When life gives you lemons, JFDI: Just F***ing Do It, according to business and life coach Noor Hibbert.
This is the message behind her new book, a guide to “helping you go for your effing dreams”, out next month. From ditching Google to practising gratitude like Oprah, here’s how to JFDI.
Never compare
“When you’re wrapped up in the successes of everyone else, you fail to see the opportunities for your own personal growth,” writes Hibbert, saying social media has made it easier than ever to compare ourselves to others. If Instagram is taking you down a rabbit hole, rid your feed of people who make you feel bad about yourself, or go cold turkey and delete the app altogether. The only person you should compare yourself to? Yourself. “Only seek to be better than you were yesterday”.
Marinate your day
To see how far you’ve come since yesterday, start your morning by announcing what you’re grateful for — she calls this “marinating your day” — and keep “a list of all the ridiculously wonderful things you have”. Oprah Winfrey famously writes a list of five things she’s thankful for every day.
Trust your gut
Google doesn’t know all the answers, says Hibbert. In fact, your intuition is your most powerful tool. To listen to what your soul is saying, you need to quieten your ego and you can do this by meditating. Make “white space” in your day by going for a walk, and practise trust. Start small: “if you’re at a new restaurant and scanning the menu, choose the first item that sounds delicious,” says Hibbert. “As you become more comfortable with trusting your gut, you can begin using your intuition to inform bigger decisions.”
Find your posse power
Introvert or extrovert, everyone needs a posse, says Hibbert. Who’s in it is what matters. Ask yourself: “Are the people around you going to support your journey?” They can be dead or alive — Hibbert says she listens to recordings by the late motivational speaker Jim Rohn daily — and choose who you seek advice from wisely. “Stop taking constructive criticism from people who haven’t constructed anything” — instead, go straight to the source: if you want to get fit, get a personal trainer; if you want to be a great public speaker, invest in lessons.
Just F***ing Do It is published by John Murray, price £12.99
