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

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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

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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

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Ooh, That Was Fun!

Yesterday I happened to be stuck in traffic on the M6. I was hot, I was hungry and I was moving at about 3 miles an hour. Plenty of reason to be peeved, eh? But then I looked across at a very angry chap in the outside lane who practically had steam coming out of his ears. He was obviously having a terrible time, and here’s the thing: we couldn’t change it. Being pissed off was not going to make it any easier (quite the opposite in fact), or get rid of the jam any faster. In his case, I suspect it took him closer to a coronary.

In my case, seeing his misery and anger jolted me out of my own irritation. I thought to myself “Right, I’m here. There’s nothing I can do about it, no helicopter is going to rescue me, so let’s make the most of this shall we?” I rolled down the windows, beamed at the blue sky and lovely hot sun, turned up the music and started to car dance. I like to think I cheered some people up – they were laughing at me anyway. I certainly had more fun than if I’d sat there fuming. And then I intensified the game, upped the ante, compounded the enjoyment.

How? I cheered wildly everytime I got into 3rd gear (twice). I beamed at the lovely sky, grinned at other cars, told myself I was in the fastest lane (and a lot of the time, I was – I went past the cross man 17 times), found things to appreciate, danced more and more, sang a little (I do have a bit of a sense of shame!), thanked God that my car doesn’t overheat, and thoroughly enjoyed myself in every way I could think of. And then, when I went past the police cars and ambulance I had a rampage of appreciation that I was safe and well.

Because those people in that car were having a way worse time than we were. I’d take stuck in a traffic jam over an appointment with Casualty any day. The moral of this story of course is that sometimes things happen that are not great, sometimes we’re stuck in a situation we don’t want to be in, but we have a choice as to how we deal with that. We can sit and fume, OR we can make it fun. And do you know what? In a bizarre way, I really enjoyed that trip home. Not so much that I’d want to do it again today, but ooh, that was fun!

Love

Donna.x

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I Get Knocked Down…

…But I get up again. Nothing like a bit of chumbawumba on a wednesday! Lol. Much as I detest the song, I like the sentiment. I get knocked down, but I get up again. A Japanese proverb says it best “Fall down 100 times, get up 101″. This last week I have been being knocked down, getting up, knocked down, getting up, and so on and so on. Some weeks are just like that! (Usually weeks where I’m not sleeping – I’m harder to knock down when I’m not knackered!)

Anyway, if you’re getting knocked down at the moment, just get back up again. And if you are finding it hard to get up alone, make sure you are surrounded by people who help to pick you up. This can be friends and family, but it can just as easily be strangers who have uplifting things to say. Get an idea of who are your ‘go to’ people when you’re knocked down, or your action plan for getting back up (which may not involve people you know).

I’m lucky to be part of several online communities of like-minded people, and they are unfailingly helpful every time. But my top tip for getting ‘up’ again (and this can be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually ‘up’) is to have a laugh. A couple of times over the past week when I’ve been knocked down, I’ve gone to trusty You Tube and found some stuff that makes me laugh – it’s the quickest ‘up’ there is!

Love

Donna.x

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If You Could Do It All Again

You may have seen this poem, it does the rounds on e-mail occasionally. This week, a friend sent it to me and I read it again and once again realised how wonderful a philosophy it is:

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I’d dare to make more mistakes next time.
I’d relax, I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances.

I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would perhaps have more actual troubles,
but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I’m one of those people who live
sensibly and sanely hour after hour,
day after day.

Oh, I’ve had my moments,
And if I had it to do over again,
I’d have more of them.
In fact, I’d try to have nothing else.
Just moments, one after another,
instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

I’ve been one of those people who never goes anywhere
without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat
and a parachute.
If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over,
I would start barefoot earlier in the spring
and stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances.
I would ride more merry-go-rounds.
I would pick more daisies.

Nadine Stair,
85 years old.

Nadine Stair is attributed to have written this at age 85. Whatever age you are, look back and ask yourself – if you could do it all again, what would you do more?

