Personal Growth - What Do You Do With Your Time?
It has been about 5 months now that I’m taking Mondays off work. Since then I have lots of friends and colleagues asking me “What do you do on Mondays then?”, “Aren’t you bored just doing chores at home for Mondays?”, or making comments like “That’s great, now you can watch all the TV programmes!” and “Wow, you can go shopping every Monday!”
Ummm…no. In fact I don’t watch TV much, and I spend even less time shopping these days. I still haven’t been to Sylvia Park, the latest and most modern shopping complex in Auckland, but I don’t feel that I need to check it out. I will eventually, when I feel like going. And the chores? What chores? I don’t think of laundry and cleaning up as chores anymore, because I can do them leisurely now that I have the time. I like having a clean and tidy house, so I feel that all that I do around the house are for myself. Of course I don’t mind! Turn the radio or CD on, and I jive in between tasks!
So what do I do with my extra time?
You see, there are so many things in life that I have not seen and do. Some I don’t even know exists. I believe that these things are endless, and the chance is that I won’t be able to experience them all in my entire lifetime. Regardless, I want to make the best use of the limited time gifted to me in this world.
Years ago I promised myself to do at least one new thing every year. It does not matter whether I continue doing it or not. If I like it, I’ll continue. If I don’t I’ll move on to other things. No sweat!
Did I say new things? Actually, it could also be a new habit, or re-learning something that you did in the past and haven’t done for a long time. Just recently I found that I can still play piano and read music sheets, albeit very slowly, but not bad at all! I took some basic lessons when I was 12, and quit by 15 (guys, this is a looong time ago!) because I didn’t think I was good enough or have the patience to keep going and chose to do sports instead because they were more fun.
It’s funny, we have this clavinova (electric piano) for years. I always enjoy seeing my husband playing, especially when he does his jazzy tunes, but never thought that I should start learning again until recently. I have different circumstances now, where nobody tells me when and how to practice, and it makes the experience so much more enjoyable. I don’t know if I can ever get to my husband’s level of mastery (seriously, he’s really, really good!), but the fact that I started and keep going beats not doing it and keep thinking that I can’t do it.
By the way, if you’re curious, here’s a sample of the songs that my husband created out of thin air. Whenever he is feeling creative, he would sit in front of his clavinova or keyboard or grab his guitar, and start playing some tunes straight from within his head. When I asked him what song this is, he said it is “Spontaneous BrainDump Opus 1 Number 1”. Wow. The joy of having a creative, musical and slightly geeky husband…
Spontaneous BrainDump Opus 1 Number 1 by Andre Sumara
Did you enjoy that? That’s what my husband does when he has free time. Now it’s time to discover what you want to do with your time. Have fun!
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Tags: happy, happy living, how to be happy, inspiration, personal development, personal growth, reduced working hours, stress-free
It was Sunday morning. As usual my husband and I had our morning coffee and some chit chat. So we just talked about our goals and how to achieve them. We gave each other suggestions, and all of the sudden it happened. We felt annoyed by something that we said to each other. The conversation stopped, we left the table and carried on doing other stuff. Before long we realized what has just happened. We talked about it and I’m glad we did.
Does this story sound familiar?
“Your soul mate is somebody that you can’t stand”. I remember this line from one of Wayne Dyer’s audio books. Apparently a soul mate is a divine master that is here to teach you something that you have not yet mastered.
This is an interesting concept. My husband and I recognized the fact that we do get annoyed sometimes by the things we say to one another. It could have been a piece of advice, an opinion, a question or anything really. The funny thing is that we don’t react in the same way when the same advice or opinion or question comes from someone else.
We became aware that there is usually an emotional charge involved. When we explored a bit deeper, we found is that we were apparently seeking approval from each other. When one of us makes a comment or gives an advice to the other, the person that gets the advice for some reason associates it with “not being approved”, while the real reason for the other person to give that advice is just because the advice may be helpful. The person who gives the advice does not mind if the other takes 100% of the advice, or just 20%, or none at all. It has nothing to do with approval.
Nothing has a meaning unless you give it a meaning. If both A and B say the same thing to you, and you are OK with A but feel offended by B, where do you think the problem is? It’s all in your head. Contrary to the popular belief, you can choose how to react in any given circumstances.
That morning my husband and I immediately observed our feelings, and within a few minutes we chose a different way of looking at it and ended up understanding each other much better. I’m sure that being married to my husband is part of the lessons that I have to learn in this life! 
