Transforming 2017 with Les Brown

I was looking at Facebook this morning when I discovered a free video series from Les Brown. He has an inspiring story. The wonderful thing about Les is that he is cheerful and upbeat and he never gives up. He believes that we all have greatness within us and he is right.
We are unique and have our own special talents to offer the world but unless we are willing to risk failure and push ourselves forward to share them, our talents lie undiscovered within us.
I have included a link to his website. There are also lots of his speeches on YouTube. Check him out!

https://lesbrown.com/

Life is a roller-coaster!

Transforming 2017 with Good News~ Thanks Russell Howard

I have just watched The News and managed to extract some positives from it. This got me thinking about Russell Howard's Good News:

https://www.youtube.com/user/russellhoward

In his show, Russell found the lovely, happy bits from the News and included them on his show.

It is important to know what is going on in the world.
I am not suggesting that we should put our heads in the sand when it comes to sad events but I do feel that sometimes when we watch The News it does tend to focus on the tragic and the scary while leaving out the many examples of bravery and kindness that can be seen at any one time throughout the world.
When we hear about the sad events it is possible for us to act to help and support those in need which can turn a negative situation around.
If we make a concerted effort to look out for the positive news stories our lives will be happier. When the news is less good we can look for ways to help turn the situation around to help improve life for all.

transforming 2017 with courageousness

Today I put on the TV to catch The News and I was very moved by two events. The first was discovering that despite losing so many from their team in a plane crash, the Brazil team have signed more players and are playing their first match since the tragedy. The three surviving players from the original team will be watching. This shows such courage and bravery.

Secondly I watched a clip of rescuers pulling a  child out off the wreckage caused by the avalanche in Italy. They were so delighted to be doing this for the child. It is  humbling that  many people risk their own lives and dedicate themselves to helping other people in this way.

It helps me to remember that this world is a wonderful place!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWzrABouyeE

This is the incredible Louis Armstrong.

http://www.goltv.tv/en/news/30637-brazil-crash-football-team-to-play-friendly-january-21

http://news.sky.com/story/italy-avalanche-baby-girl-among-six-found-alive-in-hotel-rigopiano-10735376

Transforming 2017 with help from Mindvalley and 7 books....

http://blog.mindvalleyacademy.com/living/7-books-that-will-excite-you-about-humanity

I attend plenty of Webinars brought to us by Mindvalley. They provide me with plenty to think about and have changed the way I see things.

Today, I received an email from them. Founder Vishen Lakhiani, listed 7 books, 'that will radically shift how you see the world.' 

I find that exciting! To think that people read a book and it shifts the way that they see things.
That is why I spend a lot of my spare moments writing. I love the thought that my books can help others to feel happier.

The email got me thinking about the books that have inspired me.
Here are 7 books that really made me sit up and take notice. 
I will be talking about them in further detail in other blogs but for now I am listing them along with a short description. 

What books inspire you?
I would love to know. 
Please feel free to list some in the comments below.

Seven of the books that have really inspired me:
1.The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho~ Santiago, a young shepherd boy has a dream about finding treasure. It helped me to discover my own path.

2.The Book Of Joy~ 14th Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Abrams~ is about finding lasting happiness in today's world.

3. Steering By Starlight~ Martha Beck~ This book helped me to steer my life in a direction that I want to go in!

4. The Presence Process- Michael Brown~ helped me to live in the present moment.

5. Soul Lessons and Soul Purpose~ Sonia Choquette~ helped me to trust my intuition.

6. Greg Frucci~ Path Of Three Hundred~ is about Greg's solo sailing trip and reminded me that life is an exciting adventure!

7.Jonathan Livingston Seagull~ Richard Bach~ is all about flight and is basically perfect!

It was hard to choose just seven, as there are so many books that have changed my life. It's the same with music. So many songs move me that it is hard to narrow the choices down to a small number!
All you musicians and writers please remember this. The work you do can transform people forever.

Transforming 2017 Michael Beckwith- Discover Your Life Purpose

I recently attended a Mindvalley Masterclass featuring Reverand Michael Beckwith entitled 'Discover Your Life Purpose.'
Many of us seek our true purpose in life and can struggle to know what direction to take next. We search everywhere for ideas about our career and relationships and often find ourselves feeling rather lost.
What I am learning now is that we need to look inside ourselves for the answers to these questions.
Life Visioning is when you ask empowering questions such as 'What is my purpose? and wait for the answer to reveal itself. It is a bit like having an inner ear that listens to your inner voice.

Rev, Michael Beckwith teaches that we do not need to be victim to societies expectation of us. We are each a unique expression of life so we get to live our life our own way.
His book Life Visioning explains how to do this. I found it fascinating and enjoyable to read.

Life is an adventure. We find the things that we love to do and discover how best we can contribute to the world. For some people music is their gift. For others it is caring for other people. Some people art is their chosen means of expression and other people are brilliant with numbers.
If you can tap in to your own unique gifts and talents in order to help make the world a better place you are likely to be living your life to the full.

