If you find yourself going down the wrong path. Stop and do a u-turn

Watching a Suze Orman (finance guru) video today, I was struck by a very pertinent comment she made regarding 'if you find yourself going down the wrong path, God permits u-turns'. In other words, it's never too late to change the course of your life and set sail in the right direction - FOR YOU.

I often tell my clients that age is not a barrier to success. Often clients believe they are too old to change their life directions and to start living out their dreams. However, there are countless stories of very successful individuals who embarked on their true calling later in life.

• Suze Orman is a great example of this, deciding to change her life's course whilst working as a waitress at age 30. 
• Colonel Sanders - the creator of the KFC franchise - changed the course of his life even later in life. After years of perfecting his secret chicken recipe, it wasn't until he was 65 years of age that he began approaching potential franchisees - a move that finally led him to the successful KFC business that remains extremely popular around the world today.   
• Jack Canfield (the successful motivational speaker) was a teacher earning a very modest wage when he later decided to write the now famous Chicken Soup for the Soul series with a friend. It took them 3 years to write and almost 2 years to promote, but now Jack's books are sold in the millions all over the world.

In each of these three cases above, there was a time when the individuals decided they HAD to make a change in order to live their life's dream. They believed it was possible, they were dedicated to their cause and they persevered in the face of every adversity that came their way.With their desires firmly in mind, they pursued their goals.

In each one of these cases there was also a deep underlying passion and desire to bring happiness to others. The Colonel dreamt of people enjoying his delicious chicken recipe, Suze dreamt of helping empower people to take back control of their financial future and Jack dreamt of helping his readers find inspiration, hope and joy through his stories. These core internal drives helped to push them through adversity to finally achieve and sustain their dreams.

We are all on a life's journey. My person journey began when I was 12 years old. I can still see myself in our loungeroom thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up and deciding instinctively that I wanted to help others to feel happy. I didn't know how I was going to achieve this, but I was convinced that I was here on this earth to support and assist others. This desire has continued to motivate and inspire me every single day. It is why I love coaching, counselling and mentoring individuals and why I feel so happy and inspired after every session. I wasn't blessed with rich parents, an easy childhood, or a stable upbringing, but I was blessed with determination and drive. I observed these in my parents (particularly my mother) and I have the will to never give up. This determination and the desire to help others keeps me firmly focussed on how much I have achieved already, how much I still want to achieve and how much is still possible.

When you take time to reflect on your life, you will find (if you haven't already) your life's desire. This desire is in your grasp. Regardless of your life's circumstance, with belief, determination and perseverance, you can have, do or be anything you desire.

How to cope when people let you down

One of the difficult parts of the law of attraction and energy is the fact that we are surrounded by competing energies, desires and behaviors. Stuart Wilde - one of the all time Guru's in this area stated back in the early 1980s that even brushing past others with negative energy can (and often does) impact on your mood & hence effects your ability to attract positive things into your life.

It's no wonder then that you can find yourself attracting people into your life who regularly behave in ways that you regularly vocalize you dislike. Further, you are likely to find that when you are feeling negatively, people around you tend to let you down more often or display negative behaviors that really upset you.

In order to cope with negative people and their behaviors it's important to first ask yourself whether your moods and focused attention may be drawing these people closer towards you. If the answer is yes, then it is time to begin to rethink and reframe things in your life to reduce the likelihood of it happening.

You need to be extremely strong willed and determined not to allow the presence of other negative people to infect your life. You must be very mindful of how your energy can be altered and be diligent in your efforts to try to refocus on the positive aspects of life, rather than on the negatives. Of course this is easier said than done, but this is part of your life journey.

When it comes to those close to you hurting you, it's not as easy to refocus and let things go. It takes a bit more time. However, I believe when others hurt you it says more about how you allow others to treat you, than it says about them.

For instance:
1) if your boss is being a bully - do you simply put up with it for fear of bring fired?
2) if you're in an abusive relationship, do you stay there when you know you should leave?
3) if your friends continuously cancel on you or make little effort to attend events that are important to you, do you say little and simply squash your feelings to keep the peace?
4) if your family members are disrespectful, do you voice your confidence in yourself, of allow them to walk all over you?

Whilst the other people in the examples above are behaving negatively, you still have a choice in how you deal with their behaviors and whether or not you are going to allow such negativity to persist in your life.

Jack Canfield - another Guru of the self improvement movement suggest to try to write a list of all the people in your life & then note which ones are positive and negative. If they are all negative, it's time to get new friends!!!

Your life is of value. Don't believe you are second best, or deserve to be treated in a negative manner. Trust your convictions. Stand up for yourself & stay positive. You deserve to live a happy and successful life.

Visit www.happylife.net , or follow Liz O'Halloran on Twitter at: @lohalloran72

How to find the career that will make you happy

How do you find out what you really want to be in life and what will truly make you happy?

It's an interesting question when you think that we expect 17 year old youths to have a very concrete view of thier future life and career path. At this age, they are asked to make study, or work choices that will potentially shape the course of the rest of their lives, yet they really have such limited life experience to genuinely know if thier chosen career path will bring them life fulfilment and happiness. This is why so many adults find themselves in unfulfilling careers, feeling lost and 'stuck' in jobs that only fulfill the need to sustain a certain level of living.

There is not much we can do about the academic system, however, we can certainly try to have an influence on our children's futures by guiding them towards career paths that at least appear to be in line with their passions and interests. It is also important to advise children that often it takes time to work out what we really want to do and that we often have to take wrong turns to gain insights into careers that will not bring us the joy we perhaps envisioned at one time or another. The key message here is that it is NEVER too late to change your career path.

When I was studying psychology at LaTrobe University, one of my friends in class was a well known radio announcer who later in life decided to pursue a career in psychology which had always been a passion of hers. If you were to look at her life from outside, you would question why she would want to move out of a career which resulted in her being in the public eye, gave her a lot of validation and enough money to retire on. However, money and fame did not bring her everything she desired in a job. Whilst she enjoyed the fruits of her labour, she felt something was missing and made a decision to finally bridge this gap.

This life change is often a fantasy for most people because they pigeon hole themselves in careers that bring a certain amount of financial independence. Thus, the difficulty in changing careers later inlife is committing to doing something that will make you happy, at the expense of the lifestyle you have created for you and your partner/ family.

Whilst this is a difficult decision, it does not have to be an 'all or nothing' choice. Many clients come to see me because they are tired of working in a job that's not in line with their passions, however they do not know how to break out of their current situation. Of course the first step in the process is spending time in self discovery to truly understand what brings you joy. For instance, do you have a passion for the artistic, political, legal, or social? Which areas of these spheres do you feel you could happily talk about and engage in all day? These questions will lead you to discover your true passions.

Then, you need to decide if you require further study, coaching or experience in this field. In order to minimize the impact on your current lifestyle, it's best to try to arrange your current work around the study, experience, or coaching. The only down side to this step is feeling overwhelmed and tired. Therefore, in order to minimize this side effect, a great deal or organization, determination and commitment is required. These skills are always valuable in life, so they are an added bonus to your professional development skills.

If you are organized, committed and determined, it doesn't matter at which age you finally decide to live your professional dreams. Whilst we need to work to live, we also need to feel that we are contributing the best of ourselves to the world. There is a reason why you are talented in specific areas. Allow others to benefit from your talents. Your life is worth living the way that makes you happy, satisfied & fulfilled.