30 + 1 Things To Do When You Are Bored

This post was co-authored with my niece, a teenager who is always bored.

Here is a list of 30 things to do when you are bored:

1. Surf the web: search for things you like, articles that spark your interest, or just read posts like this.
2. Organize your closet.
3. Tidy up your room; or your office; or your entire home.
4. Do your laundry.
5. Cook your favorite meal, or try a new recipe. In the case of my niece, it’s always souvlaki.
6. Build something. Make something creative with your hands.
7. Fix things around the house.
8. Call a friend. Go for a walk to the park, play, or plan any activity together.
9. Learn something new. A new hobby, a new skill, a new language, or even new words from the dictionary.
10. Clean up your computer.
11. Organize your photos. Create digital or printed albums.
12. Exercise. Ride your bicycle, go up and down the stairs, go jogging.
13. Practice something you already know; like playing the guitar.
14. Read a book.
15. Write a book.
16. Make a bucket list.
17. Put your favorite music on and dance.
18. Bathe your dog, clean your aquarium, or play with your cat. Take care of your pets. 
19. Take care of your plants.
20. Volunteer to help someone for the day.
21. Write and send a thank you note to someone who did something nice for you.
22. Camp out in the garden, backyard, or inside the house if there is no other option.
23. Watch a movie, preferably at an open-air cinema.
24. Take a nap.
25. Pick up any volume of the Junior Chuckwoods Guidebook. Have fun reading it and why not, try any of the ideas you will find in it.
26. Make a playlist of your favorite songs.
27. Organize a board game championship with your family.
28. Offer to babysit a toddler. You will not have time to get bored.
29. Make some bubbles. 
30. Do something awesome.
31. Write a blog post about things to do when you are bored.

What Stories Will You Tell?

“One day, we’ll be old and think about the stories that we could have told.”

Every now and then in our lives we catch ourselves wondering about all these ‘What If’s’. Because in the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take. All the stories that we could have created, had we taken those chances.

What life do you want?

Start creating now the stories that one day you will tell. 

18 Ways to Cheer Yourself up Instantly

1. Accept your emotions. Sadness, fear, anxiety, fatigue, a bad day … it is what it is. Give yourself the permission to be human.

2. Talk to someone you love. Whether it is a close friend, your SO, your mother, call that person who’s always there for you and let them know you could use a little cheering up.

3. Catch up with an old friend.

4. Take a walk outside, get some fresh air, haste slowly and look at your surroundings with curious eyes. 

5. Watch the Muppets, a funny movie, or just this video:

6. Put some music on to uplift your spirit. Listen to something inspiring and upbeat.

7. Cook yourself your favorite meal.

8. Write, sing, paint; do any creative work.

9. Make – and chase – some bubbles.

10. Exercise or dance. Any physical activity will do. It will get your endorphins going.

11. Cheer someone else up.

12. Hug! Hug someone, even a stranger. Hugs release endorphins too.

13. Hang out – preferably play – with kids.

14. Pamper yourself: take a long hot shower or bath, a nap, allow yourself to be lazy.

15. Make a list with everything in your life that you are grateful for, all the things you are happy about in your life.

16. Do something awesome.

17. Do a little research and blog about things to cheer yourself up.

18. Smile and remember: it’s just a bad day, not a bad life.

The Educational Paradox

We grow up learning about people, icons that are role models and an inspiration. Scientists, politicians, activists, explorers, artists, business people, religious leaders. Awakening, rebel or visionary spirits of all kinds, full of accomplishments to admire.

At the same time – oh the paradox – we learn how to choose a job that will pay the rent, how to study what will guarantee us this job, what to buy, what to have, how to live, think, value. We learn to repress our own vision and aspirations, our passions, dreams and desires just to make sure we will be able to adjust, adapt and survive.

Yet most of these figures, who we learn about in our schools, universities and families, who we read about in magazines, whose quotes we stumble upon every now and then and whose biographies we buy, had one thing in common:

They did the opposite of what we are being taught and followed their vision and passion. 

Stop Postponing Life

When it comes to procrastination, the focus is on the tasks we postpone. There is a sort of procrastination that is worse: procrastinating life.

We keep postponing our happiness, our life, for when we will have X thing, we will be in Z place, we will be with Y person(s).

