Successful Projects do not happen on their own: Balanced Lifestyle with Victor Chauke

1. Starting out: Make sure that when you start out your customer defines their requirements in depth. You need to know exactly what it is that must be delivered, to who and when. Make it specific, write it up formally and get them to sign it off. This document will become the basis upon which to measure your success.

2. Customers: Involve your customers throughout the entire project life cycle. Get them involved in the analysis and planning, as well as execution. You don't have to seek their approval, just keep them informed. The more you involve them, the greater their level of buy-in and the easier it is to manage their expectations.

3. Timeframes: Keep your delivery timeframes short and realistic. Never agree to lengthy timeframes. Split the project into "mini-projects" if you need to. Keep each mini-project to less than 6 months. This keeps everyone motivated and focused.

4. Milestones: Break your project timeframe into "Milestones" which are manageable pieces of work. Add delivery deadlines to your milestones and try to deliver on every deadline, no matter what. If you're late, tell your customer about it as early as possible.

5. Communications: Make sure you keep everyone informed by providing the right information at the right time. Produce Weekly Status Reports and run regular team meetings.

6. Scope: Only authorise changes to your project scope if there is no impact on the timeline. Get your customers approval to important scope changes first and then get their buy-in to extend the delivery dates if you need to.

7. Quality: Keep the quality of your deliverables as high as possible. Constantly review quality and never let it slip. Implement "peer reviews" so that team members can review each other's deliverables. Then put in place external reviews to ensure that the quality of the solution meets your customer's needs.

8. Issues: Jump on risks and issues as soon as they are identified. Prioritise and resolve them before they impact on your project. Take pride in keeping risks and issues to a minimum.

9. Deliverables: As each deliverable is complete, hand it formally over to your internal customer. Get them to sign an Acceptance Form to say that it meets their expectations. Only then can you mark each deliverable off as 100% complete.

10. Your team: Great projects are run by great teams. Hire the best people you can afford. Spend the time to find the right people. It will save you time down the track. Remember, good people are easy to motivate. Show them the vision and how they can make it happen. Trust and believe in them. Make them feel valued. They will work wonders.

Love & Age

People say love doesn’t have age; will you marry some as old as your dad or mother?
lets talk about this issue today on pfm lifestyle between 9am and noon......

Would you be fine with being BFF's with your ex's new GF?

Would you be fine with being BFF's with your ex's new GF?

lets talk about this issue today on pfm lifestyle between 9am and noon......

How to Solve a Problem- Balanced Lifestyle with Victor Chauke

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.”
Albert Ellis

“Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the muscles, they toughen and make strong.”
Norman Vincent Peale

“Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.”
Richard Bach

Are you having a problem in your life right now?
If so, maybe these six quick tips can help you to solve it a little bit easier.

1. First, ask yourself: is there really a problem here?
Often we create problems in our own heads – as I mentioned a bit about a few days ago in Things May Be Simpler Than You Think – that aren’t really out there in reality. So relax a bit. And think about if this is really a big problem.
Is it something that will matter in 5 years? Or even in 5 weeks? Life becomes so less stressful when you stop making mountain out of molehills (or just out of thin air).

2. Accept it.
When you accept that the problem already exists and stop resisting then you also stop putting more energy into the problem and “feeding it”.
Now it just exists (well, more or less, you might still feel a bit down about it). You can use the energy you previously fed the problem with – the energy that probably made the problem look bigger than it was – to find creative solutions to the challenge.

3. Ask for help.
You can ask people for advice on what to do and what they did in similar situations. But you can also ask for more practical help. You don’t have to solve every problem on your own and sometimes it feels better to have someone by your side, even if it is just for emotional support.
If you just ask you may find that people will often be willing to help you out.

4. Use 80 percent of your time to find solutions.
And only 20 percent to complain, worry and whine. It might not always be easy but focusing your energy, time and thoughts in this way is much more beneficial for you and others than doing the opposite.

