Category: Gratitude

CategoriesGratitudeHealth & FitnessObserveTime

The Storm Before The Calm

Posted on December 22, 2021

I always find December to be quite a challenge. There are the cooler days in the Northern Hemisphere, preparations for Christmas if you join in those festivities, parent teacher events, sporting finals, shorter days and end of year gatherings. Add the challenge of government rules around Covid to that and preparing and launching a book and there is even more to deal with.

Getting trees, shopping, wrapping, card writing and queuing to send cards or gifts all add on top of regular work and sleep. There is fun to be had but also a strain on your time. There are all the things I intend to do and each year I aim to start the process earlier. Thankfully my wife is very good at sorting these extra things out which always saves the day. Though we don’t get everything off of our wish list each year, we do get the essentials sorted.

And that is ok. We can’t do everything. We have to make priorities on our time and finances. Fortunately, there is a moment around 9am Christmas morning, I feel the calm settle in. What is done is done. Anything missed will be accepted or fixed later. And we can enjoy a few days of totally chilling. I love that.

The storm before the calm is necessary for me to appreciate the calm. And for those hours this weekend, I will be in complete bliss. Enjoy!

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CategoriesActionGratitudeReframe your thoughtsTime

Celebrate Your Wins!!!

Posted on December 15, 2021

An essential part of life is enjoying it. And you can create a lot of momentum if you celebrate little and large wins. So make sure you book in little celebrations after every milestone.

Celebrations can be in the form of high fives, fist pumps, a little dance, or a favourite food or drink. For slightly larger wins, book a walk, lunch or dinner. Big wins might attract bigger events like a cruise, vacation, weekend away or special purchase. It might even be as simple as spending special time with someone you have had to miss seeing while you have been achieving your goals.

This is easy to overlook or see as being just silly or frivolous. But it will make your life more joy-filled. Don’t always wait for just the big win at the end of the year or decade. Some people wait their whole life before they can smile and truly enjoy where they are and the success they’ve been creating. My suggestion though is to not wait.

Celebrate, proportionally, as much as you can! It feels good and is quite motivational. It also reinvigorates you.

Celebrate is step seven in my forthcoming book – Achieve Anything – The 7 Simple Steps to Shift from Uncomfortable to Unstoppable. Be sure you include frequent, but proportional, celebrations for every perceived win. Mix it up. Do some free and paid-for ones. You will be so grateful you did this step a lot. It really makes your life more enjoyable. Build your confidence and happy factor. Celebrate your wins!!!

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CategoriesActionGoals, Results & New ThinkingGratitudeObserveProgress

Review Your Progress

Posted on December 14, 2021

‘Are we there yet?’ Clearly wanting to know how far from the finish we are is a natural desire. ?

If you’ve ever had a long journey with kids in the car, you’ll know the phrase I am referring to. But adults want to know to. They check maps, or their satnav, to see if they are ‘making good time’ and where the next rest station is.

Employers want to see ‘progress reports.’ Athletes need to track their gains and PBs. We all want to be a little better or further along with something at sometime in our lives.

It’s easier to review your progress if you have a plan to track against. Then you can course-correct if need be because you’ll know when you are a little off course. Tracking your progress allows you to see your plan unfold. And, spoiler alert, you’ll also know when to celebrate as you reach milestones.

This may be the most skipped step in the 7 step process. People are averse to tracking and reviewing. There are a variety of reasons for this. But the impact is that they usually make less progress. Often this occurs because they don’t know the progress exists so they give up too early and throw out the plan. If only they doubled down their discipline and tracked their progress and reviewed their plan daily. There would be a lot more achievements in this world!!

Review is step six in my forthcoming book – Achieve Anything – The 7 Simple Steps to Shift from Uncomfortable to Unstoppable. Be sure you include a daily review element to your plan to greatly increase your chance of success. Review your progress!

PS. On Tuesday, I received the Advance Copy of the paperback!!! Looking great! Amazing to have it in my hands. A couple of tiny tweaks is all it needs. Hopefully the hardback will look equally fantastic when I receive it later this week!

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CategoriesGratitudeThink About It

Take An Evening Off

Posted on December 5, 2021

We can be charging ahead and getting so much done, we can forget to take an evening off. Do something relaxing or that you don’t usually do. Mix things up a little. You feel well rested the next day.