Transforming 2017~Free Coaching~Rewards..A last little slice of Christmas

 I ate the last slice of my home made Christmas cake tonight. I love making Christmas cake and I also love eating it!
 To me making the cake is an inexpensive and pleasurable ritual I like to do every year.
I celebrate Christmas in a  simple way and do not put myself under pressure by spending a fortune on gifts or going to events that I won't enjoy but I do see the point of creating regular and pleasurable rituals in your life at certain times of year.
These rituals do not need to centre around food. I make the cake because I do not spend very much time making cakes during the year and I find it really satisfying choosing the ingredients and making the cake. Each cake comes out differently, as I vary the ingredients each time.
Life can get a little routine sometimes and celebrating key seasons in ways that make you happy seems like a really good idea to me.
I do not believe in putting pressure on yourself to achieve something that you don't enjoy.
Only create rituals in your life that reward you, energise you and make you happy.
It may be that you love going to the beach on a certain day each year or you like to go camping in a particular season.
What things do you enjoy doing? When do you like to do them? See if you can make time for them in your life to break up the everyday routine.
I would love to hear what your favourite rituals are. Please comment in the box below!

Free Coaching: Take nothing for granted.

As I write this, it is early January. Many people have gone back to work after a wonderful break and are feeling rather deflated.
Some people resolved to do many things on 1st January and have lost their way. They are possibly feeling fed up and angry with themselves for giving in so soon.
Some people did not have a good break and are feeling upset with their loved ones.
Others may have spent more than they could afford, borrowing money so they could buy gifts to make other people happy with expensive gifts and are now worried how they are going to pay for it all.

This time of year is often cold. It gets dark early and lots of people start to feel rather low.

One way of helping to lift your mood is to sit for a while and think of all the things that you do have going well in your life right now.
Think of the people you care about, the places you have enjoyed going to recently and your achievements.
It can be easy to take everything we have now for granted.
Look around you. Look at all the things you have around you that bring back happy memories and the things that make your life easier.
You might think your body could be improved but look at all the things that it does for you now.
Maybe your relationships could go more smoothly but they can be worked on. Look at all the people who have supported you to date and will continue to support and care about you.

Whenever I stop and take a moment to appreciate everything I have in my life, the happier I feel.
Even situations that I have found challenging have helped me to learn and grow.
I try to take nothing for granted and appreciate all I have and all that I am.

We can be very hard on ourselves and take our achievements and skills for granted. We can be critical of ourselves wishing we were better, smarter, fitter, younger etc.
When we learn to appreciate ourselves we find that our lives open up in so many ways.
Spend time now appreciating all the things that you can do. Be forgiving of yourself and others for mistakes that are made.
Appreciating what we have and gently releasing any resentment that we have been holding onto can really brighten our days.

Free Coaching - Problem Solving

Sometimes our problems and difficulties can make us feel stuck. We don't know what to do or where to turn.
At these times it can be very helpful to write down your problem or difficulties. That way, you can begin to achieve clarity.
Once you have written your problems down, choose one. Look at it carefully. Make a list of possible solutions to this problem. The solutions do not have to be perfect. List every solution that you can think of. Making this list can help to free your mind and this can help you to become more decisive.
Once you have your list of solutions, read back over them and think about the pros and cons of adopting each one.
 Choose the one that seems the best to you.
Act upon it to see if this approach helps.
After a while, review your progress. Did the solution you choose work?
If it did then you will find that the problem has been resolved.
If your chosen solution has not been effective, look back at your list of solutions and choose another approach to try next.
This is a problem solving cycle designed to stop you feeling stuck.
Once you have resolved a problem you can look back at your list of problems and repeat this problem solving process.
Try it for yourself and see how effective it can be.

Free Coaching: Timeline

The start of a new year can be a reflective time for many of us. If we have dreams and goals that we would like to achieve in future, it can be rather daunting.
 If our dreams are big and ambitious, we can worry that they may be difficult to achieve.
 If we start off with doubts, the chances of success are quite slim.
One way to help us develop more self-confidence, is to create a timeline of our life.
If you think about it, we have achieved a lot already.
When we were little, we worked our way through developmental milestones, learning to walk and talk. We didn't really think about how we might achieve these skills, we just got on with them.
 If we have disabilities that make it hard for us to do these things, we have managed to cope with life up to this point by overcoming some very difficult challenges. Knowing that we have been successful in the past can fill us with more confidence in our future abilities.

To create your own timeline, start by drawing a line:

*------------x-----------x--------x-------x-------*--------------x---------x---------------------------------*
I was born                                            today                                                            goal achieved

Start your line with the date when you were born and half way along the line record today's date.
Mark key achievements on the line.
Record things that you have achieved, that you are proud of.
You might include exams, sporting achievements, passing your driving test etc. These achievements don't have to relate to your goal. You are recording them to show yourself that you are capable of success. This makes you feel more confident and therefore more likely to achieve your current goal.
Once you get to today's date you can start to project into the future.
What is your goal that you would like to achieve?
Write it down.
What steps will you need to take to achieve that goal?
Write them down.
Realistically, when can you expect to achieve each step?
Mark these estimated dates on your timeline.
Here is a simple example below for a fictitious woman called Jenny who wanted to become a teacher. She made her resolution in 2010 and was able to identify her key successes to date as well as future steps that she would need to take to achieve her goal:

 Timeline:

DOB------Obtained GCSE's----A Levels-Today's date---University--PGCE------First teaching job

12/05/91            2007                     2009      01/01/2010     2011           2015          2016


You can make your timeline longer and add more detail.

Once you have a timeline that records your past achievements and future steps,

you can review your timeline regularly. You can make any adjustments and adaptations as you proceed.

Good luck.
I would love to hear from you if you have used a timeline like this or if you intend to try using one yourself now. Please comment below.