the first step to building the intentional habits you will need for your online practice. So what is your routine right now? Nobody is able to try something new, then it is instantly a habit. Habits come from routines, where you set a schedule, write down what you intend to do and when, and over time, it becomes a habit.
You can start by writing down the pattern of your working day and working week at the moment. Or, if you don’t have one write down what you would like it to look like. As a practitioner you will also need to add in the time blocks I outlined above as we don’t have the luxury of only building the online practice as a business (that is focusing on marketing and providing the service), we have professional requirements to take care of too.
Try Meditation and Deep Breathing
Now this one might sound weird. But as I have written before in the series developing people and helping them heal and flourish is draining work. I also think it is incredibly fulfilling — but it is draining and we need regular replenishing as we go through our days and weeks.
I have found that, for me, yoga, mindfulness and meditation (they are similar but different) and journalling are my best self care methods. You need to think about the things that help you centre yourself, steady and nourish you.
Then make sure you have blocks of time for them and build them into your routine so that they can become habitual. A wonderful intentional habit to start doing right now is to sit for a few minutes alone, with no distractions, and just practice your breathing. You don’t need music or candles, but that can help relax you if you’re feeling a bit stressed. But even better is doing that right now — then planning for the next time you will repeat it.
Simplify Your Life
The older I have become the more I value ‘Simple’. Stop trying to do it all! Being more intentional with your habits and routines sometimes means minimizing them. Don’t just stick with your old habits because you are used to them. If something you have been doing every day out of habit is no longer benefiting you, don’t do it! Switch up your routine, simplify things, and only include habits that are going to be good for you, your mental health and your online practice development.
Celebrate Your Wins
Pivoting from providing an offline, locally based therapeutic or life coaching service through your practice to being an online service is a step by step process. It is not the easiest thing to do, but there is no doubt now that it is necessary in our new world of Covid and whatever comes next. So to help make the transition as straightforward and simple as possible it is important to recognise that there are many small wins to be made along the way. That is the way the step by step transition goes.
I have spoken to many practitioners who are in despair because they think they are taking too long to do it and that it should have been easy for them. In fact they are doing really well but they don’t know that because they think it should have been a one week turnaround to pivot their practice — and that they are very awful business people for taking ages to make it work.
Try simple celebrations and gratitude for yourself for making the switch at all. Recognise that whatever you achieved today towards making it work is a cause for celebration. Make it a habit to celebrate each and every win, everything you get done and accomplish, instead of being let down by what you don’t get done.
I get out my journal at least once a day, and write down what my wins have been so far that day. And sometimes that is a win for getting out of bed that morning. It is unusual to rock and roll every day!
Try it -this might be a new healthy habit to develop and it will shift your mindset very effectively. Remember we can help. We have a road map of the journey a practitioner needs to make to move online and this can give you a realistic perspective on moving forwards and pivoting your practice.
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This is a series for coaches and therapists who are passionate about their work and their clients but struggling to find a way to make things work post-Covid as clients melt away and money becomes an issue for most people.
This is a time when most of us are scared. Nothing is known or predictable and many of us are dithering about what to do. In fact, this indecision is paralysing us and that is something that will derail the success of any practice. Therapists and coaches who are successful are people who have learned to do two things.
One is be flexible enough to pivot their business to what will work now — and the other is to break through enough of the fear barriers to get productive again.
Need More Happiness, Freedom and Success? Join The Sage Academy Free Webinars…
If you want quick and easy steps to setting yourself up for a safe and happy future doing the work you love, join me in the Sage Academy’s free webinars. I usually give at least 5 tips for moving forward and implementing in ways that will move you onwards and upwards in all of the webinars. Each is about a certain angle on the issue of Pivoting and we pay particular attention to moving the practice online. People say that the webinars on their own have had an immediate effect on their mood and confidence to make the changes necessary to flourish in Covid and post-Covid times. Get off the hamster wheel and take some time for yourself with our webinars, learn and act, learn and act — that’s the way to start flourishing.
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“Just imagine if the next 5 years is like the last 5 years? How are you keeping yourself financially secure, happy and living your life of purpose by helping other people succeed?” Elizabeth and the team at Sage Academy specialise in helping you Get Your Coaching or Therapy Practice Back On Track. Sign up for the highly-acclaimed free challenges and webinars to find out how to Pivot that Practice to FutureProof Yourself.
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