Is it time?

Is it time to make that change?

You know; that one that you have been thinking about, on and off for a while.

The change that has seemed just a bit too disruptive; difficult, maybe even painful, until now.

So when is NOW the right time to finally do what you really want?

Life, as far as I know, is not unlimited. An average man in Britain might live to be 74 years old, a woman maybe 80.

Maybe a little longer, maybe a lot shorter; who can tell?

I am approaching the point where I will have been alive for 50 years. By the law of averages that means possibly two thirds of my life have been spent. So I ask myself questions.

What have I done?

What have I done well?

What have I done badly?

Who did I help?

Who did I inspire?

Who have I loved?

As I ask myself these questions, I feel the same sense of curiosity and wonderment about life that I did at age 8.  

I ask myself the question; how will I do things better, how will I care more (for me as well as others), how will I achieve more?

In a sense it is the ego driven quest for immortality, the desire to know that somehow we will live on even when our body is crumbled to dust. But as motivators go it's a useful one for me.

Now, what about YOU?

Work anxiety leads to stress & not taking holidays

It's something that is probably obvious to those who have a job but work pressures are mounting as the recession goes on longer. (Those who argue the recession is over might want to talk to the staff at Comet stores this week.)

Today yet another stress story (YASS?) hits the newspapers, in this case the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2235280/Recession-means-half-work-unmanageable-stress-levels.html

Elsewhere in the news we can find that those who lose their job are more likely to die of a heart attack in their first year out of work and that the secret of raising children who will become wealthy is to raise them to be happy.

There's no doubt that in spite of the material wealth in the country, it's difficult for many people to cope at the moment.

Friday thought; a step backwards

It's a line from the novel Player Piano written by Kurt Vonnegut. The line itself is spoken by the main character in the book Dr. Paul Proteus, who has become disillusioned by the society systems now in place, where many people have their jobs replaced by machines and are left doing Government paid community work instead.

Paul Proteus comes to recognise that the system has gone too far, it has removed the ability for people to have worthwhile work as a part of their life.

In his court scene he says

...a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.

 I think this is something we can apply in our life.

So often we worry about taking a step backwards in case we lose face, or are seen as weak and yet sometimes a step backwards can truly be a 'step in the right direction'

Tea is good defence against diabetes

More good news if you drink tea.

Mrs Doyle says "Go on, go on, go on. Drink!"

According to an article in today's Daily Mail, drinking black tea helps to reduce the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2229333/Drinking-tea-cut-risk-type-2-diabetes-suggests-study.html

Mine's a cup of Yorkshire please!

There's knowing and then there's really knowing

It normally happens with smokers who want to quit, sometimes with those who wish to lose weight.

They know that smoking (or over eating)  is potentially, catastrophically bad for their health but carry on anyway.

I term this knowing at an intellectual level. They know the information but are in no way engaged with it.

Do you see the warning or is it just 'white space'?

They look at the grim pictures or words on the cigarette pack, they have read all the warnings and still they carry on. They have not made the connection that this applies to them. It's seems to be almost a random droplet of knowledge that they picked up somewhere; "Oh yes I know that".

It seems slightly different to a state of denial, more a state of  uncaring.

Then we start work and my role is to have them know the information fully, that is on an emotional level as well as an intellectual level. When this happens, when they connect the information to their own life, the effect is often profound. It's as if they have put information into different boxes in their head that never got opened at the same time, but when they do, I expect tears or anger.

Then I find that positive change can happen quickly; intellect and emotions are aligned. Things happen quickly and generally very successfully from this point on.