A quick post to wish all of my Canadian readers a Happy Thanksgiving long weekend. We have been blessed with amazing weather here in Southern Ontario, with high temps in the 20Cs. So what do we have to be grateful for this weekend?

• Beautiful weather
• Changing of the leaves and the seasons
• A roof over our heads
• Clean drinking water
• Fresh food
• An endless supply of clothing and shoes
• A car or two to drive
• Lots of love from the people around us!

Have a great long weekend!

About a month ago, I mentioned that I was going to apply one of the keys to happiness, as outlined by Shawn Achor in The Happiness Advantage. I was going to write 3 things that I am grateful for, every night before going to bed.  The stipulation is that they have to be different every single night and that they have to be written or typed, so as to keep a record. I chose to write them on my Playbook right before I go to bed.  I also added one more thing, I express gratitude for one thing in my life that has not yet come to pass, such as a major business or personal goal. I will continue to add this until that goal has come to pass.

It’s been almost a month since I started and I haven’t missed a night.  And this month has been really amazing. So many positive things have happened in my life. I’ve rekindled some old friendships, reinforced many relationships, strengthened and grown my business, and have even had more fun with my daughter. Taking the time to reflect on the day is a very positive activity, as I’m always thinking about what can I choose to be grateful for today.

This is such a simple thing to do, that can have a dramatic effect on your life in a very short period of time. If mornings are better for you, do it when you first wake up.  I like doing it at night, since it gives me a  chance to reflect on the day. My best friend, Lee-Anne, has been sharing her 21 days of gratitude on her blog. I’ve noticed differences in her as well, in a very short period of time. It’s pretty amazing!

I encourage you to start your gratitude reflections tonight! Let us know in the comments if you’re planning on giving it a go for 21 days.  After that, you won’t want to stop!

Shawn Achor seems to think so, and he’s got a website to prove it: www.happinessadvantage.com. We had the privilege of listen to Achor speak at the USANA Convention just over a week ago. His presentation was engaging, humorous and memorable. He also continued his seminar during one of the breakout sessions.  His philosophy is simple: “Happiness fuels success, not the other way around.”

Ask yourself this – are you constantly waiting to be happy? Do you ever think, I’ll be happy when I’m married, have a child, move into a bigger home, have more money? What if you just decided to be happy now? Right now. Exactly where you are. This is not the first time I’ve heard this lesson, but I can tell you that it is so fundamentally simple that we often forget to do it. So, are you happy RIGHT NOW?

Achor gave us a few simple strategies to help us change our behaviours and to help us focus on being happier one day at a time.  He challenged us to performing one of these behaviours, everyday, for 21 days, to create a new habit.

1. Gratitudes – 3 things you are grateful for in the last 24 hours, must be specific and must be different.
2. Journaling – write detailed experience of a meaningful event that happened in last 24 hours
3. Exercise – 30 minutes, daily and get your heart pumping
4. Meditation- take a deep breath, one task at a time
5. Random Acts of Kindness- 2 min positive email first thing in morning

I have chosen to do 2 of them since August 28.  At night, just before I turn off the light, I type my 3 gratitudes of the day into my Playbook. That way, I have a record of all of the things I am grateful for and when I have a bad moment, all I have to do is look at the list.

The second thing I have chosen to do is the Random Acts of Kindness, first thing in the morning. This one has proven to be more challenging, as I find that baby takes my attention first thing in the am. A few years ago I bought a stack of Thank-You cards and wrote 2 cards a day, 5 days a week, for a month. It was a pretty amazing feeling to just let people know how much I appreciated them. I may choose to do this one again, as I really enjoyed it!

Achor has written a book – The Happiness Advantage – and you can download an excerpt here. I highly recommend visiting his website and taking a look at the book.  He made an impact on my life in a very short period of time, I’m sure he’ll make an impact on yours too.  Check in below if you’ve had a chance to hear him speak or if you’ve read the book.

p.s. Have you had a chance to check out my new website yet?

Air-conditioning

Beautiful best friends

Caring husband, who is a great dad and takes good care of our daughter and his wife

Dear daughter, who is beautiful, healthy and growing up so fast

Electricity

Furniture

Great relationship with my family

Health – my own, my husband’s and our families

Imagination and the ability to create my dream life

Just being alive

Kisses from my baby

Love from so many wonderful people in my life

Money and the never-ending supply of it

Nature and all of  the beauty in fields, mountains, rivers, forests, lakes and oceans.

