Appreciation is a critical element in life. The more you see benefit, the more you appreciate it and the warmer you are.
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Tag: Appreciation
Never Miss An Opportunity To Show Appreciation
Time flies. Life is short. Moments go by so fast. When you have the opportunity to show your appreciation, make sure you do. It can mean the world to someone and it is so easy to do. Make it a habit of a lifetime.
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Immense Appreciation
Thank you to all of the well wishers, book buyers, sharers, likers and commenters. I greatly appreciate your time, attention and support.
Now that the publication date is here, I feel I can rightfully say I am an author. We celebrated my first official day of being a published author on Sunday. (And if you have skipped ahead to Step 7 in the book already, you will know what I am referring too.)
The next step is to be an author with readers. We know there are already some readers in the crowd and that is greatly appreciated. You will have bragging rights when the book hits 1 million copies sold. You can say, “I bought on the first day”, “I knew him when”, and “I was there at the beginning.”
Regardless of where this goes, thanks to all of you who are here at the start. Your likes, comments and messages keep me energised. Thank you.
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Where Do You Get Your Greatest Joy?
This can be a tough question to answer. Though for others, ‘Where do you get your greatest joy?’ is very easy to answer. Either way, it’s a great time to get the answer(s) clear in your head. Your life depends on it.
There are several different ways to answer. It depends on who is asking, what I am thinking about at the time, what the context is and where I am.
For example, if my friend asked me the question while we were having a brilliant day on the golf course, and I had just sank an incredible put, I might say, ‘Playing sport in the fresh air with my mates’.
However, if my boss was asking me during a discussion about my promotion potential, while we were at work, I might answer, ‘Pitching for new clients’.
Context is so important. Although, so are environmental factors, what’s on your mind in that moment and what memories or visions come to mind.
Recently, my greatest joy has come from warm days, great weather, morning jogs and time with my family. Fortunately, I have been able to have all of these, most days, for the past few months. For this, I am very grateful.
Where do you get your greatest joy?
Food, friendship, tv, sport, exercise, kids, partner, toys, puzzles, work, family, other?
Be clear on the greatest joy you have in your life and be grateful for it. Things shift, time passes, changes happen and those moments will be memories. Enjoy them while they are here.
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Write Down Your Favourite Moments
It’s a great thing to do. To write down your favourite moments in a list, such as a top 10 favourite life moments, is very powerful. Adding some ooomph to that is reading it when you wake up in the morning and when you go to bed at night.
I write a lot of stuff down. I have lists of ideas, words, to do’s, notes from calls etc. When did you last write down your favourite moments? I’ve done them before and done an updated one recently.
It’s a great way to remind yourself of amazing or wonderful moments in your life. It’s a great pick me up to read that list in the morning. Similarly it is a lovely way to re-frame your thinking as you are about to doze off to sleep and your brain goes on auto-pilot. It’s a good idea to give it something brilliant about you to ruminate on for 6-8 hours.
Amazingly, you can quickly become your own powerful content creator. You can start, or continue, to be a powerful, positive driving force in your mind and your life. You have the power to do it. Take control of how you start and end the day.
Running the highlight reel, twice a day, is a great way to get a smile on your face and keep your enthusiasm up.
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The Bright Side
There is always a bright side.
Sometimes we don’t see it and sometimes we don’t want to see it. If we are still reeling from an event or situation, we may not feel like looking on the bright side.
Whether you see it, don’t want to see it or don’t feel like embracing it, it is still there. Once you step over the little chasm in your mind, and sometimes begrudgingly admit it, it does feel pretty good. So why not get to that spot and start smiling as soon as you can.
From today, soon or recently for others, many of us will be experiencing the new normal. We may enjoy the idea of bits of it and loathe the thought of other bits. Either way, this is our global new normal. So we may as well look on the bright side.
