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Action Health & Fitness Reframe your thoughts

Celebrate Life’s Special Moments

Posted on September 13, 2020

As you get a little older, or at least a little wiser, you realise how important each moment is. Celebrate life’s special moments as often as you can. They come and go so quickly.

My wonderful Mom turned 75 today. You wouldn’t know it. Full of energy and a positive, joyful attitude might make her seem younger than she is. She’s also fit and healthy, so that helps keep her youthful looking too.

Celebrating her birthday was great, despite it being in a Covid friendly, socially distanced way. It was lovely to join her in a conversation over Zoom to celebrate this milestone birthday. Technology is fabulous that way.

In preparing for this grand event, we were able to get some birthday videos sent to us from friends and family. A great little website called VidHug helped us out too. It is better than a card. You get a personalised memory delivered ’in person’. And the video will be easy to keep and find.

What struck me was so many people’s willingness to participate in fun, quirky and lovely ways. It was beautiful to hear their kind comments and the fond memories they had of Mom. It wanted me to make a bigger video with more people. She’s truly a unique and wonderful woman.

Celebrate life’s special moments whenever you can. Don’t wait. It will open your eyes to life’s beauty.

Action Gratitude Observe Reframe your thoughts

Catch People Doing Something Well

Posted on September 9, 2020

It’s so easy to criticise. Especially if you continue to practice doing it. Of greater benefit to one and all is to catch people doing something well.

I think I read about this in a parenting book many years ago. It really struck me. Although we want to guide our children and others well, it can mean we provide a disproportionate amount of negative feedback.

What builds confidence and leads to greater capability is hearing good and positive feedback. For most kids, they will do 99% of things in the good zone. Check whether you are giving 99% of your feedback on those good things they are doing.

This is the same with colleagues, other family members, the government, health care workers, police and teachers.

Every day, one hundred thousand things have to go right, at the right time. That’s just for things to go smoothly. If one thing isn’t right, try not to focus on that. Focus on all the other things going well.

There are various ways to address this. One is to recognise several of the good things that they have done, especially any they did particularly well. Often you can leave it there. A lot of times they already know what they could have done better.

Catch people doing something well and you’ll see more smiles.

Gratitude Reframe your thoughts Time

That Is A Lot Of Birthdays

Posted on September 8, 2020

Every once in a while, people we know celebrate their birthday. Today, roughly 21.4 million people will celebrate. That is a lot of birthdays!

The world population is now over 7.8 billion according to Worldometer. It really is hard to imagine that number of people. And they are all quite similar to you. They breathe, eat, use the loo, require sleep and have some income or way of sustaining themselves.

In addition, more than than 7.8 billion will celebrate a birthday in the next 12 months. The reason for this is that the world’s net population growth is currently about 81,000,000 each year.

So where could you host a big party for all of the people celebrating their birthday on the 8th September? Imagine the largest stadium you have ever been in. Was it an 18,000 seater arena? Maybe a 100,000 seater football stadium?

Let’s imagine the 100,000 seater stadium. There are only 11 of these in the world. Stadiums like Michigan, Tiger and Motera along with the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Camp Nou, Wembley and Twickenham are massive but don’t have a 100,000 seat capacity.

Picture how big those stadiums are. And all the people in them. Now picture 214 of those stadiums filled to capacity. That’s how many people would be celebrating their birthday on a given day.

That is a lot of birthdays!

Gratitude Reframe your thoughts

Life Is A Value Hierarchy

Posted on September 6, 2020

Throughout your life, you will need to choose between two or more options of value. Life is a value hierarchy and you are the constant decision maker.

A simple example of this is what to eat for breakfast. You may have the luxury of choosing between eggs royale or Cheerios. Some people will have more exciting choices and some far fewer. Some don’t have anything to choose from.

Whatever your situation, you then need to make a choice. First you make a choice of your preferred meal. Second, you make a choice about how you see your situation. What’s fascinating is how people perceive their situation.

Some will have all the best cooked, freshest food in the world and be happy. Others will find something to disparage. Those with poor, few or no choices, can find happiness or discontent too.

Extrapolate this out to all of the decisions you make in a day. You are constantly deciding what is more important and less important. Then you decide how you feel about it. Be careful though. Those decisions about how to feel about things, soon will become a habit.

You might not notice, but you may stop appreciating your moments of good fortune. Things may start to seem commonplace. You may become disenfranchised with imperfection.

Life is a value hierarchy. But you are at the controls.

Action Progress Reframe your thoughts Time Weight loss

Turn Up The Heat!

Posted on September 4, 2020

Ok, it’s been an unusual start to the year so far. Things may have been out of kilter or offline. However, now it is time to turn up the heat!

I mentioned the other day how it is time to accelerate to the finish. We don’t have a lot of time left to get the things done we want completed this year. So you need to start taking massive action. Lean into these final few months and make the most of them.

Turn up the heat! Get things moving today. Work an hour longer today. Wake up 30 minutes earlier tomorrow and go for that walk or jog you’ve been thinking about. I know you may be reading this on a Saturday morning. That does not mean chill out. That does not mean have a lie in. Double down on those weekend days.

