The Benefits of Helping Others

For the last four days, I’ve spent time helping out at a property course for new investors. Now back home, I just walked Jerry Lee and was contemplating the events of the weekend.

 Me and Jerry Lee do a lot of contemplation in our favourite park.

He never says much though, but he's a good listener!

Just recently, I’ve been a little bit apathetic about networking with other people. Sometimes you’re just giving, giving, giving - and it gets to a point where you feel people are just taking, taking and taking.

Now I’m not saying you should do things in expectation of something in return – but when feels one-way  or one-sided constantly, you do start to get a bit fed up and a bit jaded.

Certain folks have obviously not heard of reciprocity!

RECIPROCITYYYYYYYY!!

Mama Morton in Chicago:

"When you're good to Mama, Mama's good to you!"

Sadly, some people are just out to take advantage and get what they can out of you.

In fact, one of my most-hated phrases has become “Can I just pick your brains…?”

Which I have now come to translate as “Can I take up loads of your time for free, ask you many questions about your property knowledge, which you’ve paid thousands of pounds to go and learn, so that I can go do it for myself with minimum effort and cost, before thanklessly forgetting you ever helped me?”

Luckily, I’ve managed to spot the selfish piss-takers from the genuine people who just need a little nudge in the right direction.

And this is where it gets interesting.

Altruism is vastly underrated.

There’s something really special about helping someone else without wanting anything back in return – just the pure joy of knowing your guidance has helped them.

I love it best when their eyes light up and they start smiling - because you know a lightbulb moment has occurred for them, and you’ve said or done something which will genuinely improve their life.

And as this happened many times over the last few days, I felt my own little glimmer of light reignite inside. 

Like I actually made a difference.

For those of you who don’t know, I used to be a high school teacher - and it was like that special moment in the classroom when you help a kid understand something on his worksheet, and his face grins and he says “Aww fanx Miss, I gerrit now!!” 

And you float off feeling like some omniscient godlike genius. 😁😁😁

So from teaching schoolchildren, to working with my Air Cadets, helping at my local Chamber of Trade and Commerce, to networking and giving referrals to other business and property contacts… I just like helping people, for the nice feeling it gives me inside.

😁

Although helping other takes your time, effort and enthusiasm – why not try it, just for that one pleasant beneficial feeling you’ll get.

Just a few scientifically-proven benefits!

Who can you help today?!?

www.kellyannmartin.co.uk 

 

HIBERNATION FOR THE NATION   IS IT JUST ME… …or has anyone else been suffering with hibernation issues?! It’s not-quite-spring, it’s cold, it’s dark, and the weather is causing chaos - whether it was the snowstorm "Beast from the East", or the surprise out of s-nowhere, "Pest from the West". It’s all causing some sort of bizarre seasonal affective disorder – SAD - making me want to NAP (Nap Against Productivity!) During these enforced snow days, I thought, at 8am: great, I’ll get loads of business-work done today. And then at 6pm, having nonchalantly browsed various social media platforms ten times an hour, eaten my own bodyweight in chocolate, crisps and other carbs, and had a little afternoon nap, a panic-stricken thought kept overwhelming me: WHERE’S MY BLOODY DAY GONE?!? Who’s done that too recently? I am like some sort of human hibernating squirrel at the minute, which is most unlike me. But hibernation is not an effective, productive use of time that we entrepreneurs should be employing! Time goes too fast to let ourselves be ruled by the day - and the weather. If we waste our time doing this, like everybody else does on a snow day, then we too get involved in ‘hibernation for the nation’! NOT PRODUCTIVE!!! So here’s a few things that I had to force myself to do, and whether you call it kickstarting yourself, getting your mojo back or finding your groove again, I hope these things work for you too. HOW TO BE PRODUCTIVE ON A DAY WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE DOING OWT!!* (Don’t forget I’m Yorkshire; for those outside God’s County, “owt’ translates as “anything”!) 1. Force yourself to start something by counting down aloud: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 which, like a rocket countdown, makes you launch into doing it. This is my new thing to do to make myself get out of bed when it’s freezing! 2. Get some fresh air and exercise early on in the day. Gets the blood pumping, those feel-good endorphins blaring and kickstarts your energy and metabolism for the day. Luckily I have a freestyle fruitcase German Shepherd dog, whose favourite activity involves dragging/yanking me around his local park. Beautiful doggy! Snow wolf, aka Jerry Lee stops his kite impression for ten seconds for a photo in his favourite park :) 3. Drink water. Keeps you refreshed, hydrated, deters sluggishness and thus keeps you alert. And stops you reaching for the snacks! I just whang a splash of cordial in mine to stop it being so boring. 4. Highlight and write down the 3 most important things you want to achieve that day, and focus only on those. If you get additional items done then that’s a bonus, but at least you’ll have ticked off your major items of significance. 5. Chunk your tasks into short action steps. Pick a task and then set an alarm for 15 minutes in which you try and complete it. This then turns it into a ‘Crystal-Maze’ type fun challenge where you try and beat the clock – and the time limit really focuses you on completing the task. You can always allocate yourself another 15 minutes if you need to, or do another task once complete. 6. Just gerronwi’it. No one else is going to do your work that only you have allocated yourself to do. So gerronwi’it! And once you’ve done it, then it’s done, finito, and you can breathe a sigh of relief and reward yourself. Perhaps with a nap… Thanks for reading! If you'd like to learn more about my work, please visit my website www.kellyannmartin.co.uk Take care, and have a lovely day, Kellyann x x x

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OPERATION NON-HIBERNATION

Ever felt like you’ve got yourself in a rut?

