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Fifteen things you can do to be happy

April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I read a great article this morning by “John” about fifteen things to give up in order to be happy. Good stuff, but ‘giving up’ always seems so negative to me. So, I thought I’d write about fifteen things I can do to be happy. Thanks for the inspiration, John!

  1. Be human. And that means I am going to make mistakes. I can just hear that voice from my childhood, “You should know better.” Well, no I shouldn’t. I can relate so much better to people who are not perfect anyway. Show your warts!
  2. Remember that control is an illusion; the only thing I can control is myself and there are many times where that’s an illusion too! Going with the flow is much more fun and allows me to not take life so seriously.
  3. Take responsibility for your actions. If it’s your fault, own it! I no longer ‘awfulize’ everything. There just aren’t that many big deals and the world isn’t going to come to an end because I screwed up.
  4. Talk nicely to yourself. I’m pretty cool! There are enough people out there who’ll run us down for me to do that to myself. My actions reflect that I’m pretty cool, when I think it about myself.
  5. Broaden your belief system. Little surprises me anymore. When I believe that I can do something, I’ll take the steps to make it happen. Doubt is the big wall to progress.
  6. Look for the Good in life! Have fun! When I look for it, I find it! You know, there are miracles occurring all around us when our hearts are open to receiving them. I saw a Great American Bald Eagle on my bike ride this morning. Now that was a gift!
  7. Enjoy the luxury of compliments. When I look for the good in people, I can always find it. Try telling the clerk at the 7-11 that her long, painted fingernails are a work of art, and watch her face light up. It’s fun to brighten someone’s day by giving them a compliment.
  8. Remember that other’s opinion of me is none of my business. I want to impress myself! I no longer need anyone’s approval to feel good about myself. Perhaps that comes with age, but if you’re not a baby boomer, start now to look for the good in yourself!
  9. Embrace change. That’s the only thing that we can count on anyway! Life changes, and if I fight that, I’ll never be happy. If I anticipate change, when it comes, I can go with the flow and find the good in everything.

10. People are different. When I look for the differences, I can find them, but if I look for the similarities, they’re there too. I can relate to anyone, if I try. So who cares about what’s different? That’s the spice in life. The synonym to perfect is boring.

11. Be brave and courageous. I no longer allow fear to block me from taking action. When I draw on my inner strength, I see that it’s really there! I’m strong and invincible – I am woman!

12. Embrace who you are. I don’t need to make excuses for who I am today. People aren’t the results of cookie cutters. I like my little ideosyncrocies, because that’s what makes me special.

13. Stay in the present. When I worry about yesterday or dwell on what is yet to happen, I miss where I am. Life is so wonderful in the moment. I used to wish half my life away. Today is all I have and I’m going to enjoy every moment of it.

14. Life an unencumbered life. Seems like I collected so much ‘stuff’ as life unfolded. And now I view that as clutter! I’m slowly cleaning out all that junk I don’t need. Give it to the kids for Christmas! Donate it! As my space becomes more free, so does my spirit. Amazing.

15. Take your time. My good friend, Cheryle Touchton  always asks if any babies are gonna die if we don’t do this right now. I no longer allow other’s sense of urgency dictate my actions. When I take my time, take decisions to prayer and talk to others, solutions I never considered pop up.

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New Habits for 2012

January 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

Marcia Sirota wrote an article yesterday about ten bad habits to let go of in 2012. Some of them are pretty good, such as ‘comparing yourself to other people.’ Whenever I do that, I come up short. I’d much rather look for ways that we are the same. I can usually relate in some way to everyone. Yes, everyone! Everyone has something in common with someone else. And we all will have something more (or a little less) than the next guy. It’s just too
exhausting to look for how I’m different and then feeling less-than as a result. So, thank you, Dr. Marcia, I’m going to use that one.

The article also recommends that we let go of jealousy, avoidance, rudeness, denial,
complaining, gossip, a bad attitude, co-dependency and facebooking your ex. All are excellent habits to replace with something positive.

I have a few good habits that I want to reinforce in 2012:

Building a support team – Self-sufficiency propelled me to over 250 lbs. I binged, dieted and failed at diets alone. About nineteen years ago, I was introduced to the concept of building a support team to help me with my goal of weight loss. I’m sure that some friends thought me to be a bit daft when I’d call and let them know that I was thinking about eating a whole bag of cookies. We’d laugh about it and voila! I didn’t eat the first cookie. I know today that I need people in my life for all successes – you just get more results with an army than a slingshot and a pebble, unless of course, you are David.

Listen More – Every time I give to others, I get something in return. It doesn’t have to be about money either! Listening is so valuable and sometimes it’s just what a friend might need while working through a tough time. I also want to listen to my own instincts around self-care.

