This afternoon I had a chance to get back out into my garden for a few minutes. I was enjoying the beautiful flowers, but I noticed how quickly the weeds had grown up and how they were trying to take over the garden. As I pulled them out I thought about how much like life this is.
We "plant" beautiful deeds in our lives and we go along for a little while quite comfortably but then we notice that some "weeds" have sprung up. Perhaps someone said something and your feelings were hurt. Perhaps you said something to someone that you now regret. Perhaps you didn't get the job you wanted, the project you were hoping for, the raise you expected and the niggling doubts (weeds) started taking over.
It doesn't take long for the negativity to set in after that and unless you get rid of those weeds quickly they can take over and you begin to feel some signs of depression. You may wake up in the morning and not want to get out of bed. You may not want to get out and socialize with your friends. You may sit around your house moping.
It is important to deal with those "weeds" as soon as they start. It is much easier to pluck them when they are small rather than wait until they have grown and firmly implanted themselves in the garden.
Unfortunately for me today, it had been a long time since I was able to get in the garden due to weather and my schedule so many of those weeds were quite firmly implanted and it is going to take more than one session to get rid of them. It is the same with the "weeds" in our life.
It takes approximately 3 weeks to make or break a habit, so if the weeds are firmly implanted in your life, it will take more than a single effort to get rid of them. It will take conscious, repeated efforts to get rid of them and restore your life garden to a state of beauty.
BANABU
To having a beautiful Life Garden
Fran Watson
Showing posts with label changes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label changes. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Valuing Minutes
Yesterday I attended an online conference with Janet Legere and she talked about segmented intention. Paying attention to what you are doing and intending it to be successful.
This morning I pulled my daily quote from my tin and it said, "With this dawn, this new day, I value each minute."
I was taken back to my recent Time Management Workshop where I shared with the participants the value of time - 1440 minutes in a day.
Wasting 15 minutes a day works out to 91 hours per year. What could you do with those 91 hours?
If we read an average of 12 pages a day (about 15 minutes) we could read 17-18 books per year. We can learn a new task, become an expert in our field of study, or upgrade our education.
We could exercise and stay in shape while tuning up our heart. 15 minutes 3 times a week will maintain a healthy body.
We could spend the time in personal meditation or spiritual contemplation to bring balance to our lives.
We could devote 15 minutes of quality time to someone we care about. We could choose a different person each day. We could write a letter, send a card, make a phone call or a personal visit. We could sit down with someone and ask them a question and really listen to their answer.
Take a few minutes to think about how you spend your time and how you could spend it better.
Do some tasks that take only 5-15 minutes and feel good about having accomplished something.
Plan your day to include small tasks as well as large tasks, write down what you intend to accomplish - you will have a much better chance of succeeding.
To your successful day!!
Fran
BANABU!
This morning I pulled my daily quote from my tin and it said, "With this dawn, this new day, I value each minute."
I was taken back to my recent Time Management Workshop where I shared with the participants the value of time - 1440 minutes in a day.
Wasting 15 minutes a day works out to 91 hours per year. What could you do with those 91 hours?
If we read an average of 12 pages a day (about 15 minutes) we could read 17-18 books per year. We can learn a new task, become an expert in our field of study, or upgrade our education.
We could exercise and stay in shape while tuning up our heart. 15 minutes 3 times a week will maintain a healthy body.
We could spend the time in personal meditation or spiritual contemplation to bring balance to our lives.
We could devote 15 minutes of quality time to someone we care about. We could choose a different person each day. We could write a letter, send a card, make a phone call or a personal visit. We could sit down with someone and ask them a question and really listen to their answer.
Take a few minutes to think about how you spend your time and how you could spend it better.
Do some tasks that take only 5-15 minutes and feel good about having accomplished something.
Plan your day to include small tasks as well as large tasks, write down what you intend to accomplish - you will have a much better chance of succeeding.
To your successful day!!
Fran
BANABU!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Habits
A habit is something that you do so often and so regularly that it becomes automatic. This is a behavior that you can easily repeat.
