Tuesday Truth or Dare: It's a Gossip Thing

Truth:  She is such a bitch!  Look at her outfit can you imagine wearing that!?  My boss is a nasty cheating jerk!  Did you see the way she treated so and so?  She's pregnant again!  How can they afford another child?!

It's all gossip, rumour, innuendo, judgement and it's TOXIC!  

Gossiping is toxic to your personal wellbeing and mood.  Gossip causes stress, guilt, uncertainty, anxiety and distrust.  these are not good feelings to have for your day!  

Participating in gossip has negative consequences for your emotional, mental and physical health.  Bet you thought it was harmless!

Dare:  Consciously decide that you will not participate in any form of gossip.  You won't start the gossip.  You won't listen to gossip.  You won't engage with gossip.  You will remove yourself from gossipy situations.  

Remember:  When you're gossiping about someone, someone else is gossiping about you!

You will begin a Healthy Gossip-Free Lifestyle!

7 day Challenge: 

Wake Up and Smile!

I Declare Myself Gossip Free!

Make it a Great |Day!

Ready to Claim Your Big, Bold, Ballsy Life?

You had a dream and then life happened and then worry and stress crept in and sucked the life out of your dreams. No dreams + no inspiration = no motivation.

Sometimes life knocks you down and leaves you feeling depressed, challenged, overwhelmed, stressed and you start to believe that things will never change.

Thrive:  Live Life Fearlessly 10 Day Challenge is designed to reignite your inspiration + breakthrough your negative feelings.

You will finish the challenge feeling vibrant and ready to make each and every day a great day!

Let's get your Inspiration back! Time to reclaim your passion and look forward to achieving your dreams.

Take the challenge and reclaim your inspiration. 

You have one life - this one, right now!

Sign Up Here

Challenge Starts June 1st

Your Baggage-Free Life Begins with GRACE-ful Steps

Following up on my last post where I told my personal story of moving from Victim to Survivor to Thriver, I want to talk about how I healed and created my Big, Bold, Baggage-Free Life.

My journey from feeling small, worthless and deeply unhappy to an amazing and wonderful life filled with joy, happiness, and endless opportunities, was not smooth or without ups and downs.

But it was so worth it and I highly recommend taking the first step: Gratitude, Gratitude and More Gratitude

A friend introduced to me to the idea of keeping a Gratitude Journal and I remember thinking at the time "what a ridiculous idea!"  What on earth did I have to be grateful for?

She gently asked me to just do it for a week and if it's not adding positive value to your life, then stop.

The first day I opened my journal I sat and stared at the blank page and sighed.  My mind was blank and then it occurred to me that I had spoken with my baby girl that day and for that I was grateful!

That was my first entry and 20 years later, I am a faithful keeper of a Gratitude Journal!  It starts my day and ends my day.

Gratitude began my healing journey.  It opened my mind and my heart to what I had and all the amazing possibilities that were waiting for me.

Practicing Gratitude every day saved me from becoming a bitter, angry, lonely, depressed old hag and for that I am truly grateful.

Gratitude helped me begin the important process of Letting Go.  
Releasing all of my negative labels and emotions and putting my past in the past where it belonged.

There are 5-Steps in my GRACE-ful steps program:

Gratitude - What am I Grateful For?
Release (Letting Go) - What Can I Release (Let Go)?
Authentic You - How Can I be Authentically Me?
Challenge - What is my Next Challenge?
Embrace - What Can I Embrace as Possible?

I'll explore more about Release in my next post and continue the journey through all the steps.

Your life is so much more than the pain, anxiety, and despair you're feeling.  You can have a big, bold, baggage-free life.

It's waiting for you on the other side of the pain. All it takes to get there is one step at a time.  You can do this and you'll be glad you did.

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Living a Big, Bold, Baggage-Free Life

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What Time is It? Time for a Treat

When was the last time you treated yourself?

