Easily one of the greatest viral videos of 2010, and perfect for Applied Happiness friends. So many people follow the societal agreement that being alone is a negative thing. This video lends another side of the argument, and I love it. You can experience so many things alone hat connect you with the world – because as long as you’re alive, you’re never alone.
Peace, Love, and a million successes to you all!
Blake
Jay Shafer decided one day to remove the clutter from his world and start over. He designed and built an 89 square foot home, and began living there. Leaving the ‘everything big’ lifestyle behind him, his life transformed. I love this story. It reminds me how frivolous some of our attachment to material goods can be. Does anyone really need a 20,000 square foot mansion? Maybe they do. I don’t know anyone with one, so I can’t just come out and ask. I’ll update this post if I ever find that answer.
This begs the question of what do we really need in our lives to be happy. It’s not so much about becoming a minimalist and throwing out everything but toilet paper and three outfits – that’s a little too frightening for most of us. Instead, it’s about removing the “noise” and “stuff” with which we all seem to fill our lives. It’s about pulling away from owning things just to own things.
Personally, I remember being younger and spending money on a whole bunch of things I found cool. Now I can’t remember a single thing I got that was important. And I certainly don’t have any of this cool “stuff” to show nowadays. Why did it all disappear? Was it not too expensive and therefore disposable? Was it simply misplaced? Stolen? What happened to all my cool stuff?!?!
It wasn’t truly important to me, so it didn’t stick around. Because it truly wasn’t that important, I didn’t miss it, and I didn’t replace it. Imagine all the things in your life you could sell off, throw out, or donate – stuff you really don’t need, won’t miss, and won’t replace if gone one day. The minimalist credo is similar to “waste not, want not” and is a great place to start.
This becomes MUCH easier after a values exercise. You get a solid sense of your values, what motivates you, and what you need to move forward. You can then ask what this “thing” brings you that you cannot be without. If it doesn’t fill that space inside you, it really doesn’t have to fill that space in your house.
Try your own version of living little. See how it goes, and let us know!
Peace, Love, and a million successes to you all!
Blake
With 2010 coming to the half-way point in the next couple of weeks, are you happy with where your year has taken you? Are there things you’d love to change, improve, increase, or achieve? Maybe you would only like a little clarity about where you are and where you feel you’re headed on this crazy winding road. Have you had a day where you left your office for some lunch and thought, “what am I doing?” or “is this really all there is?” or even “man, it would be so incredible if I could only (fill-in the blank)”?
Coaching is such a powerful place to turn to when you’re looking for some insight and fulfillment in your life. Maybe you’ve looked into getting a coach, but you doubted your ability to afford it…
We’re giving away 30 minute coaching sessions! No, really, we are! F-R-E-E !
Not only are we giving away the first 30 minute session, we’ve discounted our fees to help get you closer to your dream without taking away your savings! Head to the contact page and send us a message to set-up a free coaching call (or face-to-face meeting), and take us for a test drive! If you feel like you could benefit from having your own incredible coach, we are offering 30 minute sessions for $25 each for the first 90 days! Imagine as much as 12 complete weeks of personalized attention, focus, and support to help you discover your best self and show you how to create S-M-A-R-T action plans to get you moving forward.
For those of you thinking, “C’mon, there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” truly, there’s no risk. No contracts, no gimmicks, no strings, nothing. The time is yours,and the decision after your session is yours. No hard sell. No fine print. NONE.
Head over to the assessment page and see what you, personally, come up with. They’re free too. If you find some area of your life you might like to improve, we would be more than happy to give you the free session to touch on it. Call 847-754-9615 or send a message our way to set-up your FREE session today!
As a bonus for signing up for your free session, we’ll send you the Applied Happiness Inspired Action Workbook at no charge! This 30 page workbook will help you get a head start on what motivates you, and what might be holding you back from getting what you want. This is $10 value, absolutely free.
Call or write us today, and discover what a coach can add to your life!
Audentes Fortuna Iuvat – Fortune Favors the Bold.
