Get Work Done

It’s said that confidence is built on accomplishment, so it would only make sense that finishing tasks would contribute towards it. Begin with establishing daily goals, both work-related and personal, that can contribute to larger and more long-term goals.

Progress takes time, so staying persistent is key. 

Doing so will help you meet weekly and monthly goals, ultimately increasing your success and confidence in your ability to work. Just remember that, while setting larger goals, progress takes time, so staying persistent is key. 

Exercise regularly

You may be wondering to yourself, what does exercise have to do with confidence? Aside from the common health benefits that exercise can provide, you can also use it as a method for a confidence boost.

About 70% of Americans who work out for at least thirty minutes a day, seven days a week, feel good about themselves and their appearance. 

While fitness activities are most associated with health and weight loss, the chemicals your brain releases can improve the way you view yourself. Don’t believe us? A study completed by The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index suggests that about seventy percent of Americans who work out for at least thirty minutes a day, seven days a week, feel good about themselves and their appearance. 

If you’re unsure of where to begin or feel that you lack the confidence to go into the gym, start small and work your way into more significant exercises. For instance, you can begin your fitness journey with a simple activity such as a walk or jog.

Once you feel comfortable doing those, you can add more to your routine, such as running and weightlifting. When you’re working out, it’s important to remember that everyone surrounding you is there for similar reasons, whether it be to lead a healthier lifestyle, gain some muscle, or a little bit of confidence just like you! 

Look Good, Feel Good

It should come as no surprise that the way you feel on the outside can directly affect the way you feel about yourself. No matter if you have skin troubles, or need a wardrobe update, spending some extra time on your appearance can help immensely. 

Skin concerns such as acne and blemishes can put a damper on your self-esteem. With all of the products the market has to offer, finding a skin regimen that works for you and your skin can feel quite challenging. To successfully navigate the world of skin care, first determine your skin type, such as oily, dry, or a combination of both. It’s important to do so as each type of skin has different needs.

Next, you should know that a typical skin care routine consists of three necessary steps: cleanser, toner, and moisturizer, followed by any treatment products to address pesky skin concerns. 

When looking into specific treatment products such as an acne cream, look for active ingredients like niacinamide. If this word seems scientific and strange, that’s okay! A lot of skin care ingredients can be long and hard to pronounce words, but they don’t have to scare you away. Check out this post for more information on niacinamide and what it can do for your skin.

Enclothed cognition phenomenon : how you dress can have a significant impact on how you behave and feel.

Revamping your clothes and style can be a great way to get you out of your comfort zone and help you find something you may not have tried otherwise. Begin with a purge of your closet. Find pieces you no longer wear, and if they are gently used, consider donating them to a local shelter.

There is a phenomenon called enclothed cognition in which studies have shown that how you dress can have a significant impact on how you behave and feel. Putting on your favorite outfit, or picking up a few new pieces to add to your wardrobe can help you look and feel your best on a daily basis. 

Believe in Yourself

As the saying goes, “if you can believe it, you can achieve it.” If you’re wondering what positive self-talk looks like, it’s quite simple. Start by finding good qualities about yourself, for example, say out loud phrases such as “I am smart,” and “I am strong,” or “I am capable.”

Research shows that by replacing any negative thoughts you commonly experience with positive ones, you will begin to see an improvement in your self-esteem and confidence. Once you make yourself aware of when you experience negative thoughts (for example, before a work presentation or public speaking), you can then proceed to flip them into something more positive. 

Of course, building your self-confidence begins with you. No matter which steps you decide to take, whether it’s all or just a few, doing so will ensure that you create a more positive and confident version of yourself.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, share it with your friends and spread the love on social media 

More articles on the Goalmap blog that you might like:

• 20 Blogs that will Inspire you to Achieve your Goals in Life
• Why Everyone Needs a Goal Map – yeah, including you
• 20 Motivations Quotes to Push You Further

See you soon on Goalmap!

Start tracking your goals on our motivational app:

L’article A Guide to Building Your Self-Confidence est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

First things first, why a personal growth app?

Why we created Goalmap and how the app can help you

With a mother who writes books about healthy food and a father who is both an engineer and a yoga teacher, with my brother Damien we have discovered personal growth in our childhood. 

And our life paths have led us to develop our own method. As a teenager, Damien had written a manual called Time Use Instructions. Self-realization, before being a job, is for us a life project.

We created the Goalmap app to share our vision of personal growth with as many people as possible, and help individuals reach their potential.

Having objectives is a way of life, a philosophy.

4 years and some 300,000 app downloads later, we are proud to keep working every day to support individuals in their self-help journey. Goalmap is more than an application: having objectives is a way of life, a philosophy.

How does the new version of Goalmap work?

Here is how this new version of Goalmap works:

Define your aspirations clearly with SMART habits

Your first steps on the application enable you to ask yourself the right questions:

• which “vision” inspires me;
• what person I want to become;
• where I stand now;
• which habits I am willing to introduce into my daily life.

These first steps are essential. Indeed, to reach your goals, you first have to define them correctly. There you’ll be able to set your long-term goal and choose your good habits.

Dozens of goals are available in all areas of well-being: Sleep, Stress Management, Productivity, Diet, Physical Exercise, etc. Sleep 8 hours a day or meditate 3 times a week: with SMART goals, you are ready to make positive changes in your life!

