Happy March! Each month we strive to provide you with a variety of helpful resources, tips, and practices to support your continued success, both personally and professionally. Because we work with a diverse demographic of clients, industries, and backgrounds, we aim to provide content equally as diverse. If a particular section doesn't resonate with you, that's okay! Our hope is that everyone can find at least one gold nugget per issue. 

Below, you will find information on this month's article from Crum Consulting, this month's development challenge, as well as general wellness reminders. We have a number of knowledge-forward articles available that explore a variety of professional and personal topics, all of which will challenge your current perspective, and push your continued growth. Each month, we aim to provide you with a new challenge to help facilitate your ongoing growth. These challenges will range in topics and applications, in an effort to focus on a variety of aspects of your life. If you are a recurring client with us, we will be following up on this month's challenge with you in session. If you don't currently have any sessions set up with us, and would like to discuss this challenge and others like it, please feel free to reach out to schedule a session with us! You can reply directly here if we have worked together in the past. If you are a new client, please click here to fill out a consultation form, and we will be in touch to schedule a session with you. We also provide new wellness reminders in the form of our stretch of the month, and wellness tip. Regardless of your background, these reminders will help improve your day to day health and wellness.

March Article: This month's article is: Creating Consistency. The goal of any business in any sector is to be able to automate as many processes as possible in order to minimize overhead expenses. Prior to automation, your business must be able to provide consistency across all processes. And, in order to provide consistency, you must first establish your business standards. It all starts with developing and documenting your Standard Operating Procedures, or SOPs. If you have any questions surrounding this month's article, or would like to further explore opportunities, please feel free to reach out to schedule a session with us! You can reply directly here if we have worked together in the past. If you are a new client, please click here to fill out a consultation form, and we will be in touch to schedule a session with you.

March Challenge: I challenge you to evaluate your current reality.
Take the time to write down these four areas of your life, and then consider which area(s) you could benefit from identifying or developing one or two goals to feel more balanced.  If you are interested in more content on these topics, we recommend reading our When Values are Clear, Decisions are Easy article.
→Your life – relationships/family, finances, and your health
→Your career – not just what you do, but how you develop yourself within your profession to find value and meaning in the area where you earn a living
→Your personal joy – what you do for fun
→Your personal impact – how you serve others; including volunteering or contributing to your community

Stretch of the month: Cat pose - this stretch warms up your spine, shoulders, and hips. It improves body awareness and posture, and counteracts the effects of sitting. Click the (external) link to learn more, or simply google "cat pose"!

Wellness tip of the month: Treat yourself as you would want to be treated by others. A twist on a familiar saying, "treat others as you wish to be treated", we are intentionally flipping the script on you. Self-talk is an incredibly important component of our mind's process of constantly evaluating ourselves. We are all guilty of negative self-talk; "I'm such an idiot", "jeez I suck", "I failed yet again", "I'm the worst", "(sarcastically) oh great job", and so on. While these comments may seem harmless in the moment, they add up quickly and take a heavy toll on us in the long-run. Humans are creatures of habit by default; we long for and thrive in routines. With that, we are highly susceptible to conditioning through repetition. The more we say these seemingly harmless negative statements, the more we believe them, and the more we come to expect them to be our truth. What's more, when we start believing them as our truth, we communicate the same to the world around us. Eventually, because we believe them, expect them, and exude them, these negative statements do in fact become our truth. Start paying attention to your self-talk, and address those negative comments in each moment by correcting your words to the true reality of the situation. Instead of, "I'm such an idiot", try, "I'm grateful that I was able to learn something new today". Instead of, "I look like crap", try, "I am beautiful and exhausted, and both can be true simultaneously". Instead of, "I always do this", try, "I am excited for the opportunity to improve my life moving forward". You are your own greatest advocate, so stand up for yourself, even when you have to stand up to yourself. You are amazing. 

"When an idea can't be articulated simply, crisply, and accessibly, there is usually something wrong with it. " -Michael Eisner, Disney

Thank you for being a pivotal part of our journey here at Crum Consulting. We would be nothing without you, and your continued support. Please feel free to share our content with others to pay it forward. We relish in receiving feedback, so if you have any suggestions or if you'd like to share your opinion on any of the content we have provided here, please let us know! If you have any questions about anything we covered here, or if you'd like to explore potential opportunities with Crum Consulting, we are here for you! Reach out anytime!

Until we meet again, take care of yourself, and others. Thank you.