Start a new habit now. Or as soon as you finish reading this. You will create a new bit of dynamism in your life. That will help you shift in other areas too. Work on your Art of Now! Do it, delegate it or dump it. The important piece though is to get moving now.

Act now! Turn up the heat!

Observe Reframe your thoughts

How You See Things

Posted on September 3, 2020

I find it fascinating watching people discuss a topic. Often they will use facts and reasonable points but reach different conclusions. How you see things is a massive determinant in your life.

The US initial jobless claims have been announced by the US Department of Labour. It noted that the weekly claims were down about 110,000. It was roughly 1 million last week. This week it was 880,000. The comparable week in 2019 was circa 179,000.

So some people have noted that there is a downward trend in the weekly jobless claims, which there is. Other people noted that, compared to last year, the jobless claims are about 4.5 times higher, which it is. Both parties are right but they choose different data to make their point.

Some people will emphasise that things are getting better. They may want the incumbent President re-elected so promote the good news. Or their business may depend on the economy improving so they are sounding optimistic in the hopes others will be too. The opposite is also true. In addition, if you want or need more government money, you may highlight the negative numbers.

How you see things is not always clear cut. You often see things to suit the narrative you have in your mind already. With a cloudy vision, you can make decisions detrimental to your future.

Action Reframe your thoughts

Personal Accountability Is Critical

Posted on August 31, 2020

You can have reasons or results. You can be someone who produces or gives excuses. Everyone can deliver or wither. Personal accountability is critical.

It may be a good idea to decide which way you want to live your life. And you may also want to consider how you are perceived. Do you want to point to any possible hurdle in life and blame it for your lack of success? Another way is to reach down, overcome the obstacle and succeed despite it.

Perhaps a child is not getting decent grades at school. Should we blame the teacher, the school, the system or the leaders of the country? Starting with the child might be a better option. Is the child capable of better grades? Are they putting in the time and focused effort that that child needs to in order to achieve the higher grades expected?

There is a generally accepted ‘better way’ to do almost anything these days. You can find these online easily. Not only is there one ‘better way’, frequently you will be able to find many very good options to choose from. To get from London to Paris you could drive, fly or take the train. There are also pros and cons for each.

Personal accountability is critical. Get the results despite the hurdles.

Action Progress Reframe your thoughts

Build Your Endurance

Posted on August 30, 2020

Life is a series of sprints wrapped inside a marathon. There are ups and downs, victories and challenges. If you build your endurance, you will survive and probably thrive as you move from one sprint to another.

Most people seem to notice the challenges ahead more than they celebrate the victories that loom in the past. Whatever you focus on will be your reality. So choose what you focus on carefully. You will have enough of your own challenges in life without adding anyone else’s to your list.

As you build your resilience and your endurance, you will gain additional confidence and personal power. With these attributes you will improve your rate of success. This will build your mental strength so that you can call on that when you need to endure difficult times.

Remember to get the flywheel of success working with you. It is much better than having the flywheel of doom working against you. Amazingly, you get to choose which one you have at your side, based on your focus and attitude. Bizarrely, too many people choose the later rather than the former.

I’ve never understood why someone would want to make a life full of challenges even more challenging.

Stay focused and build your endurance.

Reframe your thoughts Think About It

What Would Your Grandma Say?

Posted on August 27, 2020

In my youth I found that this was a good barometer of what would be acceptable for my thoughts and actions. “What would your Grandma say?”, was a phrase that I would run through my mind in situations that may have been pushing the boundaries.

The idea I created in my head went like this. I would imagine the scenario whereby my grandmother picked up the newspaper or turned on the news and there was a report about me, her grandson. The report would highlight what I had said, done, written etc. and paint it in both a balanced and then a biased way.

Then I would go visit my Grandma and have a conversation with her about it. If that whole idea of her finding out what I did, or my having to discuss it with her, made me uncomfortable, that was an indicator to stop before doing anything.

I was telling my son about this recently and suggesting that it might be a useful guide for him. Especially in this era of one strike and you’re out.

You may already have your own system that works for you. That life guide that keeps you from pushing the envelope too far.

If so, great!

However, if not, what would your Grandma say?

Action Reframe your thoughts

Hoping But Not Happening

Posted on August 25, 2020

Hope is a very powerful and optimistic state of mind. However, despite its power it is not action or results. Hoping but not happening is an all too common situation for many, many people.

Sometimes people will use the word when they know they will not be making it happen. It’s as if their response has a silent ‘but’ underlying it. For example, if I ask one of my children if they can tidy their room before going to school, I may get the following reply. “I hope so”.

It’s a great reply. It’s optimistic and fills me with hope that it could happen. So the word is a feel-good filler. However, the child may have no intention of doing anything to tidy their room. This happens in a work setting too.

Hoping someone calls, is ok, or gets the job are all better than worrying about the opposite outcome. So in that sense, hope is a fantastic and positive word.

Hoping gets your mind thinking about the positive outcomes you would like to have in your life. The next step is to get curious and ask yourself what actions you could take to move those hopes and dreams into your reality.

When you take action, hoping but not happening will no longer be a part of your life.