Anna S. E. Lundberg

Coach, Speaker, Writer

5 things that skiing teaches you about life

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skiingAnother year, another week of downhill skiing in Verbier, Switzerland. This week has been the best so far – there was fresh snowfall at the start of the week, followed by a week of glorious sunshine, and on top we didn’t do any classes this time so we’ve been completely free to ski, rest and eat whenever we want! It’s just been a really lovely week of skiing. Whenever I’m out on the pistes, though, I’m always struck by the life lessons that skiing brings to mind! Here are 5 things that skiing teaches you…

1. You’re on your own

You may have supportive friends around you, or an experienced ski instructor, but ultimately, no one can help you make it down the mountain (unless you really get stuck and they have to come and get you with a scooter!). Knowing that you’re all alone is both terrifying and completely liberating. You can block out the sound of other people, forget what they are doing or not doing, and just focus on what it takes for you to do what you need to do.

2. The longer you hesitate, the harder it gets

I’ve had so many moments over the years of stopping at the top of a slope or, worse, halfway down and just getting more and more panicked about how I’m going to do it. The truth is, though, that it’s not going to get any easier from waiting, so it’s really just a question of taking a deep breath and going for it. And turn, and turn, and turn! No ‘shopping around’ for the best turning spot, no stopping completely – as the next turn will only be more difficult!

3. A lot of the fears are just in your head

There are some very real fears when you’re skiing – accidents do happen, even with experienced skiers, and they can happen when you least expect it. I’ve fallen twice this week while WALKING so it’s not even just the skiing that you need to watch out for. However, I’ve actually very rarely fallen and when I have (TOUCH WOOD) it’s not been particularly traumatic; I have always made it down the slope, however terrified I’ve been; and I’m only getting better, so really there’s less and less to worry about. In fact the fears only make me tense up and do all the things that interfere with my technique so, as is often the case, your fears are actually having the opposite effect to what you are hoping.

4. You should be facing the slope head on and leaning forwards

Your natural reaction is to want to lean back, away from the steep slope that’s laid out in front of you – but in fact this is counter-productive, giving you less control over your skis and making it more likely that you’ll fall. Leaning forwards, down the slope, will make sure that the skis press evenly into the snow along their full length so that you have better control. The other normal tendency for beginners is to swing the body round with each turn, rather than facing the slope head on so that you can see where you’re going and again so that your weight is correctly distributed.

5. It gets easier with practice

I used to be scared just of the overall environment when you’re skiing: dangling from the sky in a little cabin, making sure you get off the chair lift in time, being able to control your skis enough to be able to stop when you need to! Of course over the years all these things have become a natural part of the process and no longer terrify me. It’s the same with the skiing itself, the more turns you do, the more you challenge yourself to take on trickier slopes, the better you get. You can let your fear stop you, stick to the easier pistes or even avoid skiing altogether – or you can commit to getting better, to pushing yourself and to keep practising. As the ski school ads around Verbier proclaim: better skiers have more fun!

In fact, the previous points essentially come down to this: you have to commit to each action you take, each move you make. You don’t want to be hesitating, you don’t want to be leaning back and you don’t want to be fighting against the natural force of gravity! I find that if I just take some deep breaths, find a rhythm and stop over-thinking it, I get into a really nice flow and it’s much less work. And for all the dangers and fears, it’s so totally worth it for the views, the food and the exhilarating feeling of whooshing down the mountain.

The intuitive power of a vision board

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pierJust as it is for most of you, the New Year is a time for me to review what I’ve done and look ahead to what I’m going to do. In the past weeks, I’ve done an annual review of 2016, I’ve decided on my new theme for 2017 (IMPACT), and I’ve set three specific over-arching goals for the year. In order to help me achieve these goals, I’ve started to work with a new coach, and in our first session I was very clear on where I wanted to focus my attention: on defining my big vision for the future, on the longer-term goals I have and how I might get from here to there. It’s impossible to achieve those goals unless I’m clear on what they are! As a result, a natural first exercise that my new coach gave me was to do a vision board.

Now a vision board, in case you’re not familiar with the idea, is simply a visual representation of what you want in your life. It’s an exercise that taps into your intuition rather than your analytical mind, which is usually in control of your thought process. The beauty of this is that you won’t get caught up in “oh but that will never happen” or “I could never do that”, “what if…” or “I’m afraid that…” The vision board is simply a collage of beautiful, inspirational images that reflect in some way your heart’s desire.

