Okay so here’s a little bit more about eliminating negativity from our lives. It’s actually very amazing how often we moan and groan about our lives.

Try being aware of your own complaining for one day. I know I was amazed at the things that were coming out of my mouth or running through my head.

I’ve decided that for me it has to stop. So instead of complaining, I’m working to replace those thoughts and statements with some type of appreciation instead.

Just look around you. Even on the worst of days, there’s much to be grateful for.

As soon as your eyes open in the morning you can be grateful for another day and a good nights sleep. If you have a good partner, give thanks for them too, acknowledging what a blessing they are to your life.

Your car starts on the first try - be grateful. There’s a parking space in the tiny little Starbucks parking lot - be grateful. I’m sure you’re seeing the pattern by now.

I have a friend who’s made a list of things she can be grateful for. When she’s feeling bad and needs to change her state of mind, she gets the list out and starts reading. She says some days it takes longer than others, but it never fails to lift her spirits and get her thinking positively again.

This is going to take some work, but I’m committed to following through on it. The rewards are just too great not to.

I have a friend who can never remember people’s names. Actually, it’s kind of annoying. He’ll call and ask me the guy’s name that we met 2 weeks ago at Home Depot that fixed the roof on Aunt Brenda’s house. Well, you get the idea.

Why does he call me? Because I always remember people’s names or I have them written down somewhere.

Here are a couple of things I do that help:

1. Always give your full attention to the person you’re meeting. Study their face or pick out some distinguishing feature that will help set them in your mind.
2. If the person’s name is unique, ask them how to spell it or for the correct pronouciation. We all like to have our names spelled and pronounced correctly and the extra attention you give to someone’s name will help you to remember it.
3. When you see them in the future be sure to greet them by name and repeat their name over and over to yourself once your conversation is finished.
4. As soon as possible, make a written note of the person’s name. Even when I can’t easily remember someone’s name, I do remember where I’ve written it in my calendar book.

Any one of these actions will help you remember people’s names. And, if you do them all, you’ll be a master at it!

There’s a great post over at lifehack.org this morning called Don’t Be Eeyore. It speaks to me right now because I’m working on eliminating the negativity in my life. And what Dustin points out in this post is that we are the source of our own negativity.

Actually, this is great news. Since we’re doing it to ourselves, that means we can stop anytime. All we need to do is be aware of what we’re doing and change our habits over to the positive side.

Here are a few tips from the post:

• Stop undermining yourself with offhand comments like “I’m tired” or “I’m bored”. If you really are tired and bored, do something about it.
• Learn to handle issues with other people as they come up. Don’t avoid conflict and then tell everyone you know about how bad someone else has treated you. Deal with conflicts immediately.
• Replace the word “but” with the word “and”. You’ll be suprised how often you use the word “but” to let yourself off the hook.
• Stop worrying about things you cannot change.
• Acknowledge your mistakes and keep on going. Don’t beat youself up - mistakes happen. Develop persistance and continuing going for what you want.
• Don’t avoid dealing with negative things. Handle them quickly and move on without dwelling on the unpleasantness.

There’s much more detail in the original post. You can read the entire thing here: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/dont-be-eeyore.html

Many people talk about there just not being enough time in the day, yet the hours are the same as they always have been. What we need to do is learn to organize our time better to get the most out of ever day.

Take a look at your life. Are you disorganized? Do you make unnecessary trips to the store because you’ve forgotten something or do you only leave the house once you’ve prepared a well thought out list?

Are you spending your time doing the things that are going to get you what you want? Do you even know what you want to create in your life?

Now the purpose of these questions is not to make you wrong, but to make you think. Our lives are full - very full for most of us. And if you’re not clear about what you want, you’ll end up running around busy all the time and not accomplishing anything.

When scheduling your time and your appointments, here’s a tip that’s worked for me. Never write your commitments down in pencil - always use a pen. Since it can’t be erased, you’re committed to sticking to it. And when we stick to our commitments, we get important things done.

Find out what works for you and then stick to it. Plan to organize your life and then stick with your commitment. This takes discipline, but the results are well worth it. Before you know it, you’ll be getting the most out of every day.

Do you spend enough time with your family? Do you make time to spend with them or do you simply work it in at your convenience?

I work at home and my kids are homeschooled, so I see them all the time. But lately I’ve realized that we’re not really spending any time together. Sure we eat dinner together every day, but then I usually go back into my office for several hours in the evening to get some more work done. By the time I’m done, the kids are ready for bed.

So what’s the benefit of working at home and making your own schedule if you spend all your time in your home office and not with your family?

I’ve decided to set office hours for myself. That way, I don’t expect myself to go back into the office after dinner. My work day is done. And, I’ve also started including recreation and family time in my day planner. Somehow that seems to make it more on purpose. And, it gives me something else to check off my list as having been done. I love checking things off my list.

We’re all loving the new system and look forward to our evenings together. And, I find that I’m actually getting more work done during the day since I know I don’t have those evening hours to complete everything.

Groucho Marx once said, “A clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast.”

Groucho was as smart as he was funny - recent studies show that laughter is good for your health. It may be even better than exercise or a dose of the best medicine. And I’m not joking.

