How To Get Noticed By Recruiters On LinkedIn

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

While going through LinkedIn this morning, I saw an Ad for a WhatsApp class. The Ad was for a 2day masterclass on how to get noticed by recruiters on Linkedin and it cost 5k.

About a dozen people had shown interest and were asking for account details. So like with everything else, I went to the calculator app on my phone and clicked 12X5. The answer was 60.

That was less than 3 hours after putting up the post, so there was a possibility that more people would join the class.

After pondering on the meaning of life and how an extra 60+k would help me replace the hair extensions I lost during my wedding, I realized I could easily do any of the following:

  • Do the exact same thing and call it a ‘LinkedIn optimization class’ and have you pay me 5k for it.
  • Password protect this page and send you the password only after you pay me 3K.
  • Add it to the services I provide and charge you to optimize your LinkedIn profile on your behalf.

But because I’m a benevolent queen, I decided to teach you for free. You’re welcome.

But why do I need a LinkedIn profile?

This is one question I’ve been asked a lot lately. If you already have an optimized LinkedIn profile, this might come as a surprise to you but I got asked why it was necessary more times than I can count on one hand. I found out A LOT of millennials didn’t know they needed a LinkedIn profile in 2020. Shame on you Rapheal!

LinkedIn is one of the most important platforms out there with over 530 million members worldwide. It’s sad that a lot of millennials (including Virtual Assistants) have inactive LinkedIn accounts or don’t even have any because they are busy being savage on Twitter.

So if you don’t know why you need a LinkedIn account or how to optimize your LinkedIn profile like a pro, then keep reading. If you already have one, congratulations. Still hang around, you might learn something.

3 Reasons you need a LinkedIn profile in 2020

  1. It helps you get noticed by the right people

If you are working as a Virtual Assistant or any kind of professional, you need to make sure that when someone looks at your LinkedIn profile they clearly see what you do, who you do it for and whether you’re any good at it. Trust me, nobody will hire you if they’re not sure exactly what you do for people and how you can help them.

  1. Google loves LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s SEO is so good that if someone Googles you, your LinkedIn profile will come up at the top of page one and before your own website (if you have one). So imagine people being greeted with a fully optimized LinkedIn profile. Plus, you’d easily dominate for your name on search engine.

If you are a virtual assistant or any kind of freelancer, people will most likely Google you. PS: You should consider Googling yourself once in a while.

  1. LinkedIn is more flexible than your resume

You can write a lot more on your LinkedIn profile than you can on your resume, and you get to show exactly how you’re good at what you do and why someone might want to work with you.

Your resume is tailored to a specific job, while your LinkedIn contains all you need for a general job search. Both documents should have the same job titles, date ranges, and basic information regarding each job. However, you’ll need to present the information in different ways.

I sent a connection request to someone only yesterday and in ten minutes, he had checked out my profile and sent me a direct message recommending a job opening to me because from my profile, he saw all my skills and immediately knew I’d be a perfect fit for the job.

I however didn’t apply for the job because it is Lagos and my husband gets panic attacks just thinking about visiting the state I’m really not looking for a medical laboratory job right now.

This further expands my point that LinkedIn profile is more flexible than a resume. So I could get recommended for a job, even when I wasn’t looking for one based on that skill set. I hope that makes sense.

But what would I publish on LinkedIn?

Many people asked me this question, rightly so, I didn’t know what to publish for too long too.

I kept staring at my cursor blink when ever I tried to write a post and closed it without writing a word every time, until I noticed what others were doing. They use the platform to share professional stories, milestones and challenges they face at their jobs or while job searching.

They shared information about new skills they are learning or had learned, and every single educational qualifications they acquired. Most importantly, they were helpful and useful. Some even shared tips and tricks to help job seekers, recruiters etc. You can do any of these too. Just make yourself useful.

LinkedIn is not just a platform for those looking to get jobs, it’s also perfect for you if you have a job. It’ll be useful you ever consider changing jobs, become self employed, or something. It is no news that some countries and recruiters, now go through social media profiles before accepting people. Be useful. Package yourself. You are today’s bread so make sure your profile isn’t stale.

This post will show you exactly how to optimize your profile to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn.

But first….

Decide who your profile is for before you edit a word.

This is the first thing to think about. Who do you want reading your profile and what do you want them to know about you? When you know this, you can easily optimise your profile and get noticed

Turn off the alarm

There’s this annoying feature I need you to change just so your enemies don’t always know what you are up to. It’s turned on by default. You’ll have to go to settings and change what people can see about you otherwise all your connections will get a notification each time you change something and save it. It is rude to bombard everyone with your updates. You’re trying to get noticed by recruiters, not annoy your village people.

