BlogPositive

Exhaust knocking?

Today I took the car to the garage and got my exhaust sorted. It was a minor bit of work, took them about half an hour. It had been knocking really badly until the pipe-work warmed up and more recently even after that. It sounded dreadful and was really irritating. Its been niggling at me for about 2 months. I would notice it as I drove away from the house and then forget it as soon as I got out of the car. But it was steadily getting worse and a friend remarked on it recently. It was a terrible noise, sounded as it something big was falling apart.

However despite all this and knowing exactly what it was, it took me two months to sort it out. Now its great. Sounds much better, no knocking, nice and smooth no matter how fast I go around bends. Its was so easy why didn't I do it ages ago?

Well there are many, many things in life that that. They are small and niggly and you don't sort them out. They needle and irritate and have the potential to become bigger issues if not dealt with. You know the sort of thing. Your partner never filling the car with petrol, your mates always getting the round in and getting you the wrong drink, your kids inviting friends around on homework nights, your boss assuming you'll do the overtime cos you are the only woman without children, your colleagues never filling the photocopier with paper or toner. Its these little things that don't get dealt with that can gnaw away at you leading to a flare up or can become a bigger issue like when you have limited time to catch a train and the car needs petrol on the way.

Just think how much better life could be if you dealt with those small issues today. Think how much smoother your day would be. Think how much stress you could remove with just one small adjustment. Think how easy it would be to address it.

What small niggly issue are you dealing with today? How will you reward yourself when its sorted.

Quantity gives quality

I've been writing an article about my India trip tonight and needed some photos to go with it.  I hadn't actually downloaded them yet so I've been squirting nearly 600 shots from my camera into my PC. I'm surprised at how many pics there are.  But then when I look at them there are probably about 20 really good shots, with the right light, exposure, composition etc that I could print and frame and hang on the wall, and then about 20 mediocre ones and the rest are just tourist snaps that we just don't bother printing any more.

This really ilustrates the point from my creativity course last month that in order to be really creative and make good work you have to churn our vast quantities of work and be prepared to throw most of it away.  This can be a bit galling, but when the good stuff is really good then its well worth it.  I took about 50 shots of the sunset over Dal Lake, a famous beauty spot in Srinagar and there are two or three that I am really pleased with, so it was worth the effort to take the rest.

This maxim of quantity giving you quality applies to lots of things in life but we forget this and expect things to be perfect first time.  You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince (believe me I'm still looking) and you may have to try out lots of jobs before you find you ideal post, look at lots of houses before you find your perfect home, practice with lots of salsa partners before you find your perfect match.  So if there's something in your life that's not quite right remember that you probably just haven't tried enough times, not given enough permutations, or not had enough experiences.

So where have you given up too early?  Get out there and do more!

Building buttons

Its not a normal day here at all.  My neigbours are moving to the beautiful town of Wooler and the removal men are here.  I have just been to my doctor and they've taken some blood to find out if I'm ill or just getting older! And I'm finally getting back into my online bank accounts after my laptop was stolen in May. And all of this on very little sleep cos I was up till 3am working on the blog.

The blogosphere and web are all about linking. I'm a kind and helpful person and I have had so much excellent feedback on the blog content from all of you, my loyal readers, that I'd like to let more people know about the blog so they can also live more positively.  So I have started listing in blog directories.  When I started this I thought it would be an easy job.  Then I found out that I had to build back links with buttons and clever html stuff.  I was a bit hesitant about this as its not something that I've done before and all the clever stuff on the web site is done by Sylvia, my indispensible right-hand woman.

So I first of all just attacked it using the techniques that I'd used for adding other stuff like the website links. This didn't work properly.  Then (at about midnight) I read all of the stuff in the Typepad knowledge base and after translating it into non-technospeak I thought I knew what to do.  My first couple of attempts at the coding didn't work but then I had a light bulb moment and it all fell into place.  It's a sort of work around as there is no easy way of doing this in Typepad.  But the result is all the button links that you can find by scrolling down on the right below the daily cartoon. As we are accepted into the directories I'll update these so you can go right to our entry and vote or rate this blog.

My sense of achievement is huge over this.  And I was really hesitant about doing it, it didn't work properly the first few times but I knew that it should be do-able.  So lessons for us all here in terms of actually just getting stuck in.  It also absolutley typical of me to charge in without reading the instructions so if you are like that don't give yourself a hard time - cos I actually had it about half right in the way that I first tried. And I knew that when I'd done it I'd feel really proud.  Stepping outside your comfort zone and trying something new can be intimidating but if you don't take that first step you will never reach your goal.

Seabiscuit

Last night, tired and jetlagged, I cut the work and watched a dvd. It was called Seabiscuit - about a famous US racehorse.  Its a fabulous story about achievement and should probably come with a half tissue box warning!  You can read  more about him here http://www.seabiscuitonline.com/index1.htm

One of the great messages of the film was that this little horse just kept winning against the bigger guys cos he just didn't think of himself as small. In reality he was only a small pony and with the right techniques and encouragement he was winning races against much bigger thoroughbreds.

It made me think about how small we all often think we are.  The smallest cog in a great wheel, the lowliest person in your team, the one making the smallest contribution to anything. And if that is the way that we continue to think about ourselves then that is the way that we'll end up. I could think about myself as just a freelance trainer but I know that what I do amounts to much more than that. What I do makes a big difference to people's lives so I am not JUST a trainer.

Maybe you are saying to yourself "But I am ONLY...."  " I am JUST...." Listen to your own language. If you are talking yourself down why would you expect anyone else to give you space on this planet. Its time to stop talking small and start thinking bigger.  About your life, your career, your hopes and aspirations.  You can be like Seabiscuit and take on the big guys and win.

Disappointment Peak

I am at Chicago airport on my way home and pondering about my holiday in the Teton National Park, Wyoming. I have had a great time and have unfortunately not got as much climbing done as I would have liked. This was due to a vareity of circumstances. I am disappointed as its a long way to travel.  There is a peak there called Disappointment Peak. It was climbed by the earlier expolorers and as it did not lead where they were hoping so they named it Disappointment Peak.

One of the side effects of not managing so much climbing is that I have seen a LOT of wildlife that I may not have encountered. Count amongst that lots of bear, buffalo and elk, as well as some spectacular birdlife and it all adds up to not a disappointment but a great success. In life its all a matter of attitude. I could call it a disappointing climbing holiday or a successful break in the Tetons. I choose the latter.

What are the things that you are viewing as a disappointment?  What are the positive aspects of that apparent disappointment?.  How can you reframe how you are looking at things to give yourself a more positive outlook?