The Ten Principles of Happiness

Everybody in the world just needs a little love. It’s time for the world to unite together for just one cause. The Cause of Happiness.


Too many people are miserable, see the bad in everything, have their glass half full at best. These people are dangerous. They suck the life out of the good, and inject their sordid, horrible gospel into peoples’ thoughts instead.


It usually only takes a handful of bad people to ruin an event, or a happening, where as you never see a handful of good people equally turning the tide. One bad apple syndrome.


Rules are often seen to be divisive, a means for a few to control the behaviour of the many. But I believe that we must now return to some straight forward, common sense principles in order to guide us through our lives to the promised land of contentment and, dare I say it, HAPPINESS.


This is not hard, but we are easily dragged along with the momentum of misery that rolls past us every day. Let us stop now, and rise up above this river of drivel, and start to take control of our enjoyment of our lives.


This does not demand that we worship anything, or look to others to tell us what to do, or even rely on others to sort us out. We must walk this path alone, and drive our own way to the gates. Blake once said that, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”, and if this is the case then lets over-indulge in smiles and love and respect, and make sure that the palace we’re heading towards is the right one.


These simple reminders must be committed to memory and adhered to everyday, even in the face of adversity, to ensure that you stay on the right track. Soon you will become sub-consciously competent, and at this point you’re on the happy plane and it’s being driven on auto-pilot.


The Ten Principles of Happiness


1. Appreciate what you have

2. Love someone and allow yourself to be loved by someone else

3. Help someone

4. Share with people

5. Control the information that you allow into your sub-conscious

6. Beware of negative people

7. Learn something new and explore new places

8. Have a purpose

9. Manage your time effectively

10. Be conscious in the moment


These principles are common sense. Nobody can question the power they have over your mood, and your sense of happiness. Within these principles are sub-points that are also valid and there are also probably more specific behaviours that should be encouraged, but I believe that everything fits within these over-arching ideas.


None of this stuff is new. You can read about it in the ancient scripts of the Egyptians, you can see the learning’s in the Taoist philosophies and the Buddhist readings, in all known organised religions of the modern world and, more importantly, deep down inside of everyone this resonates as the truth.


People have a choice of how much they want to be on the cause side of their lives as opposed the effect side. Are you going to make it happen, or will it happen to you?


Just see things differently, hear things differently, feel things differently and do things differently, and notice the effects of this powerful message.


Done.

Portfolio Career - The New Plan

Since the last entry we have been on holiday and I have been concentrating on finishing the book. I am glad to say that I have now finished the book. BUT there is still maybe some extra scenes that I want to include, and I am committed to finishing these by the end of July.

This is the first milestone on this journey, and therefore important that I reach it before diverting my attention to other steps, i.e. Freelance Writing.

The other important thing to mention is the holiday that we went on a couple of weeks ago. It was to the Isle of Wight which just so happens to be the place where we are thinking of moving to. We coupled the holiday with a reconnaissance of the island, especially the special needs school for Sophie.

The school passed our tests regarding the safety for Sophie, but more importantly the 'feel' of the school. Everyone there was happy and kind, and all of the children were really happy to be there, and this is the most important thing on my list.

This was the only practical obstacle to relocating and this has now been cleared. Which is great because we can concentrate on making it happen, but it is quite scary as well because the plan is now real and I need to make it work.

So, to reiterate the plan; The book to be finished and begin to be sent out - September, Freelance Writing work to begin to be established - September, At least one paid writing assignment, or 10 free assignments - December.

It's full steam ahead, and all of this in parallel with my day job which in case I haven't mentioned before is full on as well. It is still my intention to secure a redundancy package and I am hoping to start these discussions in September.

So, that's it for now. I will finish my book and then when I begin the Freelance writing adventure I will track the progress on here. The journey with the book is a very creative process, and hard to track, all I can say is that it is close and when it is finished you will be the first to know.

Also, as an aside, I have completed the swim and raised a staggering two thousand pounds in a fortnight for the Neo-Natal Unit at Stepping Hill Hospital.