  • Go to your profile and click on the settings button located at the top right corner of your screen.
  • Choose ‘Privacy’, then click the ‘Share job changes, education changes and work anniversaries from profile’ tab and then click ‘No’ to turn off notifications.

This is important because you don’t want LinkedIn to send all your connections a notification to congratulate you on finishing secondary school 10 years ago.

Get Noticed By Recruiters On LinkedIn With These Exact Steps

These are the exact steps I used to optimise my LinkedIn profile, get it to rank number one for my name and get it noticed by recruiters. Since making these changes, I have gotten more search appearances, profile views, enquiries etc

#1.) Write a Catchy Headline:

This is the sentence that appears next to your photo which should say what you do in a nutshell as it’s the first thing people read. You only get a set amount of characters so make it snappy. I’ve found that unless you create your own Headline, LinkedIn will just bring in the generic wording from your current job which is #boring

There are basically three (3) ways you could write your headline:

List your skills as keywords:

  1. Medical Laboratory Scientist || Virtual Assistant || Blogger || Creative Writer
  2. Public Health Enthusiast || Volunteer || Social Media Manager || Author
  3. Event planner || Organizer || Events || Planner

You could write a sentence:

  1. Medical Laboratory Scientist and experienced blogger, using her blogging and creative writing skills to help clients remotely.
  2. Public Health Enthusiast currently volunteering in IDP camps in Nigeria
  3. Event Planner organizing events and managing schedules for busy marketers

You could write your strapline:

  1. I diagnose diseases and write catchy articles
  2. Helping busy entrepreneurs get their shit together
  3. Organizing events that rock since 2016

#2.) Add A Good Background Image:

It’d be really nice if you could upload a background image. It could be you at work or in a position that makes you look professional. Your logo or an infographic of what you do. You can easily design an infographic on canva in five minutes or less. Alternatively, you could use the LinkedIn background image already there until you have something really good to replace it.

PS: You can’t edit your background photo from your phone. You have to do it from a desktop and the perfect dimensions are 1584px by 396px.

#3.) Don’t look like you were attacked by white walkers

There’s a digital marketer I admire very much. And when I started optimising LinkedIn, I decided to find her and connect because you know, meaningful connections. What a disappointment. The photo she had on there was from at least 10 years ago probably when she was young and dumb. I’d talk about the details on the profile except they was nothing there.

This person was #killinit on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook but somehow didn’t think LinkedIn was worth it. It goes to show how much millennials are sleeping on LinkedIn.

Forgive me, I digress.

Please, don’t use the blurr photo you cropped from your sister’s wedding photos, group selfies, the sexy photo with pouty lips and lots of cleavage (it will do well on Instagram or tinder, though), etc.

Instead, use a friendly and professional head shot that makes you look approachable and responsible.

#4.) Complete the About section

This is where you state your value, what you want to be known for and why someone might want to work with you. Trust me, you can’t rely on people having the time to go through your entire profile to realize you are the best thing since cold stone. Forgive us all for not realizing your potential just yet.

Don’t leave the bio LinkedIn generates for you either. Every recruiter and their dog, can smell it from a mile away. You’ll need to make an effort if you really want to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn. Take the time to write one for yourself. This is one the most important sections of your profile and will need to be updated as often as possible. It’ll get better with time.

#5.) Give Details About Your Work Experience

Writing out only your job title is not enough. You need to give details of what you did at your job. Sometimes you’d be required to do extra work that isn’t really your thing and might gain a skill or two. You should add that to the stuff you did at that job.

Summarize the skills you used, the outcome of your efforts and any key achievements so people can see your value. This isn’t where you should lie, exaggerate or play small. You worked hard so you deserve the accolades!

You can give other details like the types of clients you worked with, the size of budgets you worked with, the number of people you oversaw and percentage of ROI you provided so everyone can see your level of experience and how good you are at what you do.

How to write each job experience

So instead of saying ‘Virtual Assistant at The Rosepreneur’ and leaving it there, give a brief intro into the company so that people know what the company actually does and then list out specific tasks you carried out.

For Example:

[Insert Company Name] is one of the best digital marketing companies in Nigeria. They specialize in so so and so. My role here involved:

– Write what you did
– Write another thing you did
– And so on etc.

This will help you get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn and tell them you know exactly what you are doing. You have to package yourself in the best possible way.

