Is There Anything You Can't Learn From?

I recently purchased a book that had insights from people that I aspired to be like. I didn't know but inside, apart from all of the information the interviewees put out there, was a gift from each and every one of them. It was a pleasant surprise and a great little bonus. Now that I'm half way through the book and loving it, I have received my first gift and it was an online video of one of the interviewees seminars. It was ok but not awe inspiring and the information to me wasn't groundbreaking either.

The main thing is that I still learnt from the gift which was an absolute bonus. What I discovered was his seminar wasn't great entertainment yet he is very successful. So for me I learnt you don't have to be a great showman to get a message out there and help people. That has inspired me more than anything lately to move forward with my development.

What I am trying to impart onto you is the amount we can learn is infinite. Every situation, book, meeting or even an argument is an opportunity to learn. Even if you read a book and you don't like it and don't agree with what was said in the book. You have learnt that you don't like the book and the actions or information isn't going to be suitable for you. But for others the information may be inspiring.

We have just put out a Lifestyle Diagnostic that can help you learn to see if your lifestyle is going to lead you to Lifesperity. You can find it at the Lifestyle Improvers website under the Lifestyle Coaching tab. Give it a spin and learn how your lifestyle fares and if a quality Lifesperity is a possibility for you the way you conduct yourself currently.

Your Snoring Might Be A Warning Sign.

Apart from the immediate problem of getting prodded, poked and told to shut up throughout the night your snoring should be taken as a warning sign to you. It isn't normal and it can be a precursor to negative medical conditions down the track. If you are told you snore regularly by your partner then take action and do something to help the problem. If you don't have a partner and can't tell if you snore there will be other warning signs. But the underlying point here is don't accept it as part of your life. Here is another way you become lucky or unlucky. Fix a potential problem before it starts or let the problem go because you aren't sick and then say how unlucky you are when something drastic happens.

Snoring can decrease the amount of oxygen that gets to the brain. This in turn can increase the chances of you getting conditions such as Type II Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, high blood pressure and hypertension. Not to mention the effect it has on alertness, productivity, relationships, emotional and mental health.

I'm not going to give you every known treatment and cure going around. Nor am I going to offer lifestyle advice that will positively affect your snoring problem. But what I will state categorically is that all of the possible lifestyle changes mentioned to influence snoring will positively influence your life also. I suppose what I'm trying to get across to you is be consistent with your lifestyle adherence and a lot of these conditions will dissipate quickly and forever. And usually drug free. Unfortunately some aren't so lucky and need medical intervention but the majority need lifestyle intervention.

Can You Influence Luck?

According to Dr Richard Wiseman you can. On the rare occasion I watch TV I try and make the experience as beneficial or enjoyable as possible. By chance I tuned in to Catalyst, a great show on the ABC. One particular segment was about a study completed on Luck believe it or not. How lucky was I? Sorry about that. Anyway Dr Wiseman observed a high number of people conducting tests and observing behaviours and results of the tests. As a result of his study he constructed 4 characteristics of lucky people.

1. Lucky people maximise the principles of luck. They displayed open body language and not folded arms or legs.
2. Lucky people listened to their intuition. They trusted their own instincts, ran with them and more often than not experienced a positive experience because of it. They took action.
3. Lucky people expect good luck. What he found was individuals who looked for lucky breaks often found opportunities that benefited them in some way.
4. Lucky people turn bad luck into good luck. Any situations that occurred that were negative the lucky people took that bad experience and extracted any beneficial information from the experience and utilised it. One individual went for a bank loan to start his own business but was rejected. The bank officer informed the applicant of a similar case just before him for the same business idea. The applicant got the details of the previous applicant and contacted him. To cut a long story short they both started up in business together and have since moved on in their own separate paths and having great successes.

All in all it was a very interesting and highlighted to me that there is no such thing as luck. It is another word for taking your opportunities when they present. Thinking of yourself as unlucky is a superstitious belief that inhibits hope. Interestingly around 60% of the attendees in this Happy School experienced not just positive experiences but life changing events. Something in it I reckon.

Is Smoking A Manifestation Of Low Self Esteem?

