Take the opportunity today to do something you’ve been putting off.

Hiya,

Uh-oh! If you’re anything like me that could be a mighty long list. From clearing the garage to swapping that duff lightbulb in the cupboard to cleaning the inside of the car to booking that dentist appointment we all put stuff off.

Well, tackle one of them today. Make it the easiest one if you want, but do one.

You’ll be proud of yourself afterwards.

 

(This is May 30th of my book “How To Change Your Life One Day At A Time” – available on Amazon here: CLICK HERE )

Enjoy

Stu

🙂

PS: It’s also available on Kindle HERE

Why failure is necessary on the road to success…

Project mood chart

Hiya,

In Chip and Dan Heath’s brilliant book “Switch“, they talk about the necessity for businesses to adopt a growth mindset and that failure is part of that mindset.

“In the business world, we implicitly reject the growth mindset. Bussiness people think in terms of two stages: You plan, and then you execute. There’s no ‘learning stage’ or ‘practice stage’ in the middle. From the business perspective, practice looks like poor execution. Results are the thing: We don’t care how ya do it, just get it done!” – They say, explaining that everything in the middle can look like a failure.

They go on to describe a ‘project mood chart‘ that plots how and why changes in emotion within a team happen at different stages in a project. Usually it starts with hope and enthusiasm, ideas are flowing freely and abundantly, but in order to integrate all of these ideas some moments of insight are required. And insight doesn’t always happen when you want it to. Depression can set in and the project starts to feel like a failure. But with persistence, improvements are made, the necessary tweaking happens and eventually the solution becomes more and more visible.

They state that by telling a team to ‘expect‘ this process it doesn’t come across as negative but rather as optimistic, as now – failure is described as just a part of the overall journey to a successful outcome.

They go on to say:

“That’s the paradox of the growth mindset. Although it seems to draw our attention to failure, and in fact encourages us to seek out failure, it is unflaggingly optimistic. We will struggle, we will fail, we will be knocked down – but throughout, we’ll get better, and we’ll succeed in the end.”

Falling down as you travel down the path is an opportunity to learn where the pot-holes are, they are not a signal that you are failing to walk down the path.

This doesn’t only apply to businesses, but rather to ALL aspects of life. We have to dig deep to get through the depressing down times when we’re in need of insight, but trust that if we just keep going it will reveal itself.

If you’re in business at any level read Switch asap.

Enjoy

Stu

🙂

How To Measure Your Health

Are you as healthy as you could be?

Hiya,

There are many ways to measure your overall health and wellbeing but it’s not so easy to find definitive descriptions of what that means.

For instance the top 5  body health indicators seem to include:

1. Your BMI score, a poor score could make you susceptible to type 2 diabetes
2. Your biological age, an unhealthy lifestyle can leave your body thinking it’s a lot older than you actually are.
3. Waist measurement, a waist measurement of less then 94 centimeters for men and 80 centimeters for women is regarded as healthy as our vital organs are housed in our waist area.
4. Blood pressure, the Heart Foundation considers a normal blood pressure to be less than 120/80mmHg. More or less than this can leave you open to heart disease and strokes.
5. Heart rate, 60-100 beats per minute is normal for the average person’s resting heart rate. Higher than that could mean your heart is working too hard which could lead to heart conditions or stroke.

To read the full article —> Click Here

Full explanation of BMI HERE

Obviously, a good, balanced diet and regular exercise are important to keep our bodies fit and healthy.

But over and above your body health is your mental health. How relaxed you feel on a  day to day basis, how you deal with adverse circumstances, how you think of others as well as yourself can all lead to positive or negative mental states.

At the end of the day we all want to live longer, but usually only if we can remain healthy, active and reasonably stress free at the same time. If we are parents, we also want to set a great example to our kids so that they grow up to live healthy, happy lives too.

It won’t be long before I hit 50 so this is at the top of mind for me. I don’t feel at my peak level of health and fitness at the moment, I’m pretty good but not tip top – so I’m on a mission to change that. If I want to feel fitter and stronger even when I’m 60 or even 70 then I better start NOW.

How about You? Are you as fit and healthy as you should/could be?

Enjoy

Stu

🙂

PS: Your job may be a cause of stress on a daily basis. If you still want to get a copy of “Do You Hate Your Job?” you can get it on Kindle for less than £2 or a pdf copy at no cost right here: FREE Copy

CLICK HERE

Happiness = In the Flow

Pic source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Hiya,

I’m reading a fascinating book at the moment by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler titled “The Decision Book“.

It contains 50 models for strategic thinking to help in making decisions.

One of the strategies is understanding how to identify being happy. They quote a study  conducted by US psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (yep, go on – say it out loud).

Mihaly interviewed over a thousand people about what made them happy and used their responses to determine the 5 most common indicators, which were:

1. They were intensely focussed on an activity
2. It was of their own choosing
3. It was not under-challenging (boring) or over-challenging (overwhelming)
4. It had a clear objective
5. Which received immediate feedback

He coined the phrase ‘in the flow‘ to describe that mental state.

The participants that experienced this ‘flow‘ were said to have a profound sense of satisfaction and they lost track of time because they were totally absorbed.

Easy to imagine athletes, musicians, artists etc. reaching this place often but ask yourself when was the last time you experienced all 5 of the above?

If you want to be happier look for projects that will enable this state of mind – and if you employ people or manage people, figure out ways to engage them in tasks that create that outcome. They will be a lot happier and you will undoubtedly create a more productive, creative and content workplace.

Enjoy

Stu

🙂

PS: If you enjoyed this please share it on your Facebook page and help someone else find their happiness. 🙂

 

Arianna Huffington Interview

Hiya,

If you’d rather Thrive rather than just survive watch this superb interview with Arianna Huffington.

She explains to Joe Polish the reason behind writing her 14th book ‘Thrive‘ and why there should be a third way in which we measure success. Money & power are the usual two but we often overlook the third – wellbeing.

It lasts approx. 50 minutes but it’s well worth the time watching it. Her new practices over the last few years have enabled her to live with less stress, less anxiety, more fulfillment, more happiness and contentedness.

Enjoy

Stu

🙂

PS: If you enjoyed this and want to learn how you can nurture the positive mindset required to succeed in any area of your life  this might be a

good fit —-> CLICK HERE