Sure, it can be a confronting process at times as you may start to explore some parts of yourself that you prefer not to face but that is where the real value if this lovely process comes in. You are exploring these things just with yourself!!  No-one else unless you chose to.  And then you can look at them in wonder, at a later date, and laugh about your fears.  Some of the things that I have been afraid of in the past have proven to be just nothing later, because I took charge of them.

How does it get any better than that?

So recently, in my quest for more content to help people to work with their daily journal, I was delighted to read “Your Pocket Life Coach” – seriously recommend that you get this one. Carole Gaskell, Author, outlines some of her ideas for the daily “inspirational” journal.  So test these out and see a previous blog of mine, 10 Ideas To Get You Started With A Daily Journal,  for even more ideas.

From Carole Gaskell:-

• Use your daily inspirational journal to record your thoughts, insights, intuitive ideas and actions
• Write about things that make you happy, confident, excited
• Record your achievements and what you are committed to doing next
• Note the people you love and why
• Outline your plans for the next day, week, month etc
• Put down what you have learned that day or things that have helped you in your development.

Oh, and have fun!!  And my congratulations to Carole for such a smashing little book.

That means the giving of smiles, greetings and love to other’s regardless of race, culture or religious beliefs. So I wish you every happiness for whatever you are doing over the next few days, weeks, months and years.  I send you warm greetings and love to nurture your mind, body and soul and I wish you prosperity in every way in the coming year.

Above all, I send out positive and loving thoughts to the thought pool of the world and universe and I trust that as the present custodians we will find a way to live in peace with each other and harmony with our environment.

Have fun over the coming holidays and stay well and safe.

I have planted trees specifically for the purpose of feeding birds and butterflies and providing a bird friendly habitat. In the main these are native trees, however I have found through my reading that citrus trees and many non-natives work wonderfully as well.  I now tailor my gardening life to the birds that are resident or visitors.  For example I would never prune or trim the Justica’s during spring because all of the honey-eaters that are growing up their young and need as much food as possible.  My garden is a food factory for them.

You will also find in my garden, a couple of watering holes for the birds. Even though it took them a while, they eventually got used to them and now bathe and drink there throughout the day.  This makes it possible for me to be working in my home office and watching the birds come and go as they do.

The habitat it very important because all types of birds seek refuge for nesting and each seems to need something a little different. The sunbird pair need a sheltered place and a rope; the finches need a dense tree with a lookout nearby, the doves need a dense tree with peace and quiet and so on.  Over time, we have created two secret gardens to serve all of these purposes.  Additionally, our elderly terrier does her best to see any marauding cats off the premises!  Even so, cats managed to destroy the nest of a willy wagtail which was a sad loss to all of us here.  We were very excited to have this sweet little bird nesting on our deck.

So if you also love all things nature, and you live in town on an ordinary sized piece of land, you too can do your bit for the various species and create a wildlife refuge and habitat. Next time I will write about our animals and I am very happy to answer questions about how to create you own piece of heaven in your backyard.  In the meantime I am off to feel the joy – happiness really is birdwatching in my backyard.

So I send warm compassion, generosity and love across the world.

1. Bounce back. When things are not going right or you get knocked down, bounce right back again.  Find your resilience factor and make it stronger by bouncing back every time.  Allow only half an hour for feeling bad and then shift those thoughts and get on with it.  Never give up, persevere no matter what.  Some successful people take many years to hit their stride.  Success might be just around the corner for you and if you give up, you will never know what you might have done.
2. Have a sense of humor. Whatever is happening in your life, do everything possible to find the funny side.  Laugh at yourself first and then at everything else.  Keep your funny bone finely tuned; it is a lot more enjoyable to be funny than cross.  Laughter also gets your endorphins (feel good hormones) flowing and opens up the mind for creativity.

3. Commit your self 100% to your dreams and goals, read them and work to achieve them every day. If you want a prize winning garden you work in it every day; if you want your own prize you work towards it every day.  Hold your commitment even though there might be some dream stealers around, hold onto that dream.

4. Start from where you are at and if you do not like what you are doing then learn to love it or find something to do that you do love. Just do not drive everyone else around you crazy with what you do not like.  Love what you do.

5. Look for solutions not problems. When you start with a problem you are starting from the negative; when you start to look for a solution, you immediately come from the positive.  From that place you can look for great ideas.  People around you will love to work with someone who can see possibilities instead of problems.

6. Get out of your rut, try new ideas, have a go at something new and check to see if  you have old, limiting beliefs that are holding you back. When you are trying new things your mind is opening up to possibilities and is moving out of your current way of thinking.  This also allows creativity in and it is a lot of fun.  What if you try running backwards on the beach instead of forward, would you see a different view of the beach and the people on it?

7. Take care of yourself in three ways; your health, your relationships and your work. You need to make sure that each of those are getting equal attention so that you feel balanced and connected to your friends, family and colleagues.  You also must give yourself a healthy dose of inspiration at least once a week.  A lot of attention is paid to physical fitness and little to brain fitness.  So go ahead and give your brain a workout as well as your body.

8. Be kind and generous to others; look for things that you can do for someone else every day. When you are doing this, you are not only building relationships with those people you know, but opening yourself up to new experiences with people who you do not know.  You never know when you will see that person whom you have helped or how a kind action will come back to you.  Always be prepared to give someone else a hand up; there is enough to go around.

9. Find your passion and let it grow. If you lack passion it is hard to hold the commitment and action required to succeed.   Go in search of your passion, try out lots of different things until you find it.  Volunteer your help, try different jobs, mix with a different crowd or go back to your childhood dreams.  There are many ways to find your passion and your life will be richer for having it.