I would laugh more, and worry less
I would not take notice of what ‘they’ may think, and instead notice what I think
I would enjoy all of it – the ‘bad’ times and the good
I would celebrate that I am doing my best in every moment

I would know that everything worked out in the end, even when it didn’t look like it was going to
I would live MY life, not try to fit in with the herd
I would do what I was passionate about
I would follow my intuition

I would enjoy my life anyway, even when business wasn’t good
Even when I was skint, even when the nights were long and the weather cold
Even when everything looked bleak, I would have some fun anyway
I would look in my own eyes more and say “You are WONDERFUL”

I would stay out of other people’s business and stay in my own
I would encourage more, cheerlead more, cheer up more – myself and others
I would endeavour to show the best of me at all times
And I would let myself off the hook when I failed dismally!

Wait. I can (and try to) do all these things now. And so can you. What would you do? Once you know, replace would with ‘will’ or am! For example “I will laugh more and worry less” or ” I am laughing more and worrying less”. Then live to YOUR own blueprint for life. My guess is that before we got here to earth, this is what we intended to do – laugh, enjoy, smell the flowers, dance…and then somehow we forgot! So don’t wait til ‘next time’. Do it now.

Love

Donna.x

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The Real 12 Days of Christmas

Part of our Christmas tradition is to listen to Frank Kelly’s version of 12 days of Christmas – it never fails to make me laugh, and my dad cry…with laughter. ENJOY!

Love

Donna.x

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Living Life With Passion

When you think of Loving Life, what comes to mind?

When you think of Living Passionately, what comes to mind?

When you think of Living Joyfully, what comes to mind?

It is my humble opinion that life is to be lived and loved, passionately, fully, joyfully. For too many of us, we don’t. Love of life, passion and joy are things we don’t even think about. Well, this weekend I have a mission for you – start falling in love with life, living passionately and joyously. How? As ever, one step at a time. Answer the questions above – what comes to mind…and what can you do this weekend to start falling in love with life, living passionately and/or living joyfully?

I see you having a weekend full of love, passion, joy and laughter.

Love

Donna.x

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Energy First, Action Second

While I’ve been tingling, I’ve noticed more than usual that when my energy is really low it takes me 100 times longer to do things…and often the things I do manage to do are not usable. For example, despite the 2 week break in blogs, I did actually write a few blog posts. Sadly they were utter rubbish! My energy was so low that my creativity just disappeared. And instead of inspiring, fun, interesting posts that will help you live a joyful life…they were the very opposite.

It’s not always practical to not do something until your energy is high and happy – life doesn’t stop just because you’re not feeling tip-top…but if you make your energy level a priority, you will reap the rewards – as will your friends, family, employers, clients. Here’s the scale I work by: 1 is flat, apathetic, can’t be arsed energy; 10 is WOOHOO, life’s amazing, bouncing around energy.

Where is your energy right now on a scale of flat to woohoo? (or 1-10) My assertion is that if my energy is less than a 7, it is an utter waste of time me doing any work because it’s rubbish! As I say, sometimes this isn’t practical, but many times something can be done to raise your energy level – self care, having a laugh, fresh air, exercise, music, focusing on the life you want, time with friends who raise your energy, sleep, star jumps (my old house mate used to do this, I thought she was nuts at the time, but I’m coming round to her way of thinking!)…and many more.

So, if your energy is less than a 7 right now, what can you do to raise that energy? Today. Leave me a comment and tell me what energy-raisers you have used and how your energy is right now.

Love

Donna.x

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What Are You Leaving Behind?

Think about the last 24 hours of your life – where have you been? What did you leave behind? For example, I visited my yoga teacher and left behind a bag of damsons (which was a good thing!). I met friends in the pub and left laughter (because I was so tired I thought someone’s t-shirt said “bee taster”…it was actually “beer taster” D’oh!). I went to the shop and left money and a smile.

I think I have mostly left every part of my world better because I was in it this last 24 hours. That’s not always the case. Sometimes I can leave behind sarcasm, irritation, mess! But if I think about it, I’d rather leave the world a better place behind me than a trashed, insulted, shouted at and hurt. How about you?

Love

Donna.x

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