Self-Help Happiness Blog

There is another excuse - oops, I mean another “reason” - why you should spend some time on Twitter or Digg or FaceBook or MySpace.

A recent study of 268 Michigan State University students reveals that those who use Facebook.com have higher self-esteem than students who don’t because they keep in closer touch with their friends.

Not surprisingly, the benefits of social media participation were most pronounced for thsoe who experience low self-esteem.  Social media gives them a means of entering into more productive interactions than they sometimes encounter in real life.  In fact, it allows them to easily make friends.

Does that mean that virtual friendships should take the place of real friendships?  Not at all.  But a healthy dose of virtual socialization makes a great supplement for people who are not already overly socially extended in real life.  In fact, it’s ideal for people like me who work from home.  But before heading out to Twitter or FaceBook or Digg, you might want to read this work-from-home fasion Q&A.  After all, you don’t want to meet new friends on Twitter wearing the wrong pattern pajamas, do you?

You can read the complete report on social media and self-esteem at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html .

reTWEET this.

SPRINGS

We are springs. Everything that knocks us down is a chance to jump up even higher. Every loss is a chance to show that we can bounce back and try even harder.

Every fall is a chance to get back up and show that we won’t be kept down.

Nobody and nothing can defeat us. The only person who can defeat you is you. If you give up, you are defeated. If you persevere, you win. It really doesn’t matter what they throw at you, you are a spring and you can bounce back.

Whatever happens, keep going. If you keep bouncing back, you win!

 This is from a recent Daily Dose of Happiness.

I am a big fan making the jump.  Too many people stay in the “comfort zone” of a job they hate, wishing they could just get out.  Well, surprise - they can!

I left a job that I liked, but which had some very compelling aspects that I did not like.  As the public spokesperson for CAA Ontario, I needed to be available nearly 24-7 for the media, which among other things meant staying in my 800 square-foot downtown Toronto condo.  That’s not a lot of space for me, my wife, my office and our new baby.

So we made a lifestyle choice to move to the country, which meant quitting that job and making it on our own.  Neither my wife nor I had an ounce of entrepreneurial blood in our veins, but we made that jump.  I called many people I had worked with while in Toronto, and several of them were in awe, saying, “I wish I could leave my job.”

You can.  You just have to decide you want it enough. 

Here is a great blog post on the top 10 excuses why people stay in jobs they don’t like: 

http://positivesharing.com/2008/04/top-10-bad-excuses-for-staying-in-a-bad-job/

My Christmas wish to you is that you enjoy being you.  There is no greater gift a person can have than self-acualization, to be comfortable with who you are and fulfilled with what you do.  Here is a poem that one of our Daily Dose of Happiness Subscribers sent me on the topic:

Today is right where you need to be
It is where you need to be, to get you to where you are going tomorrow
And tomorrow will be better than any day before
Live life for yourself, be true to yourself, and everything you deserve will fall into place

What makes you “younique”?  Sure, you have a unique retina and a unique finger print.  And your dental records are all your own.  You might even have your own personal file at the CIA, the KGB or Interpol.

But what makes you most unique is your experiences, thousands even millions of moments that nobody else has shared.  So many moments that have shaped who you are.  So many reactions that have programmed you how to process information and react now to any situation in your own special way.  So many lessons you have learned, even without realizing, that inspire you to achieve, to share, to act, to think and to do everything you do.

Keep those younique experiences coming.

From today’s Daily Dose of Happiness:

Bravo!  You have just been awarded best actor.  And best director.  And best original screenplay.  In fact, it’s a clean sweep.  You are the best of everything in this production you refer to simply and humbly as “my life”. 

Yes, we each direct the most fascinating and complex production imaginable - our lives.  We write the script and choose the cast.  We set the stage and make the choices.  We pick out the costumes and makeup and edit the script.

Well done.  Bravo!

Here is a great post on how to deal with criticism.  It gives a 6-step plan that should help those of us who find that challenging.

The post begins:  How do you deal with criticism? Ever noticed how some people are able to take criticism much better then others? Are you one of those people whom goes “off the deep end”, or wish you would have said “THAT!”. You want to be the true criticism master? Have a Teflon shield everything criticism will bounce off on? …