We are both work in progress, and we absolutely learn something new everyday especially from each other.
Tags: personal development, personal growth, perspective, relationship
For those of you who think that you need an extra 8 hours a day, there is hope! I feel that my day is significantly longer if I get up early. I also noticed that I get more things done, and most of them are done before noon.
Have you ever seen the colour of the sky on sunrise? It’s breathtaking! The beauty beats any paintings I’ve ever seen, and it’s free
Rising with the sun gives other advantages. I drive to work, so by going earlier than everybody else I won’t get stuck in traffic. Whenever I arrive at work earlier than everybody else, I can get so many things done with no interruptions. I can finish work earlier, and driving back home again without the traffic. All these means a lot less stress.
My husband and I have been rising early without alarm clock lately. Apparently when you feel that your life has a purpose, you will feel more energized. So we have been setting up goals to achieve each month, each week, and each day. The goals give us good reason to get up and go, and be happy to do so. Perhaps you would like to give it a shot.
Can’t sleep early? Switch off the TV. Your brain needs to calm down at night anyway, so why should you watch violent movies and infomercials until past midnight?
Don’t have reason to get up? Really? What is it that you love to do or see or experience in life? What is your hobby?
Perhaps you haven’t done it in a long time, perhaps you need to plan to do this again very soon. If it is possible to do the next day, quickly write it down as something you will do the next mornnig. This way you have something to look forward to that makes you feel excited.
Here’s mine. It’s Monday morning and I’m off work. I’m sipping my latte, watching the sun comes up, while listening to Mozart’s Violin Sonata in G, which is very suitable for morning coffee. Life is so good! Today I’m going to start a new piece of artwork to decorate my home, do some grocery shopping, clean the gutter at my place and try to re-create a wonderful dessert that I tried at a Turkish cafe last Friday.
It’s Monday and I am so excited!
Tags: action, blessing, gratitude, happy, inspiration, personal development, personal growth, perspective, stress-free
My husband and I did some cleanup last night. One of the things to clean and tidy up is the study, in particular we had been wanting to get rid of a shoebox with old receipts, cards, notes, old pocket diaries, plus some other mixed papers. Some papers contains details that we need to destroy before disposal. So, armed with a powerful Fellowes paper shredder, we embarked on a ruthless shredding exercise.
However, in the process we found lots of pieces that brings back memories…
There was my husband’s diary when he had just arrived in New Zealand about 11 years ago. He was my boyfriend back then. He wrote how he tried to get a job, how we kept track af all expenses. Mind you, we didn’t have much money. So a $4.50 dinner at a Malaysian/Chinese dingy cafe called Heng Kee on Queen Street in Auckland felt like a banquet! I remembered how I budgeted myself to only spend $20 a week for groceries because I was a full time student and I had no income. Then I got my New Zealand residence permit. My boyfriend got his first job, and we got married several months later. We rented a place that used to be an attic of a stable back in the late 1800. After a while, we applied to Housing New Zealand to rent a subsidised apartment as we had a very low combined income.
And then came along significant improvements in our lives year after year. I graduated from a Training Institute. As a gift, my husband bought me a nicely fit aubergine ladies suit and a matching skirt to prepare for interviews, which was so darn expensive to me back then! But I love the suit to bits, and you know what, I still have it now. I nailed my first job within 3 weeks of graduation. In fact, I aced every single interview I’ve had over the years in that suit! We then saved some money to pay deposit for our own home. Well, a few months later we bought the house, and we still live in the same house now and we love it!
There were other stuff in the box, like the receipt of the motel where we stayed on our first trip to Rotorua, when we first hire a car, computer purchase, and so on and so forth. We no longer need to stick to a budget, in fact we often spoil ourselves these days. Looking back, I realised that we have come a long way since the day we left our birthplace to build a better live in this great country. Every single year has been marked with at least one milestone, and the latest one is that we decided to become citizens of New Zealand because we love this place so much, and we know that we’re the lucky ones to have the chance to be here.
Tags: action, blessing, gratitude, happy, inspiration, mess, personal development, personal growth, perspective, simplify life, stress-free
Nearly everyone have heard the hit song ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’. The song has a very catchy way of conveying its message of being happy to everyone. This simple message certainly made several people happy by telling them not to worry.
Living a happy, spirited and positive life is fantastic, and is also great for your health. Being optimistic and happy in reality protects you from the stresses of life. Stress is related to most causes of death like heart conditions, cancer and strokes.
