If You’re Happy and You Know It!

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I’m sure you remember the song “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”? I was reflecting on this and what really happiness means. We know this means contentment, gladness or joy, however, are we happy and do we know it? Have you thought what makes you happy and what do you do to make you happy? I try and work on being happy now, because working on being happy surely means I’m not happy now! Here are some of things you could actively do to help you feel happy: Gratitude – We need to start from a place of being grateful for what we have. If we’re not then we are discontented. Being grateful needs to be an action that we do and not just a thought. We default onto negative thoughts mostly focusing on what we don’t have rather than what we do have. Task 1

The Reality is you Need to Take a Reality Check!

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The reality is that we often can’t do everything we want to do and can’t be everything we want to be. We talk of having to take a ‘reality check’ but what does this mean? It usually refers to us saying we need or want to reconsider what we are doing or about to do, consider if what we are embarking on is possible. It’s about resetting ourselves isn’t it? Pushing our pause button or our stop button if only we could find it! How can we take a reality check and what steps might we take to ‘reset’ ourselves? Here’s some suggested tips on bringing ourselves back down to earth and bring SMART back into our lives. Problem Solving – We can often dwell on the problem rather than focusing on a solution or another option. By taking stock of where we are and writing down our problem or

What does SUCCESS mean to you?

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We all might have dreams and aspirations of being successful and having success, but do we really know what that is, what that means? It’s different for each one of us isn’t it? Do we know when we’ve got there? Is it what we wanted? Are we satisfied feeling we’ve achieved our lifetime ambition, and are fulfilled? I fear not! We strive continually for success, whatever that is or means, and often feel we haven’t got there, or we see other people appearing to have success, and we don’t seem to get there. We need to be careful we are wishing for the right thing, aiming for the right goal, going down the right path, don’t we? In the meantime, whilst we are on our journey to success, let’s look at what it could look like; perhaps some of these resonate with you? Success may mean or include the following

SOS – Setbacks or Speed-bumps

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SOS - Setbacks or Speed-bumps We probably all know what SOS stands for don’t we? Help! Save Our Souls! An acronym, abbreviation or slang word; an international code signal of extreme distress, used mainly by ships at sea. However, this isn’t the SOS that I’m referring to, but setbacks or speed-bumps. Setbacks! How do you deal with them? How do you recover from them? How do you regain control afterwards? If we’re honest with ourselves, we all have setbacks; we might not shout them from the rooftops, but we may share them with close friends or family. It’s because we don’t share them and ask for help, we need to find our own strategies and have a comprehensive toolbox to help us manage them. Here’s some tips: Take time out – so what, something went wrong, or you made a mistake; but you are not perfect and so take some

It’s That Time of Year!

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It’s that time of year isn’t it when we aim to set our New Year’s Resolutions! But what’s that all about? How many of us set them let alone achieve them? Aren’t they just the same as goals? And if we look at how many of us set goals and not achieve them, or at least find they were unachievable in the first place! We know our goals need to be SMART – specific; measurable; achievable; realistic; timescale, but do we focus on outcome of where we are going to be and how we are going to feel at the end? Most of us don’t achieve our goals because there is no emotional benefit for us; it’s just too hard; we often just set goals for things we know we should be doing rather than what we want to do, no wonder we don’t achieve. You may be reading this

The Bars of Life, would you have a Bar of it?

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You’ve likely heard the saying “I wouldn’t have a bar of it?” The origin or meaning apparently stems from USA with bar being short for barrow, i.e. “I wouldn’t take a barrow of him even if they or he was giving it or him away for free”! Or it could be referring to a bar of chocolate i.e. “I wouldn’t want anything to do with him even if it came in a bar of chocolate or he or it was neatly packaged up like a tasty bar of chocolate”. How about imaging it’s neither of these, but more an acronym – BAR. Let’s look at what this acronym is and means and how we can integrate BAR into our lives. B – Believe – We need to believe in ourselves, in what we do, our abilities, our goals, our desires and more importantly our abilities. We can be our worst

Shudder the Thought!

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Shudder the Thought! I recently revisited Napier, the last time being 10 years ago. One of the return visits was to the earthquake museum. The video talked about ‘The Day that Hit the Bay’ and it also referred to Napier as being ‘The town where time stood still’. This got me thinking about how an event such as an earthquake or other major event in our lives can change us forever and affect us in ways that we don’t even realise until much later. These events in our lives leave scars, emotional, mental and sometimes physical, which can be seen and felt by us and others. Napier’s event reduced a city to rubble, killing and hurting many, leaving pain and heartbreak for lots of people. However, in time a new beginning came about, a new city with an Art Deco theme incorporating many cultures across the world. When we have

At this time of year, do you intend to?

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I’m sure you’ve heard the proverb “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, and you probably know it has nothing to do with a road to hell or that the road is paved, but that, ‘hell’ (or Sir Hell) was paved with good intentions. This reminds me of the other more common word used, the ‘a round tuit’, (or the saying never getting around to it), referring to those who say they intend to do something and never do. This led me to wondering how many times your road been paved with good intentions or how many round tuits you might have and why have you never gotten around to doing things? Feeling – Thinking – Doing – let’s look at these individually. Feeling – We spend a great deal of time with our emotions feeling happy or sad or various other feelings of possibly empathy with others

Can you be an Optimist if you are a Worrier?

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Are you the proverbial optimist or pessimist? Are you the glass half empty or the glass half-full? Do you constantly worry about what might happen? Do you find it hard to stop worrying about things that may never happen? If any of the above apply, then read on! If they don’t read on anyway as your opinion is valued. I was thinking the other day about the fact that if you are an optimist then theoretically you shouldn’t be a worrier! This is an oxymoron isn’t it? (An oxymoron being “a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction”). Like some of you, I am sure you are an optimist, always focusing on the positive and putting out constant positive messages to attract positive things to us – the Law of Attraction. But, also like some of you, we can’t stop the old ‘worry warts’ bothering us

Anchored to the Wharf? Consider a DPS!

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Do you know what an anchor’s for? Do you have an anchor? How do you know if you have the right anchor? What is an anchor? “An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current”. How might we anchor ourselves down, staying in our comfort zone, reluctant to move into unknown waters for fear of being swept away! Nowadays, instead of anchors, vessels use ‘Dynamic Positioning Systems’. These are operated by twin GPS satellite and operated via twin propellers below the boat which work constantly, helping you hold your position, positioning you accurately without damaging the boat, relieving stress and increasing safety. Perhaps we could change our thinking, particularly if we feel we’ve anchored ourselves to the wharf, never venturing out to sea for fear of