Do you know your values?

If you don't know what your values are, then you won't know how to behave when tricky decisions need to be made.

A good example of how values inform behaviour is taken from an excerpt from an interview with Desmond Tutu of South Africa. Here he is talking about one of the defining moments in his life.

The biggest defining moment in my life was when I saw Trevor Huddleston (the former president of the anti-apartheid movement), and I was maybe nine or so. My mother at this time was working as a cook in a school for black, blind people. And she was cooking for the women in this institution, and I was standing with my mother on the veranda when a white man went past wearing a long black cassock - he was a priest - and as he strut past, he did something that I found striking. He doffed his hat to my mother. And I, I was just surprised that a white man should do that to a woman, black woman, who was a simple domestic worker.

It's the little things that matter.  Every thing we do makes a difference.

The seemingly small human act of recognition - the doffing of a hat - made a difference. It became a defining moment for a boy who later became a powerful activist in the struggle against apartheid. 

Trevor Huddleston had values. Those values showed him how to act - whatever the circumstances and whatever the prejudices that surrounded him. That's what values do - they guide behaviour. 

We all need to know what our values are if we want to avoid the pitfalls. If you want to uncover yours and make your life a little simpler when it comes to deciding what to do in difficult circumstances then click here for a bit of guidance.

It's A Wonderful Life! Want a Quick Fix to Feeling Happy?

Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology* tested the hypothesis that thinking about the absence of a positive event from one's life would improve feelings of happiness more than thinking about the presence of a positive event.

What they found was that respondents who wrote about how they might never have met their romantic partner were more satisfied with their relationship than were those who wrote about how they did meet their partner.

So whenever you want a quick fix then just think how you'd feel if you didn't have the things you do have. See? Simple.

Gratitude - always a powerful happy pill - turned up side down and it still works. For more information and ways to develop the Habit of gratitude, read Step 12, "Smell the Roses" of The Real Secret

* "It's a Wonderful Life: Mentally subtracting positive events improves people's affective states, contrary to their affective forecasts" Minkyung Kooet et al (2008) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(5)

Changing the structure of the NHS will not improve patient care

If you're at all confused about the changes to the NHS being proposed by the government, then read on. 

David Cameron was warned by MPs yesterday that his proposed health service changes would be like ‘tossing a grenade’ under the NHS. The all-party Health Select Committee is uneasy about abolishing the existing Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts and handing responsibility for commissioning to GPs.

I hope he listens.

Having worked in the NHS and in New Zealand’s health sector for over 20 years, rearranging structures does not improve health service efficiency. Importantly it does nothing for the quality of care received by patients. This proposal is damaging because: 

• The 10 SHAs and 151 PCTs which are accountable to the communities they serve are to be replaced by 500 consortiums of GPs. GP practices are businesses. They are not employees of the NHS. They are contracted to the NHS. This is a subtle but important distinction. Who will measure their accountability? A new independent Board. I am interested to understand how? In my time as Chairman of a PCT, it was notoriously difficult to persuade GP practices to give us accurate information about anything and certainly not their finances. They are private businesses.

• When structures are rearranged for a monolith like the NHS, it takes additional ‘hump’ funding to disentangle the existing structure and establish the new structure. Not only is there no additional funding to support these changes, funding to the NHS is contracting in real terms rather than expanding.

• Whatever the success or otherwise of the existing structure, a level of expertise has grown amongst existing management together with positive relationships with their communities. It takes time to achieve community links. All that is to be dismantled and replaced by 500 organisations of GPs, a group of experts who inevitably ‘know what’s best for the patient’. How and when will the community be involved in the commissioning process? The treasure chest of community and patient knowledge sitting in PCTs will either walk out the door or there will be a scramble to grab whatever jobs are going in the management groups that will run the consortiums. It’s a nonsense to say that you can run the NHS without a degree of overall management.

Cameron’s proposals have surprised members of his own party, as well as members of the opposition. In a time of economic recession, this will be a foolhardy move. He is asking people to tighten belts, hunker down for an austerity year. The last thing we need is an unsure NHS run by myopic GPs.

This post was written by Penny Young

Sue Blake's Media Relations Online Book club - The Real Secret is in!

