Make 2012 A Great Year

My Life Changes was developed to help you live by your core personal values. As I have previously written my most cherished value is freedom. By keeping this value in mind I strive to live a life stress free, free from money worries, free from health problems and free from work related stress.

It’s not enough to just set goals. Your goals must be aligned with your personal values. And these values that you cherish should drive you to better and bigger things every day. Whether your value is freedom, love, wealth, health or peace these values should evoke a feeling deep down in your core that drives you live the life you believe you deserve.  So wake up every day with your value behind every action you take.

My 2011 was a pretty good year.  I became more disciplined with my money, had good health, visited Disney World, finished my Dale Carnegie course, was invited to speak at a conference in Florida and bonded with my Dad.

For 2012 I look forward to better health as in deeper sleep and less weight. I would love to become a spiritual teacher (meditation, mindfulness, peace) and will work towards this. I will clear out a bunch of junk and simplify my life. I’ll continue with elliptical running machine and begin to weight train again. I will spend more time listening to sounds of nature and less time in the artificial world of computers, smart phones and the Internet.  I will cut down on information overload.

I hope you have all taken some thought as to what your 2012 will look like and would love if you used the tracker to write your vales and goals down.  Welcome to this site and I wish you all the best in 2012 and beyond.

Best Always

Terry

Journey To A Stress Free Life

I’ve been thinking and working a lot lately. My mind is buzzing about work and an upcoming presentation deadline. As I was spending some quiet time with the cats looking out the window, it hit me that I’ve allowed life to hijack my brain. I have been missing the quiet moments like looking out the window and watching night fall. It’s such a simple pleasure yet it connects me with my core being and mother earth itself. Life changes are important but don’t let life zoom by without finding joy in the softer moments.

Reconnect with your humanness. Sitting quietly by the window at night allowed me to slow down and really connect with the world. Find your quiet time and learn to love it every day.

Remember to enjoy the journey. You are a human living in a world of many simple pleasures. I’ve been so focused on what this presentation might bring me in the future, I’ve forgotten to just enjoy the journey. It should be fun and creative not a worry for me.

Soft moments can bring a pure joy. When we slow down and breathe, when we just watch the world unfold, when we just BE , those can be the most precious moments in life. It isn’t always about others, it can be just about YOU. Discover your humanity, discover peace, and discover beauty. It’s all around you. We just bec0me too busy to notice.

5 Ways To Reduce Stress And Find Joy And Be More Optimistic.

Stop paying attention to bad news. Get off the Internet. Read a book. Find the simple joys in life. Take in the cool crisp air of the morning. Don’t let the media influence your morning. Tune out. Find the beauty in life. Chop all the bad news out and you’ll find slices of joy you never knew existed!

Meditate. Find peace in the present moment. Learn to still your chattering mind.  There are so many ways to meditate these days. There is the traditional method of sitting still and paying attention to your outer breath.  Or download an app for your smart phone. I recently downloaded “ Meditation 4 Inner Wisdom” and loved its relaxing flow.

Don’t worry about stuff you can’t change. Work is incredibly demanding these days. Greece is falling apart. Winter is coming. I can either let these stressors roll around in my head like a mouse on a flywheel or pay attention to what I CAN change. What can you change in your life? Write it down and start making those changes. Let the rest of it go. Are you worrying about stuff you cannot change?  Let it go today and change what you have control over.

Exercise. I’ve been trying to lose 20 pounds with no results. I eat well but haven’t been eating fewer calories. Simple math. If I wish to continue to eat the same amount of calories I HAVE to exercise more. Today I got back on the elliptical running machine and did some weights. AND!!  And what? And exercise is one of the very best ways to reduce stress. It’s a double win! Let’s start an exercise routine today! One of the very best decisions you will have made, at any stage in your life.

Write your goals down. We constantly dream and plan in our heads. We stand around the water cooler and talk about living in a warmer climate, having more money or working in a dream career. Get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper! Make them concrete. Take the next step towards making them into reality. What is your biggest dream? What is the very next action you need to take to make your dream a reality? What is stopping you? Write it down today and write down the next step you need to take. Now you are on your way!!

How I Let Go Of Stress Overnight

If we want to fully let go of the endless negative chatter in your head, try following the techniques prescribed in the book – The Myth Of Stress.

The technique used in this book is called Active insight.  Active insight is about changing your beliefs that drive emotions and behaviour. Changing these beliefs brings a peace and clarity to your mind enabling you to move onto bigger and better things.

Is 100% of our stress internal?  Do we create 100% of our stress?  Yes.

This isn’t a technique that allows you to temporarily escape stress, it addresses it at the root cause.

Here is an example of an exercise I have performed.

A stressful thought that continuously pops up for me is “I should weigh less”

To rid myself of this silly stressful belief and to accept myself I  insert the following

“In reality I should not weigh less at this time because …

“In reality I should not weigh less at this time because I am not exercising daily”.

“In reality I should not weigh less at this time because I eat more than my body needs”

“In reality I should not weigh less at this time because I’m over 30 years old and as we get older we put on weight”

“In reality I should not weigh less at this time because I drink alcohol which is empty calories”

Now I don’t go around with the vague stress belief that I should weigh less.  I’ve accepted the reality as to why I don’t weigh less. I’ve accepted my life and how I got here.

