Articles + Blog

This page is divided into two somewhat lengthy sections: Articles, then Blog. You can use the search function (the magnifying glass icon at right in the nav bar) to search for articles and blog posts on specific topics of your own interest.

Articles:

I welcome you to use these articles individually and/or reprint them in your own publication. Feel free to edit the articles to best fit the needs of your readers, but be sure to follow these guidelines for reprinting procedures:

  1. When you download the article, please email [email protected] with your intent to use.
  2. Include Jim's bio just as it appears at the end of each article.
  3. Send Jim one copy of the e-zine or item it is published in.

Everyday Happiness

Strategies for Personal Change Series

Leadership and Workplace

Happiness Principles

Annual Planning Kits


Blog posts:

Don't Watch TV! (well, maybe a little…)

Sometimes the statistics on advertising make me sad. The other day I read an article that reminded me that the average kid, by the time they enter school, will have already viewed 30,000 commercials. A typical working adult who listens to the radio as they commute by car on a freeway and who watches a hour of television daily can …

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Read more articles like this one in: About Happiness, Happiness

Happiness is in the air

It was a spectacular Labor Day weekend here in Cleveland.  The temperatures were moderate, the sky was clear and blue, and the sun shone on us for three straight days.  Thus, everywhere I drove it was with the windows down and the music upbeat.  What a wonderful long weekend to say goodbye to the summer of 2008! I had to …

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Read more articles like this one in: Happiness, Pleasure

Happiness is a hot shower

Yesterday I went to the gym feeling particularly well-rested.  So while I was on the treadmill, I threw in some sprints — one-minute bursts at 8 or 9 miles per hour.  Oooh, that felt great.  Then I went to the weight bench, and instead of working with 10 and 20 pound dumbells, my usual range, I went with 15 and …

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Read more articles like this one in: Happiness, Pleasure

Happiness and The Joker

Well, it’s official — THE blockbuster movie of Summer 2008 is The Dark Knight, the new Batman installment starring Heath Ledger as the nihilistic bad guy, the Joker. I finally went to see it on Friday evening. I don’t evaluate movies based on their Academy Award potential. My standards are: did I have a good time?, and will I recommend …

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Read more articles like this one in: About Happiness

You can manage your stress

While researching stress management I came across a lovely little online, self-study course on stress. The class consists of ~20 short lessons linked sequentially. Some of the topics are: What is stress?, good and bad stress, tools for relieving stress, and long-term stress strategies. You’ll find the course at http://www.mtstcil.org/skills/stress-intro.html. It appears to have been written by a West Virginia-based …

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Read more articles like this one in: Practicing Happiness

Sometimes you just have to make the decision to be happy

In my year-long quest to see all of the movies nominated for Oscars from last year, I finally picked up Away From Her, with Julie Christie in an absolutely brilliant performance as a woman literally melting away from her life as the linkages in her brain come apart — while her husband, Grant, struggles with the fact that the woman …

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Read more articles like this one in: Happiness

Who am I to be happy?

Truly, have you ever asked yourself that question?
This modest blog will seek to provide answers to that question, several times each week. I’m a Professional Certified Coach with a grounding in positive psychology, emotional competency, and working with the body. I believe that what happens for us in our life comes from a combination of what we think, how we manage our emotions, and how we hold ourselves in the world.
Have you ever heard the concept: “my thoughts create my feelings, and my feelings create me behavior, and my behavior determines by outcomes?” Well, I hold it to be true. Something happens, and I interpret that event (maybe tell myself a story about it). The event is just neutral… but my story puts all sorts of meaning to what happened (ooh, he was out to embarrass me. She did that on purpose. I knew it, they’re all out to get me. I doesn’t matter what I do, I’m always screwing up.)
My “story” gets me all emotional, and from that emotional space, i take action. Not always the best action, but hey, emotions aren’t rational!
What I do is teach people practices that can help them INTENTIONALLY shift their response to stories and emotions, so that they get the results they WANT instead of the results that don’t work for them.
Stay tuned. This is just my introduction!
In happiness, Jim Smith, The Executive Happiness Coach®

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Read more articles like this one in: About Happiness