Let me explain. Happiness is temporary. It is a feeling that comes and goes. This is why it is so elusive and frustrating. There is a degree of pressure on us these days to be positive and happy. Well I am all for happy but I realise that happiness is not what I really want. What I really want and know will make me a more whole person is contentment. With contentment comes the acceptance of who we are and what we have. I am not saying that we say to ourselves “well that’s just the way I am and this is just what my life is.”

To the contrary, I am saying that we understand who we are and our limitations and also the things that we can change for the better. This also applies to our circumstances. Unrealistic desires and goals are the sure route to unhappiness and discontent. To want to have a yacht in the Med and a pile in the country and to rely on winning the lottery is unrealistic. Contentment comes from appreciation of what we have and what is realistically obtainable. The most important element and core to this contentment is our personal relationships.

How do we treat those we love and value? How do we interact with those around us? Do we add value to them through the time we spend with them? Do we look for ways to help?

The steps to contentment as I see it are looking for ways to make others happy, set realistic goals both short term and long term for us and our families so that we have things to look forward to, and to appreciate the small wonders around us – they are bountiful. Then enjoy to the full those moments of happiness which lift our spirits and enhance our contentment.

By all means be happy but more importantly learn to be content. Be happy in your own skin. This is as important and ongoing as breathing. It is vital to our lives. If we are putting others first our own contentment and happiness is a natural progression.

Simples!!!!

Well, according to a leaked document £7.8 billion was our total UK foreign aid bill and if that isn’t bad enough it is set to rise to £12.6 billion by 2014. That’s £479 per household!! I can think of better ways I’d like my taxes to be spent. The good news is that the UK government is freezing foreign aid to India to only £295 million.

Why, oh why are we giving £295 million to one of the fastest growing economies in the world? The economy in India grew a massive amount last year at just below 10% and is set to grow 9% in 2012. India spends £35 billion on defence and £750 million on their space programme. It seems as though we are helping to fund these projects. India is, in fact, a foreign aid donor too. They gave over £300 million to poorer countries last year, we are giving away £7.8 billion. The Indian government is planning to spend $1trillion over the next five years upgrading the country’s infrastructure.

The UK’s foreign aid budget is two times as much as the total cutbacks on University spending. This could very well cripple higher education in this country. Already some universities, Exeter the latest, have said that they will be charging the maximum of £9000 tuition.

Excuse me Prime Minister wouldn’t you be better off spending the money on your own people?

I think that charity should begin at home and considering the mess we are in here in the UK I cannot understand why we are in fact borrowing money – to give to countries that are growing at an astronomical rate and will leave us behind in their dust or others that are totally corrupt.

The one good bit of news is that we are no longer going to send aid to Russia and China who individually have more millionaires and billionaires than we could ever dream of.

http://www.b2bcheltenham.co.uk/winning-new-business

This applies to all SME’s whatever their business. LOCAL is the new buzz word.

Give them a smile and some words of encouragement and you will feel great!!

If you think that it’s tough in the UK, come here for a spell. Iran is a beautiful country with charming people who have the great wish to be peaceful, happy and want to enhance their lifestyles – same as us really.

I am told 70% of graduates leaving university want to leave their country. Most feel that there is no future for them. Bureaucracy and restrictions are rife. And of course trade sanctions make life extremely difficult and lead to a thriving black market. I am not a politician and I am not giving an opinion as to the justification or background or reason to this situation….any how I would like to come home.

My goodness me, the UK is a goldmine, a haven, a sanctuary for opportunity. It may not be a land of milk and honey but it is certainly a land of free enterprise. We should all be making more of what we have and be genuinely and really excited about the future.

We live in an environment of freedom (despite the EU) and our future is largely in our own hands. Out of every recession emerge the truly great success stories. So just go for it!! Useful Tips

1. Ban all negative talk

2. Ban the word problem and replace with situation

3. Use Richard Denny’s famous negative repellent

4. Set some positive realistic goals daily, weekly, monthly and for the future

5. Make someone happy each day

Hello/Hi…how are you? …. Not too bad thanks. How often do we hear this exchange, which implies that we expect to be bad or that bad is the norm and that by saying “not too bad” this is supposed to be good news.

