Regardless of how much planning you may do unpredictable situations like Hurricane Sandy can pose serious challenges to any business and your life overall. Here are some tips you may use to help you recover:

– Come to terms with the situation – it is what it is. There is no delete button for Hurricane Sandy, so save your energy because you need it to recover and also to provide support for your loved ones, employees, clients etc.

– Focus – start making a list:

o Personal:

Deal with all your personal and loved ones needs first. As a result of Hurricane Sandy do you have access to:

• Food
• Shelter – remember if you decide to clean up, take some pictures in the event you need to seek out any type of compensation.
• Clothing
• Funding
• Communication – If you need support to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy are there family or friends you can contact for help.

o Business

After reviewing your personal life situation, let’s look at recovery of your business after Hurricane Sandy:

– If you have a business disaster and backup plan for dealing with situations such as Hurricane Sandy and you have not put it into action, now is the time to put it into action. If not here are some things to consider for your business:

– Contact your employees to enquire about their well being.

– Check out the access to the location of your business. Are the roads cleared?

– Assess the actual structure of the building – walls, stairs, roof etc.

– Assess the utilities used for your business – electrical, lighting, heating, A/C.

– Take pictures or record (use a camcorder or your phone) of everything – you will need these pictures if you are entitled to any compensation as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

– Review your business insurance – are these acts of nature situations covered?

– Ensure the building is properly secured.

– Assess the condition of your products, water logged, expiry dates etc.

– Check out your business operational tools – cash register, computers, scanners, shelves, desk tops, desks, chairs etc.

– Review your business communication network – phones, internet etc. as the communication lines maybe down as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

– What about cleaning up? Can you get help?

– Is there any way you can operate your business from another location? What would you require to operate your business from this new location?

– How are you going to contact your customers? Do you have a list?

– If you have a list of customers and you can contact them, do so to enquire about their well being and the impact of Hurricane Sandy on them. This will show them that you care about them.

– What about your suppliers?

– Do you need to extend your business credit arrangements?

– How are you going to deal with your employees?

– Commodity items are easier to sell in these situations. If you have a commodity item e.g food supplies it makes sense to help by offering discounts or even some donations etc this would help increase your customer base.

– If you do not carry a commodity item, now is the time to explore ways to sell your products. Can you offer deals or partner with someone who has a commodity item? Think of valuable ways to use your product during this time.

– If you cannot do anything with your business right now consider volunteering, help people who are in need. You will be amazed at the return you will get for doing this.

– You can also pray, meditate or whatever you are comfortable with and ask for guidance and wisdom in dealing with the situation.

These are just some thoughts to keep you thinking. Whatever you do, keep the thought of disaster and problems out of your mind. Look at it as a situation or challenge and use your skills and talents to deal with it.

Yes you have the courage, skills and talents to deal with this.

Take it one day at a time. You can do it.

If this was helpful and you need to explore additional ideas let me know.

This is the final part of my article ‘Depression and Life experiences’.

Using Foods to fight depression

When people are depressed the sadness and hopelessness feelings etc that they get are sometimes caused by the reduction of mood controlling molecules (serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine). These are called neurotransmitters and they are responsible for controlling the thoughts and emotions in our brain. While therapy helps in facing the painful issues and exploring ways to overcome them thereby altering the level of neurotransmitters in the brain, the body also needs adequate supply of amino acids, vitamins and other nutrients to produce these neurotransmitters.

The following are some foods that are known for helping the body during a state of depression:

Complex carbohydrates

Increase your intake of carbs. They boost your energy and improve your serotonin level which controls the feeling good mood. Instead of sweets use whole grains, e.g brown rice, and cereal also peas, beans and vegetables. Sweets increase your blood sugar whereas carbs are digested slowly and stabilizes your energy level. Fluctuations in your blood sugar levels also cause depression.