Stay motivated on the long run with our coaching library

Access our coaching library: 7 or 21-day programs, podcasts prepared by leading experts, inspiring stories shared by our users. New podcasts on well-being and personal growth are available on a regular basis.

Build good habits

Monitoring your progress in a fun way allows you to become aware of what you are doing and measure what remains to be done. This will motivate you to create positive habits and keep your resolutions.

You’re going to end procrastination

Throughout your journey, Goalmap supports you with motivating quotes, fun reminders and inspiring missions to help you achieve your goals. You will finally keep your good resolutions and change your habits.

And more features to stop procrastinating!

• Recommended goals: KarateKat, your motivational partner, asks you a few questions and recommends targets based on your answers. Smart KarateKat! ;
• Creation of customized goals: Didn’t find the objectives that you were looking for? No problem, create your own goals!
• Action plan: To reach your goals, you have to visualize the results you hope to achieve beforehand and anticipate the obstacles you may encounter along the way. KarateKat will be with you all along this useful exercise!
• Performance Graph: Our weekly performance graph allows you to summarize your progress each week. You will better understand your reactions and be able to adjust your actions.

Changes compared to the previous version

If you are a former user of our mobile app, you may be slightly confused when you discover the new version of the application. Don’t worry: we will explain everything that is changing and the reasons for it.

(Much) more content ?

We have created a library of tips where you can find inspiration and motivation. Our objective is to support you over the long term and help you stay motivated. Our coaching library contains 7 or 21-day programs, content designed by leading experts, practical personal development exercises, inspirational stories, and more.

All in on podcasts ?

We have decided to invest heavily in podcasts, an increasingly popular format. Indeed, nearly 40% of Internet users worldwide listen to at least one podcast per month.

Dozens of podcasts on well-being and personal development are available on the Library page. Our goal is to gradually build the best personal development coaching library.

The key to behaviour change? Habits

We have decided to make available on the app only daily or weekly habits. No more long-term goals (yealry habits or one-shot goals such as “Running a marathon”). These goals had very few users at the global level.

What matters the most when it comes to self-realization is what we do on a regular basis

We have chosen to focus our efforts on 20 life-changing habits that affect our physical or mental health. These 20 habits are the daily drivers that make a huge difference in the long run. The road to personal development is long, and only the strength of habit can get us to the goal.

For former users, this means that goals that were neither daily nor weekly will not be migrated to the new version.

No more negative goals ?

Subject to eternal internal discussions on “how to track a negative goal”, negative goals such as Quit Smoking or Limit Alcohol are no longer supported on the app. We noted that these goals were not really followed and that it was difficult to motivate oneself to achieve a negative objective. They will now have to be turned in a positive way, which will be easier to understand and more motivating!

More support and more method ?

To help you achieve your goals, we have thoroughly reworked our personal development method, relying in particular on Prochaska’s work on behaviour change and other self-help books (Mindset, by Carol Dwecq et Rethinking positive thinking, by Gabriele Oettingen). At each stage, the user is supported with more coaching and follow-up. Here is a summary of the “Goalmap” method stages:

• vision definition, i.e. long-term goal;
• habits recommendation;
• targets definition;
• reminder setting: each reminder is associated with a time of day because associating an action with a time of day can help to make it a habit;
• results visualization;
• inspiring and motivating content.

The Goalmap app not only helps you manage your goals, it also helps you achieve them with a genuine self-help method.

Do less but better

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo da Vinci

An in-depth review of our users’ behaviors on the old version of the app motivated us to remove some features, such as the forum or integration with some third-party applications (Withings, Fitbit, Strava, etc.).

These features, which we thought were crucial and had been requested by our users, were in fact rarely used. We have chosen to do less, but better. And thus offering a simpler, yet more compact, user experience.

High-quality ergonomics ?

Beyond changes about content, it is above all the app design that has undergone a small revolution! You can have a look with our video below but we invite you to go and test it to believe us ?

We hope you will enjoy this new version of the mobile app. If you have any questions or feedback about our app, leave a comment or write us at feedback@goalmap.com, we will be happy to answer you.

L’article New version of Goalmap, our motivation mobile app est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

#1. Make little tweaks to your work routine – The little things we do every day add up to a lot. We can transform our lives for the better by making small changes, step by step. If we try to do it all in one go, we may face failure and discouragement. Let’s be focused and change very specific things, one or two maximum at a time. Now is the best time of the year to do it. You went away for some time. You forgot your computer password, your old habits are a bit rusty.

So let’s create new ones! Here are some ideas if you need inspiration:

• Don’t check your emails first thing when you wake up or arrive in the office;
• Bring your toothbrush to the office and brush your teeth after lunch;
• Take the stairs twice a day, not the lift (that’s the one I’m going for, I took the step by step approach very literally!)
• No lunch break at your desk;
• Set yourself a hard stop to go home, don’t linger around – it will make you more productive and straight to the point;
• Have coffee (or tea!) every week with someone you don’t know so well.

Take one or two and go for it. Be disciplined at the beginning, and soon you will have changed one of the little bricks of your life – it’s a Lego game! Importantly, this will start a virtuous circle and encourage you to more, and show you that you have control over your life. You are the architect!

