Wednesday, 30 September 2009

DON’T WORRY – BE HAPPY

Not in the clamour of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.”

~ Henry Longfellow.

We can all create a Happiness Contract for ourselves which shows us how to identify and release blocks to creativity, entrepreneurship, and to living a life we love.

Did you know that somewhere in the back of your mind - beneath a pile of thoughts - there is a “Happiness Contract” with a lot of small print, i.e. rules, conditions, laws, and beliefs that dictate what it will take before you'll feel happy?

On closer inspection, you will also find other contracts buried in your mind like “The Success Contract” and “The Abundance Contract” and the “Love Contract.” These contracts are statements of belief which influence how much joy you think is possible and how much is just too good to be true.

By rewriting your Happiness Contract, or any other personal contract, you can instantly improve your chances of living a more inspired life.
  • What makes you happy?
  • What do you like doing?
  • Where can you include more of this in your life?
Why not try and smile at at least one stranger today. For the less confident this may be a challenge – but you can do it!
Happiness comes from many sources, including expressing ourselves creatively. What are you going to do this week to express yourself? A smile costs nothing, however it brings great richness to the recipient. “It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive it, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.”
Dale Carnegie - How to win friends and influence people
Have you ever heard it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile?! There are many health benefits to being happy (despite the problems you may and have), including increasing your sense of wellbeing and pleasure with each and every day. Smiling also improves your health by boosting your immune system and lowering your blood pressure. It’s a great stress reliever and increases your attractiveness.

Smiling into your golden years can actually promote longevity. In a study on optimism published in General Psychiatry, of those over the age of 65, optimists were 71 per cent less likely to die from certain causes than that of pessimists. A life full of smiles also exercises muscles in the face, which helps prevent drooping and saggy skin!.

A vision of happiness and smiling makes us attractive

We are drawn to people who smile. We want to know happy people and figure out what is making them smile. Frowns push people away, but a smile draws people in.

Smiling and being happy changes our mood.

Next time you are feeling down, try tricking your body by putting on a smile. There's a good chance you mood will change for the better.

Being happy and showing it, helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn out and overwhelmed. When you are stressed, take time to put on a smile. The stress should be reduced and you will be better able to take action.

Being in a happy state of mind boosts your immune system
When you smile immune function improves, possibly because you are more relaxed.

When you’re happy, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Sit for a few minutes and take your blood pressure. Then smile for a minute and take another reading! Note the results!! Being happy makes you look younger The muscles we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Don't go for a face lift, just try smiling your way through the day instead! – you’ll look younger and feel better.

Having a happy demeanor and smiling makes you seem successful

Smiling people appear more confident, are more likely to be promoted and to be approached. Put on a smile at meetings and appointments and people will react to you differently, more positively. Smiling helps you stay positive. When weItalic smile our body is sending the message, “Life is good”. Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling. My favourite affirmation is, “I’m so happy I can’t stop smiling”. It always helps to put a smile on my face. If I don’t feel like it, I try to “fake it until I make it!”. I pretend I am happy by smiling anyway and usually I find I am feeling better instantly. Practice smiling. When you are exercising, taking a walk or looking at yourself in the mirror tell yourself things are real good.

Forgive everyone for everything: Hold no grudges. Forgiveness is a gift to yourself. YOU created the stress in your life by getting angry, and only YOU can instantly remove that stress by granting forgiveness. Expressing your forgiveness to the other person is optional - that forgiveness is required in order to live a happy and joyful life. Don't forget to also forgive yourself for everything you regret ever having done or not done.

Dance Lightly With Life: Life does not have to be a serious undertaking. You will make mistakes, you will feel regrets, and eventually, you will die - so what?.... Happiness comes from dancing lightly with life and enjoying the moment. We only have this moment so why not BE HAPPY!

Do call me now if you having difficulty in seeing the bright side of life despite the difficulties you may be having.

Call Nuala, Life Coach at 087 2532675
E.mail Info@nualaduignanlifecoach.com
View my web site at
www.nualaduignanlifecoach.com

Sunday, 27 September 2009

Getting Things Done –Work/Life Balance

“I just don’t have the time”! A very common phrase which you are, I’m sure very familiar with. The fast pace of life today and everyone wanting to do the most they can, means that you don’t always get done what you would have liked. However, some people seem to get more into their day than others, and you never hear them say “I just don’t have the time”. To them it’s never a time problem, but rather what the time is used for. How about you?

