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Creating Clarity: Your Secret Tool for Work-Life Harmony (and How to Wield It Like A Pro)

Let’s face it, friends. The modern work-life landscape can feel like a minefield. Between overflowing inboxes, ever-shifting priorities, and that nagging voice in your head asking, “Are you even doing this right?”, it’s easy to feel like you’re teetering on the edge of burnout. But there’s one tool that cuts through the noise. It’s sharper than any productivity hack, and more powerful than any fancy app. It’s the practice of remembering that “clarity is kind.”

Why Clarity is the Kindness You Didn't Know You Needed

Have you ever delegated a task with vague instructions, only to be met with a Frankenstein’s monster of a project at the finish line? We’ve all been there. Unclear expectations breed frustration, resentment, and wasted time for everyone involved. It’s like playing a game of broken telephone, where the message gets distorted with every step.

But here’s the thing: clarity isn’t just about avoiding misunderstandings. It’s an act of kindness. It sets healthy boundaries for yourself and others, preventing resentment from brewing like a forgotten pot of coffee, and empowers everyone to do their best work.

Here’s why clarity is an irreplaceable tool in your work-life:

  • Boundaries with a Smile
    When you clearly define your time (think “no emails after 7 pm” or “sacred lunch break”), you’re not being selfish. You’re being kind to your well-being and setting expectations that foster respect. As Brené Brown reminds us, “Strong boundaries are not about separation. They’re about protection.”
  • Objectives
    When objectives are crystal clear, owned by the right people, and broken down into actionable steps, it’s like a mental fog lifting. You feel empowered, focused, and ready to conquer, not just confused and adrift. Here, we can draw once again from Brene Brown who says, “Clarity is the antidote to anxiety.”
  • Saying “Yes” to Your “Yes”
    Are you a morning lark who thrives in quiet? Block out that time. Do you need spontaneous dance breaks to recharge? Schedule them. Prioritizing your needs shouldn’t be seen as a luxury. As Michael Hyatt, author of “Living Forward,” puts it, “Clarity is the foundation for saying no to the good things that could crowd out the great things.” When you know what your priorities are, it’s easy to see what takes energy from these and confidently say “no” to those things. 
  • Turning Feedback into Growth 
    Potentially one of the hardest gifts to receive, feedback is a tool that can easily be seen as a weapon. But if you view it as a tool for gaining clarity around areas you need to grow in, it becomes a weapon for breakthrough, not one of shame. As Marshall Goldsmith, renowned executive coach, reminds us, “No one can give you better feedback than someone who cares about you.”

Clarity: Your Ticket to a Thriving Team

 “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” – Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 

The magic of clarity extends beyond individual well-being. It fosters connection and collaboration, transforming your team into a symphony of empowered minds. When everyone is clear on goals, roles, and expectations, trust blossoms. Communication flows freely. And the collective potential of your team explodes.

Clarity In Practice

There is an ancient saying from the Asaro tribe in Papua New Guinea which says, “Knowledge is only a rumour until it lives in the bones.” To truly feel the difference of something, it first needs to become a part of us – of our lifestyle. Taking time to become aware of where we need clarity most and discovering how to create it. Because clarity isn’t just a beautiful word. It’s an incredible tool that unlocks work-life harmony, meaningful connections, and the collective brilliance that lies within each of us.

Now go forth and conquer, team. You’ve got this. And hey, if you need a hand navigating the clarity journey together, that’s what we’re here for. And we’re only a couple taps on your keyboard away, so reach out to us. 

P.S. Feeling inspired? Check out this video for a deeper dive into the power of clarity: 

Remember, clarity is a journey, not a destination. So be kind to yourself, celebrate your progress, and keep embracing the power of “knowing” in all its forms.

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Why Corporate Social Responsibility Is More Important Now Than Ever

There is a reason that we have seen such a massive shift towards emphasizing sustainability in the past 10 or so years. It’s becoming increasingly crucial to both the survival of our planet and the survival of our organisations. Why is it, you may ask? Before I explain this, let’s dive into the meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility.

What is CSR?

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is “a business model and practice in which a company establishes initiatives, programs, and policies, with the goal to ‘build a better world’.” These are the words used to describe Corporate Social Responsibility by VANCO. Basically, it is an initiative that an organisation commits to that is focused on making something better, for someone.

When you think of positive initiatives and CSRs, there might only be a few that come to mind. But there’s actually a long list of things out there that need positive change. Here’s a few taken from Caroline Dale Ditlev-Simonsen’s TEDx Talk:

  • Poverty 
  • World hunger 
  • Health and wellbeing 
  • Quality education 
  • Gender equality 
  • Clean water & sanitation 
  • Affordable and clean energy 
  • Work and economic growth 
  • Industry, innovation, work structure 
  • Combating inequalities 
  • Sustainable cities and communities 
  • Responsible consumption and production 
  • Climate change 
  • Life below the water
  • Life on land 
  • Peace and justice 
  • Partnerships for goals 

Not to mention the current crises of our world such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and their needs, or the negative impact COVID has had on economies and jobs, both of which are great choices for a Corporate Social Responsibility.

