How are you doing? Are you okay? Do you look after yourself? We so often ask these questions and yet, do we really listen to the other person? Probably not!
Even in a year that should have put empathy at the top of our social skills, it doesn’t seem like it. We hear some horrible stories between manager and team members. It’s heart breaking.
We need to do more to look after ourselves and practice self-care!
The last few months have taken a toll on us. You may be a parent who’s now left with hardly any time because you need to crisis school. Your company may have told you that they’re restructuring and no longer require your services. The constant changes may just be too much to keep up with. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have experienced a rollercoaster ride. That’s why I’ve decided to volunteer!
Are you a working parent juggling working from home and crisis schooling? It’s not easy! We recognise that. So when was the last time you gave yourself credit for what you are doing now? Probably never. That’s why we recognised the achievements of working parents and shared our tips for working parents on a webinar with The Coach Link and Pam Durant last week.
Are you now working from home? How is that transition going for you? For many individuals, it’s a new way of working while for those in international teams may already been used to it. If there weren’t also everyone else in the family at home, too. The government announced that schools will be closed until the end of the school year. Depending on your kid’s age, you may find juggling everyone under the same root stressful. Potentially also feeling overwhelmed, it’s now more than ever important for you to look after your own wellbeing.
Life can be unpredictable. The scouts have thus developed their motto: Be prepared. No matter what comes their way, they are ready. This week, we’d want you to be prepared, too.
13 years ago, close friends of ours lost their home and everything they owned to an explosion. It was a terrible night for them. Luckily, they escaped unhurt and had a family binder where they kept all important documents. We couldn’t even imagine how you get through the shock while trying to get help. Remember those where the days without Dropbox to keep the electronic versions of your insurance policies!
You, too, need a family binder!
A medical emergency can hit you quicker than you’d ever expect. We learnt this late last year. “You need to sit down. Mom had to be hospitalised and will need an emergency surgery.” It’s the call I never want to have again! While the events of that day could have spiralled downwards, they luckily didn’t. And I’m very grateful for it!
Hands up if you know someone who’s lost their job. A number of our friends, former colleagues and clients have been told “there’s no need to come back!”
Last week, we received a rather upsetting email from a former client. They’ve been given the boot. It came out of nowhere. Perhaps this was the most shocking part, not seeing it coming. But that’s the unfortunate bit. Unless you know of your company’s financial situation, plans to restructure or industry-wide developments, a lay off may not be what you expect.
“When it rains, it pours.” Have you heard this saying? It’s referring how when something bad (or good) happens, it generally happens a couple of times. And guess what! It happened to us recently. A medical bill, a new laptop and a dead car this week. Thank goodness we had an emergency fund! Otherwise these unplanned expenses would have left us with a major bump. We want you to feel financially more secure for this unknowns and here are our tips for you to create an emergency fund.
The water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, is all over the news. Over the last few weeks, “Day Zero” was mentioned more frequently. It’s the day when Cape Town would have to shut off most of its water systems. These are frightening news, especially for someone who like me lives in the desert. If this can happen in Cape Town, it can certainly hit my desert home! We’ve asked our beloved reader Heidi Maggot who lives with her family of 5 what it’s really like to live in Cape Town now.
You may have wondered where the last article was. Well, we managed to crash our very own website. It was me who decided to run an update before uploading last week’s article. What a mistake that was! Something went wrong and nothing worked anymore.
I was so devastated!