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Penny

Your comments and suggestions are appreciated so please let us hear from you. Email: Penny@capacitylifecoaching.com.au

In this issue:

• Leading Article - Those Useless Resolutions
  
• Tips on Time
• Keep Your Word
• Power paragraph
• What's Healthful
• Q & As

Leading Article

Those “Useless” resolutions

It was interesting at Toastmasters recently to hear that people make resolutions but never keep them, some never make them because they ‘know’ they will never achieve them and others said they have never written a goal down in their lives. It was all good life coaching stuff! But hey, I surprised them by my opening question. Who on earth thought of the really ridiculous idea that we should suddenly change our ways and habits overnight simply because the date has changed? What power is there in switching calendars?

To quote the Universe of Power site,

“What kinds of sick people came up with the idea to have a time each year where everyone feels guilty, pressured to change, and forced into a path of likely failure?”
Do we really care if making New Year resolutions is an action that is over 4000 years old? So what if the Romans looked to the fresh year with lofty goals of repaying debts and, wait for it, returning borrowed items? Considering those ‘civilisations’ collapsed is there a link with what is reputed; that more than 80% of resolutions fail?

A resolution means that you are resolved to achieve some change for your betterment. Sounds like a goal with a more eloquent name, though the facts are the same. Your resolution has a greater chance of becoming real if you:

• Start by feeling gratitude for what you do have before you start writing goals for that which you don’t
  
• Actually do something, not just sit and hope
• Write it down as part of a plan
• Get serious and plan by setting short term tasks and step by step actions
• Create a system of measuring progress
• Find the clear purpose behind the resolve that serves you
• Feel some passion to change
• Realise that there is a gain to attain and not a lot to lose
• Use positive, forward thinking words for the goal. Try to couch the resolution in attracting terms. “I am consciously creating more …”
• Stay motivated by including another person in the plan
• Realise that not attaining the resolution could be stopping you from learning
  

Most resolutions fit one of these categories; losing weight, quitting something or starting an exercise program.
People think “it's too hard” and feel “failure’ as part of following the path that is perceived to be the most suitable or logical, when often, to achieve what is desired requires us to do what we believe to be illogical.
So maybe the simple path to achieving resolutions is to recognise the fact that if the process did not produce the desired outcome, try something else.
Ask yourself, “How would I do this differently if I were willing to let it be easy?”

Tips on Time

Is It Already the Middle of January?

Did you run out of time to complete, let alone start, so many things in 2006? Are you using time to your best advantage, every day, as a matter of choice?

Each person on the planet has exactly the same amount of time as every other person. It is our choice of how we spend time, or structure it, that is the core of a new time reality. You can ‘find’ time by following systems that keep you focused and disciplined to reallocate time, but you will not get more time in the truest sense.
Holy ticking, if you can never retrieve lost time, what are you doing with yours when you finish reading this?

Time is always in a state of flux, just like your energy and your money. Do they all seem to be running away? They are either increasing or decreasing.
What can you do to increase all three?
Start with the one that you cannot get more of – time. You can borrow it in the sense of using other people to do things for you; like the shopping, the washing, the cleaning and the FILING! (dream on)
Or follow this:

Task On Time Tip - 1:

Accept that time is about being used well and misused.
Identify ‘The Chronics’– the oft repeated ways that you waste time. E.g. Sleeping in until 11am on the weekend is not a ‘chill out’ where you get to reflect and genuinely relax, but a chronic excuse for vegging without real purpose. No guilt is required, but honesty is. You can keep a time log of your day and record how you spent time or simply write a ‘fess’ up list of how you waste time. Not sure which is worse - wasting your own time or the bosses? Which is more precious for you? Is there a moral dilemma?

Keep your word

Successful Words – verbal or written

Ever wished you had communicated your thoughts better? You sometimes are nervous, frazzled, upset, the other person is a lousy listener and not really interested in your story, and you fumble on your words and feel quite inexpressive?
I would like a $ for every conversation going on right now in the world. Not all are great and many are difficult. Improving our communication is an ongoing conscious awareness and makes use of the reticular activating system (RAS) of the brain.

In case you need reminding, here are five tips as a beginning for improving your communications.
1. Expect a positive interaction when dealing with people and your brain (RAS) will aid the achievement of this outcome.
2. Smile because it helps with the tone of your voice and I reckon just about everything!
3. Eliminate internal mental self-directed put downs. If you tell yourself that you will not find the right words, guess what happens? (Self-fulfilling prophecy?)
4. Really work at the number of words in your sentences that you speak or write. Work within the range of 13 -20 words.
5. Be not afraid of the pause and use it to organise your thoughts before engaging the mouth.

Power Paragraph

One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone: and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."

Ida Scott Taylor
1820-1915, Author

What's Heathful?

Snooooring - …for those who suffer from sleep apnea or sleep with someone who does…

Sleep apnea is characterized by repetitive episodes of upper airway obstructions that occur during sleep.

This can be the result of excess tissue in the airway, large tonsils, nasal passages, the structure of the jaw and a large tongue and usually includes the airway muscles relaxing and collapsing when asleep.

January 10 2007- In a Canadian study (published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine) of sufferers with heart and kidney failure, it was found that the thickening of the neck from displacements of fluids and their subsequent accumulation, tends to obstruct breathing.

But it is not only organ-failing patients for whom this is relevant. Issues of being overweight are being looked at with respect to neck thickness and fluid retention. It will be interesting to read more information in the future. Meanwhile, what could be healthful if you are around this problem? Keeping weight down and muscle strength up.

Happy, peaceful and restorative sleeping everyone!

Questions and Answers

This is where you can ask a question (that I can answer) about health and wellness, coaching, words, speaking, leadership... anything that sparks a thought from this newsletter and that you would be happy to have included. Of course all privacy is respected and protected.

Email: Penny@capacitylifecoaching.com.au with your question.