Self-Help Happiness Blog

“Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Opportunity”

“Opportunity who?”

*silence*

Yes, silence.  When opportunity knocks, you have to answer it.  If you wait around asking questions, opportunity will wander off somewhere else, knocking on some one else’s door by the time you answer.

Worse than hesitating and questioning opportunity, is ignoring it altogether.  Perhaps we don’t want to hear the knocking.  Perhaps we are too busy or careless or introspective to pay attention.

I am convinced that the biggest difference between people who are successful in life – however you choose to define “success” – and those who are not, is how they respond when opportunity knocks.  Successful people…

• Remain constantly alert, so they hear the knocking.
• Answer right away.
• Welcome opportunity in.

What do you do when opportunity knocks?  Do you even hear the knocking?

Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slow, was a guest of Christine Louise Hohlbaum at the blog “The Power of Slow”.  Carl offered ten tips on how to slow down the pace of your life.  Here is that top-10 list: 

1. Downsize your calendar. 
2. Question your inner speed demon. 
3. Take up a slow hobby. 
4. Stop clock-watching. 
5. Rediscover the joys of the table. 
6. Take a walk. 
7. Meditate. 
8. Consider an alternative approach to your health. 
9. Vacation slowly. 
10. Turn it off.

It is comforting to know that I do about half of these. For more details on each of these points, you can read the interview here.

Stand on your head.

You think I’m kidding, don’t you? No, I’m not…go ahead and stand on your head. If this poses physical difficulties, try lying down sideways in your office or in your kitchen.

Spend some time looking at things from a fresh perspective. And, yes, I mean that literally, because the more often we do this, the better we train our brains to be able to approach problems, challenges and opportunities also from fresh angles.

Want to be better able to solve problems and respond to new situations? Train your brain.

 This is taken from a recent edition of A Daily Dose of Happiness.

This is not a new theme, the importance of sleep for happiness.  A well rested person thinks more clearly and is much less likely to react sharply at the slightest provocation.  A sleep-deprived person feels more stress and is less effective in everything he does.  There is a superb article with tips for getting a better night’s sleep.

Among the sensible tips:

• Avoid a nightcap – alcohol impairs sleep
• Don’t bring a TV to bed – for goodness sakes, is there no escaping that thing?!
• Go to bed earlier
• Don’t argue just before bed – stress makes for less “productive” sleeping

Good night. 

What do you think of those slick posters and coffee mugs with motivational messages on them? Good tools? Too commercial?

What about spirit bottles, filled with nothing but air and a small paper with a simple sentiment, such as “love deeply” or “hang in there”? They are less slick, more down-to-earth and less inspiring perhaps. There is a debate on this over at this self confidence blog.

I have a better suggestion. The best motivational message is the one you write to yourself. I am not saying you can’t buy motivation – every sports team, every movie set, every major company knows you can. But outsourcing your motivational messages is not as effective as writing yourself a personal note and placing it where it is most relevant. Depending on the note, that might be in your car, beside your bathroom mirror or even in your toolshed.

No need to spend $20 on a slick motivational message laser targeted to just you and 100,000 people who are obviously exact replicas of you. Write your own messages and place them where they count.

What do you do with your free time?  Is it productive?  I don’t mean by “productive” whether it makes money or builds something.  Here is a checklist for your downtime activity:

- Does it get your heart rate pumping?
- Does it make you think in new ways?
- Does it improve the world?
- Does it deepen friendships?

If not, maybe it’s time to rethink how you spend your free time.

This was in A Daily Dose of Happiness a couple days ago.  I like it enough to repeat it here…

Here is a game you can play with your family: Academy Awards.  Decide what each person in your household has done that week that is deserving of praise.  Make the announcement.  Everybody applaud.  Have the person make a speech thanking everyone else for helping.  What a way to create a team atmosphere…and if a family is not a team, what is it?

Let the breeze blow in. There is nothing quite like fresh air to carry our spirits higher. Our lungs know the difference, and they crave real air – the kind you don’t find indoors. Open the windows.

Inhale.

Ahhh…that feels better.

On a footnote, wind is itself one of the four ancient elements, along with fire, earth and water.  What these four elements have in common is that they all have a therapeudic effect on our spirits.