Here are a few things I’ve observed:
It feels so calm. The streets are quiet with very few cars or pedestrians. We just need to be at home – nowhere else. No detailed and challenging calendars to check or update. Time with my son – we went for a run today along the quiet river path and enjoyed a great chat and sprint to the finish: he’s fast. We celebrated a big birthday of a friend on a Zoom conference call involving 3 countries. We cheered on two others having birthdays on Saturday and Sunday too.
People have been friendly, helpful, supportive, calm, pretty optimistic and resolute. Air and general pollution seems to be dropping rapidly and should continue to do so during the new normal period. This is fantastic in general but even more so for all the people that wanted more immediate and severe action on climate change – now it is happening. Schooling is going 100% online – how fascinating it will be to see how it works.
The world has changed. It seems like it happened overnight. There will be challenges ahead.
Remember to look on the bright side of everything. Make it part of your new normal.
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We’re All In This Together
What a fascinating time to be here on Earth. What a story you’ll have to tell once we see the back of this situation. This may be the first time in the history of the human species that the whole world has the same common enemy, at the same time, and is communicating in real time, globally, to coordinate and win.
And we all have front row seats.
We are all experiencing this event with slightly different perspectives, depending on what experience, and life awareness, we have had before. For example, despite living in the same household all their lives, each of my children will use their slightly different past experience to make sense of the times we are living through. And, despite everyone on Earth having different perspectives, it would seem that we all want the same outcome: To beat the bug.
I love how individuals and groups are stepping up and popping up to do great things together and for others. Whether it is the medical or scientific world pulling together to find solutions or community spirited groups providing extra help in the local neighbourhood. Our neighbourhood group put a typed note through everyone’s door this week with an offer to help anyone on the street, for them to join the group Whatsapp, and/or call on them if we needed anything (it gave names, numbers and emails of those ready to help). How wonderful! Being fairly new to the street, I felt it was a great idea and really made us feel part of a caring group.
Everyone seems to be pulling together to make the best of the situation. Whether it is with jokes, memes, words of encouragement or empathy, I’ve been struck by the wonderful humanity of it all.
Now is our time to rise to the occasion. Be the best you can possibly be. Help others who are struggling at this moment. Think of who that might be and let them know you are available. Just knowing can be all some people need.
Keep confident and smiling.
We’re all in this together.
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Context Is Critical. As Are Facts.
We are facing unprecedented times. But they are not nearly as scary as media (both classical and social), and your mind, are making this out to be.
In the UK, there were 616,014 deaths in 2018. That is nearly 1,700 deaths PER DAY. Coronavirus deaths in the UK since it started, about 30 days ago, now total 104. (in context, over the same 30 days, approximately 51,000 people have died in the UK).
Now lets play out some simple, specific numbers. We will assume the absolute largest number of infections possible in the UK, which would be 100% of the total population or 67,785,240. Then, let’s take the current mortality and expected survival rate, globally, based on confirmed cases of 218,723 and confirmed deaths of 8,943 so far. Using these figures we get a 4.1% mortality rate and 95.9% projected survival rate.
If we remove Italy from these numbers, but leave in the other 172 countries and territories, with at least one confirmed case, the rates change to 3.3% mortality rate and 96.7% survival rate. Finally, if we use Germany, as a best case, which has the 5th highest number of confirmed cases at 12,327 and deaths at 28, it would give them a mortality rate of 0.2% and therefore a survival rate of 99.8%. This is only 0.1% higher than the seasonal flu. Context is critical.
So perhaps at best, we could direct the 70+ population, along with those with underlying conditions of all ages, to self-isolate, and request that the rest of the country get this virus. This could lead to between 153,969 and 2,236,912 deaths. However, experts believe only 50%-80% of people will actually get infected, which could bring these numbers down by almost half. In addition, by removing the vulnerable population from the equation, we are more likely to trend closer to the 153,969 or a UK survival figure of 67,631,271.
Context is critical. The world governments have pumped trillions of dollars into the economy, in the last week, to no positive effect. Few people are consuming, other than the basics, due to fear or government imposed restrictions on movement. And we have only just begun, as we have just passed 200,000 confirmed cases with millions more expected. With markets collapsing, millions predicted to be unemployed and/or the governments straining to pay for everything and everyone to keep going, might there now be a better way?
