Happiness is...

"Clownin' Around"

Hi everyone!

Y'all will be happy to know that today's word is "happiness" :-). The above picture is from a program I did last summer - we were talking about ways to feel refreshed and renewed about your work. A clown nose always helps, right??

I've been seeing articles recently about how happiness is a choice - something I've always told my workshop participants (and a few others, LOL!). I once saw a little notepad in a gift shop that said, "Whoever said money can't buy happiness is shopping in the wrong place!" While it made me smile, it also made me think about how many times we DO think money will buy happiness. Or maybe we think being with the right person - or having the right degree - or living in the right neighborhood - or having the right job...will bring happiness. All too often, if that's what we think, we will soon be sorely disappointed.

Happiness comes from within, of course. It must. If we depend on others for our happiness, it's really too much pressure to put on anyone. If we depend on money or things, the "shine" usually wears off pretty quickly, doesn't it?

This morning, I read an article about a couple who built their dream "cabin." It ended up being 10,929 square feet (!!!) on hundreds of acres. Nice cabin :-). But throughout the article, they kept protesting that it wasn't about the size (but the size kept coming into the conversation), it was about the quality. Hmmm, I think you can have quality in a little less than 10,929 square feet. At one point they admitted that, just like they did in their smaller home, they still "live" in basically 3 rooms - the kitchen, great room, and bedroom. Wow. Kind of says a lot about what brings happiness, doesn't it? I picked up another magazine just a few minutes later and read about a couple who lived in 128 square feet. WHOA! Talk about extremes!

Maybe what I'm saying is that often, a "happy medium" (get it? "happy" medium??) is all we need. My home is not 128 sq. ft. tiny and it's nowhere near huge. That makes me happy. It's big enough to operate my business from and still hold a husband, a BIG dog, and a little cat - and we're all happy. But I know I would feel absolutely claustrophobic in 128 square feet (not to mention having to go to the gym to shower - yikes). And I would be strained to the limit trying to care for 10,929 square feet - of course, I'd probably be paying someone to do all that "care"...but just thinking about trying to manage all the logistics makes me tired!

And what I've slowly come to understand is making me happier these days is my decision to simplify. I say "slowly" because dropping everything to "clean house" would not make me happy. I need to do something so significant at my own pace. I like the idea of de-cluttering, but throwing away just to lighten the load isn't the answer for me. I need to give it some thought. What brings me pleasure? What do I need to do my work well? How much storage do we really need - and why?? How much is too much of anything?

The question becomes then...what makes you happy? REALLY happy? Isn't it great to know there are no right or wrong answers to that question? It's all about you. The secret is that you need to know yourself well enough to come up with an answer. Do you?

Let me know what makes you happy!

Blessings,
Linda
www.LindasWorkshops.com
Linda@LindasWorkshops.com

Ah, sweet SUCCESS!

Happy New Year, everyone! And gee, I technically got this edition of the blog in within a month of the last one :-)

As you can see by the title, the word I've chosen is success. I was surprised when I looked back through the blog to see that I hadn't written about success before. I think that's because we are inundated with articles, books, blogs, emails, and TV shows about how we can be "successful" ~ and it gets a bit old, doesn't it?

The problem with all of that is that most of the time, the term "successful" is defined by the world and not by us.

I'm reading a book right now called "Permission to Succeed" and it begins with the author asking his father if it's okay if he is more successful than his dad. Weird question, eh? But as I thought about it, I thought about how many people I meet in my workshops who have never given themselves permission to succeed. And I don't mean permission to earn lots of money, get a big title, big house, big car, big yacht - although I certainly am not against those things :-). But permission to just be who we were meant to be - and to be the best at being that person that we possibly can.

As I looked back over the list of words I've written about, many of them speak to me of "success" in the true sense of the word for me. Determination, listening, encouragement, contentment, simplicity (YES!), patience, appreciation, attitude (with a capital A!), awareness, forgiveness, giving, joy, learning ~ all of those and more spell s-u-c-c-e-s-s for me.

The more of these I have in my life, the more successful I consider myself. A good book in front of the fire, a furry little friend on each side, and a mug of hot cocoa with lots of whipped cream - some days that is the perfect picture of success!

How about you? How do you spell success? And how will you find more of it in 2011?

Happy hunting!

Blessings,

Linda

http://www.lindasworkshops.com/

Linda@LindasWorkshops.com

Simplicity - right??

Well, I think I lost a week or so in there somewhere! Here it is, 2 weeks after my last post - something I was sure would never happen.

The amusing thing is that I spoke to a client about 10 days ago and she made an innocent statement: "I just want a simple life." I told her she had just given me the word for that week's post - simplicity. Then life happened!

A husband with a pulled muscle in his back, a car that won't quit (Literally! It would NOT turn off!), a puppy who the vet says is probably within days or weeks of leaving us, 2 doctors' appointments for hubby, several new programs to prepare for along with a week-long business trip coming up, new technology equipment in my office (yuk!), and the list goes on - as I know yours does, too. I guess the simplicity gremlins heard what I was going to blog about and decided to make sure that didn't happen!

So I have been reflecting (when I have 37 seconds to do so!) on how I can gain some simplicity in my life again. I'll be honest here - I'm not sure it's going to happen for me in the next 2 or 3 weeks and I have to be willing to admit that without carrying any guilt around about it. I'm pretty sure July will be a little "lighter" for me, but who wants to wait until July???

And yet, if that's what happens, it's what happens. I need to have PATIENCE, the same word I mentioned on my last blog. However, I also need to be AWARE (there's THAT word again) of how full my schedule is right not and not say "yes" to anything that is not vitally important to me. It's so easy to do, isn't it? A friend wants you to stop and have coffee, someone wants you to do "just this one little thing," a spouse asks you to handle a minor errand - and yet, it can all become just too, too much.

So I think the next blog word will be vital - as in, what is the difference between what is vital to you and what's urgent?

A little food for thought - until next time :-) In the meantime, let's all try to have patience - with ourselves AND with others!

Blessings,
Linda
www.LindasWorkshops.com
Linda@LindasWorkshops.com