Ditlev-Simonsen gives a brilliant TED talk where she explains that to choose the right CSR for you, try to think of which topic is most relevant to your organisation. For example, if you are an oil company, climate change could be a good CSR. Or if you are a fishing company, life below water would be very suitable. 

Why Corporate Social Responsibility Is More Important Now Than Ever

Why is Social Responsibility important?

50% of people will pay more for products and services from companies that are committed to having a positive social & environmental impact.

50%. That’s a lot of people. What we’re seeing here is a global shift towards conscious living. And you as a brand and organisation, have a powerful opportunity to use your influence and start impacting the world. The good news is, this doesn’t have to mean you lose revenue. In fact, it can increase your revenue and customer satisfaction in the long run.

As you’ll see in the video below, this was proven through Unilever, whose brands that became sustainable performed shockingly better than those that didn’t. 

I don’t know about you, but this gets me excited. To see such a global movement towards positive change gives me goosebumps. It’s the moment our world has been waiting for. So, get on that boat and join the movement.

How to set your own CSR’s

Once again, I’m pulling into Caroline Dale Ditlev-Simonsen’s TEDx Talk here, which I seriously recommend you watch.

It can seem daunting to get into, but once you make the first step and get your team involved, you’ll see that it’s achievable. We can break the process down into just 5 steps:

 

  1. Choose a CSR that aligns with your company values:
    Look at your company values and cross-reference them against the problems that are a reality around you. What social/environmental problems are a part of your daily reality that you can make a positive impact to?
     
    2) Map it out:
    Get serious about this and set specific targets and goals. Involve your stakeholders in testing this out, really get your hands dirty in the nitty-gritty of how this would look.

     

    3) Make it a part of your work culture:
    You know the saying ‘if you want to change the world, start at home’? Well, start in your office. Let your team buy into it, care about it, feel passionate about it. Make your CSR visual in every part of your company so that your team adapts it as a part of their culture. This will make your daily office habits more conscious and sustainable, too.

     

    4) Implement:
    Take steps forward and make an effort to reach your goals. If this has become a part of your work culture, it will be much easier to do. Keep a visual tracker of your goals and how close you are to achieving them. If you feel daunted about this step, read our blog on implementation intentions to get started.

    5) Report:
    What worked, what didn’t work? What needs to be adjusted? Analyze and ask the hard questions here so that you can make your next run better. You can even take it a step further and post your CSR report or its statistics onto your public pages or website so that your clients can see what impact your CSR has had. This is quite a popular move among bigger organisations who know that social responsibility plays a big role in their customer satisfaction.

Why Corporate Social Responsibility Is More Important Now Than Ever

CAFE Life’s upcoming CSR’s

With all this talk about social responsibility, I’m sure you are curious as to what CAFE Life is doing for our Corporate Social Responsibility this year.

To be honest, we’re still in the very first stage – step one, choosing which issues to focus on improving. But within this brainstorming stage, we have thought of a variety of ideas, such as adopting a river, doing fundraising walks, and starting a daily accountability system for each of us to become conscious of our little choices, such as switching off lights.  Our idea is to do a compound interest of acts that will contribute to a bigger movement.

So, watch this space – we’re coming in hot with our CSR this year.

Make life better for someone, somewhere.

So, there you have it. An introduction to starting your own CSR program. I know it’s not all straightforward. But there’s loads of information out there on this, so if you’re not confident just yet, do a little more digging. But I can guarantee that this is something every company, big or small, needs to action.

We were inspired to write this blog after Mike wrote his previous blog that asks the simple yet powerful question of, “what problem are you solving?” Although this question is targeted at looking inward and discovering the heart of your clients, it got us thinking on a larger scale. What problem are we solving for this world – outside of CAFE Life and our clients?

This is a powerful question. And I encourage you to ask this of yourself, even on a personal level. Every action we take brings us closer to an outcome. Let’s choose to join a positive movement and create the waves of change that we hope to see in our world. 

Are you needing to get your team on board with your company’s work culture?

CAFE Life uses the art of facilitation to grow and strengthen culture so that your organisation can thrive. Visit our workplace culture page to learn more.

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Where do we need some Implementation Intentions?

This question is transformational in the fact that it is so much about achievement.

I’m sure there are many reasons one can think of that distinguish those who achieve their goals from those who don’t. A most common factor however could be that some people follow through with their intentions, whereas others don’t. 
So what is the difference between these groups? Well, some implement a system to achieve their goals.

The word Implementation Intentions comes from James Clears book Atomic Habits. It is a particularly wonderful phrase because both those words are powerful in their own right. 

 

Where do we need implementation intentions
Intentions are things we all have. But when we implement a routine that declares our intention, we might find that we are more likely to follow through with them.

Examples of some broader life intentions could be:

Example of more specific life intentions could be:

Whilst intentions are so needed, sometimes we set them but then lack what we call the Implementation of them. 

We all know the frustration that can come from intentions that don’t render actions, and this is the  danger – that we might end up not doing anything.
If there isn’t a strategy, we don’t know exactly how we’re going to attempt it. 

