It is that time of the year again!  We are all in deadline mode trying to get everything completed before 24th December. This will be my last newsletter for 2010.

What a great year we have had here at People Empowered. We will be able to show you what has been happening as we venture into 2011 because much of what we have been doing is planning that has gone on underground. You wouldn't have seen it happening.

Thanks you to all of you for being part of what I am trying to do here, often imperfectly but always with excitement and enthusiasm. I'm always trying to tap into what you all want and need and hopefully next year we will provide more of that.

I want you to have the latest copy of EXPECT MORE FROM 2011 that Gihan Perera edits each year. You can get your copy below.

I've also put some tips together on how to enjoy Christmas with our families which for many people can be a stressful and difficult time. Follow these strategies and it can be a rewarding experience.

Lastly, I've put a reminder about the Networlding Masterclasses Ian Berry and I are conducting in Melbourne and Geelong in February. Ian has agreed to extend the discounted fee until 9th January when he returns from leave. So let everyone know about that.

Celebrate, enjoy, sing and dance your way through Christmas and I'll see you again in 2011.

Expect More From 2011 E-Book.  

I want you all to have a copy of this e-book which has strategies for success from 29 experts in personal and professional development. My contribution is on how our network is our net worth. It is about how I understand networking and what a commitment to building good networks can do for your business and professional success.

So get your copy by clicking on the image of the book below.

Families Can Be Stressful - Tips for Getting Through Christmas

Christmas is family time. It’s a time of celebration, sharing and giving. It’s a time to get together again and family members come from many parts of the country often at that special time.  They come with hope and anticipation, looking forward to re-connecting with one another again – to fun and happiness, good food and wine.

When I had my counselling and psychotherapy practice there was always a surge of clients in the weeks before Christmas. It wasn't that new issues arose for people just before Christmas every year. Rather it was that the issues they had pushed out of the road all year were now rearing their heads again. They were creating considerable anxiety for them.  They were becoming aware that they were going to have to deal with difficult family situations again soon that had been denied since last Christmas..

Christmas therefore can end up being enormously stressful, difficult and a great disappointment, even in the very best of families. It can often seem that when you get there, every family pathology begins to express itself.So if this is your situation what do you do to avoid this and make Christmas everything you want it to be? Here are a few ideas.

• Be clear about why you are going home. You are going home to be with one another again.  You want to know how everyone is going. You are interested in what they are doing. You want to talk, laugh and enjoy their company. It’s all about win/win relationships. So let that be your motivation.

• Be the bigger person. You don’t have to compete with any of your brothers and sisters. You don’t have to prove that you are better than them. You believe in yourself and what you’ve achieved in your life. If they spend all their time talking about themselves don’t react – at least not until you get back home! Maybe they need to do that to prove to themselves they are O.K. Engage with them about what they are doing, even if they don’t reciprocate and ask you what you are doing. It does feel better than fighting. In fact it can be quite liberating to be the bigger person. So you don’t have to get into arguments that, in reality, are actually power struggles.

• Decide where you will stay. Sometimes staying at the family home creates too much tension with everyone on top of one another 24/7 for many days. It’s sometimes better to stay at a B & B or a motel. You can come and go and you have a place to which you can retreat when you want some space. You can explain that you are doing it for them – to ease the pressure on everyone so that’s there’s more space and not as much pressure on bathrooms, for example. This can make a great difference to how you feel about everyone.

• Decide how long to stay. Let reason decide this, not emotion. If you stay 3-4 days you know that you will really enjoy everyone’s company and they yours. You also know that if you stay a week, things will have deteriorated and you’ll leave very stressed and agitated. How long you stay also depends on the above – where you stay.

Networlding Masterclasses. 

DISCOUNTED REGISTRATION FEE EXTENDED TO JANUARY 9, 2011.

Great News! Ian is extending the $198.00 discounted fee (that's $77.00 off the full fee) until he returns from leave on January 9.

So if you know of anyone who would be interested in taking part, let them know about it.

What is Networlding Exactly?

Networlding is the art and science of making meaningful connections with people and organisations that share your values and leveraging those connections in new and powerful ways........mastering the intersection of traditional networking and social media.

All the world is your target audience today and we all need to know how to expand and develop our networks in productive ways across the global community. Our business no longer has a Melbourne or a Geelong boundary.

The workshop will be about how you can create communities of support, how to build collaborative relationships with those communities by creating mutual goals that help us help one another achieve business, professional and personal growth. It's about developing networks of people who believe what we believe and who want to work with us from out of that space.

The Masterclasses will be small groups where we can work closely with you on the specifics of Networlding and will be conducted by Ian Berry from Adelaide and myself co-presenting. See previous newsletter for further details.

Melbourne Masterclass is February 16th, 2011.

Geelong Masterclass is February 17th, 2011.

Register here for Geelong http://www.ianberry.au.com/ngeelong.html

Registration fee is $198.00 which included morning and afternoon tea and lunch.

Copyright © People Empowered-Maree Harris 2010
All articles in the People Empowered newsletter by Maree Harris are copyright, but they can be reproduced as long as they include on the bottom the following short biography- "Maree Harris PhD. is the Director of People Empowered. She is a coach, consultant and facilitator of professional development, specialising in the development and enhancement of soft skills- http://www.peopleempowered.com.au "
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