Our habits are directly related to our comfort and well-being. The process of adapting to our environment is what creates a habit. With habits we don't have to constantly experiment or deal with unknown risks.
Our habits help define us. The way we adapt to our environment and how we typically behave say a lot about who we are as human beings. What do we know about someone with the habit of not eating meat? What about someone with the habit of smoking cigarettes? How about the person with the habit of running five miles each day?
Do you have a habit that you would like to get rid of? I was just listening to Bob Proctor (Six Minutes To Success) this morning and he talked about habits and what we need to do to be successful.
Replace Rather than Change a Habit
Habits are extremely difficult to change because they are tied to our identities. Notice that I haven't said anything about "breaking a habit." I avoid that terminology because, as Bob said, a habit is dependent on repetition. Therefore, if we replace the activity that is the former habit–such as lighting a cigarette after dinner–with some other activity–such as taking a walk or chewing a stick of gum–the repetition ceases and the coding of the smoking habit is reduced dramatically.
The key to succeeding in replacing old habits with new ones is ensuring that the new behaviors are more appealing, effective, and beneficial than their predecessors.
In effect, replacing less effective habits with more effective ones, and creating new habits that foster greater success and well-being, is the most expedient ways to increase and expand your personal brilliance.
"It’s impressive to recognize that all the great leaders in all walks of life, and during all periods of history, have attained their leadership by the application of their abilities behind a definite major purpose. It’s no less impressive to observe that those who are classified as failures have no such purpose but they go around and around like a ship without a rudder, coming back always empty handed to their starting point.” From Napoleon Hill's The Master Key To Riches
Our habits are directly related to our comfort and well-being. The process of adapting to our environment is what creates a habit. With habits we don't have to constantly experiment or deal with unknown risks.
Our habits help define us. The way we adapt to our environment and how we typically behave say a lot about who we are as human beings. What do we know about someone with the habit of not eating meat? What about someone with the habit of smoking cigarettes? How about the person with the habit of running five miles each day?
Do you have a habit that you would like to get rid of? I was just listening to Bob Proctor (Six Minutes To Success) this morning and he talked about habits and what we need to do to be successful.
Replace Rather than Change a Habit
Habits are extremely difficult to change because they are tied to our identities. Notice that I haven't said anything about "breaking a habit." I avoid that terminology because, as Bob said, a habit is dependent on repetition. Therefore, if we replace the activity that is the former habit–such as lighting a cigarette after dinner–with some other activity–such as taking a walk or chewing a stick of gum–the repetition ceases and the coding of the smoking habit is reduced dramatically.
The key to succeeding in replacing old habits with new ones is ensuring that the new behaviors are more appealing, effective, and beneficial than their predecessors.
In effect, replacing less effective habits with more effective ones, and creating new habits that foster greater success and well-being, is the most expedient ways to increase and expand your personal brilliance.
"It’s impressive to recognize that all the great leaders in all walks of life, and during all periods of history, have attained their leadership by the application of their abilities behind a definite major purpose. It’s no less impressive to observe that those who are classified as failures have no such purpose but they go around and around like a ship without a rudder, coming back always empty handed to their starting point.” From Napoleon Hill's The Master Key To Riches
Think about the things you do that are habits that serve you - taking a shower, getting dressed, brushing your teeth, driving your car, etc. What are some of the things you would like to change. Think about their polar opposite. As Mike Kemski says everything is a duality - black and white, pros and cons, clean and dirty - look at what is the exact opposite of the bad habit and choose to make that a good habit. Think about it and practice it daily for at least a month in order to make it a habit. If you miss a day, start over.
It takes 3 weeks to make or break a habit and in 90 days you can completely change your life.
Choose which habit you will transform to create a new and better U
To your life changing success
BANABU
Fran
Monday, June 2, 2008
My Purpose
I have been online for aout 10 years now. I have experimented with online marketing, downloaded ebooks that promise me I will make loads of money if only I..., maxed out my credit cards to pay for this information, spent hours and hours downloading and reviewing "free" information from the many givewaways I participated in. I have felt guilty about the amount of time I have spent doing this, the time I have spent reading and sorting the many emails I have received, trying to decide what to keep and what to trash, who is offering what this week, how can I make some money from this.