#2. Do one thing in the morning – Our schedules sometimes get busy and impredictable during the day. Things move, new commitments emerge. Your good resolution to go to the gym after work evaporates after an exhausting work day. Yeah, we’ve all been there… My advice is to do one productive thing before work. This time is yours: no phone calls, no last minute meetings, no excuse. I’m not saying you should wake up at 04:00, change your sleep patterns and become a super(wo)man overnight. No, just wake up 20 or 30 minutes earlier, and do something constructive, like:

• Do a short 15-to-20 minute meditation that will clear up your mind and set you off on the right foot;
• Have a proper breakfast if you tend to skip this most important meal (eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper);
• Read for 20 minutes, preferably fiction;
• Don’t rush into the day, try to remember your dreams as you wake up and write them down – you’ll sharpen your cognitive skills and learn a lot about yourself.

#3. Take electronic breaks – In our hyper-connected lives, we are continuously solicited by the outside world. Everything screams for our attention. With our mobile phones, we get tracked and pursued without mercy: a notification popping here, another there, then a chat starting, marketing emails spamming your inbox, etc. It never stops. This information overload becomes extremely polluting and stressful if you react to everything and feel guilty or deprived when you don’t. Be selective, filter the noise in the communication flow, turn off useless notifications, and unsubscribe from marketing emails.

Don’t become a slave to your smartphone – use it to your advantage (it says smartphone), not to your detriment.

The world is not going to stop if you don’t check it every five seconds. Do you think it makes you look dedicated and responsive? Think twice, multitasking (switching from one task to another all the time) actually makes you stupid and inefficient. Focus instead on these three things:

• Don’t watch your phone first thing in the morning. It’s not good for your mental health. Personally, I wake up, get ready, have breakfast, drive to work, settle down, establish my priorities for the day, grab an espresso and only then I allow myself to check emails. Try it out, you will feel more less tense;
• Don’t watch your phone / computer last thing before sleeping. It will affect your sleep quality;
• Don’t watch your phone / emails continuously, do it by batch (two or three batches a day is great, try first one per hour and space them out further).

#4. Stop watching TV – Improving life can basically be achieved in three ways: (a) by doing new things, (b) by replacing existing behaviors with better ones, or (c) by putting an end to bad habits.

While most of the advice available gravitate around things we should do, it is very important to consider also those we should NOT do.

You can get incredibly positive results by simply stopping negative things (double negation). TV clearly tops the list when it comes to bad stuff. Europeans spend on average 3 hours of their day watching TV. For Americans, it’s 5 hours! Can you imagine how much of a time drain that is? All the productive things you could do with this precious time? There is a life out there waiting to be lived to the fullest. Read more about this topic in our earlier post.

#5. Focus on quality – I  saw that guy at the gym today on the rowing machine. He was calling someone, had his phone in one hand, and was loosely pulling the handle with the other hand. Well, he may have been to the gym, but does that really count? How much did it get out of that workout? It’s not only about doing things, it’s about doing them well.

Quality matters. Don’t rush into things just to tick the boxes. Give your full attention to the task at hand.

I gave you the example of the guy in the gym. Sometimes I do the same. For example, I am learning Russian and one of my targets is to study 3 hours per week. For the sake of hitting my weekly target, I find myself at times listening to a Russian radio station without paying attention: my mind wanders away and I start doing something else, checking a website, etc. This doesn’t work, it doesn’t get me any closer to the end goal (speaking Russian). Quality, quality, quality! Let’s not just check in carelessly into activities. One thing at a time. Zoom in. You’ll get 10 times more out of the same amount of time.

If that’s something you struggle with, try to plan ahead, have a structure in mind for what you are going to do. You will avoid wandering erratically. Another good idea is to have an end goal to validate the relevance and quality of the habits you want to put in place. If I study Russian carefully, I should be able to have a conversation with a native speaker. If I run twice a week, I should be able to finish a 10k race. Having an end goal is motivating, potentially rewarding, and is a good acid test. Vice versa, if you just have the end goal, you should make sure that you build the habits that will get you there. That will make the whole process iterative, efficient, and enjoyable.

Let’s be the architects of our own lives!

Try some of these tricks and let us know how it goes. Experiment with yourself, build, rebuild. Make even just one change – it will show you that you have control over your life. We all have. Let’s be the architects of our own lives!

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, share it with your friends and spread the love on social media (left part of your screen )

If you are struggling to adjust back to the work rhythm or if you have other suggestions for a successful return from the summer holidays, share with us your insights, we love to hear from you!

More articles on the goalmap blog that you might like:

• Multitasking or the art of failing at everything
• Why everyone needs a goalmap – yeah, including you
• 5 reasons to start tracking immediately

See you soon on goalmap – All your life goals in one place

L’article 5 Tricks For a Successful Return From the Summer Holiday est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

The Quantified Self movement has mushroomed in recent years, with regular meet ups happening in more than 100 cities. San Francisco is the Mecca of Quantified Self and hundreds of pilgrims gather there for the yearly conference. But, without further ado, here are my personal notes:

WE’VE ENTERED THE AGE OF QUANTIFIED SELF

It’s big, it’s here, it’s now. Some of the gadgets that looked weird a couple of years ago have since then become mainstream. The frontier has moved from counting steps and calories to measuring muscle quality, genetic data, and finer bio-trackers. Major companies are attending the event, such as Intel or Fujitsu. The Quantified Self is no longer an isolated phenomenon happening on the fringe of tech. Coincidentally, the Fitbit IPO happened during the conference and the company’s equity is now valued at c. USD 9 bn. The Quantified Self (‘QS’) is on every wrist, in every mobile phone. When you see from close this buzz of creative activity and the number of ideas, projects and products that are being discussed or getting launched, you cannot but be convinced that it’s just the beginning.

