Tuesday, October 16, 2012

SLOW DOWN: Enjoy Life And Live Longer



 
SLOW DOWN
Enjoy Life And Live Longer
Elisabeth Wilson
 
There is more to life than increasing its speed: Mahandas K Ghandi

SLOW DOWN…LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE
Nothing in your life will change unless you take action.  People who spend at least a bit of their time doing the stuff that they want to do tend to feel that they’re in control.
A huge amount of stress is caused by the inability to say ‘no’.  Do not be a slave to a daily to-do list.  Prioritize and give attention accordingly.  Stress saps energy and eventually our enjoyment of life and it actually makes us unhappy without us even realizing it.  One of the most pernicious things about stress is that we start to think the stressed state is ‘just life’.
Happy people don’t get so busy stressing about building a ‘perfect’ tomorrow that they forget to enjoy this ‘perfect’ today.  The ability to create prefect moments is possibly the most valuable life skill.  The only predictor of how happy you are going to be in the future is how good you are at being happy today.
There’s nothing wrong with being unhappy with your life.  It is actually a signal that you have outgrown the present situation and it’s time to move on.  Do not risk a burn out – a state of collapse where you lose all joy in life.
One of the most pernicious things about stress is the way we don’t notice how it switches our attention away from what we value and love in life until it’s too late.  Develop the attitudes that allow calm and focused life.  Be careful of the perfection trap.
Your attitude towards the things you have to do make the difference between getting the most out of them.  A positive mental attitude can transform a glass from being half empty to being half full.  Change your thinking and you’ll change your life.
Our upbringing and what we witness in our early years can dramatically affect how we live our lives.  It’s too easy to live your life the way others want to live it.  Even scarier, you may not even recognize that you’re doing it.

GOING DEEPER – PRIORITISE YOURSELF
We all know we should be taking care of our health and our future security but we’re too busy fighting fires today to worry about tomorrow.  There are many ways to stay young for longer.  Antioxidants could add years to your life.

LOOK OUTWARD – FIND TIME
One of the great tricks of life is to take time for family, friends and working towards your personal goals no matter how busy you are.  Modern life means we often don’t make time for those we love most.
Improve your communication skills and you’ll also improve your relationships, enhance your performance at work and create more enjoyment in your social life.  We choose how we think and don’t have to be driven by our emotions.  We can choose to be happy whenever we want.  It’s probably easier to live life to the full if we have people around us who support and encourage us.
We all know that teamwork is critical and yet for many of us it’s a challenge.  We often end up in competition with people rather than working with them.  Teamwork is about knowing what you want to achieve, having a clear vision and then agreeing who has what strengths and abilities.  Communication is critical to teamwork.  Individuals can get so carried away with their part of the job that they forget what impact their decision could have on someone else’s area.

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