Rewrite
Articles
Stories and ideas to create a career and life that works
Rewrite Founder and Executive Career Coach Monique Shaw shares personal and professional insights, practical tools and reflections on rewriting your story to change how you work, lead and live.
How To Start Your Small Business: What I Got Right (and Wrong)
"When the prospect of Any Other Corporate Job fills you with dread, it’s time."
Make Peace With Your Inner Critic
We all have a companion that follows us around, wherever we go. Whatever the situation, wherever we are, there they are.
Our inner critic.
Love them or hate them, they’re always there. We can never quite shake them, sniping and niggling away at us in the background – particularly when we’re doing something new or trying to make a change.
Commonly accepted advice is that we should try to silence or eradicate this voice. In many ways this is a reasonable and noble goal, but it isn’t that simple…
Stop the Perfectionism - Procrastination Cycle: 5 Simple Steps
Do you find yourself chasing an unreachable standard while constantly delaying the very tasks that matter most? You aren't alone. For many high-achieving professionals, perfectionism and procrastination are deeply and inextricably linked.
While society often views the pursuit of perfection as a noble trait, in reality, it can act as a shackle that keeps you smaller and more muted than your talents deserve. By understanding the psychology behind this cycle, you can start to unhook yourself from these patterns and move into messy, meaningful action.
How to Create a Values-Led Career
Think about a situation at work when someone said or did something that caused a strong, negative emotional response in you.
You probably kept it under wraps at the time, but inside you raged - hurt or frustrated beyond belief. No doubt you downloaded the situation to a trusted colleague as soon as you could, forensically picking over each detail and getting re-outraged all over again. The unfairness of it all! The lack of integrity! The nerve of that person!
Stop Making Decisions For Other People In Your Career
How many times have you not applied for a job because you decided the hiring manager would think you didn’t have the right experience? What about not putting yourself forward for a promotion or internal opportunity because you decided your boss would say No? Or not emailing someone to ask for their help with something because you decided you’d just annoy them.
But I bet you’ve also made lots of decisions for other people without even realising it.
Why Career Change Isn’t Fickle
Pivoting your career looks like changing your mind, making people assume you got it wrong. But what if you've grown and are ready to make some new mistakes?
Want More Time? Stop Doing Work That Isn’t Your Work
One of our scarcest and most sought after currencies is time. We want to maximise productivity, minimise effort, workout in minutes and meditate-on-the-go. But trying to cram more into 24 hours doesn’t create more time, it just creates more stuff to do. The single most effective way to have more time is very simple. Work less. And by that, I mean stop doing work at work that isn’t your work.
3 Simple Ways To Establish A Daily Meditation Habit
The business of mindfulness has boomed in recent years, but meditation, essential oils and yoga isn’t new or trendy to me, I grew up with a mum who made her own tofu in the 80s and went on silent retreats in the 90s. I had been sticking my toe into meditation for decades, but the practice had never stuck and then 2 years ago, almost without realising it, I formed a daily meditation practice and it completely transformed the way I lived.
How To Rewrite Your Success And Wealth Story
Success should be a fluid term open to subjectivity and interpretation, but the reality is, no matter how we slice or dice it, there remains a commonly accepted definition of success – the one tied to wealth and status. So, what do you to do about it?
When Is Productivity A Dirty Word?
High productivity receives high praise because we worship at the altar of more – more busy-ness, more stuff, more money, more achievement. But this pursuit of more can be problematic, especially when it comes to productivity. Productivity for productivity’s sake is a fast track to stress, burnout, anxiety, resentment, dissatisfaction, unfulfillment and unproductivity.
How To Escape The Email Trap
The number of email users and emails continues to rise. So does the use of mobile devices. Email is everywhere and it can get to you anywhere, anytime. Email isn’t going to respect you or your time so if you want to break out of the trap, you’re going to have to free yourself.
How To Be Successful And Happy (you can be both!)
Many of the narratives around finding career happiness involve leaving it all behind and giving up a successful job for a happier life. But seeking career happiness doesn’t have to mean saying goodbye to ambition and success – or even your current job. You can be successful, full of ambition AND happy. Here’s how…
It’s Not Me, It’s You: How To Influence With Integrity
I used to work in business development but I’m not a natural salesperson. ‘Selling’ turns my stomach but I’m a business owner. Go figure. Like most people, authenticity and integrity is really important to me – as both a buyer and a seller – so to influence successfully, I needed to do it with integrity. Here’s what I learnt…
What I Learnt Launching A Business In A Pandemic
In terms of timing when to leave the certainty of full-time employment for the uncertainty of entrepreneurship – mine was impeccable. I lost a potential project immediately and suddenly it seemed unlikely that people would want to rewrite their personal or professional story when they were focused on their health, their incomes, their mental wellbeing and – for some – toilet paper…
How To Beat The Blank Page In 4 Easy Steps
When you imagine the ideal conditions for creativity and getting into your ‘flow’, pressure-cooker environments and curve-ball client deadlines don’t really spring to mind. But unfortunately, that’s the reality for many of us – our work demands, and the delicate needs of our inner ‘artiste’ are largely incompatible.
Why Right Now Is The Perfect Time For A Life Audit
If the stripping back of life that Covid-19 is creating has left you questioning where you’re at and what is really important, now could be the perfect time for a life audit. Life changes, priorities change but all too often our habits, activities and behaviours don’t keep up.
Why You Should Stop Trying To Be More Confident
Confidence is not a starting point or prerequisite. Confidence is not something you mentally cultivate through sheer will or positivity that – when you eventually ‘mindset’ it into being – will help you to do great things. Confidence is actually a by-product of courage. It comes last, not first.
Make The Same Impact At Work In Half The Time
I halved my working hours almost overnight when I returned to full-time work after having a baby and my reputation – and the impact of my work – was not affected at all. In fact, I got a bigger job opportunity within that first year and eventually went on to launch my own business. Here is how I did it…
How to Be a Great Presenter (And Why it Can Change Your Life)
Opportunities to present arise all the time and if you’re a great presenter, these opportunities multiply. Great presenters build their reputation, they create job opportunities, they are perceived as experts, they inspire people with their ideas and they create the careers they want. Don’t worry if you’re not a great presenter yet – it’s a skill that can be learnt.
The Power of Personal Brand at Work
Personal brand has a become a bit of a buzz term. Even mentioning it is enough to make some people’s toes curl as they imagine certain celebrities and their “brand" or online personalities who perhaps take themselves a little too seriously. But actually, these online personalities and celebrities are onto something. At work (and this is their work) personal brand is really important and, whether or not you like it - you have a personal brand too.