At a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Wei Jiang of Duke University reported on how mood affected health. In a study of over 1,000 heart patients, Dr. Jiang discovered patients with mild depression had nearly twice the risk of death by heart failure than those with a more cheerful disposition.

At the same conference, Dr. Michael Miller from the University of Maryland demonstrated that even the type of movie you watch can dramatically affect your health. They measured the blood flow of 20 healthy volunteers before and after watching Steven Spielberg’s graphic war movie “Saving Private Ryan” and Woody Harrelson’s comedy “Kingpin”.

Dr. Miller reported blood flow decreased by 35% during the war movie and increased by 22% during the comedy. That’s a huge difference. Dr. Miller concluded that laughter could be as healthy as exercise. So it seems to me that a joyful, happy attitude is good for your heart and helps you live longer.

This isn’t really new information. Over 20 years ago, Norman Cousins told his amazing story of overcoming a terminal disease by watching old Charlie Chaplin comedies. His doctors gave him no hope. But he believed, deep down in his heart, that joy and laughter could turn his health around. And it did!

Since Cousins’ book Anatomy of an Illness came out, Drs. Stanley Tan and Lee Berk of Loma Linda University Medical Center in California have been the leaders in laughter research. Over and over again, they’ve shown laughter can improve muscle relaxation, releases endorphins (natural painkillers), reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure and boost the immune system.

Laughter is cheaper than any drug and has no negative side effects, but it is contagious. So go out and start an epidemic. It worked for Groucho, Uncle Miltie, Bob Hope and George Burns - and it can work for you too.

I found a great post at lifehack.org that details some methods on How To Stay Motivated. Gleb, the author, takes you through 5 steps:

1. Find the good reasons
2. Make it fun
3. Take a different approach
4. Recognize your progress
5. Reward yourself

This is a great way to get yourself focused on what you want to achieve - not only with your health - but in your life. If you don’t have clear and specific health goals, now is a great time to come up with some.

Then, using Gleb’s methods, keep yourself motivated and working towards achieving what you want. I particularly like his section on making things fun. If something is a drag, I don’t want to do it - even if I know it will get me closer to my goals. But if I think about it long enough and with a good attitude, I can usually come up with something fun or positive to focus on. After a while, the positive attitude becomes a habit.

You can read the entire lifehack.org post here: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/how-to-stay-motivated.html

“The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow. Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show.” - Author Unknown

Did you know that your integrity and your health are interrelated? I believe that in order to get the best results in life - both in your health and in your success - you have to have integrity.

I don’t think there’s anyone alive who can honestly say that they’ve never been tempted to take a shortcut that would detract from their usual high standards in order to somehow get ahead or make more money. But, true success comes from overcoming the urge to take the “easy way out”.

The older I get, the clearer it becomes to me that every decision I make has an effect on my results - and how I feel about my accomplishments. A victory that’s won at others’ expense is a hollow victory to be sure.

How does this relate to health? Well if you look at the word disease phonetically it becomes dis - ease. The definition of “dis” is “the opposite or absence of”. So essentially, disease means “the absence of ease” with “ease” meaning “health.”

When I’m feeling good about what I’m doing, how I’m doing it and what I’m accomplishing, there is no “disease” in my life. Give it a try and see how it works for you.

In order to get what you want in life - both personally and professionally - you’re going to need to manage your time. It’s actually the most important thing you can do to put yourself on the right track.

Here are ten tips to organizing your time.

1. Have the right tools. It doesn’t matter if you use a Blackberry, a DayTimer or a lined pad, you have to have a central place to keep your information. This gives you something to refer to during the day to see what you have to do and how much time you have to do it.

2. Set your priorities. Put the most important and urgent things at the top of your list and give yourself the right amount of time for getting these things done.

3. Create a routine. Doing the same things at the same time each day will go a long way in helping you to stay organized. You’ll always know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.

4. Keep your things neat and organized. Manage the files on your computer as well as your household and office stuff. You won’t waste time searching for lost items.

5. Have a plan for your day. Know what you need to do and when you need to do it.

6. Don’t waste your time. Interruptions and procrastination can eat up all your time. Keep and eye out for both.

7. Put aside time for yourself. We all need some “alone” time to recharge our batteries. Make sure you get what you need by scheduling it right into your day.

8. Keep track of the time you’re spending on basic, repetitive tasks. If you’re doing a simple task over and over again, is there a way you can delegate it to someone else?

9. Know your resources. Once you find a good appliance repairman, make sure you keep his name and phone number handy. Don’t waste time searching through the yellow pages every time you need him. Keep your resources organized and easy to find.

10. Ask for help. If your list is too long, get yourself some help. You might be surprised what others are capable of doing to help you out.

I’ve always loved quotes. In fact, I have a bunch of different ones tacked to the cork board next to my desk. Here are some of my favorites:

• “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Goethe
• “Even ifyou’re on the right track, you’ll get run over it you just sit there.” Will Rogers
• “You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.” Dr. Seuss
• “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison
• “It’s more important to do the right ting that to do things right. Peter Drucker
• “Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your prioritie and go to work.” H.L. Hunt
• “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson