It’s a fact that most people just do not know how powerful their own minds are. They simply don’t realise it’s a major determining factor in their success. Indeed, in any field of human achievement.

Many people fail simply because their minds were never in the right place to begin with. The right mindset must be developed, focused and honed to perfection. Success and achievement will then become more than just a dream. Here then are 5 important success traits you really should develop.

• No fear of failure

• A Solid Determination

• A Sound Knowledge Base

• Investing in Yourself

• Relaxed in the Face of Adversity

If you are able to stay relaxed despite your challenges. Cultivating and focusing your mindset will enable you to become more successful.

Listed above are just a few of the traits that successful people have. This is all about the way you think, the way you use your mind. It’s a mindset you must cultivate and indeed can. Never doubt that. You can certainly have these traits and many more as well. Exercise patience and incorporate these traits into your daily life and you will be able to succeed in any aspect of life.

Here’s a post where I don’t have to write anything. Except perhaps to say, Hmm, could I make something similar to express my ‘Life-Philosophy’? Enjoy the video, and my thanks to Brian Ridgway.

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David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 16 mars 2012.
Home Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
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Sorry I just couldn’t resist blogging about this story which I saw earlier today. I’m tempted to say yet again, “Only in Sweden” but I suppose that wouldn’t be fair. It could probably happen anywhere. Well, a lot of places anyway. Couldn’t it?

The story then. After complaints from his neighbours a middle-aged resident of Gothenburg, Sweden, is to be evicted by order of the Swedish Court of Appeal. Why? The loudness and ever-recurring laughter which is keeping his neighbours awake at night.

OK he has fallen out with his landlord as well because he keeps feeding birds from his balcony (a serious and heinous crime of unspeakable wickedness) despite the landlord’s repeated requests to stop.

Anyway it seems it’s the man’s loud laughter that is the primary reason for the eviction as the Swedish Court of Appeal stated that other tenants in the building shouldn’t have to put-up with the man’s recurrent bouts of loud laughter.

What does he find so funny? It’s a series of classic Swedish comedy movies made in the 1930s and 40s known as ‘pilsnerfilmer’ (Pilsner Films). Yes, there is a link with alcohol. The term “pilsnerfilm” is derogatory and can be traced to the prevailing alcohol restriction of that time period. However, it seems the films are just too much for our soon to be evicted Gothenburg resident.

The man finds the booze-films and other comedies so hilarious that he can’t stop himself from laughing out loud. To make matters worse the man has made a habit of watching these films late at night. The resulting barrage of hearty belly laughs are just too much for his neighbours. They can’t sleep.

The neighbours filed complaints with the municipal property management company who receiving no cooperation from their laughter stricken tenant finally took the case to the local rental tribunal. And lost!

Initially the rental tribunal found in favour of the humour-filled tenant but the municipal housing company were not amused. They took the case before the Court of Appeal for western Sweden and this time the ruling was in their favour. The court decided the municipal housing company was within its rights to evict the man from his flat and so issued a ruling that the man must move out immediately.

There must be a moral in this story somewhere.

Original Swedish report here: http://bit.ly/oXcMXv

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David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 16 september 2011.
Home Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
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“Happiness is like a cat, If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you’ll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.” - William Bennett.

With this post I wanted to explain why I decided to call our new blog the Happiness Blog.

I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog for the Web site for quite some time but I didn’t really know how to blend it into our interests and thus of course a name or a title wasn’t even a fledgling. Needless to say the idea was going nowhere.

Then one day I was on Facebook and a friend’s link sent me off to read an article in a British newspaper. It was called, ‘Let the happiness in’ and although not particularly brilliant it caught my interest. It reported on the launch of something called, ‘Action for Happiness’ which it described as a new mass movement for social change.

I found the article pleasantly upbeat, positive and inspiring. (That’s more than what most of those who left comments did. It seemed as if only miserable people had read the article and were unanimous in their conviction to remain miserable at all costs. I do wonder about people sometimes.) Anyway I reported back to my Facebook friend I had enjoyed the article and perhaps I would start to blog about this action for happiness idea. Then I forgot about it.

Only I didn’t. It stayed there in the back of my mind and slowly I began to realise that this action for happiness idea was indeed linked to everything that Katarina and I had become committed to. Basically we were saying a better world through better people. The purpose of this was to create what we referred to as a SALDI. That’s just an acronym for, ‘Superior Abundant Lifestyle Designed and Implemented’. Our SALDI was just another way of saying we desired to deliberately create more happiness in our lives and that of others. Action to enhance the happiness factor is most certainly part of the process of creating a superior abundant lifestyle. It’s a perfect fit! Suddenly the Web site blog had a theme and a name. Our Happiness Blog was born.

