Rah Rah Rah!

Ever been of the opinion that enthusiastic people are quite irritating? You know, the sort who are always up and peppy – the jumpiest jumping bean of them all! I have made a startling and quite entertaining discovery over the past few years – it’s not so irritating when it is you that is the enthusiastic one! Hap Hap Hazah!

How’s your enthusiasm rating right now? Today? In general? I must admit that mine has fallen slightly flat over the last few weeks – I’m blaming female hormones – and I’ve been struggling to find the enthusiasm to get my admin done. I’d much rather be doing something else…only I haven’t had much enthusiasm for something else either. Sigh. And today, once TUT had reminded me of the fanfare that accompanies my every move, I could feel my enthusiasm returning.

Then I read something about doing what you do with enthusiasm and EUREKA! I am enthusiasm personified. Now apart from the fact that it is a GREAT word, what’s so good about enthusiasm? Well, several things – being enthusiastic feels great, you get more out of an experience you enthusiastically participate in, people notice enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is infectious.

Just in case you are wondering, the dictionary definition of enthusiasm is “ardent and lively interest or eagerness” – the definition alone is pepping me up even more. Get the pom-poms out! Ok, so maybe you are slightly less excitable than me about this, how do you summon this ardent and lively interest on a Wednesday afternoon? Well, firstly, think about what makes you enthusiastic – what is different when you are enthusiastic?

Do you clap excitedly, jump up and down, dance about the office (or is this all just me?!)? Are you a little more sedate in your enthusiasm? Do you look forward to things and enjoy being part of what you’re doing? Are you keen to get started and focused on what you’re doing? Do you smile and laugh more? Do you just feel a sense of ‘rightness’? Think of the enthusiasm of children and dogs – can you learn from them?

I’m not suggesting that you run around your office jumping up on people and licking their face (although if you did I would howl with laughter!). That might be a jump too far in enthusiasm for you. So what would bring it up just a notch? I encourage you this week to go about your business with as much enthusiasm as you can muster, and just see what fun it is to see the world through enthusiastic eyes.

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

More Fun to Life

Do you ever wake up in the morning and think “There must be more to life than this”? Back in the 90’s, I woke up almost every day with that thought. I wondered if this was ‘it’, if this was how life was going to work out – a seemingly endless slog of get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, at the weekend dance all night and sleep all day, seeing daylight only briefly and through bleary eyes. The hamster wheel had me and I was slowly drowning in a life that felt increasingly ‘too tight’. I desperately wanted life to be different, but I didn’t ‘do’ anything differently, I just carried on doing the same and complaining about it.

Until eventually I did something very different and went off travelling around Australia with a backpack and no plan. That was the start of ‘the change’. Since then my life has changed and I have changed in ways that make me almost unrecognisable from that unhappy lass 10+ years ago. But still, sometimes I wonder if there is more to life. Usually when I am busy focusing on the fact that I am not Mistress of the Universe (still working on it!), I am not living in a million pound mansion overlooking the ocean (yet) and I am not with the man of my dreams (haven’t met him yet).

When we’re busy focusing on what is NOT in our life, our attention is taken away from the wonderful things that are here now. Not material possessions or even people, but our own internal brilliance. Our ability to be fascinated by life, to find joy in the smallest of things, to dream of better and to TAKE ACTION towards that ‘better’. When we’re too busy focusing on how much life sucks, we’re wasting time that could be spent improving said life. I’d been in quite a funk for a few days, but one conversation with a friend which was filled with laughter and suddenly I saw the light!

It’s not about having everything in your life arranged perfectly, being Mistress of the Universe with the perfect house and perfect man. When that’s what you’re focusing on, there IS MUCH more to life! Because those things are fun, and nice, but they’re really quite irrelevant! What is important? Your energy, your connection to life, your joy, your love, your peace, your laughter. That inner well of magnificence and brilliance that no amount of shit in your life can completely bury. Your spirit, your soul, your light.

Because we can’t buy them or count them, we relegate their importance below a flat screen tv. And that’s the mistake. Because they are the ‘more to life’ you’re looking for. It’s only when we’re not enjoying life that we think ‘there must be more’ (let me know if you ever thought there was more to life while you were having a great time!) And most of the time, that desire for more takes us on a search for ’something else’ – a new job/relationship/pair of shoes/holiday/challenge. There’s nothing wrong with this as such. It’s just that there’s an easier, quicker, funner* way. Start enjoying your life right now – warts and all. Your light, laughter and love will draw you towards changes that no amount of negativity will ever reveal. And even if no changes come, there’ll be more FUN to your life!

Something to Play With

If you’re wondering if there’s more to life than ‘this’, find a way to get enjoying your life – do things you love, spend time with people who make you laugh, listen to your soul sing and dance to the tune. Leave me a comment and let me know what you’re going to be doing to bring more fun to your life.

