Written and published by Rachel Green.
Visit our website at http://www.rachelgreen.com
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In this edition:
- Welcome and background news.
- Top tips on how to take the opportunity for a happier life.
- More tips on staying positive and taking care of yourself in times of change.
- Special offer: F.R.E.E. CD set, "Confidence and communication skills for Women at Work". Buy one get one F.R.E.E.
- Laugh your socks off.
1. Welcome.
Last year I changed. I decided to be more open to the minor opportunities and suggestions that appeared in my life and to act on them. As I reflect now, I can see very clearly that simple, minor events or suggestions have led to an added richness in my life and to significant improvements I would never have predicted. It's been marvellous.
Do you make the most of your opportunities? Do you close down to new ideas or events without even realising it? Do you miss information and ideas that arrive in your life because you're not doing any opportunity checking? If so, you might be missing out on signs, signals and opportunities that would make your life even better. Making the most of every opportunity has never been as important as it is now in an environment of economic tightening.
Read on to the tips section to get your practical tips on how to make sure you don't miss out and you find the gold in your life.
There has been much going on in our office over the last couple of months. We are getting ready to launch a whole new business and an exciting new website on confidence for women. We aren't ready to launch it yet but we'll let you know as soon as we can. The new website will have interactive blogs, a forum, photographs of confident women (you could be one of them), awards for women with confidence, T-shirts ... all sorts. It's a very exciting time and we're buzzing. Stay tuned as we want you to be involved as soon as possible.
Welcome to all our new readers from around the world, including this fortnight from Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the USA.
The winner this fortnight, of a free E-book from our range, is avdawson, from the USA. If this is you, please contact us to claim your prize by Saturday, 28th February 2009:
2. The TOP TIPS: How to take the opportunity for a happier life.
Tip 1: Get into the habit of opportunity checking.
Be watchful. This is the essential step. Notice what people say to you. Pay attention to the items coming through your e-mails. Become more aware of information that arrives, no matter how. This is the first step.
It's so easy to trash an e-mail, discard an invitation, or dismiss a suggestion. When you tighten yourself against such opportunities you may be restricting the options you have to advance your career, gain more energy and motivation, or have more friends or happier relationships.
I'll give you an example of how I did this and the success it brought in a moment.
Tip 2. Notice connections between ideas, suggestions and information.
I remember many years ago teaching at a university on voice disorders. I had the opportunity to invite in some great lecturers. When I contacted one of them the woman agreed to come and talk to my students but only if she could "discuss the Feldenkrais Method". "Never heard of it" I said, leaving it. About a week later a client with a voice disorder called me and asked if "I did Feldenkrais?" "No", I said, "I know nothing about it". I apologised.
However, a little light in my head said, "Feldenkrais was mentioned to you last week too". I didn't do much at the time but over a period of three months, I went from having never heard of the Feldenkrais Method to having five different people from very different backgrounds mentioning it to me in passing. Not making a big deal of it, just mentioning it.
That was enough for me. When an invitation to attend a three day Feldenkrais training arrived in my mail box, I did not hesitate. I didn't know why I needed to do it, nor what it was, but I suspected the "universe" was telling me something.
I enrolled in the course and came out feeling wonderful and free from pains that I'd carried for years.
During the course they mentioned a professional Feldenkrais training programme. I enrolled. I've been a Feldenkrais practitioner for years now and still have regular sessions.
What's important is that studying and using the Feldenkrais Method is one of the best things I have EVER done in my life.
Are you watchful for the connections between things and for repetitions of information being given to you? There could be golden opportunities coming your way.
Tip 3. Take Action.
Once you've noticed possible signals of an opportunity the next step is the hard one. Take action. Do something with the information. Don't just say "That's interesting" then do nothing. Take the opportunity.
The action doesn't have to be major. You don't need to know whether it will be significant or important. You don't need to know where it will take you. Just take the first and often simple action step.
For example, last year my husband and I happened to mention a group I used to belong to, the National Speakers Association. He said, only in passing, "I'd rather you belonged to the National Speakers Association than one of the other groups you belong to". I paid little attention to this and the conversation passed onto other things.
The next morning in my e-mail box was a notice from the National Speaker's Association advertising their next meeting. Normally I'd have trashed it.