We transfer our happiness to that magical moment/place, where everything happen in those imaginary perfect conditions and we ignore the here and now.

Happiness is here. If we decide it to be. Life is every moment. We can accept it or not. And we can be grateful for it and smile about it and start opening our eyes and seeing for the first time eveything that we have.

Or we can keep focusing on what we do not have, on everything that exists in that imaginary perfect place we will someday reach and, until then, be resentful and have all the "reasons" in the world to not smiling – yet.

People, your life is now. Stop procrastinating happiness and start living. 

Best thing I heard today

"Even when I have insomnia, I dream."

Photo: Joel Robison 

Happiness and the Absence of Dichotomy

“Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.” (Pablo Picasso)

I finished my work this evening with a huge smile on my face. I thought it was because of something new that I had created, plus the wonderful feedback from a student earlier today. Then I ran into this phrase and I realized the source of my daily smile.

I am not going to write that I am lucky, because it is not luck that has brought me here, to the absence of dichotomy in my life. It is perseverance, resilience, persistence and the determination not to compromise when it comes to my happiness.

According to Henri Matisse “creativity takes courage”. Leading our life is a creative process and if we want to experience happiness and fulfillment in it, the only thing we need is the commitment to be courageous. 

photo credit: http://stephanielevy.blogspot.gr/p/e-courses.html

Time to Be Happy

The Joy of Life

Do you want to see what the joy of life looks like? 
You can see it in the eyes of this inspiring 78 year old woman. 
Watch this video all the way through.

On Secret Dreams

“What is your secret dream?” asked the actress her co-protagonist in a movie.

“You know”, she continued, “the secret you only reveal after consuming a sufficient amount of alcohol”.

Their dialogue continued but I was already lost in my thoughts. Why have a secret dream? Secret from whom?

We keep dreams secret not from others, but from ourselves. It’s our own judgment that we are afraid of. We are either intimidated by the power our dreams can have, or we want to spare ourselves the frustration of not accomplishing them. Oh, there is also the belief we might have grown up with: that dreams do not come true; they belong to fairy tales.

What is left then? If we do not confess our dreams not even to ourselves, if we keep them so secret that not even we can know them, then how are we supposed to go after them? How are we supposed to live a happy, fulfilling life?

Martin Luther King's, Jr. speech and actions were about his dream. What would have happened if that had been a secret dream?

“Nothing happens unless first a dream.” (Carl Sandburg)

Dare to dream. And dare to dream loudly. Let your dreams be known to others but most importantly to yourself. Talk confidently about them and surrender to the direction they will take you. 

Count Your Blessings

Today was my niece’s concert. A gallery, a beautiful space full of light and art was hosting a recital by the young students of the local conservatory.

Little pianists, guitarists and violinists were playing one after the other their solos or duets. As I sat next to the stage, I turned my head to see the crowd (their parents):

I saw people disconnected from the present, unable to appreciate what they had right there, right now. They were in a place surrounded by beauty, the art on the walls and the music in the air, played, performed before them and just for them by their own children; I do nor remember seeing any smiles. I do not remember seeing appreciation and happiness in those faces.

A couple of hours later, at the supermarket, I was approached by the local social supermarket volunteers. They were sharing information and encouraging shoppers to contribute. They run a soup kitchen and help out destitute families with basic food supplies.

While I was buying what they had told me they needed the most, I was overwhelmed with a mix of emotions. I felt angry, frustrated and sad. The people at the concert had everything before them yet they had no idea. They refused to look around, to feel gratitude and joy and to give their child and the rest of the children their warmest smile.

Count your blessings. Always. They are more than you think.  

Happiness

An ordinary scene: my two nieces and their buddy around a table, eating pizza and telling jokes. And just with this view, seeing them healthy, carefree, smiling, growing up, one word only filled my mind and my heart:

Let's Do Something Extraordinary!

Privileges of a Catalyst

One of the things that I love as an ICF member and coach is that our vision is about humanity flourishing.

It is this service to humanity that made me so passionate about my job. As coaches we have the unique privilege to witness the transformation; the flourishing; the unfolding of the potential that was all there from the beginning and for which we were just a catalyst.