Our long-term goals are the first to suffer when we’re busy (i.e. always). The short-term stuff always gets done as the deadline looms up ahead – but what about our big dreams, our far-off plans that don’t feel urgent or even realistic right now? These dreams get put on the back-burner, left for later, as we put our heads down and continue working on the day-to-day of whatever situation we happen to find ourselves in right now. In fact, this is a factor in why we end up staying within our comfort zones, always favouring the status quo over anything big and different that would require a lot of effort on our part to make happen.

I’ve heard miraculous stories about vision boards – a man putting a picture of a house and 20 years later finding that he was living in that very house; a woman putting a picture of a partner and several years later falling in love with a man who could have been that man’s twin – and though you may choose to believe or not believe at that level, it’s clear that the exercise of imagining what you want in life can be a useful one.

I did my first vision board five years ago when I was looking out at the world from my office job in Geneva, imagining what I might do if I were to leave. I don’t think I took a photo of the board unfortunately and it’s now long gone, but I can remember very well the core themes that were on there: I had backpacking, beaches and hammocks (I was beginning to plan my sabbatical travelling across South America); I had the logos of various companies that I thought would be a better fit for me; and I had beautiful spacious houses with big windows and ocean views.

I did a second vision board after I’d quit my job, this time on Pinterest, a fully digital collection of images that inspire me. It hasn’t quite worked as a visual reminder, though, as I forget to go into my account and check it on a regular basis.

The third iteration that I’m now working on is semi-digital! I’m collecting images online and pasting them onto a Keynote slide. When I’m happy with it, I’ll be able to either put it as my desktop background (a nice idea, I thought, given the amount of time I spend on laptop!) or print it out and have it as a physical visual aid.

I’ve only just started the exercise this time round and I’ve already had some big realisations. For one thing, the images I’m putting on the board look nothing like my present situation at this very moment. There certainly aren’t any pictures on there of me sitting hunched over my laptop by myself! Where there are themes that are consistent with my previous boards, it’s clear that these areas are still important to me and I haven’t given them enough attention. Both of these realisations have given me the impetus to take action to move forwards in these areas in the coming weeks and months.

Create your own vision board

To do your own vision board, collect some magazines together – ideally with a range of topics, e.g. travel, home, fitness, lifestyle, fashion, so that you don’t end up limited by the type of pictures inside – and grab a pair of scissors, some glue and some kind of cardboard to use as a background. Plan some time when you’re alone and feeling relaxed and just flip through the magazines, cutting out the images that appeal to you. I do think this is a better way to do it than my digital approaches as it’s more tactile and creative, it’s just that with my travel in the next weeks and the fact that I don’t read magazines it felt better to do it this way! Don’t overthink it, don’t analyse why something is attractive to you right now, just do the exercise at more of an intuitive level.

Let me know if you have any big insights!

Adventure is out there! (+ news about The Adventure Travel Show 2017)

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*Make sure you read to the end as there’s a special offer for those of you who are in the London area!*

Desert adventureThere’s something about the idea of adventure. Going off into the unknown, having new experiences, sometimes facing a little bit of risk or danger and always coming away with memorable moments.

When I broke away from my comfortable life in Geneva in 2013, the very first step was an adventure, a sabbatical of three months of solo travel across South America. My slogan I posted everywhere as I headed off was ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE! If you’ve seen Pixar’s film Up (the first five minutes have me in tears every time), you’ll recognise this as the call of the young Carl and Ellie as they dreamed of becoming adventurers, and the inspiration for Carl in his old age to seek out Paradise Falls. Off I went in search of my own Paradise Falls, and I’ve been having new adventures ever since.

Mountain adventureAdventure brings to mind explorers like Ranulph Fiennes getting frostbite as he crossed Antarctica on foot, or Sir Edmund Hillary conquering the summit of Mount Everest; not to mention older legendary figures like Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake and Marco Polo. Today, we have TV personalities like Bear Grylls teaching wilderness survival skills; people like my friend Dave Cornthwaite who leads a community of people who want to Say Yes More to a life of adventure and fulfilment; and, hurrah, more and more women including Anna McNuff who was recently named one of ‘the 50 best travellers of our time’ alongside Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama.

Adventure no longer has to mean the heavily funded expeditions of the past and we’ve now seen the rise of the concept of micro-adventures, with Al Humphreys for example recommending simply taking a bivvy bag and going out onto a nearby hilltop for a little wild sleep, and companies like Secret Adventures cropping up to encourage people to go on a mini-adventure away from the office and the city. There are probably countless other more low-key adventurers who are just quietly getting on with their adventures out there in the world.