Portfolio Career - Bank Holiday Weekends

What a lovely weekend, and absolutely no further towards a Portfolio Career. I've spent the last three days with Claire and the kids and we've had a great time. A Bank Holiday weekend is about recharging and reaffirming what is important, and what all this is about in the first place.

I have been desperately trying to get Claire's birthday present ready in the evenings and this has been a mini project. It has taken so much longer than I first expected, but if you knew what it was then you wouldn't be surprised. But, the fact that I have been 'working' in the evenings made me think that this is the type of thing that I am aspiring to.

I have enjoyed the birthday present preparation because I really want Claire to enjoy it, and for it to be just right when she opens it. This can therefore be compared to a task that I love that I am doing for money instead of giving joy.

I can work around the kids when they are at school, or in bed, and still be there for those good times in between. Those good times that unfortunately are so seldom in my current existence.

I really enjoyed yesterday because we all went into Manchester, and spent three to four hours there not really doing anything. We went to see a photography exhibition, Dorothy Bohm, but that was it. We decided to buy some lunch in M&S and eat it on a bench watching the world go by us, and then later we had a coffee and watched a different world go by.

It felt like such a lazy day, even though it wasn't due to the walking, and we were all together sharing the experiences for the whole time. It made me think of how England has changed in my lifetime. I have written about this before, but I still think we are quite lucky to have this coffee bar culture in England. It has come from the continent, and the idea of relaxing in public is a concept that I have always loved from earlier holidays. Now we can enjoy this without having to travel first.

I love watching people walk past, real characters, and making up stories about them. My curiosity about their personal circumstances, asking questions to myself about why they are wearing that particular hat, or where they are rushing off to. I could do it all day long, and if it wasn't for Claire then I probably would have. I think Dylan has started to get the bug as well, a young man walked past with a big Victorian beard, and he all of a sudden jumped up, laughing and pointing. Very funny.

So really, this is the part of my balanced portfolio of life that I am trying to increase. Surely this can be achieved. If as well, I can accompany it with work that I love, and the ability to help others, then jackpot.

I'll know I've made it when I have a box at St.Marys, and we are all there enjoying lunch before the match.

Anyway, I have digressed a little in this entry, but this is due to the incredible length of time it is taking to edit the book. I am going to have to up my effort, and start working in the evenings as well, in order to get it finished to a point where I can finally start getting it out there.

So, as always, I will keep you up-to-date with my lack of progress as well as my progress, and hopefully I can start to report more of the latter very shortly.

Portfolio Career - Well-Being

The most important part of a Portfolio Career, for me, is the ability to choose the components of the portfolio. Like I've mentioned before, you would only choose things that you enjoy and that bring you a reward. This would in turn create a contentment in your everyday life, and you would really start to enjoy life.

Another term for this is 'Well-Being', and there has been a book called Well-Being by Tom Rath and Jim Harter which explains the factors that go towards achieving it.

Gallup, as in the company that run Gallup Polls etc., have analysed statistically the components that go in to well-being. They have concluded that there are five key areas:

Career Well-being, the job, or what you do each day.
Emotional Well-being, your relationship with loved ones.
Physical Well-being, your fitness, your health
Financial Well-being, how comfortable you are, having enough to support your lifestyle
Community Well-being, what sense of belonging that you have with a group of people.


Each of these in equal volume will work towards an overall sense of Well-being. Interestingly, 66% are perfectly happy with one of these, but only 7% are happy with the balance across all five.

This directly applies to what I am trying to do with this whole journey into a Portfolio Career. I want to improve my Career Well-being, and Financial Well-being, whilst maintaining the others.

When I read about this, it really resonated with my purpose. So much so that I am going to draw up a kind of Balanced Scorecard, in which I will list the activities that I do currently and allocate them into one of the five pots. I will then score these and calculate totals.

Then I will estimate a level that I am aiming to reach for each pot, calculate the gap, and plan what to do about it. I am hoping that most of the work that I am doing at the moment will go along way to plugging that gap, but it may pull out something that I have taken my eye off.

Portfolio Career - Steps for Freelance Writing

The next stage to achieving a Portfolio Career is to start to establish the income streams. One of the potential income streams that I have identified is Freelance Writing. I think I will enjoy this area of work especially if I can concentrate on the appropriate categories.