#6.) Include your Education

This is where your university degree(s) come in. Some people add their secondary school education but I think that is unnecessary. Anything after secondary is good, except secondary school is your highest level of education.

PS: It doesn’t matter if you are in a field that is unrelated to your degree. I’ve seen medical doctors leading in fashion and all that stuff so it all depends on how you position yourself.

#7.) List out your licenses and certifications

List out your licenses and certifications. It builds your authority. If you don’t have any, there are a couple of free certificate courses you can take to boost your profile and position you as an expert in your industry. When you get these certificates, list them on your profile and don’t be lazy about it.

#8.) Endorsements are good.

Make sure you turn on endorsements if you have it turned off. Endorsements are the skills that LinkedIn suggests you have to your connections (usually from the list of skills you add to your profile) and they might not be things you actually want to be endorsed for. So instead, have a few more focused skills rather than 50 skills that don’t make you standout in any way.

#9.) Give and receive recommendations

This is 2020 so you should already know the power of testimonials. It is largely a give and take process. If you don’t have any recommendations, then you can privately ask your connections to write some for you. It is really easy. Ask them to specifically mention a skill or service you provide to highlight at least one thing instead of allowing them write a generic one.

Now this isn’t a reason for you to ask Tony Elumelu for a recommendation. Please dear, be guided. Ask people that actually know you and can write about you honestly. This will help you get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn

I honestly wish I had known about this earlier, I’d have asked my clients for LinkedIn recommendations instead of the ones they wrote me on WhatsApp. This is because I can easily copy any recommendation from LinkedIn to my website (as a testimonial) but not from this website to my recommendations tab on LinkedIn.

You should however be willing to write some for others. You can’t keep taking from everyone without giving.

What so great about givi recommendations to others is that you can get noticed by recruiters from the recommendation you write for someone. Remember your details are there and just a click away. It’s a win-win deal.

#10.) Add media where required

You’ll see the option to add photos,videos or link to external documents, sites and presentations. Use this opportunity if you have good quality media.

#11.) Update your contact And personalize your custom URL

Make sure your email still works and your twitter account is active. Most importantly, if your LinkedIn link looks like this linkedin.com/in/your-name0965896. You are wrong.

Go to ‘settings’ and click ‘privacy’ then click ‘edit your public profile’. Now edit whatever you have there to linkedin.com/in/yourname (example: linkedin.com/in/roseodoemelam). No numbers, signs or symbols.

#12.) Hide your competition

Let’s pretend a chevron (insert your dream company) recruiter decides to hire people from LinkedIn and the recruiter stumbles on your page. They get impressed. Then they scroll down and see one of your connections that looks just as good and innocently decide to check them out. Thirty minutes later, they realize the person is much better than you and decide to hire him/her.

You want them to contact you and not run into the sunset with someone else, so seal the cracks!

Go to ‘settings’ and click on ‘privacy’ then turn off ‘viewers of this profile also viewed’. So that other LinkedIn users with the same job description as you (your competition) don’t appear when someone is viewing your profile.

That’s a mild way of putting it. You’re doing that so that no one will appear on your profile and the focus is only on you without perfect connections flaunting their certificates and flawless expertise and enticing your recruiter which will ultimately lead to stealing your dream job. You’re not being selfish, you’re securing the bag!

#13.) Make meaningful connections

In order to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn, your connections have to be intentional and meaningful.

You’ll only be ready to make meaningful connections after you have optimized your profile. You have to look like a serious person with a profile photo and everything. People will send you a connection request/ accept your request even if they don’t know you personally just because you share the same job, skills and look like someone that has their shit together. They know networking is important. Now you know too.

Spoiler alert: Let’s connect, I’m a meaningful connection.

Since I optimised my profile, I’ve noticed that people from my University and job easily find me. LinkedIn also recommends them to me. So don’t feel too big, sending that connection request isn’t merely a friend request. LinkedIn is serious business.

Confession: I consciously avoided checking people’s profiles for years, because LinkedIn always told on me. It didn’t make sense that everytime I checked someone out, LinkedIn told the person. So I stopped viewing profiles so nobody feels too important or feels like I’m a stalker.

Do you also feel that way? Yes? You’re happy someone finally understands, right?

Wrong. That’s just dumb. Don’t do it. Don’t be unfortunate. View anyone’s profile you want, as many times as you want with your chest up. Especially if they are doing something right and you’re trying to learn from them and optimise your profile.

