My goal is to come up with 365 simple practical exercises anybody can do to increase the level of joy in their life.
This one is really simple. Have you ever noticed that some music can have an effect on your emotions. There are certain songs that make me a bit reflective and some that get me going.
Think about songs that have good memories for you, or a beat that revs you up, and when feeling a bit down put that good feeling music on.
Make a list of some musicians or songs that lift you up. Let me know some of your picks and we can make a list of recommended songs.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Joy Exercise 3: Control
My goal is to come up with 365 simple practical exercises anybody can do to increase the level of joy in their life.
We're told that a sense of control is correlated with joy in life. Now the reality is that we can't control all of our life, and in reality much of what happens is uncontrollable and we have to learn to roll with the punches, BUT, why not find some aspect you can get a sense of control over.
My life has been very stressful and challenging over the last few years with a feeling that have I had no control over many of the outcomes in my life, and so I took up exercise.
Exercise gave me one area of my life where I have a degree of control. It's up to me if I exercise, and the results that follow are pretty predictable.
Over the last 2 years I've gone from about 95kg and barely being able to run around the block to 80kg and running marathons.
What is one area of your life that you could take control of?
Write down a one month, three month, and 12 month goal.
Begin today by taking one simple step toward your goal.
Here's how I did it, it might inspire you.
Overall goal: Run a marathon before I turned 40 in memory of my brother who was a big runner and who died at 40.
Mini Goal 1: Put the running gear on.
Mini Goal 2: Get out the front door and around the block. (In the dark so nobody could see me.)
Mini Goal 3: Get around the block faster than a walk.
Mini Goal 4: Increase my distance by 5-10% per week until I got to 5km.
You get the idea.
I did my first marathon in Canberra in March, I'm ready for my second this weekend in Sydney. I can now swim over 2kms and recently did a 185k bike ride in 8.5 hours.
I've got a 500k bike ride planned for October over the Southern Alps in New Zealand and am booked into my first half-ironman in December.
We're told that a sense of control is correlated with joy in life. Now the reality is that we can't control all of our life, and in reality much of what happens is uncontrollable and we have to learn to roll with the punches, BUT, why not find some aspect you can get a sense of control over.
My life has been very stressful and challenging over the last few years with a feeling that have I had no control over many of the outcomes in my life, and so I took up exercise.
Exercise gave me one area of my life where I have a degree of control. It's up to me if I exercise, and the results that follow are pretty predictable.
Over the last 2 years I've gone from about 95kg and barely being able to run around the block to 80kg and running marathons.
What is one area of your life that you could take control of?
Write down a one month, three month, and 12 month goal.
Begin today by taking one simple step toward your goal.
Here's how I did it, it might inspire you.
Overall goal: Run a marathon before I turned 40 in memory of my brother who was a big runner and who died at 40.
Mini Goal 1: Put the running gear on.
Mini Goal 2: Get out the front door and around the block. (In the dark so nobody could see me.)
Mini Goal 3: Get around the block faster than a walk.
Mini Goal 4: Increase my distance by 5-10% per week until I got to 5km.
You get the idea.
I did my first marathon in Canberra in March, I'm ready for my second this weekend in Sydney. I can now swim over 2kms and recently did a 185k bike ride in 8.5 hours.
I've got a 500k bike ride planned for October over the Southern Alps in New Zealand and am booked into my first half-ironman in December.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Joy Exercise 2: Joy v Happiness
My goal is to come up with 365 simple practical exercises anybody can do to increase the level of joy in their life.
Exercise 2: Joy v Happiness
Before reading the rest of this blog take a minute to write down your definition of 'Joy' and your definition of 'Happiness'.
Someone has defined the difference between the two as this:
Exercise 2: Joy v Happiness
Before reading the rest of this blog take a minute to write down your definition of 'Joy' and your definition of 'Happiness'.
Someone has defined the difference between the two as this:
- Happiness comes outside of us, that is we feel good because of the circumstances around us make us feel good.
- Joy comes from inside of us, that is we feel good because we have an internal sense of well being irrespective of what is happening outside and around us.
Now take some time to think about or write down a time when you felt joyful, calm and peaceful despite the fact that things were going badly around you.
Try and identify what you were thinking, believing, feeling, experiencing that enabled you to feel joy when the circumstances were seeking to make you unhappy.
Ask yourself these questions: Am I seeking joy or happiness? Is what I am doing with my life focused around getting externals (eg happiness factors) or the internals (joy factors) in place?
Joy Exercise 1: Reflecting on Happiness
My goal is to come up with 365 simple practical exercises anybody can do to increase the level of joy in their life.
Exercise 1: Reflecting on happiness.
Set aside 5-10 minutes where you will be uninterrupted and in relative quiet - sit on the loo if you need to. Close your eyes and bring to mind a recent time when you were really happy. Get right into the details of what that moment was like. Where was it, what was happening, who were you with, what were you feeling?
I believe happy people bring back to memory and re-live those happy moments bringing the past happiness into the present reality and then use that happy memory to spur them back into life.
I like what Nancy Etcoff says at http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_etcoff_on_happiness_and_why_we_want_it.html "Because when you think about it, people are happiest when in flow, when they're absorbed in something out in the world, when they're with other people, when they're active, engaged in sports, focusing on a loved one, learning, having sex, whatever. They're not sitting in front of the mirror trying to figure themselves out, or thinking about themselves. These are not the periods when you feel happiest."
Exercise 1: Reflecting on happiness.
Set aside 5-10 minutes where you will be uninterrupted and in relative quiet - sit on the loo if you need to. Close your eyes and bring to mind a recent time when you were really happy. Get right into the details of what that moment was like. Where was it, what was happening, who were you with, what were you feeling?
I believe happy people bring back to memory and re-live those happy moments bringing the past happiness into the present reality and then use that happy memory to spur them back into life.
I like what Nancy Etcoff says at http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_etcoff_on_happiness_and_why_we_want_it.html "Because when you think about it, people are happiest when in flow, when they're absorbed in something out in the world, when they're with other people, when they're active, engaged in sports, focusing on a loved one, learning, having sex, whatever. They're not sitting in front of the mirror trying to figure themselves out, or thinking about themselves. These are not the periods when you feel happiest."
Friday, September 04, 2009
Motivation
I love this talk on ted.com at http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html which talks about what actually motivates people. These quotes are a taster:
"In eight of the nine tasks we examined across three experiments, higher incentives led to worse performance."
"And the good news about all of this is that the scientists who've been studying motivation have given us this new approach. It's an approach built much more around intrinsic motivation. Around the desire to do things because they matter, because we like it, because they're interesting, because they are part of something important. And to my mind, that new operating system for our businesses revolves around three elements: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy, the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery, the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose, the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. These are the building blocks of an entirely new operating system for our businesses."
"In eight of the nine tasks we examined across three experiments, higher incentives led to worse performance."
"And the good news about all of this is that the scientists who've been studying motivation have given us this new approach. It's an approach built much more around intrinsic motivation. Around the desire to do things because they matter, because we like it, because they're interesting, because they are part of something important. And to my mind, that new operating system for our businesses revolves around three elements: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy, the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery, the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose, the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. These are the building blocks of an entirely new operating system for our businesses."
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