5 Reasons to Forgive Yourself

By Roz Jones

In life, there will probably come a time when you fail and disappoint yourself. Maybe you set a goal to graduate this semester, but now you need to add one more. Perhaps you promised yourself that you would master the art of caregiving, but work keeps you too busy to keep yourself organized.

There could be countless times when you find yourself upset, frustrated, or disappointed in yourself. When this happens, the next step to moving on is forgiving yourself. Here are five reasons that you should forgive yourself.

Everyone Makes Mistakes

You are not the only person to get into an accident, tell a lie, yell at someone, or turn on the wrong burner. Everyone makes mistakes. Thankfully for you, you will not make every mistake possible, but you won’t come out clean either.

We are human and this work is messy. It is impossible to not make mistakes. That doesn’t mean that you should stop trying to keep yourself from making mistakes. It just means that you should forgive yourself and move on. Someone else has done what you have and you should find comfort in that. You now need to move on and forgive yourself. It was a mistake that you can learn from and move on from.

Trouble Trusting Yourself

If something happens and you are having a hard time forgiving yourself, that is going to carry over into other parts of your life. You might create trust problems with yourself. Because you already messed up one way, who’s to say that you won’t mess up in another?

But that’s not a good way to think about yourself. There are going to be a lot of people in this world who think poorly of you or talk down to you. Don’t join them. It is okay to admit that you made a mistake and work to fix it. But then let it go, let yourself off the hook so that you can believe in yourself once more.

Health Problems

By not forgiving yourself, you could cause health problems. Being at peace allows your body to feel good. When there is chaos within, that can cause a lot of strain on your heart and your mind. This amount of stress is not healthy to carry around. You do not need to hold on to all that baggage. All it does is destroy you, mentally, physically and emotionally. You do not need to hold on to that, forgive yourself and set it aside.

Future Success

If you don’t forgive yourself, you are going to have a harder time succeeding in the future. Either you’ll be too stressed about making a mistake that you won’t do anything at all or you will live too cautiously because you are afraid of messing up.

Neither of these options are good ways to live. By forgiving yourself, you can move past the failure and be able to work towards future successes without that fear and stress.

You Deserve It

You deserve to be happy. You deserve to enjoy your life. You deserve to not hold a mistake over your own head forever. Forgive yourself because you deserve it. Yes, you made a mistake and let yourself down, we all do that. It is a part of life. You fell down.

After you have enough time to sit on the ground, pick yourself back up again. You deserve to continue climbing and moving forward.

Falling down doesn’t change that. You deserve to be forgiven by the person whose opinion matters the most: yours. That doesn’t mean that you forget about the mistake or don’t learn from it. It means that you care about yourself enough to move on.

EXCITING NEWS!!

I am excited and thrilled to share with you my new adventure, “The Caregiver Café Podcast”. This podcast tackles and highlights the daily situations caregivers face with their aging loved ones. We also empower you to navigate the care and challenges of your loved one with relevant topics and through the voices of your peers and their life experiences.

Monday April 4th we launched our first episode, and you can learn all about it at this link.

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing issues that caregivers face on a daily basis, and check out my upcoming book!

Seven Ways to Get Your House in Shape During Spring Cleaning

By Roz Jones

For April, we’re covering spring cleaning – getting your ducks in a row in your physical home, as well as clearing your mental space by practicing forgiveness. We hope you’ll be ready to charge into May with a new spring in your step!

It’s always a good idea to stay organized throughout the year (as a caregiver this can be particularly crucial!), but things don’t always go according to plan. During springtime, it’s popular to use the opportunity to whip your house into shape.

It can be a tough job since there may be things you’ve been putting off all year long. But in the end, it’ll be worth it because you’ll have a great sense of accomplishment and your house will be looking its best.

Try some of the following ways to get your home into shape during spring cleaning:

Do the deep cleaning. Deep cleaning is clearly not something you can make a part of your everyday cleaning routine. During spring cleaning, however, you can take the opportunity to get down and dirty.