Freelance writing is becoming a real boom industry at the moment due to the explosion of the internet. The amount of new information that will be produced in 2010 will be equal to the amount of information that has been published in the last three thousand years put together.

This is possible due to the volume of websites that now exists on the internet. All of these websites need content in order to stay relevant and attract people. If they attract people then they will earn more money in advertising.

So, the market for the writing of this content is huge. Due to the business models of websites they do not have in-house writers that are paid on their staff. They raise a request online for freelance writers to bid on and, depending on the level of expertise and quality that they are after, they will make a choice. There has been a rise in the freelance writing market places where projects are offered up and bids are collected.

In order to win a bid the writer must suggest a competitive price for the work, but also ratings are given to each writer, and also profiles of the writer can be viewed in order to give the employer an idea of quality. These three factors will go towards a decision being made. Obviously, therefore, if a writer is established and has many articles under his belt, all with high ratings, then they can demand a higher price due to confidence levels of quality.

How can you break in to this world of dangling pound notes? I have bought an ebook called Six Figure Freelancer and it describes the step-by-step process to establish yourself. Surprisingly it does not seem hard and because of these low barriers to entry, you can expect a large amount of competition. Also, as it is online it is opened up to the whole world and I will suffer from the impact of lower standards of living in developing countries. A person in India will charge a lot less than my hourly rate to produce the same work, and so I need to concentrate much more on quality. Once set up this should be okay, but breaking into it will be harder because of the lack of proof that I can back up my obvious quality. That obvious quality that purveyors of this blog could verify from the rooftops.

Steps required to take part:

- Register on the online market places
- Create a profile on said market places
- Bid for work, at first by either, 1) reducing the price, or 2) creating my own requests for work (clever)
- Once the ball is rolling, then create my own website that I can direct prospective clients to, and begin to establish regular income streams with the same people that begin to know and trust the quality that I produce.

Easy.

The good thing with all of this is that it can be done whilst I am still working 9-5.

I am concentrating at the moment on finally editing the book that I have written, and getting that to a stage where I will be happy to start giving it wings. Once this is done, I will then throw my energy into the freelance writing, and let you know how I get on.

Portfolio Career - Think and Grow Rich

Like a duck, the energy is all happening under the water at the moment in progressing my Portfolio Career. I bought the book called Six Figure Freelancer in order to learn how to initiate the freelance writing side, and with it came a bonus three books. One of these books is called Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.

It was first published in the 1920's, and the content still appears as relevant now as it did then. The specific examples of industry and fortune making are out-dated, but the 'secret' behind them is still true.

The 'Secret' is something that is written about in a number of contemporary books that I have read, and something that I can definitely identify.

The law of attraction is something else that it's called, and NLP and Cosmic Ordering are also based on it.

The primary concept is that you must yield a desire to achieve a result. In order to build the desire into an obsession and follow through with perserverance, you must first know exactly what it is that you are aiming at. Once you have articulated in detail the eventual target, you must then use all of your energy in reaffirming that it is possible, and visualising the person that you will become and the life that you will lead.

The point is that as long as you are concentrating on one outcome the universe, or the ether as the book calls it, will deliver opportunities that to a ready mind can be seized.

The book highlights many examples of the day where people have used the 'Secret' to earn huge fortunes, including; Henry T Ford, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller. All of these people particularly had received no formal education, but they had a laser focused goal to succeed and thought of little else.

Now, why am I mentioning all of this stuff? Well, firstly it confirms what I have read elsewhere and I am taking on board some of the exercises that they advise, in order to concentrate my mind on achieving. But secondly, by analysing successful people you build into your own personality that quality of success. I will be using the teachings to achieve my dream life, which is a long way from any of the names mentioned above. I do not chase this type of dream, but my humble dream of being in control and free to make choices on how I spend my time, and be able to spend that time with who ever I want, can be substituted in it's place.

It gives me a renewed belief that what I am doing is not only possible but also the best thing that could ever happen. This state of mind is fearless, but must be nurtured to ensure sustainability. So onwards and upwards...

