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.

And... we're off.

The Change Institute has begun. I performed the first consultation yesterday which has lead to some work over a couple of sessions in the next month with someone I know. Once I've made a positive change to that person's life this should then lead to at least one more referral, and hopefully more.

It was great to just start, and it was really good for me to begin thinking about how exactly I frame these sessions. I will continuously tweak how I go about things until it hits the spot every time but in the shortest amount of time as well. Time, as they say, is money, and the idea is to get as much money as possible in the briefest time.

Certain sessions can be carried out immediately, where as others will mean a consultation first in order to illicit exactly what needs to be worked on.

I need to think about the framing of it in order to provide the professional service both before and after. This is what will differentiate my service, and set it apart from the hacks.

But anyway, it's really forced me to identify different things that I'd not thought about before, and the creativity that can be put in to your own business to carve it into something that you want it to be.

Other than this, I've also been putting some time in to my next book, the real preliminary stuff, characters, plot etc and that's pretty enjoyable really. Although I actually enjoy the writing process, the thinking up front is vital and that really centres around day dreaming and I've always been good at that.

I'm actually on holiday this week, and the sun is out for a change, so I've been enjoying playing with the kids and trying to work around it. It's almost a dry run for when we finally move and the type of lifestyle I'm working towards. The conclusion at the moment is that I could get used to this.

If happiness is about achieving the perfect balance in your life for all of the aspects that make up a full one, then I feel that this week is ticking the right boxes. Also, it's about making it enjoyable as well. I guess I have a tendency sometimes to over think things and pull myself away from living in the moment, but this never leads to contentment, and this week I'm concentrating on the positives of everything, and it's amazing how many other things work out right because of it.

The decision on my future is coming to a head hopefully next wednesday at work, and then once that decision is finally made the ball can start rolling and we can start getting a bit of certainty to our plans. This will make me feel much better about everything and take a lot of the stress away that I'm experiencing.

So, onwards and upwards.

Location:Singleton Rd,Stockport,United Kingdom

All in Good Time

"Come in," bellowed the large voice of the manager, as he pushed himself back into the leather chair that sat behind the mahogany, antique desk.

The office was a shrine to the eighties, it was a shoulder pad made of wood and soft furnishings. Everything on display was there to reinforce the power that the incumbent had over other people's lives. There was a bar along one side stocked with just whisky, a valuable work of art by Rothko hung on the adjacent edifice, and a collection of mounted squirrels finished off the surroundings, squirrels that had been killed by the hands of the powerful man that was sat behind his desk right now.

A blotting pad and an executive metal ball game were the only residents on the wide expanse of leather that was neatly inlaid within the mahogany.

The manager had developed a habit of turning to look out of the window, at the ancient tree outside, when waiting for anybody to walk into his office. This time was no different, and as Mike walked in gingerly, he was unsure whether to sit or stand in the absence of any universal indicator from his host.

He decided to sit down in the chair nearest the desk.

"Sit down," said the manager as he turned from the window, "oh, you have, I see. Well then?"

"You wanted to see me, Sir," replied Mike in a quieter voice than normal.

"Hmmm."

There was a pause while the manager reminded himself of the purpose for this minion infesting his office.

"Yes, yes, yes, I remember now," started the manager with a moment of clarity. "I want to talk with you regarding this bloody business of the project and what it means for you, and your sad little life."

"Thank you, Sir, it would be good to know, Sir," replied Mike now taking on a more Bob Cratchett quality.

"The bloody thing looks as though it'll be canned. I can't say that I agree with that but there you have it. I personally don't see anything wrong with the lack of any real benefit to the customers, we had a similar situation with that bloody thing in Africa, and after twenty years I've heard that they've finally found a use for that bridge.

"It's cost $6m and taken twice as long as originally estimated but what do they want, I believe that we're now making real progress in understanding the purpose of this project. So, anyway, I have to tell you now about the implications that this will hold for you."

Mike sat glued to the chair, waiting in anticipation at the words that were to come from upon a high.

"If it does get binned, and of course there is no guarantee yet, but if it does then you will be displaced and having said that, I would then look to progress your situation as quickly as possible so that you can gain some early assurance of your future. Although the leadership has now changed I hope that they will stick to the game rules that we had before christmas, and this is what I will check for you. But do not go planning anything yet, there is no guarantee that the decision will be to scrap it, that will come in a couple of weeks as the big manager is currently yachting in Spain and after that he is golfing in The Conga. When he can spare ten minutes of his life to thinking about the future of this project, and the seventy people that it affects, he will set to it, and once he sets to it he will get right to the nub of it."

"I hear, Sir, that the indicators are pointing towards the ultimate retreat from this initiative," suggested Mike.