I read something this week that really struck home with me. Funnily enough it was a book about MLM Marketing, but with a difference. One thing the author said was that you should never promote a product you haven't tried. If you don't know how it works, how can you tell anyone else about its benefits. I'm sure you, like me, have received multiple emails with the same heading and the same wording - affiliates who are promoting a product they know nothing about. I too have been guilty.
The other thing the author talked about was building relationships. That took me back to the reason I wanted to get involved online, to build relationships with people, to share the knowledge and skill that I had gained to help them in their daily lives. I had even taken a coaching course to allow me to do this and yet I wasted all this time running from one program to another, one traffic exchange to another, only to become exhausted and return to my real passion.
Now is the time to go back to the beginning. To get out the CD's that Mike provided me and listen to them again. To withdraw from the Traffic Exchanges until I have developed my focus and then target simply those that will support my goals. To develop my website with focus on providing the type of information that I know.
I have been a career counsellor for 20 years and have done training for most of those years. I joined Toastmasters in 2002 and so I have skills and experience in that area as well. I have taken coaching courses, learned about personalities with Myers Briggs and Personality Dimensions (True Colors)and completed a University Degree in Social Development Studies. All of these abilities and interests involve people and yet I am spending more and more of my time not helping people, but insread reading email that I don't need to read and surfing on traffic exchanges to build credits for my webpages.
It is definitely time to refocus and get back to the basics.
I invite you to comment and check back to see how I'm doing. If you have any advice for me, if you've gone through this yourself, I'd sure like to hear from you.
Fran
I read something this week that really struck home with me. Funnily enough it was a book about MLM Marketing, but with a difference. One thing the author said was that you should never promote a product you haven't tried. If you don't know how it works, how can you tell anyone else about its benefits. I'm sure you, like me, have received multiple emails with the same heading and the same wording - affiliates who are promoting a product they know nothing about. I too have been guilty.
The other thing the author talked about was building relationships. That took me back to the reason I wanted to get involved online, to build relationships with people, to share the knowledge and skill that I had gained to help them in their daily lives. I had even taken a coaching course to allow me to do this and yet I wasted all this time running from one program to another, one traffic exchange to another, only to become exhausted and return to my real passion.
Now is the time to go back to the beginning. To get out the CD's that Mike provided me and listen to them again. To withdraw from the Traffic Exchanges until I have developed my focus and then target simply those that will support my goals. To develop my website with focus on providing the type of information that I know.
I have been a career counsellor for 20 years and have done training for most of those years. I joined Toastmasters in 2002 and so I have skills and experience in that area as well. I have taken coaching courses, learned about personalities with Myers Briggs and Personality Dimensions (True Colors)and completed a University Degree in Social Development Studies. All of these abilities and interests involve people and yet I am spending more and more of my time not helping people, but insread reading email that I don't need to read and surfing on traffic exchanges to build credits for my webpages.
It is definitely time to refocus and get back to the basics.
I invite you to comment and check back to see how I'm doing. If you have any advice for me, if you've gone through this yourself, I'd sure like to hear from you.
Fran
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Too Old???
Opportunity Knocks
Who Says You Can't Live Your Dreams?
By Valerie Young
Dreamers beware: for every dream there are 10 naysayers just
waiting to dash it. It almost happened to Beverly Goodman Park.
Park was close to 60 when her marriage ended. At an age when
most people are contemplating retirement, Park decided to pursue
a long-held dream of becoming an attorney. A lot of people told
her she was too old. Undaunted, Park went to law school while
working full-time, passed the bar exam, and at 61, landed a job
at a law firm. Of her critics she says, "I thought this age
stuff was baloney."
Walter Anderson, author of The Greatest Risk of All, says by the
time we are in our 20s, we will have heard 25,000 "can'ts."
Don't expect a lot of support for your "foolish dreams."