Portfolio Career - List of Options

The search for a portfolio career goes on, and I am now moving in to the arena of actually making some of these ideas a reality.

Through the analysis of my own preferences that I have been undertaking for a couple of weeks, I now have a relatively good understanding of the types of occupation that would interest me and are worth aiming for immediately. The fortunate thing of pursuing a portfolio career is that due to its flexible nature you can initiate part of the portfolio whilst still in a full time career.

Below is a list of some ideas that I brainstormed last week as potential candidates to put in to my portfolio. Some are for enjoyment, some are for money, some are for both. Some can be actioned straight away and some will require training or experience.

Freelance Journalist
Novelist
Parent/Husband
Social Economics Commentator
Actor
Phobia Therapist
Mentor
Life Coach
Tutor
Entrepreneur
Mystery Shopper
Extra
Director
Charity Management

Also, depending on where my life takes me, the other very real ambition that Claire and I have is to own a holiday let. It would be high-spec and be available and accessible to all. This means that it would also be able to cater for disabled families with specific requirements. This is a niche market but one that I would consider to be a largely unmet need currently. There would be large initial set up costs but then the maintenance and ongoing costs would look after themselves once established. This idea would also give us a rewarding feeling because of the families that we would be able to help.

So, this is the list so far. At the moment there are two jobs that I can and will strive for whilst still in full time employment. 1) Freelance Journalist 2) Novelist.

To answer number two first, I have finished the book and I now need to go through the edit before anyone else can even think about looking over it. I am ongoing with this and I aim to have it in much better shape by the summer.

To the freelance journalism end, I have bought a book on how to get started and make a success of it. So I shall see how successful the book is and comment on it after I have read it. My intention is to start earning money as soon as possible with this though, and get the ball rolling.

I will keep you up-to-date with progress on both of these things in the next post, and I will also be keeping my eye open for any other opportunities that are congruent with my other ambitions.

Remember, all great achievements and earnings of money started with an initial idea. Do not under estimate this phase of the revolution.

Portfolio Career: First Milestone

The journey to reach a Portfolio Career has just reached a significant milestone. I have some incredible news to tell the world. News that the world never thought would be told. Not since Moses stood upon the craggy top of Mount Sinai holding a couple of rocks, have the world awaited such a proclamation.

The first stage of the first stage of my plan was always to write a novel. I have been writing this for a long time, too long really, but now finally the first draft is complete. I penned the last sentence yesterday, and I can now confirm that the last word is 'together', and the butler didn't do it.

I know how much this news will mean to you all, but to me it is a significant point in time. I will now plough on with the edit, and effectively re-write the entire book.

This venture began back in 2008, and although I have taken quite lengthy sabaticals, the important point that I wanted to prove was that I could stick to one thing for a long time, and complete it. This has now been achieved and the edit will take a long time, but psychologically I have proved something important to myself.

The other point that I have proved is that I actually quite like writing. Especially 'made up' nonsense. It's my own world where everything happens because I want it to, and nothing can hurt you. I have found this extremely therapeutic, and I now need to keep up the persistence to get it to the next stage, which is the unveiling of it to other people. A scary proposition but an inevitable one if I want it to be published.

So, that's it for this update. An important milestone, and next week I promise to continue with the progress being made with the identifying of potential portfolio careers.

Catch 22 - Take 2

Just a quick update to mention that the proposed shift of work from me to some other poor insignificant has been completed. There were no problems at all with the request. I had positioned it in a way that hopefully did not sound like bleating but had reasoned justification to it. I now have to work on a transition plan to move it over but after that, it will definitely free up more time.

It proves how it is possible to take a little bit of control back even when working for an oil tanker. One thing that probably, in fact, is easier to do in a bigger company. The benefit of anonymity.

The other unexpected reaction to this push back was that it has appeared to have increased my currency. I have had a lot more respect since and an understanding that I am in control of my piece. Although, the politics in my company are such that even if they didn't think much of it they wouldn't tell me. I couldn't care less about this side of it though.

