Welcome to our newsletter...in it we have information, articles, events to help you propel your business forward. I am really excited about adopting this new format for my newsletter and hope that you like what it's all about.
Have you ever left something you loved doing? I did just that in October. I hosted/produced my last Small Business Big Ideas Show on CKDO on October 4th. It's not because I didn't love radio, or the listeners or the owners of the station, the decision to leave was borne out of necessity. With 2 key work commitments that take place during the week, life has been pretty full on and the body and mind needed to have a break from working 6 sometimes 7 days a week.
Now it's been a month since I hosted the last show, I have to admit something true to you. Come the weekends, I have been feeling flat and there is a piece to my life that's missing, leaving a big void. Those close to me could even suggest I was a little depressed especially for the first few weeks. I didn't have that something to get up for on Sunday mornings and there was no fire in the belly to do the work I really enjoyed doing. I didn't have the same mission and drive that I had when doing the show for the past 7 years of Sunday's.
The first Sunday off I ended up sleeping most of the day and there was a grieving process to go through. I just felt off. Perhaps it's just the body that needed to rest after going and going. Perhaps too it was the fact that once I was up on a Sunday to host the show, I would designate that day as the day to do the show, hit the gym, wash the car, do errands, clean and laundry...once the key part to getting up and getting going on a Sunday was out of the equation, it became easier to sleep and do nothing that first Sunday off. Plus if you could would you rather sleep in or get going and and get excited about doing laundry, cleaning and washing the car? Yeah you'd opt for sleeping in too...
So there you have it...I am speaking my truth. Since hosting the show, I have not had the same verve and passion to my weekends that I had. I still feel there is a void and being slightly type "A" I need something to do...I thrive on it. In fact two weekends ago I was home in bed with a nasty cold and cough too...so out of 4 weeks of not doing the show, 3 were spent feeling a little blue and flat. Those that know me, know I am pretty upbeat, like to laugh and have fun. But life hasn't been as fun as you'd like it lately.
Lately it's been about work, trying to make ends meet and I have been feeling like I am on a bit of a treadmill. Work, pay bills, work pay bills. Not that I am complaining, it's just what's so...sometimes as good as life can be it seems like you have to ask yourself is that all there is? Now I know the process I have gone through this past month is just that...it's a process, it's part of life. This too shall pass...and truthfully to me the real hero's in life are those that are on the treadmill and don't give up. They go to work everyday and make it happen... It's those of us that even though we're not at our "Optimum best" that we don't give up, we keep going.
It's okay to feel flat, it's okay to sleep in all day, it's okay not be happy all the time, it's okay to be depressed now and then and it's okay to not be going and going.
"But how so," you ask? If we're not happy with life, how can we attract the good things we want to us? Doesn't the law of attraction state that you've got be up, positive, happy for people to be attracted to you? I say drop it. Just be you, just be real.
Some good habits to adopt when you're going through the "flat times" include;
1) Talk it out
2) Have a mastermind team
3) Seek professional counseling
4) Have a laugh
5) Incorporate exercise and meditation in your day-to-day activity
6) Have that one good buddy or mentor you can connect with, sometimes those close to you get tired of your stuff...
7) Be okay with the times when life isn't all that it can be...you have to embrace all that is...
But wait? you claim...this is all well and good...but life lately is like getting to me...well if it's of any help...know that you're not alone. Life is challenging for each one of us.
In North America we are addicted to feeling good. In a book by Barbara Ehrenreich called "Bright Sided" How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America, Ehrenreich suggests that last year, Americans spent 14-Billion-dollars on self-help books, CDs and seminars. Antidepressants are the most prescribed category of drugs in the country.