Vacuuming. During spring cleaning, take that extra step to vacuum everything. During regular cleaning, you likely do a quick job in a matter of minutes. However, with spring cleaning, it’s good to take time for the details, crevasses, and under the couch.

Time to use the ladder. Spring cleaning is also an opportunity to get to all those hard to reach places. Include ceiling fans, the tops of doors, and light fixtures. Do this dusting first so you can vacuum up the fallen dust later with the regular vacuuming.

Wash all surfaces. Take the time to wash every surface you can. There may be certain things that you don’t think need cleaning, but you really never know where dust has settled throughout the year. Grab a cloth and clean your walls, cabinets, and more.

Organization. Pay special attention to organization. If you’ve already been using an organization plan, you’ll only need to reorganize things that may have fallen out of place (check your “junk drawer” and clear it out!). If you don’t have organizational methods in place, perhaps it’s time to adopt some.

Sift through the clutter. Find the cluttered spots in your house and deal with those items. If you need them in the house, then find them a permanent home that’s out of the way.

Get your family involved. So much more can be accomplished when it’s a group effort. Have children take responsibility for their rooms. Then, divide up the other cleaning projects among every member of the family.

Remember to reward yourselves at the end of the day for a job well done! Perhaps you can throw a pizza party for the family!

Remember that getting your house into shape doesn’t need to be too difficult on you; just take everything one step at a time, do what you can, and it’ll all get done.

EXCITING NEWS!!

We’re launching our first episode today (April 4th), and you can learn all about it at this link.

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information issues that come up in the daily life of a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!

How to Stand Out Amongst Other Women Entrepreneurs

By Roz Jones

As more and more of the female population decides to start a business, it gets harder to stand out amongst other women entrepreneurs – particularly if you have a full home life that involves caring for loved ones. However, it can be done. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Utilize Social Media

Social media can be used for so much more than keeping in touch with loved ones. Create pages for both yourself and your business on multiple social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.). Then, share content that shows off the things that you have to offer.

Be sure to highlight ways that you are different from your competition. For example, if you’re the only daycare service in your town that also provides transportation, be sure to bring that up in your posts.

Keep Your Promises

Clients and customers alike will notice when you deliver on every aspect of a promise that you make to them. Make sure that you finish everything that you start, and that you get it done in a timely manner. People remember that you were true to your word, and keep that in mind when deciding who to do business with in the future.

Go the Extra Mile

Doing more than is expected of you when working with clients or customers is a sure way to set yourself and your business apart from competitors in your field. If you can offer an extra feature or service that your competitors don’t, that’s an excellent point to make when trying to “sell” yourself to potential customers.

Give Out Free Samples

People tend to get pretty excited about the idea of getting something for free. Consider investing in promotional objects like pens, mouse pads, t-shirts, or fridge magnets. It may not seem like much, but gifts like this with your logo on them can go a long way toward setting yourself apart from your peers.

Listen to Feedback

Even if you are successful when you launch your business, you won’t be able to keep up with the changing landscape if you aren’t able to adapt as a business owner. Take every opportunity that you can to collect feedback from customers and other businesses that you work with.

One way to do this is to provide customers with a satisfaction survey, either in person or via email. Make sure to include a section that lets the customer fill in suggestions on how you could improve your service. Not only will this give you an idea of how you can do better, it also lets your customers know that their opinion matters to you.

These are just a few ways to help to ensure that you stand out among the sea of female entrepreneurs. Yes, competition is fierce. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. With perseverance and due diligence, chances are you’ll realize continued growth along your well-deserved journey to success.

Congratulations, you want to start a business! Once you get over the initial excitement, it’s time to break down the process of launching your startup into manageable chunks. So do you feel overwhelmed with the items on your to-do list? Not to worry; I’ve divided this startup Essential Business Bundle Checklists into the primary tasks you need to do now, and those that you can defer until later. These documents will help you navigate, structure, and create systems specific to our business.