I now need to start to concentrate on trying to identify, investigate and establish these income streams that I have talked about. The first step is therefore to identify possible options. I don't think I will find the perfect blend of options straight away. But, hopefully I can find enough suitable contenders that will give me the impetus to believe that this will work.

So, next entry will be a list of flexible roles, jobs, projects, activities, ways of life that excite me. A completely unrelated list of vocations that I have either always been interested in, or I think may suit me. Then I can rattle through them to work out if they are realistic or not.

Catch 22

When you're stuck in the work life that you hate, how do you free enough time to concentrate on the changes that you want to make? Although the easy answer is to forget about the current job and find the time, it isn't that easy when you have to make really sure that you don't get sacked from that current job in the mean time.

I was working last night until 10pm, and that was not because I enjoy work. I had to do something because if I didn't then it would end up causing more problems later, and I then end up in the problem. How can you make your life easier in the short term whilst ensuring that you don't have to do it at all in the long term?

I think that the straight forward answer is simple hard work. If you want anything to change then you have to find the time, you have to free stuff up as much as possible and you have to focus on the key activities. Do not waste it when you do have some free time.

Today I am going to go in to work and explain that I need to get rid of some of my workload. This would not have been an option before because I would have risen to the challenge and kept my head down. But now I need to continually concentrate on where I want to get to, and although my pride at work will take a dent, there is no shame in not carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.

My role, like probably most peoples in large or small companies, is as big or as small as I can take or get away with. In my large pharmaceutical anonymous company they have reduced the finance staff by half across the globe. The work that remains has not changed but they pass the work on to the remainder and see how they cope with it. A common misconception that if you pretend that you can cope with it then it will look good on you is rubbish. If anyone is doing too much then the quality of the output will not be sufficient and you will get no thanks at all.

Today I will ensure that my responsibilities are reduced so that I can be sure to deliver a high quality in what's left. The only way that companies no if they have too much for the workforce is by listening to the workforce. If the workforce are martyrs then there's no chance.

There's only two ways that too much work can affect you - it can make you ill, or it can make you push back. I think that the point is that you have to remain in control of your life. No-one else will ever do that better than you. Things don't just get better, something has to change first.

On the subject of the new quest to establish new income streams, I have now bought a book all about Portfolio Careers. Apparently there is an actual name for it, and one million people in the UK already have them. I have taken two online questionnaires and one in the book, and it turns out that I am the perfect person for a portfolio career.

I have never known one thing that I want to do, but I fancy a number of things. I want to be able to be flexible in my work life and earn money around other things. Due to getting bored quickly I need different roles that will keep me energised and passionate. I need to be able to chop and change, and I actually quite like that anyway. Some of the vital skills needed is confidence (which I have never had a problem with), networking, self-marketing, time management and multi-tasking.

The traditional view of someone working 9-5, 5 days a week stems from the Industrial Revolution one hundred and fifty years ago. It was brought about through productivity analysis, companies could get more out of a human resource by making them concentrate on one activity continually. (Specialising) This never helped the person.

Through the advent of computers and the ability to work from anywhere, there are more opportunities today to reclaim flexibility. Everyone I know can work from home, but instead of making the most of those hours saved in the rush hour traffic, they just work two hours longer a day. Who wins there?

What finally convinced me of this direction being the one, is the analogy that was made between this way of life and Mr.Benn. My favourite cartoon from childhood where he would disappear into the fancy dress shop and transform into a different role every day. I think that there must be some subliminal seed that was planted when I was a toddler, because as soon as I heard that it all made sense. I want to be an astronaut, and a chef, and a clown, and a knight, and a deep sea diver. I've now to work out how I can for money.

The New Revolution

As some of you know, if there is anyone that still reads this, I have been somewhat tardy with my blog writings of late. The reason I am putting this down to is two-fold; 1) I have been writing my book, and I want to dedicate as much time to this as possible, 2) the blog was about my general life and I wrote about which ever whim took my fancy. It was dependant largely on mood as well as news worthy activities that I had encountered.