I booked immediately. That was enough of a connection for me to see here was an opportunity. Yes! Two related events had occurred without prior planning. Now was the time to act.
I called my husband later that day and dropped the surprise on him. "I've just booked us both to go to the National Speakers meeting next week. They've got a great guest speaker on, is that OK?"
We were already busy but we went!
Tip 4. Continue with your opportunity checking.
Staying open to acting on an opportunity does not stop with the first action. We went to the meeting and enjoyed ourselves. However, that wasn't all.
While we were at the meeting we saw two other professional speakers and business owners whom we hadn't seen for a long time. We sat with them and got on very easily and well. Our conversation was stimulating and energising. The upshot of this was that we decided to meet again to discuss the possibility of mentoring each other.
Wow! Has this worked? Absolutely yes! The three of us keep meeting regularly and bouncing such good ideas off each other that we've all benefited immensely. The consequences have been far-reaching.
In fact, there have been so many positive spin-offs from that night it would take me three newsletters to list them. Having two new mentors was plenty, but there was more.
At the end when I was talking to the guys, a woman drifted into the conversation. She was visiting from the other side of the country. We struck up a conversation, got together for lunch the next day and have been in contact ever since and become great friends. She runs the Mindfulness Centre in South Australia. I have now attended one of her Mindfulness Cognitive Behaviour Therapy courses. I'd never have done this without meeting her. What I learnt in that course made me understand myself in a whole new way. I had a huge "ah ha". Honestly! I'm not kidding or making any of this up.
In the space of six months, I have learnt so much, benefited so much, and valued so much of what has happened in my life, all because I took action on a seemingly insignificant comment made to me.
As the economic downturn heightens and our financial security is threatened, it is easy to become anxious and to close down to the world. This is the time, more than any other, to be on the look out for any signs and signals of new and positive opportunities for you.
Adopt an opportunity strategy. Stay watchful and take action. Your life may prosper beyond anything you might have expected or planned.
3. More tips on staying positive and taking care of yourself in times of change.
Each month new tips are placed on our page of Personal Development Tips and Articles.
There are several sets on personal development for you to read. Click on the links to read three of the newest ones:
- Coping with change.
- How to develop compassion to yourself.
- Developing a positive attitude, by Laurel Low and Jillian Woolmer.
4. More ways to have confidence and communication skills.
"Confidence and communication skills for women at work".
The workplace can be a stressful place, and with increasing unemployment, one that promotes anxiety. However, opportunities are still there for the taking. What matters is that you retain and enhance your skills and you keep your confidence up no matter what happens. The inspiring women on these CDs and the practical, insightful and valuable strategies they suggest and demonstrate will help you do this. Boost your communication, people management and confidence skills now.
Click here for more details.
Click here to order.
Bonus: If you buy these CDs on the website no later than Saturday, 28th February 2009, then you will receive a second copy of the CDs for F.R.E.E. worth $49. Give them to a friend and help them too.
To be eligible for the extra copy you must order through our On-line Book and CD store and click newsletter when it asks you where you heard about the CDs. Don't miss out - hurry as this offer closes, Saturday, 28th February, 2009. This offer is ONLY available to CONFIDENCE 4 U Readers.
5. Laugh your socks off.
Thanks to our Confidence 4 U reader, Mike Cheffins, from Western Australia, for this fortnight's joke.
VERY IMPORTANT FACTS from your Financial Adviser.
Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business.
When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with whom to share his fortune.
One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Her natural beauty took his breath away. "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit $200 million."
Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.
Women are so much better at financial planning than men.
If you have some clean jokes we can use, please send your contributions to
May you notice and delight in the opportunities that are available to you.
With kindness,
Rachel.
Further information for you
Learn in your own time.
There are eight CD sets, a printed book and 5 Electronic books to help you, including the 3 CD sets on "CONFIDENCE for women," and the very popular E-book "How to be a brilliant master of ceremonies." Please order in our online book and CD store - we have a secure server: click here.
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Disclaimer: The information in this magazine is of a general nature and may not suit everyone or every situation. While every care has been taken to ensure it is useful and appropriate, no responsibility can be taken for the results gained from its implementation.
Please seek individual professional guidance for any difficulties you may have with your confidence, relationships, presentations, managing people, interpersonal skills, work, health, communication or emotions. Thank you.
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