The GoalTribe Blog

We frequently encounter things that seem to make us stressful, fearful, or otherwise upset. But it’s not really the thing that is making us upset, it’s how we interpret and react to it. My friend Isabelle Stahl recently started a site to promote a simple, powerful method for transforming stress in 4 simple steps. Great stuff! I find it incredibly helpful. Take a look at KindMind.ca

So you’ve lost your job, huh? That’s sucks. Or does it? What if it’s the best thing that ever happened to you? What if it’s a blessing in disguise? I know you might feel terrible about it, but millions of people who’ve lost there jobs are deciding to re-interpret what unemployment means. They’re going from UNemploymed to FUNemployed. And you can too!

5 Steps for Turning UNemployment into FUNemployment

1. Drop the Guilt and Fear: These are new times. Lots of people are losing there jobs. You may lose your job many more times. It doesn’t mean you’re bad. It doesn’t mean you’re not taking care of your family. Feeling bad about losing your job is a waste of time. Surrender to the situation, be grateful for the fresh opportunities before you, and get curious and excited about what you could do with your time off work!

2. Take a Mini Retirement: This is an opportunity: an opportunity to start a new chapter in your life; an opportunity to catch your breath, an opportunity to take a Mini Retirement! Tim Ferris’ book “4 Hour Workweek” explains how counting on a nice retirement at the end of your life is no longer a valid strategy. There’s too much uncertainty with the economy, social security, finances and your health. It’s much smarter to take mini-retirements throughout your life. There is no longer a stigma attached to taking off 3,6 or 12 months between jobs.

3. Carpe Diem: So seize the day! Give yourself permission to have the time of your life! Whether you just have a lot more fun with the flexibility and time you have during your job search, or whether you take a full on mini-retirement - have fun with your unemployment!

4. Swap Time for Money: When you have a good job, you have money, but no time to enjoy it. When you’re without work, you’re rich with time but have limited money. How exciting! You just need to learn how to be clever & creative with your cash.

5. Do Something Stupendous! I hope by now your brain is running wild with ideas for things you could do with your time off. Do something exciting! Do something that people will be amazed by! Do something that makes a great story! Do something that will fill a photo album that will make you laugh, and smile and relive happy memories all the days your life. Make this unemployment a FUNemployment!

What might you do with your FUNemployment? Learn a language? See concerts? Teach your children to surf? Learn the accordion? Backpack South America? Volunteer to help save the rain forest? Write your memoirs? Finish that screenplay? Play your favorite video game to the end? Find a cure for baldness? Please share your ideas in the comments section!

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• Unemployment survival guide (money.cnn.com)
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Standing in line bored out of your mind is a huge waste of your precious time on Earth. It’s one of the least efficient features of modern life, one that I think we’ll eventually do away with. But it’s only a waste if you stand their bored. In reality, it’s a precious gift of time during which you can do something profound… something deep and meaningful… something that can even blow your mind. Here are 6 ways to make your time standing in line into something profound:

6 Ways to Blow your Mind when you’re Stuck in Line

1. Become Joyful: Research in the new field of positive psychology has clearly established that your happiness has very little to do with the conditions of your life. Right now, somewhere there is someone in worse health with less money than you, standing in a long line under a blistering sun – and they’re happier than you are! They’re joyful simply because they have better mental habits than you. Standing in line is a perfect opportunity to practice being happy for no reason at all. Spend the time counting your blessings. What’s great about your life? What are you looking forward too? What are some of your best memories? Who do you love? What are you proud of? How do those thoughts make you feel?

2. Expand Your Mind: One of the profound things about being human is our capacity to keep learning. And there are oceans of mind-blowing things to study about this great, big, beautiful universe we live in. I frequently keep a small book in the car that I can slip in my back pocket to pull out if I’m stuck standing somewhere with nothing to do. Read up on the subjects that fascinate you. Read mind-expanding books on science, philosophy or spirituality. Read personal development books. Read the classics. Read executive summaries of books. (More ideas at 5 Ways to Learn on the Go)

3. Meditate: There are many ways to meditate. One way that can be done in line is: Take a deep breath. Relax your body (stand or sit or whatever). Keep your eyes open. Now just breathe in a relaxed, easy way and notice the things happening around you. For every thing you notice, just say “I smell someone’s perfume. I see someone’s red dress. I feel my shoes…” Just notice. Don’t judge. Don’t think. Don’t process. If you notice active thoughts, just gently go back to the exercise. How does that feel? Don’t worry, if you need to become active, you can snap out of it instantly. (Although with renewed sense of peacefulness.)

4. Breath in Serenity: Standing in line is a good time to do breathing exercises. Breathing purifies, energizes and leads to a nice, serene state of mind. Just do this 10 times: breath all the way out, squeezing your belly to make sure your lungs are really empty. Then take a long deep breath in. Puff out our belly, then your chest. When you think you’re full, sniff in through your nose once or twice. Hold for a few moments (as comfortable), then slowly exhale. Only do as many repetitions as is comfortable. You’ll probably need to build up to ten. Then enjoy the serenity that follows. Notice how your body feels.

