Agnieszka Stola was a beautiful polish girl whom sat next to me in Burnaby South High School in Grade 11! Today, she's a very successful interior designer who just got married to a super fun/fabulous guy name Bernd Huebbers (doesn't he look like Leo DiCaprio?!). Their wedding was a riot, with group salsa, amazing race style games (which I won!) and just really awesome people. I'm very proud to have them as dear friends, client and can't wait to see the evolution of Agi in her life as they get prepared to start their family. You can check the website I helped Agi built at www.agiinteriors.com
How to Take Your Business from Surviving to Thriving
I have always been a fan of Andrew Barbar-Starkey of ProCoach Systems , and when I received an invitation for his complimentary seminar How to Take Your Business from Surviving to Thriving, I jumped at the chance. Andrew was very upfront about the ills of society today, shared some incredible stories from his own past/family with antidotes, and like usually, left me with an "Ah-Ha" moment.
He said "the sky in and of itself is not inherently dangerous, but is terribly unforgiving in errors of judgement", failing slowly is actually worse than failing quickly. He goes on to explain that the distinction between people who succeed and people who fail is that people who succeed makes things happen, and those who fail watch things happen. As small business owners, we tend to wear many hats, and the #1 reason for failure is the lack of structure. That was a huge ah-ha moment for me, as I'm an extremely structured person, and pour my life out for my client's event / PR campaign. But for my own business, it seems that I do what comes up in that moment, like finishing my taxes, or sending out invoices, or updating my website, or social media.... Andrew recommends tracking your activities for a week, examine what are highly profitable activities, and what are time wasters, and create a goal and a system to follow to achieve those goals. It's so simple, yet BRILLIANT that I felt so dumb that I didn't see it. I have been recommending similar advice to my clients.
There were many more tips like that, so go check it out for yourself, you'll be glad you did!
Making Happy People
Paul Martin, a Psychologist who utilized results from scientific research to share facts to pull back the mystery that is happiness, which ultimately what everyone wants. He says that happiness is a positive cycle, as happy people mostly are optimistic and interpret life events in a positive light, they have more trust, therefore attract and make friends easier, which helps them succeed in life, and happiness breeds health as social connection is a huge part of emotional / physical well being. In contrast to that, people who are shy, perhaps were brought up by parents who are overprotective, and on a subconscious level have communicated to their child that the world is a cruel and fearsome place. Due to that fear, these people do not develop their communication or social skills and tend to be more secluded, and view the world and life events in a more pessimistic way, which leads to more social outcast, a negative cycle that continues to be a self fulfilling prophecy. I did find interesting that Dr. Martin says TV and Magazine and all those things actually lowers our level of happiness, as we look at the rich and famous, we feel the social inequality, as human beings naturally like to compare. If someone you see lives an unreachable life, it only depresses you. He also warns about excess materialism, as he says, the biggest joy come from our human relationships, and not from things. A good conversation, having fun together, experience new adventures, is way more rewarding than buying things, even if they're brand name luxury goods. You may get momentary excitement, but soon those will pass.
Characteristics of Happy people:
1) Connectedness
2) Social & Emotional Competence
3) Freedom from Excessive Anxiety
4) Communication Skills
5) Engagement in Meaningful Activity
6) A Sense of Control
7) A Sense of Purpose and Meaning
8) Resilience
9) Self-Esteem
10) Optimism
11) Outward focus
12) Present and Future mindedness
13) Humour
14) Playfulness
15) Wisdom
16) Freedom from Excessive Materialism
17) Regular Experience of Flow