 



My cheeky punky laddo, doing some Autumnal chilling 😅

 I was feeling exactly that -  especially as Autumn makes me feels lethargic, sluggish, tired, and a bit like I just want to hibernate whilst its cold, dark and miserable weather outside.

To try and combat this, a month ago I set myself a challenge: a self-imposed “Operation Non-Hibernation”.

I set myself just three targets that I wanted to complete consistently every single day that would benefit my wellbeing, which were:

 

Apparently it takes 21 days to form new habits by doing them consistently - and consecutively!

So I tried my very best, and today, on the last day of November, I am pleased to announce that I have successfully completed my challenge!

 

Looking back over the last 30 days, here’s some reflections on what I did and what I learnt:

1. 25 minutes of exercise

I discovered earlier this year at the Leeds 10K that I hate running with a burning passion (it makes me hot, tired, perspire, and chunky bits of me, erm, jiggle!) - and so running is not for me.

Instead I had decided that my exercise every day would be at least 25 minutes of brisk walking with my German Shepherd, Jerry Lee.

 

These were the benefits:

 - A tired dog is a well behaved dog! Jerry Lee normally only gets a quick whizz round our nearby park, so upping the exercise knackers the cheeky boy out for the day.

- Amazingly, no body weight has been gained, despite an excessive amount of pizza consumption this month!

- When you exercise first thing in the morning, it boosts your energy for the day. Some afternoons I didn’t even need my usual nap!

- I now thoroughly enjoy being my local neighbourhood’s Nosy Parker. I checked out new streets, assessed kerb appeals of each property I passed, AND found two unkempt houses which then received a direct-to-vendor mail letter, just in case they wanted to sell…

Captain Poser looking super sexy on his stroll!

 

2. Drink 2 litres of water

This gets easier the more you do it. You just have to be organised!

 Separate your water allocation into 8 glasses, or 4 x 500ml/half litre small bottles, (which bizarrely is easier to drink than the glasses - ?!?) Then make sure you’ve necked your allocation by each quarter on the clock: 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm etc.

The days it goes wrong are when you don’t drink enough consistently, and then you have to squash it all in over a short time period – leading to about 48 toilet trips every hour!

Anyway, benefits I found were:

 - Less bloating from the water, as it replaced many of the fizzy drinks I would normally have.

 - Felt less hungry than normal; water is good for filling you up - which is good in my case, because I’m a greedy glutton who often tries to eat my own body weight in chocolate.

- My skin is awesome!!! Bright, fresh, hydrated, clear – if I’m not careful I’ll start getting ID-ed in supermarkets again!

 - Water is very good for, erm, digestion. Things go lovely and smoothly in the removal of waste products, if you know what I mean… if anyone you know suffers from constipation issues, tell them to get more water down them!

 

 

 

 

Finally...

3. Do something nice or helpful for somebody else

I liked this one the best. However, some days it was quite difficult to do. It’s ok if you’re working around people every day, but on the days when you’re stuck in on your own in your little home office, you have to make a real conscious effort to make something nice or helpful happen.

Here’s some of my favourite nice and helpful things I did for other people this month:

 - took my dream team refurb crew out for a celebratory/thank you curry

 - donated to someone’s charity challenge through JustGiving

 - sold poppies for the Royal British Legion

 - took my air cadets away on a camp in the Yorkshire Dales

 - bought lunch for a homeless person. Enjoyed the nice feeling it gave me so much that I did it again today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bizarrely some of the other things I did which just involved spending money – buying someone a cinema ticket / pizza / water / buying a friend lunch / sacrificing my chips for my hungry friend / paying for a taxi – these just didn’t feel as rewarding.

I think it’s an easy fix to just throw money at something. And yet I fully appreciate my own self-contradiction that it’s a shame that when it's so easy to do, more people don’t use their money to help others. Small things count better than nothing at all. Even the lady at the checkout who I gave a 10p carrier bag to was grateful for the  kind little gesture.

 

I would love it if we all did more nice things for other people.

I enjoyed it for no other reason than that nice feeling it gave me inside.

 

 

So to summarise: my challenge felt difficult at times, but I made myself do these things consistently, because I didn’t want to let myself down.

The fact that I had mouthed off to everyone on Facebook also had the advantage of keeping me accountable.

But consistency is key. One day at a time.

 

Do something every single day which moves you towards your goal.

 

Completing this challenge has got me wondering:

 

What else could I achieve, if I set targets and stick to doing them consistently?

 

 

I reckon absolutely anything I want to.

 

 

Thanks for reading my blog!

 

If you'd like to connect, my Facebook page is here:

 

https://www.facebook.com/KellyannMartinProperty/

 

And my website is here:

 

https://kellyannmartin.co.uk/

 

 

Have a lovely day!

 

Kellyann x x x