Bianca Chatfield - Every Girl Needs a Plan

Contents

Have you thought about where you are heading and how you are going to get there? Are you dreaming big and then playing big? Or are you keeping it safe, but somewhere deep down, know you are capable of more? Maybe you have not given much thought at all to what you genuinely want out of life, and how to get it?

Its time to start living the life youve always wanted and being the person youve always wanted to be. And to get different results than before, you need to start thinking differently. Do what you are capable of and more. We know one thing for certain from our combined experiences: people are ALWAYS more capable than they realise or give themselves credit for. Its time to consider whether your personal and professional habits are like a team of cheerleaders on the sidelines, egging you on, or like a group of negative Nellys hindering your success.

WHY WE WROTE THIS BOOK

We wrote this book for YOU, because we wish when we were starting out, that there was a book like it for us, talking to us about the little things we now know make all the difference!

We wrote this book because everywhere we go, no matter what the industry, women sell themselves short; dont believe in what they are truly capable of; or are unaware of how to develop a game plan to bring their dreams to life. We frequently hear about the gaps, the areas that still need work, and previous mistakes and failings. Even worse, some women hold onto imagined future failings that force them to jog on the spot, rather than get out there and build the career and life they really want.

So much of what you learn about career and life success at school and university is focused on figuring out what you want to be, and not the broader concepts of how to get there, and how to look after yourself along the journey. You need a game plan in order to be your best self. You want to maximise the opportunities, and also get through the inevitable speed bumps that happen along the way. Thinking through your game plan sooner rather than later means you can get ahead of the curve, have strategies up your sleeve and not fall so far when things go wrong.

One of the things that we have both come to understand through our great career moments but more importantly through our failures is that there are really no short cuts to achieving success, no matter how Instagram makes it seem! Planning is key to thriving in a world that can make it a little trickier for girls to navigate. Often, the way forward needs to be thought about slightly differently for us. Its important to know who you are, and what you are genuinely capable of, without all the noise.

Can you relate to that? Are you nodding and agreeing as you read this? Then grab a cuppa, sit back and relax, because we cant wait to work with you!

Just imagine the impact if every woman you know (including YOU) translated her dreams into reality even those dreams that had only been whispered to her besties or not at all. It would be incredible.

Every Girl Needs a Plan is the product of our passion and expertise. Our collective experience has taken many forms, including professional athlete, secondary teacher, leadership coach, executive, CEO, public speaker and facilitator. Weve created our own businesses and executed the vision. We are endlessly fascinated with how to foster high performance and are committed to being the best versions of ourselves we can be, while soaking up as much information, theory and practice as possible from around the world. We have been surrounded by the best-of-the-best for a long time, working with many top performers, and we know what these people do better than anyone else. We know how they get their game on. We wrote Every Girl Needs a Plan to inspire you to be your best self and bring out the best in your team whatever kind of team that might be.

The traditional notions of what a career is made up of and womens status in the workplace have been turned on their head in the last few decades, and much more rapidly in the past couple of years. The game has changed and we are only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of seeing what is possible. What an exciting time to be alive, to be a woman and to make the most of what is in front of us!

CHANGE IS SLOW BUT WORTH IT

People love to talk about success as an isolated event, as something that just happens. Its not as sexy to think of success as merely a series of moments, but it is exactly that: its the sum of all our choices up to a certain point in time.

The fact that you have picked up this book suggests you are curious to learn more and do more. Perhaps you have already made a decision to start putting some time and effort into yourself? We think that is a great decision, but we have a word of caution: its tough and unrealistic to make huge or dramatic changes quickly. Like losing weight, real change cant be achieved after one day of eating well (we only wish that were the case). The reality is that long-lasting change and great success is about making small adjustments, learning along the way and putting yourself out there. We are going to throw a whole lot of stuff at you and, as you work through it with us, we want you to figure out what is best for you.

And while we aim to inspire you, we also have another equally important aim: we dont want to fill your head with any palaver. For us, there is a big difference between inspirational you can do it quotes and advice that is grounded. We figure that what you really need, particularly in this busy, modern life, is a book that gets to the heart of it, a companion that you can call on when you need a bit of coaching, a touch of sparkle, or a practical idea for how to make change happen.

We are your women and Every Girl Needs a Plan is the new ace up your sleeve. We care about YOU, YOUR journey and YOUR version of success. But, most importantly, we care about giving you tools to help you nail the kind of career and life you want.

WHAT THIS BOOK CAN DO FOR YOU

Every Girl Needs a Plan is a practical guide to life and work, covering all the basics you need to master to be your best self from emotional fitness, to leadership confidence, to building your own brand. This book will teach you how to navigate social media, how to turn down the volume of your inner critic, and why you should stop worrying about finding your passion guiding you to work out your own personal game plan that will set you up to live the life youve always wanted. Jam-packed with hands-on tips and tricks, motivating quotes, and practical Work It Out exercises at the end of each chapter, reading this book will empower you to actively take control of your life as soon as you open it.

We truly believe that you will be more successful if you do some planning, reflect on what you genuinely want to aim for, then make sure you know what to do when you bump in to challenges (and you will). Every Girl Needs a Plan is divided into five parts that represent key areas to work through when creating your own game plan for success.

So, its time to work out your game plan! Good luck! We will be here on the sidelines, cheering you on every step of the way.

Bianca Chatfield and Leigh Russell

We all have dreams and goals we would like to achieve in life, from personal ones, like getting fit or running a marathon, to career goals like being financially secure or landing a dream job. Being unclear about direction can lead to self-doubt, a lack of motivation, worry and stress, which can cause us to give up. Every girl needs a plan.