Forget the One – If there are 99 people in a room that love me, I’m not going after the 1 who doesn’t any more. There are always going to be people who don’t prefer my company, so I’ll bask I what I have and not worry about what I don’t have. Unless of course, the one is Tony Stewart. I’d have to go after him! He drives pretty fast and I’d probably not catch him, but I’d have to try.

 

Strengthen my Spiritual Disciplines – I presently start my day out with prayer, meditation and whenever possible, exercise. It feels so good to be connected to God in this way. And there’s always time to meditate during the day – it only takes a minute to stop and take time to breathe in God and breathe out self, or whatever might trouble me at the time. Just for one minute. Try it!

I’m also going to keep it simple this year. I was racking my brain to come up with more good habits, but this is really enough. I can make a list of ten but odds are excellent that adding more will only lead to doing less.

What bad habits do you want to release? What good habits will you reinforce in 2012?

 

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What inspires me?

October 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What inspires me? Sometimes I’ll wake up a little achy. You know, a little arthritis, some sore muscles from a new exercise. But after watching this video about Emmanuel Kelly, I’ll think twice before complaining. Emmauel Kelly was abandoned by his parents – left in a shoe box in Bagdad. He and his brother were born without arms and legs, resulting from chemical warfare. He was adopted, raised in Melbourne, Australia and is living what could be described as a normal life today; as normal as it could be for someone who’s had such a rough start at life.

I’m also inspired by Jana Waring. A downtown Orlando resident, Jana is known and loved by everyone she meets. Her life drastically changed through an injury. She once told me that although she is confined to a wheel chair, whether or not to live life happy was a choice and she chooses to be happy. And just being around her makes me happy too.

While life has not dealt him a blow, Sean Anderson also is my hero. His first book Transformation Road-My Trip to Over 500 Pounds and Back will be released by late November. I ‘met’ Sean when AOL picked up his blog, a daily diary he kept on his journey from 505 lbs to a healthy body weight!  He just employed practical eating habits and gave up the massive amounts of calories that it takes to achieve morbid obesity.

Sean continues to  inspire thousands of people every day, with his blog and daily inspirations on Facebook. By the way, Sean has lost his weight the conventional way – eating less; no bypass surgery

When people like Emmanuel, Jana and Sean touch our lives, we have a choice to just go on as we are, or strive to be the very best person we can be. I just want to get out of my cheap little self and do something, make a difference, help someone. I don’t want to settle for mediocrity. I want to be the very best I can be.

What inspires you?

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“When I lose weight, I’m going to …”

October 8, 2011 By 2 Comments

“When I lose weight, I’m going to ….”

“When I retire, I’m going to …”

“When  …. “

What am I waiting for?

I was in my late twenties when Elvis was playing at the Lakeland Civic Center, a short hour drive from where I lived. I loved Elvis, and thought that maybe the next time he played there, I’d go to see him. Well, there wasn’t a next time. Elvis died before I had a chance to see him perform on stage. It was too late; I waited too long.

That happened over thirty years ago, but it caused a shift in my thinking about things I wanted to do. In 1978, Tom Jones came to town and I went to see him, not once but twice!

In 1991, I was still rather obese, but wanted to learn to SCUBA dive. I guess I could have waited until I lost weight but what if I never did? I took lessons and became a certified SCUBA diver. It was difficult when I weighed over 250 lbs, requiring nearly a 40 lb weight belt to counter the buoyancy of all that fat. But under water, I was weightless! I am so glad that I didn’t wait. To experience drifting along a pristine coral reef and hear nothing but my own breathing remains one of the highlights of my memory!

After twenty-five years as a community association manager, I woke up one morning and knew it was time for a change. I knew that if I had to tell another person in a million-dollar house to clean their driveway, I would not do it in a pleasant manner. I talked with David and decided to give a nine month notice and find a new career.

What would I do? I prayed. I asked God to show me how I could be of maximum service to Him and still make a little money. After three months, a friend told me about Life Coaching, and I hired a coach to experience it for myself. I knew that this is exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my working career. Today I not only enjoy coaching but I also teach for World Coach Institute.

I always wanted to become a published author, but I never wrote anything! My wonderful coach, Lorraine Edey helped me to develop the discipline of writing and in less than a year, my first book, Trust God and Buy Broccoli, A Spiritual Approach to Weight Loss came off the presses! It was one of the most thrilling moments of my life, to hold that book in my hands. I was able to do a book signing at Barnes and Noble. It still thrills me to write on the inside cover for people who’ve bought my book. I’m so happy to be working with other aspiring authors today, to experience their excitement and joy of also becoming a published author!

So often, we wait for the perfect time to take a chance, and that time might never come. What  have you been dreaming about, but putting off for the perfect moment? Maybe it is right now. I encourage you to make it a goal. You know, a goal is nothing more than putting an action plan on your dreams. They can, and will come to fruition.

Don’t wait.

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