#14.) Try to personalize every connection request

If you really want to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn, you’ll have to make extra effort. These people get a lot of connection requests every day and your request should stand out to them. It’ll only take a few minutes and you’d be happy you did.

I had a very generic one I used not too long ago. It said- Let’s connect ASAP!

On the bright side, I only sent that to really close friends and would never send it to strangers. Thankfully, I found some perfect templates you could customize and use for every type of connection request. You’re welcome

Next Steps

Check out LinkedIn profiles of others in your niche (your competitors) to get ideas and see what works and what doesn’t. Feel free to creatively optimize your profile using theirs as a template if you want to actually get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn.

Did you find this post helpful? Have you always been active on LinkedIn? Tell me about your experience on LinkedIn in the comment section and don’t forget to share this post with one, two or twenty persons you really want to help get their shit together and get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn.

13 Little Ways To Feel Like You Have Your Shit Together This Year

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

It’s a new year and I’m sure you’ve been bombarded with articles and updates about why you should set goals or die a lonely miserable death in penury. I know, I know, I got caught by the bug and told you why new year resolutions suck and what you should do instead. Today, I decided to share 13 little ways to feel like you have your shit together this year because shit happens and you’d have to deal with it without looking like you were attacked by a wolf.

I’ll start by saying this, none of us truly has our shit together all the time and we probably never will. But that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. I’m sure these 13 little ways to feel like you have your shit together this year even if you don’t will be helpful.

13 Little Ways To Feel Like You Have Your Shit Together This Year

#1.) Clear out your inbox:

Email, WhatsApp etc. Make it a habit to check your inboxes everyday either early in the morning or just before you go to bed at night. You can also use this time to delete emails you don’t need, block out spam emails and unsubscribe from unwanted lists if the information they bring no longer serve you.

Phew! this is a screenshot from my phone in 2018

I finally sorted out my inbox when I was expecting an email from an interview I attended. I had to search through over 6,000 emails to get that one email that said they’ll keep me in mind if they had another opening.

On the flip side, you might just miss an important email telling you, you have won one billion dollars in a lottery. Who knows? There are a lot of things Gmail does that you probably didn’t know about (like organizing and snoozing) and you can use it to stay organized.

#2.) Make your bed:

While this might be something you already do, a lot of us don’t (I’m guilty AF). My husband likes the bed always dressed.

Me too.

Some how I struggle with consistently making the bed everyday. As much as I don’t consistently make my bed everyday, I’ve found that making my bed isn’t that much of a chore and the satisfaction I get when I come back home to a made bed is worth the 1-2minutes effort.

#3.) Organize your shit:

This goes for both online and offline organizing. As a virtual assistant, my clients ask me for files from up to six months back and I can’t say “I’m not sure where it is” or have to look for it for days on end. So I organize everything. Create folders for each client’s work according to the type of job and the month so it is always easy to find something. Apart from making me feel like I have my shit together, it keeps everything clean and organized and makes my clients feel like they can rely on me for anything.

Organizing things in boxes or compartments helps you find something without having to ransack your entire apartment. I know where to find my keys and don’t have to look all over because I have cultivated the habit of keeping them at a particular place.

#4.) Go through your bank statements:

I went through a time in 2019 where I didn’t want to see my account statement or any notifications of transactions. It was so bad that whenever I logged into my mobile app I looked away from seeing the numbers on the screen and just did everything fast enough not to see them. I wasn’t making frivolous financial decisions or anything, but my wedding was sapping the oxygen from my account faster than I had anticipated.

You see, that was a wrong move because when I eventually pulled myself by my hair and checked the account statement, I found that I had spent over 10,000 on airtime in only one month. No. I don’t mean mobile data. While 10,000 might be less than the amount you spend on the floss you use, it was a huge deal for me. Mostly because I had to spend a lot of time on the phone with my fiancé (to keep my sanity).

Going through your account statement on a regular basis holds you accountable and helps you keep track of where all your money is going.

This is important too because I found that someone had sent a lesser amount of money to me and I had confirmed their transaction. I don’t know how many times this happened before I grew the balls to check but I wish I had developed the habit sooner.

#5.) Always have vex money on you

First off, it is classy AF to always have a little money saved up for emergencies. Taking it a bit further, having money when you go on dates, or hangouts with family/friends is classier. Your vex money is essential regardless of if your partner promised you the treat or not.

Vex money is a little amount of money a lady carries on a date. It essentially covers her basic needs like; transportation, feeding and/or accommodation.

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People have been put in difficult situations, forced to go against their values, manhandled and even assaulted because they thought the other party was responsible for them, and had no money. Nobody can have your back as much as you.

