Things and Messes – minimize across the board

Embrace Simplicity - Throw out Anything you don't Need! 

William Morris once famously said: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” In other words, most of us hoard too many dust-ridden items for no good reason. I have been researching Tiny Houses and, to live in one of those, you can only keep the basics.

Michael Guerra's Compact Living: How to Design Small Interior Space, explains the importance of reducing consumption and personal clutter while designing ingenious space saving solutions for small spaces. This is a powerful guide to anyone wishing to live with less debt and more freedom.

Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger.com, has recently set up LifeEdited, making the idea of simple, responsible living accessible to a much wider reach.

Hill explains: “Since 1950, the average American consumes six times more energy and carries 24 times more personal debt. He uses three times more living space, but still doesn’t have enough room to store his stuff, a fact made clear by a $22B personal storage industry. Despite this excess (or perhaps because of it), we find ourselves no happier than we were 60 years ago. Most of us realize it’s about relationships and experiences – not possessions – that make us happy. Why don’t we design our homes, products and lifestyles accordingly?”

More storage is not the solution

o   Sell, donate or throw away at least one item a day.

o   Think before you buy (do I really need this?)

o   Make a list of everything you nearly bought over the period of a month and work out how much you save.

o   If you have several cars in your household, consider getting rid of one or more and replace with a bicycle... it's healthy and cheap to run.

o   Get rid of your TV... if you still want to watch certain programs, use your computer. It will allow you to be more selective of the information you consume. I don’t have a TV and I don’t miss it either. Try it – you’ll like it!

o   Try apartment living... if your neighbours turn on their heating, you may not need to use yours at all as you benefit from being insulated by others.

o   Digitize your life a little. Scan all of your old pictures sitting in boxes and opt out of paper bank statements, these will open up the storage space for the things you actually need.

o   Eliminate debt. Most people work to pay off the money they never had, for things they don’t really need. Downsize, sell what you don’t need and experience some extra piece of mind.

o   Be conscious of your health. Eat local, fresh food. By supporting your community, you cut your dependence on supermarkets and the weight of carbon intensive food products.

o   Express gratitude everyday. When living simply, you have an opportunity to value the things that really matter in your life. Allow yourself the luxury of a notepad and write down everything that you are grateful for.

o   Most paperwork people file away in box files never gets looked at again. So do yourself a favor and shred paperwork straight away. If it’s important scan it first. And then shred it.

o   Get rid of picture albums. Scan the photos and ditch the pics.

o   Get rid of pinboards. Most of the things are forgotten on them anyway.

o   You can dispose of your landline telecom connection and phone. Try VOIP – a proper Internet phone. You might even  consider replacing even that with a simple redirect to your  smartphone.

o   A lot of kitchen stuff could also go. Like your large multi-functional kitchen mixer that could do all sorts of tasks short of launching a satellite. It probably seemed a good idea at the time you bought it, something to spend money on.  But in practice it is a useless overkill piece of kit which is hardly ever used other than to make the occasional milkshake or pancake.  

o   I actually have clocks in every room and I’m not ready to give them up. I don’t want to have to go to my smart phone to check the time (I rarely wear any of my 20 watches!) Still, your smartphone would do. 

    Also, stop buying gifts that will end up in somebody’s clutter. Most people give presents at Christmas, for example, because they feel like it is expected.

 

The principle behind tiny homes is fascinating. Learning to get by with less stuff  but with a higher quality of life is important.

The internet is full of terrific examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3SwqNzsNwg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0p47D-XIzs

Check out this video,too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XSJ-kI4VVg

4 Keys to Unlocking the Life of Your Dreams

Would you like to live the life of your dreams? Do you feel like you're not living up to your full potential? Do you see other people around you succeeding and you would like to be those people? 

Here are keys to unlocking the life of your dreams. If you follow them, and you apply them, you will see that you are much closer to living the life of your dreams.

People make their own luck. It is a matter of applying specific steps to your life which lead to the result -- the life that you dreamed about!

