How I got to be Happy

Four years ago I was severely stressed. My three boys aged 10, 2 and 18 months were a handful. I was trying to start a business. My day to day life was chaotic, my house was a mess, I was unhappy with my weight. My relationship with my husband was strained and ultimately I was unhappy. I think I may also have been suffering from postnatal depression but the daily stress and tension in my life didn’t allow me to stop and analyze what was wrong.

What happened to change all this? Many things and many people have had an influence but the largest impact came from the following:

1. The Monk who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
2. Becoming a Personal and Executive coach
3. Finding Productivity
4. Dinner with Robin Sharma
5. Taking back the control of my life

The Monk who sold his Ferrari

On my birthday in 2007 my brother gave me the book The Monk who Sold his Ferrari, an unusual title and a startling blue cover, I was intrigued. I had just started to become interested in personal development and knew something had to change in my life but I didn’t know where to start. This book was the catalyst. It gave me hope that I hadn’t had in years, I felt excited and inspired I knew that if I followed the advice in the book I too could change, I too could be happy.

Becoming a Coach

From there things started to flow, I started by asking myself the deep and meaningful questions, who am I and what do I want? I remember saying to my brother at our local coffee shop; What I’d really love to be is a motivational speaker but how do you do something like that? My brother coincidentally had an employee who had just started a coaching course he said he would find out more information. Within a few weeks I was sitting on the course surrounded by like-minded people all with dreams, aspirations and motivation. I felt happy.

Finding Productivity

Some months after finishing my course, I had ideas of how to move forward, the area of work-life balance interested me and I thought about writing a book about it. I knew nothing about Productivity and had always been disorganized and a little chaotic. Planning was something other people did and routines were for sissies!
I was introduced to the world of productivity by Gerrit Cloete of Productivity Pitstop. Not long after meeting him I implemented the systems he thought me and the transformation was massive. All the things that previously were a struggle and created conflict in my life had begun to flow effortlessly. Life took on a new dimension, one where life happened with ease.

Dinner with Robin Sharma

A couple of months later my brother and I hosted a seminar for Robin Sharma. As a result of this I met some amazing people and made some great contacts. The following year we did it again and I had another opportunity to go to dinner with a great man. It’s a question that Robin asks regularly, if you could have dinner with anyone, alive or from history, who would it be? Other than you Robin?

Taking back the control

All of these things helped towards creating the life I’m living now. A life I love, a life that excites me and motivates me. Don’t get me wrong I still have my bad days, I still have moments I feel sorry for myself, I still have days I don’t do my exercise or eat the foods I should eat but the difference is that now I am in control. I no longer leave my future up to fate, I no longer blame circumstances for my misfortunes. I now take responsibility for my life and my future.

I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul
William Ernest Henley

Here are some simple ways you can start to take back the control of your life:

Make a plan
Don’t wander aimlessly in life. Decide what you want from life and go out and get it. Goal Setting will help you to identify and achieve all that you want from life.

Get organized
De-clutter your life and your space, allow space for new better things to enter your life. Getting organized will help you to reduce stress and see things more clearly.

Don’t play victim
Don’t blame others or circumstances for your life, take responsibility for your life. Start to notice the excuses that you make daily. Stop acting like you have no control over your own life.

Make a start
Stop talking about what you want to do and start doing it. Goals without action are just dreams, and as the Chinese proverb goes “Talk doesn’t cook rice”. Make a start in the right direction today. Start small, small regular changes will gather momentum.

Do one thing at a time
If you want to start a new habit, start small and do one thing at a time. Don’t try to start running and yoga in the same week. Focusing your positive energy on one thing will give you a much greater chance of maintaining the new habit.

Do what you like and like what you do.
Spend time figuring out what it is you want to do with your life, we all have special talents and personal strengths we were born with, the easiest route to happiness is finding out what this is and then using it for our own benefit and for the benefit of others.

Good Luck

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Comments (4)

I hadn’t heard of Robin Sharma. She’s got a great book title there.

I’m in the midst of taking a “Habit Course” which also teaches this: Start small, small regular changes will gather momentum.

I believe what you do everyday counts especially all of the small steps. People get discouraged because they try to do everything with a focus on the end results and get frustrated because they don’t take the time to do the small steps every day which in the end will produce giant steps over time.

De-cluttering has also been huge for me!

Aloha Wags!

Thanks for your comments guys.Sharyn, Robin Sharma is a leadership expert you can find out more about him at http://www.robinsharma.com

That was some great useful advice. Thank you!

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