You really cannot manage time, but you can manage how you use that time. Everyone gets the same amount of time in each day!. You don’t have 30 hours today just because you feel really busy!. If your goal is strictly to get more things done, why not review this thinking to not just getting things done but getting the right (appropriate for you) things completed or review how you manage the focus of how you use your time. Prioritise your tasks in order of importance/urgency.

Bold
Far too many of us seem to go through life just “going through the motions”. We have developed our daily habits over time, and our habits have become our life. We may have never actually taken the time to think about what we want and why we want it. How about you?

There’s a very common saying, “I will believe it when I see it”. however, success in life works in exactly the opposite way. You need to believe that you can accomplish what you want before you see how to achieve it. The saying is then a lot more powerful when you say “I will see it when I believe it”. What you want to accomplish? If you don’t believe you can accomplish what you want, why not consider the assistance of a Life Coach who can assist you along the way.

Nuala Duignan is a Professional Life Coach.
Diploma in Life and Business Coaching.
Diploma in Train the Trainer, FETAC Level 6.
She can be contacted at 087 2532675
or e.mail:

Web Site:

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Back To School

The children are back in school. You can be back there too, it’s never too late to learn.

We live in a knowledge-powered economy and if we're not continually upgrading our capabilities we become obsolete!. The good news is, the educational choices we make at eighteen don't need to be hard and fast choices we're stuck with for a lifetime. We now can choose to look at lifelong learning as the homework assignment that never goes away. Or, we can choose to look at it as an essential strategy for living long and living well!.

How are you upgrading your knowledge and abilities? There is always more to learn and we must all strive to master more or new skills.

Advantages of Adult Education

Many of us have great plans to do a night course. However, good intentions often fall by the wayside in the face of our many commitments. However, taking a class has many advantages:
  • Satisfying your creative side or learning a new skill allows you to forget about everyday life for a while and concentrate on doing something for yourself.
  • You are totally free to choose your own specialist subject - perhaps something you have always longed to do. Who knows what could happen when you take up the paintbrush/calculator/chainsaw for the first time?!
Night Courses in Ireland

The further education sector in Ireland is booming. With more and more people of all ages returning to education for a variety of reasons, it often seems like half of Ireland is taking some type of course. Aontas - the National Association of Adult Education - estimate that each year over 300,000 adults participate in education in Ireland. The Aontas statistics break down the 300,000 total into approximately 150,000 people in nightcourses or evening classes, 30,000 students enrolled in PLC programmes, 50,000 in community education schemes and the rest taking part in various programmes and distance learning courses.


“The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels” – Hazrat Khan

If you contact me now, I will be happy to direct you towards that life skill you always dreamt of gaining.


Nuala Duignan, member of Leitrim County Enterprise Board

e.mail: info@nualaduignanlifecoach.com
Tel. 087 2532675

Or view my Web Sites at:

www.nualaduignanlifecoach.com

www.linkedin.com/in/nualaduignanlifecoach

Monday, 7 September 2009

Could This Be The Answer To Unemployment?

Take a walk along the Grand Canal; imagine the time when it thronged with barges queuing to pass through the locks. Check out the high signal boxes on the railways; imagine when men not machines operated the long levers that changed the points and redirected the steam trains. Take a trip to the lighthouse at Fanad Head in Donegal; watch the waves rolling in from the Atlantic and imagine life as a lighthouse keeper. Marvel at the quaint gate houses at the entrance to large country estates and imagine the coming and going of horse drawn coaches.

Romantic, but hardly the solution to the problem of unemployment; or is it?

What’s common about all these ‘good old day’ memories is that a family lived in the house beside the lock, or the signal box, or in the lighthouse or gate house. There was a job to be done and people had to live there to get it done. Surely this is the ultimate answer to both joblessness and homelessness. Whoopee, I hear you shout; find a job that comes with a house and everyone gets somewhere to live and gets back to work in the process.

But wait a second, we don’t have enough locks, or lighthouses or signal boxes. Pity; if only we had something else to work and live beside. Nothing springs to mind; there’s nothing widespread in Ireland that needs looking after anymore – sigh!

Hang on, what about our national treasure? What about that most common of things that’s popping up all over the country; surely that needs looking after?