This meant that sometimes when I was in the mood to write, I couldn't because there was nothing to write about, and other times when I didn't want to write I had felt a duty to enter a blog entry because something grand had happened. This led to some strange entries, even if I do say so myself. In times of no real news, I would let my imagination play away and the result would be something peculiar at best and just weird at worst.

But the new blog will be different, not because I am going to write in a different way, or that I am going to be more disciplined (even though I will be as well), but more that the new revolution is something very real that I want to change about my life, and the blog is just a vehicle for me to track my progress. Therefore a specific theme for a specific blog, and coincidentally the title still remains apt.

I am going to change my life from the one that most people recognise me for. The life that probably, and scarily, defines me to people who don't know me, more than the other aspects of my life which sum me up better.

I, of course, am talking about the Corporate life that I have existed in for the last 12 years. The Old Accountancy Avenue. The Bean-counters Boulevard. The Corporate Crescent. That vocation that I have landed in, more through a laziness to think of anything else that I wanted to do, and a few failed dreams along the way, than an actual considered direction.

Guess what, I have found direction. My lighthouse is shining bright upon the rocks of the darkened bay, and guiding me away from danger. Now most of you that know me will, I am sure, think that you have heard me saying similar things roughly every year. Well, you may be right. This time, however, I have much more belief behind me, and also one other quality that will lead me to the Promised Land. Energy.

This was the problem that there always was with the band. Our energy levels were almost underground. I read somewhere recently that you only get back from the universe what you equally put in. Although this sounds quite spiritual, it is echoed in many places in one way or another. Even The Beatles sang, "The love you get is equal to the looooo-vvvvve you give."

The difficult dimension with the band was that there were 5 of us, and that is hard to pull in one direction. That isn't even including the wags, that honestly never wanted the band to succeed because it would have meant a life on the road, and not the ideal lifestyle for starting families. Although some of them wouldn't have said that in so many words, especially not Claire, the band knew it, and it was an invisible rope keeping us tethered to the hobby.

Now my new journey will be on my own, it is aligned with supporting a family, and it will provide many more opportunities than ever would present itself if I stay where I am.

A number of signals have been sent my way recently that have pushed me further and further towards action, rather than passively moaning about things.

1) A friend of mine that was 40 died a couple of weeks ago. I used to play football with him, he never had any vices, and he had 3 young kids. He hated working as an accountant and for at least 15 years he didn't enjoy life to the absolute maximum because he spent 40 hours a week in a rut. Then it was all taken away from him, suddenly. What a slap around the chops.

2) A long standing pension at my company, that people who had worked here since pre-1996 held, was taken away without any warning a month ago. This was known as the golden handcuffs. It was a final salary pension that encouraged loyalty from its members by keeping them here until they retire and they will be richly rewarded. By taking it away this promise is no longer there, even to those that were in the scheme. Those people that have worked for 20-30 years have now been slapped in the chops. Where's the loyalty from the other side. The answer is there is none. As long as you work for someone else then you can never be fully in control of your life. You will never have as many choices as if you held the strings yourself.

3) A variety of other signals that are small in isolation but at every one the message is heightened.

It seems as though now the whole universe is shouting at me to change. I realise that this is a symptom of focusing on a particular subject. Ever bought a new car and then seen that car everywhere afterwards? But, the message has reached the point where I have now screamed back, "enough already." (bit American, sorry about that)

So the time has come for a change, and I am the only one that has the power to make a change in myself. It's never going to be given to me.

The plan is this. I will use this blog to monitor my progress to an end goal of establishing a number of different income streams in a year’s time. I want to try a number of different things to assess the reward gained, the ability to ensure a kind of certainty around it, and also, more importantly, whether I enjoy it or it becomes a chore.

If the idea eventually is to continue in to the unknown with a number of these running simultaneously then by definition they need to be able to co-exist with each other. A good way of proving this is to jump into it while I am working 9-5 (on a good day).

In the next instalment I will aim to make a list of some of the ideas that I have had this far and hopefully come up with an approach to at least tackling number one. Also, you can expect to hear stories from the front line of capitalism as well. As this is the reason why I am chasing a new future, it is important for me to realise why I am leaving this security blanket. And I can't help myself either.

Until next time, Comrades. Peace.