In a review about the book and this notion that we must be feeling upbeat and positive in Newseek magazine, writer Julia Baird comments that according to a study from the General Social Survey by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of Wharton, that despite three decades of economic growth in America, men and women are no happier. This fact has been lost in the hubbub over the finding that while women were happier than men in 1972, they are not now. Barbara Ehrenreich calls positive thinking a "mass delusion." She argues that an unrelenting drive to train our brains to overlook problems and blame ourselves for failures has blinded us to inequality, incompetence, and stupidity. Baird writes in her article, "The philosophy of positive thinking, has been developed both as a reaction to the negativity of Calvinism and a salve for the sick and anxious, but has, over time, been turned into a kind of blind optimism.
At the heart of positive thinking is a belief that you can will anything you like into happening: recovering from cancer, getting a promotion, becoming a millionaire. Often, the worse things are, the more vehemently people are encouraged to be sunny. The more companies downsized and restructured in the '80s and '90s, the more popular affirmation-chanting, team-building consultants became. And all the while, as the country's wealth shot up, the gap between rich and poor ballooned."
With tragedies like Hurricane Katrina, a sagging economy, the Iraq war, and yes even the recent H1N1 epidemic, it's maybe not a time for "Let's get happy" but maybe a time to connect to others, to team up, to talk, for dialogue, compassion and to speak up...and work to making collective change, to create a world we would be proud of for a grand kids. Maybe it's a time to shout out, get mad, be a little ornery and as Baird writes, "This is why Ehrenreich dedicates her book to "complainers everywhere," inciting them to "turn up the volume." But surely there's a middle way between clueless cheerleaders and grumpy prophets. The Dalai Lama shows you can strive to be content and remain angry about injustice."
Maybe now is the time to speak up. Drop the happy, all is well facade and get into collective action to bring justice, fairness and equality to all mankind. I recommend the book by Ehrenreich...and as Thomas Frank, author of the Wrecking Crew and What's the Matter with Kansas, wrote in his review of the book Bright Sided, "We're always being told that looking on the bright side is good for us, but now we see that it's a great way to brush off poverty, disease, and unemployment, to rationalize an order where all the rewards go to those on top. The people who are sick or jobless—why, they just aren't thinking positively. They have no one to blame but themselves. Barbara Ehrenreich has put the menace of positive thinking under the microscope. Anyone who's ever been told to brighten up needs to read this book."
So maybe as the year draws to a close, begin to speak up, begin to collect and make change join proactive groups that allow you to be a force for good, begin to be okay with not being upbeat and happy all the time. It's okay you know.
There are lot's of unbelievable, incredible people who aren't happy go lucky all the time who are doing great things on the planet. Know you're okay no matter how you feel and yes maybe take you're not feeling good and being upset with life's lot and take massive actions to make change on the planet.
So go ahead and have a Bahh Humbug this season, maybe that's exactly what the doctor ordered for you to live your most powerful, authentic, real life in 2010! Log onto Barbara's site at http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/. Also if the feeling flatness continues past one or two weeks, please get professional help and call a doctor or therapist. Life is about being real, authentic and as joyful as you can...but there are times where that is just not how you want to be...and it's cool, so seek help when it persists for any long period of time.
I have included two videos for you to watch, one a feature on the author of Bright-Sided, Barbara Ehrenreich and a classic song originally done by Randy Newman but sung by Steve Tyrell and Dr. John, called you got a friend in me...maybe when we go through life's challenges, it's just good to have a friend to be there to listen and not fix.
Enjoy...and have a wonderful, meaningful holiday season.
All the best until next time!
David
Barbara Ehrenreich Video:
Steve Tyrell and Dr. John
Have you ever left something you loved doing? I did just that in October. I hosted/produced my last Small Business Big Ideas Show on CKDO on October 4th. It's not because I didn't love radio, or the listeners or the owners of the station, the decision to leave was borne out of necessity. With 2 key work commitments that take place during the week, life has been pretty full on and the body and mind needed to have a break from working 6 sometimes 7 days a week.
