January is that time of year when people like to make resolutions - to embark on new projects, fulfil a lifelong quest, learn new skills, adopt healthier lifestyles, make all-round self-improvements and so on. It goes back to the ancient Romans who began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.
Those who find themselves in the frame of mind that ‘2013 will be The Year’ will find no more rewarding a read than Nuala Duignan’s just published Charting Your Life’s Roadmap in an Uncertain World: Choose Happiness Daily. It is a book that is filled with practical advice and tools to measure how your life is performing across different areas.
“New Year is an ideal time reflect on your achievements, celebrate your wins and consider your goals for the coming year and beyond ... a good time to start thinking about fresh starts, ... Time for a reality check.” according to Nuala Duignan. But for many people, the spirit of good intention that pervades at this time of year gets lost in the mists of reality, as the daily grind takes its toll. January becomes February and before we know it another year has passed. Although our lives have moved on, we remain in much the same quandary as we were before; uncertain about our future and where we are going, or what we should be doing.
This is where Life Coaching comes in. Resolutions become unstuck because people lose focus on their goals. What we need to do is to ‘check in’ periodically - not just in the New Year - and take time to consider our overall situation: where we are at with our lives; how far we have come and how much of the journey that we have set for ourselves remains.
“Our attitude is our window on the world and it is within our self-control.” Central to Nuala’s prescription is the idea that we should choose happiness daily. True happiness is not something we attain when our lives have reached a certain level of ‘perfection’. Rather, happiness is the comfort of knowing that we are in control of our lives, satisfied with what we are doing, solving various problems as we continue along our chosen path.
The book is interspersed with testimonials from people that Nuala has worked with in her capacity as a Life Coach. It also contains words of wisdom in the form of quotations from famous people and historical figures - Martin Luther King, Michael Caine, Theodore Roosevelt, Judy Garland, Henry Ford, George Elliot to name but a few.
Nuala Duignan is a qualified Life Coach whose expertise in this area is drawn as much from her own background and experiences, as from her professional training in this field. Born and raised on a farm in Co. Roscommon, she had a varied career, running her own Health and Gourmet catering business, working in the construction industry and the field of medicine (both general and psychiatric), before she took up Life Coaching. She says that it was her experience in the medical field that motivated her to pursue Life Coaching as a career.
She now uses her accumulated work experiences and coaching skills to help move individuals, from where they are currently to where they want to reach. Previous articles that she has contributed to The Job Seekers Blog are available to read here.
Charting Your Life’s Roadmap in an Uncertain World: Choose Happiness Daily by Nuala Duignan is published by The Manuscript Publisher and available now in all good bookshops. It can also be purchased online. RRP €12.99.
Nuala Duignan can be reached via her website - www.nualaduignanlifecoach.com. She is also on Facebook.
