The Woodshed

Part 3. I've always figured that blogging would make me happy. C'mon. The ability to be instantly published? The tools to make your word global? Every single letter! Every single thought - available to every single reader with a net connection and your blog address? Hurrah! Happiness. Not so. First of all: You have to have something relevent to say (and you have many relevant things to say thoughout the day - the only problem is that you remeber them when you have them ... not when you need them). Secondly: you need to set time aside to sit down and post. Time? Aside? WTF? ... is that? 4 Kids. Wonderful demanding job. Learning to play the guitar. I rest my case. So. I'm thinking this is the new strategy: Why not consider your Blog like a magazine of sorts? ... You know ... it's regular. Not this weird monster that always needs feeding ... but rather like regular controlled publication that is always there on a Monday morning. Sounds good innit? I've got LOADS of mat...

I decided to claim my Blog. Which is silly really - because the Blog is mine afterall. So why should I claim it? Well .. I'm finally going to take technorati out for a spin and with the registration process I see that they can track and measure and remind and do all sorts of really really nifty things with my Blog. So I goes. ahem ... "I claim this Blog now!" Technorati Profile

I believe that we are all in the persuit of happiness. Each day we eat our wheetbix. Drink our milk and drive into the office to improve our lives. To get that bonus. To reach that goal. To be recognised. Awarded. Promoted. That will make us happy. Is that really the case? Is this it? I'm leaving that with you. But if you're thinking that this isn't the country to make you happy you should consider this: The twenty happiest countries are: Denmark Switzerland Austria Iceland The Bahamas Finland Sweden Bhutan Brunei Canada Ireland Luxembourg Costa Rica Malta The Netherlands Antigua and Barbuda Malaysia New Zealand Norway The Seychelles Other rankings: USA (23), France (62), China (82) Japan (90), India (125). Notice that our beautiful sunny South Africa doesn't feature. I guess a braaifleis isn't the ingredient to happiness ... funny that. I wouldn't have said so.

Last night I started. During the holidays I bought myself a Yamaha acoustic classical guitar. It wasn't expensive. Just the basics. And that's all I need at the moment. I had my first lesson. Printed off the net. You know. A beginners lesson. The basics. This is the nut. This the first fret. Here's the body. There's the hole. But when do you get to play?? Okay. Here is is. Practice your scales. Next there's the C, G and D Majors ... cool! :-) I even printed out Brown Eye's Girl. So I got off the ground. About 30min of strumming around until my finger's hurt. But today I had a thought. My non-calloused finger tips are serving as a constant reminder to the agreement I made myself last year. Learn to play. I'm conscious of them all the time ... like when a newly-wed groom notices his wedding band for weeks, even months after The Big Day. It reminds you of your commitment. I hadn't thought of that. And all along it was at my finger tips.

Let's start this year with a contract to ourselves. A contract that contains 4 principles ... or agreements ... we need to make with our family, our friends, our work colleagues ... with life. But the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is impossible. One single agreement is not such a problem, but we have many agreements that come from fear, deplete our energy, and diminish our self-worth. These Four Agreements are an extract from the powerful book by Don Miguel Ruiz - a book that is almost always found by my bedside ... 1. Be Impeccable With Your Word Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. 2. Don't Take Anything Personally Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality,...

Here are a few suggestions for under the tree this year: [1] Apple's iPhone (with independent network choice) [2] The vintage Kenner Star Wars figure collection (in the boxes) [3] A Mac Mini for all my MP3's [4] The new book by Tim Saunders - The Likability Factor [5] A PS3. Ahead of the rush. [6] A BMX that won't break when I ride it. [7] The sea. (I live in Johannesburg). [8] An opportunity to meet Guy Kawasaki. [9] More time to Blog. [10] Lastly please please please get your elves to provide a compatible PCMCIA card for my MacBook Pro. It's the Express 16 slot - much smaller than that of the PowerBook. I've been good. Promise. XXX

Think about it. Imagine yourself walking barefoot over 4.5m of glowing coals. You've heard about it. You may have even briefly considered doing it. But have you actually seriously put your mind to the test? It's a little like training your brain to forget everything you've been conditioned to believing. This in itself is a wonderful exercise. But when we were rudely interrupted in an otherwise fun-but-routine workshop last week, I had no idea that the ritual can be so exhilarating. Granted, when you are told that in exactly 60min we would ALL have walked barefoot over 4.5m of burning coals - things take on a different perspective. You panic. Then you deal with the panic. The energy in the room was immediately raised. We were informed that to overcome any fear there are usually 3 simple conditions that need to be satisfied: 1. Environment What you think tends to become your belief quicker when everyone around you also believes. This is illustrated beautifully in Finding Ne...