1. Purpose -- There are far too many people who don't have any idea what it is that they want to do and more importantly don't understand the purpose of what they do. Too many people talk about their occupational objective which is to be a Butcher, a Baker or Software App maker, but they fail to have the more important discussion which is what the purpose of their life is. How is purpose defined? Purpose is "the reason why you are on the planet." If you take the time and the mental energy to sit down and truly figure out what your purpose is, then you will be driven and you will be successful. Why? Every morning when you get up you know why you're doing what you're doing and why.

2. Passion -- how is passion defined? The dictionary defines passion as "pervading spirit, ruling passion, master passion, fullness of heart flow of soul." If you want to live the life of your dreams, is very important that 1) you identify what it is you have a passion for and 2) you try to make your passion the way that you make a living. When you have a passion for what you do, it comes through in how you perform, how you act, how you talk, and people want to associate and do business with you. It makes you unstoppable. As Sheila Graham once said, "you can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy created by the world." (I love this last sentence! )

3. People -- one of the ways of living the life of your dreams is to make sure that you are very careful about who you associate with. There is no question that the quality of your life is in direct correlation to the quality of the people that you spend your time with. This is your life, so be extremely careful about who you spend time with. There are two kinds of people in the world -- there are positive people and there are our negative people. Negative people are energy sucking vampires and if you want to live the life of your dreams you must stay away from their negative energy sucking life force because they will tear you down, and drag you down with them, down into the abyss. When you do the opposite by being with happy, optimistic and upbeat people, those people will encourage you, motivate you, inspire you and help you. Consciously select who you are going to spend time with and eliminate people who will not help you achieve your dreams. That sounds a little bit cold, but this is your life and there's no question that you need to be around people who are life builders and not life destroyers.

4. Productivity -- If you want to live the life of your dreams you have to invest the hard work. You have to get stuff done to make sure that it's going to happen. People who are successful are also extremely diligent about how they spend their time and what they need to do in order to be productive. Follow some sort of time management system, and you learn how to make your personal and professional life as productive as possible. If you want to live the life of your dreams, it is going to take a lot of hard work, but you need to make sure that the work you're doing is the most productive work which is going to lead you to the result that you're looking for. Make a list of goals for the year, and you make a list each day of what you need to get done, and prioritize which things are most important and which things are least important.

People that live the life of their dreams focus on these four keys.

Your life is in your hands, and because we are the only species that has the ability to change our life through conscious thought, you have an incredible ability, brainpower, and you live in an era where resources are available at the tip of your fingertips; easy to get, easy to find, and inexpensive. Decide that you going to live the life dreams, and starting right now make a list of how you're going to go about taking your first step.

It's all up to you, at the end of your days, when you're sitting on the porch in the sun, Be able to say that yes -- you have no regrets, you truly lived the life of your dreams.

Source: Shawn Doyle  (Huffington Post)

Dabbling at Life's Offerings

Upsize Your Life by Dabbling at Life’s Offerings

Some adults, in support of forcing their children to stick with an activity, argue that they wish their parents had pushed them to learn an instrument, for instance, and others will say that they are grateful that their parents forced them.

Sometimes, you don’t know if you’ll like something until you give it a try. If it doesn’t “turn out”, at least you know what it was like. I teach piano and cello and about a quarter of my students over the years didn’t really enjoy playing these instruments. Some never touched them outside of the lessons.

Am I for letting them quit? Yes. If they’ve given it a good try and have practiced enough to get past the rudimentary skills and still don’t enjoy doing it, then STOP for heaven’s sake! But they wouldn’t have known about the instruments and the necessary work at all if they hadn’t tried.

Some people dabble at acting while working at a daytime job. Others take writing courses and develop blogs. I teach adults who really enjoy time at the instruments and with me during the lessons. Recently, a lady stopped lessons, feeling very guilty about doing so. She had taken piano for four years and had gotten far enough to play some pieces and, more importantly, try out new pieces on her own. She doesn’t need lessons forever.