Now it's been a month since I hosted the last show, I have to admit something true to you. Come the weekends, I have been feeling flat and there is a piece to my life that's missing, leaving a big void. Those close to me could even suggest I was a little depressed especially for the first few weeks. I didn't have that something to get up for on Sunday mornings and there was no fire in the belly to do the work I really enjoyed doing. I didn't have the same mission and drive that I had when doing the show for the past 7 years of Sunday's.
The first Sunday off I ended up sleeping most of the day and there was a grieving process to go through. I just felt off. Perhaps it's just the body that needed to rest after going and going. Perhaps too it was the fact that once I was up on a Sunday to host the show, I would designate that day as the day to do the show, hit the gym, wash the car, do errands, clean and laundry...once the key part to getting up and getting going on a Sunday was out of the equation, it became easier to sleep and do nothing that first Sunday off. Plus if you could would you rather sleep in or get going and and get excited about doing laundry, cleaning and washing the car? Yeah you'd opt for sleeping in too...
So there you have it...I am speaking my truth. Since hosting the show, I have not had the same verve and passion to my weekends that I had. I still feel there is a void and being slightly type "A" I need something to do...I thrive on it. In fact two weekends ago I was home in bed with a nasty cold and cough too...so out of 4 weeks of not doing the show, 3 were spent feeling a little blue and flat. Those that know me, know I am pretty upbeat, like to laugh and have fun. But life hasn't been as fun as you'd like it lately.
Lately it's been about work, trying to make ends meet and I have been feeling like I am on a bit of a treadmill. Work, pay bills, work pay bills. Not that I am complaining, it's just what's so...sometimes as good as life can be it seems like you have to ask yourself is that all there is? Now I know the process I have gone through this past month is just that...it's a process, it's part of life. This too shall pass...and truthfully to me the real hero's in life are those that are on the treadmill and don't give up. They go to work everyday and make it happen... It's those of us that even though we're not at our "Optimum best" that we don't give up, we keep going.
It's okay to feel flat, it's okay to sleep in all day, it's okay not be happy all the time, it's okay to be depressed now and then and it's okay to not be going and going.
"But how so," you ask? If we're not happy with life, how can we attract the good things we want to us? Doesn't the law of attraction state that you've got be up, positive, happy for people to be attracted to you? I say drop it. Just be you, just be real.
Some good habits to adopt when you're going through the "flat times" include;
1) Talk it out
2) Have a mastermind team
3) Seek professional counseling
4) Have a laugh
5) Incorporate exercise and meditation in your day-to-day activity
6) Have that one good buddy or mentor you can connect with, sometimes those close to you get tired of your stuff...
7) Be okay with the times when life isn't all that it can be...you have to embrace all that is...
But wait? you claim...this is all well and good...but life lately is like getting to me...well if it's of any help...know that you're not alone. Life is challenging for each one of us.
In North America we are addicted to feeling good. In a book by Barbara Ehrenreich called "Bright Sided" How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America, Ehrenreich suggests that last year, Americans spent 14-Billion-dollars on self-help books, CDs and seminars. Antidepressants are the most prescribed category of drugs in the country.
In a review about the book and this notion that we must be feeling upbeat and positive in Newseek magazine, writer Julia Baird comments that according to a study from the General Social Survey by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of Wharton, that despite three decades of economic growth in America, men and women are no happier. This fact has been lost in the hubbub over the finding that while women were happier than men in 1972, they are not now. Barbara Ehrenreich calls positive thinking a "mass delusion." She argues that an unrelenting drive to train our brains to overlook problems and blame ourselves for failures has blinded us to inequality, incompetence, and stupidity. Baird writes in her article, "The philosophy of positive thinking, has been developed both as a reaction to the negativity of Calvinism and a salve for the sick and anxious, but has, over time, been turned into a kind of blind optimism.