Perhaps the healthy 6-60 year olds could offer to get this mild (for healthy people) flu-like virus, while the higher risk groups self-isolate (as mentioned above). Experts seem to think 50%-80% of the population will be infected at some point. If this is inevitable, why not sign up now to get it and save the economy and livelihoods and still save a lot of people. If you want to read a very brief draft outline of one way we could do this, click here.
Yes, there may not be enough hospital beds. But people tend to die in the field of battle during a war. And this is looking a lot like a war.
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“Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”
The world has changed. Completely. 2020 will be known as a pivotal year in human history. And it has only just begun! With more and more countries reducing people’s daily activities, and several countries going into full lockdown, the landscape is changing rapidly.
As with anything that changes, especially if it seems like it is getting worse, we feel nostalgic and sometimes sad for our loss of what was. How good we had it back then; back in 2019.
That’s when this song starts playing in my head. A power ballad by American glam metal band, Cinderella. “Don’t know what you got (Till it’s gone)”. It was released on the 21st May 1988: like an early birthday gift to me.
Although a love song, its melancholy piano, soaring guitar and anguished vocals have frequently reminded me over the years to appreciate all the amazing things we have. Every day.
It’s so easy to appreciate what has gone – though it’s then too late. Yet, it can be quite difficult to appreciate things in the moment. Mostly, this is because many of us are not practicing appreciation everyday. You’ll have more joy in your life if you strengthen this ability on a daily basis.
So today, more than ever, it’s important to appreciate how delicately balanced life and the world is. As people are going through hardships with the loss of loved ones or working through unforeseen financial challenges, be kind, be patient and be tolerant.
Take a few minutes right now to stop everything, close your eyes and appreciate the life you have right now. When you are done reflecting, you can even make a list of 10 things you appreciate in your life right now. Then keep this with you to review daily as the challenges of the days ahead unfold.
Being able to breath without a respirator might be one. The simple act of walking might be another. The ability to buy milk (the money you have, the shop nearby, the milk being in the shop, someone having milked a cow at 5am – remember, I grew up on a dairy farm).
Breathe it in and enjoy it now.
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Thank You!
Two simple words that are easy to learn and easy to say. Do we say them often enough? Do we mean it when we say it, or is it just thrown out there due to an ingrained, childhood habit, instilled in us by our parents at a tender age?
Can you graciously accept a thank you or do you avoid it, downplay it, slough it off, over-react to it, disregard it or change the subject?
Today, I would like to say a big thank you to each and every one of the readers of my blog to date. Yes, you!
I’ve been writing this daily blog for two months and started telling people about it one month ago. In that time I have had great feedback and support from people I know and some that I didn’t.
I’ve had useful feedback on how I could improve some things and great feedback on how the blog posts are being enjoyed and shared. I am grateful for all of it.
I’ve had a friend use the Puzzle Process to help his daughter get from stuck to started on a school project. Another friend was enjoying it and shared it with many coaching friends. And another today said the posts brought a smile to his face and kept him positive. How cool is all that?!
There are many more great comments, which I may share at some point. You know who you are. I appreciate every, single one.
It’s been fun to watch as the blog has gathered some momentum over the few weeks it has been live. From having started telling a small number of people and getting the first visits to the site, to today, waking up and seeing that there have been 300 visitors to the site, from 15 different countries, on 5 continents, around the world. (We’re missing representation from South America and Antarctica, should anyone care to share with someone there).
This increase in readers is because of you. You have been telling people and your liking, commenting and sharing has helped others find the blog and read it.
Thank you for your feedback. Thank you for your likes, comments and shares. Thank you for subscribing, and most importantly, thank you for reading and enjoying the posts.
Is there someone you would like to be thanking today? Let’s all try to give some extra heartfelt thank you’s today – more than we usually do. Let’s get people smiling!
Thank you.
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