The Art of Life

If you want to change anything in your life, but don’t have a personal coach, and if you want to live your dream; this course and motivating book is for you. It provides you with the inspiration you need, and it guides you all the way. Everything you will read and learn about different personality profiles, how to communicate and make impact, how to make decisions, how to have more time, and how you reach your goals, has proven to work in real life. With specific tasks, effective tools and inspirational photos, this book represents something new within the genre of self-help literature. This book can change your life. It can help you master the Art of Life.

The Choice of Path...

Lina is in her early 40s. One day, during a break in a course regarding personality profiles and communication, she came to sit next to me. She is usually smiling and happy, but this day she looked like something was bothering her. “I feel that I’m not on the right path in my life. I constantly try to make the best of every situation I’m in, but the years go by and I just keep heading in the same direction without being able to do something new and more interesting.” Lina hesitated slightly before she continued, “I feel like I'm stuck, and I wish that I had made other decisions when I was younger and had so many opportunities. What can I do to change the direction of my life?” At this point, we agreed to continue the conversation at a later date when there would be ample time to better examine her previous choices, to see how those choices lead Lina to her current situation and then to discuss her wishes for the future. What Lina and I eventually talked about and what she decided to work on, are the same basic principles described in this book..

See Your Opportunities...

“I have so many ideas and thoughts about things I would like to change and things I want to do,” Randi said staring in front of her with a most thoughtful expression on her face as if she was searching for something. “And I would like to start my own business, but I am unable to make a decision.” As so often before it struck me that what each of us keeps pondering over and even struggling with, quite often applies to many other people as well. Even so, we do not even talk about these things when we might more easily find good answers and solutions through sharing knowledge and experiences. Before I could respond, Randi continued. “How can I actually make the important decisions about my life and future? I wish someone could tell me.” I hesitated for a moment considering if what I was about to present to her might be too elementary for an educated person like Randi. I decided to continue though, and let her be the one to decide if my words would be of value to her. I picked up a pen and a piece of paper and began to draw. This chapter describes to you the same simple, yet most helpful model that I presented to Randi.

Your Decisions and Positive Influence...

I met Kate and her colleagues during a training program that I conducted for her insurance company. She raised her voice at the beginning of the first day of the course, “We know there are approximately 1.1 million children in Norway, but only 45% is covered by child insurance. This means that the parents of 55% of our children have chosen not to insure their own kids!” “How do we humans really make our decisions?” Silence followed. I could see that Kate and the others were searching for a good answer. I continued, “If we could understand more of how people are actually making decisions, do you think we would be able to help more kids become insured? If we learn more about how we influence each other and how we are influenced…?” Yet again Kate took the initiative and claimed that everything we do is about influencing others to make certain decisions. They all soon agreed that learning about influence and how decisions are made, was something everyone would benefit from in private relationships, at work, in politics, in leadership, and in most of what we do in our daily life. Kate and her colleagues were indisputably right. By understanding more of the basic psychology in decision-making, we all could influence and cooperate better in all areas of life. We would also find it easier to understand and accept why others make choices and decisions that we think are unwise and odd. Have you thought about why two people in a similar situation decide completely differently; and why sometimes after you have made a decision ask yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that until now?” In this chapter you will find the answers to these questions. You will also learn more about decision-making and how to make an impact just as we did in the course for Kate and her colleagues.

Have More Time...

Anne works in a trading company with seven employees. Her job is customer service and order entry. Her personality and positive attitude make her take on a variety of additional tasks. As usual, “yes people” are the first ones to be asked to do that little something extra. On one occasion, we conducted a workshop in Anne’s company. The subject was efficiency, and the title was “Getting Things Done”. The goal was to increase profits and decrease the number of stressful working days without reducing the service level and customer satisfaction. This may seem to be an impossible combination. But is it really? “The worst thing is,” Anne said, “that I feel I am not doing a good job here at work or at home. I just don’t have enough time for all the things I think I should do, and I don’t know how I can do even more.” She sighed heavily before she continued. “I try to be as efficient as I can, yet I consistently have to add extra hours. Occasionally, I have to bring work home just to keep my head above water. I know that this does not apply only to me, but to several of you too.” She looked around, and her colleagues nodded in agreement. “I hope this workshop will give us some new ways of working. I don’t know what I can do differently and more effectively.” Time was scarce for Anne, John, and their colleagues even though they all worked as hard as they could. The rest of the workshop day was both challenging and constructive. To change personal habits and embedded practices is never easy. This chapter provides you with the good advice and effective tools that helped Anne and her colleagues. Make use of them, so you can have time enough to do what you want in work and leisure.

How to Reach Your Goals...

Most certainly, you have goals and dreams about something you want to achieve. It might be personal relating to family, home, health and love. It could be professional revolving around work, business and education, or perhaps it is about leisure activities like sports or travel. The bottom line is that we all have dreams, but that only a few succeed in making them come true. The one main question is what is needed for your dreams to come true? What is it that really separates a perpetual dream from a dream that turns into reality? The most important matters are presented in this chapter giving insight and inspiration for you to reach your goals.