Love, life and laughter

Donna.x
*Dear dictionary, funner is a word. Honest.
PS to sign up to receive weekly beachy articles right into your inbox, click here.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

A Friday Funny

In Bill Ford’s coaching newsletter this week:

One of my wife’s colleagues when she was working in the US was asked by a client in France to rush over to present at a meeting the next day. He got on a plane the same day and did not have time to pack. It was winter.

He got to the hotel in Paris with enough time to sleep. His suit was creased from the flight, so he turned on the shower and hung it in the bathroom to let the steam reduce the creases. He fell asleep. By the time he woke up the suit was sodden. So he hung it out on his balcony. He fell asleep again.

By the time he woke up, the suit was frozen. He had no choice, so he put it on and went to the meeting. As he was presenting he could tell that he was losing his audience as they seemed distracted. He asked what was going on and learned that there was steam coming off his suit. He explained what had happened, they fell about laughing, were impressed by his dedication and the MD suggested they go to lunch instead.

This made me cry with laughter and totally ruined me for doing any work until I’d sat in a corner for a bit calming down. I hope it brought you just half as much amusement. Happy Friday!

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

It’s My Favourite!

Do you remember when you were a kid and everything was your favourite? Mr Whippy ice cream? My favourite! Chips? My favourite! Lego? My favourite! Adam and the Ants? My favourite! The funny thing about this is that when you have everything as your favourite, it gives you a surge of enthusiasm for your life. Life? My favourite! Today, for some obscure reason, as I was driving away from the petrol station, the thought ran through my head “A full tank of fuel. My favourite!” It made me laugh aloud.

So I decided to keep it going. Swimming? My favourite! Bacon sandwich for lunch? My favourite! Writing a blog post? My favourite! It might sound a bit daft, but it really does remind you to enjoy your life. When you do something that is your favourite, you savour it, you enjoy the moment more and therefore you enjoy it more. Enjoying life? My absolute, 100% FAVOURITE! Now for you – what’s your favourite?

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Bounce, Bounce

This week’s OnTheBeach Article – to receive it every Wednesday, sign up here.

I knew I had forgotten something yesterday! This newsletter totally slipped my mind. I was far more interested in the leaking pipe that’s wrecked my office carpet, and how to prevent any more damage being done. I was also a little pre-occupied by my fat percentage. I was at a HR conference yesterday, and they had a ‘health check’ – which included measuring your fat ratio. Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly delighted with the result! But, it did get me thinking. Firstly, I wonder if they take boobs into account? And secondly, what action I could take daily to get this percentage down to a healthy level.

The answer was simple and instantaneous – the mini trampoline that currently acts as an obstacle to dodge, fall over and generally get annoyed by in my office. Perhaps rather than just moving around it, I could use it. So my plan is 10 minutes a day, every day. Accompanied by the playlist I did to bounce to! Should be fun. Anyway, all that reminded me of the article I wrote when I first got my mini trampoline 5 years ago. Here it is, enjoy!

- Bounce, Bounce -

I am very excited this week. I have bought myself a mini-trampoline and I have been bouncing for Britain! The reason for the purchase was that I went to a gig a couple of months ago and was bouncing along to my favourite song. For a minute. Then I turned puce, got a stitch and could hardly breathe.

I was horrified. How unfit am I that I can’t even bounce for 3 minutes? Only a few years ago I could bounce for an entire set, never mind just one song. So, I decided on a mini-trampoline to improve my fitness so I can bounce with the 19 year-olds at the next gig. I am not without vanity you will notice.

The unexpected and delightful side-benefit of this purchase is that when I am bouncing, I access a state of absolute joyfulness and excitement and happiness and fun. This is due to the physical ‘memory’ of the festivals and gigs where I have been happily bouncing along to the music. (or in NLP-speak, an anchor)

This has been wonderful this week – not only have I been getting a great cardio workout, I also bounce off my mini-trampoline feeling fired up and ready to go. Woo hoo! The benefit of this was proven today – I sat down to write this newsletter, and my mind went blank…then raced with disorganised chaotic thoughts…then went blank again.

After a couple of frustrating minutes, a ‘bouncy’ song came on the radio and up I got. 3 minutes of bouncing later (yes, I am up to song-length now…although I can’t sing along for more than a minute.) and I was inspired to write this newsletter. And I think it’s the fastest I have ever completed one. Amazing.

I discovered this anchor completely by accident, but if I had thought about it I would have found that I do feel fantastic after bouncing along to music at a gig…and maybe I would have found a way to do it daily at home. What about you? What makes you feel bouncy? Think back to the times you felt fired up and motivated and excited – what made you feel that way?