It used to be that having a lot of varied interests meant that you are flighty.

Not anymore, according to the founders of Dabble, a Chicago-based startup that offers one-time courses allowing participants to try something new. "In the past, those who dabbled were thought of as scatterbrained, [they] can’t focus," says Erin Hopmann, co-founder and CEO of Dabble, a Chicago-based company that offers one-time courses in everything from pasta making to calligraphy and glassblowing, says dabbling in different interests can stimulate the creative juices, expand your network, and aid in the pursuit of better balance. "Today, it’s seen as beneficial to be knowledgeable in a number of areas." The idea came after Hopmann and fellow co-founder Jessica Lybeck, both lifelong learners, wanted to tap into their interests without a huge time or monetary commitment. "People get caught in the rut of the 9 to 5," Hopmann says. "They don’t want to wait until retirement to enjoy life."

Dabbling is a willingness to be a student, a non-expert, we are observant and develop more understanding for other viewpoints. We re-experience pushing through a challenge, honing and polishing until a slight luster glows through.

Here are some ways dabbling, even for a few hours, can benefit your work:

1) Dabbling can get your creative juices flowing. By getting new information and experience something different, you are more able to think outside the box when you generate ideas. You can experiment with new ways of doing something, which jars unused portions of the brain into use.

2) It makes life even more interesting. When you’re trying something new, you often dive into an area that makes you uncomfortable, which is also a bit hard on your old ego. Dabbling is a willingness to be a student, a non-expert again. Being unsure is unsettling, that’s true. Certainty is nice but ‘same old, same old’ is also boring. Expose yourself to new ideas for a creative stretch. If you are someone who’s spent their entire career in business, you may benefit from taking an art class, where you may connect with other artists and expand your thinking and visual skills through interaction with them. A seemingly narrow topic can open the door to a broad and deep array of interests and explorations.

3) We become observant and develop more understanding for other viewpoints. We could become more tolerant with and attuned to ‘beginners’ in our workplaces. Potential dabblers should take a one-day course in an area outside their comfort zone to get the most out of their experience.

4) Dabbling is cross-training for the brain. Pursuing interests in a variety of subjects stretches the mind and pushes the imagination, causing us to be more creative. Dabbling is simply a way of gathering new information and experimenting with new ways of doing something. It causes you to think differently about everything else that you do, a process which can lead to incredible innovation. The best way to discover something is to take an existing concept in one discipline and apply it to another.

5) We build a stronger brain. Dabbling in diverse interests strengthens neural connections in the brain. Your brain is a muscle, so just as your abdominals get stronger with the more crunches you do, the more you exercise your brain, the better it will perform.

 What have you "always wanted to try"? Just Do It!

SuperBetter

I am very annoyed when I learn something much later than "everybody else". 

I bought the book "SuperBetter" by J. McGonigal and have been caught up in her art of gaming. She also has a few YouTube videos you might want to watch.

I checked out the website and copied some of the things to be found there:

"SuperBetter increases resilience - the ability to stay strong, motivated and optimistic even in the face of difficult obstacles. Playing SuperBetter makes you more capable of getting through any tough situation—and more likely to achieve the goals that matter most to you. Proven results in just 10 minutes a day.

Resilience means getting stronger in the face of a challenge.

We'll get you started with four quick Quests, each designed to boost a different kind of resilience (physical, mental, social, and emotional) in 30 seconds or less.

What does it mean to get SuperBetter?

Everything in this game is designed to help you get stronger, by building up your personal resilience.

Resilience is the ability to stay motivated, optimistic and determined even in the face of a tough challenge.

 

When you’re resilient…

• Your body is better able to withstand stress and heal itself. (That’s PHYSICAL resilience.)
• You have the mental focus and determination you need to be successful. (That’s MENTAL resilience.)
• You’re able to activate positive emotions when you need them most. (That’s EMOTIONAL resilience.)
• You get strength from your friends and family. (That’s SOCIAL resilience.)

