Challenge: Drink 2 litres of water a day for a week

It's likely that you've heard it all before about why you need to drink more water. My guess is you've either tried to drink 2 litres a day and failed or not tried at all. Assuming that anyone who's tried it and succeeded won't even be reading this blog.

I'm not sure I can add to what you've already heard or read. Other than to reiterate that to do anything, and I mean anything, your body needs water: to think, to analyse, to move, to exercise, to breath, to beat a heart, to digest food, to flush out the toxins and all the rest. If you're having a problem with any of these, or feeling below par or under the weather, wouldn't it be great if the solution was as simple as drinking more water? Often it is, as my personal trainer reminded me only today when he heard my video blog about not doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome! 

The thing is I can fill this blog with lots of facts, data, benefits, risks and evidence and you're just as likely to do what I do - nod your head say "I do need to drink more water" and then not do. So my challenge to you is let's aim to really drink 2 litres a day, monitor it and keep each other accountable and then let's share the benefits. Because I'm hoping that by sharing the benefits it will keep us (ok me) motivated to drink another 2 litres a day for another week and then another week.

Please join me (#2litresaday) - because knees that work and a head that can analyse for 8 hours is all I'm after - what's your motivation?

Alison Smith

The purchasing coach

Inspiring change inside and out  

No Pain, No Gain

I love metaphors. Understanding the impact they can have on our lives can be very profound. Especially if we're not achieving what we want. Understanding the metaphors we're using to make sense of the world can help us identify what's stopping us from taking the appropriate action to get what we want.

Metaphors come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and I've uploaded images on my Pinterest boards to help identify some general metaphors we use, landscapes I use with clients and even gardening as a metaphor for purchasing in organisations. In this blog I'd like to explore the phrases we use and the metaphorical meaning they might have.

"No Pain No Gain"

This is a phrase often used, and if the pictures on pinterest are anything to go by is generally used in a fitness and health setting. No gain by way of inches and pounds lost, or fitness levels improved, without the physical pain obtained from attending the classes, pumping the iron or stopping the daily chocolate cake eating. In that context the saying makes sense. Although there's many eating plans out there that suggest the sustained and ongoing pain in losing something is often what stops the 'new' way of behaving becoming part of our everyday life.

We use 'no pain, no gain', however, in many other settings and when you use it I'd like you to ask yourself the following questions:

• What pain?
• What gain?
• Is the level of pain worth it now?
• Will the level of pain be still worth it in the future?

Because often we're using the phrase as a stick to keep us repeating the pain without considering the benefit we're getting. Here's a few examples to give you a sense of where I'm going with this:

• The pain is pushing too far when exercising and injuring yourself for the gain of something now out of reach completely. Was that much pain really required?
• The pain is putting your life on hold waiting for that perfect partner. How real is the gain?
• The pain is long hours at work and low wages for the promised gain of a promotion that never comes. Does someone else have control over you achieving your gain?
• The pain is sacrificing financial security, and even your health, for the gain of you having a business you can sell in the future. Is it worth the pain?
• The pain is staying late at work, not seeing your family and not having a social life. The gain is financial freedom when you retire in 20 years time. Will you still think it was worth it in 20 years time? Will they?
• The pain is discomfort and physical pain and the gain is not knowing what's wrong with you. Are the potential repercussions of inaction worth it?  
• The pain is staying in an abusing relationship for the perceived gain of 'love', 'security' or 'for the kids'. Is that really a gain worth having?

So what about:

• The weight loss, fitness level, job you love, security, financial freedom, lovely home, prosperous business, happy children, loving relationship or health are achieved without any pain - just a clear goal, appropriate motivation and action.

Next time you say "no pain, no gain" to yourself, or others for that matter, you might just want to consider what you're really saying and the implications it will have.

Although perhaps best not to have your cake and eat it!

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change inside and out by Landscaping Your Success

My prescription for positivity

I was asked yesterday if I had written a blog to help us keep positive.  I thought I must have and here's a summary of what I discovered.

By positivity I don't mean being overly chirpy when the chips are down and blatantly ignoring the situation believing naively that it will sort it self out. I also don't mean being positive to the exclusion of other emotions we're feeling - for example being upset and angry generally preclude positivity and yet can be very positive emotions. I also don't mean being positive in a pull yourself together sort of way when grief, mental health or physical ill health make it so difficult to do anything.

The positivity I'm talking about is simply an acceptance that perhaps we're viewing life in a half empty cup sort of way when others around us are telling us it's nearly over flowing. When our filters have got stuck on "let's notice everything that's gone wrong" and beliefs are formed that "nothing ever goes right for me."

In these situations lack of positivity is a choice we have and there are many things we can do to get joy for life back. Which previous purchasing coach blogs would suggest include:

• remembering everything is interrelated - there won't just be one solution
• doing more things that bring you joy and doing less of the things that don't
• visiting places that bring you joy
• doing things that make you laugh
• steering well clear of the miserable mackerels in your life
• looking for the best in others
• not blaming others for how we're feeling
• stoping, looking, listening and taking time out
• remembering we get what we focus on
• finding something you have passion for in life
• making a list of things that generally shift your mood and keeping it handy for reference when you forget 
• exploring the impact some of your addictions to people, activities or substances are having
• don't keep doing the same things if they continue to bring you down
• ensuring you believe "I can do it"
• noticing the language you're using and impact that might be having
• remembering our own magnificence :-) this is my favourite quote

and blogs not yet written

• exploring the impact the food you're eating is having on your well being (I cannot believe I haven't written one on this!! Nearest was this blog about buring our heads in the sand and ignoring the obvious and this about how to have alert and engaging people in meetings)
• moving the body - it never fails to amaze me how just going for a walk can shift the mood
• getting enough sleep
• drinking enough water
• realising we are enough

and listening to music that makes your heart sing (one I forget and yet has the capacity to work most for me)

• one I heard on the radio at the weekend from Philippa Hanna I am Amazing is wonderful
• or this from Rent that reminds us to measure the year in love
• or Affirmation from Savage Garden
• or (sorry will stop now) sing Defying Gravity at the top of your voice - or what ever works for you ;-)
• oopps just one more - or watch this dance from SYTYCD to a woman's work

and finally remember anything is possible.

Hopefully something here will resonate - do leave comments on what works for you. That way we can have a reference list to return to when ever we realise we need a little nudge in the right direction.

Although do please visit the doctor or health practitioner if no matter what you do you just can't shift a constant feeling of negativity. There are many mental and physical ill health conditions that manifest themselves in such feelings (remember age or just having one of those days won't impact you for any length of time). Many of these can be easily shifted with the right prescription (whether intake, action or talking).

Alison Smith
Inspiring change inside and out

Quotation Picture Source: Uploaded by user via Debbie on Pinterest