James Clear speaks in his book Atomic Habits about research done on three groups, in attempt to increase their regular exercises: 
In the study, Group 1 were simply told to go exercise regularly. 
Group 2 received motivational information and health information before hand. 
Group 3 were told to implement a schedule of where, when and how they will do it. 


Group 3 was way ahead. 90% of the group exercised by the end of the time frame.
What’s most interesting is that there was only a small difference between group 1 & 2, both gaining a success ratio of only 30%.

The huge difference was in the simple making of a schedule.  

Motivation is great, but it might only last a moment. We all want to live healthily, for example, but how many of us are still doing things that we know isn’t good for our health?

James Clear provides a formula in his book for Implementation Intention:

I will: (Behaviour)
At/On: (Where/what day)
When: (Time)

An example could be: I will write a page of my book, on Friday, at 2pm.

We might not get it right every time. But the chances are increased drastically. 

So often, for reasons unbeknown to us, some things simply remain as good intentions. And for most of us, deep inside we really do want to fulfill that intention. Because the implementation intention is so simple, it creates a powerful attribute towards us achieving our goals: momentum.
When we show up on day one, we’re more likely to show up on day 2.
That is the power of implementation intention: it creates forward movement. 

 

This question has good news and bad news.
The good news is that most of us are really authentic with our intentions and really do desire to fulfill them.
The bad news is that without the strategy, the step that moves us forwards, we likely won’t achieve it.
More good news however, is that if you create the implementation intention and apply the formula to your life, you may just find yourself achieving things you thought out of your comfort zone entirely.

May you enjoy brewing on this very good question, and may you move into the direction of your dreams, desires and intentions.


Gabriella Leigh Ivey 

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What are my triggers of mediocrity?

It is important to remember that the question we choose to discuss is the question we invite you to ask yourself.
It may sound like a bit of a negative question, and a bit like I’m assuming that you’ve got triggers that lean you towards mediocrity. But the truth is, all of us are tempted daily towards a more mediocre way of living where we might choose the ordinary, or the comfort, over the stretching. 

The danger with this is that we may find that through choosing the easier path or option, we end up doing things that don’t align or connect with our inner intentions

There are two principles associated to this: 

1.  Firstly, most of us have predictors on our behaviour. So if certain things happen we can almost assume or predict how we are going to respond.




2. Secondly, a well-known conclusion is that          our beliefs drive our behaviours. However, the        external environment can also drive our                    behaviour. As much as I’d love to think I control       my life fully, if I’m placed in certain external             conditions, you might find the environment             starts to trigger a different response from me    

James Clear in his book Atomic Habits uses a most interesting finding from the Vietnam War to start a similar discussion to this.

In 1971, research was done on the soldiers, which revealed a frightening discovery: over 15% of US soldiers were addicted to heroin. The finding caused those to search further. And to much surprise, they found that once the soldiers who were heroin addicts returned home, only 5% of them returned to the habit. Meaning, 9 out of 10 of them were able to eliminate the addiction literally overnight. 

I think it is fair to say that this study supports the ethos of , to change your behaviour, change your environment.

There are some more relatable examples too:

– I’m more likely to drink water if water is more accessible and visible around me.

– I’m more likely to be positive if people all around me are positive or smiling.

– I’m more likely to think of good ideas if around me I have the open spaces and light and ease.

– I’m more likely to find healing in the presence of whole people than broken people. 

There is an interesting scripture in the New Testament says, if your right hand sins cut it off. It sounds so violent and extreme but yet if you get to the roots of it you may find it is connecting us to the roots of what we are speaking of here: remove yourself from your triggers that cause a behaviour which does not align with your inner intentions. 

In any challenging situation, we have 3 responses. Either we can:  

The choice here, is ours. 

Side note here: leaving doesn’t have to necessarily mean you should quit or drastically abort something. It can mean to leave an idea, decision, action, town, friend circle, or whatever specific environment you feel is causing a reaction.   

 

where are my triggers of mediocrity?
CHOOSING TO BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR OUR ACTIONS AND TO OBSERVE THESE THINGS IN OUR LIFE CAN BRING ABOUT GREAT REVELATIONS.

There are two ways we can go about rectifying mediocrity that we observe, as leaders in the workplace or personal life: 
We can encourage people to behave differently – to raise their game and engage with the resolve. 
OR    
Try identifying the triggers and the causes. There is always a reason why we act the way we do. 

We should practice asking ourselves, what triggers can you create to induce the desired outcome

An example of this in the office could be creating spaces where people can have good conversation (perhaps a nice coffee area?) or leaving notepads and pens out for ideas, or to have a small library, all of which could encourage creativity and contradict mediocrity. 

THINK of something in your life that you’re unhappy with; somewhere where you behave in a way that’s not aligned to who you are as a person. Then ask, what are the potential triggers that could have caused you to behave in this way that’s not true to who you are?
When we find the triggers, we are able to more practically do things to address it and find a way to move forward. 

The answers to good questions are transformational. Take time to brew this question and ask if you can apply it to yourself. 

 

And lastly, find more time in your week to just be, so your not always just doing. 


– Gabriella Ivey