Now I’m ready to move on and change instead of letting this little thought stress me almost every day.

I have insight into my biggest cause of stress. That insight was my vague belief.

Love – The Ultimate Life Change

If one of your personal values is love and you have it as a core value in your  tracker, do you have a good definition of love?   Or is your definition just warm and fuzzy?

In Barbara Frederickson’s book Positivity she comes up with a pretty good definition.

Positivity comes in ten forms.

Joy.

Gratitude.

Serenity.

Interest

Hope.

Pride.

Amusement.

Inspiration.

Awe.

Love.

Why is love at the bottom of this list? Because if you mix all of these up in a blender… you get love.

Think about a time you felt love. At  different points in time it had most of these elements in it. When you define love as a personal value, whether love of a person or love of the world it helps to remember what makes up love.

You just may want a little of all of these positive elements in there.

Just to remind you what love really is.

See How Easily You Can Discover Your Core Personal Values

What behaviors from others drive you crazy? What INFURIATES you? Which behaviors force you to draw a line in the sand?

These are the questions you should ask yourself. These are the questions that will point you to your most cherished core personal values. They are the opposites to what you really stand for.  It’s usually pretty easy to figure out what you don’t like.

Have you seen a boss humiliate someone in a meeting?

Does sitting in traffic piss you off?

Does the greed of Wall Street enrage you?

Are you feeling like a prisoner in your cubicle?

Is the stress in your life killing your health?

Now think about what values are the opposites of these feelings?

How about respect?

Joy.

Freedom.

Health.

Peace.

Compassion.

Giving.

Your values are your moral compass, a source of energy and most of all they motivate you.

My most cherished value is freedom. Freedom inspires me to build a life where I can work anywhere in the world. Where I can make my own rules. Where I can share my dreams with others.

What are your core personal values?

Who Else Wants Life’s Happiest Moments?

When I was in Florida a few weeks ago I would stand by the pool enclosure and deeply inhale the fresh morning air. Our backyard was an open field with woods to the right. After a long winter the smell of dew and earth invaded my senses and I felt the spread of contentment glow inside of me.

It doesn’t take miracles, big money or iPads to experience the best things in life. Sometimes it’s just the soft and simple moments that are the happiest. Now I walk the dog in the small forest nearby and I smell and feel springtime in the air again. In the middle of our walk I stop, crouch and listen to nature waking up.

I also love standing on the edge of the driveway on a brisk and blue morning. After taking in the lacy streaks of blue and gold in the morning sky, the soft chirps of birds and crisp morning air, only then am I ready to hop in the car.

What are your happiest moments?

Maybe it’s time to make a few more.

Here’s Is A Quick And Easy Way To Meditate

My favorite way to meditate is using Gail Chiarella’s CD’s AM and PM Yoga Meditations.

http://www.amazon.com/AM-Yoga-Meditations-Gael-Chiarella/dp/1559617527

I’ve tried dozens of methods but hers is the best. If my mind is too active at bedtime or upon waking I love to listen to her soothing voice on my iPhone.

It is the most positive and relaxing meditation to begin or end a day.

Bring conscious choice to the ways you envision your day.  Everything you say think and say to yourself today will have an impact on your tomorrow.

“I am the master of my life”

“I am courage in action”

“I love and appreciate myself exactly the way I am”

“I am confident and effective in all that I do”

Namaste

Get Rid of Your Stress And Worries Once and For All

I ask people to identify their personal values.

Why?

Because values create emotion, drive, meaning, purpose and feeling.

My favorite value is freedom.

Freedom to own a business I can run from a laptop sitting on a gorgeous beach.

Freedom to fire a client that doesn’t get it.

Freedom to easily and cheaply connect with an important CEO through Skype.

Freedom to stay home by the fireplace as lines of cars head off to packed commutes.

When I picture my best life I can taste it. I can feel it. That feeling is my driving force.

I want it bad…I crave it….I yearn for it…every day.

They don’t teach you this stuff in school. In school you abide by the rules, walk a straight line and be a good citizen.

Isn’t it time to break the rules? Isn’t it time to taste life?

Isn’t it time to make that wonderful feeling of pure freedom a reality?

What’s stopping you?

If You Don’t Set Goals Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later.

You are getting this because you subscribed to the My Life Changes newsletter. Something inside of you decided that you need to make life changes.  A serious part of making life changes is setting goals.

What type of life do you want? What specifically do you want out of life? What goals can you write down that will motivate you to make important life changes?

Do you wish to lose weight so you can run in the backyard with your kids next year?

Do you wish to get out of debt so you can take a dream vacation or start a business?

Do you want to begin meditating so work and family stress is easier to deal with?

These are a few specific goals you can vision and keep in your head until you have reached them.

These are a few specific examples of goals you can use to gain courage, self confidence and create a healthy self image.

It’s time for you to take action right now. Don’t end up hating yourself now because you didn’t take action  right now.

Make your dreams a reality. Nothing is stopping you except yourself.

Break free of your chains and just do it.

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