After our wedding, my husband developed the habit of taking cash from my purse whenever he needed cash and making a transfer (some times with interest) to me. As sweet as the extra money is, I was always caught off guard whenever I checked my purse on my way out and found no money.

I’d ask for cash to put in my purse even if we’re going out together just because it made me feel safer and more in control. He couldn’t wrap his head around why I’d want to have my own money while going out with my husband.

Long story short, I just hide extra cash for emergencies and leave the one he can borrow and pay with interest in my purse.

#6.) Find your go-to outfit recipe:

This makes getting ready for work way easier and faster. Truth is, we really don’t want to be saddled with the responsibility of looking for what to wear every day of the week. I used to tell anyone who cared to listen that I was going to hire a personal stylist as soon as I got rich until I discovered my go-to outfit formula. Mine consists of a dress and covered shoes/sandals for work and a palazzo with a fitted top and flats for casual outings. I never feel over-dressed or under-dressed no matter where I go. Yours could be anything. Just be sure to find something that always makes you feel confident and comfortable. It’ll make getting ready in the morning 10 times easier, as well as make sure you always have something ready to go when you’re in a rush.

#7.) Find your go-to make up routine:

You don’t have to do a makeover every time you want to step out of your door. Mine consist of powder, lip gloss and stud earrings. I picked this look because it is not only effortless for me but because it takes me two minutes or less to complete. I draw my brows on days when I have a little more time to get ready and want to look a little more put together. It takes me less than 10 minutes to complete it. All you need to do is figure out what works for you and can be completed in as little time as possible.

#8.) Develop a self-care routine:

It is important that you take care of yourself. It is easy to forget about taking care of yourself when you have so much work as a VA. It’s even worse when you have kids. But I employ you to pamper yourself; Drink more water; take yourself for a date once a month; cut off friends that do not add value to you; speak out positive affirmations every morning; move on from relationships that no longer serve you; and forgive fools that did you wrong even if they don’t deserve it. You deserve to be at peace. You may even take these steps to stay fit if you hate exercising as much as I do.

#9.) Stop buying shit you don’t need:

I consider myself a good representative of millennials. I use social media often, use filters on my photos, talk about going to the gym (even if I never do), complain about how adulting sucks and even use #adulting on social media. So don’t you dare question how millennial I am!

Minimalism is a big turn on for millenials in today’s world. A lot of millenials want to embrace the minimalist lifestyle, and rightly so, clutter has a way of blocking out creativity. But you can’t be a minimalist if you impulse buy shit, especially shit you don’t need. I guess you just love too many things and want to have it all, but something has to give. Make budgets and stick to them, spend money on only what you must.

If you’re a trying to become a minimalist, you need to understand that it doesn’t happen overnight. It is a gradual process and can start with simply letting go of that leggings from 10 years ago even if you think it still fits. Goddammit, it doesn’t fit! You gained 10kg! Move on!

As a virtual assistant, you might want to sign up for every freebie or course that promises to help you gain 100 rich clients very week and make money in your sleep but don’t. You’ll just clutter your head and find it difficult to take action.

#10.) Have Your Documents Ready. Always!

Get a scanned copy of all your documents and save them to your Email, Dropbox, Google drive or wherever it will be safe and readily available. This is not only important if you are looking for employment, but in case of a disaster like a fire outbreak and all your documents are lost.

Write your CV and personal statement. Constantly update them even if you already have your dream job. You’ll never know when you need it. I recently had to submit my CV, personal statements and other documents and not having it handy was been a torn on my flesh. Trust me, there’s a difference between a CV you write last minute and one you write and update over time.

If you’re interested in bidding for jobs on LinkedIn, it allows you to upload your CV to LinkedIn and have it handy on LinkedIn whenever you want to apply for a job.

#11.) Share Your Achievements On LinkedIn

A lot of us have been focusing on all the wrong places for so long. I’ve lost count of all the family and friends whose LinkedIn profile is gasping for breathe while they are active on Instagram and WhatsApp. WhatsApp and Instagram are not bad. In fact, I have gotten a good number of clients from both platforms so they are good.

How be it, Linkedin is better if you want high ticket virtual assistant clients.

I recently started paying more attention to LinkedIn and I have gotten a good number of inquiries and clients from there. Additionally, I am building my authority as a Medical Laboratory Scientist. So when you view my profile you’d see that I am excelling in both industries. By the way, let’s connect on LinkedIn

Note: A lot of companies would rather hire someone who looks professional with a track record on LinkedIn even if you are more qualified. Don’t know what you must do to optimize your LinkedIn profile? I have a blog post all about how to optimise your Linkedin profile to get noticed by recruiters.