I'm not talking about expensive spa days or lavish vacations. They're good too but I want you to think of small, daily treats that you can have just for you.

Small treats or simple indulgences will nurture your well-being.  They will lift your spirits, refresh you, and restore a sense of balance in your life.

Schedule "Treat Time".  Get in the habit of scheduling your treat time - it is critical to your well being!

Treats are fabulous for setting and achieving your goals.  Set a goal and set your reward when you accomplish it.  A mini-celebration of you and what you've accomplished!

Remember, it's a treat from your perspective, not anyone else's.

Treat Yourself Self-Care

• Add small treats and simple indulgences to your daily life
• What is something that would be deliciously indulgent for you?
• When will you treat yourself?
• Mark time for treats - "TM" Treat Myself - in your calendar

And Remember Treats come in all sizes and price ranges!

Some Treat Yumminess to get you started

• Spend time with a friend chatting over a slow cup of tea
• Go for a hike - city or country - wander and take in the sites and sounds
• Take a long, hot bath with bubbles up to your neck
• Stop, sit on a bench and watch the world go by and smile
• Sit down in silence and read a book
• Have a decadent nap
• Buy fresh flowers for your home or office
• Give to charity or a friend
• Eat chocolate 

Add your own wonderful, delicious treats to the list.

About Susan Ball:  Susan inspires her clients to live the life of their dreams with passion, joy, and love. Susan is an experienced international Life Coach helping people discover and live their ideal life through NLP, Mindfulness, and G.R.A.C.E.

Learn more about Susan by visiting her Online, on Facebook

Do You Know What the Biggest Suck to Your Confidence Is?

The people you hang out with!

Take a good hard look at the people you associate with.  Are they negative-nellies?  Poo-pooing your every idea?  Do they look at you and say negative stuff about your appearance?  The way you dress? Do they constantly tell you what you "should" do, think or say?

If any of that is true, then you are hanging around people who are sucking the self-confidence right out of you! Every drop of it.
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By the time your day is done, you've had your ideas shot down, You've been told that you should do something or behave some way or change something.  You face questions all day long that make you think twice about your choices.

It's no wonder you get home and seek solace from the world outside.  After all, hiding is better than listening to all the negative noise.

If you end your day wondering if there is anything at all good or wonderful or worthy about yourself, then it's time to change the people you hangout with.

How to Take it Back! 

Your Confidence and Your Self-Worth are 

Your Most Valuable Assets

For the next few days, listen to what people are saying to you and at you.  Really listen and be honest with yourself.

During quiet moments, reflect on what you heard and who said it. Write it down.  Is there a pattern?  Does someone in your circle consistently put you down or make you question your decisions? Who is the person?  Close relative?  Friend?  Acquaintance?  Co-Worker?  Spouse?

Do Not Make Excuses For Them.

Time to Keep, Edit, or Delete

Keep:  Who brings you joy, lights you up, lets you be your true self?  Who encourages and supports you to move forward in your life?  These are the people you want to keep in your life.  Your time with them will be prioritized over all other relationships.  

Edit:  Some people you love and care about, but you want to tweak the relationship to increase your satisfaction.  Decide how much time you want to invest in improving the relationship?  How specifically do you need the relationship to change?  Engage in open, honest conversations and you will find a new way forward.

Delete:  Who do you need to let go of?  Who is standing in your way with their continuous negativity and put-downs?  Who is not supportive of you?  Letting go can be uncomfortable, emotional and difficult, but you have to go through with it in order to gain the confidence to live your life the way you envision.

Once you have edited or deleted negative-nellies from your life, you will have more time and energy for the people and relationships that fulfill you and lift you up.  Your self-confidence will grow and you will less stressed and much happier.

About Susan Ball:  Susan inspires her clients to live the life of their dreams with passion, joy, and love. Susan is an experienced international Life Coach helping people discover and live their ideal life through NLP, Mindfulness, and G.R.A.C.E.