No I’m not talking about empty cycle lanes. I’m talking about the pothole; the contagious thing that’s popping up here there and everywhere, the per-annual problem that seems completely impervious to repair. There’s at least a hundred of them within walking distance of every house in the country; and the towns and cities are getting their fair share of them too.

Why not get people back to work by creating an army of Pothole Keepers? We could give people a housing allowance and a stipend to look after the potholes outside their door. In return they’d have to undertake to maintain the potholes in all their glory. They’d be expected to throw a few scoops of sand and loose pebbles in the hole from time to time; nothing permanent now, just a patch-up job for appearances sake. If they do their jobs properly, the potholes under their care would grow and may even join together into chasms. The successful pothole keeper could crown his achievement by spraying yellow paint around the edge of his hole, or strategically place a filthy dirty traffic cone in the middle of it.

Enterprising pothole keepers could be encouraged to take the initiative to start new potholes in any way they wish. They could use a pick and shovel, or even dynamite to begin a new hole. They would get paid for this of course, at the rate of €100 per hole. They’d get a double payment if they manage to start two holes exactly opposite each other on either side of a narrow road; a special bonus if they successfully do this on a blind bend. These, along with the deep ones with the sharp edges, and the ones that catch you by surprise, are the most prized ones.

Of course, there’d have to be a National Pot Hole competition; with prizes for the biggest, the deepest, the one in the most dangerous place, and so on. Then there’d be the ultimate accolade – County Pothole Keeper of the Year, which would come with an honorary seat on the County Council.

Of course the final objective is to turn all our highways and byways into one gigantic pothole. If we plan this right then we’ll have smooth roads again in no time. They’d be about 6 inches lower than the old ones used to be; but who cares, we’d all be working.

While we’re at it we could also have Uneven Pavement Keepers; they’d be in great demand in the towns and cities.

Wouldn’t it be great, we’d be back to full employment; and we’d be saving the County Councils a fortune by doing their job of road destruction for them. But that’s not the only benefit: We’d have something to moan about which would keep our negative psyche in good shape; we’d have another success in our strategy to destroy our domestic and export economy; we’d stop people travelling around the country in private cars too, since anything smaller than a bus would soon disappear in a hole somewhere along the journey; and we’d have yet another reason for tourists not to come to and visit us.

Finally, the Government could introduce a pothole tax; everybody in the country could pay whatever’s left of their income to keep us in an economic hole forever.

So hooray for the humble pothole; the ultimate Irish solution to the ultimate Irish problem.

Copyright © David Jones, 2009

David's new book The Pothole Republic is published by The Author's Friend. It can be purchased online at www.ThePotholeRepublic.com for €9.99 plus Postage.

However members of The Job Seekers Union can avail of a special offer and purchase it at the reduced price of €4.99 plus Postage.

Click on one of the PayPal links below to avail of the special offer. Please note: Different rates for delivery apply for orders within Ireland and for overseas.

Thursday, 3 September 2009

Is Your Life Working For You?

“It is never too late to be what you might have been” – George Elliot

Success depends on facing facts.
It depends on realising what's making you achieve success, and then realising what is stifling your success. Sometimes recognising the things that aren't working in your life can be painful. You might try to make excuses for them, or hide them. But in reality these things will keep you from the life you want to live.

Do you want to be active and strong? ... Then you have to stop making excuses about your weight and lack of exercise.
Do you want to be in a loving relationship based on friendship and respect? ... Then you have to stop rationalising why your partner is so unsupportive.
These things can be painful to look at because the truth is, that you have to do something about them in order to make your life work.
Plain and simple, you will have to do something uncomfortable “outside of your comfort zone”.

Successful people do not waste time in denial. They face situations head on. They look for the warning signs, they find out why things aren't working, and they go about fixing them.

You, too, must be willing to recognise bad situations and decide what the appropriate action will be to remedy them. You will have to deal with circumstances that are uncomfortable and challenging in order to achieve your goals. To make it easier, learn to seek these situations out.
Commit to finding out why things aren't working and learn what will fix them. Once you start the process it will be much easier to continue. Once you tackle one thing in your life that isn't working, you will gain enough confidence to tackle some of the more difficult situations. But you must decide to take action. Trust that making changes to the situation will ultimately bring about the best results.
Sure, you might go through a bit of discomfort during the change, but in the end you will triumph! Trust that you won't make matters worse by owning up to what is not working in your life, and going about fixing it.

