Yesterday I looked after a class for a colleague, and we were all busy outside. One of the girls uses crutches and isn’t able to get around all that easily. She and I sat together for a while watching the others, and she decided to thread a handful of flowers into my hair. I had my hair in a very teacher-ish knot, and this kept her occupied for a little while 
Then we did duties and the end of school routine, I talked to a couple of parents and went to the office to pick up my mail. Then I left school and went to the supermarket. After that I checked our postbox, and then I went home.
I did all the things I usually do and didn’t get to bed until fairly late. As I was undoing my hair I heard a very small, strange sound. It was a bunch of lavender/marigolds/wildflowers falling down on to my pillow.
I’d completely forgotten!
Who knows what the grownups who saw me thought, but I remembered this little girl chatting away to me happily so I didn’t mind too much. She is so sweet
Filed under: Self
… up until when you say something you shouldn’t have.
If you’re ever in doubt, don’t say it. Don’t say anything. If you are ever wondering whether you *should* … then don’t. If you are ever angry … don’t. If you know it will hurt someone’s feelings, don’t. A few more seconds of thinking before you actually open your mouth might save you a lot of embarrassment.
I am just as guilty of this as anyone! but a few years back I decided that I’d say nothing and count to ten first. It was a really interesting thing to do. You wouldn’t believe what comes out of some people’s mouths when there is a silence in the conversation :0
How does that saying go? it’s better to be quiet and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
I’ve spent some of today doing some pre-winter cleaning. A friend dropped in to visit, and we were talking about how we both like to get organised before winter really sets in. Think about it – do you really want to be stuck inside a messy, unorganised grubby house looking out at the wet cold weather? Not me. I’d much rather be tucked up inside a clean, warm, welcoming house for the winter months!
I’ve been trialling using vinegar/baking soda etc for cleaning products. So far I’m pretty impressed. The vinegar smell does go away as the surface dries. Baking soda and vinegar really brought a shine to the stainless steel base of the kids shower so that was great. You don’t need terribly much more elbow grease either (I’ve no plans to spend my life doing housework or developing huge arms!)
Sometimes I look around and think we could do with a bigger house, or new furniture, etc. But then I think of someone we know who has a ‘gorgeous’ home, beautiful new furniture and everything anyone could ask for. But they are pretty unhappy at the moment. They are overextended, unhappy, getting very short tempered and generally feeling pretty miserable. So I am happy with where I am, and it’s no hassle to me creating a nice clean warm place to spend the winter :0
Finally on a plane that’s far away from anything I can afford … have a look at this site. Just beautiful Go to ‘projects‘ and enjoy, daydream, or just generally gnash your teeth in complete envy! 
I have huge respect for people who can create on this scale. I don’t know where you would start to be able to complete projects like this. Sure, I’m like anyone – I know what I like (and I’ve got VERY definite ideas!) but to see everything put together in ways like this is just stunning. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to ’see’ this in your head, and know the steps to take to make it a reality …
I suppose it’s like eating an elephant, or bringing up kids, or building a great life. One step at a time
Filed under: Self
Hi to everyone who’s visiting from Con Yaps blog!
Looking forward to tomorrow, when I will meet someone new in town for a coffee …
Things have been really busy here. I owe you all a LOT of posts.
The weather here has been relatively good. There is a chill in the air though, and you can see people are starting to get out their winter woollies. A while ago a friend of mine gave me a quilt she’d made. She was going overseas to live and couldn’t take very much with her. This quilt was in the daughters room for a while, but I have to confess I always had my eye on it! the other day she let me have it. It’s nice and soft, made of squares of different shades of pink with touches of green. I think the pieces are cut from old soft sheets and old embroidered pillow cases. The bedroom isn’t pink, but luckily the quilt doesn’t look completely out of place … so in the afternoons (if I get a minute!) I go in there and lie down for a while. The sun falls right across the bed and it’s very hard not to fall asleep!
Do you have a place like that in your house?
I have others, but on this quilt in the afternoon sun is one of my favorites
A couple of weeks ago I had a whole series of blood tests taken. 11 vials of blood! I can’t look while the needle goes in, but I can look after that when the vials are filling. Fascinating stuff. But those 11 vials did look like an awful lot of blood …. so now I know everything is working properly. I have to confess I’m usually an ‘ostrich’ about things like that. If I don’t know about it, it isn’t happening, which is kind of silly really. So these blood tests were a bit out of character for me!
I decided I was being pathetic when I am usually always about education and learning. Why do lots of work on myself and ignore the physical?
A lot of people I know are the exact opposite. They are really good at monitoring their health and fitness, but they ignore the other sides of themselves. A holistic view of health includes all of you, not just your resting heart rate or how much you can bench press. So I am feeling quite smug that I have an overall view of what’s going on
On a wider note, the weather is changing here. There have been some very cold mornings, and some bright sunny autumn days. The leaves are falling quickly now. I’ve decided I need a client who likes to walk – I think it’d be a great idea to do the session while walking down along the river. We have a really nice river running through the middle of Hamilton, and it’s very picturesque. There has been a lot of time and effort spent on the riverside walks. I might take some photos for you, seeing as how I haven’t put any up for a while. So if you want to get some exercise and do something great for yourself and your life, drop me a line! (I don’t know where I get these ideas, but maybe the thought of a coffee at one of the cafes in town at the end of the walk attracted my attention! )
As I’ve said before, I don’t really completely subscribe to the multi-tasking thing. I think if you’ve having coaching, it should be all about you. It shouldn’t be something you slot in between meetings, or at the end of the day after all your other commitments when you’re exhausted. It should be something that energizes you and makes you feel better about yourself.
Hmm a walking/coaching group? *ponders*
…grab one.
