Green is the colour of my life

Throughout my life whenever I was asked what my favourite colour is, I used to say (and still say) YELLOW!

For me, yellow represents sunshine and happiness and because I was always expected to be a happy, smiley child (and adult) in spite of my circumstances, yellow was the colour that did it for me. Strangely, when it comes to clothing, I hardly buy anything yellow.

At school I always used to joke with my friends and say when my bedroom gets re-painted, it must be painted canary yellow with shocking pink polka dots. Thankfully, this never happened!

When I started driving I said I will get a bright yellow car – this never happened either.

I’ve also always loved green (like the grass) because green for me always represented “life” and “re-growth” or “new birth” (my own thoughts). If pushed for a second colour choice, I would say that next to yellow, green would be my second choice, but very few people actually know this.

Now, listen to this coincidence of circumstances . . .

I’ve spent the last twelve years working at the Department of Environmental Affairs (environment = green). This was not by choice. It was a job available at the time and I needed the job.

A few years ago I was given a cell phone pouch and guess what the colour is? . . . green

My thermal mug I use at the office . . . is green

My lunch bag I take to the office . . . is green

One of my water bottles I use . . . is green

Recently my sister bought me a (thermal) flask . . . it’s green

For Christmas I received a USB hub for my computer . . . it’s green

I’ve recently taken over my mom’s car . . . it’s green

I’ve just bought myself a power pack for my electronic devices . . . it’s green

My personal trainer suggested I buy an “on the go” blender. He was going shopping anyway so I asked him to get me one. He brought it to my house and when I opened the door, I just burst out laughing . . . it’s green

Is there a message somewhere in here for me?

Let’s have a look at what a few people have to say about the colour GREEN . . .

The Color Green
The color green is the color of balance, harmony and growth

This is the color of balance and harmony. From a color psychology perspective, it is the great balancer of the heart and the emotions, creating equilibrium between the head and the heart.

From a meaning of colors perspective, green is also the color of growth, the color of spring, of renewal and rebirth. It renews and restores depleted energy. It is the sanctuary away from the stresses of modern living, restoring us back to a sense of well being. This is why there is so much of this relaxing color on the earth, and why we need to keep it that way.

Green is an emotionally positive color, giving us the ability to love and nurture ourselves and others unconditionally. A natural peacemaker, it must avoid the tendency to become a martyr.
Source: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-green.html

If Your Favorite Color is Green

• You are a practical, down-to-earth person with a love of nature.
• You are stable and well balanced or are striving for balance – in seeking this balance, you can at times become unsettled and anxious.
• Having a personality color green means you are kind, generous and compassionate – good to have around during a crisis as you remain calm and take control of the situation until it is resolved.
• You are caring and nurturing to others – however you must be careful not to neglect your own needs while giving to others.
• You are intelligent and love to learn – you are quick to understand new concepts.
• With a personality color green you have a great need to love and to be loved and you tend to wear your heart on your sleeve- you are an open book who doesn’t hide his/her feelings.
• You have a need to belong – greens are the joiners of social groups – you are at home in any social situation as you are gracious and well-mannered, knowing just the right things to say and do.
• You are a good citizen and like to be involved in community groups.
• You have high moral standards and doing the right thing is important to you.
• You like to be accepted, appreciated and admired for the good you do in the community as well as in your family life.
• You are a loyal friend and a faithful partner, gentle but not passionate.
• It is difficult for you to feel great passion as your need is for balance and peace, not action.
• Having a personality color green means you are strong-willed and do not like to be told what to do by others. You do like to win arguments and do not concede defeat easily.
• You can have a tendency to gossip, which is connected to your need to belong.
• You love food and find it hard to lose weight.
• With a personality color green you are not a risk-taker and not action orientated, rather more of an observer. You love to sit in a café and watch the world go by.
• You are business orientated and love to work in your own business. Money is important to you but you are generous.
• Detail bores you. You process information quickly and prefer to develop an idea, organize a plan and then delegate the rest to someone else. Ideas flow quite easily but you are not good at executing them.
• You accumulate possessions but they are usually of high quality and high price.
• You make an excellent counselor, psychologist, social worker as you are a good listener and can view others problems with empathy, clarity and a balanced analysis, seeing both sides while showing respect and caring.
• The ability to put yourself in the shoes of others is one of your true talents, but you need to be careful you don’t become so involved in others lives that you become a martyr.
• You have to be careful not to become complacent and self-righteous, forgetting about your own dreams and goals.
• Greens are generally frank, community-minded people, fairly sociable but preferring peace at any price. You can be too self-effacing, modest and patient, and run the risk of being exploited by others. You may appear to be innocent and naïve but you are actually quite streetwise and astute – you read others well, but often keep it to yourself.
• A negative side to the green personality is a tendency towards envy and jealousy.

The Deepest Need of a Personality Color Green

Your deepest need is to belong, to love and be loved, and to feel safe and secure. You need acceptance and acknowledgement for the everyday things you do for others – just a ‘thank you’ is sufficient.
Source: http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/personality-color-green.html

Those who know me well . . . how does this describe my personality?

Me . . . The budding Entrepreneur . . .

If you are one of my regular followers you will know that I am working on a plan to start working from home in 2016. If you are new to this blog – WELCOME! Hope you will enjoy the journey with me.

My plan as a budding entrepreneur is to have multiple sources of income so I have a constant flow of income throughout the month and I’m not relying on income coming from one source. The reason for my decision is that I’ve become tired (and bored) of building someone else’s empire. I want to wake up each morning knowing that I am going to thoroughly love what I do for the day, however, Rome was not built in a day and I need loads of patience, faith and hope in order to realise my dream.

