It’s Your Mind!

We’ve all had those days where we get out of bed on the wrong side and things go progressively more pear-shaped as the day goes on! The thing is, how often do we take the time to consider that the world is not happening to us? We are participating in everything that we get in life! And if we don’t like what we’re getting, then we can change it!

Whining about your mood is a bit like watching a really dreadful movie on TV and not bothering to change the channel! No matter what is happening in the outside world, you alone are responsible for what’s happening inside your head!

So if life is seeming a bit tough right now go and find some uplifting music and dance around to it. Do some yoga or meditation. Read a great book or watch some animals doing stupid things on YouTube! Phone a friend who will make you laugh. Play with the dog, or borrow someone else’s! Watch Ice Age on DVD. Whatever it takes. It’s up to you, and only you, to do what it takes to feel wonderful!

Make that your first priority every morning!

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Slow and Steady

Yes, OK, I know it’s not sexy but slow and steady really is what it takes to get the job done.

In this era of “Secrets” and American Idols where overnight success with seemingly very little effort is promoted as the norm, and even success coaches are constantly telling you to get out of your comfort zone and subtly implying that if you don’t you’re a wimp, its easy to feel inadequate if you’re not making things happen in a big way and fast.

But the truth is, if you look behind the stories of these “quick change artists” you’ll find a very different story. Almost without exception they have all worked long and hard and been totally focused for years and years and years on achieving their dreams. They’ve tried and failed and got back up again and tried again, and again, and again. And they’ve kept getting back up until they’ve achieved their goal. They’ve decided that failure is not an option and that the only failure is not getting back up.

Success is hard work and it rarely happens in a straight line. But if you can learn to enjoy the journey and treat each failure as a lesson you needed to learn to get to where you want to be, you will not only achieve your dreams but you will have a whole load of great stories to tell along the way. Lets face it, overnight successes are pretty boring people!

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And In With The New!

Hope you’re feeling fantastic today… and if you’re not, that you had the most amazing time earning it! We had a wonderful evening with great friends watching the spectacular fireworks all over Dubai! Happy 2012!

How was your clutter clearing yesterday? If you didn’t get around to doing it that’s OK. Just do it as soon as you can. Just because you didn’t achieve what you intended, that doesn’t mean that you have to give up completely. It just means you can try again and do things slightly differently based on what you learned.

But if your clutter clearing was accomplished yesterday well done! Give yourself a big pat on the back and now start thinking about what you are going to put into all those spaces you created. Its important you work quickly here – anyone who has ever made a garden knows that once you have taken out all the weeds you have to plant the good stuff quickly or the weeds will be back with a vengeance!

So to kick 2012 off with a bang – make a list of all the things you would do if you knew you could not fail!

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The Day After

The day after Christmas always seems a bit flat. There’s been this huge build up and then suddenly its over and you’re left wondering what it was all about and was all that effort worth it.

Goal setting is much the same. You set a big goal and work and work towards it and then one day its achieved and you think “now what?”. And even though you are proud and happy to have achieved something great, you can still feel a bit flat afterwards.

But with goal setting you can do something about it and the way to do this is by setting lots of goals. Set big goals and little goals and easy ones and hard ones and short term ones and long term ones. That way you never need to feel that post goal let-down because there’s always something else fun and exciting to focus on.

With Christmas unfortunately you have to wait a whole year until the next one comes around. On the other hand, for me it might be quite a good idea to start planning now, given how I always leave everything till the last minute!

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Happy Christmas

I hope your Christmas was wonderful and good. Mine was spent with great friends, delicious food and quite a lot of champagne round the table in my garden in Dubai! But Christmas Day in Dubai is nearly over so I’m going to bed now and I’ll leave you with one final Christmas song:

 

 

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Birthdays and Christmas and Chaos

OK, I do love this time of year, I really do but sometimes all this celebrating gets a bit overwhelming, especially when there’s birthdays involved as well! So tonight I’m off to celebrate my friend’s birthday and I’ll leave you with a song!

Still no sign of snow in Dubai!

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Normal Service Will Resume…

I’m prioritising fun right now! Back after the weekend!

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Chilling With Friends

I’ve been very remiss with blogging today. Got an old friend in town – well, he’s not that old but we’ve known him a long time! We’ve just spent a lovely evening catching up with him and sitting under the stars on a beautiful Dubai winter evening! I’m feeling very mellow and grateful for the fact that we get to spend the winter in the sunshine while so many people are freezing cold and getting snowed on. Not that I don’t love the snow, but I’m old enough and wise enough now to realise that I love the theory of snow more than I love the reality of it!

Sending all you folks in the frozen north loads of sunshine – we have plenty to spare!

 

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Men In Kilts

Here we are the start of another weekend in Dubai and tonight we are all donning our posh frocks – including the men – to celebrate the St Andrew’s Ball in Dubai! So blogging is rather curtailed tonight as I have to get ready and will likely be rather blurry tomorrow as I recover!

We’ll be doing a lot of this tonight so its a toss up as to whether my feet or my head will be more sore tomorrow!

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At Last!

So we finally made it to the weekend and all Dubaians are now finally officially on chillout mode. And the rest of the world will eventually catch up by tomorrow. Wishing you all a wonderful relaxing time with good food, good wine (if that’s what you enjoy) and most importantly good friends.

Happy weekend everyone! You’ve earned it!

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