Three Ways To Turn A Good Mood Into A Great Mood

A good mood is one of the simple pleasures of life, and a great mood is even better. A good mood can happen for any number of reasons, and sometimes for no good reason at all.

The bad news is that a good mood can disappear as quickly as it comes, and you won't always know why it slips away. The good news is that, with a tiny bit of effort, you can make a good mood last longer. You can even turn it into a great mood! When you get lucky enough to have a good mood, here are three techniques that will help you keep the buzz going and turn it into a great mood.

Add An Extra Blast Of Happiness
Doing something you enjoy while you're already in a good mood can skyrocket it into a great mood. The next time you've got a few moments to spare, try jotting down a few fun things that you can do for free at any time of day, no matter where you are. These can be something simple like "think about a favorite birthday present," or even "jump for joy." The next time you're in a good mood, do one thing from this list. The added blast of fun will put you in a great mood!

Make It A Memory
The next time you're in a good mood, try recording it for posterity. Take a photo, or jot down a few lines about how you're feeling. If you've got the time, you could even make a quick vocal or video recording to capture the moment. This will help you keep a memory of your good mood so that you'll always remember feeling awesome. Immortalizing your good mood will help your feelings linger, because the process of making a memory is always fun. Plus, the sense of accomplishment you'll get when you look at what you've made will help catapult you into a truly great mood.


Share With Others
One of the best ways to boost yourself into a great mood is by helping make another person's day better. When you're in a naturally good mood already, try sharing the happiness by giving someone a compliment, doing someone a favor, or just flashing them a big, genuine smile. They'll get a boost of warmth, and you'll find yourself in an even better mood than you were before.

There are lots of ways to turn a good mood into a great mood. Once you've got the hang of these techniques, I'm sure you'll come up with plenty of your own!

Open One New Door Every Day

Open one new door every day, and you'll be amazed at how quickly your opportunities grow. Diversification is the key to everything from a successful investment portfolio to a successful team of co-workers, but too few of us apply this simple idea to our working lives, or to our search for fun. When was the last time you opened a new door to money, or to happiness?

Think about what could you accomplish if you learned to open one new door every day. You could change your life radically for the better, but the path to success would be so gentle that you wouldn't even have to set aside any extra time, or setting any big plans in motion. One of the most difficult things about finding ways to make more money or have more fun is that it isn't always feasible to try to achieve success in new goals on top of everything that you already have to do. Chances are, you have to do a lot. If you open one new door every day, you won't have to struggle under more pressure, and you won't have to deal with a whole crop of new tasks that are laying the foundation for your future success. Instead, you'll just try one thing each day to make your life a little better. That's a schedule anyone can keep.

The concept is basic. The more different kinds of revenue possibilities you're pursuing, the greater the chance is that one of them will catch fire and start making you the kind of income that you want. The more different ways you're trying to have fun, the greater the chance is that you'll find a new source of joy or passion in your life. The implementation is as basic as the concept: just open one new door every day.

How do you open one new door every day? There are lots of ways to do it. Here are a few examples of how you can open a new door right now:

Open A New Door To Income:

*Hit an online job board and bookmark three jobs that are better than the work you have now.

*Sit in on a meeting in another department at work, and see if there's anything you can do to make yourself valuable to that department as well as your own.

*Drop an email or make a quick call to a past client who you enjoyed working with, let them know that the experience was positive for you, and ask them what projects are on their horizon. There just might be a place in that plan for you, especially now that your name is in the air.

Open A New Door To Fun:

*Go see a movie that you've never heard of, and know nothing about.

*Get back in touch with a friend who you haven't seen in a few months. Make plans to get together for a cup of tea, or go for an early evening walk.

*Do a google search for your childhood nickname, and see where it takes you.

See how easy it is to open a new door? Now, take a moment and visualize all of the doors that you could open for yourself. Imagine how many great opportunities might come from those simple actions. Promise yourself you'll take the time to open one new door every day.

It won't take very long, it probably won't cost you a dime, and it just might make you a fortune, or give you the chance to discover a new source of deep satisfaction. Why not open one new door right now?

Five Ways To Beat A Bad Mood

A bad mood squelches any possibility of having fun, and often gets in the way of making more money. After all, you're not going to be savoring the moment if you'd rather be home in bed with the covers over your face. As for making more money, you're sure as heck not going to be succesful on the phone practicing your latest "sell, sell, sell" strategy, at a cafe brainstorming your next venture, or in a meeting strengthening your client relationships if you'd rather be. . . well, at home in bed with the covers over your face.

It sounds obvious to say that bad moods are bad for you, but all too often we get stuck in a funk and forget to get ourselves out of it. Without a set strategy to help us out of the swamp, it's easy to get trapped in a bad mood for hours, or even days. That's a real waste, especially since with the right tools you can fight your way out of a bad mood pretty quickly.

Here are five ways to get rid of a terrible mood fast so that you're free to enjoy your day.

1. Wash yourself.
When you feel like you look good, you're more likely to feel good. No matter whether you're a librarian or a metro guy or a lumberjack or a prom queen, you're probably at least a little bit vain. That's bad news for your moral character, but it's great news if you're in a bad mood, because it means that taking a shower and putting on a nice pair of slacks will probably soothe your angst.

2. Distract yourself.
Turn on a favorite movie, album, tv show. Open a favorite magazine. Get a friend to tell you really terrible jokes. Jump up and down a hundred times. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you shake it up: if you can focus on the task at hand, you'll forget all about your bad mood.