Olive oil and all of the tasty Mediterranean foods I love

Peanut butter and chocolate, any combination

Quiet moments of reflection

Roof over our heads

Swimming in a pool, lake, river or ocean

Tasting, touching, hearing, seeing and smelling.

USANA Health Sciences – my vehicle for creating the life of my dreams

Vision – knowing that everything I dream can be achieved

Water to drink, to bathe in and to wash clothing and dishes

Xcellence – Striving for it in every aspect of my life

You!

Zig-zags of life, it’s never a straight line

This weekend, I encourage you to create your own gratitude alphabet and share it with us.

A quick Friday night post so that the week doesn’t go by without a post!

Some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the past 3 years:

• Be grateful for what you have.  I mean REALLY grateful. Take a closer look and you’ll see that many things in your life deserve a lot of gratitude.
• People can change.  Often for the best.
• Patience really is a virtue. I often gave up just before things got to be really amazing. More than once in my life. I plan on sticking with it from now on!
• People will surprise you. And forgive you.
• Jealousy and envy only hurt you (or me in this case).  They are poisonous emotions that are best left behind.
• And speaking of being left behind, the past is the past and it can no longer be changed. The only chance is to work with today and create a better future.
• I have a new wonderful reason to be the best I can be in everything in my life, my daughter.
• Putting others first can sometimes make a big difference in both our lives.
• Me time is important too – to stay healthy and sane.
• Passion can take you further than you’ve ever dreamed.
• Faith is so important. Having faith in life, in God, in the Universe is what makes dreams come true. My life is better now that I have Faith.  And I mean real, strong, unshakable Faith. It feels amazing.
• I was never really busy until I had a child!! Time management has become a daily necessity and priorities have really shifted.
• My husband is amazing (ok I already knew that). But still. He has been even more amazing over the past two years.
• This is it. Life is happening right now.  So if I don’t give it my best right now, I’ll miss my chance.

Good night and good weekend to all!

Little Céline is almost 6 weeks old! And it’s time to get back to blogging. I have missed the weekly postings and the communication and feedback from those of you who read my blog. Hopefully, I haven’t lost too many of you by taking so much time off.  The title of the blog is Motivation For Your Life – Your Daily Dose of Motivation, Inspiration and Good News.  Now that I’m a mom, it’s true that the material from my blog may come from that angle more often. I promise to stay true to the heart of the blog – just from a new perspective.

Speaking of being a mom – even though I was told it was going to be hard – it is harder than I ever thought. From the labour and natural birth, to breastfeed, lack of sleep among other things, there have been so many challenges since she was born.  It is a bit more challenging since she’s a preemie, but we are adjusting well now.

Let’s talk about some of the more positive and wonderful things that have happened in my life since she arrived. First, Céline has brought out the best in my husband, Dan. He is an amazing dad.  The first thing he does when he gets home from work, is hold her or change her or cuddle her – whatever she needs. Then, if I’m feeding her, he’ll make dinner (yes, I was mistaken when I believed I’d have dinner ready for him every night).  After the 9 o’clock feeding, I am usually off to bed.  I have been leaving him a little list of chores to take care of (yes, I was mistaken when I thought I’d be able to take care of the house and the baby) and he does them – without any complaint.  He also enjoys this time with Céline, as she is often fussy and needs to be held for hours. I am so grateful to have the Best Husband in the World (at least in my books).

Another wonderful thing is that I have had the opportunity to spend more time with my parents. As some of you know, my parents live near Guadalajara, Mexico and only spend a few weeks a year in Canada. My dad had an inkling that Céline would arrive early – they left Mexico the day she was born (not knowing I had gone into labour) to drive to Canada.  They have been here for almost 5 weeks.  This is the first time since I was a child that I have really needed my parents. They help around the house, take care of Céline (Mamie likes to hold her all afternoon), allow me to nap, take care of errands, cook for us – you name it, they do it.  This is a whole different relationship with them and I am really thrilled to see this side of their personalities. Of course they need to get their fill of Céline because they are leaving tomorrow and won’t see her again until next summer.

Other family members and friends have really stepped up. My sister flew in from Vancouver two days after she was born – a total Godsend.  We ended up having to go back to the hospital with Céline for jaundice, for two days. Thank goodness my sister was here for that time – it was very challenging and a bit scary.  We made it through though, and Céline is a stronger baby for it! Dan’s family has been visiting regularly as well, and we’ve had a stream of visitors bearing food and gifts that are much appreciated.

All in all, even though these first 6 weeks have been a real challenge, there are so many wonderful things that have come of it.  Most of all, I love my baby girl more than I ever imagined and seeing her little smile and hearing her little baby noises (not so much the crying) are some of the best parts of my day.  And I have no doubt that it gets easier from here.