Learn more about Susan by visiting her Online, on Facebook

Something Needs to Be Removed

We easily make assumptions about what we want and need. If we detect an area of our lives is far from satisfactory, we assume that we 'need' something to improve it. 

Sometimes though, what we actually need is something to be removed. 

Before you can gain something you truly need, you want to make space available for it.

After you remove the clutter, you will be free to focus your attention on the new breathing space you have created.  

It is your "space" and it is open to whatever you want that will enhance your life and happiness.

Focus on the positive - donate the negative - develop a new perspective - shake off the drag - do something just for you.

Spring into action and sweep out the old dust!  You'll be grateful you did.

Spring Clean Your Life Workshop on April 24 will quick start your cleaning.

Susan, NLP Success Coach

Say "YES" to Yourself and Create Your Best Relationship with You!

Best advice. Think about all the times you say "yes" when you really wanted to say no. Say Yes to Yourself and create your best relationship with you!

To create space for success and happiness in your life, it's important to make time for you.  How?  By saying no to others and yes to you.

Grab your copy of my Yes-No Worksheet and really explore your yes vs no options.  The worksheet will show you what you're missing when you say yes to stuff and then more stuff.

Start easy with 2 yes items that you want to change to no right away.  Write down a variety of ways you can say no (no maybes!).  Play with the words but always be clear that your answer is no.  Then choose the wording that feels right and practice, practice, practice.  

Once you have gotten your first no out of the way, you'll feel so much better, less stressed and you won't grow a huge wart on your nose!  The next no will be easier.

After you say no to something else, say yes to you.  Use the time to do something you "want" to do and not something you should do.

Have you scheduled your 30-Minute Free Consultation?

Get in Touch

Single-Tasking or Overcoming Overwhelm

When was the last time you focused on one task and completed it without interruption?

I'll bet  it was quite a while ago and I'm confident in my wager.  My confidence is because I speak with clients everyday in my coaching practice who are struggling with "I'm overwhelmed".

They are average people with jobs, kids, spouses, parents, friends who volunteer and get involved with their children's activities.  Their calendars are filled with due dates, to do lists, task lists, and appointments.  Some of their planned activities actually overlap leaving not even one second from the end of one activity to the start of the next!

Is that even humanly possible?  Is it healthy?  Does it leave time for just simply enjoying life?  NO!

A common result of too much overwhelm and busy-ness, is procrastination.  It all becomes too much and there doesn't seem to be enough time to do anything.

Overcoming overwhelm begins by adopting "single-tasking".  The fine art of doing one thing at a time.  The ability to delegate or forget about it.

Running around like a chicken with your head cut-off filling in the demands of "everyone" except you is not only unhealthy it is unproductive and not sustainable.

Tomorrow look at your mega huge calendar of things to get accomplished and pick one - just one.  Write it down - I will do/finish/meet with/visit/enjoy this one thing.  Do not take on any new projects or appointments.  Break down your task into steps and achieve each step individually and do a good job so you can smile at your success.  

I have become committed to the idea of single-tasking and the health benefits in choosing to back away from the dreaded multi-tasking.  

I would love to hear if you are a single or multi-tasker.

Note to the Monday-Haters Club - Stop It!

What is with all this hating on Mondays?  I open my Facebook on Monday mornings and see a litany of cartoons bemoaning Monday.  Some even have dogs hiding from Monday!  There has been a song written based on a serious crime committed because the shooter hated Mondays.

When you stop and think about being part of the Monday-Haters Club, what are you really setting yourself up for?  Will you be bright and bubbly and happy?  Off to work or school with a glowing positive healthy attitude of gratitude?

No, No, No!  You will be creating a day filled to the brim with negativity.....period.  How could your day be anything but negative if you wake up and the first thing you say or moan is "I Hate Mondays?"  "Mondays Suck"  "Monday Again"

Is that how you want your day to be - filled with negativity?  I can't imagine that would make you happy or less anxious or depressed.