Today I met with a former client, a very talented young woman. She is expecting her first child, she is in a loving and caring relationship and her business is doing better and better. I was seeing her glow. Our first meeting came to my mind. Seeing her now in her best self, confident and happy, I felt in owe of the greatness of the human spirit and of the wonderful things we are all capable of doing and becoming.

Once again I felt privileged to belong to this profession and humbled by the gifts it can bring. 

Haste Slowly

After attending a six hour workshop today, I went out into the fresh air and decided to walk a little before getting a taxi to my car and returning back to the office.

I walked to Syntagma Square where I read the signs of doctors protesting and past the Parliament just in time to watch the changing of the guard. The weather was perfect so I thought I’d continue walking a little further. I was admiring the buildings I was passing by in Vasilissis Sofias avenue: the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Byzantine Museum, Saroglion Mansion and many more. Then I noticed the beauty of the Ippokrateio Hospital entrance, built in the 1880’s, and green areas of the city that are impossible to notice passing by in a car.

I was smiling enjoying every step of the walk when I made a decision: I was going to walk to the car! The idea was crazy, I had parked 5,5 km away and still had plenty of work unfinished for today. 

I remembered the big lesson I had learned from my niece: eventually I would get to the car; I would get there in the most fun and meaningful way.

So I kept walking with eyes wide open and a big smile on my face.

I passed by little squares with statues, parks and hidden gardens of whose existence I was unaware. I was contemplating the details on some doors, the variations of a skyline occupied by old and new constructions, the people who were passing by: walking, jogging, smoking, carrying kids or puppies. I was hearing Greek and English and Spanish and was feeling comfortable with and curious about the diversity of a city where I could find neo-byzantine churches and Bauhaus embassies next to Pakistani grocery stores, neoclassical buildings and Starbucks.

I saw a well inside the garden of what seemed to be an abandoned house and the rusty sign of the Nursing Home. I saw beauty in every step.

90 minutes later I made it to the car, grateful for my choice of flat heels this morning and realized that today's to-do list had been replaced this afternoon by the important. The urgent didn’t seem so urgent anymore.

Note to self: 
Haste slowly more often. Time will always be enough.

How Much Love Lives In The Space Between You And Me?

If yesterday’s post was about emptying your cup, today's is about filling it: with appreciation, gratitude, trust, LOVE.
Like Merle and Ed.

Between You and Me, from Nic Askew 

How to ... life?

One of my favorite rituals in the morning includes three things: coffee, tablet and Zite. Every morning with the company of the smell and taste of a freshly made hot coffee, I get my tablet, open the app and screen my top stories (articles); some are saved to be read later and some immediately depending on the available time. 
As I was browsing the stories today, enjoying the rare luxury of a lazy morning, I found myself once again reading titles about x ways to become happier, z things to eat to become healthier, y tips to become more productive, and so many more. Hints, tips and hacks on how to live our life. Everything for our success, for the ultimate (?) pursuit of happiness. 
I checked a couple of them, one was about nine tips to have a happier weekend (I thought it was very appropriate as the weekend was just starting). It made me wonder. All these tips were common sense to me. Have we forgotten how to live? Do we need someone to tell us what used to make sense to do in a weekend? The second was (again) obvious strategies to follow to become an early riser "like all the successful people". 
I felt depressed. Have we - the civilized - reached that moment in our lives that we need to be given the once obvious guidelines on how to live? 
I begun reflecting on all the articles about 'how to become more creative', 'how to improve our performance', 'how to sell more', how to be more, do more and earn more, adding - oh the irony - on top of that articles about how to have less stress! 

In a life when being "successful" has become mandatory, it is no wonder that we have forgotten how to live. That we need guidelines for our weekends to just chill. 

The sad part is that maybe we have been engaged in a frantic pursuit of success, overachievers to do, be and have more.
The good part is that we have the opportunity to redefine what success is, what is it exactly that we need to be, do and have more, and to realize that true happiness is closer (and easier) than we think. 

What is your vision?

The vision process is always self-examination. It’s never “God, I want this. Make this happen.” It’s always “What do I have to become to live the vision, to manifest it, to reveal it?” The visioning process, then, is a process of transformation of the individual.                                                                                            Reverend Michael Beckwith

Have a vision. Define it and boldly go after it. And remember: 

Some times we must let go of who we are in order to become who we can be.