50 things I didn't know last year

1. How to re-think your perspective

   Kathleen Bright: Not ‘I need', instead ‘I want' or, How to get things done, changing your perspective. Don't forget to focus on how much you want to do what you need to do. If you're prone to procrastination, get as much help as you can, including changing the way you think about your goals.

2. David Seah: Productivity through Discomfort. Stepping outside your comfort zone is a great idea! Plus, the only way to test your limits is to keep going until you fail. This is also the only explanation or justification for the crazy amount of stuff on my to do list. :)

3. Failure

   Failure is okay!

4. Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3). Really, failure is good. Failure is proof you tried.
5. Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3). Conquering failure is difficult because of fear.

6. Fear

   Mind Petals: Fear Based Decisions are the Wrong Decisions.

7. Yes, it's hard to face your fears, but it's worth it.

8. Help

   If in doubt, say thank you.

9. Keep saying it.
10. Watch (or read) The Secret for some inspiration, including why saying thank you helps.
11. You can get 'The Secret' free if you hurry, because I think it's that great and I want you to see it.
12. Tubetorial: Back Up Your Blog or Risk Losing It All. It happened to me, it could happen to you too…

13. Making money with blogging is not a quick fix

    In order to make money you need to have a product or service that people want to buy.

14. Products can be easier because they're usually tangible.
15. Content is an example of something that straddles the product/services divide.
16. Yaro Starak: Can professional blogging be a sustainable business model? In order to be successful, (some) people need to love your content.
17. Tom Peters: Love Thine "Enemy"! It's Good Business! Love is important in all areas of life, including business.
18. Dazzlin' Donna: Becoming an authority. It's important for bloggers to participate in their niche communities. Plus, you should participate out of love for your niche.
19. Pamela Slim: Create your media plan for 2007! Planning is important.
20. But acting, a.k.a. execution, is even more important.
21. Especially if you're prone to procrastination.

22. Personal life lessons

    Life gets more and more complicated each year. Well, mine has so far!

23. Love is sometimes the problem, as well as the solution.
24. You can get too much of a good thing, e.g. education and academia: Being a student isn't all it's cracked up to be.
25. Entrepreneurship is for me!
26. Escape is the best idea I've ever had – i.e. moving out of my parents' house – I just need to implement it.

27. Goals

    It's easier to refrain from spending than I first thought.

28. How to Set Goals for the New Year. Just remember to have clearly defined goals so you can't wriggle out of them (which tends to be a problem with many New Year resolutions).

29. Health

    Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3). Health is important for everyone, including entrepreneurs.

30. Mind Petals just emphasised the importance of health too.

31. Happiness

    Kathleen Bright: How to be happy, or Why you're sad and how to fix it. Happiness is an interesting topic.

32. You are the only one who can make you happy.
33. Other people and things can help or hinder, as you will it.
34. Steve Pavlina: Making Decisions That Stick: "Once you reach a certain level of conscious development, you gradually de-couple your happiness from external events. You loosen your attachment to circumstances and learn to feel good regardless of what happens."
35. On Philosophy: The Good Life. Some people think that the pursuit of happiness is a bad idea.
36. Needless to say, I disagree.
37. I find that music really helps me to change my mood and would love your suggestions for happy music.
38. Making myself happy and making others happy are the two aims that define my life.
39. Entrepreneurship is my tool to achieve these aims.

40. Wealth & money

    Steve Pavlina: Making Money Consciously. Being wealthy is not the same as being rich.

41. It's hard to remember that when you're poor.
42. Being frugal is an excellent way to remind oneself of the unimportance of stuff.
43. Being a student helps you to be frugal because there are few other options. :)
44. There are lots of useful site out there that can help you be frugal.
45. Get Rich Slowly: Debt elimination is possible, even for students.
46. Life Coaches Blog: Saving your money can become fun, even addictive!
47. Mind Petals: If you want to be rich, make it one of your goals.

48. "Energy flows where attention goes"*

    John Richardson: Goals: Create The Gallery of Your Life. Don't forget to intend your goals. Visualisation is one powerful method for achieving. *From 'The Secret'.