THE QUANTIFIED SELF IS A LIVELY MOVEMENT

The Quantified Self Conference took place in a huge hangar down in Fort Mason. The conference itself is made up of multiple speeches, presentations and group discussions. You choose which ones you attend – that’s sometimes difficult! Should I go to How my life automation system quantifies my existence or API best practices for Quantified Self toolmakers ? Every member of the community has the opportunity to present. Thanks to this flexible format, you can hear from everyone who has something interesting to share.

Some of the key figures in the QS community were there: Gary Wolf (co-founder of the movement), Chris Dancy (“most connected man in the world“), Anand Sharma (founder of Gyroscope which I like very much), and many more: hackers, social activists, software developers, influencers, entrepreneurs, scientists, etc. A most interesting crowd!

THE QUANTIFIED SELF IS MOVING INTO A SEARCH FOR MEANING

The QS is still a fairly young movement. As such it is still defining and refining its identity as it goes along. At first, people were getting excited with the numbers they collected about themselves but it’s not enough anymore. The question to answer is no longer “What?“. It is now “So what?“. As the movement moves away from a numerate elite to the general public, there is a need beyond numbers for actionable insights. This theme is everywhere and you can clearly see projects moving in that direction.

THE FUTURE OF QUANTIFIED SELF

As the QS becomes mainstream and enters the lives of people who may not have heard the expression “quantified self”, I am curious to see whether the QS community will remain a force at the forefront of this awakening or whether it will become obsolete.

My two cents on this question is that the Quantified Self movement will remain relevant if it keeps reinventing itself. These are the avenues that come to my mind:

• The QS is still massively health-focused and needs to embrace more fields of human life;
• The typical Quantified Self attendant is a highly educated geeky white man. The movement has to encourage further diversity not to drag along massive blind spots;
• Technology is not an excuse to over-indulge in narcissism (my data as a reflection of myself in the mirror of trackers). It’s a fine barrier between self-observation and self-absorption. A decent dose of altruism will be needed to strike a balance.

These are exciting challenges and I am looking forward to helping it happen! I am not a neutral observer as I have developed goalmap, a QS platform which helps people set and track all their life goals. That’s our answer to the “So what?” question: we use self-tracking as a personal development and self-realization tool.

Here is the the talk I gave at the Conference on tracking my dreams and what I’ve learned from it:

If you enjoyed reading this post, please share the love on social media 

Feel free also to share your own ideas or ask any question you may have on the topic.

Here are more articles on the goalmap blog about “quantified self”:

• 5 reasons to start tracking your life immediately
• How self-tracking technology can improve your life
• Why everyone needs a goal map, yeah, including you

Start tracking your activities on goalmap. Tracking will have a way larger impact on your life than any other activity which takes less than three minutes a day. Check what our #lifegoals look like.

L’article News From the Quantified Self Movement est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

If you happened to have experimented one of our suggestions, tell us about your experience, we love to hear from you!

P.S: You’ll notice that many of the destinations are in France, yeah, we’re a bit chauvinist, but isn’t France the most beautiful country in the world?

#1 – GR20 in Corsica – the toughest long distance trail in Europe

Image by altre-cime.com

GR 20 is a long distance trail that crosses Corsica diagonally from north to south. It’s 180k long with a total variation in height of about 10,000 metres. It is considered to be the most difficult of all the GR routes and one of the most beautiful mountain trail in Europe. If you’re fit, you can walk it in +/- 12 days.

All those who completed it will tell you the same thing: it’s difficult, but it’s completely worth it. It’s probably the best way to discover Corsica, one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean. A great life challenge.

http://www.le-gr20.com/gb/

#2 – Get your PADI certification in Greece

Why not taking advantage of your holidays to actually achieve one of your #LifeGoals ? If getting your PADI certification is on your goal bucket list, then why not do that in Greece ? This country has so many beautiful spots. Scuba diving in the Greek islands is a superb experience !

http://www.padi.com/scuba/scuba-diving-trips/scuba-diving-resort-vacations/Greek-Islands/

#3 – Cycling by the castles of the Loire valley

Traveling by bike is getting more and more popular, and many families now get on their bikes to discover new regions / countries. Why? Because it’s cheap, “green-friendly”, and you’ll discover the place at a lower rhythm which helps make beautiful encounters, much more than sitting in a bus.

Many French regions are great cycling spots, but the Loire valley is probably the most emblematic: great castles (Chenonceaux, Amboise, Azay-le-Rideau), picturesque villages, vineyards. If you’ve never tried traveling by bike, read the article that Arthur wrote about his world tour by bike, it will convince you !

You can organize your bike travel on your own (http://www.cycling-loire.com), or book an agency for this (there are plenty, such as Le Vélo Voyageur)

#4 – Do a Swim trek in Croatia

If you’re a keen open water swimmer, then you should do a Swim Trek, it will make a fantastic holiday!