Note to the Monday-Haters Club - STOP IT?!?

It's time to change your attitude toward Monday.  You will be grateful and open up a wonderful world of possibilities. Mondays are a gift to you in the present.  They are wrapped in possibilities for creativity, exploration, happiness, and enjoyment.  Monday marks the beginning - what will you begin?

I love Monday and all days that are gifted to me.  I open my "presents" with a smile, a sense of curiosity and gratitude.

After all, Monday is "My Day" and it can be yours too when you change from hating to loving.  You will open your own world of possibilities.

No matter what day of the week it is,  Choose to Make it a Great Day!

________________________________________________________

t's time to realize your full potential and create lasting, sustainable positive change. Explore your potential and focus on your dynamic future....
NLP Success Coaching Works!

Take the first step to Living Your Life to the Fullest

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Your Journey to Wellness Begins with a Question

Today, I'm going start a regular Honesty Thursday series of posts.  I want to talk about how I have changed my way of thinking and as a result improved my lifestyle.

I have clients who will say to me I want to be like you to which I respond You Can with a little work and authenticity!  There is no magic pill, potion or spell that I can prescribe that will make you get up in the morning with a smile on your face looking forward to the day as an adventure in the making.  The prescription writer is YOU!

Not too long ago I found myself dreading the mornings.  I would wake up thinking yuck, another friggin' day, when will this end, what is the purpose of getting up!  I was dreary to say the least with absolutely no plans for the future and nothing to look forward to.  I was on the cusp of filling my prescription for anti-depressants. I was low and the few friends I had probably hated to hear from me.

I had no money.  I had a dead-end job in a big shiny corporate office.  I squeezed myself into a subway car at a god-awful hour of the morning to be surrounded by miserable looking lemmings.  I had a relationship that had run its course.  I had decided that my present and future would be lonely, broke, and defeated.

Sound Familiar?!?  I'm sure there are folks reading this right now who can relate to how I was feeling about life and you're wondering how did I turn it around.

It started with a good and true friend.  They are the friends who ask you the hard questions.  These are the friends you want.  Tip:  Get rid of the nodders!

We were having a coffee and I was doing my usual life is so rotten, I hate my life, blah, blah, blah.  She kept asking me one question:

So, What Are You Going to Do About It?

What a stupid, irritating question!  I was livid.  I wanted her to find the solution for me, NOW!  For some odd reason, my friend wouldn't cooperate and kept asking me that question.  I went home and decided I would not be friends with her anymore which of course, added to my Down on Life Story.  

A strange thing was happening though.....I couldn't get that question out of my head!  When I would think about my finances and wanted to wallow in self-pity, this little voice would ask "Well, Susan, what are you going to do about it?"  The question followed me everyday and everywhere. I wanted to answer the question just so it would go away!

To begin your Journey to Wellness, here are your first steps:

1. Honestly think about your friends and family and determine who are the "nodders".  Nodders will not help you in your journey.  Drop them from your friends list and replace them with true friends who will ask you to be accountable to you.
2. When you find yourself feeling down because you're thinking about your debts, or how you will never be able to travel to Australia, or how you will be stuck in your dead-end job forever,

STOP, take a deep breath and ask

"So, ____________, what are you going to do about it?"

When we get together next Thursday, you will have decided which friends will truly help you on your Journey to Wellness and you will have started to think about stepping out of self-pity mode into a I Can Turn this Around space.  And that's where we will pick up.....Setting Small Chunky Baby Step Goals.

I'm really looking forward to your comments as you move along with me.  It will be a sort of an e-course in a casual way.  I will provide worksheets, tips and tricks and how-tos.  The end result will be one Incredibly, Fabulous You!

How to Avoid Being Mr. or Mrs. Grumpy Pants

Today, I was host to Mr. Grumpy Pants who happens to be my husband.   He's a truck driver so he spends 4-days away from home driving around the Maritime provinces.