Adventure means time away from the daily grind, breathing in the fresh air, getting close to nature; it involves learning more about ourselves and the people we meet along the way; and it often allows for reflecting on what’s really important.

Ocean adventureOf course if you’ve seen the Pixar film Up – and I don’t want to ruin it for you if you haven’t, so go and watch it right now – the ultimate message is that adventures are what make up your life, your good times and your bad, with the people you choose to spend it with. It’s not about the expensive flight ticket to a far-away land or even ticking off those bucket list experiences. Adventure is out there – but it’s up to you to know it when you find it.

If you’re up for an adventurous 2017, I’d recommend you visit the Adventure Travel Show in London. I’ve been attending this for a couple of years now and these days I know a lot of the people on stage, which makes it extra special. Read my posts after attending the last couple of years of the travel show:
Adventure is Out There: Insights from the Adventure Travel Show 2016
Adventure is Out There! Ranulph Fiennes and travel companies galore at the Adventure Travel Show 2015

The Adventure Travel Show
Uncover Your Journey of a Lifetime
21-22 January 2017, Olympia, London

The Adventure Travel Show, celebrating its 21st year, is a world of extraordinary discoveries all under one roof. It is the UK’s leading event for people who like to travel outside the mainstream – whether it be on small-group adventures, exclusive expeditions or epic journeys.

The Adventure Travel Show is packed with inspirational and essential travel advice, specialist seminars and the best adventure speaker line-up of 2017, including explorers, adventurers, tour leaders and guidebook writers who will help you uncover your perfect adventure. Plus, the biggest collection of specialist travel operators all under one roof will be on hand to offer guidance on everything, from walking and trekking to exploratory journeys, safaris, overland trips, life-changing volunteering projects and much, much more.

The Adventure Travel Show – it’s where your adventure begins…

I’m happy to be able to offer you tickets at £6 (that’s £4 off the full door price) with the voucher ONESTEPOUTSIDE when booking tickets online at www.adventureshow.com or when calling 0871 230 7159. (Calls cost 13p per minute plus network extras).

Look out in particular for the all-female panel, Women at the Edge, which includes Justine Gosling whom I met on one of my paddle adventures on the Thames; one of my favourites of the 2016 show, Sean Conway; and, of course, Yes Man Dave Cornthwaite.

Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017: My theme for the New Year

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This year I’ve been more organised and thorough than previous years and I’ve spent much of December reviewing 2016, mind mapping possible new themes for 2017, and setting specific goals for the New Year. With just a couple of days to go to 1st January 2017, it’s time to make that final decision on what my new theme will be.

Can I have a drum roll please!

My New Year’s theme for 2017 will be… IMPACT.

impactI really thought that I was going to go for something along the lines of being ‘intentional’, ‘proactive’ or, a new word that I’ve discovered, ‘purposive’. I tend to be quite reactive to what’s happening around me, planning my year around things going on in other people’s lives and not being too forceful about what it is that I want. This is a ‘first world problem’ of course and I’ve had a really fun year in 2016 as a result of being this reactive; and at the same time I do feel that I’d like to move towards a more proactive approach.

Somehow, though, ‘impact’ is the word that has come up for me and now feels right for 2017. In fact, I would say that those themes of being intentional and proactive are an integral part of ‘impact’ as well…

In my research and coaching this past year, I’ve found that the number one driver as to whether or not your work is meaningful is believing that your job is having a positive impact on other people. In so many office jobs in particular, we are so far removed from the end users of our products and services and we just can’t see that impact. This was a key reason for why I left my full-time job back in 2013, and I believe it’s the underlying reason why so many people are feeling unmotivated and unfulfilled in their jobs today.

I tend to focus on process-oriented goals, input and actions, and while I think these are important I have a feeling that it’s time to shift my attention to the actual impact I’m having. It’s not just about writing blog posts or doing videos, it’s about the impact that this content has on my business, on the people I work with and, ultimately, on the broader issues I’m trying to address.

The events of 2016 have also given me a bit of a jolt, bursting the bubble that I’ve been living in and compelling me to open my eyes to what’s happening around the world and to seriously consider what role I have to play here.

For me personally, IMPACT means a few specific things.

First, I believe I need to get even clearer on my message in terms of my vision, the real value that I bring, and who exactly I help. I have so many ideas and different projects but I know I will be much more effective if I can craft a more coherent and cohesive story. When I have that message, I will be able to bring that missing intentionality and purpose to my work and be much more consistent and persistent in working towards that bigger purpose.