SwimTrek is the world’s leading swimming holiday operator, running swimming tours in some of the best open water swimming locations around the world. Damien, our CEO, recently went for a swim trek in the Lithuanian lakes area and he loved it so much that he signed in to cross the Bosphorus (between European and Asian parts of Istanbul) this summer! Beside swimming, you meet nice people who share the same love for outdoor sports and spaces. Croatia, with its Dalmatian Coast counting so many remote and often uninhabited islands, is a lovely place for swimming training !

https://www.swimtrek.com/packages/short-swims-croatia

#5 – Take cooking classes in Italy

We all want to become a good cook. Taking cooking classes can help a lot. Take advantage of your holidays to learn from the best and take shortcuts to becoming a chef yourself. Italy:  mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, pepperoni, great wine… You’ll learn how to cook the tiramisu “come la nonna“! There is a genuine cooking tradition in Italian families, and you’ll learn why!

http://www.theinternationalkitchen.com/cooking-vacations/italy

#6 – Marathon du Médoc – unique marathon in the French vineyards

Image by commanderiedubontemps.com

If you want to run a marathon -there is a goal for that on goalmap ;), why not take a weekend escape to run this unique race? You may not be on holidays anymore (12th sept 2015), but it doesn’t matter: enter this unique marathon where you’ll have the chance to run and taste the best wines in the world (“Bordeaux” wines): two birds with one stone!

http://www.marathondumedoc.com/

#7 – Learn sailing in Arcachon, France

Learn sailing: another one of the #lifegoals you may have written on your goals’ list. Well, let’s do it in one of the most beautiful places France has to offer: le Bassin d’Arcachon !

http://www.bassin-arcachon.com/en

#8 – Hike the Camino de Santiago, Spain

You want to live an unforgettable adventure ? Hike the Camino de Santiago, in Spain. It’s surely the most mythical walking long-distance trail on the planet. Walking there, you’ll overcome daily challenges, face your fears, keep on walking despite the suffering. At the end of your trip, you’ll have experienced one of your best life adventures. From Saint Jean Pied de Port at the border between France and Spain to Santiago, there are 800k, approximately 30 days of walking. 30 unforgettable days. A route to true happiness and an exploration of yourself, the walk of a lifetime.

http://www.caminoadventures.com

#9 – Yoga retreats – relax and meditate

Want to have healthy holidays? What about a yoga retreat? There you’ll meditate, do yoga, cleanse your body, refresh your mind, relax… After months of hard work, you deserve a break. There are yoga retreats everywhere, just click the link below to find a few.

http://www.bookyogaretreats.com

#10 – Practice kite-surfing in Tarifa, Spain

Tarifa, in Andalusia, is one of the best spots for kite-surfing in Europe: there the wind blows almost non-stop due to the straits of Gibraltar. If you’re a kiter you’ll fall in love with Tarifa at first sight.

http://www.kiteworldwide.com/en/kiteholidays/spain-tarifa/

#11 – Climbing l’Alpe d’Huez – France

L’Alpe d’Huez. If you’re an avid cyclist, a Tour de France fan, or if you’re Dutch, you know this place! A mythical summit of the French Alps. The Mecca of the Tour de France. 21 bends, 14k, 1,120m uphill climb, with an average 7.9 % slope. Each day during the summer, more than 1,000 riders climb this mythical ascent. You can even get a diploma up there making your climb time official. You should definitely do it once in your lifetime !

http://bike-oisans.com/en/cycling-oisans/alpe-d-huez-mythical-ascent

#12 – Chase the Northern Lights in Finland

Who hasn’t dreamt to see the Northern Lights one day?

The thrill of witnessing the Aurora Borealis is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: this natural phenomenon is extraordinary! Be attentive though, for it’s difficult to see it, you must be lucky. Finland is one of the best places to catch them. Become a Northern-Lights Hunter!

http://www.visitfinland.com/article/on-the-hunt-for-the-northern-lights/

#13 – Walk along the Hadrian’s Wall in England

Another great walk you can do this summer. This one is shorter : 135k from coast to coast that you can complete in 5-10 days, depending on your rhythm. You’ll be walking along the World Heritage Site of Hadrian’s Wall, a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia built against the barbarian invasions. History will be all along your path.

Another great challenge for your holidays.

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrians-wall-path

#14 – Wine-tasting holidays in the south of France

Image by suitcasemag.com

Because oenology is a mix of sensual discovery and cultural experience, holidays are a great time to improve your wine culture. If you enjoy wines, what’s better than a holiday where you taste new wines, discover new flavours, talk with experts, sharpen your senses?

http://www.wine-tours-south-france.com

#15 – WOOFING – everywhere in Europe

What ? You don’t know woofing ?! Let us explain you, WWOOF is an organisation that connects people who want to live and learn on organic farms with people who are looking for volunteer help. The deal : WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles, volunteers give hands on help in return. If you don’t know what to do this summer, why not try Woofing ? The pros : you’ll learn a lot about the farming way of life and organic lifestyles, escape the stresses of urban life and do something different and positive for our planet ! Go on, become a Woofer !

http://wwoofinternational.org

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, share it with your friends and spread the love on social media (left part of your screen )

If you have already tried one of our TOP 15, or if you have other suggestions for active holidays in Europe, share with us your insights, we love to hear from you!

See you soon on goal map, the free app that helps you set and reach your life goals.

L’article TOP 15 Active Holidays – Get Ready for an Energetic Summer ! est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

First things first, what is a goal map?