Lean Meats

Lean meats contain the amino acid referred to as tyrosine, which increases the levels of norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain. These two brain chemicals are responsible for helping you feel more alert and focused. If you are depressed it makes sense to include more lean beef, skinless chicken, turkey etc. in your diet.

Fight depression with Omega-3

Salmon, mackerel and sardines, and other fatty fish containing omega- 3 fatty acids are known for improving mood and memory.

Dark Leafy Green Vegetables

Increase your intake of dark green vegetables such as spinach and romaine lettuce. These contain folate which is a nutrient that may help lower your risk of depression.

Dark Chocolate

If you are a chocolate lover now is the time to increase your intake of dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is known to improve your mood during depression.

In addition to foods you may consider increasing your intake of sunlight. Sunlight helps fight depression – it improves your mood and energy level.
Aerobic exercise – walking, running etc also puts our body in a good mood.

If you miss the first part- Depression and Life experiences here is the link: http://joseylifeline.com/depression-and-life-experiences/

Here is the link to the second part – How to deal with depression: http://joseylifeline.com/how-to-deal-with-depression/

To ensure that you are getting the required daily vitamins without the hassle of several tablets or liquids you may want to try just one chewable with 16 powerful nutrients.
Here is the link:
title=” http://www.chews4health.com/teamtrini3″>

Are you able and willing to adapt to unpredictable circumstances?

Every day we are faced with different circumstances, some we predict, but most times some are unpredictable. These are the ones that hurt us the most.

You see life and business do not always go as planned.

You may have thought of everything you want for your life – what you want to study, where you want to work, who you will spend the rest of your life with, where you want to live, or what kind of business you want to have. Then things may not work out, funding may not be available for your studies, you cannot get a job or you lose your job, you cannot find the right partner, or maybe there is a sudden health issue.

If you have your own business you may have everything planned out – what products and services you are going to provide, the medium to be used to deliver these products and services and how much money you will make. Then the market changes, your products or services are not commodity items, customers want more value for their money, the bank will not renew your operating facility or would not extend any additional funding to you.

All these maybe circumstances you did not plan for.

Whilst there is no magic ball to alert you about unpredictable circumstances the following tips may prove helpful:

(1) Be willing to change.

(2) Be flexible and open to new ideas.

(3) View change as an opportunity to move forward.

(4) Explore the different scenarios – your worst case, your most likely case and your best case.

(5) Practice visualizing your desired outcome upfront and see yourself handling any unforeseen challenges.

(6) Prepare your day or your week in advance in that way you can easily adapt to whatever changes that may occur.

(7) Do not overload your day so that if you have to change you end up frustrated.

(8) Keep yourself healthy – having a healthy body enables you to handle the stress of unpredictable circumstances better.

Whatever you decide, just know that you have talents and skills and all that you need to deal with all your unpredictable circumstances.

Let me know if this was helpful

The following links provide additional information:

Getting more from your business:
://joseylifeline.com/how-to-get-more-from-your-business

Looking for a job or change in your career:
://joseylifeline.com/careersjobs

Life Coaching:
http://joseylifeline.com/your-coaching-preferences/
://joseylifeline.com/your-coaching-preferences

What problems are you having with your business?

Do you need to increase your client base?

What about ensuring that you maintain your existing clients?

Would this help to fix your problems and help you get more from your business?

If you are somebody who feels that my business has its season and you struggle when the season is not right and you are satisfied with that then this is not for you.

All businesses have their ups and downs. As a business owner it is how you manage this.
This is the technology and information age.

Everyone has a mobile phone.

At any one point in time there are millions of people on their mobile phone. They are on facebook and twitter.

People act on information.

Wouldn’t it be great to get your information on all those phones?

What about whenever you have a sale or a new item comes in?

What if you can get this information to them right away and be sure they are reading about your company offers?

This is what you can do for your business:

– Your customers will have all your information on their phone right in their hand.

– Be able to send messages and your product or service offers to all your customers and be sure they will get it.

– Allow your customers to share your messages with their friends thereby helping to increase your customer base.