This journey requires me to have mental stamina because entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint and in order to keep going, I need to have mental strength. I’m learning that success begins with ME. It’s an inside job and it’s something I have to do on purpose, day in and day out.

I’m learning that when you’re trying to achieve something you’ve never achieved before it often brings up lots of fear, and with fear comes excuses . . .

“I don’t have the time, the money, the knowledge, I’m not ready yet, etc, etc.”

I have to condition myself daily to overcome the fear, to tell the excuses to go away and to allow myself to step up and be the person I need to be in order to make it happen. When the challenges arise, when things go wrong, when everything feels like it’s taking forever, I have to have the right mind-set to be able to deal with it and keep moving forward. This will be my biggest asset in life because with the right attitude I will eventually manifest a life I love.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is how the saying goes. This means that I need to make friends with like-minded people, who get me and who will want to help me along my journey. This takes time – lots of time. I need to have people by my side who I can turn to to talk about my experiences and challenges and who will help me get perspective on things and give me advice, people who will be there to celebrate my “wins” with me. This will make a huge difference.

Entrepreneurship can be so lonely, if you let it be . . . I’m planning for it not to be.

There are so many people out there who are just like me, and when I find those people and connect with them it will help inspire, motivate and support me. I’m spending a huge chunk of my time starting to get better connected by reaching out to people who I can resonate with. I’m sending e-mails, joining Facebook groups, going to networking events (when time permits) and attending conferences, seminars and workshops. I’m trying to hang out where other like-minded people hang out to start building friendships.

I need to be consistent and focussed: This is something I learned very early in life when I learned to play the organ (keyboard) and piano as a child. I was reminded of this again not too long ago when I learned Sign Language as my third language and I am currently being reminded of the need to be consistent and focused on my Voice Coaching lessons (thanks to my wonderful Voice Coach, Barbara).

Sadly, I’m not as good at playing my instruments as I could have or should have been because “work” and “life” got in the way and I was not able to put in the required number of hours of consistent practice. My exposure to Deaf people is limited to a small group who come to our church on Sundays so I’m struggling to practice and improve my vocabulary. The Voice Coaching is meant to be used as another source of income so I’m planning to be more consistent and focused and to keep at it (thanks to my wonderful Coach, Barbara).

What all of this has taught me is that if you want to be great at something, you have to practice being great at it consistently and you have to stay focussed on it.

Setting up a new business is exactly the same, if you want to be great, you have to practice being great every day . . . even when you have nobody visiting your website, nobody phoning to ask you for a quote, nobody phoning to hire you – even when you feel like you keep doing things wrong.

I’ve learned that hopping from one idea/strategy to the next leads to inconsistency. You start doing something and before long, you’ve moved on to something else . . . never really allowing yourself the opportunity to be really great at what you do. Instead of doing a million things all at once, I need to focus on being consistent at one thing (or a few). Once I am great at it, I need to keep up the practice and then move on.

While planning my business, I need to keep it simple: I’m learning fast that starting a business can become overwhelming and chaotic because there is just so much that needs to be done. I’m spending so much time doing e-learning (teaching myself new skills via the internet, looking at websites and watching videos on YouTube to see how other like-minded people are working), it’s exhausting! I find the only way I can stay focussed is to work with a To Do List. I’m totally lost without my To Do List. When I know what I need to do and by when, I don’t feel so overwhelmed. When I am intentional about what I want to achieve for the day, keep things simple and plan my day I feel so much happier and make lots more progress. I am also able to prioritise the things that are REALLY important and meaningful to me.

One of the most important things on my To Do List and scheduled into my diary is “ME TIME” which is not negotiable. Something new I’ve just learned is that when setting up a business, one should also schedule time for monthly reflection and planning time and weekly business development time.

Something new which I am trying to teach myself is to allow myself to receive and enjoy what I want and to allow myself to enjoy where I am at right now. I don’t know about you, but I have a habit of saying “when I achieve X I’ll be able to enjoy things more”, or I end up feeling guilty for allowing myself to do things that are important to me, like taking time off to just go for a drive, spend time with family or friends, work out at the gym or even just to sit and read a book.

We tend to put off doing the little (and big) things which would actually create more happiness in our lives. When you improve the quality of your life (and make time to do the things you want to do), you also improve your business (or work if you are employed somewhere), because when you’re at your best, your business (or work) will thrive (Rachael Cook).

I’m on a journey to open myself up to receiving the abundance I want, to being happy right now to enjoy the journey I am on right now. It’s a conscious decision I have to make to feel these things and to welcome these things into my life with open arms.

Life’s a journey – enjoy the ride!

Life’s a journey – not a destination!

I am a Sensitive Child

Attachment and Resilience

I am a sensitive child.

There are many children like me.

We find this world a challenging place to live in.

We get tired. We get upset. We feel overwhelmed.

What you think is a little thing is a big problem for us.

Noise often bothers us. Our clothing too. Even the food we are expected to eat.

We are particularly sensitive of the feelings of others.

We can see in your face, in your eyes, that we bother you.

We sometimes doubt whether people care about us, understand us, love us.

We try hard to keep our feelings under control, but we find this very difficult when we are with the people who we expect to love us, understand us, accept us.

In this world where we so often feel overwhelmed and out-of-control we crave order.

We often insist upon this, such as when we demand that our parents…

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