2015’s been an exciting year for the Intelligent Ink team, and we’ve all learnt a lot along the way. In this end of year series, each Inker takes a look at what they’ve learnt and how that’s impacted on their lives – you might call it a peek inside the minds of the Inkers. Here’s to another year of learnings and laughter – see you in 2016!

Sarah Wolff

If you are unhappy with your life as it is, make a change!

I took a huge risk at the beginning of this year. I was unhappy with my current career and this was having a huge negative impact on my life. So, with the commitment to myself that I was going to pursue the career I wanted and not give up, I aimed to secure a job in my chosen career choice within a year. I left my full-time job and set out to study and look for work experience that would get me in that direction. This decision worked out for me, as here I am today, and totally happy with my life choice.

You cannot market an event enough!

Marketing can be the key to a successful event. You can plan an amazing event but if you don’t market it well enough to the type of people you are trying to attract to your event, then these people won’t come. If the people don’t come to your event, it can’t be a success regardless of how cool the event is. If you market your event well (to the right type of people and in the right way) then more people will come. The more people that come, the more successful your event will be.

Try to not do everything; look after yourself first.

Previously I have had a bad habit of committing to too many things at once, usually at the expense of my own health and/or personal life. I ended up getting very sick too many times as my body was trying to tell me to stop doing so much. While I was sick I realised that life was carrying on without me and my commitments weren’t as dependent on me as I thought. I had missed out on so many little things that I had wanted to be doing in the meantime, things like going to have dinner with my Nana, and exercising on a regular basis. So I made the decision to cut back on my commitments and take some time for myself. I signed up to do a half marathon and set goals for myself to be able to accomplish that, making sure that my work life couldn’t take over my running training. I also committed to less coaching sessions during a week to make sure I was getting enough sleep during the week. I found myself getting less stressed and also enjoying life more, instead of being bitter and tired constantly. My productivity and quality of work and coaching went up as well. Every now and then I have to do another check on my commitments and make sure that I am not falling back into that old habit, but overall my life is a lot happier