So why are we so focused on increasing your personal resilience? It’s all based on scientific research. Study after study shows that resilience is the single most important personal skill you can develop -- if you want to be happier, healthier and more successful in whatever you do.

The science behind physical resilience

The single best thing you can do for your body is to move it -- even if it's for just 5 seconds at a time. That's because every second you spend not sitting still increases the health of your heart, lungs and brain. If you can move one part of your body for one minute every hour that you’re awake, you can get SuperBetter.

“Physical resilience”

Some people heal faster and recover from stress more easily than others. Researchers call that “physical resilience.”

So how do you increase YOUR physical resilience? In SuperBetter, you’ll learn lots of ways -- but here’s our favorite.

We call it the “smallest possible dose” of exercise.

• That means exercising just
• One minute every hour. OR
• 5 minutes before each meal. OR
• even just 5 seconds whenever you think of it.

It’s literally that simple.

But how do you know if what you’re doing really counts as exercise? Here’s the trick. You have to ask yourself two questions.

•  Are you sitting still or lying down?
•  Are you eating while you do it?

If you answered no to both questions, then Congratulations! You’re exercising. You’re improving your heart, lungs and brain health -- all of which increases your physical resilience.

(By the way - this is important even if you’re already physically fit or going to the gym an hour a day! Scientific research shows that to be resilient, you still need to do these tiny bursts of physical activity throughout the day.)

The science behind mental resilience

Will power is like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it. Tackle a tiny challenge without giving up, and you increase your mental focus and determination. If you can complete one tiny challenge (or Quest) each day, you can get SuperBetter

“Mental resilience”

We all know that we need will power in order to get what we really want from our lives. But did you know there are actually 3 kinds of will power?

There’s “I will power” -- as in, I will do whatever I set my mind to.

Then there’s “I won’t power” -- as in, I won’t do that thing I want to stop doing.

And then there’s “I want power” -- as in, this is what I want more than anything else in the world, and I’m going to put my time and energy into making it happen.

By playing SuperBetter, you’re going to build up all 3 kinds of will power - your I will power, your I won’t power, and your I want power. And that adds up to real mental resilience -- the ability to stay focused and determined and make your best effort when it matters most.

The science behind emotional resilience

Every time you provoke a positive emotion, you increase your creativity, stamina and will power. Curiosity and love are just two of the emotions you can learn to provoke anytime, anywhere. If you can do three tiny things a day that make you feel good, then you can get SuperBetter.

“Emotional resilience”

Why should you make time for things that make you feel good?

Well, positive emotions like interest, curiosity, pride, awe, excitement, love, relief and, amusement -- they

don’t just feel good. They also make you stronger.

Medical research shows that positive emotions boost your immune system, protect against heart attacks and stroke, and even help you grow new neurons faster!

Scientific studies have also proven that positive emotions increase your creativity, your stamina, and your will power.

Now to get these benefits, you don’t have to be positive all the time. That would be impossible, of course. (And probably really annoying to everyone around you!)

What you want to do is achieve the 3:1 ratio.

That’s 3 positive emotions for every 1 negative emotion.

So when you’re feeling stressed hurt, anxious, angry, sad, or just plain not good -- do 3 quick things that feel good to get back in the zone.

The science behind social resilience

The more allies you have, the more likely you are to reach your goals. Touch and gratitude are just two ways to strengthen your social connections. If you can reach out to one person a day, online or face to face, you can get SuperBetter.

“Social resilience”

Want a major health boost? Spend more time with people you like.

It turns out that having someone on your side --

• Someone who makes you smile,
• who you can be yourself around, and
• who you can ask for help

-- actually improves your physical well-being MORE than starting an exercise program OR losing weight and it helps your health as much as quitting a pack-a-day cigarette habit.  (That’s according to a meta-review of 148 studies with more than 300,000 participants.)

And that’s why getting SuperBetter means making it a priority to connect with someone you consider an Ally every single day.

It’s not always easy -- but social resilience helps you heal and get stronger in a way that nothing else can."