#12.) Educate your mind so you can hold intelligent conversations:

Read books, listen to podcasts, Google stuff, read your bible, listen to news to know when the zombies will attack what’s happening in the world. In all your getting, get knowledge.

You need to know a little bit of everything so you don’t mope like a fool when the topic is not about your village witches, celebrities, your stingy uncle or the secret lives of corrupt politicians. I’ve been in situations where all the person said in response was “deep!”, nuggets!”, “so true!”, “#fact!” and then waited for me to say more without having any point of view to share. If you do this, now you know that it just makes you look uninformed and foolish. When you know things for yourself, you won’t buy everything people say even if they are your pastor, mentor or renowned motivational speaker.

PS: Forgive me for not being a marlian but I’d rather not talk to you if all you’d be contributing to the conversation is “mad oh!”.

#13.) Don’t be too shy to ask for help:

I know we are all trying to get our shit together this year, but that doesn’t mean you should die in silence. You don’t have everything figured out and that’s okay. We all don’t. Acknowledging the fact that you need help and asking for it is classy! And you know I’m all about being classy and shit. So if you need help with anything, ask for help. I’ve found that people might be willing to help when I ask. That said, here are a couple of ways I can help you:

  • Need help with starting your virtual assistant business? Go here to find all the info you need.
  • Want me to take on some of the mundane tasks in your business? Contact me and let’s see how we can work together to achieve your goals this year.

Final Words

I know it might seem like everyone has their shit together except you, but that is almost always far from the truth. Feeling like you have your shit together at all times isn’t always the case no matter how hard you try. Some days are just off. You’re going to wake up from the wrong side of the bed, be unable to draw two identical brows and get your period 2 days early while at work. But that’s why you are human. Instead, keep trying to be classy. I hope these 13 little ways to feel like you have your shit together this year make your life a little more put together.

Which of these tips are you going to practice? Is there anything you’ll be doing to get your shit together this year? Let me know in the comments!

Why New Year Resolutions Suck And What You Should Do Instead

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

Oh crap! It’s new year, new me o’clock. Today’s no different than yesterday but somehow everyone feels like today is resolution kick off day. I’m sure you feel brand new and feel like you can achieve everything you set out to achieve this year. But you know what? All your resolutions are going to fail.

Why? Because you’re still that same old procrastinator from last year. You didn’t reach your saving goal, didn’t eat mainly fruits and veggies, didn’t exercise every day, didn’t take your VA business dreams seriously or even earn passive income online like you said you would.

At least you lost weight? How much weight? 5kg? But you gained 10kg while trying to have a detty December. By the way, your December wasn’t even detty!

So this year you’re ready again with your list of “resolutions” and shit and feel like you are going to reach the sky. Let me be the first to tell you resolutions have a high potential to fail so it’s not because Timaya sang the song. You know the one about him not killing himself. It’s not because your village people are using your picture to fan themselves. As much as you’d like to blame your village witches for your dumb mistakes, they are innocent. I hate to break it to you, but you are not so important to your village witches. This one’s on you.

WHY DO NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS SUCK?

Short Answer: Because they are unreasonable and unrealistic decisions sometimes made out of peer pressure without a clear course of action to achieve them.

Okay, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for people making decisions to better themselves but then, they are already programmed to fail because they are mostly unrealistic. I know they say the sky is your starting point but honey, chill.

Take a deep breathe. I am not attacking you yet

Bring down your shoulders, humble yourself, the ground is your starting point. Don’t build castles in the air again this year.

Thing is, resolutions suck for everyone. They are a bad move no matter how good your intentions are. Hell, I bet you can’t even remember some of your resolutions from last year. The fact that you had to wait till January 1st to become a better version of you is just nonsense. I really don’t want you doing the same dumb shit you did last year. So call me whatever you choose. The ghost of New Years’ past, fairy god-mother. Have at it.

But this is your chance to make things right this year and onward. So instead of whining about why new year resolutions suck, I decided to tell you what you should do instead.

What You Should Do Instead?

Short Answer: SET SMART GOALS. This is simply and acronym for:

  • S- Specific
  • M- Measurable
  • A- Actionable
  • R- Relevant
  • T- Time bound

When you set a goal, it has to have all five of the above features for it to work. This features will be your road map to achieving the set goal.