Now figure out how you can get that essence into your daily life and let’s get bouncin!

- Something to Play With -

Think about the things that make you bouncy, excited, fired up, motivated, fun, happy. What can you do daily to access that state of fabulous joyfulness? Want to share your thoughts on this article? Leave me a comment.

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Fun Makes All The Difference

Check this out, with credit to Ande at the Secret is Wags blog for bringing this to my attention – I love it. I want it on my stairs!

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

What’s Your Life About?

If you had to say what the ‘theme’ for your life was, what would it be? For too many of us, it is ‘misery’, ‘working hard’, ‘getting through the day’ – and largely because we don’t pay attention to what we WANT our life to be about and take steps to make that happen. So if you were to choose what your life was about, what would you choose? Love? Fun? Joy? Enjoyment? Energy?

My life is about falling in love with life – enjoying my life no matter what the circumstances, walking through life with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. Do I always have this? No. I am often pulled off course by “comparisonitis”, “impatience”, “should-bee’s” and wanting things to be ‘different’. But more and more I come back to what life is really about – enjoying it.

So what’s your life about? And what are you going to make it about? Leave me a comment and tell me about it!

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Paddle Your Own Canoe. Your Way

I was just reading a newsletter from Chris Guillibeau of The Art of Non Conformity, and he got me thinking. He was talking about going against conventional wisdom. For example, Henry Ford said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said “faster horses.”" Yet ‘conventional wisdom’ says ask your customers what they want. The article made me think about all the conflicting ’success’ advice there is out there, and how I am often paralysed by the advice that tells me to do something I just don’t wanna.

For example, apparently I “should” blog every hour, have ‘conversations’ on Twitter (even though I HATE how that clogs up a tweet stream with half a conversation), get a bazillion people on my list (whether they’re interested in what I do or not), have a positive title for my blog posts, have a negative title for my blog posts, post on Facebook approximately once every 4 seconds…yadda, yadda, yadda. Ok, maybe I misheard or misunderstood or wasn’t listening properly to the advice, but the point remains, there’s a lot of contradictory stuff out there.

And here’s the funny thing (for me): lots of successful people DIDN’T follow the advice and they got on ok. I met Sarah Tremellen, the founder of Bravissimo, and she said that she did everything wrong (according to conventional wisdom)! Of course, she’s only turning over £42 billion or something like that, so clearly she got it wrong. And I was just thinking, if I had taken advice on how to do it when I learned to walk, I would NEVER have learned to walk! There would have been just too much contradictory, conflicting and confusing stuff.

So here’s an idea: By all means watch what the others are doing and copy it if it feels good for you…but otherwise, paddle your own canoe. Set your own course. And one day you can say to others “this is how to do it” when you of course mean “this is how I did it”.

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Some Ideas for you to Try

A bit of Tuesday fun!
Be A Kid Again
1. Do a cartwheel.
2. Sing into your hairbrush.
3. Walk barefoot in wet grass.
4. Play a song you like really loud, over and over.
5. Dot all your “i”’s with smiley faces.
6. Read the funnies. Throw the rest of the paper away.
7. Dunk your cookies.
8. Play a game where you make up the rules as you go along.
9. Step carefully over sidewalk cracks.
10. Change into some play clothes.
11. Try to get someone to trade you a better sandwich.
12. Eat ice cream for breakfast.
13. Kiss a frog, just in case.
14. Blow the wrapper off a straw.
15. Have someone read you a story.
16. Find some pretty stones and save them.
17. Wear your favorite shirt with you favorite trousers even if they don’t match.
18. Take a running jump over a big puddle.
19. Get someone to buy you something you really don’t need.
20. Hide your vegetables under your napkin.
21. Stay up past your bedtime.
22. Eat dessert first.
23. Fuss a little, then take a nap.
24. Wear red gym shoes.
25. Put way too much sugar on your cereal.
26. Make cool screeching noises every time you turn a corner.
27. Giggle a lot for no reason.
28. Give yourself a gold star for everything you do today.
29. Have Eggs and Soldiers for breakfast
30. Wave insanely at passing drivers from the car window

Love

Donna.x
PS please tell me if you do some of these things, especially the sandwich trading one!!!

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

A Bit of Monday Fun: Random Thoughts

I saw this over the weekend and it made me laugh a lot so thought I’d share it with you:

Today’s Random Thoughts (not mine, but funny just the same!)

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this — EVER!!!

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day, “Mom, what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?

19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

20. And finally…Have you ever wondered if that dollar-bill you’re holding has ever been in a stripper’s butt crack? You are now…

Really want to keep number 20 out of my head! But it made me laugh!

Love

Donna.x

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Next Page »