Others can help you observe things
Be in the moment
State facts
Enjoy your environment
Reflect on your journey
View your surroundings
Aattentively watch as the world goes by
Test a theory
I see—you see—remember it may be different
Opinions do vary
Notice the differences—celebrate the similarities.
#A-Z Challenge
Have you ever had a mentor? What was the greatest lesson you learned from him or her?
Make the most of every opportunity—the good, the bad and the ugly
Educate yourself and experiment
Nobody is an instant expert
Trial and error allows you to understand the process
Open up and attempt new things
Respect everyone and the job they do
Instructions need to be understood—keep asking for clarification until you get them
Nutrition, nurture and nature—access them daily
Goal setting is essential—not an optional extra
Write an entire post without using three-letter words.
Everyone makes mistakes. These mistakes teach us lessons about ourselves that allow us to grow. Think of these lessons as gifts from life. Some people find keeping a list of lessons learnt helpful. They’re a visible reminder that helps keep us focused on moving forward to reach goals.
Edison failed 10,000 times before he invented a light globe. He doesn’t describe these attempts as failures however as 10,000 ways they don’t work.
By re-framing your words, it is possible to change your thinking. Life is full of lessons—we choose at what speed we acknowledge them. Remember they help us to develop personally as well as professionally.
Do not be afraid to take a risk. Take on challenges, learn by your mistakes adding to your repertoire of things known.
***
I found this challenge tricky. I noticed that it changed my voice considerably because my style is made up of small words—mainly with three letters. It certainly made me think which took me from my comfort zone—teaching me some lessons as I went.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/three-letter-words/
My loving neighbours, married for 62 years had died within a week of each other. I was approaching the house to give the family my condolences, when I found an old tattered letter at the front gate. No-one was watching. I took a peek. Tears swelled in my eyes. The letter was written in response to a question asked of the loving couple the week by the local newspaper. It read.
Dear Friend,
Here are the secrets of our happy marriage. We hope they also work for you. Give them a go—you might surprise yourself.
1. Respect each other and yourself
2. Communicate
3. Compromise
4. Know your limits and what is important
5. Work as a team and rely on each other
6. Spend quality time together
7. Share the tasks and the glory
8. Laugh a lot
Love Mary and John
Day 5
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_assignment/writing-101-day-five/
Write about a time you had a Goldilocks experience, exploring different choices and finally arriving at “just right.”
Our choices shape our lives. But how do we make the right choice—when so many are available. One helpful way I have found to make any decision is to draw up a pros and cons list for each choice.
Take a piece of paper and divide it in half. On one side write your reasons for doing the activity, behaviour or change (the pros) and on the other side write your reasons not to do it or why it won’t work (the cons). Be creative. Even ideas that seem silly or far-fetched can be helpful in the big picture when you make a plan around them.
Once you have your lists—see how balanced or unbalanced they are. Sometimes it may be immediately obvious which choice is right for you. On other occasions—you may find yourself more confused. No problem. Hang your lists in your room or somewhere you can see them regularly for a couple of days. Focus on each option. Does one draw you in more than the others?
If you struggle to choose which option is right for you—give yourself a challenge. Try the most positive one or the option that will give you the biggest reward on completion. Remember, if this choice don’t work—you can always adjust it slightly to make it more practical. Break it down into smaller steps if needed but keep moving forward with your choices. Sometimes— just right— takes a little while to feel comfortable, but when it does it fits beautifully.
Tell us about something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail (and tell us why you haven’t tried it yet).
My next medium term goal is to spend six months living in St John’s Newfoundland—Canada’s 10th province. I plan spend my days writing my second and traveling to explore the surrounding unique parts of Canada. My husband and I visited the city for 8 glorious days last November. During my stay I decided I would love to live there and become more intimate the city, its people and its British history. As an Australian who never studied history, I knew nothing about this side of British history and found it fascinating.
St John’s is a welcoming city and whilst there we participated in their screeching-in ceremony so I am already an honorary Newfoundlander—see post here. I would love to live through the changes in scenery and dramatic weather and how life adapts to what nature provides. I would also like to understand the differences between living on the Atlantic rather than Pacific Ocean.