"I wouldn't believe what you hear, young Holley," said the manager stretching back in his chair, and straightening his spine, "My job is to tell you what to hear, and anything else that you hear is not worth hearing. If I had my way people would leave their ears in my top drawer, and I would then return them when I want them to hear. So, remember, no hearing until it is something I want you to hear. You hear?"

"I think so, Sir. Thank you, Sir. I will wait to hear from you about the decision, Sir. When do you think I will hear?"

"You will probably hear some time the week after next, but if you don't hear then don't be despondent, you will hear after that point. One way or another you will bloody hear about this thing when you need to hear. Now, please leave, as I have an important thing to see about."

"Thank you, Sir," said Mike as he rose in his chair and made his way towards the door.

"When you are in my position, young Holley, you will have to see to things. The eyes that you think you have are just eyes to hold the place around the eye area until you get real eyes that will make you see stuff that you haven't seen before. The eye of a potato is the gateway to the sole of a shoe, and remember to see to that. I'll see you soon, young Holley, in a small way I like you."

"Thank you, Sir," replied Mike as he left.

The manager turned to look back out of the window, and decide how he was going to spend the rest of his day. He stood up, and reached for his jacket. He was going to adjourn to the club, where he would discuss the fall of the Yen and the rise of the Tibetan Baht, and plan his pretend fortunes with his one friend, Martin.


(All of this discussion has been based on anecdotal evidence of a situation which partly happened, and was partly invented by an over active imagination that compensates for a dull reality in which normal conversations happen every day. I thank you.)

Location:Chorley Hall Ln,Alderley Edge,United Kingdom

All Quiet on the Western Front

I would imagine that there must have been some quiet moments in the Hundred Years War. Although behind the scenes the General's were plotting and scheming and planning the next invasion or battle, on the surface it all looked calm. No-one can invade for one hundred years. Even the greatest invader of all time, Sven Ingamanns, nicknamed Darth Invader, who originated from Aalborg and participated in the Viking invasions from back in the day, only invaded for sixty two years before his axe finally went limp.

But anyway, these are not just lessons from your hero, but an analogy to the present situation that I'm in. I find that the last two weeks have not provided me with any real product to comment about without running the risk of becoming repetitive like one ant that follows another ant.

But I do want you to know that I am safe and well and surviving. I have now finished my website for The Change Institute (although I may still do stuff on it)(http://www.thechangeinstitute.co.uk/), I'm just about to send the next wave of candidates off to Literary Agents, we've had no more viewings on the house, and I'm still waiting for Judgement Day at work.

On the final item, things have moved on to a stage of boiling point, and the politics have really stepped up a gear. I have somehow been involved in the inner sanctum on the decision of either keeping Phase 2 alive or canning it. All of the stars are now pointing towards the ultimate canning of the whole thing, but obviously as this decision carries with it a sensitive political impact, the decision will therefore take twice as long.

However, if this conclusion is reached then it plays perfectly into my hands, and I can then get wheels in motion. The decision isn't expected until the beginning of next week at the earliest, and so sitting tight is the order of the day again.

I have a one-to-one today with my line manager in which I will once again broach the topic and talk through what-if scenarios, given that a conclusion is near. It will be interesting to see what his reaction still is.

It's getting tenser as it gets closer, and I will update here as soon as it comes.

I'm also going to start writing another book. I enjoy the process of writing a book, and I stopped writing the previous book about six months ago. I'll obviously continue with the touting of Plaster Scene but I'll now begin on the next work of art called The Lost Weekend.

I'm excited about the themes and the scope within this book, and I want to spend a significant amount of time planning it out so that I can make the message as meaningful as possible, whilst maintaining the humour.

Location:Chorley Hall Ln,Alderley Edge,United Kingdom

Websites

I found yesterday that there are a number of initiatives out there at the moment to help small British businesses start up. In the wake of the recession and the ever increasing mass redundancies that seem to stain our perfect British world, the Government has seen fit to help out a little to ensure that people in the UK make their own money from now on because the state are not going to help anymore.

The two websites that I discovered were www.startupbritain.co.uk and www.gbbo.co.uk. The latter provides the opportunity to get a website up and running for free with your choice of .co.uk names (as long as their available) This is exactly what I've been looking for to get my site up and running. The edit functionality is not great, so it will look a little like a website from the mid-90's but at least it's a shop window, even if that window is behind the high street in-between a second-hand bookstore and an adult entertainment shop.

I will launch the website shortly once I have played around with it a bit, and post the address on here.

Location:Alderley Edge,United Kingdom

Home Moan

The night before, I'd been shivering in the pub, whilst downing my fourth pint, but when I woke up on Friday morning I knew I was rough. You know that feeling that comes to you straight away when you begin to think of the things that you were meant to do during the day ahead. They were all a write off, no way could I roll into work the way I felt now.