He had a particularly bad week on the road this time and he brought it home with him and infused our home with his negative mood.  How selfish of him to bring the "past" into the "present" in such a negative, grumpy, ugly way!

We all experience something negative during any given day.  It's what we choose to do with that negative experience that matters.  My husband's negative experience happened a full 2-days before he even got home!  Talk about dragging Marley's chains around with you.  I could smell his festering brain.

When you bring your bad mood, lousy experience, and  negative energy home, you contaminate your home and all the people and pets that live there.  Suddenly, the feelings and mood go from enjoying the moment to misery or arguing or resentment.

So what do you do if you have had a bad experience that lasted a few minutes and you want to remove the negative energy and feelings before it ruins your whole day?

Stop Reacting to the Stupid Stuff - Seriously!

The babysitter is 5-minutes late and so, you're going to be a grouch for the rest of the day and into the evening and maybe the next morning because you're anticipating she might be late again!!  You get cut-off while you're driving, oh my!  As events go, these are small, irrelevant, and inconsequential and you get to make the choice about how you're going to let them effect you.  Are you going to carry them with you and let them snowball into a huge, ugly mass of anger and resentment?  Or could you look at each individual event when it happens and simply look at it as a small mistake, a funny moment and then keep moving on with your great day?  To start feeling greater happiness and contentment, start by stopping to let the little things grow up to be huge and ugly.

Drop Your Irritation and Anger

When you find yourself feeling angry at someone or something.

Stop, Take a Deep Breath, then Let It Go!  

Just let it go. 

It isn't worth ruining your day, someone you love's day, your health and your general well-being.

Roll On - Your Life is Happening Now

It happened, it's over, move forward.  Living in the present moment, living life to the fullest is about moving forward.  Roll On!

Choose to Make it A Great Day!

Celebrate and Embrace Joyous June

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date" - William Shakespeare

The practice of Living in the Moment and experiencing Gratitude, is all about noticing, appreciating, and experiencing the simple joys of life.  Here are a few simple joys that will embellish your Joyous June.  What will you add?

• Lemonade - yummy!  Sit back and enjoy a tall, frosty glass of lemonade.  Homemade lemonade is fantastic.
• Strawberry, Strawberry, Strawberry!  Attend a Strawberry Festival and eat as many of these juicy joys as you please.  Pick your own with friends and family and then create jams, jellies, desserts, pies and plan to host a Strawberry Festival in January! In Ojibwe, the strawberry is called "odemin" and is known as the sacred first medicine. 
• Create a fragrant herb garden.  Plant lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.
• Have a backyard camp-out.  Pitch a tent, bring out the sleeping bags, pack snacks, and pretend the bbq is a bonfire (for those who live within a town or city!)  Tell ghost stories, sing songs and sleep in the fresh air under the stars.
• Host a Midsummer's Eve Party to celebrate the Summer Solstice.  
• Go to the beach!  In the morning, stroll and collect shells and Mermaid's tears while enjoying the fresh morning air.  The beach in the afternoon is perfect for swimming, picnics, kite flying, or just sitting in the sun and enjoying life. 
• On clear summer's night, take time to stargaze.  Stargazing is as easy as grabbing a big blanket, a bottle of wine, friends and family and heading for the backyard.  Find a star to wish upon.
• Get out and experience a sensory journey in nature.  Your natural environment is teeming with sensory stimulation waiting to be discovered.  By simply listening, seeing, touching, and smelling, Mother Nature will nurture your well-being.
• Host a "drive-in" movie night in your backyard, or on the side of a local building.  Invite friends, family, community members and the public to sit outside and take in a classic movie.  Have guests bring a snack for a huge potluck "concession" stand.

Now that you're feeling inspired to have your own Joyous June, I would love to hear about your adventures or how you incorporated mine and had a great time.

Cheers, to a fun and adventurous June!