49. Steve Pavlina: Manifesting Intentions Without Resistance. Role-playing is another good way of doing that.
50. Lorelle VanFossen: Blog Challenge: What Have You Learned This Year? Blogging challenges are great for writing ideas and for extra traffic. Thanks Lorelle!

Speedlinks: Decluttering

I call it Detoxing My Life, Jon Tillman calls it the War Against Stuff.

Whatever name you have for it, if you're a hoarder (like myself) you'll recognise the immense challenge clearing out presents, as well as the value of it.

I spent all of Friday throwing away stuff (two bin bags full) and sorting out stuff (piles of paper). I found my passport, my locker key and a bag of brand new clothes (which I returned today, for a full refund). So much time and money saved! I filled three massive carrier bags with goodies for charity shops too and got rid of that today.

I have some clear space in my room! Yay!

Help is at hand: Your 'declutter it!' resources

1. Life organisers: How to organise your clutter for an array of resources; for practical tips, see Life organisers: Tackle your clutter.
2. It's Not About Your Stuff… Jessica offers advice at her blog, in accordance with her mission to help people with "letting go of the things in their life that no longer serve them". See her site – inperfectorder.com – for more help.
3. Lighter Footstep (due for release later this month), "for people who want to live lighter, more sustainable lives". If you want to declutter more than your house or room, you might want to look in to this site by Chris Baskind, who defines Minimalism as "the balance of that which is desirable and necessary". Looks like it'll be interesting so I'll definitely be writing about it in future.
4. Relationship Between Clutter and Debt? "By choosing to have less… I tend to value it more." An interesting take on the cost of clutter, definitely worth a thought or two.
5. Clutter Awareness Week is the third week in March, but why wait until then? Get a headstart on your spring cleaning, with these tips, by starting NOW! :)

Bonus link: Hate housework? Here's an easy alternative. Humour! Not for the squamish or those who dislike creepy crawlies.

Summary

Okay, so if (like my parents) you find it super-easy to be neat and tidy, you probably think I am making a mountain out of a molehill. However, if you'd like some help, well, that's the purpose of this entry. In the meantime, I'm going to get some sleep tonight, ready for another day of decluttering tomorrow.

Do let me know how you get on, won't you?

Fear and following through with your goals in spite of it

Fear Based Decisions are the Wrong Decisions, Mind Petals

I have a choice to make about my education and fear is pushing me towards a decision I know is completely wrong for me. Now I'm doubly terrified, because I'm fearful of making the wrong decision out of fear. Aagh!

But how do I have the courage to quote unquote "feel the fear and do it anyway"?

Any words of wisdom? Or maybe you're in a similar position wondering how to be strong? Do let me know and we can commiserate and support each other. :)

In the meantime, I'll focus on saying thank you more, in order to get myself in the right frame of mind for really figuring out what I want. I like to say thank you.

Watch The Secret

On a related note, if you haven't seen The Secret, do! I highly recommend it. (Thank you to Jessica, from It's Not About Your Stuff for letting me know about this inspirational film). It was available to watch online for free, but no longer: $4.95 for the online version, or $29.95 for the DVD.

Free for you!

I'm not affiliated with The Secret in any way, I just think it's brilliant. Which is why I'll buy either the online version or the book for the first person to request one in a comment to this entry. Just let me know which one you'd like.

N.B. The online version is worth $4.95 and is not compatible with Intel Macs computers. The book is worth $23.95/£9.99 and is currently available from Amazon for $14.37/£5.99.

Using money for good or, How Ethical Beads makes the world better

Steve Pavlina & Paul Graham have shed much light on the myth about money being evil. Money is not evil, but neutral. See my entry – Speedlinks: Money – for links to their articles & more, plus my mini-reviews.

As part of my dream to be financially independent, I have the goal of changing my attitudes to money. One important thing I've learnt over time is that it's easier to get rid of negative beliefs, actions etc (e.g. fearing becoming rich might change me in to an ogre) by replacing them with positive ones (e.g. realising money can & does achieve much good).

I'm intending money to come in to my life & I'm creating wealth; I'll use my money to make the world better. My project to use money for good is Ethical Beads.