Second, I need to make choices and really focus on the priorities that will make the biggest difference, create real forward movement and have the biggest impact. It’s easy to get distracted by things like Facebook posts and ads while missing the bigger picture of the things that will really drive the business. In terms of scale, I want to be reaching more people with my message as a first step, and ultimately I want to be helping more people with my coaching and consulting.

Over the autumn, I did a social entrepreneurship course and I loved bringing together my business and marketing experience and expertise with my studies (my degrees are in International Relations and Development). The course gave me both academic and practical frameworks to apply to my own work as well as a heightened awareness of what other people are doing to make a difference; it made me think bigger in terms of the impact I want to have and at the same time think smaller in terms of how I can get started.

Therefore third, I want to work with other people who want to, or are already, making an impact. This means continuing my career coaching of people who want to leave their corporate jobs to find more meaningful work, guiding them through defining the impact they want to have and how they can go about achieving it; as well as working more with solopreneurs and small startups who are aiming to create a real impact with their business ideas, and supporting them in building an effective brand and marketing strategy to maximise that impact.

In fact, bringing these threads together I think the common theme across my different projects and businesses may well be that I help people create an impact in their personal and professional lives.

So I’m feeling pretty good about this new theme. Inspired, a little bit nervous, and excited about the year to come.

I’ll be setting specific goals with milestones along the way to support my theme this year, and of course I’ll be checking in as usual every three months with a quarterly review of how I’m doing.

Have you decided on your theme for 2017? If you’re still unsure, take a look back at my previous posts, this year and past years, for inspiration!

How to find your annual theme 2017

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016

Hello 2015

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

In the meantime, I wish you a very Happy New Year!!!

Annual Review: Inspiring goal setting for 2017

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1st JanuaryIn the past few weeks, I’ve been kicking off my 2017 planning first with a review of 2016 – looking at three elements, my theme, my priority areas (the Wheel of Life) and my goals – followed by a look at how to define a new theme for 2017. I’m not going to go through the Wheel of Life* piece as I’ve covered this in blog posts and my recent webinar. So, today I’m looking at the final piece of the puzzle: effective goal setting.

*If you’re not familiar with this and haven’t done the exercise yet, I recommend my little ebook, which will take you through the steps from identifying your priority areas to assessing where you are today and where you want to get to.

Now I’m a long-time fan of goals, having always been very future-focused – throughout school, I would constantly be looking to the next thing, the next challenge to take on… I’ve been achieving those goals with varying levels of success, however!

When I started my coaching training, goals were at the heart of what I was learning, and it was emphasised how important it was to set specific goals, whether for the whole coaching relationship or for the specific session. If you don’t know what you want to get out of it, how can you know if you actually get it?! In parallel, I got busy with my own goal setting, creating action plans in Excel and making sure that my goals were SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Where I often got stuck, however, was on accountability – not in the sense of someone else checking in on me and giving me a hard time but rather in terms of holding myself accountable. The truth is that no matter how many times I set the goal that I want to eat healthily or do more exercise, the universe won’t implode if I eat that cinnamon bun, and nobody will die if I skip a training session.

So how can you set goals that you’ll actually keep?

The right goals

This is all about identifying the goals that will really have a meaningful impact in your life, committing to those goals wholeheartedly, and then actually following through.

If I just keep setting a goal of losing weight without understanding why that’s so important to me, or what losing the weight would bring me, then it’ll always be very easy to stray. It’s not like we don’t have the knowledge we need to lose weight – most of us know the difference between healthy, nutritious food and pre-packaged sugary crap – so there’s clearly something else going on underneath it all when we nevertheless reach for that bag of crisps or packet of biscuits.

This vicious cycle of setting goals that we know we won’t achieve is a KILLER! It establishes the precedent that goals aren’t something that you stick to, and it gives you an excuse when you inevitably fail – better then to not set the goal at all, and enjoy those crisps and biscuits without the feelings of guilt that so often come with acting differently to what you had planned!

Big vs small

Now since then, I’ve been reading a lot more about goals, and when it comes to long- and short-term goals, I’ve come across two different schools of thought.

On the one hand, we have books like The 12-week Year and online courses like The 90-Day Year, which argue that there’s no point in setting long-term goals and we should focus on a three-month period at a time. I love this focused approach – but aren’t we missing an opportunity here to really see the big picture and plan towards our biggest, wildest dreams?

