Archive for December, 2015

Happiness Challenge – Enthusiasm

Saturday, December 5th, 2015
Rekindling my enthusiasm for my teen-aged company - who knew yoga would show me the way....

Rekindling my enthusiasm for my teen-aged company – who knew yoga would show me the way….

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Today is a double header.  My happiness focus is on being enthusiastically engaged and today the focus is on enthusiasm.  What a great day to roll out a new idea. Yesterday in several conversations with my closest friends and colleagues, I realized I have grown less than enthusiastic about various aspects of my business.  So I am making a commitment to become enthusiastically engaged in every element of my company’s performance in all realms.  It is my choice to stop the demeanor of the haggard parent of an entitled teenager. I sometimes adopt as the leader of my 15 year old business.

To that end I am enrolling these closest friends and colleagues, some of who have known me for three decades, on my “board.”  But instead if having a Board of Directors or Board of Advisors, I’m assembling them into a Board of Enthusiasm.

It’s time to rekindle, revitalize, and renew the enthusiasm I had for this incredible business my team and I created.  I’ve used the veil of entrepreneurial fervor and the love of the next big thing to shore up my less than enthusiastic enjoyment of the day to day requirements of the business.  While I enjoy the thrill of the startup as much as the next entrepreneur, I can channel this into various performance enhancing efforts of my business as it moves through its teen years into mature adulthood.  I did after all actually enjoy the teen years of my now launched adult children.  So I know I can do this, it is fun, and it is oh so worth it.

 

 

 

 

Happiness Challenge – Practice

Friday, December 4th, 2015
One of the things I'm enjoying about my daily practice is it grounds me to a a healthy routine even when I'm traveling.

One of the things I’m enjoying about my happiness yoga flow daily practice is it grounds me to a healthy routine even when I’m traveling.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

I’ve kept to my commitment to do the Happiness Yoga Flow every day – now on day 6.  This daily practice is giving me an extra oomph – like this morning I got up and it was the first box checked off for the day.  I felt so virtuous.  Then I hopped to and met my adventure buddy at her gym for water aerobics.  I am excited to prep for the weekend inspired eagle yoga and gastronomy retreat – but first, things first – do my happiness practice.

Part of my Happiness Practice today is to reflect on how my enthusiastic engagement impacts others.  I recently  read an article about how to avoid bad bosses.  It listed five characteristics of bad managers and what to do to ferret these types out if you are in an interview.  I realized I had all five characteristics.  I’m thankful I run a boss free zone business.  I’m a teacher and a writer – not a boss.  Then I saw this quote by Thich Nhat Hahn – “When someone congratulates you or criticizes you, you can use this mantra. I have weaknesses in me and I also have strengths. If you congratulate me, I shouldn’t get lost and ignore that there are negative things in me. When we see the beautiful things in the other person, we tend to ignore the things that are not so beautiful. We are human, so we have both positive and negative things in us. So when your beloved one congratulates you, and tells you that you are the very image of perfection, you say, “You are partly right. You know that I have other things in me also.” In this way, you can retain your humility. You are not a victim of illusion because you know that you’re not perfect. And when another person criticizes you, you can also say, “You are partly right.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Love).

So while my enthusiastic and engaged approach to life may inspire others, I’m not the best boss on the planet according to conventional boss standards.  At least I’m happy. Do I have a responsibility to become someone I’m not though to meet some “boss standard” so others are more satisfied with how they have to associate with me?   I do not think so – it’s more important I am true to who I am.

Happiness Challenge – Responsive

Thursday, December 3rd, 2015
My adventure buddy Barb is sideways over this latest requirement - pulling me out of the doldrums out of this current tax shituation.

My adventure buddy Barb is sideways over this latest requirement – pulling me out of the doldrums because of this current tax shituation.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Being happy while well rested is pretty easy.  Finding my way to happiness exhausted with extensive time pressure and then hearing about a tax problem from 2013 finally resolved not in my favor – well then it’s time to pull out the silver lining aspect of finding my way to happiness.  Today’s theme is responsive.  So, I need and want to be responsive to whatever is showing up.

One of the silver linings of the tax shituation is my assistant emailed me the initial value and it was 3 times higher than the final hit. So now I feel lucky it’s the lower amount.  Plus I’m told we still need to find more deductions. So I’m not sure it’s worth even getting worked up about it all now.  I’m at a bar writing this with my adventure buddy Barb (a medicinal visit to recoup from the tax news).  Still time to do the happiness yoga flow – I’ve switched to seltzer water.

 

Happiness Challenge – Inspiration

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015
My day included delivering my latest completed Christmas hat as part of a visit to have my Apple IPhone programming genius fix my iPhone.

My day included delivering my latest completed Christmas hat as part of a visit to have my Apple IPhone programming genius fix my iPhone.

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Happiness Challenge – Habits

Tuesday, December 1st, 2015

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

I'm taking my knitting gig on the road so now I have my hat designs on my iPhone. This is the design for the current hat I'm working on. Everyday I am either creating or reinforcing a habit - I like this hat habit - for now.

I’m taking my knitting gig on the road so now I have my hat designs on my iPhone. This is the design for the current hat I’m working on. Everyday I am either creating or reinforcing a habit – I like this hat habit – for now.

This is day three of me doing the happiness yoga flow every morning.  Considering I created this yoga flow, I know how to do it.  So I can do it anywhere . But doing it every day, well I don’t always do it everyday – but now I am – even today as a travel day where I’m in Juneau at a hotel waiting for my plane to leave in the afternoon. I did yoga in jeans and my hiking boots – just to see what it would be like. I’m very much enjoying creating this new habit  The new habits I’m creating here though are not just doing the happiness yoga flow every morning, but it’s also approaching everything I do with enthusiastic engagement as it makes whatever I’m doing so much more energizing.  All I need to do the happiness yoga flow is the action of doing it – wherever I am, whatever I’m wearing – yoga mat, or no yoga mat.
A few weeks ago I was watching the movie on Yogananda. As I was doing yoga today, I remembered a line from that movie – something about how practicing yoga does not require you to give up anything – you may over time choose to only do those habits that help you.  Being in this hotel last night, while setting up the computer onto the TV to watch a show from Amazon Prime, the TV was on a channel with a TV Christian Minister.  In the past, I would have had a negative perception of this type of programming. I took a minute last night to see this show through a new perspective (this was spontaneous and not forced).  What I saw was a man attempting to bring comfort to others  through his religious beliefs. I saw a shade of goodness I had not noticed before. There are all types of things in life that can annoy – my new habit of enthusiastic engagement – it’s taking me in some directions I had not anticipated.  I much prefer seeing goodness of what is going on around me rather than railing about what is wrong or bad about it.