The Keys of Life – How to be Happy

Author: Jonathan Lourie
Source: download

As a life coach for a number of years now, I have been exposed to the concepts and tools necessary for creating a happy life. This information is not just text book theory, it is real, and I am proud to say that I am making a difference in such a positive way that both my clients and my children will maintain a real advantage in their future.
So what are the messages I impart? What are the tools I employ? And what is the language I maintain for a healthy mind? There any many imaginative ideas one can institute within the household to create awareness, and these examples seem to work for us, not always immediately, but I feel certain they will play out in a positive way in the future. When one singles out each item individually, they may seem too simple to make a difference, however when combined with a full understanding of the technology they begin to make a lot more sense.
So why is it that human beings are so unhappy? Why do we hear that 1 in 4 Australians are clinically depressed? This article would be too long if I were to cover all the reasons, but I will nevertheless attempt to address a number of them.
1. We compare upwards.
There are so many things around us that make our life “easier” and provide us with more leisure time:…. DVD players, washing machines, fancy cars, play stations etc.. As we have more leisure time, these materialistic things help us fill our days, they make us “look good” and possibly temporarily happy, and more importantly provide us with the things that someone else doesn’t have.
So what happens to the people who don’t have some or all of these items? Children want what others have and feel that these things will make them and their lives more interesting and fun. We all want things. We don’t need them, we just want them. We want them because our friends appear happier, and we want to be a part of that. So we compare upwards and we look to what we don’t have thus create a par. It’s this vacuum that gives us a feeling of not being complete and we think we are not able to be happy. How often do we compare downwards? How often do we stop and say, “I am so happy to be free and can play with my children at the park”, “I am so happy that I am alive and have food on the table”. “I am so happy to be healthy and am not in hospital recovering from cancer.”
I am consistently reminding my children to not only appreciate what they have, but to create a list on a daily basis of all the things they appreciate. The appreciation list can be as simple as “I appreciate getting a call from my friend earlier today”. We need to balance out our comparison mechanism. It is becoming so increasingly difficult with society becoming more affluent, and the media controlling what we are told to think. We really have to start working hard at this. We have to start playing the game of life, so that it starts to work in our favour because as I look around at the number of overweight , depressed people and the state of this planet, we are losing the battle.
What else do I do to make my children aware? For many years I have been telling my kids to mute the ads on television. The marketing people who create these advertisements are a lot smarter than we are. They cleverly use positive associations to sell their products with no regard for what or how it is effecting our comparison state. They use anchors and leverage us into softening our brains.
I have signs around the house and try to create a balance. Small posters that say things like “A week of need not want”, “A month of NOW!”, “Don’t complain about it, change it or fix it”, “A situation needs to be either dealt with or accepted” “Why make it a problem? There are no problems in the NOW.” These signs inspire discussion and subliminal alterations to my children’s assessment of life.
2. We have an obscured concept of what success is.
Many people in the western world think that success is a house, car, money, and possessions. You don’t have to look far at the statistics to discover that the financially wealthy are not necessarily happier than those with less financial means and are more challenged financially. Who was it that stated:
“Today, we have more experts but more problems, more medicine but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.”
Bottom line, happiness has little to do with money. It is our state of mind. I remember when I was in my teens thinking that if I had enough money just for my bus transport I would be so happy. Then I got older and all of a sudden, it was not enough, I wanted a car etc. You know what I mean. Look around you, see how much STUFF you have, is it made up of a NEED or a WANT. Do you remember how happy you were when you only had a few boxes in your life, no baggage. Then you start to fill it up with stuff. Did it make you happier? Ladies and Gentleman, this is not success. It is empty and lacks value. And it never ends. This path will continually be fed by trying to get somewhere, and humans do not realise that there is nowhere to get. We are creating dreams about “some day, one day”. When I finally get my BMW then I will go camping with my family. When I just get $x, then I will start a family, When I finally drop 7kilo I will be happier with my weight. The time is NOW, right now. This moment. Don’t wait, do it now. Go on that trip, get involved with needy children, do that thing you have always said you would like to do. Help the less privileged. Just remember if you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. Success is finding YOUR OWN passion, discovering what you want to do with your life and going for it 200%. Not doing what others tell you. Start today. Learn about yourself, then create the most amazing possibilities for yourself.
Life is beautiful and the universe if perfect in every way. All you have to do is allow yourself see how beautiful things are, how wonderful you are, and start to become part of what is already perfect.
3. Communication:
You don’t have go back many years to see how communication has changed. Think back to the days when you would walk along the street, take public transport and people would say “Gday” “Lovely day” etc. On face value it doesn’t mean very much, but this is the game of life we are not playing any more. We prefer to sit opposite a computer, answer emails, play computers games, swim in our pools at home, watch TV etc, left to communicate with our own “little voice”. In fact with 50,000 thousand thoughts we have on a daily basis, it seems that we are spending more and more time “ALONE”. Now that would be OK if our internal communication was open to new ideas, with a potential to create thought- provoking new concepts and important issues in life. However, the internal chatter is so limited, and has become so moulded by our clever governments and advertising geniuses, that we don’t have a chance. That’s because we are only working from a position of what we know we know and what we know we don’t know. It has left no room for all the things we don’t know we don’t know. We can only get access to those blind spots in our life if we have other people expose them. We can only get it by being present to our voices. We can only get it from others. If you were to engage in a conversation with that old lady on a bus, imagine what pearls of wisdom you may get from her. Or that gem from that person we chatted to while waiting at the checkout at the supermarket. We have been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet our neighbour. We have conquered outer space but not inner space. We need to get back to basics and start talking. We will all begin to discover that pretty much all people in the universe want the same things and generally think similar thoughts. We all want to be happy. 
I am continually chatting to people, smiling as I walk past people, and I let my children see that, we discuss it continually and make points of interest to what goes on. Continually talking about the concepts of how people are trying to “look good and trying to avoid looking bad”, and all about “life”. Remember your children are not getting an education about “life” from school where they spend most of their days. Don’t forget that you DID NOT GET ANY EDUCATION AT SCHOOL ABOUT LIFE. So get learning, get educated and start educating the children. It will help them with their health, relationships and conventional education.
I encourage you to consider that life is beautiful, and note that we have learned to make a living but not a life and we have added years to our lives, but not life to our years.
What I do:

