Uncover happiness.

"Organisation is the key to happiness!"

Alitza finding happiness in a tree.

This is one of the joke phrases that i preach around our house in the hope that others might take it on board, and while it is a joke, like all jokes there is a little truth in it. Stay with me and i'll run you through it.

In the wake of the whole un-schooling movement in our life we have had a big clear out, everything from the attic to the papers in the filing cabinet, kids toys, clothes, cookware. It was all taken out and put in front of the ruthless jury that asked just one question. Does it have value in our lives?

Something being of value can mean a host of things, do we use it? do we love it? do we need it? and so on. And unless each item serves some purpose or adds something of value to our lives then it has to go. Don't get me wrong, we don't live in a minimalist home with one set of clothes and a dinner set each. But thanks to our recent cleanse, we now live in a home where there is a sense of space, a sense that we can now breathe and enjoy the space that we have.

Watching the children in their newly sorted, tidied and organised playroom made me realise that it actually was true, now that they could see the floor, they could see the set of play stands, cloths, pegs, paper etc. Their imaginations were immediately sparked, and the most elaborate games took place, that involved structures, and travel, adventure and exploration. This game simply wasn't possible when the floor was covered with mess and the things they needed were buried. Something new was now possible.

This playing and dreaming was happiness at it's very purest. And i'm not saying that it was all because of the organising, but the clear room and tidy playthings was the catalyst for a sudden, huge expression of creativity and passion, on a level that i can only dream of.

And it occurred to me that i get the same sense of creativity, space and freedom from seeing a space clear, tidy and open. Suddenly things are possible that weren't before. I especially love the sense of clarity i gain from transforming a space from messy, cluttered and unused into a beautiful haven of possibility. It's like the tangible version of what life coaching creates, clearing away the accumulated debris and mess, to leave a clearing, an open space, within which new things can be created, and things are suddenly possible that weren't before.

Eli, on the tools.

Dreaming is something that i get people to do in a new open space in their lives as part of being coached, when we have cleared away the mess. Often people forget that they can dream, and as soon as they try, immediately they limit their dreams with "reality" or "feasibility".

When you listen to a childs dream, there are no limiting factors. They can dream as big or small as they please. Knowing that a dream is all it is, there is no need to limit your dreams or cut them down unless you are planning on fitting them into a small space, a messy space perhaps.

We all have dreams from childhood, you may not think you do, but you do. But something will have touched you or really spoken to you as a child, and it will have stayed with you. It may not seem huge or even be something specific, and often it's completely illogical or crazy, but it is very real. And it will never leave you, it is why you have that feeling that there is something you still haven't achieved in life.

Reuben dreaming up high

My big childhood dream is one of adventure and vehicles. The freedom and endless possibility of carrying your home with you. I get excited by long drives, new places and even service stations, it takes me back to a place in my childhood that was happy beyond measure. Which is why, when i bought a rusty old van, converted it into a small home and travelled Europe with my children i experienced a deep sense of happiness and peace that i couldn't explain, a tangible sense of knowing that what i was doing was right, and it was fulfilling something deep inside me that knew what life was really all about. And i couldn't logically explain why i did it, or what it would achieve. But what it created was magic, for me and my family.

So my advice today is to do some sorting, clear a space, and you never know what you might find. You might find the clarity, space and freedom to do something you didn't previously think possible, or you may even find, buried deep under things that you haven't moved for a long time. an old dream, and if you take it out and make it happen, then you might just discover the happiness and peace that you have been looking for.

Isaac, just being Isaac.

Loving Life: One step at a time.

I have had a fantastic week. It has been filled with everything that i want my life to be filled with, fun, excitement, children, learning, singing, joy and challenges.

Cooking time

Every day brings something different for me these days, the days and hours i get to spend engaging with the children as part of our un-schooling journey are magical, watching their sense of pride and achievement as they light fires in the woods with just a flint, or watching them enraptured by live music that fills them with joy (kids music by the amazing www.pocodrom.com, check him out!), even my work days are never the same, a mixture of many different things that i love, personal training, life coaching, carpentry........ the list goes on. Needless to say that all of life's important boxes are being ticked.

I have had new clients come to me recently for both personal training and life coaching, and i love engaging with new clients, i love the inspiration i see in their eyes when i open their world to the possibility of them really being able to achieve the goals that they always thought to be far out of reach.

And it really struck me how it is all so simple, people are of course all very different, it has been different journeys that have got us here and we are therefore entirely unique and our own kind of wonderful, but change is very simple, transforming an area of ones life, whether it's health, fitness, relationships or lack thereof, a difficult break up, a change of career, all require the same approach.

Context is decisive, transform the context of your life, and the content will transform itself.

Lighting fires!

It's all about habit. Every day is made up of the choices you make, the little things that you do, whether they are part of a bigger picture or whether they are just what to eat for lunch. When you add them all up, they make up your day, and when you add those up, they make up your life. And all of these little choices will be inside a context, often ones context isn't consciously created and just "happens" over time based on learning from mistakes or unconsciously being a way that you think gets the best results in life, so whether you know it or not, there is a context, and overall story line that runs your life, and is the reference point for your decisions every day.

So to change an area of your life, you must first change the context, create a "why", And with a context for change there will be a reference, or focal point that will make the choices easy. Then with the context in place you can change the little moments, the every day habits. Don't get me wrong, big changes are great, boosts like a juice cleanse, a personal transformation course, a fitness boot camp, they all supply the inspiration and motivation for change, but long term transformation takes commitment, 

And to form new habits inside this new context, don't attempt to change everything at once. Take your existing habits and change them one by one, break life down into bitesize chunks. As humans, we can't sustain big changes, because we are creatures of habit. 

So as an example if you want to transform your health, inside the context of "i believe that optimum health will give me a longer happier life", start with your diet, but don't change everything at once, take one habit, say breakfast, and change that, focus on changing just that until it is a habit, then when it is an unconscious habit, tackle the next habit, say snacking. And keep changing the daily habits until you have changed them all, and hey presto, 6 months later you have transformed your diet, and it is a committed change because you have formed new habits. Six months that could have been spent going from one crash diet to the next, has been spent transforming your health forever.

So if you think about how your life is made up of bitesize habits, that you have the ability to change, you could completely transform everything in your life in a year. A year from now you could have the life you always dreamed of. 

People often comment on how great my life is and how much i seem to love it, and i always tell them that it wasn't luck or magic, and it isn't a secret, I've just shared with you everything it took for me to create a life that I love, that i am living every day.

Just remember, context is decisive, transform the context of your life, and the content will transform itself.

A picnic in the woods

Running, because he can.