So I signed up for the weight-loss power pack:

" “Power Packs vs. Design My Own Adventure”

The fastest and easiest way to start your game is with a Power Pack.

A Power Pack is a special set of Quests (A Quest is anything you can do to get closer to your Epic Win.), Power-ups and Bad Guys that we recommend specifically to help you with YOUR challenge. Or, you can browse our Power Pack collection and pick one out for yourself.

But, what if you’re feeling creative? Or maybe you’re tackling a unique challenge that we might not have the perfect PowerPack for? Then you can design your own adventure.

If you choose this option, we’ll take you right to your Secret Headquarters, where you’ll find 7 Quests that will walk you through the process of brainstorming and creating all of your own Power-ups and Bad Guys. This is the perfect way to create an adventure that’s completely customized just for you. And, it’s kind of fun to invent your own game!

So which will it be? Make your choice now!"

Source: superbetter.com

This might be fun for you, too. And, who knows, you might be a winner!

Nudging toward change

Nudging – instead of shoving – yourself toward change

The New Year’s Resolution is riddled with psychological traps that work against us. New Year’s resolutions are too ambitious, the goals to big, such as perfect grades or working out for an hour every day.

We need a handbook – a step-by-step training -  showing us how to reach the goal.

And we need mini-goals instead of the extensive decisions we can’t really even relate to or even imagine. Otherwise, we set ourselves up for stumbling many times along the way, tripping over the numerous stumbling blocks that seemingly pop up from nowhere, despite our best intentions. Each of the trip-ups give us more opportunities to give up.

A nudge is a gentile shove. Nudges focus on the how, not the what. Tiny steps toward positive behavior instead of a mega-leap.

Thinking about the good things we want to implement into our lives make us feel more excited and motivated. After all, we are just taking tiny steps of improvement not giant, threatening leaps.

We need to aware that there is a whole lot of process between resolve, decision and execution before reaching the end goal, be it “health”, “fitness”, “kindness”, “organization”, etc. We might need to drop the long-term goals and focus on turning each step into a positive experience.

I might want to run ½ hour but that is torture for me. Yet a short lope to the car after shopping or some faster steps to the door of my house are rather fun. I can handle that. Maybe it’s not about becoming a runner at all. Maybe it’s about focusing on my love of being outside or my enjoyment that my legs can move quickly. I actually love that little jaunting feeling when taking a brief scamper toward something. No marathon for me, folks!

Researchers are discovering small tweaks we can make to strengthen our psychological welfare, change out behavior, and improve our persistence.

Reframe anxiety as excitement

If you are trying to get over performance anxiety, try tweaking your way of looking at it. Reframe your super-active nervous system as excitement and heightened awareness. Take the time before your next “performance”, be it a speech, a report during a meeting, a musical performance. Focus on each new moment to come instead of the performance outcome. This is a self-nudge from anxiety to excitement on the way to enjoying performance more. Transform your stage fright into stage presence.

A nudge in favor of your future self

The more exactly you can imagine yourself in the future, the more likely you are to improve your behavior in the present. If you can’t really imagine an image of yourself in 10-20 years, create an image online of yourself age-progressed and print it out. That is the person you are working for now by improving the decisions and choices you make today.

Research has shown that posting such an age-progressed picture where subjects were making a decision about saving for that future-self increased the amount of money they put into a savings account.

The goal is to create a closer connection between the present self and the future self.  We can incrementally change the future by gradually changing how we behave now.

To quote Amy Cuddy in her book “Presence”: “With each self-nudge, pleasure builds upon pleasure, power upon power, and presence upon presence”.

Where could you use tiny, pleasurable tweaks to improve your life?

Too much is too much - even if it is organized!

Wow!

I just watched this video and was freaked out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoC83JhkCAw

The little lady gets such a kick out of organizing her things. That is okay. Honestly, how many batteries do you need to keep organized and "handy"?! The stores are open all the time and, if you use the last ones, you could buy a new package.

