She Leads Africa

4 Steps To Doing a Mid-Year Rework of Your Goals

Did you start the year off with a bang, only to find yourself losing steam and veering off track? We’ve all been there, Sis—eagerly crafting a list of New Year’s resolutions only to abandon them by March. According to a recent article by Inside Out Mastery, 23% of adults ditch their goals in the first week, and only 36% make it past the first month. Sounds unreal right? But fear not! It’s time to reignite your motivation and give those failed aspirations a makeover. I am here to help you reignite your motivation. Realign your focus and get back on track to achieve those goals that matter most to you. We’ll be diving into three powerful yet entirely doable tips that will revamp your resolutions and set you up for success. Say goodbye to the traditional approach and get ready to tackle your goals with a fresh perspective! Tip 1: Cultivate a Growth Mindset Resolutions often fail because we view setbacks as failures rather than opportunities for growth. Shift your mindset and embrace the idea that setbacks are an inherent part of the journey towards success. When faced with obstacles or temporary setbacks, instead of giving up, take a moment to reflect and learn from the experience. Adjust your approach, seek alternative solutions, and keep pushing forward. By adopting a growth mindset, you’ll transform setbacks into steppingstones and develop the resilience needed to achieve your goals.     Tip 2: Implement the “Power Hour” Designate a specific hour each day as your “Power Hour” dedicated solely to working on your resolutions. During this time, eliminate distractions, turn off notifications, and immerse yourself in focused and intentional action. Whether it’s exercising, writing, learning a new skill, or organizing your space. I promise you, this concentrated effort will yield significant results over time. By consistently allocating just one hour a day, you’ll witness substantial progress and develop a powerful habit of prioritizing your resolutions.     Tip 3: Get Yourself an Accountability Buddy We all know that accountability is crucial for sticking to our goals, but why not make it more enjoyable and effective? Instead of simply relying on a friend or family member to hold you accountable, turn it into a fun competition or challenge. Find someone with similar goals and turn the process into a friendly rivalry. Compete to see who can achieve the most progress in a set time frame, with rewards for the winner. This twist adds an element of excitement and camaraderie that will keep you motivated and engaged.   Bonus Tip: Celebrate Every Step Too often, we focus solely on the end result and overlook the progress we make along the way. Take the time to celebrate and acknowledge each milestone, no matter how small. Treat yourself to a small reward, indulge in a favourite activity, or simply bask in the satisfaction of your accomplishments. Celebrating each step fuels your motivation, boosts your confidence, and reinforces a positive mindset, propelling you forward on your resolution journey     Sis, it’s never too late to transform your resolutions into tangible achievements. Dust off those dreams, apply these tips, and get ready to conquer the rest of the year with renewed vigour and determination. Let go of any past disappointments and gear up to make the rest of the year your most successful yet.  You’ve got this!  

Still haven’t set your 2019 Goals? Read this…

This year I have chosen to try something a little bit different. Instead of writing down resolutions, I have decided to set goals for the year. What’s the difference? Resolutions are a decision to do or not do something. It could be giving up alcohol for the first month of the year, or resolving to go back to the gym after a few months of slacking. Goals, on the other hand, are an aim to achieve a specific result. This could be to run a marathon or take an online course. So why pick goals over resolutions? Well, resolutions really don’t seem to last that long into the year and they are usually founded in some displeasure with your current state of being/ living. Now don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything wrong with setting out resolutions. More often than not people seem to struggle to keep them or even remember them by mid- January. Goals are more proactive, its a determination to achieve something. [bctt tweet=”Stop making New Year Resolutions. Set Goals Instead. Read this article to find out why. ” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] So, Motherland Mogul, how do you set our goals for the year? First things first… Write it down! There are a couple of ways you can do this, journaling or if you are more of a visual person you can create a vision board. If you write your goals down somewhere you can see them everyday it helps you stick to them, a constant reminder isn’t to make you feel bad but more to remind you what you are working towards. A vision board is not only fun to make but can enable you to see your goals as an actual reality making it much easier for you to stick to them. Think of the short term and long term Set out goals that you want to achieve by the end of the year, by a certain month/ date. This means you can work on consistent goals as well as focus on the short term. This means you are not only waiting for the end of the year to see results but throughout the year you will have bursts of success that will continue to motivate you to achieve your more long term goals. So what falls into each category? Short term goals could include taking an online course in a certain month, running a marathon, reading a set number of books per month. These goals require you to train/ learn/ work to achieve them within a certain time frame, so get to work!! Long term goals such as the 52-week saving challenge, launching your own business, changing jobs or even volunteering on a monthly basis. These are goals that require consistency and usually take longer to achieve. The rewards may take a long time to reap but just imagine how it will feel to finally achieve a goal you have been working long and hard on. Categorize your goals Not all goals are the same, sometimes you have to realize what part of your life you want to improve or change. Personal and professional goals are the obvious categories that we can turn to but do not forget other aspects of your life that can give you joy. You can set out goals to travel to a new country (or a few), to complete a crafts project, grow herb garden or practicing daily gratitude. This helps you focus on your creative side and develop healthy self-care habits. Put in the work  Each goal you set out is going to require a lot of work and determination by your part. what is important in realizing your goals is identifying what you have to do to achieve them. Let’s take the marathon for example. You can’t wake up on a Saturday morning and just run the marathon, you need to train in order to run the race. This would require you going for more parks runs and working out to build the strength and endurance needed. So you set a mini-goal, for example following a training program that guides you over a period of time. These mini goals help you determine what you need to do on your part to achieve your goals and provide small successes on their own. Be realistic You don’t want to run yourself into the ground trying to achieve your goals. They are not meant to tear you down or make you feel worse about yourself. Focus on goals that help build a better version of you, whether professionally or personally. Don’t set out goals too ambitious or far fetched, but also do not forgot to throw caution to the wind. It is not time to sit back but rather to step up for yourself in the aspects that matter. If you really struggle to hold yourself accountable, why not find a goal buddy? This person will remind you of your goals throughout the year and check how long it is taking you to achieve them. They may also provide you with great advice and be a support system when things seem hard. Reap the rewards I do not know about you but sometimes I need an incentive to work on something. And considering there is no one to hand out badge saying “Well done”, it’s up to you to set out your rewards. So let’s say you have finally managed to start your open your own business, why not throw a small soiree to thank those who helped you achieve your goal or even just to launch your business. Again, such rewards make the achievement of a goal so worth it, so why not reward yourself for all the hard work you have put in.  Got some advice that can help others succeed in 2019? Click here to share.

