What makes me smile

The things in my life that make me smile are ridiculously simple. This fact is one of the reasons I believe that I was born in the wrong time. One song comes to mind in which the singer had the same opinion of her own life:

“I was born too late to a world that doesn’t care. I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair.”

The first is the simple phrase ‘thank you’ which goes such a long way, making everyday actions and duties a pleasure.

Appreciation for nature is also at the top of my list, with taking time to look at the clouds move, picking flowers on the side of the road, making a wish when a butterfly touches me and drawing shapes on cold objects in winter.

Music is also an instant mood changer for me. There is so much good quality and inspiration music constantly playing, that when my ear picks up one of them my mood is instantly lifted.

The fact that I can deal with who I am. Late in 2010 I adopted the saying that I won’t waste time on things I can’t change. This changed my way of thinking dramatically. I took a long hard look at myself and decided that if I can’t change something I will either have to live with it or completely eliminate it from my life.

So just a little insight into the things that make my world turn. I hope all my readers find the same things that make them happy this week. Happy blogging

Our greatest strengths are our greatest weaknesses

Sometimes what we the think is our identifier, the one thing that gives us the upper hand against people that are almost exactly like us, can be our downfall. The saying that a coin has two sides has never been more relevant...

The saying live by the gun die by the gun comes into mind, presenting the concept that what you indulge in your entire life will be your down fall when passing on to the next life.

Within our profession the need to constantly want to control things may be our downfall, and I feel uneasy as I see how many practitioners leave the profession as the result of not being able to keep up. Instead of having enough faith to hand work over to our other employees we do all the work to ensure it is of a very high standard. The result- people feel excluded and unimportant in the organisation as they feel their contribution is insignificant and you end up burning out or dropping some balls while trying to keep them all in the air.

Other examples include having an addictive personality. Although this may serve well in all sorts of situations when it is combined with a destructive habit it could be the down fall of any person. Examples can be seen throughout casinos where people fight gambling addictions and at all places that chain smokers and heavy drinkers frequent.

Appreciate your talents, by all means and cherish your strengths as they will get you through the dark days, but watch out for your weaknesses...they may be the cause of the dark days...

Try a cliché

Cliché’s, the single most overused phrases in the English vocabulary. This made me think of some cliché’s that have featured in my life more than what they should have.

Good guys finish last- the classic excuse for why most people don’t play by the rules. In my opinion this is so untrue, as there are numerous examples of good people finishing in first place, and playing by the rules. Further to that life is to short for mistakes that might catch up with us. Solitude is not bliss if it is haunted by regret of things we should not have done.

All that glitters is not gold- Everything that appears to be appealing may not be so. For me this is so relevant to all young women in South Africa. We pursue what looks good to us, what we see as positive when we take it on face value, and upon further inspection, or through knocking our heads we learn that they might have made a mistake.

Honesty is the best policy- This must be the most debated cliché in the business as world. How honest should you really be? How much of your organisation can you expose without giving your competitive advantage away? Does the world really want to know the truth? The answer is simple, only say what you would be comfortable putting on the front page of a newspaper.

So should you find yourself in need of filling up the conversation space with a cliché, think about what it means to you and if you really want to use it.

If not now, then when?

If you don’t try to change today do you ever think you will do it? If you don’t start that diet, read that book, or take that class at the next available chance, will you ever really do it?

We live in a fast pace world, made even faster and more stressful by our lifestyles. We are all in the situation of trying to get more done, more work and more play, to earn the same amount of money, to maintain a lifestyle that has doubled over the last three years.

We let other people tell us what should be important to us, what we should do, what we should invest our money in. Why? We need to do what makes us happy, and we need to do it now.

So when you read this blog, I want you to think of one thing that you have been meaning to do for a while, whether it is repacking your cupboard or doing a sport. No matter how big or small, if it is important to you then you need to do it.

I am the first person to admit that I am a workaholic, but with the encouragement of my better half I am making time for myself and doing things that I always wanted to do. I have realised that I will burn out if I don’t small things to make me happy.

If anyone agrees with me, I will be hosting a don’t burn out get together after our test on Wednesday, for the mental health of the students ofcourse...

When you get to hell keep going...

When considering doing my B-tech in early 2010, I was told by a very seasoned lecturer that what we do in the B-tech course will be more demanding and beneficial to the three years of our national diploma combined.

Obviously being naive and hopeful in my own power I took on the challenge, doing all 5 subjects in one year. This is however turning out to be more challenging than I could have ever imagined.

And although our lecturers understand that we each have hectic academic and work schedules, this is a grooming process in which we are taught, among many other things to develop our time management skills.

There was however one lecturer, Mr Vernon Chalmers, that said something to us, that inspired me. He said, “When you get to hell keep going.” A phrase that he took directly out of the book conversations with God.

We looked at him confused. He then explained, “Although it seems like things are extremely difficult to cope with, and that everything is coming at you at once, you have to keep going to come out on the other side.”

This meant more to me than the years of listening to ‘there is always a rainbow after the storm’ and although I do not consider myself a religious person, it hit home and I imagined how my mom, managed to raise me with all of her academic obligations.

So my message to all those who feel like they are in the middle of a blazing fire, losing their mind in the heat of things is, when you get to hell keep going!

Feelings follow behaviour

Although it could be debated that feelings follow our actions, and that actions follow feelings it is in fact true that it goes both ways.

Within my own life these are the most common feelings that follow behaviour:

Fulfilment:

When something is done that makes feel complete, that my behaviour resulted in something that makes me feel pleased and satisfied with myself.

Happiness:

Very similar to the feeling of being in love, sometimes I feel completely happy, with that extra spring in my step, as the result of being happy with the way I acted or handled something.

Regret:

The feeling that I should or shouldn’t have done something or acted in some way. This is the worst feeling as it is something that I take personal and I beat myself up for a while about it.

Remorse:

A feeling equal to regret about the ‘should have, would have and could have’s’ in my life that was the outcome of my actions.

The neutral feeling:

This is the in between feeling, that is neither good or bad. It doesn’t motivate or discourage it is just the feeling of existing.

These feelings are different for each person, but when I consider how much they impact my life and emotional well being, I truly believe that in my life there are feelings that follow behaviour.