It is one thing to organize what you have and another if it is just too much stuff. How many shampoos do we need (yes, I know every member of the household wants his/her own brand) and how often do we use the exotic vinegar we picked up? And how many cans of chick peas do we need on hand?

I'm not inspired. I'm shocked.

You are doing a lot right!

It's easy to begin a new year focusing on all the things you're doing wrong, but maybe it's time to pat yourself on the back for the things you're doing right. Research shows that Americans are not only living longer, we're also living a little healthier. Our diets are improving (thanks in large part to ditching trans fats), and we are staying healthier into old age than in previous generations. Take a minute to focus on the progress you've made in your own life, then challenge yourself to set the bar a smidge higher. These healthy upgrades show that small tweaks can have big impact.

If you currently... buy foods that carry the Whole Grain Stamp (a label created by the Whole Grains Council to identify products with at least eight grams of whole grains per serving)
You might try... choosing whole grain–rich foods with a carb-to-fiber ratio of 10-1.
Why It Matters: A Harvard study found that while grain products bearing the stamp were indeed higher in fiber and less likely to contain trans fat, they also contained significantly more calories and sugars than products without the label. Go beyond the stamp and check that for every ten grams of carbs, there's at least one gram of fiber; whole grain products with that ratio contained more fiber and less sugar and sodium for the same amount of calories.

If you currently... use BPA-free cups and containers
You might try... switching to glass or stainless steel.
Why It Matters: Kudos for ditching drinking vessels that contain bisphenol A, an endocrine-disrupting chemical that's been linked to reproductive issues, obesity, thyroid problems, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adults, as well as asthma in children. The hitch: In phasing out BPA, companies are turning to other chemicals, namely bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF), that could potentially be just as dangerous, says a new report in Environmental Health Perspectives.

If you currently... use a headset when you talk on your cell phone
You might try... walking as you talk.
Why It Matters: When you heard that cell phones might cause brain cancer, you had no trouble switching to a headset. Yet your phone could now be turning you into a couch potato. Researchers at Kent State University who examined fitness levels among college students found that, after completing treadmill tests, students who use their phone the least (an average of 100 minutes a day) had a 21 percent higher VO₂ max—the maximum amount of oxygen a person can use and a well-established measure of fitness—than those who use their phone most. Higher levels of VO₂ max are associated with lower risk of heart disease. So if you're going to talk, make sure you're on the move while you do it.

If you currently... do everything possible to get seven to eight hours of sleep per night
You might try... claiming a spot near the window at the office.
Why It Matters: A small study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine discovered that workers with access to windows had more sunlight exposure by day and logged about 46 minutes more zzz's thanks to waking less throughout the night. "Light exposure during the day can increase your melatonin levels at night," says study coauthor Phyllis Zee, PhD, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Zee's research team also found another surprising trend: Office workers with windows were more physically active after work, and exercise has also been shown to improve sleep quality. Can't move your office desk near a window? Steal as much time outside—at lunch and during breaks—as you can to help keep your circadian rhythm on schedule.

If you currently... write down everything you eat
You might try... going digital with your food diary.
Why It Matters: Food diaries are a proven tool for slimming down. In a 2012 study, when postmenopausal overweight and obese women tracked what they ate, they lost about six pounds more than those who didn't, according to research in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. But digital diaries may be even more effective than handwritten ones. When adults who enrolled in a supervised weight loss program used a mobile app, they lost almost eight pounds more in three months than subjects who were encouraged to record their intake with pencil and paper, reveals a small study in JAMA Internal Medicine. "The feedback from an app is immediate and reinforcing," says Bonnie Spring, PhD, lead study author and director of the Center for Behavior and Health and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern. Bonus: A separate study found that you'll stand a greater chance of logging more complete information and skipping fewer days of recording when using an app. Check out Lose It! and MyFitnessPal—they're both free and go beyond calorie tracking to show you the nutritional breakdown of your food and help you see where your diet might be lacking. Now you actually have a good excuse to keep your phone on the dinner table.

Source: Oprah.com        Author: Karen Asp