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I don't want to be stressed

Monthly Archives: March 2016

Be headline worthy!

31 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Andi in Advice, Coping skills, Life Lessons, Positivity

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blessings, headline worthy, headlines, newsworthy, positivity, tokoloshe, worthiness

I wasn’t having the best of days yesterday – in fact it was a decidedly ‘blah’ kind of day.
It wasn’t that terrible but just ‘blah’ enough for me to be fantasizing about a better life in more tropical places that Johannesburg.
That was until I bought a copy of The Daily Sun – that mine of information and news – and saw this headline:

IMG_5809

And suddenly, just like that, my day improved vastly.  No matter how tired I felt, I realised that I was truly blessed not to be unfortunate enough to have a tokoloshe tracker in my bum! (If you don’t know what a tokoloshe is, I suggest you Google it…. and I’ll leave you to form your own opinions about it).
The Daily Sun’s headlines are a bit extreme but you can read any newspaper on any day and realise that you are far more blessed than you believed you were.
In fact, my daily mantra is that if I am not on the front page of The Daily Sun, then I’m doing alright.

There are people whose lives are so stressful and their conditions of living are so horrific that they would wish to have your kind of problems.
Yet at the same time, there are people who you may envy because their lives seem so much better and less stressful than yours.
So where do you fit in the greater scheme of things?
Probably somewhere in the middle with a leaning towards the more positive side.

Take a moment to appreciate what you have rather than stress about what you don’t have.
Be gracious enough to know that although your life is sometimes really tough, you are also so blessed too.

Make sure that you live your life in such an amazing way that it is headline worthy (with an exclamation mark!).

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Singing and Dancing in the Rain

17 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Andi in Attitude, Positivity

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dancing, happiness, simple things, singing, Singing in the Rain, smile, wave

We have been blessed with wonderful rain in the past week.
Which is great for the environment but better for me because I went to see the show Singing in the Rain this weekend.
And I bought a Singing in the Rain umbrella and now I can sing (and dance) in the rain much to my kids’ embarrassment.

Singing in the Rain
And of course it makes me feel wonderful. It reminds me of a guy in our neighborhood.
He stands on the corner of a busy intersection and dances. Everyday. No matter what.
And he absolutely makes my day.
Not only does his dancing make me smile but he waves at me every time I pass him and sometimes I even get a kiss blown my way (an occupational hazard of mine).

The amazing thing about the dancing guy is that he is unemployed and doesn’t look very dapper but he still has the power to make people happy. In a world that is so materialistic, we often forget that there can be more happiness from simple things than from the big, expensive and powerful things that we come to expect.
There is no physical object – chocolate or shoes (ok, maybe not shoes) that can make me smile like this guy does.

You never know how much power you have to make somebody’s day.
Your smile or your dance could help someone to go from grumpy to smiley. Give it a chance!
It might just work on yourself too!

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Things that I learned from my dog

10 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Andi in Attitude, Life Lessons

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brave, dog's life, failure, fear, lessons, lessons from my dog

My dog really, really believes that she can catch a Hadeda (a bird that is bigger than she is) – she can determinedly stalk them, always hoping that today will be the day that she actually catches one.
She does not get the idea that they can fly and she can’t, hence the chances of catching one is very small.  Yet that doesn’t stop her.
Hadedas love the rain and yesterday, in the rainy, misty weather, the garden was filled with them – what an opportunity! The problem is that my dog hates the rain and definitely hates getting wet.  That didn’t stop her though – in the rain she went, shaking with fear while trying to keep still enough for them not to detect her.
Obviously she didn’t get one, but guess what she was doing this morning again?
Yes, stalking Hadedas in the rain!
She just doesn’t give up and in her doggy world, she always believes that she will eventually catch a Hadeda one day if she keeps on trying.

Imagine if we could have as much determination as my dog?
To be able to live life absolutely believing that we could be bigger than we are, and that we should keep on trying no matter how many times we fail and still keep on going despite our fears….
Although I am sure that a dog’s life is much easier than ours, we should try to emulate their attitude just a little bit.
It reminds me of a piece of advice from a dog lover  that I read:

All I Need To Know About Life I Learned From My Dog

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you’re not.
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
Thrive on affection and let people touch you – enjoy back rubs and pats on your neck.
When you leave your yard, make it an adventure.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t pout – run right back and make friends.
Bond with your pack.
On cold nights, curl up in front of a crackling fire.
When you’re excited, speak up.
When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
If you stare at someone long enough, eventually you’ll get what you want.
Don’t go out without ID.
Leave room in your schedule for a good nap.
Always give people a friendly greeting.
If it’s not wet and sloppy, it’s not a real kiss.

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I don’t want to be mediocre

02 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Andi in Being brave, Fear, Life Lessons, Success

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adventure, comfort zone, courage, dreams, fear, mediocrity, out of the box, overcoming fears

How comfortable is your comfort zone?
It may feel comfortable only because it is familiar – you all know the saying “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” – and what a shocking thing to say!
How about no devil at all?

A comfort zone is about just getting by – doing what you have to do without any real level of enjoyment or passion.  It is like operating on automatic mode.
You will know that you are in that position when a day, or even a week, goes by and when you think about it, it feels like you haven’t really achieved anything or you haven’t got a lot to show for your efforts.
A comfort zone is associated with one my worst words in the world (right up there with slug) – mediocrity.

“adjective

  1. of only average quality; not very good.”

That word makes me cringe because really, who wants to be mediocre?
Even if you are not doing well or you feel like you are failing, at least you are creating opportunities to learn and to find what works for you (or what doesn’t work out).
Mediocrity is just being in the middle – nothing good, nothing bad, no risks taken, no stepping out of ‘box’ and certainly no adventures.

Start an adventure!
Get out of that comfort zone of yours because you really aren’t gaining anything by being in there and you aren’t doing yourself any favours.
That means that you are going to have to face your fears and take risks.
You are going to explore new things and try new ideas.
You will make conscious efforts to get your dreams out of your imagination and into reality.
It is going to take courage and you may not succeed on the first attempt – you may not even succeed on the tenth attempt.
But you know what?
You are going to be amazing!

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