So are you ready to admit the things that just are not working out?

Relationships, a job you thought would be wonderful, your finances, your diet? Make a list of the things in your life that are working against your success and ask how the situation can be improved. Commit today to tackling even one of those issues and be brave.
By facing what is not working, you can only improve your life!

Take Charge of our Life!

Is life happening to you or are you making life happen? Many of us go through life on automatic pilot doing the same job, taking many things in life for granted, and we may not be living up to our full potential. Then our job becomes redundant, we suffer a loss, we get bored or become overwhelmed with stress. Can we cope?

Not long ago, I had one of those weeks where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I mean everything - both, personal and professional. Try as I might I couldn’t get anything to go my way. This series of failures sapped my energy and killed my normally optimistic attitude!. At one point, in a fit of anger, I cried out, “what else can possibly go wrong?” At that moment – as soon as the words came out of my mouth – everything that could go wrong started flashing through my mind. My thoughts turned negative and, admitting defeat, I just sat and stewed over my circumstances.

But deep inside of me a little voice cried out. It pushed through my anger and negative thinking and said, “you have got to stop focusing on the negative. Don’t you know that you become what you think about? You’re just making things worse. You are a winner and winners don’t quit. Get out of that chair and start looking for solutions.”
That was a wake-up call. I knew that I had to change my thoughts. I had to start focusing on the possibilities and find the opportunities. I had to will myself to get up and fight back. I could not allow my adversity to keep me down.

The reality is, sooner or later we are all going to experience, setbacks, defeat, failure, and even tragedy. Nobody is immune. And when it happens it won’t always be easy to maintain a positive attitude, keep your enthusiasm, or see the opportunities? You decide! When it happens to you, like me, there is a real possibility that you will become overwhelmed, you will feel self-pity, and you will cry out – “why me?.

Later, after I had regained my composure, I thought about the voice that had given me the wake-up call and thought Why not try next time by immediately saying “why not me?”. It occurred to me that this voice was one of the keys to dealing with failure. Where had it come from? How did it find it’s way through my clouded, negative thoughts and get my undivided attention? How did I know that I needed the wake-up call? How do we develop this voice? Is this where successful people find the will to keep going?

After thinking about this more, the answer became clear. That internal voice that lifted me up when I was ready to quit was a result of all of the positivity I had developed and worked on before the negativity found me. The learnt positivity “equipped me” to get back up again. In reality, successful people, through regular reading and self-training, have simply taught themselves to be persistent and to get up when knocked down. They have learnt through experience that even though they cannot always change their particular circumstances, they can change how they respond. And on their worst days, when they are blinded by frustration, depression, and anger, they have developed a little voice on the inside that delivers the wake up call, “stop whining, get up, keep going, you are a winner and winners never quit.

If life has happened to you, working with a life coach can get you back on track with focus and clarity. A life coach works with you for a period of time to get you re-ignited about your life and move towards the life of your dreams. A life coach is not a therapist or a consultant. A Life Coach is not there to give you advice or tell you what to do. On the contrary your coach works with you to help you to recall and identify what is truly important to you. It’s about setting goals, motivating and overcoming challenges.

Most of us know what we should do but lack the motivation to get started and follow through. Many times what seems like a huge mountain to climb can, with the help of a coach, be broken down into smaller more achievable tasks week by week.

A life coach is in “the change business”. If you are looking to change some things in your life – business or personal - it’s a great place to start. Most coaches work one on one with clients but many of us also offer workshops and group coaching programs to give clients an introduction to the benefits of working with a coach.
  • What do you want out of life?
  • What do you dream of? Don’t be shy. This is a serious question because if you’re not working on your own dream right now, you’re more than likely working on someone else’s. Think about it.
  • Where do you want to be three or five or even ten years from now?
  • What do you want to be doing? Write it down and now that you know what you really want
  • How are you going to get there?
  • What is your plan? Work out a strategy.
  • How will the pieces fit into the big picture?
  • What steps do you need to take?
  • What changes do you need to make?
If you feel you could benefit from the assistance of a Life Coach and help you realise your great potential why not call me now at: 087 2532675
Or
View my web page at: www.nualaduignanlifecoach.com

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