We all know that in the UK we are conditioned by our news media, they have to be negative to survive. Our TV and radio news will criticise or find fault with absolutely everything that pertains to news. If there is no horrendous earthquake, tsunami, flood, starving nations, warfare, killing or rape the press have to either make up a bad news story or embellish an existing story. Yes, Britain is a negative nation and in my opinion this is a gigantic hindrance to our prosperity, health, and happiness.

If you really do want to be successful (whatever that is), do try and manage the amount of negative garbage you either put into your brain or allow others to pollute and destroy your most valuable asset.

So here is a practical exercise for managing the negativity that we are daily bombarded with and have come to accept as the norm.

My wife, Dorothy and I decided that when we have our evening meal together, instead of talking about all of the crap that happened during the day we would both share all of the nice things that happened to each one of us however little and insignificant they may be. Fascinatingly there were more nice and pleasant happenings than the irritating, annoying, frustrating or even nasty ones.

If you are single phone a friend and share. Most importantly of all, your last thoughts before you go to sleep must be positive.

We all know that our brain is a totally positive organ. It gets damaged by negative input. It really does need to be nourished with positive thoughts. I am certain that you will find that this little exercise will help you to sleep better, perform better, achieve more, be happier and of course be more successful.

How about sharing this with your family, friends and colleagues. And please do let me know your experiences.

This mindset (apart from being mind blowing) is still rampant in British commerce, the abhorrence to selling and sales people. Here we are living and working through probably the most challenging economic climate. The news media dishing out daily recessional fears, high unemployment, cut backs, business liquidation, and the massive 25% trim down in the public sector.

We don’t sell anything is the mindset to adopt if you want annihilation. Every sane business leader and entrepreneur knows that nothing happens anywhere in the world until a sale takes place and they are also prepared to admit that a sales person brings in the money that everybody else can live off. In this challenging and exciting business environment the successful companies will demonstrate that to win, succeed, grow, provide employment and have happy customers the mindset is to be customer led but sales driven.

So here are just a few thoughts/challenges

1. Does everybody in your company know that their jobs are dependant on somebody winning some business – because that is sales?
2. Is your company truly customer led and delivering what your customers really want?
3. Is your company really sales driven from the boss to the cleaner?
4. Has everybody in your company experienced some rudimentary sales learning?
5. Is there an enthusiasm to adopt the latest techniques in winning business?
6. Are your front line sales people, sales people or solution specialists?
7. So what’s so special about you and your company?
8. Does everybody in your company know the two major reasons why businesses fail? –
   1. They can’t, won’t or don’t sell.
   2. Not getting paid on time.
9. Are you providing your customers the cheapest, or value?
10. So what are you going to do differently tomorrow?

On several occasions I have been asked to forecast the eventual winner in South Africa, my reply “It will be the team with the greatest motivation – attitude – passion, not the team with the greatest talent”.

Our English Team never had a cat in hells chance from the start. Yes they were a little bit jaded at the conclusion of the season, but so were a lot of the other European Teams, but our English Team right from the time they departed clearly showed that they were not going to be winners. Their body language, their facial expression, their communication and overall demeanour was devoid of that vital ingredient to win. One could easily point the finger at the Manager, but realistically he was severely handicapped by his command of the Team’s language – English. I can tell you from experience it is extremely difficult to motivate and inspire others unless you have a really good command of their language and how to use the right inflexion in the voice. The Team Captain was hampered by his obvious lack of Leadership and Motivational skills. Yes I hear you say, that’s not important for the Captain in football, bulls***, if that is the thinking and the wisdom, BIG, BIG, BIG MISTAKE.

So some great lessons to be learnt but sadly this great national sport appears not to be run by people with common sense.

Uncertainty is a little like worrying, which is probably the most debilitating use of our brain, worry is best summed up “simply as negative imagination”.

In business uncertainty also creates the ‘NO DECISION’ syndrome which itself is so counter productive. The uncertainty is over, no more excuses and let’s get going, we now know the position and we could all do with a little belt tightening.

In every adversity there is the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit, so how about adopting the mind set of:

• How can you turn this situation to your advantage?
• What can you do that you haven’t done before?
• Most importantly, what are you going to do differently today?