I’ll tell you this for free. If your goals are something even a teensy weensy bit abstract—like start a side hustle or become a virtual assistant…you are going to beat yourself up by this time next year because you won’t achieve your goal.

Instead, your goal should look like this:

I’ll take the virtual assistant launchpad training, launch my business in February, hone my skills and actively seek free and paid opportunities to learn.

How To Set Smart Goals

Review the past year:  first step is reviewing the past year. I know they say you have to let go of the past but not in this case. You have to see what went well, what didn’t go well, determine why it didn’t go well and strategize ways to improve.

Write down your goals: I don’t know about you but I’d rather plan with pen and paper. I stick to my goals better when I can write them down in my own handwriting. But whatever works for you is fine. The most important thing is for you to stick to your goals.

See: Habakkuk 2:2 “Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets so that whoever reads it may run with it.” And Exodus 17:14 “…the Lord instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder…”

Create a vision board: Create a vision board of the goals you have written down and put it where you can see every day. This may be on your room wall, inside your planner or in your office.

Get an accountability partner: Having someone to keep you in check and help you get your shit together when you go astray is priceless. I wanted to create a small private accountability group and have a small number of you join me crush your goals but I am too busy to make it work.

Review and Update your goals: At the end of 2019, I made a couple of goals with the steps to achieve them. They were SMART goals so I was going to stick with them. But shit happened. Good shit anyways.

I lost more weight than I had planned (not intentionally), I started teaching people how to start blogs, I got married, became a virtual assistant by accident and started making money online. My goals changed and my focus changed (in a good way) and I couldn’t be more proud of my achievements.

Imagine if I had stuck with my goals and followed through as planned, I would have refused the opportunity to make money from home working as a virtual assistant and refused to get married among other things. Imagine if I had waited till January to start my virtual assistant business.

WHY NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS SUCK AND WHAT YOU SHOULD DO INSTEAD

You will be a fool to keep doing what obviously isn’t working for you. If I move on to create this group, I will send tips and tricks that have been working for me and we can all review our goals for the week/month and the year. I think this will be fun. 

FINAL WORDS

It is laughable that people make resolutions and fail half way through January but have to wait till the next year to start again. If you think the New Year comes with a special resolution keeping spirit or things will be perfect and following through with your resolutions will be easier, you have to think again or I’ll make fun of you. I hope you’ve learned why new year resolutions suck and what you should do instead. Have you set goals for the year or you are going to wing it?

Lest I forget, Happy New Year!

How To Stay Fit Even If You Hate Exercise

Posted on by Rose Odoemelam

You want to stay fit but you hate exercise

You want to have a flat tummy, the right shape, maintain your banging body or live a more healthy life but hate exercise?

You are in constant need to tuck in your tummy to look good in a dress have screenshots of your ideal body on your phone, and you just look at them every once in a while and say I can’t kill myself I’ll start tomorrow.

So you eat at 2 am just before going to bed because you know people in your family are fat.

If any of that sounds like you, then pause.

Step away from the fridge S L O W L Y with your hands where I can see them because this post is for you! 

Well, you are not the only one. Not all of us can “find ourselves” with yoga, or by travelling the world. Apart from the fact that I hate travelling, I don’t have enough money for transport.

We all can’t be like Khloe Kardashian who loves the gym and probably sees herself in gym heaven in her dreams. Most of us know that we should exercise more, but we just feel life is short and Jesus is coming soon so we say- ‘I’ll rest for today. After all, this body is not my own. In the end, it shall return to dust’.

The first mental picture I had of the gym was of sweaty angry looking men lifting heavy weights with Dwayne Johnson-ish muscles, huffing and puffing, Chanting ‘no pain! no gain!’ and making the face you make when you are constipated and trying to poop. But now I know better. It’s not only about losing weight or building scary muscles, but staying fit and healthy.

However, I still haven’t been inside a gym at the time of writing this post. Truth is, everyone wants to be fit or at least a nice figure these days. Hence, the tsunami of product adverts like:

  • Get 6 packs in 2days with this natural syrup
  • How to get your flat tummy in 5minutes
  • Newly discovered belly fat sucker
  • The ultimate quick action fat terminator
  • Dr. Ogbonge  overnight six packs syrup
  • And the weird person in your comment section on Facebook saying “Hey Rose I lost 10pounds……”

Before I list out the various ways you can exercise without even knowing, note that in order for any of these procedures to work you must follow these simple rules