Time to go – she’s getting ready to eat! Let me know what some of your biggest parenting challenges have been in the comments below!

Yesterday’s post was a milestone for me – it was my 100th post! I have been blogging on a regular basis since December of 2009 and was surprised that I’ve made it to 100 already. I’m not committed to blogging every day – I tried that for a while in the beginning but it was too much and I believe it’s better to blog when you’ve actually got something to say, rather than just posting because you feel you have to. I average 2 blog posts per week these days, usually first thing in the morning during the week.

I’ve learned a lot by blogging and meeting people through this process. I am certain that there is a lot more that I could be doing with the blog and becoming more involved in the blogsphere – and I think that’s something I may dive into a few months after baby girl arrives. I am pretty sure that I will have my hands full for at least the next few months when she arrives!! One of the things I really enjoy about blogging is the feedback I receive from my readers. Although I can see that 100s of people are reading the blog (thank-you!) I don’t always know who is.  It’s always nice to connect with someone in person or over the phone who mentions that they have been reading my blog.  I really enjoy writing and also giving others the chance to think about different opinions and other perspectives on life.

Thank-you for all of your feedback, comments and such over the past 100 posts. If you’ve got ideas on how to make this blog even better – I’m open to suggestions and ideas! I appreciate that you take the time to read it and interact about the variety of topics I’ve shared. I am grateful to have a wonderful community to blog with!

Have a wonderful day everyone  and I’ll catch you on post #102.

On Sunday we had a Girls Night – not your typical evening though because we’re all pregnant! It was a blast, 6 women, all having their first (or first two) babies within the next month to 3 months. No alcohol of course, but that didn’t stop us from having a fantastic time and laughing a lot.  Meanwhile, some of the boys were enjoying a poker night.  I heard they had fun, but I doubt they had as much fun as we did.

One of the things I have really enjoyed about being pregnant is meeting all of these amazing women! It’s a totally new circle of friends and a whole new community. Many of my closest friends already have children and this part of their lives has passed. I feel that it’s really important to connect with others who are going through the same stage of life right now – we have so much in common and we often share similar hopes and dreams.

I’d like to share a little bit from one of the things we did on Sunday.  It might seem a bit cheesy, but once we got into it, we really enjoyed it.  I thought it would be nice to do a gratitude exercise together – to keep focused on the positive things in our lives and to be in a positive mindset as we get closer to our due dates.  The first exercise was to write down Things I Love About Being Pregnant. And the second was to write Things I’m Looking Forward to After Baby’s Birth Day.  This is something that you could do with your family, or the girls (or the guys) – just choose an opening sentence that works for your situation.  We wrote down many on our own and then brainstormed and shared ideas.  It was a really great experience and a little bit emotional actually.

Here’s a few of the Things I Love About Being Pregnant:

• How affectionate my husband is – even more than before
• The new circle of friends I’ve met
• Feeling baby girl move
• Enjoying dessert!
• Learning about my body and being amazed at what it can do
• Imagining what baby girl looks like
• Having a human being growing inside me
• Going to the front of long bathroom lines
• Everyone’s excitement – family, friends, even strangers wish me well

And here are a few of the Things I’m Looking Forward to After Baby’s Birth:

• Meeting baby girl and looking into her eyes for the first time
• Falling in love with my daughter
• Being a mom
• Seeing my husband as a father
• Getting my body back!
• Using all of the cool baby stuff we bought
• Her first smile and laugh
• Drinking alcohol and eating sushi! (anyone up for a sushi date?)
• Meeting other new moms and continuing to build a community

Just writing that list out again put a smile on my face. It’s amazing how just a few minutes of gratitude can really make your day. I encourage you to do the same (or similar) exercise this week. It will allow you to change your focus – even if just for a few hours. Please share some of your gratitude thought in the comments. Create a wonderful day!

Sure, this message is one you’ve heard before. I’ve blogged about it a few times and I’m sure you’re read many other blogs, books and seen movies about the power of gratitude.  It’s a message that doesn’t really get old though. And often, we get so caught up in being BUSY that we forget to take the time to be grateful every single day.

One of the things that I am most grateful for right now is being pregnant. It’s truly an amazing feeling to carry a new life in my belly – as much as I had read about it, heard about it, seeing about it – there is nothing that compares to the actually feeling.  It’s all very strange at the same time – because you have very little control with what is going on in your body! The whole thing is an automated process. How amazing is that? Regardless of whether you believe in God, Allah, the Universe – someone made it a truly amazing process that needs little or no help from the mom who is carrying the life.

