Do You Have Any Regrets?

A Message from Noelyne...

I was sitting in the garden yesterday evening enjoying a glass of wine and the wonderful weather.  It's been so long since we have been able to sit out until 10pm in the UK.  You have to take advantage of the opportunity when it happens.  Whilst we were chatting my partner asked me if I regretted any of my decisions in life...

I initially thought about my decision to join the civil service but then realised that the decision I most regretted was when I was 16.  I used to be very good at sport particularly athletics and I had the opportunity to represent my County at Hurdles in the National Athletics competition.  The problem was that it was on a Saturday and I also had a Saturday job which I wanted to keep.  There was a lot of competition for the jobs at this particular store.  Money was also very tight in our family so the income was fantastic for me.

My sports teacher was very keen for me to attend the athletics and even wrote a letter to my employer...however, my employer said that if I took a day off I would lose my position. So I chose not to go to the athletics.  I kept my job.

However, I will never ever know if I was good enough to represent my country at Hurdles and what this could have led onto as a career.  I was passionate about sport yet not confident enough to make good decisions.  I allowed my fear of losing a job and not having an income to prevent me from following my passion.

There's the lesson.  Whatever decision you are about to make follow your heart.  If you are passionate about something then do it.  You might want to ask yourself the question: 'In ten years time will I regret doing or not doing this...?'

Learn from my mistake and make sure you don't have any regrets.

Enjoy the process of life,

Noelyne Jones

P.S. sign up for my FREE REPORT on How To Be Confident Now.

How To Control Emotions

Hello,

I've recently been on holiday with my 79 year old Mum, who like most elderly Mum's never want to be a bother or cause any fuss... So why is it so stressful and why so I struggle to control my emotions when I am with her.  I find myself getting annoyed or irritated by her behaviour.  When she tries her best not to make a fuss it actually increases my frustration.  I do my best not to show my feelings as I don't want to upset her and end up feeling sad myself.  It's been the same every time I spend a full week with her.

Thankfully for me I was reading a book by Joyce Meyer called 'Never Give Up'.  I was attracted to this book as I've had a tendency to start things and then not finish them. It was an ideal book for me and I learned a considerable amount about the importance of persistence and continuing to take action when you totally believe in what you are doing.

In one of the chapters it referred to the situation I have just described about how I feel when I am with my Mum.  The advice given is that when you feel a negative emotion towards someone you need to look within yourself for the reason for the emotion.  I cannot start to tell you how powerful this is. It made me break the habit I had got into of blaming my Mum for her behaviour.  Instead I looked at why I was irritated with the way she behaves and I can tell you that I uncovered some of my own fears and beliefs about myself, my own behaviour.  It also made me face up to how I still feel about significant life events that happened when I was a child.  I was quite amazed! I thought I had dealt with all that stuff particularly am I am a personal development expert!  From then on the moment I started to feel a negative emotion towards my Mum I asked myself the question "What's causing this within me?" Not only did that thought stop the negative emotion it freed me up to be happy. 

And of course, it all had an impact on my Mum.  Behaviour breeds behaviour.  My behaviour had changed which affected her. 

To end a long story... we had a very enjoyable holiday!

Enjoy the process of life,

Noelyne

P.S. She wants to go to Crete and Turkey next year now!!