– Customers can quickly contact you or find your business place.

– Customers can share their feedback of your business on their fan page and this again increases your presence and helps to increase your customer base.

Take a look at a business using a mobile application?

You can have your business information in the palm of your customers’ hands just like this business. Size does not matter.

If you want to get more from your business or fix some of those business problems give me a call 1-242-557-2077 or email me at joseylifeline@gmail.com

Here are some additional information you may find helpful:

Tips to adapt to unpredictable circumstances:
://joseylifeline.com/how-to-adapt-to-unpredictable-circumstances

Looking for a job or change in your career:
://joseylifeline.com/careersjobs

Life Coaching:
://joseylifeline.com/your-coaching-preferences

If you have a performance appraisal system this is appraisal time.

Holiday season or Christmas Bonus. This is what all workers look forward to.

Even if you do not have one this is the time you decide who gets what bonus or salary increase.

There is sometimes excitement if the company had been performing well, however if business was not too good there are some concerned faces walking around.

Those who complete quarterly appraisals would have finalized this by now so staff are aware where they are with their performance and if this was not too good the race is on to improve this last quarter.

Even if you are a manager or supervisor in the company you will need to do an appraisal on yourself.

Appraisals can be so difficult if the process is not managed properly.

Whether you are assessing yourself or your team some things to bear in mind:

– Be sure the information is in the right category on the appraisal form – sales under sales and operations under operations.

– Your statements must be supported by facts e.g – how many new accounts did you or the individual team member bring in? how many times you had to be counselled about your behaviour towards customers or staff and what are the details?

– Be sure to remember all the good things that support your performance. We sometimes focus on the bad things. What about the customer you convince to stay with the company?

– If you or the staff member had been performing just satisfactorily or just meeting the expectations of the job it is difficult to attain an above average or exceeds expectations for the year.

– If you had been constantly supervising the staff member it is a challenge to state that the staff member meets the expectations of the job.

– Remember Friendship does not play a role in appraisals neither is not liking the person.

– If you decide that this staff member needs to move on because they are not suitable for the position it is sometimes tempting to give this person a high performance grade because you do not want to deal with the problem. You can also argue that if you record the weaknesses in the file it would scar the person’s record and no department would want to take them. Whatever you do every action must be done with integrity.

– After everyone receives their bonus and salary increases you still have to work with them so if you have been honest and open with your staff there should be no surprises in the performance appraisal.

– Even if you are not attached to a business and run your own business you need to perform some sort of assessment to provide your staff with an end of year bonus.

– This is also a great time to set the tone with regards to goals etc for the following year.

Good luck with your appraisals. If you need help or do not have an appraisal system send me an email.

This is the second part of Depression and Life Experiences.

If you miss the first part here is the link: http://joseylifeline.com/depression-and-life-experiences/

How to deal with your depression?

Depression is not something that quickly goes away.

What you need to realize is that this situation that you are going through is not unique to you, and you cannot let it dictate your life.

Let’s talk about you on the job:

– There are always options: if you really do not like your job start exploring your options. Life Coaches or Mentors are always a good way to get help when exploring career options.

– Forget what people say about you. You alone know what you are capable of . If you need to broaden your knowledge or improve your skills do so, but do not let anybody pull you down.

– You have a gift or service to provide and only you can do this.

– Ask for help. If your boss or supervisor says you need to improve then find out what is required and how they can help you.

– Remember on the job you are providing a service in exchange for payment (your salary), if you really like the job then start providing a good service. It is like being in business for yourself.

– We were all given the same amount of skills and talents; the difference is how we use them, so use your skills and talents wisely.

– Whatever you think of yourself is what you will get back, so take a check of your thoughts on the job – are these preventing people from engaging in good professional relationships with you? If you think you are not smart, more intelligent than anyone else, do not need anybody’s help etc. that is what you will get back.

– Do not wait for your boss/manager/supervisor to give you feedback go to them and discuss your performance and ways to improve.