5. Break the problem down into smaller pieces.
Solving a problem can sometimes seem overwhelming and impossible. To decrease anxiety and think more clearly break the problem down. Identify the different parts it consists of. Then figure out one practical solution you can take for each of those parts. Use those solutions.
They may not solve the whole problem immediately. But those solutions can get you started and might solve a few pieces of the it.

6. Find the opportunity and/or lesson within the problem.
I have found that there is almost always a positive side to a problem. Perhaps it alerts us of a great way to improve our business or relationships. Or teaches us how our lives perhaps aren’t as bad as we thought.
Finding this more positive part of the problem reduces its negative emotional impact. You may even start to see the situation as a great opportunity for you.
When you are faced with a problem ask yourself:
What is the good thing about this?
What can I learn from this?
What hidden opportunity can I find within this problem?

Is it possible for a BFF to get "stolen"?

Is it possible for a BFF to get "stolen"? What happens when your BFF clicks better with someone else and ends up spending more time with them?

lets talk about this issue today on pfm lifestyle between 9am and noon with me shirley m as your host let me help you get through your mid am......mwah

Family's Argument

Keeping your partner posted about your family's squabbles. Is it a good or a bad idea?????

Lets talk about this issue today on PFM lifestyle between 9 and noon with me Shirley M as your host let me help you get through your mid am

Letting go and Start Afresh

Our lives can change abruptly from one moment to the next. At such times, it’s difficult to imagine that what may seem like a catastrophe may turn out to be an opportunity. Look at the ordeal that a caterpillar has to go through in order to become a butterfly: the chrysalis is trapped in a cocoon, where everything disintegrates. Then some cells cluster together as discs that carry a genetic blueprint for a new structure. And finally the butterfly emerges.

Ordeals can bring out our full potential as human beings. My five tips will help you to re-emerge from the ashes stronger and happier.

Here are 5 crucial tips on how to start over:

1. Let go of the past

When we’re going through hard times, we tend to go over and over what happened in our mind. It’s important to stop those thoughts because they keep us trapped in the past, and unable to move forward.

Tip: wear an elastic wristband. Whenever you notice a negative thought, move the wristband over to the other arm.

2. Learn new skills

In order to rise from the ashes, we need to acquire a different set of skills from what we had before. Learning new skills gives us our confidence back, and opens up new opportunities. We don’t necessarily need to go back to school. These days there are many ways to learn new skills, especially on the Internet.

3. Start something new

When our life is shaken up, it’s a chance to start something new. Maybe there is something you’ve always wanted to do, but never ‘got around’ to? Now is the moment to take it up in order to fill our life with new meaning. And in order to re-discover confidence and joy.

4. Keep on track

Every new endeavor needs a lot of energy to get it going. The difficulty is that there is always a lag time between initial work and results. For example, the first year of blogging is hard work because there are many new skills to learn and nothing much happens in return. That’s why most blogger give up in the first year. It’s only when you grit your teeth and keep going that success finally happens.

5. Be grateful

It’s difficult to be grateful when things go awry. But it’s important in order to heal, and find a new direction. There is so much we can be grateful for. But we tend to take it for granted. If you practice gratitude, you will be a much happier person.

Tip: Each night, when you lie in bed, think of five things that you can be grateful for.

The five crucial tips will help to boost resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back. This doesn’t mean that your life will regain the exact shape it had before the crisis or abrupt change. After all, when we throw a rubber ball it doesn’t bounce back on exactly the same trajectory. Resilience means rising from the ashes, dusting ourselves down, and taking a new direction in life.

When I started Isidelife, I was still in the grip of the financial and emotional disaster that had befallen me. In response, I wrote my inspirational book “31 days with Victor Chauke- Inspired to inspire” which shows how to come through difficult times and find a new beginning.

Now, two years later, I’m in a new place in life. I’ve created a whole new career and my life has taken an amazing turn. That’s why I’ve decided to rewrite and enlarge my original inspirational book. It’s as if I’ve now experienced a new chapter in life and have a new, positive perspective to share with you all.