How to change your life
I’m always on the lookout for new books to read (or listen to – I love listening to audiobooks on my iPod). So now that I seem to have gathered a few regular readers, I would love to know what is on your “to read” list? Or, what have you read that you think I would enjoy?
Here are a few that are on my list already (and a short explanation of why).
My personal development journey has had some curious side effects. Since starting on this journey, activities I once enjoyed now give me little pleasure. Or, if I do want to try to enjoy them, I often end up feeling guilty. Some examples are: sleeping in, eating fast food, having a big night out, or watching TV.
What’s going on?
Recently I had my first golf lesson with a professional golfer. Now, this is not the first time that I had played golf – I picked up a golf club for the first time approximately 9 months ago and subsequently played on and off with friends. I studied a few golf books and received a few good tips from my friends, but frustration finally sent me in search of professional help.
At the lesson, the first thing I did was hit some golf balls whilst the coach watched. Then, he told me this: “first, we are going to work on the 4 fundamentals of golf: grip, stance, posture, and alignment”. If you think about each of them – grip, stance, posture, and alignment – you can imagine why it was that I did not hit too many golf balls in that first lesson. The swing – that all important element that is the final determinant of how the ball is hit – would not be the focus until I had the fundamentals under control.
How you spend your money is your business. What you may like to consider, though, is that your spending habits can often affect your level of happiness. And what you initially think may make you happy – the new car, bigger house, and large screen TV – may not give you the most smiles for your dollar. With this in mind, I have come up with what I consider are 10 ways spending your wealth can lead you to a happier, and more satisfying, life.
As human beings it is inevitable that at some point in our lives we will develop feelings of sadness, hopelessness and even depression. These emotions can be brought on by something personal like losing a job, a failed relationship, or a serious health issue for you or a loved one; or sometimes they are triggered by something more global like corrupt political systems, war, or the knowledge that there are starving children all over the world.
Regardless, we are just people and no matter how hard we may try to mitigate negative emotions, they persist. The purpose of this article is NOT to explain to you how detrimental these negative feelings are, but rather give some practical tools for gaining perspective amid these rough times. Living with perspective means always looking at your life from the 10,000 foot level, and when you entrain yourself to pull back and view yourself from this height things begin to look a little different. More often than not, they begin to look much better.
Why start a blog? Here are 5 reasons:
1. It’s Cheaper Than Therapy
Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I agree. Writing is a great way to generate ideas and clarify your thoughts about both your inner and outer worlds. Of course, consider privacy issues before airing any dirty laundry online.
Boring people – they’re everywhere. You can tell when you are in the presence of such a person when you have to fight the urge to yawn or your mind wanders off to.. well… just about anything else. Now you too can be boring if you follow these simple, straight-forward tips. (Disclaimer: this is something of a Monday morning rant)
1. Be a fence sitter
Sitting on the fence means taking a position of neutrality or indecision on a particular topic. Now there may be some circumstances where this is needed, but far too often I see people sit on the fence because they are too lazy to think about where they stand on an issue or they are too scared to voice their opinion for fear of offending someone. Boring.
I was on autopilot for many years. Sure, I was traveling through life with my eyes open and my hands on the wheel. But it seemed as if I was heading toward some pre-determined destination that had been chosen for me by others. In addition, it seemed that whenever I turned the wheel to guide me toward this destination, that there was no conscious thought behind my actions. Are you on autopilot?
Admittedly this can be a tough question to answer. First, it is always hard to be brutally honest with oneself. If you realize that you are traveling through life on autopilot, you may just need to make some big changes. Second, how can you tell if you are? Personally, I believe the best method is to look for particular signs. The following are 5 signs that are either relevant to my life or the lives of some close friends of mine.