Aims of Ethical Beads

• Raise awareness of the ethical issues involved in bead & jewellery manufacture.
• Make it easy for ethical consumers to purchase ethical beads & jewellery, thus:
• Revolutionise bead & jewellery crafting & manufacturing communities internationally.

Achieving goodness & betterment

It's a long-term project, the first steps are identifying ethical suppliers & researching ethical companies & others, spreading the ideas and building a community of like-minded people.

The baby steps are searching for suppliers & researching so-called ethical companies & their 'initiatives' (esp. Ethical Trading Initiative & Fair Trade Federation), finding supporters (via blogging, blog/viral marketing.

Pretty brilliant goals to start the new year, I think!

In related news, watch The Secret, an inspirational documentary film, online for free and achieve your goals: Believe it and you achieve it. No gimmicks! More info. I just watched this and I feel brilliant: Energised, happy, ready to tackle anything. Much recommended.

Review of design & content, plus feedback plea

Enjoy reading All Things Bright? Then you might be interested in my plans for it this coming new year, especially as you have the power to change things here, just by leaving me feedback.

On 11 December, I asked for your help with considering changes for All Things Bright, what kind of design & content you'd like here and what you think of teasers (i.e. excerpts of entries).

I made the mistake of not publicising the entry, so I've not had many responses. I'm now rectifying that mistake by letting more people know about this entry and asking for feedback.

So, please let me know what you think of the proposed changes in the comments. I invite you to add your own suggestions too, because I listen.

Ian replied to the previous request for feedback and I've implemented the changes he suggested. Since then I've had some emails with further feedback, specifically regarding the images to text ratio here (i.e. why so few images?), so I'll be focusing on that for the next month.

Action list

Executing & following up on ideas from 2006

Advertising: On 13th August, I stated that I'd remove AdSense if it didn't pick up by the end of the year. So that's what I'm doing. When All Things Bright is more established, I may put it back, but currently it's not worth it. I'll review in three months, at the end of March.

Much more important to get the word out about All Things Bright than it is to try monetizing it with something like AdSense. (I have some better ideas for monetizing, mainly affiliate recommendations, but you'll see as next year unfolds).

Marketing: I'll be focusing more on marketing next year, for All Things Bright and other projects. In addition, I'll be generally extending and deepening my knowledge of marketing.

Goals for 2007

Specific goals for All Things Bright, to fulfil my dreams of greatness & growth (via increased popularity), with details of how you can help if you are willing and able to do so.

Me: Extending the Community

• Become part of a suitable, reputable blogging network, which is of personal value and interest to me.
  How? Join Mind Petals: Young Entrepreneur Network
  If you know of others, please do send suggestions to me(at)inspirewithhope.com. Thanks.
• Reply to my comments much more promptly.
  I'll be working out a schedule to allow a specific time slot for replying to all the wonderful comments my lovely readers take time to leave me.
• Read other blogs and leave comments on them; because "good bloggers are a part of the community of blogs".
  See Marketing Profs: Daily Fix (and also The Viral Garden) for more discussion.

You: Come, join me!

Readers, here's how to support All Things Bright, should you so desire

• One, tell me what you love, dis/like, loathe about All Things Bright. Send me comments & emails, feedback very welcome. In turn, I always listen and I'm going to be even more responsive.
• Two, tell others about All Things Bright, so they can enjoy it too. Thanks. :)

So, what do you think?

My New Year's goals, dreams & aspirations

Lessons from life or, Things I've learnt this year

Fear is a motivating factor in many of my actions, or rather, in many of my reasons & excuses not to act.

Action points

• Continue self-awareness of when I'm feeling fear and why.
• Change goals and actions in the face of rational fears to address valid reasons for not acting.
• Act in the face of irrational fears to diminish fear and accomplish my goals. [link: see Shyness post].

Dreams: Over-arching aims & big goals for next year

Debt-free by December 2007 (excluding student loan)

Because financial independence is something I dream about and it's the one thing that would make the most positive difference to my life.

Difficulties

• Clothes: I love shopping, especially with all those sales! I acknowledge that sale shopping is about the positive feelings in finding bargains and 'winning' against shops (especially over-priced ones). However, I don't want to spend all my money on clothing, there is much more to life! So, spend in the sales, fine, but no spending on clothes at all for the first 30 days of January.
• Eating out: Represents more to me than just food; it's socialising, spending time with friends, meeting new people, trying something new, having something familiar… I don't want to stop eating out, so I think the aim is to discover interesting and reasonably-priced places and return. For example, I liked the Mongolian Barbeque restaurant, so I should definitely go back there. In addition, there's a vegetarian restaurant I love, Food For Thought, which I've been reluctant to write about because it's already so popular that it's often over-crowded (victim of its own success) and my review would be positive, possibly making it more so!

Goals: Action points

• Save: Nurture passion for student frugality & saving
  As a full-time student, I have good reason for being poor and for not splashing out. When will I next have excuse to be stingy?!
• Change attitude to money
  On one level I know that money is not all-important, that wealth is something one creates, that money has merely exchange value etc. I need to gather these thoughts in to a single coherent, all-encompassing & empowering belief about money, something that inspires me to save and not spend.
• Change attitude to shopping
  Buying clothes for myself means I have less money for eating out and therefore for spending money on myself and others (spending money on others because they thereby get the benefit of my company). So, eating out is more desirable all-round.
• Focus on more important things
  Like my MA, my business (Ethical Beads), friends, good living (i.e. above all things meaningful living, but also happiness for others: giving/ethical/benevolent, happiness for me: pleasant/enjoyable/healthy – in doing all these at once, I achieve the ultimate end of life).

Studying & my MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion

Difficulties

• Procrastinating. Out of fear? Fear of failure? Laziness?
• It's hard!
• Essay-writing, blah

Goals: Action points

• Change attitude to writing essays, on some level I want to write essays… bring that out more.
• Just get on with it! Start earlier too.
• More self-awareness (reading & reflecting) to identify and face my fears.

Entrepreneurship & professional blogging

Difficulties

• Making time
• Facing my fears of failure & success

Goals: Action points

• Work on All Things Bright & Ethical Beads. For details, see my forthcoming entry on Sunday, New Year's Eve. Update: Review of design & content, 31 Jan

Philosophy of sleep, relaxation & chilling

My working & sleeping today

First day of the Next sale (it's online too, at next.co.uk, open 6am – 1am). So, today, I worked for over ten hours, in the ladies' shoes department. Ten!

Such a contrast with the quiet family Christmas a couple of days before, without which who knows if I could have survived today!

When I got home I was exhausted, naturally. I was hungry too. So I snacked quickly then went to bed, even though I really wanted to sit down and have dinner with my mum.

Woke up about an hour ago and felt so much more human again; it's amazing. I realised, wow, it really does make a massive difference to get enough sleep!

The philosophy behind my experience

Chris Hamilton (one of my lecturers) has an insightful chapter 'The Need for Sleep' (in his book Living Philosophy, which you can buy from Amazon.co.uk & from Amazon.com). I was going to summarise it, but upon re-reading it I've realised it's so rich that skimming it would do it no justice. Chris explores literature as well as our experiences of sleep and thoughts about it to discuss the meaning of sleep.

So, from now on, or at least for the next 30 days, I'm doing a new experiment: 8 hours of sleep daily for the next 30 days. I'm very lucky because I can fall asleep almost instantly, so all I need to do is go to bed eight hours before I want to get up. Easy!

More thoughts & feelings about chilling

Thinking about it, many of my friends extol the benefits of relaxing frequently, especially Ibiji & Immy, who seem to imbue their lives with these kind of thoughts about chilling.

Ian & Robert often remind me to relax instead of cramming so much in to my life, and they're right: Failing to relax leads to stress, which ultimately leads to inefficiency as well as ill health, so cramming is counter-productive.

Help sleeping and relaxing more

Some excellent books that may help you if you'd like to sleep and relax more too.

• Living Philosophy: Reflections on Life, Meaning & Morality, by Chris Hamilton
• How to be Idle, by Tom Hodgkinson
• Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

Merry Christmas to all

…and to all a good night!

I've had a jolly Christmas. Massive lunch, lots of comedy television and a night in front of the computer.

