Monday Motivation - 26 January

“When you are reluctant to change, think of the beauty of autumn.” ~ Unknown

Quotation - Attitudes and beliefs

"Think ‘impossible’ and dreams get discarded, projects get abandoned, and hope for wellness is torpedoed. But let someone yell the words ‘It's possible,’ and resources we hadn't been aware of come rushing in to assist us in our quest. I believe we are all potentially brilliant and creative -- but only if we believe it, only if we have an attitude of positive expectancy toward our ideas, and only if we act on them." ~ Greg Anderson

Monday Motivation - 19 January

“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.” ~ Carl Jung

An A to Z of personal development - beliefs

We all have beliefs about ourselves, about others and about the world around us. We act as though these beliefs are absolute truths, and yet they are just ideas; a sort of working hypothesis that we have formed, from a very early age, about how things should be, so that we can deal with our lives. We tend to only perceive things that are in line with this thinking, filtering out information that conflicts with our beliefs.

So if we want to develop ourselves, to change our lives and the results we are experiencing, we need to examine our beliefs, consider to what extent they are true, and see if they support us. Then, if there are negative beliefs that are limiting us (and there will be!) we can choose beliefs that would better serve us, look for evidence in support of these new ideas, and adopt positive and empowering beliefs.

· "What you perceive, your observations, feelings, interpretations, are all your truth. Your truth is important. Yet it is not The Truth." ~ Linda Ellinor
· "Beliefs: Those things we hold to be true despite evidence to the contrary." ~ Joseph O’Connor
· "If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?" ~ Robert Anthony, Author

Monday Motivation - 12 January

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful. Welcome it in every face, in every sky, in every flower." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take a Year-End Attitude Inventory – by Michael Josephson

It's a wise custom to end an old year and begin a new one with serious self-reflection. What did you learn this year that can improve your life and make you a better person?

Start by examining the way you think and feel about your job, your relationships, and yourself. After all, the single most important factor in personal happiness and your impact on others is your attitude.

In the geometry of life, the axiom is "positive attitudes produce positive results." They make success more likely, failures less harmful, pleasures more frequent, and pain more bearable. Some people tend to bring warm sunshine wherever they go; others bring cold chills. What do you bring?

To find out where you can improve, take an honest inventory of your predispositions, the attitude you're most likely to start with.

· Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic?
· Do you tend to assume the best or expect the worst of people?
· Is your first instinct to be empathetic or judgmental?
· Is your first instinct to be supportive or critical?
· Do you send the message that you enjoy life or that you're barely enduring it?
· Do you come across as the captain of your own ship or simply a passenger?

Wherever you are on the positive-attitude spectrum, think how much better things could be if you were more consistently and self-consciously optimistic, empathetic, supportive, grateful, enthusiastic, hopeful, and cheerful.

So why not resolve to think, act, and speak more positively about yourself, your family, your coworkers, and everyone else in your life?

Michael Josephson

© 2009 Josephson Institute. Take a Year-End Inventory is reprinted from Michael Josephson’s award winning Commentaries with permission. To read more or sign up for Michael Josephson’s weekly Commentary newsletter, visit: http://charactercounts.org/michael/

An A to Z of personal development - attitude part 2

This aspect of personal development is so important that I’m having a second posting for it!

This time I’m focused on having a positive outlook towards achievement and getting things done, a mindset where we ask ourselves “How can I do this” rather than telling ourselves it’s too difficult. When we have this attitude we are more open to seeing opportunities, can often attract useful resources and we find it easier to start taking action.

· "Don't say, "If I could, I would." Say, "If I can, I will." ~ Jim Rohn
· "If you have a guy with all the survival training in the world who has a negative attitude and a guy who doesn't have a clue but has a positive attitude, I guarantee you that the one with the positive attitude is coming out of the woods alive." ~ Gordon Smith, SERE Instructor
· "Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results." ~ Anon
· "Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude." ~ Katherine Mansfield, Writer

Interested in some additional resources? Then I can recommend Marilee Adams’ book "Change your questions, change your life" which offers valuable advice on how to switch from a judger mindset to a learner mindset – so instead of looking for all the negatives and possible pitfalls, you can begin to ask those “How can I do this and what can I learn” questions. It does take practise - however can you imagine the sort of difference it could make to you?

Monday Motivation - 5 January

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” ~ Albert Einstein

An A to Z of personal development

Are you interested in making changes in your life, in feeling happier and more positive? Over the next few months I’m going to be writing an A to Z of brief articles about aspects of personal development, structured around quotations that I hope you find useful and thought provoking. And if any of the topics strike a chord with you and you would like to explore and work on that particular area, please contact me to discuss how some one-to-one personal life coaching could support you.


The first aspect I want to consider is attitude. What do some of our great writers say on the subject?

· "Our attitude is something we can control. We can establish our attitude each morning when we start our day. In fact, we do just that whether we realize it or not." ~ Earl Nightingale
· "You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside." ~ Wayne Dyer
· "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." ~ Maya Angelou

A first step is to realise that we all have a choice about our attitude. In the morning we tend to think about what we are going to do during the day – however we can also think about how we are going to be during the day. We can set our intention to be positive, joyful, open to learning and new experiences, calm, open-minded – whatever frame of mind will serve us best.

It’s also about being proactive rather than reactive – the old advice about counting to ten when something rattles us is wise advice indeed!

Happy New Year!

Here are some quotations for the new year:

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

“A new year is unfolding – like a blossom with petals curled tightly concealing the beauty within.” ~ Unknown

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." ~ Benjamin Franklin

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential." ~ Ellen Goodman

I wish you all a happy, healthy, successful and fulfilling 2009!