That’s not to say that pregnant women shouldn’t take extra care of themselves and their bodies during this time. Truly, that is all we are really responsible for. I have been doing my best to stay healthy, continue on my healthy eating regime, remain on-the-wagon (alcohol free) and exercise regularly. The biggest challenge is getting enough rest. I’m not sure if any of the other mommies and mommies to be out there can relate, but things that I would normally recover from quickly, take a few extra days.  For example, I just flew out to Orlando for the weekend, taking an afternoon flight on Thursday and returning Sunday evening.  Normally a fairly hectic trip regardless, although this time there were no time zone changes.  Heading right back to work and Toastmasters on Monday was WAY too much for me! I was completely wiped out!! It’s taken me 3 nights and 2 full days to feel back to normal.  Here’s  a secret of pregnancy that I didn’t realize – flying at high altitudes, with greater pressure, can make it very uncomfortable.  I didn’t really understand why I felt so uncomfortable on the longer flights until a flight attendant explained that the pressure can be very uncomfortable for pregnant women.  I am glad I am staying on solid ground until after she is born.

So,what can you to do remember to be grateful every single day? Here are a few suggestions:

• • The Secret Gratitude Book – this is an excellent daily reminder to be grateful
  • Create your dream board and post it at the foot of your bed. That way you wake up and can be grateful for all of the wonderful things that are manifesting in your life.
  • Use Thoughtspots on your mirror to remind you.
  • Take a look at who you are waking up beside or who’s sleeping in the next room and be grateful that they are in your life.  This can be a partner, spouse, child, pet or another family member.
  • Smile more! It’s always easy to be grateful when you’re smiling.

What are your strategies for remembering to be grateful every day? Share with us in the comments section.  Enjoy the rest of this beautiful gift of a day that we have all been given.

Sometimes, we all just need a reminder to be grateful for all of the wonderful things we have in our lives. Especially when things aren’t going the way that we would really like them to. Things have actually been going really well here in Burlington, we just celebrated Dan’s birthday this weekend and it was a lot of fun. Dan had the chance to participate in a very competitive volleyball tournament and we spent the evening with his family.  Sunday night, we visited some of our closest friends and enjoyed a small birthday celebration. It’s amazing how sometimes the little things and small events can really have a positive impact in our lives.

How often do you think about what you are grateful for? I’ll admit, it’s something I often have to be reminded about. I will go through times where I am grateful every single day – and will even write down a list of things to be grateful for or create one in my head. And other times, I’m so caught up in everyday life that I forget to be grateful and need a reminder of how powerful this simple action can be in my life.

Most of you who are reading this are living in North America.  And it’s easy to take for granted all of what we have available to us every single day.  I would assume we all have a roof over our heads, running water for bathing and cleaning, clean drinking water, food in our fridges and our cupboards, a bed to sleep in and clothes in our closet. We live a peaceful country, where we don’t have to worry about living in a war zone and fearing for our lives every time we step outside our doors. We have internet connections, cable television, cell phones, cars or easy access to public transportation.  We truly live in a world of plenty.

If you’re going through a bit of a challenging time right now, take inventory of your surroundings.  Make a list of what you’ve got – not just all of the physical things, but take stock of your relationships. You may find that once you’ve started a list, you’ve got a lot more than you ever imagined.  And sometimes all it takes to turn things around is a change of attitude.  The Universe is very responsive to what we are thinking and it tends to give you more of what you’re feeling and thinking about.

A quick example from my life – recently I was trying to decide what to do over the summer. As a part-time teacher, I don’t have the luxury of a paycheck that continues over the summer. Many of my tutoring clients were looking at lessons over the summer as well.  And I knew that I wasn’t ready to devote myself full-time with Agel, as I’m still in my first year of business building (I made that mistake once before, so at least I’ve learned). The day I made the decision to continue with French teaching and tutoring over the summer, a number of opportunities came up.  I received a phone call from a new client who wanted to start French tutoring immediately. I had an opportunity for a new job with Oxford Learning. I already have almost a dozen clients for different summer programs (if this is something you’re interested in, details on the full summer camp can be found here - there are other options too, just drop me a line). And I was given the chance to apply for yet another part-time teaching role for the summer. It is truly amazing how responsive the Universe has been, once I made up my mind.

The question for you to ponder today is, what I am truly grateful for? Even better, see if this is a question you can remember to ask yourself everyday. One of the things I am most grateful for is all of you who read and share my blog. It’s been an amazing experience so far and I value all of your feedback and comments.