It was a very inspirational talk at the January 18 meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC). Ronald Cartey, Strategy Consultant, provided advice on “How to increase the meaningfulness (and satisfaction) of the rest of your life.”
Ron is a UK born entrepreneur who specializes in management and corporate development with a proven history of managing large international companies for the past 30 years in Africa, Australia, Asia, and the UK. He is internationally recognized as a world class coach and trainer. He is also a published author and has lectured in Universities, Colleges, and Corporations on how to transform and enhance existing skills, mental attitudes, and mindsets at all levels, to improve performance, productivity, and everyday results.
Ron recommended 12 positive habits that can increase the meaningfulness of one’s life. In doing so, he said he would provide examples from his own life and share these habits from lessons learned. Some of these habit and the lessons learned are highlighted in this article, but to get benefit of Ron’s talk, you should view it on the PCEC’s You Tube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRNJ5kpO4AU.
He began by saying you should begin each morning with a smile and self-esteem, which often begins the night before as you contemplate your day. This is important because how we start the day determines the outcome of the day and it needs constant reinforcement. A common theme of his talk was the need to be positive not negative because your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change for the better.
Your most valuable asset is the power of choice. Mix with likeminded people, do not allow negative people to turn you into one of them; don’t listen to people who tell you “you cannot.” As examples, he wanted to engage in public speaking and didn’t listen to the naysayers who told him he couldn’t do it. However, he did and he succeeded. Likewise, he wanted to write a book, but again the naysayers said he couldn’t. He didn’t listen to them, wrote his book about inspirational training which became a successful publication entitled “High Impact Leadership.”
Another habit to be developed is one of constant self-improvement. Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day. Ron noted if you don’t improve yourself constantly, you will either become stagnant or backward. You should also adopt the don’t worry habit. Eliminate the problems if you can, but don’t worry about them as in most cases there was no need for concern as the problem never happens. In this regard, Ron provided a quote from Erma Bombeck, “Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do, but it never gets you anywhere.”
He also mentioned one should have a goal setting habit as goals provide purpose. Also the need to stay physically fit and mentally alert, what you don’t use, you lose. His twelfth positive habit was to have a “win” philosophy of positive expectancy, don’t limit your challenges. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. He suggested that you should do one thing every day that scares you as it is better to have the pain of trying than the pain of regret.
Ron concluded with what he termed as a bonus, the fun habit. You should enjoy yourself, love what you do. Life is too short to worry about what others say or think about you. So just enjoy life, have fun, and give them something to talk about.
MC Ren Lexander than mentioned some upcoming events before calling on George Wilson to conduct the Open Forum portion of the meeting where the audience comment and ask questions about Expat living in Thailand. To learn more about the PCEC, visit their website at: https://pcec.club.
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