It’s here, I am so excited to share a new caregiver app called CircleOf….This app will allow you to surround yourself with resources and experts from your community including ME!!!! As you are looking through the app, you will see my familiar face. I’m excited about this partnership and new ways to support you as you support your loved one. Here’s the link so you can explore the app. I would love your feedback and spread the word by sharing the link to family and friends.

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!

How to Make Time to Keep Learning: Tips for Women

By Roz Jones

Being a lifelong learner is an important way to enrich your daily life. But how can women, particularly caretakers, make time for continuing their education? Today, we’re bringing you four ways you can make learning a priority outside the classroom – on your timeline.

1. First and foremost, take advantage of online resources. The internet is teeming with free or low-cost learning opportunities. You can find an online course on almost any topic, from cooking to web development to financial planning. And many of these courses are self-paced, so you can learn at your own speed and on your own schedule.

2. Find a podcast in an area you’re curious about, and listen to it during your commute, when you’re picking up kids from school, or while doing tasks around the house. Not only will this help you learn something new, but you can do it while multitasking. Keep an eye out for the Caregiver Cafe podcast, coming in April!

3. Check out your local library for books, magazines, newspapers, and other resources on topics that interest you. James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) says it’s a good idea to link new habits to old ones, and eliminate decision-making in the moment. Want to read before bed? Clear advises people to put the book on their pillow, and commit to reading one page before switching out the light.

Libraries also offer free or low-cost classes on everything from computer literacy to creative writing.

4. Finally, don’t forget your local museums! Even if you live in a small town with a museum that’s open one day a month, this can be a great way to learn more about the place where you live, and hear stories you’ve never heard before.

Remember, it’s fine to learn just to encourage your curiosity. Not everything has to have a “productive” output. If it expands the way you see the world, it’s worth doing!

I’ve just launched Shop With Roz, my online store filled with supplies and gifts for every caregiver. You can find a wide variety of products in the store to help yourself and your loved one. Check it out here!

After you have a look through the store, see any products you use and love as a caregiver, and think we should share them with everyone? Let me know!

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!

How to Avoid Analysis Paralysis – Part 3

By Roz Jones

Welcome back to our three-part article on how to avoid analysis paralysis for women! Today, we’re covering a more fun part of the topic: Spontaneous decisions.

But first…catch up on part 1 here and part 2 here.

Are Spontaneous Decisions Always Bad?

Some people spend too much time trying to find as much information as they can, and they miss opportunities because of it. Information is a key component in decision making. However, sometimes you simply have to decide and live with the decision you made without any information.

You don’t want others to view you as someone who makes rash decisions. You’ll lose credibility when you do this and people won’t take you seriously. However, you must prepare yourself for certain times in your life when being decisive is necessary. For instance, you may be helping a loved one consider next steps for physical therapy, and realize their first choice for PT offices is already booked up. You are given other choices but are unsure of how that will fit into your family’s overall plan. Do you enroll in those alternative programs, or wait for their first choice?

Your loved one may decide to go for the PT most readily available. If it’s a similar program at a similar price, this may end up working right into your plan. Talk to your GP and ask how to proceed after taking this new path. Of course, you could always reroute and seek treatment elsewhere if this new office isn’t a fit.

The point is that if a decision doesn’t work out, the “wrong” results can usually be fixed. Don’t be afraid to take the plunge. The shoe company Nike has a slogan that has worked for them for several decades now. That slogan is ‘Just Do It!‘

A structured living doesn’t fit well with some people. They need the excitement that comes with making spontaneous decisions. Who is to say that their way is wrong? It may not work for others, but for them, it works quite well. You may know people who are like this and are envious of them.

That isn’t the same scenario as people who don’t do much with their lives. Spontaneous decision makers are often doing many activities. You can decide to do nothing, but doing nothing won’t get you very far. Unless you are lucky enough to come from money and your parents are willing to give you that money, you will need to find something to do.

Most people will find a balance of decisions they make based on information and spontaneous decisions. The process of decision making becomes easier the more you do it. So go out and practice! Make confident decisions – I’m rooting for you!

After you have a look through the store, see any products you use and love as a caregiver, and think we should share them with everyone? Let me know!

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!