Laur Inspired (2025)

30/05/2025

Monthly roundup! 🌐 💬 💫

May has been possibly the quickest month I’ve had this year, anyone else feel like it’s just disappeared?

Looking back on this month, in preparation for my call with my mentor this afternoon, I’ve been lucky enough to gain so many rich and valuable insights through my network and beyond, and here’s a few of the highlights for me...

2 QUOTES

“Create a culture of saying thank you” - Julie Turney

🌐 Appreciation at work isn’t always front of mind for managers, executives, and employees. My conversation with Julie helped to shape my recognition at work project by focusing on the most underrated yet impactful form of recognition. Simply saying thank you.

“This is all painting by numbers” - Jo Taylor

🌐 Every zoom call, message, in-person interaction with someone along your career journey is colouring in another bit of the picture. This is a reminder that your journey is an ongoing path of learning and discovery, and it’s what you gain along the way that has the biggest impact. My conversation with Jo was another turning point in my next steps for growth.

2 RECOGNITIONS

💬 The kindness of Gail Bennett who introduced me to the supportive Nicki Bidgood
💬 The generosity of Roly Walter who gave me advice and reached out to his network

2 REFLECTIONS

💫 Achieving a high pass on my 3rd CIPD assignment
💫 Gaining confidence with in person networking (Festival of Work, here I come!)

As I await 2 very exciting calls later today, I am appreciative of everyone who has supported my journey over the past few months, and I’m excited for what’s to come and what I’ll learn in the future!

📷: one step at a time

16/05/2025

Done is better than perfect.

Overachievers struggle with that one.

🤔 So how do you stop trying to strive for perfection?

I used to struggle with trying to complete tasks to an perfect standard, which led me to work way beyond my hours, fixating on every last detail until I had looked at it for far too long.

📎 This doesn’t achieve anything but extra stress.

📎 When you’re juggling a lot of responsibilities, it’s important to prioritise and to know when a task is done.

📎 The more you fixate, the more things you’ll find wrong with it (and when you’re striving for perfection, that usually means there’s nothing really wrong at all!)

📎 It’s better to take action and make progress than get bogged down in analysis paralysis, otherwise you’ll never stop working on it.

So, the next time you’re striving for perfection or not able to let go of a task, ask yourself is it good enough?

Because by your standards, “good enough” will be amazing.

🤔 What’s a piece of advice that’s stuck with you throughout your career?

09/05/2025

“Let them have their opinions. Let me live my life in a way that makes me proud.”

The Let Them Theory 💫

Have you heard of it?

I’m sure you have. And if not, well I have the best book and podcast recommendation for you!

This is a tool from , backed by incredible Science, that will completely change your perspective on stress management, career choices, relationships, and more 💥

I could talk about this book until the cows come home, and this won’t be the last time I talk about it that’s for sure, but I’d like to share how it impacted me this week.

I don’t know about you, but networking is out of my comfort zone, it makes me nervous, but it’s something I’ve been doing more of, at least in formal settings.

However, putting myself out there in public, when people are going about their own business, is something I’ve avoided.

What if they think I’m strange?
What if they don’t want to talk to me?
What if I get ignored?

Well, let them.

👉 Let them have their opinions and think what they think.

But LET ME take risks, put myself out there, and make myself proud. 👈

So, as I sat in the British Library reading this book and hearing the impactful conversations from the woman next to me, I knew I wanted to build a connection.

She was on constant calls, so I thought I’ll write her a note instead.

But then she moved seats, so I got more nervous as I had to build up the courage to walk up to her and hand her the note.

But as I was leaving, I passed it to her, and she thanked me.

And do you know what? 👀

Everything was okay. In fact, I felt empowered and more confident after that exchange, and I was proud of being brave enough to approach a stranger.

So the next time you want to put yourself out there, but you’re afraid of judgements, remember this:

“Let them have their opinions. Let me live my life in a way that makes me proud.”

02/05/2025

Did you know you’re only born with 3 emotions? 🧠

Rage. Fear. Distress.

The environment we grow up in connects the 3 parts of our brain, and these pathways can form until the day we die.

led an informative and eye-opening stress-busting workshop on Monday which gave a lot to think about when it comes to stress in the workplace, and dealing with my own stress.

Here’s my FOUR greatest takeaways:

🧠 Nothing is fact. Everything is about perception. If you don’t like your perception, change it.

How much we stress is relative to how much we CATASTROPHISE about the potential outcome. If we change our thoughts, we change our feelings and behaviours.

🧠 The best way to help others is to first help yourself.

By looking after yourself and setting boundaries, you are in a much better position to actively listen to someone else.

🧠 Stimulating your vagus nerve reduces stress.

There are so many ways to do this: laughter, sugar, meditation, compassion, cold, and more...

🧠 Do less of what drains you, more of what replenishes you.

When you have positive mental health, you are far less likely to personalise other people’s problems, so you should prioritise this through positive selfish activities.

How do you reduce your stress? 🤔

25/04/2025

☀️ “Culture is what you see, not what is said” ☀️

Such an impactful event yesterday, organised by People Talk, about aligning company culture with beliefs, and the importance of incorporating sustainability in the workplace.