I'm sure I should write something about the evils of over-indulgence or something, but I'm too smiley. Hurrah for joy!

Resolutions vs Goals

Today I've been thinking about New Year's Resolutions.

I'm not going to make any.

Rather, I'd prefer to view my life as something I can start afresh whenever I like. Instead of resolutions, I'll be setting goals.

My main goal is to be debt-free by December 2007 (excluding my student loan).

This is going to be an interesting one because I love shopping and, currently, saving is hardly amongst my favourite activities. However, financial independence is something I dream about and is the one thing that would make the most positive difference to my life.

So, here are some ideas I've got for achieving financial independence:

• Save more
• Spend less

Hmm, shockingly ground-breaking…(!)

I'll be able to do this, so long as I focus on the fact that I want to do this, rather than seeing it as an imposition on how I'd rather live my life. Yes, choices, not restrictions.

Another reason for making sure Ethical Beads is a runaway success.

Speedlinks: Money

I was planning to write an insightful article about money, financial management and such the like.

However, I'm feeling distinctly unqualified to do so, due to one of my banks 'robbing' me of £60 today. It's partly their fault (unreasonable charges, unclear policies, senseless bureaucracy) and partly mine (stupidly forgetting dates, spending too much, opening a savings account when I'm too poor to do so, being a stereotypical student).

Anyway, as incapable as I am of giving and following good advice, I can still recognise it when I see it. So I'm pointing you towards some excellent articles in the hope that they can help you too.

1. Financial Teaching Kids About Money, Forbes
   Stuff you should know but may not have learnt yet.
2. The Daddy Model of Wealth, Paul Graham
   Maybe immature opinions about money are colouring your attitude to welfare and money generally.
3. Why Giving Will Always Lead to Receiving; Even When It Comes to Money, Brian Kim
   One really positive model to help you re-think your attitudes to money, with practical guidance for your life.
4. Making Money Consciously, Steve Pavlina
   One realistic model to help you get more balanced ideas about money.
5. Five Fantastic Frugal Tips for Christmas, Get Rich Slowly
   How to survive what is a really expensive period for many people.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Five things about Kathleen: Passion

Yes, it's a meme.

I'm giving in to peer pressure here; willingly, I should add. Teli tagged me; I'm flattered.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these bits of my life (as well as the rest of my life too). :)

I've chosen the theme of Passion to add structure.

1. I need to move out of my parents' house to reach my full potential, but I'm scared and broke.
2. I'm excited (and scared) about Ethical Beads, it needs human rights and environmentalist researchers to work. Plus, time. Any takers?
3. I have an obsessive personality, whereby I get really passionate about specific people and projects, plus other things.
4. Currently that includes All Things Bright, my health, coffee, Yo Sushi, Giraffe and spodding (def: "the action of sitting at a computer on the Internet, and wasting time").
5. I oscillate between fear and lack of time as my chief reasons for procrastinating. But mainly it's because I'm spodding. (Bad K, no cookie).

If you'd like to know more, please do feel free to email me; I love answering questions.

If you're sick of the self-obsessiveness, never fear: Come back on Thursday for an insightful entry about money, finances and all the fiscal 'joys' of the season. In actuality, it's an article about more realistic subjects for this time of year, like how to handle it when you're broke.

Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3)

This is the third, and final, installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3), in which I discuss studying & education. See my last two entries for the first two installments, Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3) & Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3).

1. Mistakes & Failure: I will fail. Good. (Entire premise of my blog, Make More Mistakes, which I'm relaunching in January 2007).
2. Execute, don't deliberate. Make intuitive decisions. (Note: Intuitive does not mean impulsive).
3. Money: Focus on wealth.

1. Fail

You learn by doing.

Accepting and embracing failure is a brilliant idea because if you don't fear failure you're getting out of your way. The first step to creating a brilliant product is creating a product. So, Kathleen, stop procrastinating!

I already know that I'm only procrastinating out of fear and that the best way for me to conquer my fears of doing stuff is to do it anyway. (See also, James Brausch's excellent article about how many different problems are actually the same problem: fear)

One way of tackling this fear is to learn from other people's failures. Another is make more mistakes myself (and this is the entire reason for the existence of Make More Mistakes, my blog which re-launches in January 2007).

