The Life Design Studio

Are you one of life’s winners?

Firstly let’s talk about ‘winning’.  Most people consider this to be about being the best, achieving a difficult challenge, gaining that promotion, achieving wealth or having the right numbers at Bingo.

But there’s another definition of winning and that’s ‘achieving happiness’ – this is what I’m talking about and if you haven’t ‘won’ in this sense, read on and see if you can find out why.

A Truly Inspiration Story

  Are you struggling with some aspect of life to the point where you feel unable to move forward?  The following truly inspirational story of Amy Purdy could help you get motivated ... the last words of her article are particularly powerful and I, for one, won't forget them in a hurry.

"Amy Purdy had found her passion and was in control of her life. A snowboarder, massage therapist, and artist, she had faced her share of challenges, was making good money, and looked toward a bright future. She knew nothing could get in the way of her success. Only when she lost both legs to illness did she discover how true that was.

Amy Purdy was just 19 when the course of her life took a drastic change. After a day’s illness with what seemed to be the flu, her condition became critical. Her family rushed her to the hospital where they were informed that septic shock had caused respiratory and multiple organ failure.

Why Me? | Its Just not fair

What happens when we take an event in our lives - or someone else’s - and then, by the way we think, we exaggerate the negative effect on our lives? 

“Why did this have to happen to me?”  “What have I done to deserve this?”  “Everything was going so well ... until this happened.  Now nothing can ever be the same again.”

Let’s say it’s an unexpected health problem.  Do you find yourself thinking…….

“I know  other people don’t look after themselves, they eat junk food, they smoke and drink, so they deserve to get sick, but not me … I eat healthy food … maybe other people don’t take exercise, but I work out every day.  It’s their own fault, but not me… “

Or maybe you have a financial issue and you think “I control my money very well……maybe other people don’t make a budget and watch expenditures, so if they have a financial disaster I can understand it but why me; I am so careful.”  Or “Maybe other people don’t treat their partners well, and so they deserve to be cheated on , but not me, I’m a good person…” and on it goes.

Stress Unravelled!

When you or your employees suffer from stress it isn’t just a matter of ‘pull yourself together’ or ‘snap out of it’. Stress is a real problem which can have dire consequences for your business.

Research has shown that pressure at work (or at home) is causing many employees to succumb to stress related diseases costing many businesses a small fortune.  Yet excessive anxiety and stress are both preventable and avoidable.

To the sufferer it very often seems impossible to shake off anxiety or depression but it doesn’t have to be that way. The right professional help could sort out the problem in a matter of weeks, turning someone who has become a liability into your best asset.

DIY steps to improving your confidence

I received a newsletter recently from Dave Crisp who is a fellow Life Coach.  Here are his "7 steps to increase your Confidence" which you could practice at home.

"Would you like to improve your confidence? Would you be interested in a technique that can help get rid of the fear of speaking when you have to give a talk, or that boosts your confidence for sports or other high performance needs? Could there be a time in the future, that you would like to be more assured than you have been in the past?

Why Is It So Difficult To Change Our Lives?

  We run our life on patterns, habits if you like, and mostly that's a very good thing.  It is a process which has kept us in existence as a species for thousands of years.  But why is it so difficult to change our lives when we want to?

Our conscious brain, the part of our brain which works things out with logic and reason, is very good at mixing and matching the signals we pick up through our senses and in sometimes coming to a conclusion that change would be beneficial.  This process is clever but comparatively slow and 'expensive' to run in energy terms. 

New Year’s Resolutions : Reflective Thoughts

It’s gone midnight on January 4th.  I’ve just finished ploughing through the last few days’ received e-mails to ensure I’ve answered everyone’s good wishes or enquiries and whilst lounging here with my lap top I’ve had a flash of inspiration about the one New Year Resolution I shall make and keep every year without fail.

At this time of change and fresh starts and clean slates it’s really important to recognise what’s been sabotaging my efforts to make changes in my life up to now.  So my resolution is to reflect on the year gone by and look for patterns of behaviour that are automatic but which do not serve me.  I shall no doubt discover limiting beliefs ... they must be there or life would be hunky dory in every respect and it’s not.  There are improvements to be made and some of them have been waiting an awfully long time.  Why?  Because I’ve been holding myself back with excuses, fears and procrastination.

So, I, Bee Milbourn, resolve to reflect each year-end on the patterns of thought and action that have prevented me from being all I can be and I resolve to do whatever it takes to change those patterns for the better.

What about you?  What do you see when you look back over your year?  Are you doing the same old thing over and over again but expecting a different result?

I hope not ... but do think about it.

Best wishes
Bee

New Year’s Resolutions 2009 : Increasing your chance of Success

Yet another year on the turn, yet another set of New Year Resolutions to be broken.  Am I being pessimistic?  Well, that’s not my style at all but I do know that there is sound evidence that most people don’t carry out their pledges – well at least not for more than a few days.  So why is this?  How can I help you to be on the right side of the statistics heap?  After all, it’s not as if I’ve always kept my promises to myself ... but I have learned a lot in the process of breaking them about why that happens and I want to share it with you.  Let's do battle with our enemies and emerge victorious!

Five Easy Pieces to piecing together your purpose in life

I found this piece on someone else’s blog and I liked it so much I’m going to re-post it here.  Unfortunately, I don’t know the original author.

5 easy pieces to piecing together your purpose in life

"In the film Five Easy Pieces starring Jack Nicholson, the main character played by him, works in an oil field for many years after failing to achieve the dream of being a pianist; a dream which his parents created for him. Throughout the film, Jack's character Robert Dupea doesn't really know what he's supposed to do with his life. He keeps running from his fears, his family, and from his past.

Figuring out what you were put on this Earth to do can sometimes be like putting together a jigsaw puzzle when the pieces are spread around the world. Some people don't complete their puzzle because they often don't have the patience, desire, or they're just fearful. However, the five pieces needed to complete the puzzle of your life purpose are actually quite easy to find.

Driving Ambition | Driving Test Nerves

It is one of the real pleasures of my role as a therapist to become aware of making a real difference in someone’s life especially when that person has been struggling with an issue for many years. Driving Test Nerves can cause people to fail their test time and time again with often damaging effects on their self esteem.