You can be the most talented individual on the planet, yet if you don’t plan ahead there is little chance that you will reach your full potential. Planning is everything! So before you even start  your journey toward your personal objectives, make sure you design a goal map.

A goal map is a roadmap for your life.

A goal map is a roadmap for your life. It is a single document that has all your personal objectives clearly laid out. A goal map encompasses your objectives in all areas of your life, from physical to social, from professional to spiritual, financial, cultural and so on. The various aspects of your life are all interdependent. Your life pursuits and hobbies compete for the same limited resources: your time and your energy. You need to look at your life as a whole! The great thing about a goal map is that it is comprehensive.

Your life pursuits and hobbies compete for the same limited resources: your time and your energy.

Goals in your goal map must be S.M.A.R.T. goals

1. Specific: your goals should be detailed. You can’t hit the bull’s-eye if there is none. Don’t say “I want to lose weight” but rather “I want to lose 4 kilos by year-end” (target quantity and date are important).
2. Measurable: your goal should be quantified so that you know at any point in time whether you are on track or not. This will enable you to follow your progress on a regular basis.
3. Achievable: don’t over-plan, be realistic, your objective must be within reach. If it’s too big, then try and break it  into smaller manageable goals that you can achieve step by step.
4. Relevant: your goals must be relevant to you, connected to your deepest aspirations and aligned with your personal values.
5. Time-bound: that’s really important, your goal should have a deadline, let’s not beat around the bush. Without a deadline, a goal is not a goal, it’s just a wish…

   

It is key also that your goal map be easy to access at any time and consulted often. It must be a living document that gets updated on a regular basis depending on your results and the evolution of your priorities over time.

Here is a couple of screenshots of what my goal map looks like (screenshots from my account on the website Goalmap.com):

Now that we’ve explained what a goal map is, let’s see why you should definitely all have one!

#1. Take control of your destiny

By designing your own goal map, you start taking control of your destiny. You plan, you decide, you execute: you are your own programmer. It’s YOUR life, you should be in the driver seat. Write the storyline and shape your own life as opposed to passively dragging along.

#2. Articulate what you really want

What is it exactly that you REALLY want in life? Work hard and get promoted or spend more time with family? Play the piano? Read every day? You have to know what makes you truly tick and choose objectives that are aligned with your values and principles. Number 1 rule: follow your heart!

When you start going into the details of what you want to achieve out of your life, you will soon realize that some of the things that you have in mind are actually pretty vague. Goals that are vague are not actionable.

A goal map pushes you to clarify what truly matters to you.

This is one of the main benefits of a goal map: it pushes you to clarify for yourself what truly matters to you. Once you have this clarity, you know which path you should take. You can start walking that path and track your progress as you walk along.

#3. Prioritize and achieve more

As we said earlier, all the goals we want to achieve require the same resources: our time, energy and money. These resources being limited, we need to make choices. A goal map will help you make these choices.

A goal map is like using a GPS to plan your life journey.

It’s like using a GPS to plan your life journey. Perhaps you should explore this region first and this other country next rather than going back and forth and running out of fuel. If you want too many conflicting things, you’ll end up getting none. A goal map will provide you with the bird’s-eye view of your life to identify these conflicts and bottlenecks.

It’s not only about identifying conflicts, it’s also about finding synergies between your aspirations and building positive articulations between your activities. Sport can help you manage your stress better and be nicer to others as a result, meditating can provide a useful spiritual relief after a long day at work and help you think clearer, etc. With a goal map, you can articulate these positive loops together.

#4. Know where to go

Thanks to the action plan you’re making, you will simplify the process of decision-making in the future. The path to action is clear, decisions are simple: you avoid useless stress. You’ve set up your GPS, now just follow the instructions! You don’t have to worry every minute about where you are and whether you’re going in the right direction. Just check your monitor from time to time and adjust the trajectory if needs be.

#5. Know yourself

This is arguably the most important at the end of the day: a goal map helps you know yourself better. It is a mirror, a tool that facilitates the dialogue with yourself.

A goal map is a tool that facilitates the dialogue with yourself.

What do I want to do during the coming year? What level of effort am I ready to make to achieve my goals? Why do I procrastinate for this one and not for that other one? What does really matter to me? What makes me happy? By defining and refining which goals you aspire to pursue, you foster a deep conversation with yourself. It is a process through which you both question and build your identity. This is the way to authentic happiness.

“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.”

Lao Tzu

Download the Goalmap app and start designing your own goal map.

L’article How a goal map will help you achieve your life goals est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

When it comes to your personal development, do you know who your toughest enemy is? The biggest barrier between you and your goals? It’s YOU! Yes, you are your worst enemy, your fiercest wolf. You keep sabotaging your own plans when you fail to wake up early or feel too lazy to go to the gym, each time you procrastinate to do something or give up trying.

If you can overcome these internal self-limitations, you will reach your full potential and become the best you can be. But how can you beat yourself? How can you put an end to self-sabotage?

Have the courage to confront yourself

First, you have to face yourself to realize who you are today and where you really stand. Admit your mistakes and weaknesses. In a sense, know your enemy! Stop being complacent: how further will you go if you delude yourself into thinking you have arrived already? Don’t be blinded by pride and ego. Accept that you can improve, understand that you can change; and in order to change, fight for it! Fight indolence, fight irresponsibility, fight the lack of discipline. Don’t let them take over the battlefield. Declare war on them and regain inner peace.