I sunk back in to the pillow and cursed my head and my aching legs for falling apart the way that they had. Was this not the body that you were meant to take for granted, and carried you through your life without any issue or crisis. Pathetic.

Since we've had children running around, picking up bugs, infiltrating other children and generally carrying disease, like rats in the Great Plague, or pigeons in a crowded City Square, we've been picking up these annoying little bugs and viruses.

The gradual onset of day brought with it the realisation that we had to prepare the house for a viewing from some more ditherers. I looked over at Claire, hoping that she would be the valiant white knight that would come riding over the hill and save me, and all I saw was this swollen, reddy, lump lying next to me making an odd noise resemblant of the noise the air makes when let out of a lilo at speed.

Terrific. Together we're going to have to pull through this one and make a show home standard home and take the kids to school etc.

But as champions do, and heroes of the old school do, and pillars of things do, we battled through successfully and reached the eventual result of a super clean home by 4pm. We were helped massively in this success by the nemesis of clean houses being invited to a friends house to play for the afternoon, which gave us a clear run.

At four hourly intervals, the time when we would gather in the kitchen to take our drugs, I would say it was comparable to feeding time in the penguin enclosure, but unfortunately it was more like Sid and Nancy at the Methadone clinic.

We vacated the house in time for the ditherers to make their inspection, as we like to create some sort of suspense. So we never know the appropriateness of the reviewer. Saturday morning, however, readily informed us that the family with three children thought that it was a lovely house but the garden was not big enough. Duhh...

It doesn't have a garden, it has a yard, it is clearly stated everywhere and our inept agents must even know that much about the product they're trying to sell. So, surprise, surprise, another waste of time. I wonder if this is not an elaborate means of someone ensuring that we clean our house within an inch of it's life every week.

What's made the house sale even more exciting now is that next door has decided that he wants to put his on the market as well. Not only does this portray an image of rats leaving a sinking ship and conjuring up illusions of the road going to the dogs, but also the natural factors of his house versus ours.

He lives somewhere in Eastern Europe now and has rented his house for the last five years, mostly to a pleasant, quiet guy in his forties. But the inside of his house unfortunately looks like a cross between one of the honeymoon suites in Auschwitz and Kevin Spacey's room in Seven.

The discerning purchaser would have to spend a considerable amount of money on just making sure that you didn't infect yourself every time you went to the bathroom, let alone the usual home improvements that one would make, cellar for bodies, love swing, human cannonball etc...

The value that has been put on his house is low, 13% less than ours, and given the nervous market currently and the perception of house prices in general, this is not the best news that we could've had. It just gets better and better. (this is sarcastic by the way)

On the positive side though, we could be living next door to Colonel Gadaffi, and that would make it really hard to sell.

Location:London Rd,Alderley Edge,United Kingdom

Two Million Dollar Baby

What could two million pounds get you? It would be an ideal lottery win, you would have enough to sort loved ones out before taking the rest on a dream life.

I once did a calculation to work out my Financial Independence figure. This was the sum of an appropriate annual salary factored by an appropriate interest rate for however many years you want to earn it, a house, a car, some big holidays, a snooker room, a swimming pool and what ever else you can see yourself achieving before you die. Add all of this up and there is the amount that you need to gather to live that perfect life. Nothing special but control over the rest of your days. My figure came out at 1.3 million.

What about a commercial building project, or two Rickie Lamberts?

The reason I ask this is because the part of the project that I have been working on for the last 18 months has now gone live in Production. The total cost is up near two million.

You wouldn't know that it was there, the business are now using it and this equates to one person who I'm shadowing to make sure he does it right. I won't go into the mind-numbingly boring details about exactly what it does but suffice it to say that it helps to support a new Financial IS System.

I suppose the money is only one aspect of the project but it does help to put context on to it. The project was one twenty-fifth of the total Programme Budget, so this shows how much certain people really care about it.

So, like a big, fat gypsy that has been turfed off of his site, or a hat and scarf combo on the first day of Spring, I'm now redundant in my task. Oh, how I wish I was proclaiming that I was redundant full stop but alas, no.

I'll still be in employment for the time being but my actual responsibilities are massively reduced. I obviously don't want to show too much appetite for anything new, so instead I will bide my time.

The end of this month is the date that I'm still expecting more news on that front, so in the mean time, which is only a couple of weeks, I'll just keep my head down and wait.

Don't forget that the dream ticket is to work on transition work until the end of June and then Va Va Voom.

Just to think that Saints could've bought two more Rickie Lambert's instead.

Location:Arderne Pl,Alderley Edge,United Kingdom