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CategoriesGratitudeObserveProgressReframe your thoughtsTime

Things Will Get Better Tomorrow

Posted on December 3, 2021

Sometimes our day doesn’t go how we want it to. It could be something we did or didn’t do. Or, it could be something that others have done or not done. It can even just be down to nature or circumstance. There are countless reasons why your day may not have gone as well as you would have liked.

Regardless of why it didn’t go well, things will get better tomorrow. The immediate impact can feel uncomfortable or even devastating. But hang in there. Time is an incredible thing that allows us to heal. Training the mind to have hope and look forward to brighter days is also very powerful.

Don’t dismay. You are stronger than you think you are. Recognise the hurt or the pain. But also know that pushing through will be the best thing you could ever do. You will be stronger and more experienced. You will rebuild and things will go amazingly well. Have faith. Have hope. Rest for a moment, or a day, and then get back on your path to a better life.

I’m cheering for you!

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CategoriesActionGratitudeHealth & FitnessProgressReframe your thoughts

If Life Is Too Easy

Posted on December 1, 2021

You’ll find a way to mess it up. You don’t have to mess it up, but that does seem to be what many people do.

With ease comes complacency. Then you can fall behind the pack. After that it seems easier to play it cool then to try hard to catch back up. Then the seeds of self-destruction are being sown. You shrug it off and say you don’t care, when inside it is eating at you every minute. Envy, jealousy and hate become commonplace in your mind.

To turn that around you need gratitude. Appreciate all the little and large things in your life. Write it out. Don’t just think about it. Write out, ‘I am grateful for….’ It could be ‘I am grateful for my health, heat in my home, food on my table and a comfortable place to sleep.’

If life is too easy, we don’t appreciate it. There was no struggle. We want to prove we had to struggle so we create some drama. There is no need to do that. There is enough you are already struggling with unless you have the body, finances, relationship, education and career you always wanted. If not, get committed and be disciplined every day until those things are 100% how you want them. Until then, be grateful for every moment of being alive and being able to work toward your dreams.

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CategoriesActionGratitudeReframe your thoughts

Play With What You Have

Posted on November 30, 2021

Sometimes we don’t have all the resources we would like or that others may have. For teams, sometimes a key player is injured or unavailable.

This hit home Monday when I spent the day watching my son Ryker playing with his school rugby team at a major festival. There was a comment made that they didn’t have all their players. The idea seemed to be that they may have done better with more players as there would be fewer tired players, injuries could be rested a bit more and some would have relished the higher level they played at.

I thought that could be true. Their chances of overall success may have been improved. But then I remembered another key player from another team who was still on the injured list since we played them a few weeks ago. What if all the other teams had all their players or more players or their better players?

Life can be quite random. Sometimes it works in your favour and other times it does not. So, play with what you have and do your absolute best with that.

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CategoriesGratitudeHealth & FitnessObserveProgressReframe your thoughtsThink About It

Why Choose Anger?

Posted on November 20, 2021

You can choose your focus. Sure, different thoughts, good, bad and odd, come into your mind. However, you get to choose which ones you will focus on or hold onto.

You don’t have to swing at every pitch. You can let a few thoughts go by. Generate good thoughts. Let poor thoughts pass on by.

If you’re not doing this, ask yourself why. Do you enjoy the intensity of feeling? Are you keen to solve everyone else’s problems? All 8 billion people need you to help them?

There might be injustices in the world but your anger won’t reverse them. If you want to calmly write letters, lobby people with power to change things or put forward sensible arguments, then do it.

Try to stay away from the outrage, the anger, the poor thinking and the cherry-picked opinions and facts that keep you as a prisoner in that state of mind.

From what I can tell, the vast majority of issues come from a few people who have made poor decisions in life or else from misunderstandings or accidents. We would do better to reduce our involvement where accidents are more likely to occur. Also, take the time to understand a situation very well, from all sides, before being an outraged judge of it. Finally, volunteer to help kids and youth to improve their thinking and their decision making so they grow up to be good and useful members of society rather then destructive ones.

Redirect that powerful energy. Why choose anger? Especially when you can choose positive impact!

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