How to get busy living

Wednesday’s Mission – Explore the Work

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:44 +0000

For today’s mission I want you to explore Byron Katie’s extraordinary “The Work”. For some people and for some mindsets, her technique can work very quickly and can even feel like magic. I highly recommend watching all the videos on the site (youtube.com also has loads – just do a search on Byron Katie) to really get a feel for what this is all about – and it will feel very strange at first. There is also her book which I highly recommend

Please give the work at least a week to really start working.

I would love to hear from people who have had success with The Work in changing their mindsets or how you got on this week if you are new to it.

Inspirational Tuesday :How much help is too much?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:19:11 +0000

I Have been wrestling with this question particularly in regards to my 14 year old son who is just not achieving the grades his intelligence suggests he should – mostly due to a refusal to do homework. I have tried so many different methods to help him from positive rewards to negative consequences and to be frank nothing works. So I have taken a big deep breath and come to the conclusion that this is not something I can fix. I can gently remind him along the way of the consequences of his actions (or lack thereof) but ultimately this is a decision he will have to make and live with.
Now I am sure some of you reading this will strongly disagree with my decision and I can live with that. What I would like you to think about is where in your life you may be helping too much? Where are you taking responsibility for something that is in fact other people’s problems and are you REALLY doing that person a favor by doing so? Whether this is at work or in your personal or family life, the principal is still the same, I believe the greatest gift we can give anyone is teaching them how to stand on their own two feet and how to solve their own problems. Often also the motive for helping comes from something lacking in ourselves – we feel needed by helping – and this can muddy our judgment on whether we are truly doing what is in the interest of the other person.

This different way of looking at things unfortunately does not spawn many quotes – thousands of results for “help” none for “help too much” so I cannot leave you today with a good quote so I would just like to leave you with the question -
“Where in your life are you helping too much?”

Mindset Monday : The Art of Self-Sabotage

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:22:12 +0000

How did you get on with last week’s free writing exercise – were you able to uncover hidden mindsets?

One way to discover if there are possible mindsets that are blocking your success is to ask yourself the following questions?

1. Am I tripping myself up time and time again?
2. Do I choose goals that I find it hard to get excited about? Especially when the hoped for outcome really does not feel that important to me?
3. Do I achieve a certain amount of success then sabotage my efforts?
4. Do I feel that I am setting goals that are more to make other people happy than for myself?
5. If you try to imagine yourself successful in reaching the goal, how do I feel? Are there mixed feelings?

These questions can be very illuminating both for choosing correct goals and keeping on target.

Gratitude Thursday

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:46 +0000

I am so grateful that the weather is finally warming up. Winters are long in Wisconsin and we don’t see grass for months. Yesterday it was warm enough to take a long walk. Between the exercise and the sun, I felt so very much better and I am looking forward to a lovely spring.

I am grateful to the recently deceased Dick Francis whose books give me so much pleasure – I am going back and rereading his back catalog and enjoying each one. Whilst not exactly Pulizer prize material, the stories are always interesting and packed full of obscure information so that I always learn something.

I am so grateful that the Internet means that I can listen to the radio of my childhood – in particular LBC and BBC’s Radio 4 . I love being able to keep in contact with things going on back home and just find the quality of programming excellent. I have an internet radio by my bed so I can drift off to sleep to them too. I wish I could also watch television programs but they are as yet not available except for those that show up on PBS.

What are you grateful for this Thusday?

Wednesday’s mission

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:00:42 +0000

I hope you have been having fun completing these missions. I have challenged all of your senses and have started getting you used to change.
Today’s challenge may be harder for you. I want you to challenge one of your fears. Start with a more minor fear this week – trying to go for your worst phobia may be premature at this junction.
An example that I am going to carry out this week is to go look at a rat in a pet shop. I really hate rats and I have been working hard at conquering this phobia using EFT – I couldn’t even bear to see one on television before so I think I am ready for this step – next step will be to stroke one – the very thought makes me shudder. A rat phobia does not exactly stop my life in any way but conquering our fears in any area will help us conquer our other fears – success builds on success and changes us to a can do mindset.

Good luck with this one – I would love to hear how you get on – so please leave a comment.

Inspiration Tuesday

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:00:50 +0000

There are some books I re-read yearly – either because the book is so beautifully written or because they inspire me to look at my life differently. Top of my list in the latter category is:

This beautifully simple tale teaches me something new every time I read it. It teaches us to look at the world with newly opened eyes. I highly recommend you read this book and allow it’s magic to work on you.