Twinkletopia, LLC
presents
our ezine
“Pawsibilities”
January 2008
In this issue:
Michael Conrad Kelley: "The Happiness Reclamation Project"
Keith E. Renninson: "Don’t Let Confidence Allude You, Intend It"
The Happiness Reclamation Project
By
Michael Conrad Kelley
With another year in the books, the age old practice of resolution making, planning, and reflecting on the previous year has begun. 2007 was such an amazing year for me both professionally and personally that I am sorry to see it go. Highlighted by the birth of my daughter and a blow out business year, I find myself wondering “how are you going to top that in 2008.” There lies the trap for many of us.
For most of us, we view the start of a new year as the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and make the changes in our lives that we feel will bring the happiness, health, and even prosperity that we seek. We’ll eat better, control our spending, get organized, stop this, quit that, work harder, play more, listen more intently, try new things, and on and on and on. Few of us will follow through on most of our resolutions and too many of us will view ourselves as failures. Is this any way to begin what we hope will be the best year of our lives, so far?
As I looked forward to the new-year, I began to feel overwhelmed. I was so caught up in all of the details of what needed duplicated and what needed changed that I completely forgot what the sole source of happiness during the phenomenal year was in the first place. I realized that my happiness was not the result of a wonderful 2007 but, 2007 was wonderful because I was happy. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, as there are many things I wish I could do over. But overall, it was fantastic!
I stopped worrying about all there is to do or how it will ever get done, and focused on one the thing that I could control, my attitude. I made only one resolution and that was to approach each task, each day, and each project with a positive attitude and I quickly felt better about everything. The fear of impending failure vanished almost immediately and a new sense of power replaced it. The conscious decision to impose my happiness at will was incredibly invigorating.
As I look ahead, I feel that success is not only possible but likely. I feel that every opportunity I have to infuse positive energy will result in a favorable outcome. There is a sense that even when something negative does occur, as is bound to happen, I won’t let it determine my mindset or energy. I will give it what I think it deserves and no more! I will then reclaim my joy, for it is mine, and it cannot be taken away unless I give it away. What an exhilarating way to approach the coming year.
I am sure that this sounds ridiculous to some, as it once did to me. But I’ve felt the power and experienced the results. Even if you can’t bring yourself to embrace the law of attraction, or think “The Secret” is a fad that famous or wealthy people endorse only after they have it all, happiness is available to everyone. If you would take a break from imposing misery and fear on yourself it would be possible to understand that you are in control and you can dictate the terms.
Your bliss is limited only by you, not the trivialities in life that you relinquish it to. Take it back, reclaim it, it’s yours!
Don’t Let Confidence Allude You, Intend It
by
Keith E. Renninson
Establishing an environment for success in anything requires one illusive ingredient: confidence. Being confident isn’t always as easy as it might seem at first glance. Many of us struggle with it on a daily basis, but it doesn’t have to be a lifelong war, it can be just one of the many skirmishes we engage in during our lives.
Have you ever noticed how confident you feel when you repeat a task over and over with relative ease? How you don’t have to fear the outcome because it is a given? How you don’t experience any anxiety before performing your job because you’ve done it so many times and you’re confident in your skills?
The old cliché “Practice makes perfect” fits this example to a T. The more you do of anything, the better you get at it, if you are paying attention and choose to be proficient. Do you feel that way going in? More than likely, not.
Actors have another word this: rehearsal. Plays slated to open in any theater go through weeks of rehearsal so the actors can become economical in their deliver and movements. They have to not only memorize the script, but also interact with other actors and hit their marks (places on the stage where they need to be at a certain time).
The rest of us act on a much larger stage of everyday life out in the world. We don’t have a script for our daily lives unless we have a game plan for our work and play. But, what we do have is jobs, businesses or homes that require we perform regularly in a certain way. The more time we spend engaged in our “work” the better and more confident we become.
Salesmen and women are often given sales presentations to use to become efficient in their deliver and understanding of certain products; the more they give the presentation the less they have to look at it because they “know” what’s coming next.
Confidence in one’s self is obtained in a myriad of ways during life, the trick is to convince yourself that no matter what job or obstacle you need to tackle, you will succeed because you have already succeeded in the past at other similar duties.
One trick I’ve learned is to “intend” to do something well. Our minds are strange in how words are perceived, so if you tell it you intend to do something it will follow your wishes. You can use this in a lot of things like, intending to arrive for an appointment on time no matter what the traffic looks like, intending to be happy today in spite of what problems present themselves, intending to follow through on a task that you secretly dread.
Most of life is a mind game. Most of the time the other player in the game is your mind. If you let it conjure up a lot of reasons why something will fail, it most certainly will. If you intend to succeed you will. Practicing confidence is as important as practicing any other task. If you stop practicing you will lose your edge and be insecure; no one wants that, so intend to be confident daily and you will become proficient at it as well.
Any way you look at it, it’s just one man’s opinion.
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The artwork from Zooch the Pooch is now available!
2) Gicle'e prints on high quality artists canvas suitable for framing
11 X 17 inch $95.00 + tax, s & h
The introductory piece available is "Dog Day Afternoon" shown below.
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