6 revolutionary resolutions from 2016 that’ll have 2017 smiling at you

[bctt tweet=”We know resolutions may be tired and old-fashioned but stick with us here” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] So maybe 2016 didn’t turn out to be the year you have been waiting and hoping for. However, I’m sure a lot of us will agree that it feels good to still be standing. Especially after all the shots 2016 gave us. I know resolutions may be tired and old-fashioned. Nobody really does them any more and most of those who still do, hardly ever stick to them. Whatever your view, we can all agree that if properly followed through, they can make a positive change. As a child, I thought resolutions were only concerned with changing bad habits. With time, I began learning that changing the way you think can very well be a resolution. Just because you pen them down at the beginning of a certain year doesn’t mean you haven’t been doing it. It serves as a reminder for you to keep on doing the damn thing! [bctt tweet=”Resolutions serve as a reminder for you to keep on doing the damn thing” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Most of us would say we went through the most last year, and we probably have (I know I have!) I also found, however, that I learnt more about myself than I ever did before, and those very lessons are the resolutions I’d like me and you to carry into 2017. 1. Yes, I can and I will! Just a few months ago, a 7-year old princess published her very first book, need I say more? Never stop reaching, Mamelodi Sundowns reached for the stars and caught one! 2. I will show up and stand up where I can The girls at Pretoria Girls’ High showed up together and stood up for their right to wear their crowns freely. The women who remembered Khwezi and the thousands of fed-up girls who spoke up and stood against rape culture across tertiary campuses knew they had to show up and stand up. The hundreds of women and men that run pad, clothing and food drives continue to tirelessly show up for society where no system does. And, it’s not even about that alone. It’s you refusing to be quiet about topics society won’t touch and linking people who need help with those who can assist. It’s you following your dream and teaching the sisters back in the hood how they can make it too. Sometimes, it’s really just the retweet, share, compliment and advice that matters most. We need to remember that sometimes, however unfortunately, the people that need help won’t ask for it because of what they’ve been through before. So this coming year, show up for those with no hope, it might change their lives. [bctt tweet=”The trick is to keep learning, no matter who bad things may seem, you learn!” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] 3. I will choose love You must have seen this one on Instagram pics and Twitter throughout 2016 but I promise you it’s worth it. The best kind of love is self-love, the rest of it will translate outward to others. I know women who battle to find this love after bad relationships and maybe self-disappointment. It breaks my heart knowing I can’t love them where they need to love themselves, the best I can do is tell them they are worth it and hope they believe me. Every day of 2017, love yourself. That worth you seek in others can only be found in yourself, everyone else can only appreciate it. 4. Some people know better than you, learn from them Being a ‘new’ entrepreneur myself, I found that there are lessons I can only learn from people who have walked this journey before. I started following and reading about this special group of people and without even asking any questions, their stories taught me a lot of what I know about entrepreneurship today. MotherlandMogul Tip: While you ask for help, pointers or advice, don’t forget that no one can walk this journey for you, no one at all. You must be prepared to put in the work and research. 5. 2017 isn’t my year either Yes, 2017 isn’t your year either, but when last was any year for you anyway? We will still lose loved ones and great figures in society, fail, get hurt, worry, fight and cry in 2017. But just like in 2016, there will be jokes and stories that we think will never get old. We will achieve things we didn’t think we could, we will still regret watching ‘one more episode’. Twitter still won’t rest, there will still be too much sauce, we will discover a meme almost as great as baby Jake. She Leads Africa will continue to make us great (yay!) and you will smile again. So yes, 2017 isn’t your year, you and your choices are. If you plan on losing, make sure you learn, otherwise, win with positivity and inner peace. [bctt tweet=”2017 isn’t your year either, but when last was any year for you?” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] 6. I will celebrate myself and others Absolutely, clap for yourself and all the black girls breaking ground around you! There is nothing quite like seeing girls celebrate other girls and themselves —treating the next woman like the queen they are themselves. Sometime in December last year, the hashtag #TheGirlsAreAlright was trending and in all honesty, this one is right up there as one of my absolute favourites. The reason for the trend was a thread that was tweeted by a queen herself, @SilindileM_, celebrating beautiful, no problem African queens! So for 2017, learn to clap when a fellow queen makes it, even if it is before you. You will be where you want to be someday, and until then, celebrate yourself for the small progress you make each and every day. Look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself YOU ARE ALRIGHT because you are a queen! Above all, teach the young princesses to do it too, tell them