From Clutter to Clarity

While I was watching this rather cute woofter enjoying basking in the winter sun I got to thinking a little. What is my equivalent of 'a dog's life.' What is the ultimate simple pleasure and enjoyment? Making the first fresh steps in snow (not that I get to do that very often anymore!!)  The smell of coffee first thing in the morning? Reading the paper in the middle of the day with a cup of tea? Fresh brewed tea using leaves and a proper teapot? Hearing the rain on the roof? Walking in the early morning while the sun is coming up? Anyway, what is your simple pleasure. Let me know. I would like to know what simple things we can do every day and acknowledge them as a precious moment. Maybe with enough of them we can fill a whole week with pleasure.

For most of us non Yogi like individuals 'being in the moment' is very tricky. We can maybe stop doing physical stuff, but the physical bit is much much easier than switching the brain off. So how do we stop those lists being drawn up constantly and the constant 'Oh I must remember to,' or 'Wouldn't it be great to.' It takes focus and practice, lots of practice, but the good news is that the focus part is the same sort of focus we use when we have a deadline and manage to block everything out apart from the thing we are doing! So take that focus and focus on something around you now  and really look at it, what do you notice? (If you are really stuck look at a tree! How many different colours are in the foliage, how many different shades of green?, how do the branches connect?) Focus entirely on the thing happening around you and see how long you can keep that up before something pops into your head, acknowledge the thing and then start the proc...

So let me ask you a question. When was the last time you brought work home with you? It would appear from the MANY conversations I have regarding this, that most of us, take work home some of the time, and lots of us take work home most of the time but to what end? Does it make the volume of work get smaller? Does it allow you to exist in a stress free environment? I am predicting probably not, in fact it usually has the opposite effect. We seem to have an inability to accept that for most jobs the work never gets finished, the in-tray is never empty, that enough is enough. It is time to make a stand against ourselves, taking work home habitually is not good for us, our relationships or our families. So our challenge this time is  to not take work home for a week. Then observe if anything really changed at work in terms of our function, did the in-tray get so much bigger, or did we actually start managing our time or our boundaries (that would be the No word!) and on the...

Slight change to plan, not my usual style post and all because someone lovely sent me a blogging award. The Versatile Blogger, not quite an Oscar but the new blogger equivalent (or at least that is what I am telling myself!) and I am very excited as it may help in my quest to find 100 people who "get" my approach to coaching during 2011 and follow me, so just ordinary normal people going about their lives wanting to make a slight change here and there and need a place to discover what that change might be. Drum roll please, a huge thanks you to the lovely Marcie of the most amazing  www.funkyunderachiever.blogspot.com   Marcie is hilariously funny and trying to do what most of us are, make some changes and strangely enough that is what I do!!  I also now have to tell you 7 things about me (part of the award thing) 1) I love people watching (not procrastinating honest!!) 2) Coffee is an essential item of my day 3) Getting outside preferably with exercise i...

It is really easy to create a list of things that we 'should' do, in fact most of us will have one to hand instantly and right now might even be feeling guilty about not doing something on the 'should' list. I should go for a run. I should just tidy the. I should keep in touch better etc etc It is great that you can see how a change can make a difference to your life and that you in fact have thought about a change. But, how much of that change is something that you own? How many of the things on your 'should' list do you actually 'want' to do? We are constantly bombarded with expectations, our own, our friends and family, workplace, and societal expectations but we rarely effectively filter them and this creates our 'should' list and can lead to a sense of  not having enough time to do everything we think we should guilt that things are not getting done not being good enough not keeping up with everyone else who in our mind does e...

Scott a friend/ colleague of mine asked me to give him feedback on his nascent blog and in doing so one of his articles touched a cord with me regarding the choices we make to be engaged or to avoid being engaged.  That article, about the use of earphones/music while exercising speaks to his purpose for coaching and demonstrates absolutely his expertise and the passion for what he does but the element that struck a cord most for me and my experience with working with people is 'what are you avoiding when plugged in,' or why are you plugging out? When we choose to plug in our ear phones and listen to music, are we actively seeking to hear music or are we seeking to be plugged-out? To get some 'space,' some 'time out?' To avoid making conversation, to avoid feelings of discomfort or loneliness. If you are plugging-in because at that moment in time you want to listen to music and enjoy the emotional journey music takes you on then go for it, enjoy the momen...

Trying something new is always a bit of a challenge but one which can bring us whole new avenues to explore. When was the last time you tried something new? Or do you follow the same pattern week after week, even year after year?  A new topic of conversation, a new restaurant, a new type of food, a new author, a new hobby, a new (fill in the blanks). Without newness we run the potential to become stuck in a rut, doing the same things we have always done, which were fun once, but have now become habit. And habits are not necessarily good for us. So check out your routine and ask yourself if you would like to make a little change to it. And if you do, think about something you haven't tried before, read/ search out what is available in your local area, and then go and do it. You never know it could be the start of something amazing!