At the heart of positive thinking is a belief that you can will anything you like into happening: recovering from cancer, getting a promotion, becoming a millionaire. Often, the worse things are, the more vehemently people are encouraged to be sunny. The more companies downsized and restructured in the '80s and '90s, the more popular affirmation-chanting, team-building consultants became. And all the while, as the country's wealth shot up, the gap between rich and poor ballooned."
With tragedies like Hurricane Katrina, a sagging economy, the Iraq war, and yes even the recent H1N1 epidemic, it's maybe not a time for "Let's get happy" but maybe a time to connect to others, to team up, to talk, for dialogue, compassion and to speak up...and work to making collective change, to create a world we would be proud of for a grand kids. Maybe it's a time to shout out, get mad, be a little ornery and as Baird writes, "This is why Ehrenreich dedicates her book to "complainers everywhere," inciting them to "turn up the volume." But surely there's a middle way between clueless cheerleaders and grumpy prophets. The Dalai Lama shows you can strive to be content and remain angry about injustice."
Maybe now is the time to speak up. Drop the happy, all is well facade and get into collective action to bring justice, fairness and equality to all mankind. I recommend the book by Ehrenreich...and as Thomas Frank, author of the Wrecking Crew and What's the Matter with Kansas, wrote in his review of the book Bright Sided, "We're always being told that looking on the bright side is good for us, but now we see that it's a great way to brush off poverty, disease, and unemployment, to rationalize an order where all the rewards go to those on top. The people who are sick or jobless—why, they just aren't thinking positively. They have no one to blame but themselves. Barbara Ehrenreich has put the menace of positive thinking under the microscope. Anyone who's ever been told to brighten up needs to read this book."
So maybe as the year draws to a close, begin to speak up, begin to collect and make change join proactive groups that allow you to be a force for good, begin to be okay with not being upbeat and happy all the time. It's okay you know.
There are lot's of unbelievable, incredible people who aren't happy go lucky all the time who are doing great things on the planet. Know you're okay no matter how you feel and yes maybe take you're not feeling good and being upset with life's lot and take massive actions to make change on the planet.
So go ahead and have a Bahh Humbug this season, maybe that's exactly what the doctor ordered for you to live your most powerful, authentic, real life in 2010! Log onto Barbara's site at http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/. Also if the feeling flatness continues past one or two weeks, please get professional help and call a doctor or therapist. Life is about being real, authentic and as joyful as you can...but there are times where that is just not how you want to be...and it's cool, so seek help when it persists for any long period of time.
I have included two videos for you to watch, one a feature on the author of Bright-Sided, Barbara Ehrenreich and a classic song originally done by Randy Newman but sung by Steve Tyrell and Dr. John, called you got a friend in me...maybe when we go through life's challenges, it's just good to have a friend to be there to listen and not fix.
Enjoy...and have a wonderful, meaningful holiday season.
All the best until next time!
David
Barbara Ehrenreich Video:
Steve Tyrell and Dr. John
3 comments:
I must say something BIG is in the works for you David...everything happens for a reason. Appreciate the down time now because you will be extremely busy very soon wishing for a little time to reflect. I’m glad you are back online sharing your knowledge, experience and wisdom with us. It’s very exciting to see where 2010 will lead Technicolour...maybe now is the time for that book.
Beautiful article David! Love that you're being real. I'm reminded of the saying, 'when one door closes, another one opens.'I agree with Maid-Mart, sometimes we need the downtime to release and prepare for what's coming next. Sometimes we try to fight and push through things and we end up making it tougher on ourselves in the long run - all because we believe we need to do what's 'expected' instead of listening to the call to go within for a while.
Hi David...Here's a little limerick I wrote for you:
Thanks for being real...
And sharing how you feel!
Losing what you loved & had...
Shows you're human if you're sad!
Here's one thing I've come to know..
Sooner or later those feelings go!
A little thing might trigger...
Happy thoughts that last all day!
And before you know it...
More good thoughts will come your way!
Soon you'll feel excited...
About getting up each day
At least that's what I wish for...
And I always get my way!
Fran
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