2. Execute

Intimately linked to #1. Fail.

Whatever you want you either create it for yourself or you exchange something you have with someone who's created what you want.

3. Money

Intimately linked to #2. Execute.

I need to change beliefs about, and my attitude to, money. I never seem to have enough, even when I acquire it unexpectedly. I've tried hoarding it and that hasn't worked.

As Steve Pavlina said, "Money has no inherent value of its own, but we assign it value through social agreement. If I give you $100, you can withdraw $100 of value from society. The only reason this works is that we agree by consensus that $100 has a certain value." Making money consciously, Steve Pavlina.

In future entries, I'll be exploring different approaches to money and wealth.

Finale

This concludes my series on goal-setting. I hope you've enjoyed it and found it useful. Don't forget to let me know what you think about my thoughts on: 1. Health, 2. Studying & 3. Business.

In closing, here's a link on the importance of setting goals: How Goals Make You More Productive, Trizoko

Thanks for reading!

Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3)

1. Organisation
2. Execution
3. Evaluation

This is the second installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3), in which I discuss studying & education. See my last entry for the first installment, Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3).

1. Organisation: Overcoming fear

Not much to say on this one, except that I'm inclined to procrastinate out of fear.

I feel like a hypocrite suggesting to other people that they should conquer their fears, because I struggle so much with this advice myself. So I'll just point you in the direction of some who've said it better than I could.

I've been trying an experiment for the past month, which is to take on more than I'm comfortable with… The idea of doing things that are outside my comfort zone is also an anxiety-inducing exercise in facing my own demons. Coupled with my continuing search for “creative and career identity”, all these negative associations contribute, I think, to a failure to really live up to my potential. And what IS that potential? By overbooking myself, slowly, I am finding where my cracking points are… don't let undefined fear be your reason for saying “no”. Say yes instead.

Productivity through Discomfort, Dave Seah

Dude, you're procrastinating because you fear your imperfections… 1. Embrace your suckiness… use failures/imperfections as guideposts to construct the destination's route. When you embrace your suckiness, you drive yourself to do something — anything. 2. You don't need to do anything… When you replace the "I-have-to's" with the "I-choose-to's", you empower your mind to become fully assertive and open to kicking ass. Chillax.

2 Rules to Stop Procrastinating, Trizle

See also:

You can't let fear stand in your way to success. You can't become that timid person who wishes and prays for things to happen with your who isn't willing to take any action and make moves with your business.

Don't be Scared, It May Kill Ya

Fear is the great inhibitor. All of the excuses that you find for not doing work you love have solutions. You do not enact them because you are afraid: of showing up too big in the world; of failing; of appearing as an imposter; of living in poverty. There is nothing wrong with fear. Feel it, talk to it, examine it and walk with it. Then step out and let yourself show up, warts and all. It will liberate you.

The Work Manifesto, Pamela Slim

There is a price to pay for success and it is to be able to do things that ARE good but still may FEEL bad or may scare the crap out of you… Commit to throwing up your hand when you get the tug from inside and you're instantly a success.

Lessons From the Dragon's Den, Jon Symons

2. Execution: Do it now!

Philosophy conflicts, more details

Making unsubstantiated claims, or What I believe versus what I can explain rationally.

I can't remember who it was, but one brilliant philosopher felt he wasn't being true to himself in his capacity as a Philosophy lecturer because he felt compelled to say more than he knew. I worry about doing this myself. Of course, I know much less than he did, so I'm more likely to run across this problem.

I'm concerned about saying anything without providing evidence or good reasons for why I think what I do, which makes writing essays tough.

As I mentioned in my last post, studying is both helping and hindering my progress here: Helping because my reasoning skills improve as I exercise my brain, hindering because the more I think about things the more I sink in to confusion. Chris assures me that this is normal.

3. Evaluation

Actually, I can't decide whether all my self-analysis is a good thing or not. I might be over-analysing. *thinks for a bit* I think the main thing is to work through these in order. By the time I finish organising and executing I probably won't feel the need for evaluation. What do you reckon?

