Glass Half Full

YES MY GLASS IS ALWAYS HALF FULL AND YOURS CAN BE TOO!

Clients, friends and colleagues often comment on the fact that I am a walking and talking field of positive energy. They wonder, often in amazement, how I keep a balance of calm and joy on a day to day basis. I ingest is intention, the intention of appreciation, gratitude and joy every moment, every day and in every way that I can. When I get out of sync, as we all do, I put an elastic on my wrist; give it a little tweak to remind me to live every moment as mindfully, as joyfully as possible.

Life has taken me on a personal journey fraught with tremendous challenges and also incredible success and satisfaction. I have achieved what was trailblazing success and material wealth in my career; I have been stripped of all material and social security in fleeing an abusive situation with my children, $100 and the clothes on my back. While my personal journey has been one of extreme success as well as extreme peril, I recognize that we all go through bouts of success and despair, perceived material security and loss. We all have different journeys, different challenges and lessons to learn. However we are all sisters and brothers in the journey of life. A journey that gives each one of us crisis and calm, happiness and hardship. Our strength and our hope lie not in our ability to move forward after crisis or defeat, but rather to move forward with our mind, heart and soul in tact, in a positive place.

What is my secret to living life with my glass of personal energy half full? My secret starts with recognizing that everything in life is a choice, a personal decision. We cannot control what happens to us, but we have the ultimate control over what we do with our experiences. No one can control our thoughts, our emotions, the seedbed of our strength. We are the masters of what is most important and most powerful in our life: our consciousness, our intention.

On our path to discovering a life of joy, a life of happiness we always come head to head with the opponent. The opponent is not the not the boss or the job we do not like, it is not a person who did us wrong. The opponent we face is not outside our self. Our greatest opponent lies within us. It is the voice that speaks of fear and desperation. It is the voice that talks about all we cannot do or achieve. It is easy to be seduced by the opponent, by choices that we do not really want to make, by negativity that drains our energy and impedes our true passion, purpose and talent.

How can we beat our internal opponent and reach in and out with more joy, more energy, more enthusiasm for life? How can we get on the JOY TRACK? We must realize that wishing for, yearning for, hoping for or being desperate for happiness or joy does not represent positive intention, but rather speaks loudly to what we lack. When our thoughts come from a place of need, they also come from a place of fear. The energy we transmit attracts more of the same.

No matter what has transpired in your life, you have the power now at this very moment to fight the opponent, to move past a place of need a place of yearning for, wanting, asking, and hoping to a place of personal strength and positive certainty.

Decide to hold your glass half full today. Experience 24 hours without fear, uncertainty, worry, negativity. Take the garbage out for a day, put negativity and thoughts that sap your energy on pause. What would your day be like if you decided to stop yearning for, wishing for, hoping for happiness and just got up in the morning with the conviction to make this a joyful day? Try joyful conviction on for size today, and let me know if you attract more joy in your life and your work.

© 2004 Irene Segal

About The Author

Empowerment?. Irene Segal is a business and life coach who works with issues of change, business growth, leadership and self-empowerment. She was recently appointed as the Personal Development Expert for Enterprise Toronto, a branch of the Economic Development Office of the City of Toronto and is also an Ambassador for the Toronto Board of Trade. Irene's professional journey includes running a multi million dollar steel business, mentoring entrepreneurs, financial consulting and co-authoring a book about coaching, Exploring Coaching. She received her coaching certification from Coach Training Alliance, who described her as one of the stars in their program. Irene was one of 10 Canadian women chosen by the Federal Development Bank to set up the first mentorship program for women in the country- Step Up. She was also the first woman Rotarian in Canada.

irene@justcoachit.com