5. Become One: Now we’re getting into some really mind-blowing concepts. Standing in line is an opportunity to do exercises to build your feelings of oneness with all things. Consider one of the people standing in line with you. This person is a manifestation of the same profound forces that crafted the starry sky; the same forces that make people look into each other’s eyes and fall in love; the same forces that blanket the springtime in flowers, greenery and birdsong. This person’s consciousness is one of the most profound mysteries of the universe. How could you show this person some kindness? Compliment them. Ask them about their life. Listen deeply, with respect. Each person has something to teach you. Each person is an opportunity to connect more deeply with life.

6. Transcend: “To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.” – Emerson. There are many paths to the enlightened state of being, where you experience the profound nature of all reality and extraordinary bliss and lightness at all times. The more mundane the situation, the better it is for practicing this realization and the feelings that accompany it. Stand in line and think about the trillions of atoms all around you spinning and vibrating, doing their part to create this absolutely unique, once-in-an-eternity moment for you to experience. Most of these atoms were forged in the extraordinary conditions of a star, they are stardust. You are stardust. Imagine everything sparkling and shining. Everything is perfect in this moment.

So vow right now to never waste time in line again. Pick one or more of the practices above to transform your “waiting time” into “awakening time”. What steps could you take to be prepared for that?

You could also set a goal on GoalTribe to commit to not wasting another minute in line for the next 30 days to see how it impacts your life.

Do you have some other suggestions for making waiting time productive? Please share in the comments.

For more productivity strategies see: “Stop Wasting Time” on The Simple Dollar blog.

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Thank you for reading!
Robin

The passing of Michael Jackson is truly the end of the era. I still remember seeing him dance for the first time and being just astounded that a human could physically move like that. He’ll forever be my King of Pop. Like all great

The 5 Most Important Things I Learned From Michael Jackson

1. A single person can still move a planet of 6 billion people to tears of joy, heart-pounding excitement, and gasps of sheer wonder.
2. With dedication and commitment, you can do things nobody has ever done before – ever – in the history of the planet. (What could you do?)
3. The media loves to create super stars – and it loves to tear them down. (What would it take for our press to be a more purely positive force in our world?)
4. Fame and fortune do not = happiness. (Only changing your habitual ways of thinking can make you happy.)
5. Plastic surgery still has a long way to go…
6. Bonus Lesson: The concept of a flawless “hero” is a myth. Nobody has ever lived their life perfectly.

Thanks for all the great times, Michael. May you rest in peace. Your pain is over…

What did you learn from Michael’s life and death? What are your favorite Michael Jackson memories? Please share in the comments.

Tim Brownson makes an interesting point about the reaction to Michael Jackson’s death that I recommend reading.

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Part of creating a fulfilling life for yourself is discovering the things you love to do and filling your life with them. It’s amazing when your profession is your passion and you volunteer doing things that are both profoundly helpful and enjoyable to you.

But inevitably you end up having to do things that make you want to scream, or make your eyes glaze over like a Dunkin Donut.

Don’t dispair! You can adjust your enjoyment of these things with a few simple tricks:

1. Know Why: Why are you doing this task? Focus on the outcome you’re after and how it will feel to achieve it. For example, how great will it feel to have all your finances organized and fully understand them? And how will it feel to be able to spend knowing that it’s in budget?

2. Watch Your Focus: When working on a project we tend to keep focusing on problems and things which aren’t complete yet, so we can fix them. But be sure to take a moment to look at what’s going right. What’s great about this?

3. Watch your Body: Often if you’re doing something you don’t like, you’re holding that tension and stress in your body - in your muscles, your breathing and your face. Get up and move a little, shake out your body, take a deep breath and let out a sigh as if you’re looking out over a beautiful scene. Let you body relax. Smile. Feel how that change of state feels in your body and try to keep that relaxation as you work. Remind yourself regularly to check how you’re using your body - and relax!

4. Take a Break: Studies have shown that you can’t concentrate too continuously for too long without it affecting your mood and performance. It’s recommended to take a short break every half hour or so. In fact, one study showed that people who watched YouTube or checked FaceBook at work were more productive because they could relax with a laugh or a smile very quickly! (Just don’t let it get carried away.)

5. Reframe & Find Meaning: Often you just picked up a bad attitude, belief or feeling about the task that is just unfairly making you suffer. You think you hate finances - why? Where did that belief come from? Take some time to write out all the ways in which that belief is making your life miserable, then write a new belief like - “I love mastering my finances!” and then write down all the reasons that could be true.

I got to thinking about this topic from the conclusions Glen came to on his inspiring 7 Day Discipline Challenge.
Read about his challenge here: http://www.pluginid.com/pure-self-discipline/

And his conclusions here: http://www.pluginid.com/self-discipline-challenge/

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Life was not meant to be a dull bore. It’s meant to be an uproarious, laugh-out-load, grin-from-ear-to-ear, technicolor thrill ride! And if there are boring details, or painful projects you need to complete along the way, there are hundreds of little tricks for injecting juice, joy and fun into anything.

