Welcome back to my blogs!
I thought it was time to change and usher in the new year with a brand new name and address for my original ‘The Happiness Zone’ blog that I started in January 2007, now called Be Happy Life Coach.
I’m celebrating change and invite you to do the same in your life. As Johann Goethe wisely stated, “We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden…”
So here’s my Top 10 Ways to Be Happy in 2010. I’d love to hear your top 10 of anything too…10 for 2010
1. Walk 10, 000 steps (5 miles) every week. Don’t worry that 10,000 steps are recommended every day. If I wait for that goal to be met, I won’t even try. I can always change the words, “every week” to “every day” later on. It is zero degrees in Iowa right now, so the treadmill is my friend, sort of.
2. For 10 minutes every day do something you’re afraid of doing. It builds the courage muscle.
3. Dust off the white board and list the top 10 projects to do this month or year. Writing them down in red, blue and green markers moves the annoying worries and thoughts out of the brain matter into the world of reality.
4. Enjoy a 10 minute hot bath. It may not sound like much but for someone who rarely luxuriates in a hot tub, it’s huge. That’s the beauty of making your top 10 lists. You can do whatever you want. You don’t care who may be judging you. It’s your darn list after all!
5. Worry less about what anyone is going to judge you for. Try it for 10 minutes every day. Last night at Toastmasters was ‘hat night’, and instead of wearing a cute hat that matched my outfit, I wore a wild brownish purplish hat that looked like a feathered bird or porcupine were roosting on my head. I bought it at 75% off at Crested Butte ski area one spring ski trip. I thought my son would wear it for fun when he snowboarded. He wouldn’t have anyting to do with it so it has sat on our shelf for 8 years now. Funny thing is, many people loved my hat, said I looked dashing in it and they all petted my head. So ‘just do it’ as Nike says, and have fun.
6. Decide to find that one thing you really really really want to do but have no idea how you’d finance it or find the time to do it. Take the baby step. “You don’t have to see the whole stairs, just take the first step in faith,” as Martin Luther King once said.
7. Read, write, laugh for at least 10 minutes each day. 10 minutes for each one. I can handle that. No pressure, I want to do it all in life, but can’t seem to find a lot of time to do it. I like my 10 minute plan.
8. Listen to 10 minutes of news each day, just to keep my finger on the pulse of the world, but not enough to drag me under into the dark world of politics and war.
9. Make phone calls or send emails to 10 friends and colleagues you haven’t talked to in a long time. There are old friends that I think about but just don’t’ take the time to do a shout out. Facebook is an easy way to keep in touch with friends around the world. I ended up chatting on facebook with my cousin in southern Italy.
10. Think of 10 ways to say I love you. Thanks for working on the taxes, for being there, for helping with my computer glitches, you’re awesome, I’m glad you’re in my life, meet me for a chat over coffee, (chiacchiere in Italian.. doesn’t that sound like more fun?), Tom Cruise’s famous line “you complete me”. (Okay maybe we won’t use that line). You’re the cat’s meow, I admire your fragile courage, I acknowledge you for being honest, kind, trustworthy.
What are your Top 10? Top 10 books of the year, Top 10 movies of the year, Top 10 goals, Top 10 ways to be happy? Just enter in to comments.
Learn more about traveling to Italy on Lenora’s Italy Retreats For Women
Find out more about Lenora’s Sweet Life Workshops and Sweet Life Happiness Coaching.
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