Instead, be prepared to reach deep within to turn "can't" into
"can." Here are two motivation-boosting tips to get you started:
Become the Future You
Dreams, by their very nature, are about the future. With so many
present-day demands your dream can start to feel distant. The
more far-off the goal, the less likely it is you will act on it.
How can you make sure your dream doesn't fall prey to the
out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome? By bringing it into the
present. To do this you must become the future "you." Here's
how: The next time someone asks what you do for a living, try
answering, not in terms of the present, but as if you were
actively engaged in pursing your dream right this minute. In
other words, squelch your pat "I'm an accountant/in sales/a
social worker/a homemaker" response and instead try saying
something like: "I'm an aspiring mystery writer," or "I'm
looking into returning to school to become an oceanographer," or
"I'm in the process of changing careers to pursue my love of
gourmet cooking."
It doesn't matter if you haven't written a single page of your
future bestseller, sent away for one college catalog, or lifted
a finger to pursue your passion for cooking. What does matter is
that the dream that once felt elusive will suddenly begin to
feel real. And when that happens, you will be amazed at how much
sooner you'll get the change ball rolling. Before you know it,
you will actually BE the future you!
Get Inspired
Someone who knows a lot about the power of "acting as if" is
Steven Spielberg. Hoping to fulfill his filmmaking dreams,
Spielberg explains that he snuck onto the lot of Universal
Studios and became a "squatter" in an empty office. He even
bought plastic letters to mount his name in the building
directory. Security guards and exec's alike thought the guy
belonged there. His high jinks paid off. Spielberg's first
directorial break came when the studio bigwigs finally saw his
first film and liked what they saw.
This and other success stories can be found in Mischief
Marketing: How the Rich, Famous, & Successful Really Got Their
Careers and Businesses Going. Author Ray Simon reveals how
famous people as diverse as Mother Teresa, Duke Ellington, Andy
Kaufman, rap artist Big Pun, and Benjamin Franklin really got
started in life and how you can use their mischievous techniques
to do the same.
As encouraging as success stories can be, learning about
another's failure can be just as inspiring. Did you know that
Bob Dylan was booed off the stage at his high school talent
show? Or that Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job for
"lacking ideas?" Or that Thomas Edison failed to perfect the
light bulb until his ten-thousandth try? How many "can'ts" do
you think these dreamers had to endure?
And when faced with a dream-buster, these "failure stories" can
make great comebacks, too. Would Parks' critics have been so
quick to discourage had she pointed out that Grandma Moses
didn't start painting until she was 80 years-old and that, of
her over 1,500 paintings, 25 percent were produced when she was
past 100?
"Persistence," said Robert Half, "is what makes the impossible
possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite." As
anyone who has ever chased a dream will tell you,
disappointment, self-doubt, and failure go with the territory.
The trick is to recognize these setbacks for what they really
are - bumps in the road, not the end of the road.
Publisher Katherine Graham said it well: "To love what you do
and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?" This
is your life we're talking about here. So what are you waiting
for? Catch a dream, have some fun and start turning can't into
can!
Add Your Two Cents
Want to comment on this article? Click here to hop over to the
Changing Course Blog: http://ChangingCourse.com/blog
About the Author
"Turning Interests Into Income" expert, Valerie Young,
Abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the
Dreamer in Residence at http://ChangingCourse.com
offering resources to help you discover your life mission
and live it. Her career change tips have been cited in
Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend,
Woman's Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN,
CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor
Syndrome, Valerie has spoken on the topic of How to Feel as
Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are
(http://ImpostorSyndrome.com) to such diverse organizations as
Daimler Chrysler, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Harvard, and American
Women in Radio and Television.
To read more articles about how to work at what you love without
a job go to http://ChangingCourse.com/articles
Who Says You Can't Live Your Dreams?
By Valerie Young
Dreamers beware: for every dream there are 10 naysayers just
waiting to dash it. It almost happened to Beverly Goodman Park.
Park was close to 60 when her marriage ended. At an age when
most people are contemplating retirement, Park decided to pursue
a long-held dream of becoming an attorney. A lot of people told
her she was too old. Undaunted, Park went to law school while
working full-time, passed the bar exam, and at 61, landed a job
at a law firm. Of her critics she says, "I thought this age
stuff was baloney."
