| LIFE COACHING |  | | To Succeed, Make Reality Your Ally! | | Bruce Elkin | | |
| | Welcome to "SIMPLY SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS" - June 2, 2009:
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Helping You Create What Matters MOST in Life and Work --
With Whatever Life Throws At You!
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"Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy.
Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."
—W. B. Yeats
Hi All,
June continues to give us above normal sunshine and warmth. Flowers are everywhere. The parks department has already mowed the hay-like grass that grows in beside the path above the ocean. I'm quite enjoying it, although, knowing June on the west coast, it's best to "expect nothing, be ready for anything."
Statistically, summer doesn't arrive in this area until about July 12, so I chose to be grateful for the unusually warm, sunny weather, and to enjoy it while it lasts.
After struggling through an unusually long and cold winter, you'd think folks would embrace the sunny warm weather with open arms, and loving hearts. And many did. But some only for a few days, and then they began to complain about "the heat." It's so West Coast!
I don't understand folks who habitually complain about the weather. The weather is not our enemy; the weather just is. It's a given, a reality that we have to work with, not something to fight against, or complain about.
Living and working in the Rocky Mountains for many years, I realized that there is no such thing as "bad" weather, just improper clothing. Some of my finest days in the mountains were ones on which most would have considered the weather to be "awful." But, properly clothed, we were well prepared for whatever the weather threw at us -- physically and mentally.
I think there's a power life lesson in this. How we deal with weather give us clues to how we deal with life.
Do you accept and appreciate whatever weather you get? Do you make it your ally, and focus on creating what you love?
Or do you see it as your enemy, let it get in your way, and let if affect your moods unnecessarily.
You can judge the weather "bad" -- or your job, relationship, friends, neighbours … whatever—and suffer the emotional consequences. Or you can take it as it comes, describe it accurately, objectively, and emotionally neutrally, and do whatever you have to do to be comfortable with it as you create what matters to you.
You do not have to make something your enemy in order to create change. In all but a very few instances, you do not have to "fight for change." Using the creating process — which is driven by vision, grounded in reality, and focused on results that embrace reality and move you toward vision — you can ease into change. Doing so, you can greatly increase your chances of bringing into being the kind and quality of results you most want in your life, work, relationships, and world.
So rather than make weather (or anything else that bugs you) your enemy, make it your ally. See what you can learn about yourself by accepting and appreciating whatever comes your way.
Studies done by "happiness" researchers found that after one year there's no difference in happiness between a lottery winner and a paraplegic recovering from a spinal cord injury. But after three years, the paraplegic is much happier than the lottery winner because s/he has had to work, and learn, and grow to get where s/he is. S/he has higher levels of resilience, self-efficacy (a sense of control), and self-esteem (feeling good about doing well).
So, if you want to be happy and successful, learn to make reality your ally, not your enemy.
Combined with a clear, compelling vision of what you want to create, an objective, appreciative assessment of reality sets up that useful "creative tension" that both guides and energizes your actions, and makes it more likely you'll learn from experience and move toward the results you most want to create.
Finally, as Kim Hubbard suggests, "Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while."
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Article: "Gratitude, Positive Emotions and Creating Success"
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Want to learn more about how gratitude can generate positive emotions, "unlock the fullness of life" and lead to success in life, work, relationships and whatever you most want to create?
If so, check out this article @ http://tinyurl.com/gratitude-success
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Individual Resilience: Stress Management "Made Easy"
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Because of the positive comments about this video, and the fact that only about 20% of readers clicked through to it, I thought I'd repeat it. It's a very short (1:19 min) but catchy video on quick, easy things you can do to make yourself more resilient. Check it out. It'll make you feel good just watching it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbxYeYYxbgU
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>This Weeks Quotes:
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"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."
~John Ruskin
"There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind."
~Annie Dillard
"Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby."
~Langston Hughes
"Rainbows apologize for angry skies."
~Sylvia Voirol
"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."
~Rabindranath Tagore
"Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods,
if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary."
~Henry David Thoreau~
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How's your appreciation of weather? How's your appreciation of your own life and work? Do you make reality your ally? Or do you fight it? Need help?
I hope you have a great week!
Bruce | | | Full Article... | | |
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