And that’s where we, on the other hand, have people like Tony Robbins and Bo Eason who encourage us to look at the long-term horizon. Bo Eason is a recent discovery for me, and he tells his personal story of how he has set himself the goal of being the best X – and each time he has given himself a 20-year horizon (“I work well on those time frames.”. And what can’t you achieve in 20 years?? This is hugely inspiring!

I think the most effective approach is a combination of the two, of course: big bad long-term dreams combined with shorter-term goals to keep you focused.

Process vs outcome

The other question is whether to go for process-based or outcome-based goals, and here I’ve read that men tend to be more outcome-based.

I actually think that although it’s good to first have the outcome in mind – losing x kg or y inches, becoming a confident speaker, earning £100k, or whatever the desired outcome – in order to make any kind of change you’re going to want to focus on the process i.e. the actions you’re taking.

So for that goal of losing weight, especially if you really care more about your health and wellbeing, I find it much more constructive and productive to focus on the new behaviours you’re going to implement. For example, going to the gym 3x a week for 45 minutes, eating five different greens each day, reducing portion size, etc.

How to come up with your goals for 2017

And so we come to the point of all this, which was to set specific goals for 2017.

In an old video I watched with Tony Robbins, he simply led a free-writing exercise, which was surprisingly quick and effective at finding meaningful goals! Here’s my version…

  1. Give yourself 5 minutes to write everything you want to achieve from a personal development standpoint. This can include writing a book, learning a language, travelling to some bucket list destination, and so on. The rule is you just have to keep writing, don’t let your pen stop. Big/small, process/outcome, doesn’t matter!
  2. Look through what you’ve just written and mark each one with a number to represent the timeline: do you want to achieve this in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years? Don’t overthink this, you just want to get the general gist.
  3. Now out of the ideas you’ve marked with a 1-year time frame, choose the three that you are most excited about and most committed to achieving.
  4. Write down each of these goals in your journal, or on a notepad, or just on a clean sheet of paper. Underneath each one, write down why you are so excited and committed about making these happen this year. What will achieving this goal bring you? Why is it so important to you?
  5. Congratulations, these are your goals for 2017! Now guess what… you’re going to identify ONE STEP that will already get you closer to each of those three goals.

Now of course we’re talking about personal development goals here – they may be linked to your business or your career, but they’re really about things you want to achieve in your life, rather than specific business goals and objectives. So in my case, I am also working separately on business planning for 2017, with strategies, goals, and milestones, in addition to these three big personal goals.

Since we’re looking at 2017 planning, I won’t get into the longer-term goals for now but it’s definitely something I’ll be exploring further!!

As an example, here are my three goals with respective ‘whys’ and ‘one steps’…

Anna’s goals for 2017

  1. I want to become the person who sets and achieves her goals, who commits and holds herself accountable, and is a 100% authentic and inspirational role model for my clients and for people I meet every day.

WHY: I know that I’ve been the most unhappy in my life when I’ve wanted to do something but not done anything about it; and I know I’m happiest and freest when I’m 100% aligned with my intention and my actions. This is also important as I coach people to be authentic and committed in their own lives and I want to be a credible role model.

ONE STEP: I’ve done the exercise above and set these three goals for 2017 🙂

  1. I want to be the fittest I’ve ever been, to nourish and fuel my body and mind with nutritious food and become strong and full of energy.

WHY: My health and wellbeing is critical to everything else in my life, it sets the foundation and affects my confidence and my energy levels. And, again, having this as a goal but not consistently sticking to it really grinds me down and I want to address this once and for all.

ONE STEP: I messaged my inspirational friend Sophie who has done the most amazing fitness challenges over the years, for some tips on how to start upping my game.

  1. I want to become fluent in Spanish so that I’m no longer shy when I meet Spanish speakers, and I want to learn salsa dancing!

WHY: I’ve always loved Spanish and I want to be able to speak confidently with Spanish speakers I meet. It’s a sexy language, as salsa is a sexy and feminine dance and also one that I’ve always wanted to learn! Both things are on my bucket list so what better time to start than now!

ONE STEP: I emailed my Spanish teacher I worked with in Geneva in early 2013 ahead of my sabbatical trip to South America and we have our first call on Tuesday 20th December. For the salsa, I’ve got a group of friends who want to join and I’ve emailed a salsa school in London (they haven’t replied so I’m going to need to follow up – a key step that we often miss after the initial excitement of taking action!).

Are you ready to come up with your three goals? Grab a pen, set a timer, and… go! Go ahead and share one of your goals and the action you’re taking in the comments, or you can come on over and join our Facebook group and share it there.