Would you like a FREE copy of The Real Secret? All you have to do to get one is write an intelligent, 300 word review and post it online.

Sue Blake Media specialise in promoting great books and the authors behind them. They represent a wide range of books covering business, entrepreneurship, careers, professional development, health, fitness, lifestyle and mind body spirit and have helped many titles to become best sellers in their field.

They also run the Sue Blake's Media Relations Online Book Club, which gives YOU the opportunity to receive a complimentary book of your choice from their list (they add to this list on a regular basis, so keep watching) in exchange for your independent 300 word review of the title.

The Real Secret is the latest title to be added to the book club, which we're delighted about. All you need to do is contact them, receive your free copy and post your review on the SBMR Online Book Club within 4 weeks of receiving the book. Of course, Amazon reviews are the holy grail of reviews and we would be very pleased if you could post a review there too.
If you would like to review The Real Secret, or any of their other titles, then please contact sue@sueblake.com or have a look at the website

They're also on Twitter. Follow them for all the latest Book Club news, discussions and conversation http://twitter.com/SBMRBookClub and The Sue Blake Media Online Book Club is also within www.linkedin.com.

How Much Do You Understand Yourself?

Psychologists have long known about the effect that our immediate surroundings can have on our mood. Norbert Schwarz showed how dull weather could make your whole life look bad. On a sunny day it just looks so much better. What he also showed was that once you become aware of the effect it vanishes!

Being aware of the surrounding influences on one's mood then, is important because the effect can be really strong. And it's not just the weather that can affect how you feel - feeling hungry because you skipped breakfast, or didn't have time to have lunch, can make you feel downright irritable as well as mournful. Even colour can have a noticeable affect on mood, altering it from upbeat to downbeat in a fairly short time.

There is a small problem however - whilst Professor Schwarz did show that being aware of the effect would diminish it's influence on our mood - we just seem to keep forgetting . Instead we tend to dismiss this influence and blame our moods either on ourselves or on others.

So when you're feeling down, look around you and think of all the influences that may be affecting your mood. Did you skip breakfast? What's the weather doing? Just can't stand that wallpaper!

Why not join us on Facebook

Annabel

Why Are Some People Happy?

Have you ever wondered why people who are already contented and confident seem to get all the best breaks, have the most satisfying relationships, seem to enjoy more fun and exciting lives? It seems so unfair when they’re not necessarily better at their jobs, nicer people or more deserving than you. Yet they get what they want out of life, achieve their goals and feel at ease with themselves in a way that often manages to escape you.

We often make the mistake of thinking that people are happy because they've achieved their goals, have more money or a loving partner, but the likelihood is that they’re not happy and fulfilled because they have all those things. Long term research has shown that it’s entirely the other way round: happy people have better relationships, more successful careers, earn more money, maintain closer links with friends and family and savour life more. So the best way to join the ranks of the successful and satisfied is simply to get happy.

Some people are born with a higher happiness "set point" than others, but we can all improve on the hand we were born with and the cards life has dealt us so far. Some of us have to deal with more knock backs and difficulties than others, but these are not an obstacle to leading a happy life – indeed, they can actually help us achieve it. So if you are feeling a little defeated at the moment, take heart; we’re here to help.

You can start the process by simply choosing to be happier. Once you've made that decision, you need to get into the habit of acting out and believing in your own improved happiness.

One simple way is just to smile more - yes, really!

Just as happiness leads to success rather than vice versa, smiling can be used to create pleasure and not just express it. The physical act of smiling stimulates the pleasure centres in your brain, increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins and reduces the level of stress hormones – so get more pleasure out of life by smiling more often. The act of smiling also slightly cools the face and brain, which is associated with positive mood, while frowning warms them and activates changes that can make you feel sad and grumpy. Smile when you’re happy, but smile especially, perhaps, when you’re feeling down.

For more Habits of Happiness, which really will make you feel more positive and satisfied, read the first chapter of The Real Secret where we'll show you how!

Bags of Money

January 2011 is considered by many to be auspicious. This is because in this January there are 5 Mondays, 5 Saturdays,and 5 Sundays. This only happens every 823 years. In France it's called 'sacs d'argent' because apparently it's the month when bags of money can be earned!

Just thought you'd want to know that.

Annabel