home made cookies

are the bomb!

thanks nettie

betty crocker cookies

a mental picture...

something for me to hold onto today

"Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously and never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture!"
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
1898-1993, Author of "The Power of Positive Thinking"

[tomorrow the link will probably fail, there's no permalink system in place at insight of the day, i've tried lots of things to find the actual URL of the pages i link to]

Monday monday, thanks momma cass

pasta meals that get cleaned up completely, [note to self: must make even more pasta now, two packets not enough]
warm hips and straight hair
going to school on the bicycles, getting home quickly, girls getting there safely
girls in red skirts
librarians with more pasta on their shirts than their plates
boys who fall asleep after weights
afternoon sunshine
red peppers
urgent print jobs
new requests for branding from clients who've been away for 5 years

new week, same story

grateful...
for bike rides with the girls
horror with hannah [and eliot going to bed in disgust]
for the return of my three girls safe from pigeon bay
pinstripe jeans like the oxford bags i had as a kid
old pen friends calling from germany after 30 years

i thought of you when i saw this

The Interview With God

acleareye.com: Sign on cubicle wall

another reminder to myself...
acleareye.com: Sign on cubicle wall:

'What we're doing today is important because we're paying for it with a day of our life.

Make it worthwhile, because the price is high.'"

wednesday's gratefullness

colleen who pays her bills
the choir who pay theirs even though it was discounted as paid
having another librarian in the family [tuesday]
watching movies with loved ones
rides with the bunch where i don't get left behind [tuesday]

missing blessings reflections

i need to recommit to reflecting on three positive outcomes for the day, i've missed this exercise from Martin Seligman's site. i guess i need to print the PDF out myself, and do the work!

many weekend blessings

i've been too blessed to keep the list up, but i've kept a mental list for friday through sunday

friday
popular pizza comments
falling asleep watching movies with nettie
snatching time with henny and india who missed the bus

saturday
views across to shag rock from the yacht club on an early bike ride
strawberries, fresh coffee and bagels
surprise direct credits from clients
pictures at an exhibition
beer and wedges with nettie, rosie and katie
playing at ohoka with the children, rabbits et al
message in a bottle

sunday
not hearing the alarm clock and waking to warm bodies
the santa parade, ice creams and hot chocolate with the two girls
an extra night with henny
getting jobs cleared up
letting the light into the porch by clearing the jasmine

serendipity

more pause for thought on Insight of The Day:

"'Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you go through hardship and decide not to surrender, that is strength.'"

arnold swarzenegger

there's a lesson waiting for me every day, maybe you too?

Insight of the Day

it's sometimes seems strange, and on the other hand it's not in the least bit odd that the things in our email inbox have something for us to learn

this just in...

Insight of the Day:

'Look at the abundance all around you as you go about your daily business. You have as much right to this abundance as any other living creature. It's yours for the asking.'
Earl Nightinglale

i'm grateful today for…

a cuddle from henrietta this morning
eliot's gratitude for his homework mission
a head on my chest before i got out of bed

three blessing for thursday

following on from yesterday's post about marty seligman's programme and to prove i do do my homework...

first positive event was a meeting with a potential new client, this went well, i felt, because i was honest and concise. i gave her the price she asked for before i gave her the questions about what she was trying to achieve. normally i'd have launched into the "this won't achieve what you think it will" talk. i also didn't waffle because i had to get the kids from school so time was limited

second postive event: long phone call with nanna about custody arrangements, this went well because i felt heard [maybe this happened because i was rational and compliant?]

third positive event: supporting eliot in getting hhis homework done. this went well because i stayed calm and helpful rather than taking over or melding his will to mine :-)

well, that's it. make a comment below, or just keep an eye on things, if i do this for at least 14 days before retesting, we ca all see how it comes out

maybe you should try this yourselves?

love to you all...

lunch blessings

here's a reason to be cheerful today: lunch with nettie in the sunshine

this made me giggle

seen as there's been so much navel gazing here lately, today's savage chickens made me giggle.

not an example of the kind of symchronicity i've been looking for

chicken therapy

three blessings preamble

basically what Marty Seligman is suggesting is to do this before bed every night for a week. It's also what my darling wife suggested to begin again [you see nettie has mucho insight]

1. Positive event I:
Why did this good thing happen?
2. Positive event II:
Why did this good thing happen?
3. Positive event III:
Why did this good thing happen?

i've put the form here as a PDF

just in case you want to print your own, and track your own transistion

best go to the site and get yourself benchmarked first, after all i'm not the pyschologist here, Marty is!

for the record, happiness score for me was 85 [pretty high as expected] and depression scale was a bit of a surprise at 14 [mildly depressed this week]. best keep working on increasing the one and decreasing the other

ciao

synchronicity redux

here's something that came into my mailbox this morning

I've read both of Marty Seligman's recent books about learned optimism and authentic happiness i've been a big fan and talked a lot about them a great deal at the time.

this new site << tests and exercises here >> and the home page here offer some benchmarking tests and a program that apparently will help alleviate depression over a short time period, i'll be reading more on this, and keep this updated

thursdays cheerful quotient

firstly the children are coming tonight YaY! :-)

i'm also grateful for going to sleep at a reasonable hour yesterday i awake feeling fresher than i have in too long

today's insight UPDATE:- i've been making poor links, this previous link goes to insight of the day's site, not to insight of the actual day i was reading's quote page

so to cover off everything, here's yesterday's quote inline:

Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosphophers, and prophets have disagreed with each other on many different things. it is only on one point that they are in comeplete and unanimous agreement. - We become what we think about.

Earl Nightingale

is another treat of syncronicity, man i should be listening

and to all those who think that setting up this blog took a long time...

it didn't, but i learned a lot whilst doing it, and it may even earn some money as i roll the concept out in other areas of the business

i'm also grateful for the love i get to pass on

love you, reason, season and a lifetime

reasons to be cheerful part one

reasons to be cheerful part one…

that even though it's difficult to believe in myself sometimes, my wife does anyway [and so do the rest of my family]

that things keep putting themselves in front of me reminding me of what could be…
This came in this morning's insight of the day:

The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realising a worthy ideal. That's the person who says 'I'm going to become this' and then begins to work towards that goal.

Earl Nightingale

the persistence of the universe in teaching me things is amazing

today i'm listening