Rules Follow To Help You stay Fit Even If You Hate Exercise

  • Pick an exercise you enjoy– first of all I understand that you hate exercise but I am sure there’s that one thing you can do that isn’t too overwhelming. Find it and do it.
  • Take baby steps- I remember some 3 years ago I decided to join the association of morning joggers. I jogged until I was drenched in sweat and that was mostly because I wanted to jog for longer than my roommates. It is rather difficult to say if I jogged for almost an hour or almost 10 hours. It sure felt like 10 hours to me. Although my roommates think it was under 45 minutes. 45 minutes, one hour, 10 hours, who cares? I jogged for a very long time. After I was sure that they’d have gone back to the hostel, I jogged back feeling like the one with the greatest stamina. Well, they weren’t back, I desperately needed to bath and felt really nauseous. Throughout that day and the next, I felt excruciating pain in my legs and that was my last day. For someone who last jogged 7 years ago to do that much on the first day, I killed my fitness dreams before they even had a chance to mature. I guess all I’m saying is, you can’t do everything over night and don’t try to impress anyone with your stamina. Start small then grow into it!
  • Consistency is key- exercise is like everything in life. Be consistent. Even the bible acknowledges consistency when it said “pray without ceasing”. Find a routine you can stick to with a little effort and build up from there.
  • Set feasible/realistic goals- Don’t deceive yourself by saying you’ll lose 50kg in a week. Start with 5kg in a week and you might lose 1 or 2kg, that’s progress.
  • Reward yourself- I did not say you should reward yourself with a box of pizza before and after meals for a week! Instead, set targets like “if I lose 2kg this week, I’ll get myself a new pair of shoes”.

With all these struggles in mind, I penned down these simple things we can incorporate into our daily routines to make exercising not seem like a chore and more importantly, yield results.

8 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay Fit Even If You Hate Exercise

1.) Eat right

I can’t emphasize this enough. Waking up every morning to jog and then drinking a big sized carbonated drink after jogging, to “cool down” because you feel hot is funny. Engaging in stupid fasting isn’t the answer either. Like my mum will say, eat 3 times a day but reduce your ration and change your menu.

2.) Take the stairs

Taking the stairs can help you burn fat more than you know. It involves more muscle movement than jogging or running on a flat surface. It also works on your glutes, biceps etc

3.) Trek

How To Stay Fit Even If You Hate Exercise

Trekking is one underrated form of exercise. The benefits of trekking are very important. If like me, your feet swell up as a result of sitting or standing too long in one place, taking a walk might be just what you need. In my case, it totally removes all traces of swelling. The fun part is you don’t have to trek from Calabar to Lagos. Just around your neighborhood in the evening is all it takes. Thank me later. Trekking a good way of exercising without knowing it. Plus, you save money and help the planet.

4.) Dance

I can’t dance to save my life, so don’t worry, I got you! I dance in the secret and my only audience is my mirror. When I do this, I sweat so much and sometimes pant. Because all that body movement can be all you need. You can dance like a mad person without any judgement or risk of seeing your dance video on the internet with the hashtag #whenyouaresecretlymad. It’s just you and your mirror.

5.) Clean your house

Cleaning and decluttering is always a win. All that high dusting, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning is part of exercise. I’ll be the first to say cleaning isn’t fun for me. It is not my idea of a good time. However, cleaning as a form of exercise helps me kill two birds with one stone. To make it fun, you can play a good song, sing along, and dance while at it. In the end, you’d have exercised and cleaned house

6.) Stop eating late

This has been my habit for many years, I eat whenever I am hungry I don’t care what the time is. I eat whatever is available. Now I try to drink water instead of eating. Drinking water not only keeps me hydrated, it fills up my stomach and helps me forget I am hungry.

7.) Avoid lying down immediately after eating

One of my bad habits I am also trying to curb. I could just eat, push my plate aside, lie down and start fidgeting with my phone or start seeing a movie on my laptop. 2hours later I would wake up to my phone or laptop in an absurd position.

8.) Try swimming

Have you ever seen a fat mermaid?

Exactly, that’s how they keep fit! My pet peeve for many years has been swimming in public swimming pools. But if you have no problem you could spend time swimming.

It’s 2020 in a about 2 weeks, how much longer are you going to ‘tuck in your tummy to look good‘?

How much longer are you going to say ‘everyone in my family is fat so I can’t help it’?

I can’t assure you that you’ll ever be an instagram fitness influencer with 10million followers and a verified account, but you’d surely derive all these amazing benefits of exercise.

Your Turn!

Do you also hate exercise? Which of the points are you guilty of? Let me know in the comments!