Looking forward

Come back on Sunday for the final installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3). I'll be developing some of my thoughts about Ethical Beads too, as well as sharing my business plan and recruiting people who care about human beings & the environment.

Power of three: Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3)

In a recent post, I discussed the things I've realised I want from my life. I'll recap:

1. I want my life to have meaning. I want the areas of my life to cohere in to a pattern with an overarching aim, vision or mission.
2. I'm in pursuit of happiness. Currently, a big chunk of this is my being in pursuit of healthiness (mentally, physically & spirituality).
3. Happiness is located in happiness for myself & happiness for others. Cue entrepreneurship (for me) and social enterprise (for others), united.

Now I just need to decide what I'm doing now to make that future happen.

Do you know what you want from your life? Or, Reflections on mine, Kathleen, 7 Dec 06

Cue this series in three parts. In Power of three: Goal-setting I explore three areas (health, studying & business) and go through some simple instructions for myself. By doing so, I make it easier to achieve my goals (meaning, happiness for myself & happiness for others) because I've broken them down in to easy-to-follow steps, which include things I like doing.

I hope these entries help you to achieve similar success with your goals too. Do write in (email or leave comments) and let me know how you get on.

Health

1. Physical
   • Water: The easiest, cheapest way to be healthy.
   • Dancing: I love dancing. In On Religion, the secret to happiness is dance. It's an excellent way to combat "blogfat – an aversion to doing anything physical that takes us away from crafting a new post." Pam.
   • Healthy-eating: Yo Sushi (review coming soon) and vegetarian cuisine, like Food For Thought seem like excellent ways to go, because yummy and healthy is the only way I ever maintain a healthy diet for any reasonable length of time. Experimenting in the kitchen is fun too.
2. Emotional
   • Love: It can be such a devastating heartache and yet still there are numerous poems in awe of love. Kant defined human beings as distinctly rational beings; why not as loving beings?
   • Kindness: I find it amazing when that truism 'a stranger is a friend you haven't met yet' really does ring true. The kindness of strangers is so unexpected. I'm in the company of a couple of Texans (they're from Austin, which is 'the hole in the Bible-belt', can I call them Austinians?!) who are so welcoming and lovely that I can't get over it. I'd love to make people feel that way around me.
   • Niceness: Being nice is one of those virtues that really is its own reward. It's closely linked to being charitable. It seems to me that being nice is about the warmness you feel in your heart when you're nice, not about boasting about it. (Reminds me of something in the Bible, New Testament, about how charity should be given in secret). With the exception of when public charity-giving raises awareness and encourages others to do it too.
3. Mental: This is going to be the toughest nut to crack, definitely. Notice how the steps get increasingly vague as they progress from physical to emotional to mental, mainly because my mental anguishes at the moment revolve around:
   • Philosophy conflicts: What I believe versus what I can explain rationally. Studying is both helping and hindering my progress here. (In my next entry on Studying, I'll discuss my philosophy conflicts in more depth).
   • Being good: Sometimes it's so hard. Sometimes it feels like being good only results in more pain and unhappiness for everyone involved. Sometimes being bad feels good.
   • Spirituality: Trying to explain how I feel about it seems like a mammoth, impossible task at the moment. It feels completely indefinable and uncategorisable.

Looking forward

Come back on Friday for the next installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3). I'll be developing some of my thoughts on the 'Mental' side of things too.

Readers, I need your help!

New design for All Things Bright?

I'm considering changing the design for All Things Bright.

I love the current theme (especially the proliferation of pink!) and I've made some changes recently to make the design simpler and clearer.

Are the changes enough or would you like to see something new?

What do you like to read here?

What kind of content do you want from All Things Bright? What kind of topics do you expect? Should there be more about entrepreneurship? Less? What about ethics, philosophy, studying? Do you like my personal entries?

Please do let me know.

Teasers or full entries?

When you go to the homepage of All Things Bright, at the moment you see five full entries, then excerpts for the next five entries, then a linked list of the next ten entries.

This means that the homepage is really really long and may be intimidating.

Apparently, using excerpts linking to the full entries would improve my front page. But what do you think?