Tools, tips and education to help you live the life you choose

It’s that time of year again, the silly season, when we do the Christmas thing, whatever that means for you.  With young kids in the house it has brought new magic to this time.  Previously we enjoyed a quiet family Christmas, now there is more excitement and build up.  The number of sleeps to go is being counted down and checked numerous times a day.

We had a mini disaster last night.  You see we like to pretend that Santa comes on Christmas Eve and always leave something for him to eat and drink and some food for his reindeer.  One of the lessons we learnt early on is to put the reindeer food in a container.  The first year we spread it out on the lawn.  Do you know how difficult it is to try and get rid of out of the lawn so you can make it look like they have eaten it?  Last year we put a little bit of dried horse poo there to add to the evidence.

This year He has managed to get hold of some deer antlers.  We have been telling the kids that the reindeer change antlers every now and again and if they are extra good Santa will leave them Rudolph’s old antlers.  Son has written a letter to Santa asking for them.  Last night Daughter was helping Him make some Christmas decorations.  In a quiet moment she went and rummaged in the cupboard and guess what she found – the antlers.  He quickly explained that when they had seen Santa the other day he had asked Him to take the antlers as his sack was going to be rather full and if He could put them out on Christmas Eve that would be appreciated.  That seemed to be taken quite well.  The big question is can 4 year old Daughter keep this a secret from big brother?

Son has just woken up and the first thing he announced was ‘three more days until Christmas’.  He now wants to come and join me so I had better keep the earlier paragraphs hidden.  He has learned to read now so we have to be careful what we leave around at times.

This is just a short post to wish everyone reading this a very Happy Christmas and New Year.  I hope you get to enjoy this time of year whatever Christmas means to you.  I look forward to talking to you again in 2010, I have a few changes and surprises in store for the New Year.

We had a wonderful weekend down at the coast.  We stayed in a house that had the lake entrance at the end of the garden.  The water there was shallow enough to go wading in and explore sand banks.  The beach was a couple of minutes drive up the road and to top it off the weather was beaut, hot but not too hot.

The other thing we discovered about the house was the birds.  The rosellas and a variety of other colourful birds came down to visit each day and eat any seed you put out for them.  There was a container in the room off the deck that had some bird seed in it and a warning written on top.  It said ‘close the screen door or the birds will follow you!

I can believe that too, they were certainly not backward in coming forward for food, even with Dog in the background.  It was a beautiful thing to watch as the kids took a handful of seeds and held their hands out for the birds to land on and eat the seed.  Son was slightly discouraged for a while after one bird tried to have a chomp of his hand.  Daughter was enthralled when one bird landed on her head.

Daughter loved the kangaroos and rabbits we spotted in the neighbours yards when I took her for a quick walk later.  She loves animals and thought we should take some home. 

So what has my wonderful weekend got to do with you?  I am trying to remind you about the importance of spending some time living in the moment.  You can spend all your time worrying about what might happen, that pile of ironing and the dishes that need doing and the things you didn’t finish at work today.  Don’t forget to stop sometimes and enjoy what is going on around you.  This time of year it can be stressful getting everything ready for Christmas, you can forget that it is supposed be a time to enjoy.  As the saying goes, take the time to stop and smell the roses.

It doesn’t have to take a long time but it can leave you feeling refreshed and positive.  For instance watching the kids with the birds was say twenty minutes spent seeing the joy in their faces and the beauty of the birds.  And believe it or not, the washing up waited!

Thought we’d have another how to week.  Have you ever seen that orangey sort of symbol there on the left and not been sure what it is and what it is for?  This post if for those who don’t know what it is and how to use it.

If you enjoy reading blogs or other sites that are updated from time to time with new posts or articles then this orange thing is for you.  It is called RSS or Really Simple Syndication if you want the full name.  If you join an RSS feed for a site then it will notify you when content is added to the site.  This means you don’t have to spend time checking all your favourite blogs and sites to see if new stuff has been added.

You need feed reading software to make the most of this.  Just go to Google or your favourite search engine and do a search for RSS reader and it will come up with a whole heap of suggestions.  There are lots of free ones out there.  One thing to consider is whether you want a web based one or standalone.  What does that mean, well if you choose something like Google Reader, it is attached to your Google account and therefore you can use it whatever computer you are at.  If you choose a stand alone one then you can only use it on the computer you installed it on.  So it all depends on how many computers you use as to what works for you.

Once you have that sorted it is simply a case of going to your favourite sites and clicking on the RSS feed button and adding it to your list.  You can then use your reader as an easy way of seeing which of your favourite sites has new material on it and read or view it directly in your reader.  How easy is that?

That’s it for this week a short and sweet intro to RSS,  Give it a go and see if it works for you.

I had the opportunity to do this one day course on Introduction to Positive Psychology the other day.  One of the things I found most interesting is how much research is now being done on positive psychology and happiness.

In the past when you wanted to improve workspaces for staff there was always the idea that you should improve the space and make the staff happy.  So you should have views, good break out facilities and so on.  It seemed logical that this sort of thing would improve staff morale and therefore productivity and be good for the company.  The trouble was you could never quantify the ‘feel good’ effect.  Interestingly now they are doing research which confirms what we have known all along, happy, positive workers are more productive.  So have more fun in the workplace!

The main thing I wanted to mention here is the idea that there are 3 Paths to Happiness and you need all three for life satisfaction. (more…)