– It is always better to be honest about your dealings, if you make a mistake admit it, learn from it and move on.

– If you have targets explore creative ways to increase your client base. Customers love when Sales Reps can help them achieve their business goals, so make an action plan and start exploring ways to help your customer. This will not only maintain that account but can also generate referrals.

Your other life experiences

– Dealing with death is always very depressing. No one wants to see a loved one or pet move on. The person who died may have been ill and in pain and we have to acknowledge that the pain has ended for them. Sometimes we do not know why they died, so we have to have faith that it was their time to leave this world. After all they may not even want us to be depressed. They may want us to continue with our lives. The best thing is to remember the good times that you had with them.

– There are many things that can cause you to fail when trying to achieve your goals. Here are a couple of reasons:

o What you are trying to achieve, is this your purpose? If this is not your true purpose you may struggle to achieve it, so find your true purpose. What do you like doing that brings a smile to your face or that you think about all the time?

o Are you grateful for the opportunities you have been given or are you complaining and grumbling, because you are not satisfied with what you have. It always helps to be grateful on a daily basis for all that you have.

o Are you using you skills and talents wisely? Skills and talents are for serving others. It is in service to others that you reap the benefits. Whether we have our own business or we work for someone we all are serving somebody.

o Are you committed and focus on your goals? Behavior never lies. Whatever efforts you put into your goals, that is exactly what you will get back. It does not make sense to say ‘You want to lose weight’ and you exercise whenever you feel, or you want a better life and you do the same thing the same way every day. In addition to commitment and focus to your goals you also need discipline.

– Relocating can be a real issue if it is not planned properly. If you have relocated it makes sense to get involved with groups – community/church/professional.

Whilst this would not provide you with the same comfort level at your previous location, it is a starting point to build a circle of friends quickly. Also whatever little rituals you had at home try to maintain this in your new location as much as possible. Although these rituals may appear insignificant they help you settle in your new location (e.g if you are accustomed to having breakfast at a certain time or you like to wash on a certain day then by all means do this).

– Issues with any type of relationships have always been very depressing. If it is not depressing for you, it may be for the other party or the children if there are any.

Some thoughts on relationships from my personal experiences and those of friends and relations whom I have interacted with:

o We all have a certain type of love for each other and that will always be there.

o For the deeper relationships (man/woman looking to settle down at some point) you cannot fall in and out love. If this is so, then it means that we really did not love that person to the extent of making a commitment. As someone person puts it – ‘you cannot be half pregnant’. When you say ‘I love you’ is this how you are feeling? Ten, twenty, thirty years from now would you still feel this way?

o Do you have fun together?

o Does this person respect you?

o Can you depend on this person?

o Do you see yourself in this person?

o Does this person love you?

o Can he or she look you in the eye and say ‘I love you’ without shifting their eyes?

o Do you have common goals?

o Do you love yourself? You cannot give something that you do not have.

o If you continually blame yourself for all kinds of things – I do stupid things, I am not smart enough, I am not worthy, I am not good looking or attractive enough etc. you are just putting yourself down. You do not need to have an air about you, but you need to appreciate yourself. You are worthy. You are great. You have skills and talents. The only person who know who you are is you so stand up and feel good about yourself.

o You cannot force or coerce people to love you.

o A relationship is like a house or a car if you do not maintain it, it would fall apart so you must be prepared to maintain the relationship once you get into it.

o Relationships take a lot of compromising. If you are not willing to compromise then you may have a few challenges.

o If you truly love someone you would not hurt them, and sometimes because your love is so deep, and they do not feel the same way, it may be better to let them go free.

o Sometimes you are so depressed over a relationship and the other party is enjoying life, not in the bit concerned about you. Then what are you doing to yourself? Your best option is to snap out of it and get your life back.

– If you find yourself becoming depressed because of illness you should seek medical help. The more you worry about your sickness, the more sick you will feel. It is so difficult not to worry. It has been said that most of our sickness are brought on by us – specifically our thoughts.