Here are my 3 key takeaways:

🗒️ Culture manifestos are different to values because they are HUMAN
🗒️ Supporting employees in developing their climate story will make sustainable changes PERSONAL
🗒️ Prioritising sustainable practices throughout your organisation will make a huge difference for your FUTURE HIRES

I learnt so much from the sessions yesterday and gained some wonderful new connections.

I can’t wait for the next one!

18/04/2025

You have arrived at PROCRASTINATION STATION 🚉

Do you always end up here?

From studying to working, and back to studying, I’ve spent a large chunk of my life working towards a deadline of some kind.

But when motivation is lacking, it can be SO hard to get anything done.

You stress about the work you need to get done rather than doing the work.

The BIGGEST issue I found was how easily distracted I could be by my surroundings, my struggle to understand the project, or my phone...

That’s when I took “WORK HARD PLAY HARD” seriously.

When I’m in work mode:

🎧 I wear noise-cancelling headphones
📱 I put my phone on DND
⏱️ I focus for shorter periods of time

Making those simple changes ELEVATED my productivity and what used to take me 6 hours now takes 2.

It’s surprising how much you can get done when the conditions are right.

Giving you more time to live your life, with less stress.

✴️ How do you combat procrastination?

04/04/2025

The NEED to switch off 📲 ❌

Just before going on this holiday I found myself trying to be productive but struggling to focus and unable to get into deep work.

The difference between my productivity levels then and now are HUGE.

Why?

Because sometimes we need to completely switch off.

No socials, emails, notifications... nothing!

It doesn’t have to involve going abroad, it could be a couple days out to reset your brain.

Our brains need time to recover from being constantly on in an ever-connected world.

It’s not until I stopped that I realised the impact always being on was having (even if it wasn’t work related).

Trust me, I know that’s not always easy, but there’s always going to be a reason to stay switched on.

It sounds obvious, but my ability to perform at work and in my own endeavours has significantly improved after some time out, and it’s something I never used to prioritise.

If you’ve been putting off your request for annual leave, feeling like it’s not the right time, here’s your sign to put it in!

21/03/2025

What an insight-packed day I had on Wednesday at the Workhuman Live Forum!🌟

It kicked off with Amy Edmondson’s incredible research around the impact of psychological safety on high performance, feeling valued, and success as a team.

She spoke on the importance of having high quality conversations.

We need to fail to grow, we need to be curious about all perspectives by asking good questions, and we need respond with an open mindset about how we can help.

✨Favourite quote: “Silence is free. You can raise the cost of silence by asking questions and inviting participation”

⭐️

My biggest takeaway from Eric Mosley was the need for mass data to inform decisions.

You can build a more accurate picture with information density, which can be harnessed through AI to deliver in a range of ways from development opportunities and recognition, to identifying skills shortages and mentorship.

⭐️

Jitske Kramer’s fascinating cultural anthropology talk brought home the importance of our relationships to one another and the impact our connections have on our culture.

✨Favourite quote from her time with Ramnami: “the deepest connection can be found in the feeling of loneliness”

Culture is shaped through campfire conversations.

They are transformational and allow us to build strong communities and make changes.

⭐️

David Green delivered a powerful talk about being able to tell a good story with data.

Data literacy is a crucial, if not the most crucial, skill needed right now.

It’s important to be a good storyteller to take the right action and get results.

✨Favourite quote, from Brené Brown: “Stories are data with a soul”

⭐️

Every speaker and panelist gave me a new perspective on the importance of people practice to inform decisions that benefit employee wellbeing, engagement, and retention.

I’ll definitely be awaiting the next WorkHuman Live forum in 2026!🌟

07/03/2025

In honour of International Women’s Day tomorrow, I want to share a story relating to two inspiring women I’ve had the privilege of meeting!

I love connecting with mentors and people who share the same passion for bettering the lives of others, especially in the workplace.

I had one of my favourite conversations this week with a wonderful HR Director who had oodles of wisdom to share with me!

She shared with me her top priority for 2025:

👏 Wellbeing in the workplace.

Our conversation reminded me of a client I worked with who was struggling to manage her self-care and priorities outside of work, because her job was taking a toll on her mental health.

— (By self-care, I mean not having the energy or time to cook healthy and filling meals for herself and her family).

We discussed simply chopping her vegetables ahead of time - rather than full on meal prepping - and this was an absolute game changer.

To cut 12 weeks working together very short, this led to:

➡️ Gaining energy through eating well-rounded meals every day
➡️ Having greater capacity to set boundaries at work
➡️ Growing the confidence to go for (and achieve!) a promotion at work

All of this because of one small change in her lifestyle.

As an employer, prioritising wellbeing through workshops to manage stress, nutrition or sleep coaches, or counsellors to support mental health issues, is the best thing you can do to support your employees.

How does your workplace promote wellbeing?

Laur Inspired

30/05/2025

16/05/2025

09/05/2025

02/05/2025

25/04/2025

18/04/2025

04/04/2025

21/03/2025

07/03/2025

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