Erase your self-doubts by doing what you think you can’t do

A self-sabotage behavior induces doubts and negative thoughts that will make you back off on your main goals. It’s like an inner voice always telling you that “you can’t do it” or “you’re too weak to do that”. Although it may seems to be protecting you, it prevents you from going out of your comfort zone and achieving the best you can achieve in life.

If you listen to it, your comfort zone will gradually shrink as you get more and more afraid to fail. You’ll target lower, do less, and enter a vicious circle of self-depreciation. Trust the real you instead, silence that deceitful voice, have faith in your dreams and goals.

If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

Vincent van Gogh

Outwork yourself

Be careful, your “dark self” won’t give up easily, he/she is stubborn and persistent. It’s always there lying in the shadows to distract you away from your aims. It continuously encourages you into developing or maintaining negative habits. To conquer it, you have to be more persistent and more dedicated than your dark self. In other words, you have to outwork it. You have to counter it by tenaciously working to form constructive habits.

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

Jimmy Johnson

Outrun yourself

Get speed and timing on your side. Consider everyday as a new battle against the little devil within. If you let it take over the first minute of your day, chances are, it will crush your entire day. Don’t let him breathe, plan your days ahead, know what the next step is and move into the motions.

Make the decisions and organize yourself when you are sharp and fresh, preferably in the morning – then turn your soldier hat on and march on.

Outsmart yourself

Don’t jump into the battle without the appropriate gear and weapons. Use tools and apply data science to outwit your worst self. You can leverage apps to spy yourself, track your behaviors, and identify patterns. At goalmap, we help you track your activities, visualize your performance and assess your progress to overcome your worst self and become who you really are. On goalmap, you can define your #lifegoals and start tracking them, analysing your results and finally achieving them. You can also leverage personal tracking devices such as Fitbit, Withings or Jawbone to assess your level of activity, apps like Calm to guide your meditations, or Busuu to learn languages in a community-based environment.

Finally, don’t stay alone, reach out to friends, get support from like-minded peers, and seek inspirations from your loved ones or other personal growth warriors who also fight the inner war. The more we are, the stronger we will be. We shall overcome.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, share it with your friends and spread the love on social media

More articles on the Goalmap blog that you might like:

• 20 Blogs that will Inspire you to Achieve your Goals in Life
• Why Everyone Needs a Goal Map – yeah, including you
• 20 Motivations Quotes to Push You Further
• Quantified-self: how Self-Tracking Technology can Improve your Life

See you soon on Goalmap 

Start tracking your goals on the Goalmap app:

L’article How to overcome yourself and become the best you can be est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

So, what’s CrossFit?

CrossFit was created a few decades ago by gymnastics coach Greg Glassman in California. It’is a conditioning program that combines aerobic conditioning, Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics along with classical training elements like kettlebells, rope climbs, tire flipping and sledgehammer into daily WODs (workouts of the day). Primarily used by military, police and fire academy trainees to get in shape, it spread quickly in the US and then worldwide. Now CrossFit is a sport of its own, it even has its official Games, which take place each July to designate the “Fittest of Earth”.

CrossFit is about repeating functional movements from many disciplines, sweating and suffering, Of course, you should be careful with injuries when starting, the best thing is to start with a regular lesson or with a friend who knows the rights movements to adopt.

Why we think you should try CrossFit

1/ It actually works

I am not talking about myself here…;) I have not done enough sessions to claim that! No, I am talking about those thousands of people who say that CrossFit really works. Scientifical studies also prove Crossfit efficiency: Ohio State University exercise scientists showed in 2013 that participation in a CrossFit program significantly improved VO2 max and decreased body fat percentage in both males and females across all levels of fitness.

Want to see the result of an intense CrossFit preparation? Watch 300, the movie: the actors practised Crossfit for 3-6 months before the movie. Ok, this is probably too much though…

2/ It’s not just about strength

CrossFit is not just about strength. Because of the variety of programs, CrossFit can also increases your endurance, flexibility, speed, coordination. It does not just help you gain muscle, it also strengthens your cardiovascular system, helps you lose body fat…CrossFit athletes are not just weightlifters, they are complete athletes supposed to be able to run a 10K but also do long jumps,bar tractions, box jumps, and pull-ups…And this is cool!

3/ There is no workout routine, it’s FUN !

CrossFit workouts are varied, include combinations of different exercises and are intense. Yes it’s hard but that means you won’t get bored!

The good thing is that this diversity builds a strong body adapted to multiple sports and activities. We told you it’s not just about strength!

4/ It’s actually useful in the real life

This is at the center of the CrossFit philosophy. Workouts must help to have a more functional body. Crossfit utilizes movements that your body is meant to do on a daily basis. So it emphasizes real-world movements that improve our body functionality.

5/ It’s not just about sports, but more about a healthy lifestyle

The CrossFit movement involves much more than just workouts. Eating well is critical in the Crossfit philosophy and many CrossFitters eat a Paleo diet that avoids any foods that were not available at our Ancestors’ time, including dairy products, grains, legumes, processed oils, and refined sugar (a diet that favorably induces body fat reduction, increased lean body mass, and better exercise performance). That’s the reason why we love Crossfit at Goalmap. It matches perfectly our vision of fitness.

Staying fit is not just about exercise, it’s also about a healthy lifestle which includes, among other things, eating well. Read our article if you didn’t do so!

