4 steps to being a little happier.

Well, this week I found myself in a bit of a slump. Now for someone as generally positive as I am, this is not a good thing. I write this blog and tell people just how positive I am about life, and I find myself on, let's face it, a bit of a downer. I'm only human, and it happens. It's OK though, I forgive myself! 


Now I haven't sent any postcards from Positive Paradise for a few weeks, and I feel really bad about it, but if you're not in a state of mind to be creative it's no use beating yourself up about it. Accept what is, analyse the feelings, and 'Move forwards'


'Moving forwards' for me was achieved by resorting to one of my favourite techniques. And just so you know what I did and can try the same thing yourselves, I'm going to give it to you in a series of steps that you can follow. Now I know there are only 4 steps, but on these self help blogs everything has to be a series of steps. Don't ask me why, it just does. It might be tradition or something.....so anyway...


Step 1. Get hold of a notepad. 
I'd suggest one that isn't likely to be picked up and used by anyone else, because these are your private thoughts that are going to be written down here, and well, you know, sometimes that stuff is embarrassing! 


Step 2. Start writing. 
Pretty much any old brainstorming gobbledegook can go here, get into a stream of consciousness and just write.  Helpful words, phrases, a letter, to yourself it doesn't matter as long as the ideas are coming out of your mind and onto the page. 
I ended up listing the things that I am most happy doing, and then next to each item I wrote something that would help me get closer to or achieve that in the next week or so. This gives you some pretty much immediate results and instant gratification, rather then some long term-far off goal. 


Step 3. Do what you wrote about.
Just frickin' do it. Find time in your diary NOW and plan it in. You're living for you, not for anyone else, and you're working to live, not living to work. Cheesy, cliched, but true. 


Step 4. When you've done those, pick some new ones. 
Crack on. That's it.


Here's my list as I wrote it, with the items in italics as 'the way forward.' 


Things that make me really, really "I want to do a Snoopy dance" happy:


Visiting friends. 
Take some time off to visit my friend Alan and his family, also program in some 'boy' time (pub)


Spending time with the family.
Get my arse up to see Sara's family on Sunday, will be great to see everyone and drink lots of coffee..


Walking.
Do a 4-6 miler this week to start, and then the very next time it's sunny I will be packing my walking gear into the Audi and setting off for the Lake District like a rat out of an aqueduct. 


Cycling.
Get up to Hamsterley this week and do some of the new trails. Give the bike and myself a damn good thrashing. No mud, no blood, no pain, no gain! 


Cinema.
Go to the cinema one night this week and see 'Battleship' with dad, he's been badgering me all the time he's been in hospital to go and see a film so in his head this is important. Smell the roses...


Flying.
Renew my Teesside security pass, get in touch with Dr White in Jesmond for my medical renewal, and book a club checkout. Review some old textbooks and get up to speed on everything new in the aviation industry. Buy some current magazines, start looking at weather forecasts again, read the accident reports and learn from someone else's mistakes! 


Eating/Cooking.
Cook twice this week, and something I haven't done before........test myself with something that could go wrong. There's always the chip shop....


Now some of these things aren't exactly what I want to be doing, I'd love to visit some of the bigger cycling trails around the country, there are some amazing ones in north Wales and Scotland, I'd love to fly a bit further, even into Europe or 'Yerp' as the politicians call it. But they are 'motion towards' and a step in the right direction. 


It doesn't have to be hard to do what pleases you, you just have to start doing it. 


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