10. Build relationships. We are moving into a time when people are increasingly looking for relationships in everything that they do.  Web 2 is based largely on that premise; customers want to interact and not just buy, people want to keep in touch through various means and not just social networking sites.  So join the crowd and create a network of support and like minded people around you.

Well there you are, 10 of the best tips for happiness and success and a checklist that you can use to get started with your own personal development program. Check in with this list occasionally to see how much progress you are making.  Beg, borrow or exchange some inspirational products like the book “Think and Grow Rich” or the video “Know For Yourself” and find a way to inspire yourself every day.  And finally, try keeping a journal and write about the progress you are making, then go back every now and then and read it.  It is fun to look back and see how much you have changed.

What do you do to inspire yourself?

One of my aims, in pursuing extensive personal development, is to become a better and better person; to be able to have a stable and reasonable presentation no matter what and to keep a happy and positive mood. So you can see that today would be a great challenge for that.  With the exception of a couple of moments when we were each and at times both, a little testy, I am pleased to say that we made it!!  Now there is a point to this little ramble.

As the day went by, I was reminded of the writings of a friend of mine; Letizia De Rosa. In her book, Conversations With My Mother, Letizia devotes some time to coping with the angry moments and the advice is as follows:-

• Try to find the act of love and kindness in every circumstance.  Do that because it is not easy.
• Seek opportunities to love and be grateful, especially when you least feel like it or want to.
• Always strive to be happy and see things from a positive perspective.
• It is not easy, but love is our only destination.

So, with great effort, I carefully sought love and kindness for my husband while we carried out this tiresome task. I did it because it was not easy – easy would have been to vent right there and then, but that was not in keeping with who I want to be.  It is no longer an option.  At the end of the day, we are both immensely grateful that it is done, and we look forward to a celebration this evening.  We are also very happy to have completed the task and to have found a way to do it more easily next time.  Simple message from Letizia and her mum and sometimes the simpler the better.  As in this case.  You can read more about Letizia on her website.

Currently one in five children are sexually assaulted before their 18th birthday BUT – we can change this.  Get involved in White Balloon Day and send all children and survivors everywhere a message of support, belief and respect.

Try these ideas:-

• Tie a white balloon to your letterbox, pot plant at work, counter or street sign.
• Hold a Wear White Day at your office or workplace or perhaps hold a White Tea.
• Visit your local Terry White Pharmacy and buy one our really lovely ‘enviro shopping bags for just $2. In fact, if you can use Terry White Pharmacies always as a preference that would be great – they are great supporters of child protection.

Visit your local Bendigo Bank and make a donation – every cent helps….

• $10 buys a child a personal safety education program
• $25 buys a crisis counselling/support session
• $50 buys a specialist therapy session

This is your chance to do something to help children AND publicly SAY NO to sexual assault. Channel 9 and the 4BC radio network are supporting this campaign as are Terry White Chemists, Bendigo Bank, Nutrimetics, Rotary and others.  It is your choice – how will you support this day?

Visit the White Balloon Day website and find our more about how you can help. www.whiteballoonday.com.au

Remember, when it comes to CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT, IT’S ALL WHITE TO SAY NO!

Dr Catherine Hamlin AC and her husband built and opened this Hospital in 1975 and Catherine continues her work to this day, recently opening a self help rural village for those women who cannot be completely cured. They now have a place to call home and real opportunities to earn and income.  I am truly grateful that there are people like Catherine and her husband doing these things to help.

That is how I come to be knitting with a group of women, to create some of the lovely blankets that each woman receives when she arrives. You can help too.  First, look at the website and get an idea about what is being done and how you can help.  And then do some knitting yourself, organise a group of like minded people and just get on with it.  Wrap a blanket, knitted with love and kindness around the shoulders of a young Ethiopian girl so that she knows that someone cares.

This 10 days in Hawaii has been a gift for me. Another opportunity to extend my personal learning as well as to meet and enjoy another culture.  On the Big Island we had all of the pleasure of our personal development conference and the magic of the presenters and associating with highly successful and positive people.  We also toured the volcanos and looked into the active crater of Kilauea Caldera, walked on Black Sands Beach and marvelled at the huge expanses of old lava.  We luxuriated in all that the Hilton Waikoloa Resort had to offer (got a great massage), made new friends, watched hanu (turtles) frolic in the clear waters and watched amazing sunsets.  All in all a good time was had by both of us.

Now, as we prepare to make the very most of every moment left here in Hawaii, in the contemplative mood of the moment, I have discovered the very sacred meaning of the two most popular words here; Aloha and Mahalo. In general terms Aloha is used as a greeting and Mahalo as a thank you.  However they represent paramount Hawaiian values and should only be used when you a feeling genuine and they are said from that place inside you.  So full of good grace and faith at this very moment, I feel fully qualified to say Aloha and Mahalo to this gorgeous place and to wish those greetings for all of you.

Hill says that the mastermind is “coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose”. So here in Hawaii, I am surrounded by people who are generous in their advice, counsel and personal cooperation so that every one of us has the very best opportunity to prosper in all ways.  I always have this opportunity, however here it is laid on in exceptional amounts.  Imagine if you will, at any moment being able to talk with like minded people and have access to the magic of collective wisdom – a mastermind.  All of those very positive, lateral thinking people giving me assistance, sharing their mind power.  Now seriously, that is some personal development program.  And it is right here, in Hawaii, supporting me in my personal development home business.

And you can have it too!!  Prosper your mind. Oh and Hawaii and all of the fun of the holiday and travel is ok too.  Shoe shopping, dining out at a fabulous Chinese Restaurant, lounging by the pool – ahh it is hard to take!!