In a world of 8 billion people, it's inevitable that there are countless things affecting our daily lives that are completely out of our control. As much as we'd like to be the directors of everything that happens around us, it's simply not possible. Inconveniences, both big and small, occur every day, and even though they may not be our fault, they can still be frustrating and overwhelming. When faced with situations beyond our control, we often find ourselves experiencing negative emotions like fear, doubt, and worry. So, what can we do when we find ourselves in this position? While each situation and individual is unique, the following tips can help us effectively deal with things we can't control.

1. Embrace Your Emotions

The first step when something out of your control affects you is to acknowledge and accept the influence it has on your emotions. When faced with devastating events, our natural response is to try and fix or resolve the situation immediately. However, going th...

Building success requires hard work, determination, and a strategic mindset allowing you to think fast and act even faster. Despite this, even the most talented and driven individuals can fall victim to self-sabotage, something that often occurs subconsciously, manifesting itself in various behavioural patterns.

These patterns limit our productivity, may damage our reputation, and stop us from achieving the lofty goals that we set for ourselves. The good news is that we can explore and address our behaviour and then develop methods to overcome our upper limiting beliefs.

Recognising Limiting Beliefs

It’s evident that some people are simply able to achieve amazing results with very little friction. They find it easy to stick to their goals and go above and beyond in achieving them. However, many people say to me that they feel stuck in a position where they are unable to take the next step forward.

This could be occurring at any phase of any goal in our life. It could be that the...

In our journey to achieve our goals and dreams, we often find ourselves facing the ultimate enemy of time: procrastination. It's that all-too-familiar feeling of putting off important tasks and allowing fear to hold us back from reaching our true potential.

While it's challenging to provide an exact figure, the costs of procrastination on individuals, teams and organisations can be substantial as it affects productivity and employee morale. On the bright side, each and every one of us has the ability to overcome procrastination and unlock the door to efficiency and success.

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks that need to be accomplished or decisions that need to be made. It is a common phenomenon that affects individuals from all walks of life, irrespective of their aspirations or talents. It is crucial to recognise that procrastination is not a mere lack of motivation or laziness, but rather a complex interplay of psychological factors.

At the core of procra...

Success is something that we all strive for, and often the journey is more rewarding than the results. For many, success is something that most people aspire to achieve in their lives, but fear is the phenomenon that holds them back.

Fear of success can manifest in various ways. Some people may experience anxiety, worry, or stress when they think about achieving their goals. Others may procrastinate or sabotage their own success. Often, this results in the exact same result for anyone that doesn’t learn to manage their fear: the dreams are given up on, and that’s that. You know most people don’t fail because they tried something, and it did not work. Most people fail because they stop before they even start. We don’t allow ourselves enough time to success.

If fear is something that has stopped you or is stopping you from reaching your dreams, it’s not a sign of weakness. Fear is a universal force that exists to keep us safe from harm, helping us to avoid danger.

Exercising caution i...

In today's business world, it is more fast paced than it ever has been. That’s why consistently achieving high performance is less of a vague goal, and more of a need in order to succeed. However, many top-level professionals focus solely on strategies and tactics, and don’t consider one of the most important factors in high performance: mindset. Mindset plays a crucial role in creating not just success, but continual improvement that pays dividends long term. 

As a human performance specialist, I’ve seen first-hand the importance of mindset in business performance, and this article will explore how you can make the switch to help you achieve bigger and better goals. 

It's important to understand that mindset is not just about positive thinking. While a positive attitude can certainly help, mindset is about understanding and managing the entirety of both your thoughts and beliefs in order to achieve your desired outcomes. When it comes to business performance, this means understandin...

It’s so easy to find ourselves juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities, leading to a sense of overwhelm. The sheer volume of work projects, personal commitments, and breaking it all down to the common denominator can be daunting. This is where the Prioritisation Matrix can step in and bring order to chaos, and allow you to gain control.

Understanding Overwhelm

Overwhelm is a state of mental and emotional exhaustion caused by feeling unable to cope with the demands and pressures of life. It can manifest as a persistent feeling of being swamped, scattered, and unable to focus on specific tasks. When overwhelmed, we may struggle to make decisions, feel paralysed by the sheer volume of work, and experience a decline in productivity and overall well-being.

Enter the Prioritisation Matrix

The Prioritisation Matrix is a visual tool that helps us evaluate and prioritise tasks based on their urgency and importance. 

It provides a structured approach to making decisions and allocati...

Goodbye 2022, let’s end the year off in the right way.

We are just about to wrap up a great year. Albeit a very challenging one. 2022 has brought us new adventures, new memories and lots of lessons learnt as we create a new way of working and being post-COVID.  

If you speak to anyone, they will tell you it feels a lot more difficult to do or organise things that used to be simple.  Anything from shopping to delivery, banking to travel, finding suppliers to processes and systems required feels a lot harder and more time consuming these days. Finding and keeping good staff feels near impossible. Add in the rise in general costs, and that people are stretched and less patient than in the past. Life is hard at the moment, so how do we manage it and move through life with ease and grace?

Imagine the power in seeing everything we are experiencing as great learning to take with us into 2023 and beyond. If we see everything as an opportunity for us to learn and remove the bias of it being ...

Staff who think selling is a dirty word miss the point about what selling in pharmacy really means.

Patient health outcomes are central to pharmacy values, yet many pharmacy staff shy away from “selling” and have a very narrow perception of what it actually means. As a pharmacy assistant, you only begin to help patients and customers when you ask them questions to understand their true needs.

We need to demystify the sales process and take away its negative connotations because you cannot help anyone until you ‘sell’ to them.

Selling in pharmacy is about asking questions and finding out about customers’ needs. The way that it’s done is unique to selling in other competitor retail environments. As an example, if you walk into any Coles and pick up five packets of Panadol, no one will ask you any questions in the aisle or at the check-out. However, in pharmacy it’s a different story. We start the selling process by asking patients questions — even if it is at the till when they’ve alr...

An article released by Reem Borrows on the ‘Top five challenges facing Australian Pharmacy Owners in 2022’ is honest and accurate. It is easy to see challenges looking from the outside in, but when you are in the thick of it, it can be hard to see the ‘mistakes’ taking place, day in and day out – but think of the advantages you could have by taking a moment to look at your business from a new perspective.

Let’s look at challenge number two that Reem outlined:

‘Not identifying profit opportunities’

Let’s double down and look at this concerning new products and category management. It is easy to dismiss new products and sideline category management. You have so many other things to do. Categories seem to be going okay, sales are fine, but could they be better, and what about customer satisfaction? Do you offer unique products, innovative products, and products that help address common healthcare concerns? New products are often designed to address common concerns associated with older...

As a pharmacy owner, you are used to striving for perfection in everything you do on a daily basis, both in what you do and what you expect of your team. High expectations are important in this industry as people depend on you when it comes to better health care outcomes for themselves and their families.

It has been exceptionally busy, and the demands have been high of you and your team over the past three years. There is a shortage of staff, and the threat of burnout is real.  Right now, it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of your schedule and lose the ability to focus on where you can improve in your business.  To help highlight some of the areas that could be looked at in Pharmacy here are five of the biggest personal challenges that have been identified across the industry right now. Please note, we are first looking at challenges that are within our control to curtail and benefit long term from in a quick and succinct manner.

1. Lack of planning and being reactive

As...