And that improvement has helped me have more 'Wake Up Eager' days.
I’d spent a lot of my life, until that point, doing a lot of what others expected of me.
When I made that shift, I started to live life more on my own terms, and the process continues to unfold today.
...then you’re living on ‘your terms’. If not – it’s time to start allowing this for yourself.
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The First Step...
This first step sounds simple, but is an important first step.
It all begins with getting over 'the guilt' and deciding that it’s a good thing to build a life around your preferences, strengths and interests.
It helped me become more comfortable with this when I realized that my preferences are the gifts I bring to the world, and that they are unique unto me, just as your preferences are special and unique unto you!
Creating a recipe for a happy life by building a life around your preferences and your strengths, is not selfish, it's what the reason you have the strengths and preferences that you have!
Wikipedia definition of Preference (also called "taste" or "penchant"): is a concept, used in the social sciences, particularly economics.
It assumes a real or imagined "choice" between alternatives and the possibility of rank ordering of these alternatives, based on happiness, satisfaction, gratification, enjoyment, utility they provide.
More generally, it can be seen as a source of motivation. In cognitive sciences, individual preferences enable choice of objectives/goals.
"The process of self direction, or blazing your own way, indeed of living your life rather than passing your time, is natural but not self evident to children (and a 'Suzie Note' inserted here: and not evident to many adults, too!) growing up in our civilization."
---Founder of Sudbury Valley School.
Sudbury Valley is a school founded in 1968 and located in Framingham, MA. The school is devoted to helping students learn to think for themselves.
They focus on helping students direct their lives, use their strengths, follow their interests, take responsibility for outcomes, set priorities, allocate resources, and work with others in a vibrant community.
I became extremely interested in the Sudbury Valley School when I first heard about it years ago.
Not because I have kids.
Not because I wanted to teach there.
But because I understood the importance of what this school is instilling in their students at a young age:an ability to set and direct their lives based on their innate interest, talents, strengths and gifts.
This awareness and willingness to create a self directed life CAN be awakened and strengthened, and it's an important part of creating a Wake Up Eager life.
To find out more about Sudbury Valley School, click here.
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Tools & Resources for Knowing
and Using Your Preferences
Here are some of the tools I’ve used to help bring more of "me" (creating my own 'rules' & understanding my preferences) to my life.
Use these resources to build a life based on your own preferences and on your terms.
To do so is your gift to the world.
Journaling
On your quest to uncover your own preferences and your own recipe for a happy life I recommend the practice of journaling.
Click here for my journal writing ideas blog post/article. I write in simple (nothing fancy) notebooks every day.
I write:
I find that journaling helps me become more conscious about how I spend my days and time. It helps me look more objectively at my day and my actions.
Personal Development Blogger Steve Pavlina had this to say about, Journaling (Link opens a new window.)
His blog is an interesting, off-beat resource for more insights around life. I don't always agree with him, but I LOVE that he's un-apologetical-ly himself. He's a good example of someone who's found his own recipe for a happy life - living life on his own terms.
In this article he talks about how he uses journaling for finding life purpose and self direction. He shares excerpts from his own journal, and he provides a clear understanding of how it's helped promote clarity and can used as a stress management help tool:
Pavilina shares, "Journaling allows you to break free of sequential thinking and examine your thoughts from a bird’s-eye view. When you record your sequential thoughts in a tangible medium, you can then go back and review those thoughts from a third-person perspective. While you’re recording the thoughts, you’re in first-person mode. But when you’re reading them, you can remain dissociated instead of associated.
This dissociative view, when combined with what you’ve already learned from the associative view, will bring you much closer to seeing 'The Truth' of your situation."
Click here for more about journaling, plus journal writing ideas.
Assessments
As a Professional Development Consultant I've been able to teach and use almost every type of assessment available. They're fun and they are great way to learn more about ourselves.
Over time though, I found that while some of the assessments were 'interesting' - they didn't help me get me to where I wanted to go - the information was not always use-able.
Then I found the Communication Style, Personality Quiz and the Workplace Motivators Assessment.
Over the years I've 'stuck' with these two assessments because the results can be applied to make life stronger. They help name, claim, understand and build your life around your preferences.
These assessments have helped me stay on-track and move forward daily, continually refining and shaping my own recipe for a happy life.
These recipe for a happy life assessments:
...along with my free online development worksheets and eCourses, can be accessed immediately and are a great start to expanding your knowledge and use of your specific strengths and interests.
Articles
Don't Do What I Did...In this article, Finding Motivation, When It's Hell No, Don't Go, you'll see how I learned the pain of not following my Guidance, another way we can ignore and not follow our preferences.
This article demonstrates how hard it is to find balance in life when we ignore our preferences and make commitments simply to to please others.
What is My Life Purpose ArticleIn this article, What is My Life Purpose? Get Off the Merry-Go-Round & Start Living - Three Simple Steps Three simple, but not always easy, steps for determining your Life Purpose.
"You want do something, you go get it. Period."
A Recipe for a Happy Life...
Short, inspiring and exactly what is required... click play...
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