One of the best things ever said is – ‘The only thing in life that will always stay the same is change’, and in your life you have the power decide of required changes if you want to. Even if you find yourself in an intolerable situation you can always find comfort in knowing that, it also could change.
Relationships are necessary to happiness. People are different, accept them as who or How they are, avoid frictions, ceaseless arguments, and let go of all resentments. If arguments appear inevitable, nevertheless make an effort to try and understand the situation, you might just get along with it.
Happiness is found in everyone, expanding it is a way to make your life better and also healthier.
To be happy is relatively easy, just choose to be a happy person. It’s been noticed that most people, most of the time can decide how happy, or stressed, how relaxed or disturbed, how bright or boring their outlook will be. The choice is simple actually, decide to be happy.
There are a lot of ways you can do this.
Being thankful is a very good attitude. We have so much to be grateful for. Thank the cabdriver for bringing you home safely, thank the cook for a wonderful meal and thank the guy who mows your lawn. Also thank the postman for bringing you your mail, thank your spouse for being there and thank God for being alive.
News is a source of stress. Get less of it. Some folks can’t start their day without their regular dose of news. Think about it, most of the news we hear or read is bad news. Starting your day with bad news doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do.
A spiritual connection is also good advise. Being part of a religious group and meditation foster’s inner peace.
Manage your time. Time is priceless and too important to waste. Time management can be considered as a process that includes scheduling, setting goals, planning, lists of things to do and prioritizing. These are some of the elements of time management that should be understood to develop effective personal time management skills. These skills can be polished to include the finer points of each skill that could give you that extra boost to attain the results you want.
Laugh and laugh heartily everyday. Heard a good joke? Tell your friends or family about it. As they say -’Laughter is the best medicine’.
Express your feelings, affections, friendship and passion to people around you. They’ll probably copy your actions. Try not to keep repressed anger or frustrations to yourself, this is bad for your health. Rather find ways of expressing them in a way that won’t stimulate injury or hurt to anyone.
Hard work brings a lot of personal satisfaction. It leaves an impression of being efficient in completing your projects. Achievements are essential , they give you a sense of value. Work on things that you feel are worth your time.
Learning is a happy exercise. Try and pick up something new everyday. Learning also expands and broadens your horizon. And will give you more opportunities in the future.
Exercise, jog, walk, do things that will make your body happy. Feel alive.
Avoid exposure to negative factors like loud noises, and dangerous places.
These are the few simple things you are able to do day-after-day to be happy.
And always remember the famous quote from Abraham Lincoln, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Claude Sancartier is a young retiree dedicated to helping people who wish to build an online business. My objective…Is to prevent frustration to those who are anxious to build a business online, help them TAME the internet, and learn with a simple comprehensive step by step method where and how to start. Sign up for the free eBook at Sanky’s Corner.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Claude_Sancartier
Tags: happy, inspiration, personal development, personal growth, perspective, stress-free
I have just experience a real blessing in disguise. I truly feel that the universe is bending backward to force me into the right path.
A few months ago I setup this blog, but being a newbie I was confused on how I should post my thoughts. I have many interests and they don’t necessarily relevant to each other. I have lots of messes in my life and the funny thing is that I didn’t know what they are. I just felt that I have lots to tidy up both at home and work, but didn’t know where to start. I felt drained most of the time, didn’t have enough time, and yet had very little sense of accomplishment. I took up some mentoring but I kept procrastinating and I didn’t do much about it.
My husband and I were scheduled to fly to Sydney for his work-related training. The plan was already on the paper a few months back, and his travel had been approved by his managers about 3 weeks ago. I didn’t want to miss out this trip overseas with him as I love travelling so much. So we booked the return tickets, and we paid for the tickets.
The day after we paid for the tickets, the training provider told my husband that the training has been postponed, and the crazy thing is that they can’t give an exact replacement date. They only indicate that it has been delayed maybe for 2-3 weeks. My husband kept chasing this as the tickets are not refundable, however there was still no progress up to the last minute, and so the tickets have to be cancelled with no refund.
Meanwhile, both my husband and I have been very busy at work. In particular I am involved in a project deployment that suppose to start next week, when I had been scheduled to go overseas, and I am one of the key personnel! When I told my project manager that my holiday has been cancelled, I could see relief on her face! She empathised with me as she understand that I lost money for a paid trip, however she honestly told me that it is a good thing for the project because then I can help out. Honestly I was flattered. I have huge respect for my project manager and if she thinks that I am that useful to the team, then I must have done something right.
