Gratitude

It's easy enough to get down on yourself and down on the world. Maybe you're not making progress on your goals, maybe it's a depressing time of year with cold weather and low light, maybe you're caught up in the mortgage mess or the stock market plunges, maybe you're looking at everyone else and wondering why they're all doing so well. Are they, really? Sometimes our perceptions get a bit screwed up and it is easy to see everything as half-empty even if you're a half-full kind of person. So what's the antidote? Gratitude...very simply you need to focus on what's right with you and the world, so here are the Top 10 Things To Be Grateful For. Well we'll start with 5 for now.

1. Your health - Good health is first and foremost to anything else you may have or want to do.
2. Your family - A supportive and stable family life enables you to move forward in your life and towards your dream.
3. Your significant other - Having someone to love and share your wins and challenges is the icing on your life.
4. Waking up in the morning - Every day above ground is a good day! Embrace it and make every minute count with what matters.
5. Having choices - Knowing that you CAN if you want to is very empowering. It's up to you to make it happen!

Smart Goal Setting

• Be Affirming: Write positive affirmations – statements that make your objectives clear. For example: “I am healthier because I am a non-smoker.“ Repeat them daily.
• Be Visual: Visualize achieving your goal. Be as clear as possible in your imagery.
• Be Flexible: Have a back-up plan. Be willing to change course.
• Be Courageous: Take some risks, give yourself permission to fail. Learn from your mistakes.
• Be Passionate: Examine what you feel strongly about. Use this to make your commitment stronger.
• Be Patient & Persistent: Give yourself extra time. It always takes longer than you think. If you're moving in the right direction, you're on track.

Common New Year Resolutions - make them real

HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you’re anything like me you have some general resolutions and good intentions on January 1st. By February, I’ve made little progress on some and forgotten the rest. If you really want to get serious and make some lasting changes, follow these suggestions:

• Be Specific - Define your goals clearly so you can measure your progress. Pick a visual way to track your progress.
  
• Be Realistic - Be reasonable considering what fits in to your work and home schedules. Stretch where you can.
  
• Be Positive - State your goals so they say what you want, not what you don’t want: “I will be a non-smoker,” instead of “I don’t want to smoke anymore.”

More to come soon.

What Makes Us Happy?

According to a USA Weekend poll, American’s say that love, strong faith, physical and emotional well-being are more important than material wealth or fame.
Two-thirds of Americans say they’re very happy. Most people are happiest at their current age.
Other findings:
~ Religious faith is the single most important factor, after health
~ Extremely happy people are active and social.
~ Part-timers and retirees are happier than full-time workers.
~ People who live with others are happier.

Stages of preparation before change takes place

It seems that there are stages of preparation we go through before actual change takes place. James Prochaska, PhD, a University of Rhode Island psychologist is the co-author of the book, Changing for Good (William Morrow and Company). He explains that people equate change with action. Yet action, he believes is only the fourth stage in the process of change.

Action cannot take place, Prochaska argues, unless it is preceeded by the following:
Pre-contemplation—feeling that the situation is hopeless or denying that there is a problem.
Contemplation—accepting that there is a problem and beginning to think seriously about changing it.
Preparation—developing a firm, detailed scheme for action.
Prochaska points out that there is a pressure to so something, but you can't succeed unless you have a plan. He likens it to trying to get through the Boston Marathon on sheer willpower. So in order to make lasting change, don't give up jsut because you haven't succeeded yet, think it through carefully, come up with a good plan, and be very specific with your goals so you'll know it when you get there!

Getting Ready for 2008!?

Do your New Year’s Resolutions seem the same every year? Or similar anyway. Are you like most of us—you make some resolutions in January to improve yourself in some way and then by February they’re put away in the cellar with the holiday decorations? Well, you’re not alone! Don’t despair since many people take a couple of years before they succeed! Taking some action appears to help the process even if you don’t reach your goals the first time.

“All those failures may have been leading toward eventual success.”

So if you’re reading this in February or even July, there’s still hope. You’re more likely to succeed than someone who hasn’t tried any Resolutions whatsoever. It reminds me of the thousands of times I tried to quit smoking. I thought about it often, you might even say at times I obsessed about it. I planned how I would do it and tried every technique from chewing gum, to nibbling on carrots, waiting until after lunch, trying to wait 15 agonizing minutes after a meal.

This was before the patch and I’m sure I would have tried that too. The point is all those many failures may have been leading me towards eventual success. Maybe even building upon each other. And in fact, I did succeed and now about 12 years later I can barely remember what it was like to be a smoker!

Give Youself A Gift

Now, here’s a little bonus gift-giving idea.

Every time someone cuts in front of you in traffic or is rude to you in a store or whatever it is that makes you mad, give them this gift: Let it go – pardon them! Really try it.

Even though you don’t know the person, say to yourself: “My gift to you this holiday season is to let you off the hook. I won’t get mad or even with you. I know you are stressed and rushed and maybe there’s some good reason for your actions. But I’m not going to let you ruin my mood or holiday spirit.”

And the neat thing is by giving this gift to others, you’ll really be giving yourself an added gift of peace and serenity!