Power-Ups

"The secret of your future is hidden in your daily  routine ."  For as long as I can remember, I have set New Year's Resolutions that I have (surprise, surprise) not been able to stick with.  Things like lose 20 kilos or cut out caffeine.  This time around, I thought I might take a different approach.  Again on January 1st, I made 13 resolutions, that I will endeavor to work through, however, already just three weeks later, I realise how hard it is to get these larger goals into play.  So today I have started to break down my resolutions into mini-resolutions.   I took a photo, which is a habit I'm trying to start (I want an album with the whole year in it). Rather than saying that “I am going to cut out caffeine”, I have made the commitment at the beginning of each day to give up caffeine for ‘today’.  Today I made a commitment to make my bed before I started any work.  I made this goal and felt good about it.  So again, as my p...

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.”     As a teacher, I learnt very quickly that times tables, and repetitive learning of information would not catch the attention of my students, and I decided to adopt the lost art of storytelling back into my lessons.    I was filled with joy to see the students sitting forward listening in their chairs and asking questions and pondering some of the very important questions of life.  This taught me very quickly that there is always more than one way to look at a situation and sometimes it is worth looking outside of the box to get the answer that we need. Often life can seem like it is moving very quickly, with lots of decisions, yet very few real options.  This is where we really must take the time to take a few deep breaths and in fact give ourselves the space and time to reflect on the important aspects of life. When thinking about the...

S.Y.S.T.E.M.  Save Yourself Time, Energy and Money  A Roman Catholic priest, an Anglican priest and a Baptist preacher were standing near a river conversing when the subject of which church was nearest to the teaching of God arose. The Roman Catholic priest said that of course there was no argument that the Roman Catholic Church was. They were descended directly from the Apostles; in fact Peter was their first Pope. He said in fact so close are we that I can even walk on water like Jesus and he preceded to walk on the water to the other side.        The Anglican Priest said the Anglican Church was very similar in origin to the Catholics and he too demonstrated his ability to walk on water like Jesus Christ. The Baptist preacher said that he could not care where their origins were; he studied the word and preached it purely, and without any embellishments. Since they could walk on water he should be even better at it. He took one-step forward and sunk kne...

"The secret of getting things done is to act!"   I personally like to keep things simple.  If the process is to long, I won’t tend to get through it.  So often with self help guides to getting things done,  they have so many steps that by the time I have spent an hour working out what I need to do, I really don’t feel like doing anything with it. This in mind, I thought I would share with you the 5 steps I take when I want to get something done. Get A Routine  –  Get into good routines; over time it gets easier. Think about what you need to achieve in a day. Reward Yourself  – My philosophy in life is to work hard and then celebrate a job well done.  Reward yourself when you achieve each small step, even the easiest ones, such as calling a gym to check the prices, or making your bed. Plan For Fun  –  You won’t be able to stay motivated if your life is all about work and no fun. In your timetable, make sure you commit to doing ...

“Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror.” ―  Colin Powell Driving a car looking in the rearview mirror is a recipe for disaster. Likewise, driving backward or reversing is dangerous. It is important to work on changing the directions of the front wheels and the back wheels will follow. Imagine you are about to go on a road trip from Western Australia to Sydney.  You have packed the car and filled it with petrol and you and your passengers are ready to head off. You have chosen to start this trip of an evening so that there will be less traffic on the road. You have many decisions to make regarding your trip. The first thing you need to think about is what setting you to have your headlights: 1) Sometimes we have our headlights turned off and we can’t see the road or we get off course or hit a roadblock. 2)  Sometimes we have our lights on low beam, so we can see a little way ahead, but it is a slow journey and we don’t see all the s...

"Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong." Emma Watson Sexuality has sparked much debate over the years .   Is it not fair to say that  we are all, first and foremost, human beings ?  Human beings who all need: A sense of power over their lives. To feel safe and secure. The freedom to choose and make decisions. A conducive environment to have fun. A feeling of being loved, belonging and able to share their love. Both sexes are also able to  feel, nurture and express their love , while both are also able when needed to  get into action and labour and be more task and fact orientated.      A man that can  show emotion and speak of how he feels is in balance with himself , not gay or woosy, and a women who can  speak her mind and can get the job done is action-driven  and not aggressive.     When push comes to shove we can play the role that...

"Opportunities don't happen. You create them."   Chris Grosser Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as ‘Dr. Seuss was a well-renowned cartoonist and writer.   He had many other pursuits before he was given a request by William Spaulding that would set Theodor’s sights in a whole new way. Theodor was asked to reduce a list of 348 words that Spaulding had compiled believing they were the most important words for first-graders to learn, and asked Theodor to reduce the words again to 250 and write a book that would engage young readers.  This task was undertaken after Life Magazine published an article around the growing issue of illiteracy stating that children weren’t reading due to books being boring.    This started Theodor on a journey of great proportion with his first book (using 236 words) of this type being ‘The Cat In The Hat’. It would be amiss of us however to believe that Suess’s work is only for young readers.   Keep reading...