The funny thing is that none of us stressed out over the cancelled trip. The whole week leading to this Saturday we had been talking about starting to take action. We started to listen to the audio recording for our mentoring program and got some excellent tips. We found that we need to cleanup our messes at home and at work. We felt so inspired that we started to tidy up things around us ruthlessly. By Friday we had a plan what to do in the weekend. This is a breakthrough, finally we strarted doing something and not just thinking and stressed out about too many things!
Came Saturday, instead of flying to Sydney, my husband and I stayed at home. The weather in Auckland was horrible. See how the universe bended backwards to force us to stay home and do what we promised to do? Oh boy we accomplished so much that day and gained much more clarity on what we want to do. One thing that comes out of our work yesterday is my new blog dedicated to share my passion on no-fuss cooking freestyle in my own way. For those of you foodlovers, please follow this link http://cookingmogul.com and leave me your comments!
It’s Sunday now and the weather is beautiful. Maybe it’s time for me to get out and get my fair share of vitamin D under the sun…so, till later, have a fantabulous day!
Tags: action, inspiration, mess, personal growth, perspective, procrastination, stress-free
Have you ever taken your time to sit inside your wardrobe? I know this sounds weird, but I do this from time to time and it makes me feel truly blessed that I have all these things that I own. The last time I did this was on the 2nd of January this year. It was one glorious summer morning in New Zealand and I sat on the floor inside my wardrobe, looking around me. It was the beginning of the new year so I guess it was appropriate to “sit and contemplate”, no matter where and what to contemplate on! Then once again I realized that in that wardrobe I have all things that I like, I felt so happy.
Some years ago I made a rule: if I decide to buy something new, I have to get rid of the old one to make space of the new one. This rule makes me think twice before blindly buy anything just because they are cheap or on sale (hands up who’s guilty of this fashion crime!). I taught myself to buy just the things that I really really want, and definitely better than the one I already had.
I also did a ruthless cleanup at some stage. I used to have stuff that I never wear. New T-shirts given by-some-family-members that look ridiculous on me, but I kept them anyway for the sake of keeping a gift. It is not that I’m not thankful for their attention and love, but keeping things I don’t like and don’t need made me frustrated. They sit there, crowding the precious space but do nothing useful. I took me an awful lot of time to sort myself in the morning going through things I can’t wear but filling all the racks. Not anymore! Now I have less clothes, but they are all the ones I love and definitely can wear anytime, anywhere. The extra space also allows me to see everything clearly, which means that I can quickly mix and match in the morning.
The T-shirts surely would benefit others who need them, so I donated them. The Salvation Army’s (also known locally as the Sallies”) op shop is a good place to donate the rather new-ish or wearable ones. The ones that were already fading got chucked into the clothing bin for recycling. Of course this also applies to shoes, sandals, jewellery, you name it. Here’s the thing – if I don’t wear them enough, I’m sure I won’t miss them. So off they go. One person’s junk could be another person’s treasure, you know. And you know what? I usually feel much “lighter” straight after I give away these kind of stuff. It’s gotta be good for my well-being! Try it, you’ll see what I mean…
So here I was, sitting in my wardrobe, starring at the beautiful dresses and the funky bags and accessories and blings. Oh how I like the smell of my cotton batik dress…
Tags: action, fashion, happy, inspiration, mess, minimalist, personal development, personal growth, perspective, simplify life
I love dancing, and because I consider myself as a beginner, I think variety is important. I want to expose myself to various types of dance and see what suits me the most.
So, about a couple of months ago I decided to try Swing.The first few lessons were OK. Since I’ve tried other dances, I think I “got it” much easier than a total newcomer to dancing.
I went to my beginners Swing Dancing class again last night. It’s the fifth in the block of six. We learn the Lindy Turn and Lindy Circle, which for beginner like me are quite complicated. In fact I feel that it’s a big jump in complexity compared to the previous lessons. But hey I’m sure I can nail it in the end. I think repetition will help my muscle memory so I don’t need to rely on my brain too much.
We were also introduced to this fun dance routine called the Shim-Sham. I am still struggling with the second part of the Shim-Sham but I’m getting there! Soon I hope…
Tags: action, dance, happy, personal development, personal growth