After the events in my last post, and although, thankfully, I was soon back to normal, I have been trying even harder than usual to see joy and happiness around me.

So here are just a few things that lightened my life over the last few days:

Being able to loan my horse trailer to neighbours so that they could collect their daughters first horse, then admiring the horse and the pure enjoyment of the family as they watched the horse explore her new surroundings.

The crisp mornings this week after the hot humid weather in the previous week.

Letting the horses out in the pasture on a cool wet morning and seeing them bucking and galloping around like foals.

Seeing 3 deer stand and watch me instead of running for cover.

Just 4 simple things, but so much better to think about than all the negative and depressing news in the media.

Through reading, constant studying and conscious effort, I have found a serenity in middle age that escaped me in my earlier years. Yes, I still feel driven to succeed in my business activities. I still often feel that there are just not enough hours in the day.

What I have learned is to be much more critical of what to get concerned about, to respond instead of react, to refuse to waste time on trivial irritations.

And most importantly, to take pleasure from simple things like the four examples above.

It has taken me most of my life to completely understand that only we are responsible for our thoughts and therefore our level of happiness. It’s not what we have, what we have lost, or what happens to us that dictates our state of mind, it’s who we become and how we respond to the challenges in this great journey called life that determines how we are going to enjoy the rest of the journey.

I know how I am going to enjoy mine, are you?

Are you on twitter? If you are and want some tips, you can download a free twitter success guide from my resources page.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

Way back, I remember reading a quotation “Nothing concentrates the mind like an imminent hanging – your own!

I don’t remember the source, but I had an experience last week that certainly concentrated my mind.

I have been fortunate to have led an active life, but over the years, bumps and bangs from falling off horses, getting knocked over by cattle, playing rugby at school and many other adventures have taken their toll.

For some years I have had an irritating problem in my neck that causes pains to travel down my neck and into my shoulder. When it first happened, it was irritating more than alarming and a visit to a chiropractor soon fixed it. A few recurrences have been handled the same way.

Last Thursday, it started again, but with more severe pains which spread to my head, both arms and then my chest. When the chest pains became more severe still, I started recalling all the symptoms of a heart attack and then had to face the thought that maybe this was the big one.

Fortunately a visit to our local hospital emergency room, an ECG, x-rays and other tests all indicated that my heart was good and it was the old neck problem aggravated by a minor problem in my back which I had done nothing about.

Another visit to the chiropractor and I was feeling much better.

Despite the frequent criticism of our Canadian Health System, I have nothing but compliments for the staff at Woodstock General Hospital, they treated me very well, and I was re-assured that when something serious may be wrong, the system works well. It’s nice to know.

Unable to sleep in the early hours of Friday morning and then lying in the hospital waiting for the test results, I had many hours to confront my own mortality and think about how easily and quickly our lives can end. I was also reminded that I have already outlived many other members of the baby boomer generation. A sobering thought.

It made me realise how important it is to use our time in this life effectively, it’s no good thinking “if only I had done this or that”. We must live every day and every hour as if it’s our last. I don’t mean taking irresponsible chances.

So what are you going to do today that you would do if it was to be your last day?

Tell someone how much you appreciate them.

Remember to thank some one for a kindness?

Start learning a new skill?

Start that business you have been thinking about?

Write your book that you have been dreaming about for years?

Just do something special today.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.

Welcome to the new look, I hope you like it.

For an old farmer from the baby boomer generation, this has been an exercise in perseverance.

Not being satisfied with the standard Wordpress theme, about two weeks ago I decided to install a new theme. It seemed to be a simple process – until I started!

I had previously downloaded a new theme but could not get it to install (I had missed an important step) then I attended a webinar on blogging hosted by MLMLeadSystemPro.

In this webinar, Jeff Hoffman mentioned that upgrading to Wordpress version 2.8 made the installation of a new theme much easier.

So I attempted to upgrade and got the message that I should back up this blog before proceeding, not that difficult, but I did need help from my hosting service.

Having got that out of the way, I embarked on what I thought would be the simple installation of the new theme. I thought that I had got it right but kept hitting a snag. After spending several hours and reviewing many entries in the Wordpress help forum, I again resorted to asking for help from my hosting service.

Last night, in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, during which the power went out and my computer shut down several times, I spent an hour on the phone with Tim from Go Daddy who very patiently found the problem.

I am not sufficiently familiar with the intricacies of computer operating systems to explain the problem, but Tim made a few changes and like magic, today I was able to install the new theme.

The important lessons for me were: Don’t give up no matter how daunting the task seems, and recognise when you need to get help from an expert.

My eternal thanks to Tim from Go Daddy, if you need to get a domain name, set up a website or blog, I have had excellent service from all the people at Go Daddy.

Wishing you success in all your endeavours.