Walter Anderson, author of The Greatest Risk of All, says by the
time we are in our 20s, we will have heard 25,000 "can'ts."
Don't expect a lot of support for your "foolish dreams."
Instead, be prepared to reach deep within to turn "can't" into
"can." Here are two motivation-boosting tips to get you started:
Become the Future You
Dreams, by their very nature, are about the future. With so many
present-day demands your dream can start to feel distant. The
more far-off the goal, the less likely it is you will act on it.
How can you make sure your dream doesn't fall prey to the
out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome? By bringing it into the
present. To do this you must become the future "you." Here's
how: The next time someone asks what you do for a living, try
answering, not in terms of the present, but as if you were
actively engaged in pursing your dream right this minute. In
other words, squelch your pat "I'm an accountant/in sales/a
social worker/a homemaker" response and instead try saying
something like: "I'm an aspiring mystery writer," or "I'm
looking into returning to school to become an oceanographer," or
"I'm in the process of changing careers to pursue my love of
gourmet cooking."
It doesn't matter if you haven't written a single page of your
future bestseller, sent away for one college catalog, or lifted
a finger to pursue your passion for cooking. What does matter is
that the dream that once felt elusive will suddenly begin to
feel real. And when that happens, you will be amazed at how much
sooner you'll get the change ball rolling. Before you know it,
you will actually BE the future you!
Get Inspired
Someone who knows a lot about the power of "acting as if" is
Steven Spielberg. Hoping to fulfill his filmmaking dreams,
Spielberg explains that he snuck onto the lot of Universal
Studios and became a "squatter" in an empty office. He even
bought plastic letters to mount his name in the building
directory. Security guards and exec's alike thought the guy
belonged there. His high jinks paid off. Spielberg's first
directorial break came when the studio bigwigs finally saw his
first film and liked what they saw.
This and other success stories can be found in Mischief
Marketing: How the Rich, Famous, & Successful Really Got Their
Careers and Businesses Going. Author Ray Simon reveals how
famous people as diverse as Mother Teresa, Duke Ellington, Andy
Kaufman, rap artist Big Pun, and Benjamin Franklin really got
started in life and how you can use their mischievous techniques
to do the same.
As encouraging as success stories can be, learning about
another's failure can be just as inspiring. Did you know that
Bob Dylan was booed off the stage at his high school talent
show? Or that Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job for
"lacking ideas?" Or that Thomas Edison failed to perfect the
light bulb until his ten-thousandth try? How many "can'ts" do
you think these dreamers had to endure?
And when faced with a dream-buster, these "failure stories" can
make great comebacks, too. Would Parks' critics have been so
quick to discourage had she pointed out that Grandma Moses
didn't start painting until she was 80 years-old and that, of
her over 1,500 paintings, 25 percent were produced when she was
past 100?
"Persistence," said Robert Half, "is what makes the impossible
possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite." As
anyone who has ever chased a dream will tell you,
disappointment, self-doubt, and failure go with the territory.
The trick is to recognize these setbacks for what they really
are - bumps in the road, not the end of the road.
Publisher Katherine Graham said it well: "To love what you do
and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?" This
is your life we're talking about here. So what are you waiting
for? Catch a dream, have some fun and start turning can't into
can!
Add Your Two Cents
Want to comment on this article? Click here to hop over to the
Changing Course Blog: http://ChangingCourse.com/blog
About the Author
"Turning Interests Into Income" expert, Valerie Young,
Abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the
Dreamer in Residence at http://ChangingCourse.com
offering resources to help you discover your life mission
and live it. Her career change tips have been cited in
Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend,
Woman's Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN,
CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor
Syndrome, Valerie has spoken on the topic of How to Feel as
Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are
(http://ImpostorSyndrome.com) to such diverse organizations as
Daimler Chrysler, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Harvard, and American
Women in Radio and Television.
To read more articles about how to work at what you love without
a job go to http://ChangingCourse.com/articles
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