6/ You join a genuine community

That’s the first thing that struck me when doing my first session at the Reebok Crossfit Louvre. Both the staff and other CrossFitters welcomed me warmly. Community is at the center of the CrossFit experience and you’ll probably make new friends. You meet like-minded people, you greet, encourage them, support and help each other, share suffering. You will for sure create strong bonds with others.  And guess what?

Research proves that working out with other like-minded individuals results in greater performance during exercise.

7/ It’s easily scalable

Many Crossfit workouts only take twenty minutes so it’s not too time-consuming. Plus most of the workouts can be done at home, at the park, or just a regular gym with no or minimal equipment, so you can start CrossFit just by the time you’re reading this

You practise CrossFit? Share with us the reasons why you love CrossFit in the comments section !

More articles on Goalmap blog about fitness:

• 10 benefits of dragging yourself to the gym
• 5 essential apps to get into jogging
• My First Marathon

L’article 7 Good Reasons to Try Crossfit est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

Keep strong through your workouts and be more resolved than ever to push yourself to the next level. Music is proven to have a strong impact on our brains, especially during intense exercise – you don’t want to miss out on this 100% natural performance booster! This Spotify playlist lasts for 1h15′ so you can have it on for your entire workout. We focused on electro and US rap songs with a fast BPM to push you through intense gym sessions. There may be a few artists you don’t know in there whom we are happy to introduce to you – because we LOVE them! Others should sound more familiar.

We’ll hope you’ll enjoy the playlist! Did we miss your favorite workout track? Share with us your favorite gym songs and we will add them to the playlist. If you don’t yet have personal goals to strive, that should be your first step. Come and do it at www.goalmap.com – it’s free.

#Becomewhoyouare

You need a Spotify account to listen to this playlist, so create an account if you don’t have one already. You should have one anyway, Spotify is awesome!

More articles to find motivation and achieve your goals in life:

• 10 Amazing benefits of dragging yourself to the Gym
• Top 10 most inspirational sports movies

L’article “Hit(s) the gym” – the ultimate workout motivation playlist, by goalmap est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.

Dear all,

You can’t imagine how excited, proud, and DELIGHTED we are to finally invite you to create your account for free on goalmap.

No need to read more, I want to create my account NOW ! 

By the way, what’s goalmap?

goalmap is a revolutionary goal-setting and goal-tracking website that will help you reach your personal objectives and realize your full potential. It is a holistic platform with a comprehensive range of goals across 10 categories: Sport & Health, Intelligence & Knowledge, Arts & Crafts, People, Work, Personal Finance, Travels & Experiences, Religion & Spirituality, Beauty & Style, and Home & Garden.

With goalmap, all your goals will always be in one place.

It is articulated around three pillars:

1. Setting objectives: Define your life goals and set clear targets and deadlines for everything you want to achieve.
2. Tracking activities: Keep a record of the things you achieve and the steps you take on the path to your objectives.
3. Analyzing results: Visualize your personal analytics and know where you stand at all times as you progress toward your goals.

How can it benefit you?

goalmap will help you to:

• Get inspired and start new life challenges
• Follow through your resolutions (remember? The ones you did on January 1st )
• Prioritize your objectives as well as the steps to reach them
• Unlock the power of habits to create virtuous circles of success
• Avoid useless stress with a clear plan of action which simplifies decisions
• Harness the power of self‐quantification with beautiful personal analytics that show you where you stand at all times against your aspirations
• Keep a record of your performances and the evolution of your objectives over time

It is proven that people who stick to their resolutions are more likely to make them happen!

How does it work concretely?

In practical terms, you can:

1. Select the goals you want to pursue from the 10 categories of the Goal store
2. Customize the goals you selected by choosing what you want to track / measure (habits or long-term targets)
3. Define target date, target quantity and other key parameters for your goals
4. Log your activities (and add comments if you wish so)
5. Analyze your results with beautiful performance graphs on your personal dashboard
6. Keep a record of your progress and the evolution of your objectives and activities over time

If, like most of us, you’d rather watch videos than read text, check out this tutorial video:

It works on tablets and smartphones

We don’t have a proper app yet but our website is responsive which means that its format adjusts to the format of your screen. It looks pretty nice on a tablet, and the mobile can be fairly handy when it comes to logging your activities during the day.

Any feedback is welcome!

Whether you want to tell us how much you love our platform, or hate it, or just want to give us your views on how we can improve it, feel free to tell us EVERYTHING. We promise not to be touchy. We’ll do everything we can to improve it on a very regular basis.

What’s next?

The first few weeks following the launch should be FUN. We deserve a break We’ll quickly get back to hard work though. We’re only at the start of a beautiful adventure to help people reach their life goals and build a supportive community of goalmappers. In 2015, we will:

• Launch a mobile app
• Integrate wearable devices and third-party APIs to our platform
• Go social
• Enhance automated coaching suggestions
• Introduce a French version

This is COOL, right? Watch this space, we have big dreams => big goals.

Until then, connect to goalmap here and join the adventure!

See you very soon on goalmap,

Damien and all the goalmap team

Should you have any questions about goalmap, feel free to contact us: feedback@goalmap.com

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L’article goalmap official LAUNCH: a digital coach for your personal development est apparu en premier sur Bien-être au travail, prévention santé et sécurité en entreprise.