Positive Energy - Easy Ways To Inject Some Fun Into Your Life

September 2008

Dear Anne

A recent TUC report said that unhappiness at work is increasing. Are you enjoying the ride or simply putting up with the daily grind? It may sound like a cliché, but you really are only on this planet for a limited time, so it's up to you to make the most of it. In this edition of Positive Energy I'm going to show you a few simple tricks to make sure you finish every day feeling fulfilled.

Who do you know that would enjoy a burst of Positive Energy every month? Why not share this newsletter with a friend or colleague? And why not get in touch with me! If you've got any success stories you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me or call me on 01697 747 821

Bye for now,

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans” – John Lennon

It's very easy to get caught up with daily chores and activities and forget to have fun. As children we go from one pleasure seeking activity to the next. As adults we take on more and more responsibilities and it's easy to lose sight of what makes us happy and the importance of having fun.

I'm not suggesting you ditch your job and forget your responsibilities. Nor do I want you to abandon your goals and aspirations. I just want to remind you not to be so driven or focused that you forget to enjoy the journey and fail to recognise the benefits and successes along the way.

Remember we're ‘human beings' not ‘human doings'. So take the time to just ‘be' sometimes. Having goals and responsibilities are essential, but so too is the need to relax and reflect on where you're going, what you've experienced and what you've achieved and enjoyed.

You don't even need to find an extra hour in your day to do this. Why not turn one of your usual daily activities into your ‘me' or ‘be' time. Instead of thinking of your daily dog walk, your journey to work or your session in the gym as a chore, make it your time to reflect on what you've achieved that day and what good things happened to you. Make a conscious effort to focus only on the positives. You'll soon find that you actually look forward to that activity and as a side effect you'll get a huge boost from being more positive.

There's a worksheet on my website that's gives you DIY tips on how to make the most out of the positive experiences in your life. You can download it here it's called Celebrate Your Success.

Positive Practice

As adults we don't really have anyone whose job it is to make sure we have fun. It's up to you to inject some enjoyment into your own life. Unfortunately the pace of life today often means ‘playtime' gets neglected. Here is a simple exercise to help you:

Step One – Think about how you would describe ‘having fun' or ‘enjoying yourself'. What activities make you happy? Write them down.
Step Two – Consider how you can fit more of these activities into each week. It might mean organising your schedule slightly differently or even persuading friends to reorganise theirs so they can join you.
Step Three – Put at least two of these activities into your diary each week and commit to them 100%.

Make sure that at the end of 2008 you can look back over the year and reflect on what you've achieved and also what fun you had. It's not too late!

Hazel from Moffat made a holiday list

When Hazel attended Spring Forward she had achieved the senior legal job of her dreams, but was still feeling that life was flat. She was doing overtime and taking work home. She kept planning to cut down on her work and have more fun, but never actually achieved it. She only really seemed to relax and have fun on holiday. She made a list of the things that she really enjoyed doing on her holidays and resolved to do more of them during her normal working week. Gradually she began to fill her free time with fun things and that used up the time that she had been filling with extra work.

Managing to have fun by Matt Weinstein - Having fun at work really can make your day better and improve your productivity.

100 ways to motivate yourself by Steve Chandler - Lots of these are based around taking a fun approach to an otherwise difficult area of your life.

Turning 50 by Olivia Wu - This lists personal celebrations of turning 50. It gives you great ideas for celebrating more frequently and making fun a daily event.

What’s Happening?

Calling Senior Women in Police/Probation/Fire in the North

Do you or your colleagues work in the police, probation or fire services in the North of England or Southern Scotland? We are running a Spring Forward programme for you in Penrith on 24^th/25^th November and 30^th January. Organised by Helen Ivory at Cumbria Police, this is available to those at Sergeant/ Inspector/ Superintendent and equivalent support staff grades at the bargain rate of just £306. You DO NOT need to have already attended Springboard to attend this. The course was 50% full just three days after we announced it so contact Helen asap to book your place helen.ivory@cumbria.police.uk or call 01768-217137.

Fresh Steps North West

If you work in local government in the North West you can sign up now for a special offer rate on our Fresh Steps programme in Manchester on 21^st/22^nd October and 1^st December. You are still welcome to join us wherever you work, you just pay a small premium. For more details and to book your place click here.

Positive Praise

Just a quick note to let you know that after I left your one day course I decided to chase my dream job and emailed the person in charge of the dept I wanted to work in. She kindly let me know what was coming up and I applied. I got an interview along with 12 others and, can you believe it, I got the job! Without your day I would never have applied and I'm now starting my dream job next month, so thank you for giving me the confidence to chase my dream and believe in myself.

Jacqui

In next month's newsletter we'll look at how you can influence and benefit other people's lives!