My mind is always creating theories and usually ditching them. However this one may have legs. Again I would love to here your comments on this or any other issue I bring to the table. The question I have commonly posed to myself is why do we as humans conduct behaviours and actions that harm us physically. Smoking is a big one. We are all well aware the dangers smoking brings and smokers are also well aware of the addictive qualities nicotine produces. Yet still smoking continues to occur despite the compelling health facts. Why?

What made me really come to this mini conclusion was analysing some of the habits general smokers display. Firstly smokers in general leave cigarettes where they are. Be it on the ground, out the car window, in the garden half buried even in cans or bottles. Despite littering they have no comprehension how bad it looks on them personally. Secondly, again a general observation, are quite happy to be seen smoking and smoke around others. Recent law adjustments have made a difference but still smokers are happy to smoke around non smokers knowing full well of the passive smoking effects. In summary they seem to not care of what damage they do to themselves, the environment and others.

Here's my groundbreaking theory!!! Their self esteem doesn't place them high enough on the importance scale. Hence they manifest ways to keep themselves unimportant. The way I see it, if the value a smoker puts on his life was increased in his own mind and the way they viewed themselves, there would be no way they would continue to place themselves in danger or others. You look at all of the high profile individuals that genuinely make a difference in the world. The overwhelming majority of them wouldn't smoke. So instead of the government wasting all of the money on trying to hide and bastardise smoking, maybe they should invest in the smokers themselves and try to raise the self importance level of a smoker and see how that goes. After all smoking does bring in a bit of revenue for them doesn't it.

Look I know that is way out to suggest the government to invest in each individual but I can't see how stopping smoking in enclosed public places and covering up smokes in supermarkets is going to help smokers themselves. In actual fact the government in it's own special way is giving the smokes greater powers by getting restrictive and covering them up in shops. Or maybe the revenue from the fags is too good. The health system could do with the break too couldn't it?

What is Lifesperity?

Don't panic the word Lifesperity isn't in the dictionary. It is my own creation to describe what I think we should all be aiming for in our lives. It isn't physically measurable like your body fat content or your BMI. However it will be able to be measured by the lack of restriction you encounter in your life. So if you want to be definitive about what Lifesperity is I suppose you could say it is the success of a complete lifestyle and how well you employed it into your life. The true test of Lifesperity will only be truly evident in your latter years.

Whilst it has no monetary value to judge it by, if you are restricted due to a lack of funds then your lifesperity is not as complete as an individual who is in great health, still active and isn't bound by finances or lack of them. It is planning to enjoy your life and to be successful which should go hand in hand. Unfortunately that is a rarity. It is an unfortunate reality these days where individuals work all of their lives to look forward to retirement as a time to relax and wind down. Only to find sooner than later their quality of life declines to inhibit their so called enjoyable retirement. Why stop doing what you are doing at a 55 or 60 years old if you love what you do. That is the whole concept of Lifesperity; do what you love and this guarantees passionate individuals producing valuable contributions to our society that benefits everyone and allows you to be rewarded financially, mentally, emotionally spiritually and physically.

While there is no guarantee Lifesperity will stop sickness or a declining quality of life due to the ageing process. I challenge you to tell me what other viable option do we have. If obesity, diabetes and all of the other challenges we are facing keep rising at their current rate, quality of life will be minimal for many. Most attempts I have seen to increase a person's quality of life be it fat loss, blood pressure and so on is increasingly a quick fix, medicated or restrictive. It isn't sustainable and no wonder our population is sickening. Drugs are a trade off to stop one condition only to create another. Same goes for nutritional supplements, they are only a trade off for our processing of food and environmental pollutions. And don't get me wrong we need drugs in our existence as they have increased survival rates and kept people alive in dramatic and unfortunate instances. I am living proof of that and am eternally grateful.

A Quick Tip To Help Self Esteem

We have all read the glossy magazines that feature all of the stars in them. Whether we admit it or not, at some stage you would have looked at one. After reading the stories and seeing the pictures how did that make you feel? I am pretty sure you wouldn't have felt a sense of belonging or satisfaction or unbridled joy. There's a fair chance you would be thinking about what you read or the picture and be comparing your life to theirs.

I feel this is so potentially dangerous for self esteem. We are constantly seeing and hearing about high profiles and their stories. And whilst it is great to motivate yourself by these tales and visions of success you must remember you are not that person. Your individuality sets you apart from all and sundry and where you belong in this big world is unique.

My advice for what it is worth. Before you run out and get your fix of star mania in any form and get caught up dreaming about their perfect life. You should be getting to know yourself better. Internally find out where you stand in the world. What makes you a special individual? Identify your values and why they are important to you. How you improve other peoples lives with your actions. Once identified and feel secure about yourself and where you sit in the world, go ahead and read. This way you can always come back to reality. If you don't like where you sit in this world after your internal dialogue. You have two choices to make. One is to change your actions and become that important or special person your inner self knows you are or secondly keep living as you are and accept who you are. Self acceptance is a vital part of self esteem. Either way by looking, changing and accepting who you are or simply looking and gladly accepting who you are you will be a more grounded person for it.

Putting A New Perspective On Vacuuming

Vacuuming the house is a chore that some people enjoy and some hate it. To clean out your house, vacuuming is an option. Anyway let's move on. How does creating a vacuum in your thinking sound? If you are attempting to improve any aspect of your life this concept is crucial.

To create a vacuum you must allow something to leave you. For example if you wanted to improve your health via nutrition and you love cool drink, chocolate and cakes and those items find their way into your mouth daily. The easy alternative is to bark out how bad they are for you and tell you to stop eating them. Problem is you know they aren't good for you but it doesn't stop you eating them does it? You have to create an environment that creates that vacuum and sucks away the thoughts that encourage you to eat those foods. This will allow new empowering positive images and habits of your new healthier nutritional habits to come in.

The key to all long term lifestyle, financial, relationship and self development growth is firstly acknowledging there is a problem. You can't fix something that in your mind isn't broken. Once you are aware of your problem this is when you letting go of that habit allows an opening for new and better options to come into your life. And remember your natural state is to be happy and live in harmony with your surroundings. So by creating that vacuum your surroundings start
conspiring to help you. Those coincidences start appearing when you create vacuums. They only start appearing because you are looking for them. Keep the vacuum going and those coincidences quickly become what successful individuals call opportunities.

Do You Enjoy Being Knocked Unconscious?

How was your weekend. Did you get some quality recovery time in? Was your weekend out of control, running here there and everywhere? Or did these questions actually make you stop and think how you felt and what did I actually do on the weekend? What I am trying to do is illustrate if you are living consciously or on auto pilot.

A classic example of being on auto pilot is when you consume food. You, like most people probably eat watching TV, listening to music, drinking wine or reading something. The list could go on but you get the idea. You get to the end of a big meal and then it hits you. You have just filled yourself up to the brim by eating too much. If you were eating consciously you would have eaten slower. Chewed your food completely, swallowed that mouthful before taking another mouthful and repeating the process. If you do this well you find you don't eat nearly as much because you are aware when that fuller feeling starts. Either that or you don't eat as much because your meal has gone cold!!! If this happens you are consciously eating.

Apply this to your life and see if you are living consciously. You may well find your actions aren't matching what is most productive to you in achieving your goals. This can encourage negative emotions because you aren't finding adequate time to do what is most important to you. Initially this will be hard for you because you think you aren't achieving because you aren't doing enough. In actual fact you will have cut out the non important tasks you perform regularly and have more spare time. How foreign, no problems to fix, no rushing from place to place to please someone else.

So by not living consciously you are negatively impacting on your lifestyle. Ultimately that will effect your health and wellbeing because you aren't happy. If you aren't happy you aren’t living in harmony with your surroundings. Happiness should be your natural state of being. Do you feel happy most of the time? If not start living consciously and turn off the auto pilot. You are the only one who can make that choice. Choose to live consciously or keep tuning out. But just remember this. By staying on auto pilot you will miss many of the adventures and opportunities on your journey.You have some choices to make don't you?

Values Minus Actions Equals Distress and Instability.

Forgive me in advance if this piece is too deep and out there for you but I needed to get this off my chest. On the other hand if this thought resonates with you I would love to hear your opinion. What initiated this thought was a discussion between Bob (different name) and me in a social setting. Bob was a very successful identity in his field earning great money and working lots of hours. Vegetarian at the time so he valued healthy eating however he also smoked and still does. Bob got out of that pressure cooker environment and now works for himself with a partner.

Our discussion was based around his situation and how he was going with the whole lifestyle/health/work thing. He was really busy at work which he was happy about but he was disapointed at the amount his work threw his life and routine out of balance recently. Eating, sleeping and energy levels and the list could go on. But it was affecting his passion for his work and he felt himself starting to become blarzay in his thoughts while delivering his high quality services.

On reflection Bob's actions are completely out of kilter with his values, from my observation. I can't say categorically as the discussion was brief and informal. He knows about healthy eating and practices that yet it's been interrupted by his work - again. Remember he left corporate life because of this initially. His smoking also goes against his health values. He knows it is wrong and unhealthy but his timeline to stop this unhealthy action is a little way off. Exercise is something that is in his sights, but whilst smoking he admits he won't commit to exercise properly as it will be counterproductive.

I know that description is brief and a lot of what was said isn't in this article but can you see where the unbalancing effect occurs? Bob thinks healthy yet his actions aren't. So health is a big value of his yet his activities aren't consistent with those values. Quality of service and his expertise is a huge value of Bob's yet his lifestyle over the last 2 or 3 months has started to compromise the deliverance of those values. You need to take the time to really appreciate values and what yours are. Until this occurs your life will remain stressful, unbalanced and limited. Ever had the feeling you want so much more out of life but had absolutely no idea what it is you wanted and still don't? Try finding your true inner core values.

Are Little Red Arrows Limiting Your Progress?

It was a dark and rainy Saturday morning which most people would be complaining about. Kids sport day, shopping and any outdoor activities would be compromised. Yet I was excited and even a little nervous. Today I was heading off on my first surf all by myself. No one to hold my hand and tell me which wave to catch or where the best breaks are. I have invested in surf tuition for the last 6 or so months and am confident enough to have a crack by myself.

On the way to my destination I became temporarily frustrated and because that isn't an emotion I want to be feeling, I stopped myself and asked myself why this happened. I was turning across traffic at a major intersection and there were no oncoming traffic. But because there was a red arrow, I didn't go. Notice I said didn't and not couldn't. Then I wondered about you!!!

Do you limit your actions because someone has planted a red arrow in your mind? Or worse still are you planting red arrows in your own mind? Stop and think about it, a lot of people just do something or don't do something because that's the way it's done and don't ever question it. And then get angry or feel frustrated for no apparent reason.

I recently shared a wonderful evening with some friends and listened intently as one of them explained how she is taking a male dominated industry by storm. All because she changes the way it has always been done. Even to the point that she wears certain colours instead of the normal neutrals.

All I ask is for you to re-evaluate what red arrow is limiting you and be aware of it. There is definitely no right or wrong way. But there is always a better, more effective way. And you never know, that awareness could lead to you learning why certain things agitate you and create negative emotions and behaviours in your life. What have you got to lose???

Peel Back the Onion Until the Scarred Outer Layer Has Been Removed.

Sorry if reading the title starts to make your eyes well up with tears just as you were chopping up onions. However the initial discomfort involved in what I am going to try and get through to you will be worth it, as the end result will take you far and beyond where you are at right now. I hope!!!

Although lifestyle is multi layered, just like an onion. Too much emphasis is placed on the physical aspect and not enough is placed on getting your thinking in order. There is no doubt exercise, great nutrition and a good flexibility routine will get you into good physical shape but you will not maintain this long term if you haven't addressed why you want to get into shape. Pretty deep huh. Stick with me I'll try to expand on what I have just said.

Think of yourself in great physical shape scantily clad and feel what state emotionally you are in. Some say it makes them feel like they will be respected and important as they will not be viewed as fat anymore. Some say they feel overjoyed because they feel they will be accepted into society easier or becuase the opposite sex will find them more attractive. These are all perfectly normal responses and you aren't right or wrong if you feel this way; it is the way you are. However in a majority of cases peeling back the layers of mental conditioning (skin and scarred outer part of the onion) will reveal a lack of self esteem and self belief. Once you have altered the way in which you view yourself in your mind, long term lifestyle adherance (Lifesperity planning) will very rarely be an issue. Alter your mind positively and see how the dirty, smelly, tear causing onion turns into a wonderfully aromatic filling that tastes great for your hot dog!!!!