3. Eat something.
Now, I'm not advocating grabbing three dozen donuts to drown your sorrows in, but I am advocating keeping your blood sugar steady. Often, a bad mood is the result of a blood sugar crash from going too long without food. Have a piece of whole wheat toast, and you may discover that the demons torturing you were just plain old hunger. Don't be embarassed if this turns out to be the case: a lot of grownups are surprisingly un-adept at knowing when to break for snacktime.

4. Research more fixes.
Finding new and better ways to trick yourself out of the gloom is a positive, decisive action that can in and of itself help you start to feel better. If you feel warm towards my writing, or too lazy to find something better, you could start your quest with this article of mine, which features some very Fast Fixes For A Bad Mood

5. Pass the buck.
When all else fails, blame someone who is far, far away and can't defend themselves. If you can convince yourself that you're not to blame for feeling bad, it will be easier to cheer up. Once you're in a better mood, you can forgive your "villain."

By the time you've worked through one or two of the ideas in this toolkit of instant fixes, you'll be out of your bad mood and ready to have a better rest of your day.

Ten Ways To Use Monopoly Money: Almost As Good As The Real Thing

Monopoly Money isn't real money, but that doesn't mean you don't want tons of it. I know I do, especially because it's free. The best thing about playing with Monopoly Money is that if you can make it fun just by using it in a new way, you've created real, genuine value out of something that is, by definition, worth nothing. Take that, irony!

Ten Ways To Turn Monopoly Money Into Fun:

1. Prank a co-worker by packing lots and lots of rainbow faux-cash into his or her wallet. And pockets. And desk drawers. And cubicle. And office. And any items in the office refridgerator. And spouse/children.

2. Use it to tip really bad waitstaff at restaurants.

3. Wallpaper your apartment.

4. Print out a whole, whole bunch and stage a stick up where your lover steals it from you in a complicated heist. Then, have your lover show up at your door begging forgiveness. Forgive him or her, then roll around together in all the loot. This is safer than rolling around in real cash because, unlike real money, you know where Monopoly Money has been. Nowhere.

5. Play Monopoly.

6. Pretend that it's real money, and that it's only colorful because it's from Canada.

7. Use it around giftcards, gift certificates, or checks for creative giftwrapping.

8. Teach a kid how to make change, or origami cranes.

9. Write on the backs of monopoly money instead of index cards for your Hipster PDA.

10. Sneak into a friend's place and fill their bathtub with Monopoly Money. Disturb nothing else.

You get the idea.

Try A Fast Brainstorm For New Revenue Ideas

New revenue ideas are fun to come up with, and a fast brainstorm gives your brain a real workout. A brainstorm for new revenue ideas can help you discover ways to make more money, and it always gets you thinking creatively. Being adept at creative thinking gives you an extra boost towards success with any and all of the projects that are already on your plate, which is great news for anyone trying to make more money. In this article, I'll help you learn how to have your own brainstorm flurry and generate new revenue ideas faster than you ever thought you could think.

New revenue ideas come in all shapes and sizes, so don't try to force yourself towards one kind of idea or another. Just get a pen, a piece of paper, and write down all the new revenue ideas that come to mind. Here are the only rules:

Don't be afraid to think small (sell that old book on eBay), and don't be afraid to think huge (get together ten other investors and buy some property in Mexico to resell at a profit.)
Don't be afraid to be silly (win the lottery) and don't be afraid to be brilliant (imagine the ultimate web 2.0 application.)
In fact, don't be afraid to think or be anything!

The wilder your brainstorm is, the more likelihood there is that you'll hit on a truly creative concept, one that could become your next major project. When it comes to new revenue ideas, the ones that will succeed are the ones that are unique, so open your mind and let the creativity flow.

Many people don't get much out of a brainstorm because they're censoring themselves. If you find yourself judging your new revenue ideas before you get them written down, or even while you're writing, try cranking up the heat. Capture five new revenue ideas in five minutes, or even try for ten. If you're writing as quickly as you can think, you'll have no time to censor your ideas, and you just might free up a great concept for a new business, or an exciting career move. Even if none of your new revenue ideas turn out to be seaworthy, your fast brainstorm was still time well spent: when you're done, you'll have stretched and strengthened your creativity. The more comfortable you are being creative, the more successful you'll be at problem solving, and at seeing new opportunities to make money down the line.

Have More Fun In Your First Ten Minutes

The first ten minutes of the day can feel sluggish, slow, or, depending on the activities of the previous evening, even a little bit painful. If you wince through your morning, you're not just missing the chance to feel decent-- you're missing the chance to feel great. With just a tiny bit of effort, you can use the first ten minutes of the day to have more fun. If you plan a fun treat for the first ten minutes you'll be awake, you'll suddenly feel much more inclined to jump out of bed and get started on your day.

I myself am a confirmed night owl, and refuse to reform my ways and head to bed at a "reasonable" hour. But that doesn't mean that I don't make my mornings productive, useful, and even enjoyable. The key is getting the day started right by having something fun to look forward to doing right away. If you're raring to get to the good stuff you've got planned for your first ten minutes, suddenly you won't mind the fact that you're a little drowsy, because you'll be concentrating on the treat at hand.

Here are a few examples of A.M. treats that can put a smile on your face even before your first cup of coffee has kicked in:

Watch cartoons while you eat your breakfast.
Wash up by candlelight to add some romance to your routine.
Get a book just for mornings, and read a few pages a day. The trashier the better!

These kinds of tiny pleasures can help turn the first ten minutes of your morning from a torturous ordeal into a springboard for a great day.