- The Applied Happiness Team
Ever feel like you just can’t catch a break? As your day wears on, you just get bombarded with one dose of bad news after another? It truly brings meaning to the phrase ‘when it rains, it pours.’ I am no different from you. We both experience the same days. Hell, sometimes you come out of a relationship and all you want to do is start fresh, but it seems like it’s just not in the cards. Welcome to your current train of thought. Let me explain what I mean.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all had our hearts broken. Some of us have even broken some hearts ourselves. More often than any other subject, the topic of healing a broken heart comes up in advice columns and support groups around the world. When your life changes, and you find yourself single in a world where you once were part of a pair, it can feel like another country – a hostile country too! The bills can pile up, the weather can turn cold, you can get sick – these are all symptoms of your current train of thought. This is not you. This is NOT your life. You DO NOT exist for this. This is just your current state of energy. You need to step back and see what your motivating emotions truly are, and weigh them against your goals.
I was recently discussing with a friend of mine the importance of healing yourself for yourself after a break-up. Too many people try to cling to what once was, and spin their wheels to keep some semblence of their former existence after their proverbial fall from grace. Actions like these are motivated by fear, and are admittedly a futile attempt to keep up with the status quo. When all your attempts to stay strong are motivated by fear, you end up experiencing such loss and pain, that your fears manifest. You have to clear yourself.
Define yourself better. You are NOT the broken windshield wiper on your car at the end of a long day of work. You are NOT the ridiculous electric bill this summer. You are NOT the shell of a person you think you are as you work past a recent break-up. That may be your current state, but it isn’t you, and your life does no thave to be defined as such. Realize that you’re much more than that, and write them all down. Define yourself.
“I know phenomenal things are coming to me, because I radiate awesome.”
“I am an incredibly loving mother.”
“I am so grateful for my amazing family.”
“I am loved so deeply by everyone around me.”
Define yourself differently and get yourself out of the curret state you’re in. Current is a funny word, ya know. It can mean now, and it can also mean flow. What I want you to do is change the CURRENT of your current. When you stop flowing the wrong direction, and letting all the negativity and despair propel you further into what you do not want, you’ll see a bigger, brighter, more promising world before you. Trust me – I have been there, and I have had to embrace the void left in heartbreak.
Abraham Hicks has a group on Facebook that I encourage anyone with a profile to join. You will receive little quotes and positive snippets in your inbox every day. One such note that came to me a few days ago was a note on resistance.
“We want to make 3 powerful statements to you, and if these are the only 3 things you ever hear, they will be enough.
Number One: The ONLY problem, the ONLY thing that causes you any trouble, the ONLY thing that slows you down, the ONLY thing that keeps you from what you want, the ONLY thing that makes you sick is RESISTANCE.
Number Two: Resistance is always accompanied by negative emotion. Negative emotion and/or pain. In other words pain is an extension of the same thing. Physical discomfort.
Number Three: Resistance is always pushing against something.”
- Abraham-Hicks G 12/6/95
Think about your resistance. Because resistance is directly tied to negative emotions, think about the little things in your day that get your negative motor running. The cell-phone talkin’ SUV driver? Getting cut off in traffic? Coworkers drank the last of the coffee, and didn’t start a new pot? These are just a couple pretty common ‘irks’ that most of us run into from time to time. These are little waves of resistance. If these things are still happening to you, then you’re still requesting them on some level. The next time they happen, react differently. Smile and let it go. So many of these events are minuscule and insignificant, that there’s no reason to get all hot and bothered about them.
Your mission for today, and this weekend, is to be consciously aware of your reactions to any resistance, should it occur. If you get into a situation in which it could be very easy to get upset and feel the rush of anger or frustration flow through you, replace it with the notion that you’re on a path of greatness, and you’re not going to let something so meaningless interrupt your progress. As your weekend comes to a close, see if your positivity made for less resistance. Monday morning should be filled with a beautiful morning commute, fresh coffee when you get there, and smiling faces all day. A life without resistance is a life of abundant creation.
Have a wonderful weekend.
As a Transition Coach, Blake has helped people make sense of the places they find themselves stuck, and create ways to take their next best step to the lives they truly desire. Blake is a magnetic speaker, and loves to get groups of people involved in experiential learning with his workshops and interactive presentations. Believing that life is all about experience, he creates opportunities for his clients to live their 'best' lives - experiencing their personal power as a motivator.
Blake's personal coaching style is a blend of nurturing, intuition, challenge, and telling the hard truth. He calls forth the best (and worst) in his clients to pull them out of their comfort zone and into a place of creation. Through exercises and challenging perspectives, Blake is the shovel that breaks ground on transformational change.
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