Interestingly, last weekend I began exploring my dream and realised it is doable. A month’s rent in St John’s is equal to a weeks in Sydney—approximately $800. I can stay for 182 days without a visa and this can be extended during my stay if I wish. However, before any of this becomes a reality I must publish my first book. This will allow me to be in a situation to either be able to leave work or take 6 months leave and focus on my writing in a foreign country. At present I am unsure of the type of book I want to write when I am living in St John’s—I’m thinking novel but time will tell. As much as I would like it to be—this dream cannot be rushed—but one day I will make it happen in time to see the floating icebergs.
The Narrows – the entrance to St John’s Harbour
You’re having a nightmare, and have to choose between three doors. Pick one, and tell us about what you find on the other side.
I don’t usually remember my dreams. I am sure I have them as part of my natural sleep cycle, but they don’t wake or disturb me. Occasionally if some thing on my mind—even on my subconscious mind—it will cause me to awake from my sleep through a dream. When this happens something—needs to be done about the issue. No problem is waking me twice.
During my dreaming process the answer to what needs to be done is clear. I don’t need three doors—I only need one. The practical one with the action to complete the task. If I can’t decide on a solution I will deliberately sleep on it. Suddenly, in the morning or during the night the answer will come. To help explain how dreams work I have included a video—it puts a little clarity around the mystery of dreaming.
You’re given a plot of land and have the financial resources to do what you please. What’s the plan?
If I had the resources I would open a transition recovery house for people in the later stages of recovery from their eating disorder. It would be a small facility with 6-8 beds. Its purpose would be to support during the first 90 days after discharge from hospital anyone who was transitioning from their family home to independent living and met the entry criteria. This post discharge is critical for relapse as the stress triggers reverting to old coping skills. By living in a purpose-built facility and continuing to work on recovery—new practical coping skills can be taught in the here and now.
Moving out of home is a right of passage for most young people. For anyone it is a stressful time with a rewarding goal—independence. For people living with an eating disorder without extra support this is even more difficult. Pre-requisites of my transition recovery house would include:
I hope that over time my recovery transition house would develop to fill any other individual needs of its housemates and teach them how to do the same.
“Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one.
I don’t know if eating disorders are classified as a global issue but I believe they are—statistics from 2002 state 70 million people world-wide are living with one so the number would be much greater today.
Knowing these facts are one thing, but what can be done at a personal level to help protect ourselves or our children from developing a dangerous eating disorder that has the potential to kill them. The answer is increasing low self-worth to a healthy level. Self worth is defined as “the opinion you have of your self and the value you place on yourself.”
Consider your current level of self-worth—do you believe in yourself and your abilities or is your self worth low and a struggle?
Work on improving your self-worth by focusing on the following 3 areas:
So lets help to spread the growth of positivity through the world, by beginning at home. Let’s focus on supporting increased self-worth in everyone we come in contact with. Ensure that if we can’t do anything to help, we don’t do anything to make the situation worth. Self worth is improved one small step at a time—it won’t happen overnight.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/think-global-act-local/
If you could clone yourself, how would you split up your responsibilities?
My life is fairly balanced now—I don’t want a clone. I have spent fifty years trusting my own decisions. I am not about to give over any of my responsibility to a duplicated version of myself. Yes, there are parts of my life I do not like—commuting to work—however, changing this, changes my whole life. I wouldn’t even give this job to my clone as what I do on the train makes up who I am—writing, reading and sleeping.
If I am running short of time to do the things I want—I realise it is time to reassess and prioritse what is important to me. I believe you can have time to do anything if it is important enough to you. I wrote a third of my book on my daily commute. Although now, editing doesn’t work as well on the train.
Now I am looking at ways to make sure I get enough exercise in each week. I haven’t come up with a definitive plan yet but handing this responsibility over to a clone is not going to get it done the best way for me.
The other problem, of course is cloning is an identical copy of my DNA—not of everything I do. My clone would be the age of my daughter unless I was cloned at birth, but would live its own life—like Dolly the sheep—cloned in 1997. For now I will focus on rearranging my time to get what I need done and leave the scientists to worry about the cloning.