Among other things, I provide face to face life coaching in Melbourne Australia. I am continually making a difference in people’s lives. I know that 5 minutes before I die I wont be thinking about the house or car I did or didn’t have, rather I will be smiling at the thought of the numerous people whose lives have been effected positively by my input. It is the most rewarding life I could lead and I could ever pursue.
jonathan@lourie.org
Jonathan Lourie is life coach living in Melbourne Australia. He can always be contacted on 1300-789-007 for coaching. Free intro session with exceptionally reasonably charges. Jonathan specialises in depression and finding a way to happiness.

Loving Life is Always a Choice in the Quest for Self-Improvement to Personal Success

Author: Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Source: download

Have you ever observed individuals who always appear to be up? Did you wonder how could these people be so happy? Were you just a little envious of their pursuit of happiness and success? And finally, have you ever wished that you could sincerely be full of such life and energy?
If you have experienced any of these thoughts, you are not alone. Loving life is not easy given that we are conditioned from early childhood to early adulthood to embrace misery before we embrace joy. However, there is one proven way to begin to be that intentional individual who truly loves life and attracts the bounties of life by connecting your passion to your purpose. By taking action, your performance or love of life will dramatically increase and you will begin to reap the bounties from this paradigm shift.
Have you ever written your own purpose statement? Defining your individual purpose of life is the first step to loving your life. This statement answers the question – Why am I here? In framing this answer, you will also need to think about the gifts that you bring to the table of life. These gifts are many and may include:

Gratitude
Joy
Optimism
Thoughtfulness
Intelligence
Creativity
Loyalty
Determination

The completion of your purpose statement primes the pump to crystallize the answer to this question: What is passion for you? What motivates you to continue the daily grind? What energizes your inner spirit when life is overwhelming? What do you truly enjoy?
Loving life is much easier when you have understood both your purpose and passion. Of course, there will always be challenges or what I call negative energy that drains you from loving life. However, with a thought, you can reverse, so to speak, the polarity of that negative energy and convert that energy into enhancing your life or the lives of those around you. Kevin McCarthy in his book The On-Purpose Person suggests that you think of a light switch. When the switch is on, you are on purpose.
People whose actions clearly demonstrate a love of life understand that passion is the energy. When passion is connected with purpose or the light switch, life is full of peace and abundance. Of course, the choice is always yours: Whether to embrace life with misery or with joy? My choice is that life is meant to be lived with positive energy. We have been given the opportunity to continually develop our love of life. And so with that personal philosophy guiding my actions: Please MAKE it a great day, month, year and life.
P.S. You may enjoy this quote by James Allen: “As water, when transmuted into steam, becomes a new, more definite and wide reaching power, so passion, when transmuted into intellectual and moral force, becomes a new life, a new power for the accomplishment of high and unfailing purposes.”
Leanne Hoagland-Smith quickly doubles results for her clients from individuals (small businesses owners, entrepreneurs and young people) to large organizations by creating executable strategic action plans along with the necessary business skills to pull it off. By closing the gap between today’s unsatisfactory performance to tomorrow’s goals, limited resources are maximized with waste including time being reduced. Please feel free to contact Leanne at 219.759.5601 or visit www.processspecialist.com/ and explore how she can help you.
One quick question,if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack holding you back from success, what would that mean to you? Then, take a risk and give a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.
P.S. If you are seeking an inspirational and affordable speaker for that special event, Leanne may help fit your current speaking need.