* If you think you are sick you will be sick. Lots of persons have been healed by changing the way they think about themselves.

* Find someone who you can trust to talk with about how you are feeling.

* Others have changed their diet and yet others have sourced alternative health care.

* Think of this – it is said we were made in the likeness of our creator. If this is so then we were not born to be sick.

* Start seeing your body being filled with love, light and life, and be thankful on a daily basis that you have a healthy body.

* Finally explore taking up a hobby . Find things that make you laugh and have fun.

Remember you alone know you, so trust yourself to snap out of being depressed, knowing that all things will work out for the best.

The above are my personal suggestions; they are in no way replacements for your medication. If you are on medication always check with your Doctor .

In the final article we will talk about some foods that may help with your depression.

Feeling depressed lately?

At any one time or other we all have had some feeling of depression.

This feeling that things are not going the way we want it to be and there is nothing we can do about it. We feel boxed in, as if there is no desire to do anything.

The question really is: Do our life experiences depress us or do we allow our life experiences to depress us?

When we are depressed we allow the issue/s to take control of our thoughts and desires. This is all we think about.

This is the why me phase, I should have known better, I cannot get out of this, I do not deserve this, I am not good enough. All the negativity that we can call up about ourselves now surface. We fail to recognize that we have the power within to turn this around.

Think about this for a minute: while you are beating up yourself and filling your mind with all kinds of negativity, the person or persons who may be involved with the issue that is affecting you is/are quite happy, having a good time, enjoying life.

So why are you beating up yourself?

There have been much research into what causes people to get depressed but scientists have not been able to pin point exactly what happens to the brain.

One thing for sure is that we are affected by life experiences and this can make a huge impact on our lives.

In this three part article I will look at the impact of life experiences and depression. I will deal specifically with experiences on the job and other life experiences that make up our personal lives. I will talk about some symptoms, provide some suggestions on what you can do and also some foods that may help with your depression.

On the job life experiences

Let’s look at some life experiences on the job that can cause us to be depressed:

– We are depressed because the boss/manager/supervisor tells us our performance is not where it should be. They may have to re-assign us, downgrade the position or even server the relationship.

– We have been overlooked for a promotion and the feedback is – you do not have the chutzpah for the position. Or as someone puts it ‘ that fire in the belly to do the job is just not there’.

– You do not like your job and you crawl out of bed every day to go there and you can’t wait to get back home, although you do not even have anything else to do at home.

– You cannot stand your boss. It is as if he is always breathing down your neck and the more this happens the more mistakes you make.

– You have not been achieving your targets and this has reduced your commissions drastically. As a result the bills are piling up.

– You made a huge mistake and do not know how to tell the boss.

– The people you work with do not like you.

Other life experiences

There are other life experiences that can also cause us to be depressed:

– The death of a very close friend or family member or even a pet.

– Failure when attempting to achieve certain life goals.

– Relocation.

– Divorce.

– Relationship break ups.

– Sickness.

Some symptoms of depression.

Sometimes we do not even realize we are depressed from these life experiences until the symptoms of depression start to reveal themselves:

– At home you are now more difficult to be with.

– You complain about everything.

– You do not communicate – you have a lot of – ‘I need to be by myself or leave me alone’.

– You tend to overeat often – normally not healthy foods .

– You party hard, drink more, sometimes to the point of getting intoxicated.

– You exercise more – you take long runs or walks until it hurts.

– You take long drives, going nowhere in particular.

– You no longer take care of yourself – hair, face and nails etc. are unkempt.

– You sit and stare for hours.

– You are very restless – you cannot sleep.

– You over sleep often.

– You take on more work or task to keep busy.

– You blame yourself and cannot forgive yourself.

We all do these but if you realize that your actions are outside of what you would normally do, then it is time to stop and reflect on what is happening. If you believe you need professional help, then do that now.

In my next blog I will talk about some ways to deal with your depression.