Twixtmas Day 5 – do something for your future

Twixtmas Day 5Finally we get to the last day of this mini-challenge, the day when we turn selfish again and look to our own future. We can’t control the world around us, but we can take action that improves the chances of things working out the way we want – after all, we used to send Santa a list so we stood a chance of getting what we wanted!

 

Here are Andy’s suggestions, I am sure you can come up with more:

  1. Write a list of 10 things you will do during 2011
  2. Count your blessings and ask how you can share your blessings for the year ahead.
  3. Ask a spiritual question: “Why am I here?”
  4. Be more creative – aim to think flexibly and ask beautiful questions for every day of 2011.
  5. Identify 3 action steps to make your goals for 2011 happen now.

Whether you do one of these or something else, make the effort and do something that strengthens your own future.

Twixtmas Day 4 – do something for the planet

Twixtmas Day 4 Now Twixtmas takes us global. No, you cannot save the plant on your own but every little action helps. You can make a difference, every little action helps.

 

Think about sustainability this way:

 

A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water. The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied,” I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. “But”, said the man, “You can’t possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The boy smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied

“Made a difference to that one”

Twixtmas Day 3 – do something for a friend

Twixtmas Day 3 What did you do yesterday that was ‘unselfish’?

 

Well, Day 3 is about your friends. What can you do that will help them? What would they like from you? Here are the suggestions from the Twixtmas website – visit the site to read and learn more about this great idea:

  1. Get in touch with someone you have not heard from for a while.
  2. Think of things to say ‘thank you’ to your friends
  3. Think about their ambitions/Help them with their ambition
  4. Share an old photograph
  5. Make a new friend today/smile at, or be a friend to a stranger in some way.

Twixtmas Day 2 – Do something unselfish

Twixtmas day 2 Yesterday was about YOU, I hope you managed to do something for yourself – I accepted a commission that I really wanted to do, a new experience in a new country, even though it clashed with an existing appointment (which I will rearrange).

 

Today is time to give a little thought to others. Here are a few examples from the Twixtmas website:

  1. Do a random act of kindness
  2. Let someone you care about speak to you uninterrupted for 5 minutes
  3. Help a neighbour
  4. Have a mini-Lent and give up something for the day
  5. Give to charity

Twixtmas – Day 5

Twixtmas description

Here we are on the last day of the year and Day 5 of Twixtmas – a time perhaps for reflection and perhaps for ‘foreflection’ (to create a word)

Day 5 – Do something for your future. Maybe you could:

1. Write a list of 10 things you will do during 2011
2. Count your blessings and ask how you can share your blessings for the year ahead.
3. Ask a spiritual question: “Why am I here?”
4. Be more creative – aim to think flexibly and ask beautiful questions for every day of 2011.
5. Identify 3 action steps to make your goals for 2011 happen now.

So, here’s my contribution to my future and I am slightly ashamed to admit that this was the most difficult of my Twixtmas blogs to write. It seems such a simple small committment, yet I know that it will make a difference

I commit to taking action on my ideas sooner rather than later.

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all – Norman Vincent Peale

Twixtmas – Day 4

Twixtmas campaigner and GREEN director Andy Green said: “Arm yourself with pen and paper and make some time during the Twixtmas break to give yourself a five-day happiness work-out. Expressing your appreciation and thinking about the positive aspects of your future, or even writing affectionate things, have been scientifically proven to work and make you feel better in yourself.”

Day 4 Make a list of your favourite places visited or places you would like to go. Think about why you liked them so much or what attracts you to want to go there.

Some of my favourite places I have already been:

San Francisco – Val D’Isere – Napoli – Segalas – York – Cairo – Jerusalem – Cuba – Siena

I am attracted to these places for a variety of reasons, many of them to do with how different they are to my relatively comfortable life in West Yorkshire. Any of these places I would happily revisit tomorrow, knowing that I would find something new, interesting, challenging or simply wierd without really trying; they all have some sort of ‘buzz’ that’s partly to do with the place (spectacularly beautiful being a key!) and partly the people; they all have a street culture that is still developing in the UK; there is great food in all of them (yes, even Cairo!); they have a deep history and culture that permeates the whole place.

…and I would like to visit:

Australia – Hadrian’s Wall – The Great Wall of China – India

Why would I like to visit them, well these, and others not listed, have a mix of the same attributes as those places I have already been.

Twixtmas – Day 3

Twixtmas campaigner and GREEN director, as well as my great friend, Andy Green said: “Arm yourself with pen and paper and make some time during the Twixtmas break to give yourself a five-day happiness work-out. Expressing your appreciation and thinking about the positive aspects of your future, or even writing affectionate things, have been scientifically proven to work and make you feel better in yourself.”

Day 3 Write a short email or letter to someone who you like or care for. Why not tell them how good they are and why they are important to you?