Write your name in the middle, then draw lines to dissect the page into four. The left is your past, the right is your future.
The sections at the top are for the positive things, the sections at the bottom are for the negative.
It might be easier to start with the left hand side. Important birthdays, when you started work, when you had kids (if any) … marriage(s), relationships that made an impact on you …. all those important milestones.
At the right, write your dreams, aspirations and ambitions. This can be as creative as you like. You might be surprised at what comes out onto the page. You can use the bottom section to write your fears …. that’s usually pretty interesting as well. Sometimes things are less scary, or downright improbable when you see them in writing.
You can use pictures, or draw them. You can use sparkly pens or glitter or anything. Lots of colour, lots of ideas.
I’d be really interested to know how you get on with this exercise. Add me : coachdawn_newzealand on yahoo messenger.
The other day some money I hadn’t anticipated appeared in my account, and I dragged the other half out shopping.
Nope, no designer labels or boring household gadgets … and I didn’t spend very much. But what I did spend has kept me happily occupied for most of the weekend. There is a weird and wonderful shop in our town, and it stocks all sorts of bizarre things for not much money at all (mostly). I bought some fabric for a lot less than I would’ve paid for it anywhere else. Maybe that’s because it wasn’t the sort of fabric you wear every day! So I spent today making some parts of a costume. I researched quite a bit on the Net, and got some ideas, then I messed around to see if I could do it quickly and painlessly. Sure enough, it worked, and I’m really pleased with the result. It turned out how I wanted, the other half likes it, and the daughter said “trippy, Mum” with an eye-roll which makes me think I hit it square on target *grin*
It’s a costume for the lessons I’m taking, which incidentally none of you have guessed yet!
Some people like sewing, some people like gardening, some people like painting. Some train-spot. Some make model airplanes.
What do you do?
Sorry about the silence here on the blog 
I found out today I have a couple more responsibilities at work – I had the option not to take them up though. One will be really interesting, and one will be a *pest*. But never mind, it will save everyone else a lot of drama if I do it, and I like to be nice sometimes
I think you have to try and balance everything out. There’s no point in taking on extra work if it’s going to make your life a misery. Any extra pay just isn’t worth it. Sometimes it’s worth having to watch your budget a bit more carefully if it means you’ll have time up your sleeve, less stress, and just generally enjoy your life more.
When I was working full time in my other job I had the money to do lots of things that were, quite frankly, luxuries. Not that there’s anything wrong with that :p but in the end, those luxuries weren’t worth it, because I was driving myself into the ground. I was starting to see the doctor more than my own mother. I had heart palpitations, migraines, and upset stomach most of the time, and then it was thought I had ulcers. There were so many weird things going on I started to think I was on the verge of dropping down dead at any minute, it was awful.
So now I choose what I will do, not anyone else. It was a great lesson, in that when your life is run by other people it gets to be too much.
You have to be in control of your own life.
You have to decide when enough is enough.
I really need to get writing tomorrow. It has been far too long since I posted!
I’m really surprised to see that a lot of you are rereading the older posts, especially the ones on work and motivation. I think there are a lot of people out there who are unhappy with some aspect of their job. It’s a horrible time of year though when you’ve just had the long summer holidays and now it’s back into the grind ….
There are things you can do about it though. You only get one life. You won’t be 30 again, or 45, or 23, or whatever age you are. Why spend your precious life doing something that bores you, or makes you mad?
We all have mortgages and bills and things like that. I know you can’t just resign and fly off to some beautiful tropical island somewhere. You need to keep being paid. No one wants to be broke and living in the back seat of their car. But life isn’t all or nothing. There are a million little things you can do. You don’t need to be on a boring endless treadmill.
You only get one life
If there is something specific you’d like my opinion on just email me at coachdawnunderscorenewzealandatyahoodotcom
I can reply either via email, or as a blog post. I won’t give your name or details
I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while – it often shows up in my stats as something a lot of people search for.
There’s all kinds of advice I could give, and a million different topics that come under this heading. But I think there’s just one important thing you can do for yourself, if you’re losing motivation and have no idea how to get it back.
Losing motivation can manifest itself in lots of different ways. You might hate getting up in the morning, you might fight with your colleagues, you think the job is boring and yet you can’t be bothered looking for something better. The whole place just makes you feel bored and frustrated … you can’t get away from it, it’s always on your mind.
From my observations and personal experience, the most important thing is to make sure you have a balanced life outside of work.
It sounds so simple.
People who are tense and frustrated at work most often do not have a balanced life. They’ve got no hobbies, no social life, they’re unhappy in general and it’s not just work. They most often are not eating properly, they don’t get enough sleep. Their personal relationships are not what they should be. They have nothing to look forward to and they feel as if they’re wasting their life working where they are.
They also identify strongly with ‘what they do’.
They are a doctor, a teacher, an accountant, a mother, a receptionist, a bank teller.
They’re not anything else. They have no other identity. If you ask them, they can’t happily reel off a list of things they love to do outside of work. They spend their weekends catching up on housework and other stuff that bores them, they don’t do anything ‘just for fun’. When bad things happen at work, they take it very personally. Performance reviews etc take on a very personal meaning. A colleagues casual comment can sting them for weeks.
If you’ve come here looking for motivation because you’ve got a boring job, I think you need to have a look at your entire life, not just work. This is what coaches do. They help you to identify what’s actually bothering you, and to break it down into manageable parts. I guarantee it won’t be just your job that’s boring you, it’ll be other stuff as well. Once you get it all into perspective and start looking after yourself you’ll gain huge benefits and feel a lot happier. Things at work won’t have the same impact on you – it is just a job. I don’t care how ambitious you are, in the end you’re a human being, not a job description.
Email me: coachdawnunderscorenewzealandatyahoodotcom
