How charitable are you to others and yourself? Here are a few charity-related posts you may have missed.
“Time is one of the most loving and compassionate gifts you can give someone, including yourself!”
“It doesn’t make any sense to make a key and then run around looking for a lock to open.”
“The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.”
Image from Unsplash by Anupam Mahapatra
Do you or someone close to you use a FitBit or similar device to measure your daily steps? For many, getting 10,000 steps in each day can be an obsession.
In the past few years the standing desk and even the treadmill desk that rolls along at a slow pace have been introduced to help people increase their daily activity.
Beyond your daily physical activity, where and on what do you spend your days? What small, modest, daily efforts have you been accumulating to create your personal and professional body of work or life resumé?
Please reply to this post with a few of the worthy efforts that represent your body of work.
How have these actions become the foundation of the legacy you wish to offer the world?
I hope others in your various communities appreciate your efforts and that you fully enjoy the process and cumulative output.
Having something to look forward to is a powerful thing. It sets up our expectations and can shift our present moment attitude toward positivity and anticipation.
Notice how you feel when you look forward to:
Unfortunately, negative expectations about the future can take the wind out of us just as easily. Consider these situations:
How can and will you use greater mindfulness and self-awareness to maximize your positive and minimize your negative expectations?
Practicing and applying this exercise daily can provide the fuel for a more fulfilling life.
Image from Pinterest
Take a look at these two lists and compare them to how you and those close to you have been feeling lately:
| LIST 1 | LIST 2 | LIST 1 | LIST 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fear | Optimism | Anger | Love | |
| Sadness | Acceptance | Aggression | Delight | |
| Contempt | Awe | Remorse | Trust | |
| Boredom | Serenity | Annoyance | Admiration | |
| Loathing | Joy | Grief | Appreciation | |
| Vigilance | Anticipation | Pensiveness | Amazement |
How long do these emotions last throughout your days? To what degree can and do you simply notice the undesirable ones and release them? How often do you try to resist and fight them only to discover how much they persist?
How might paying particular attention to your positive emotions offer better waters to bathe in?
Consider exploring Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions to look a bit further into this subject.
Image from Unsplash by Sarah Killian
It Takes Two to Tango.
Take a moment to look at the health and work-ability of your closest and most important relationships.
Examine how things are going with your spouse, partner, children, siblings, and friends. How about your connections with colleagues, customers, and others at work?
Virtually all of my coaching clients place communications and improving relationships at or near the very top of their most important and urgent priorities. Among the tips and techniques offered in countless books, workshops, and seminars is the good old-fashioned sincere apology.
Where and with whom have you stepped on a toe or two recently?
What role and what level of responsibility do you have in what is and isn’t working?
Where would fessing up to a mess you made or helped create make the biggest difference?
When will you take the necessary action to clean things up?
Please reply to this post and let me know how things go.
How might you add more smiles to your face, and the faces of those around you? Here are a few smile-related posts you may have missed.
“If you see someone without a smile today, give them one of yours.”
“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”
“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.”
Image from Unsplash by NCI
Thousands of years ago man often looked to the stars and to nature for the wisdom and insight to answer pressing problems.
Looking to the gods or some outside source for reasoning and solutions seemed natural since these external forces seemed so large and powerful.
Today, we often look within ourselves and compare our own answers to others. This can create an Us/Them dynamic, which misses the idea that the totality of the relationship we have within our personal and professional communities have bigger and often better answers to guide us.
Marita Fridjhon, co-owner and CEO of CRR Global, calls this concept The Relationship System. Learn about her work at www.CRRGlobal.com.
What are the relationship systems in our world trying to teach us?
What may be the lessons we need to learn from COVID-19, racism, and climate change? What do other relationships systems closer to home – such as work and family – have to teach us?
Image of Garry Marshall from wikipedia
What do the TV shows Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Mork & Mindy have in common with the films Pretty Woman, Beaches, and The Princess Diaries? They were all directed by the same man.
Garry Marshall never wanted to change the world; he only wanted to entertain the world. Based on his prolific body of work, he succeeded big time.
In the documentary The Happy Days of Garry Marshall, dozens of A-list television and film celebrities shared their happiest of days working with and alongside this kind, authentic, creative, and perhaps most of all, funny genius.
His work always demonstrated a celebration of the funny and real aspects of life that had us all relate and connect.
What choices and efforts can and will you make today to make it a happier day?
The other day my wife and I were discussing a free app she has been using on her phone for over a year. Called Happy Color, it is a paint-by-color app with thousands of intricate designs and scenes to be completed.
When she completes an artistic effort, she often forwards it to friends and family or simply displays it in one of many digital albums.
A wonderful bonus of this artistic expression are the benefits her beautiful efforts have on her physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
What are some ways that you, too, express and exercise your own artistic talents?
How do your efforts benefit yourself and others in your personal and professional communities?
Please feel free to hit reply to this post and let me know about the art you exercise.
Image from Unsplash by The Creative Exchange
Inertia is the tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged. With the social distancing, stay-at-home guidelines and other efforts to fight COVID-19, our world and our lives slowed down considerably.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Consider your vocational efforts, eating habits, sleep schedule, and level of exercise as places to look. Where in these and other important areas of life have you progressed, stayed about the same, or let the power of inertia have its way with you?
Where and in what ways can and will you break free of this force so that you can soar even higher and farther?