Dear L,

I would love you to read this and think about it. You are wonderful; you are intelligent; you are good looking; you can be thoughtful and funny; you are unique; you are and will always remain your own woman.

Always remember that your mum and your dad love you more than you can imagine – they both want the best for you, to be successful and, probably above all, safe. Whatever they say or do to you or for you is done with that in mind – you might not always like it but they always mean well, and perhaps you are now starting to realise that just occasionally they have a point and maybe even do sometimes know best 🙂

As for me, well I never could and never wanted to be anything other than a good friend. I never could and never will replace your dad although I will be here for you when you need someone to talk with, someone to ask for help or even a shoulder to cry on. Friends do not always agree, yet the mark of true friendship is a willingness to let others have their own opinions and ways of doing things without falling out.

Life is full of challenges and struggles, and of delights and disasters – those are where we learn to be strong and become ourselves.  You can have anything you want when you work for it – decide what you really want and go for it; always be willing to ask for help, we will all support you all the way.

Live, love and laugh,

Geoff

Twixtmas – Day 2

You can transform your personal happiness by doing a five-day work out during the Twixtmas break – the period between Christmas and New Year. By following some easy-to-do ‘happiness workout’ tips you can make yourself happier, ready to step into 2011 with more optimism and energy.

Today’s assignment –  Write about something good you have done for someone else.

For me, there is a risk of being self-serving by writing about what I have done for others, a risk that I write about something that I think I have done when the recipient has a different view. In some of our trainings we explore the parallel concepts of “Self- or Others-Focus” Some who thinks or acts in a Self-Focussed way is primarily concerned about the implications for them personally of any situation, the Others-Focussed approach is more concerned with the impact on others than on themselves. I admit to being largely self-focussed and am a fan of the psychologies that suggest that ultimately we are all self-focussed, with even others-focussed individuals acting at some deep level to satisfy a self-focussed psychological drive (at a simple level you might think of this as doing things for others because it makes you feel good).

Anyway, what good have I done for someone else? During the ‘volcano crisis’ in early 2010 when flights around Europe were cancelled for several days I was ‘trapped’ in France and needed to get back for a client. I was formulating a plan to hire a car, drive to La Manche, get a ferry across… when I met a couple who were in a similar position (they were staying with someone for whom my sister cleans) and also needed to get back. Without hesistation I offered them a couple of seats in my car if they could get themselves a ferry crossing. The plan came off perfectlyand I was delighted to subsequenlty receive a contribution to the costs and to find that my generosity was being talked about in France. Sometimes, life just feels good.

So, what are you going to write about?

Twixtmas – Day 1

Here we are on Day 1 of Twixtmas…

You can transform your personal happiness by doing a five-day work out during the Twixtmas break – the period between Christmas and New Year. By following some easy-to-do ‘happiness workout’ tips you can make yourself happier, ready to step into 2011 with more optimism and energy.
The binge happiness five-day programme consists of completing what is called a ‘happy diary’ for each of the five days of Twixtmas, December 27-December 31, which focus on the happy, positives in your life.
Writing down positive thoughts and feelings has been proven to beat just talking about them. Scientists believe that writing encourages the creation of a structure and storyline which can help people make sense of what has happened in their past and also guide and direct them towards finding solutions. Just talking about problems can often be unstructured, disorganised, and even chaotic. As a result, it can add a sense of confusion to your emotional state.
Twixtmas campaigner and GREEN director Andy Green said: “Arm yourself with pen and paper and make some time during the Twixtmas break to give yourself a five-day happiness work-out. Expressing your appreciation and thinking about the positive aspects of your future, or even writing affectionate things, have been scientifically proven to work and make you feel better in yourself.”Today’s workout is:

Day 1 Write down four things from the past week which have made you feel grateful. Then think about and write down how one of the best experiences in your life made you feel.

So here is my Day1 writing:

Over the last week, I have been grateful for

  1. having the opportunity to share my material and emotional wealth with so many people over Xmas,
  2. the efforts of my colleagues in Artworks during difficult times,
  3. that my granddaughter Niamh is such a delight and for
  4. the thought and grace that Lucy put into my Xmas presents.

Thank you all for your help and support.

Now for a ‘best life experience’ (Note that this is ‘a’ best experience, not ‘the’ best – that would be too much of a challenge and risk downgrading some experiences just because at this very moment they do not feel top of the list). I want to write briefly about one evening about 15 years ago when I sat alone on the beach in Sri Lanka watching the sun set.  The sea rippled gently in the background and as I watched trancelike in the deep heat of the day the sky became suffused with liquid gold the more I watched the more relaxed I became; sitting on the warm sand I felt connected to the earth, at peace and at one with nature. For that half hour as the sune slid below the horizon, I could have been anywhere and nowhere.