I just read the PickTheBrain.com blog post The Ultimate Motivation Hack, which explains how adding fun is the key to staying motivated. It inspired me to continue to the conversation with 40 creative ways to make boring activities much more fun:

1. Rock Out! Play music that really makes you happy.

2. Don’t just turn on the top-40 station, get online and get MP3’s of the music that made you feel like conquering the world when you were a teenager!

3. Turn it up! Can’t turn it up? Get headphones.

4. Need to think while you’re working? Explore energizing music without lyrics like classical… or my favorite work music – Goa Trance!

5. Or perhaps you prefer relaxing, serene music that makes you smile. Experiment with genres to see how different music affects you. Try jazz,rock, easy listening, world, country, electronica. I recommend Pandora.com to listen for free.

6. Play music that reminds your favorite vacation

7. Sing along – preferably at the top of your lungs!

8. Change Locations. Do your project somewhere you normally wouldn’t.

9. Do it outside in the sunshine and fresh air

10. Do it at a coffee shop

11. Do it somewhere you’ve never been before

12. Ask if you can do this project from home

13. Focus on the Fun. Too often we focus on problems we need to address rather than the hundreds of details that would make us feel happier.

14. How will this positively impact you? Your loved ones? Your finances? Your health? The world?

15. What’s go right in this moment? What could you be grateful for? What are you proud of?

16. Give Them Something To Talk About – How could you turn a mundane project into a story worth sharing?

17. How can you do it in a new, creative, crazy, profound or noteworthy way?

18. What if you did it faster than anyone thought possible?

19. What if you did it while you were in the bathtub?

20. What if you added some creative flair?

21. Can you work on this while spending the whole day in bed?

22. Change Clothes. What you wear can have a big affect on how you feel.

23. Wear your craziest outfit

24. Wear vacation clothes (and put on music from your last vacation)

25. Do the project in your pajamas, in your underwear or naked!

26. Put on a suit or your dressiest clothes

27. Wear your coziest house clothes

28. User your Body. Studies have shown that body motion is directly connected to emotion.

29. So walk tall, stand like someone who is alive, electric and ready to take on the world

30. Smile a huge, big smile (proven to help even depressed patients reduce medication)

31. Breath deeply. Take a few deep breaths every few minutes. Let out a nice sigh as you exhale.

32. Dance – while cleaning, while walking, while doing anything. Tap a foot, bop your head, let the world see your happiness.

33. Excite your Senses

34. Surround yourself in flowers

35. Find the most exhilarating paintings, screen-savers or wallpaper to decorate with. Find images that you actually make your heart swell in a way you can feel.

36. Find a scent to fill your workspace that makes you happy.

37. Try pure peppermint flavoring, with no sugar or additives, to give you a calorie free zing throughout the day

38. Play stand-up comedy on Hulu.com while working

39. Listen to great inspiration speakers like Tony Robbins, Zig Zigglar or Wayne Dyer while working

40. Have a DVD of continuous thrill sports playing in the background – skydiving, snowboarding, surfing. Whatever excites you.

What do YOU do to make a boring project more fun? What things can you do to spice up any activity? Please tell us in the comments section.

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What more juice, joy and happiness in your life? Then focus on gratitude. Research by Dr. Martin Seligman, one of the founders of Positive Psychology, has found that simple exercises that boost your gratitude also greatly increase your happiness, optimism, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy. And the boost can last for weeks. That’s some pay off! Here are his 2 techniques, plus 1 bonus method:

1. Keep a Gratitude Journal

Simply take a few minutes at least 4 times a week to jot down a couple of things you’re grateful for that day. That’s it! In studies, people who kept it up for at least a few weeks saw meaningful improvements in their gratitude and happiness. You might keep a notebook by your bed and journal each morning or evening.

2. Write a Gratitude Letter

Think of someone in your life who has helped you in some way. It could be a family member, teacher, coworker, friend, mentor, neighbor or someone else. Write a letter them expressing in concrete terms what your are grateful for about. When you’re ready, deliver the letter - in person if possible. This method not only improves your happiness, but also the happiness of the recipient. To see a really nice blog post on this subject that will realy inspire you (it inspired me to write this post!), see Turning Gratitude Inside Out on The Change Blog.

3. Take a Gratitude Walk

Take a walk outside and just start listing off all the things you see that you’re grateful for: the sunshine, the birds, smiling people, city services, airplanes that can carry you through the sky, shoes, the food that’s powering your journey, your eyes that let you see everything. In your mind say “I’m SOO GRATEFUL for ….” Be really enthusiastic. Say it outload if you can. Thank people directly if you’ve got the guts “I’m SO grateful for your beautiful flower bed Mrs. Beasley!” Walk tall, breath deep and wear as big a smile as you dare. Do that and you’ll be exercising at least half a dozen different powerful techniques for boosting your joy for the whole day, much less your gratitude.

The trick to go from showering joy on your week to showering joy on your whole life is doing one or more of these practices consistently until it becomes a lifelong habit of happiness and gratitude. And of course, you guessed it, the best way to do that is to set a GoalTribe goal to write in your journal, or send a gratitude letter a certain number of times a week so you get the reminders, you get the social support and you get the joy of being celebrated by your allies as you make progress!