Calling the blog the Happiness Blog also reminds me to keep my own writings positive and cheerful. It seems that all the news delivered to us via the media is about death, destruction, corruption and rioting. It paints a really dismal picture for humanity and it’s future. I absolutely refuse to moan, groan and get into the blame culture. No way! The title Happiness Blog helps me to stay focused.

Finally the very idea that we may actually be able to do things with deliberate intent to increase our happiness factor is I believe an exciting concept. We will be looking at this aspect in much more depth in future posts.

What William Bennett said about the cat at the beginning of this post may very well have some truth in it but surely if we are aware of that, we can then make plans as to how we can ignore the cat knowing full well it will soon be brushing up against our legs.

In this post I have explained that it was a random event (clicking on a friend’s Facebook link) that provided the answer I sought as to what to call our Web site’s new blog. Perhaps also the foundations for future discussions and exploration of the happiness topic have been laid. Truly a fascinating subject. I do intend to delve deeper.

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David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 08 juli 2011.
Home Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
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Yesterday was 10 years to the day that we left England and came to live here in Sweden. It being something of a special day for us I have posted this article on both our blogs which is something I don’t usually do.

I didn’t get time to do the post on this blog yesterday so I’m actually 1 day out of step. It doesn’t make any difference to the narrative but it did require a slight change to the title. Yesterday’s post can be seen over at http://dasanka.posterous.com/ - “David’s Blog”.

Departure

Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was 04:00 a.m. Wednesday 13th June 2001.

The hire-car driver was early. We were ready anyway. It’s just that we knew we would be down in Manchester too early.

Still, it felt good to be under way. We had been occupying our two empty house for nearly a week now with absolutely nothing but our four cats and a couple of old beds lent to us by friends so we at least had something to sleep on.

The removal men (Swedish guys) had arrived a week earlier and emptied the houses of all our possessions both furniture and personal items. All our “stuff” was (hopefully) somewhere in Sweden by now and we wanted to be reunited with it as soon as possible.

Leaving my home town was no wrench. I couldn’t wait to get away. I think Katarina had more regrets than me but she was at least going home or at least returning to her native country if not her actual home town.

We both felt so discouraged with England. There had been riots in the nearby streets over the last months and everything seemed to be deteriorating. We didn’t feel safe anymore and the future looked bleak. Even though we both had good paying employment it was unsatisfying and we just felt we were going nowhere. We felt we were being driven away from the country whilst at the same time our love and passion for the Scandinavian lifestyle was forever pulling us in that direction.

With Katarina having family in Sweden and me having lost connection with mine in England many years ago I suppose it was inevitable what was going to happen. We had bought ourselves a typical Swedish red house with the sea on one side and forest on the other a year earlier. Now we were going to take up residence in it permanently. The way the hire-car driver talked about the deteriorating state of English society and what a hell-hole it was becoming just added to our already self-convinced decision that we were doing the right thing.

We were heading down to one of the small private shipping companies based on the periphery of Manchester International airport. I had hired this company to organise the transportation of our four cats and their office had to be the first port of call as we had to leave the cats with them before heading off to the departure area in the main terminal. It had been agreed with this hire-car driver that this was how it was going to work. The trouble was that we had arrived more than two hours early. The guy who constituted our shipping company was probably still in bed.

It was obvious this driver had his own plans. He had arrived to collect us early and then drove the almost empty roads at full speed and it was obvious he had no intention of hanging around while we waited for the shipping guy to arrive and open up shop.

The driver went off looking to see if there was somewhere we and our four cats could stay while we waited. You have to remember this is not an airport terminal. It’s more like an industrial estate built on the cargo side of a huge aerodrome type complex. You couldn’t just saunter off around the corner to the departure lounge. That was nearly a half-hour drive away.

The driver had luck which was fortunate for us because I’m convinced he would have just unloaded the rather large cat transportation cages and our baggage onto the pavement and simply left us. That’s essentially what he did anyway but an all night company had agreed to allow us to sit in a side room of their premises until our company opened. The driver dumped us and the cats and was gone. He obviously couldn’t wait to get back to his “hell-hole of a going downhill society” (which he envied us for getting away from) to catch another fare and some more cash!

This would never have happened had we been able to travel to the airport in an ordinary taxi but that wasn’t an option. Our shipping company had previously supplied us with special custom made transportation cages for the cats. They were much bigger than standard cat boxes as they had to meet specific regulations and as such they were quite heavy and bulky. It meant we had to hire something bigger than the traditional car. It had been difficult as there hadn’t been much choice on offer so we had finished up with this ‘hire-car driver’ who had in fact been a  bit reluctant right from the start. If only we had had the kind of multi-person taxis that we have here in Sweden, it would never have been a problem at all.

We will be eternally grateful to those people in that small warehouse. We had to sit in there for over two hours with our cats and we had nothing with us except our standard travelling luggage. Those people were even kind enough to make us some coffee and served us some biscuits. When they thought it was time for our guy to arrive they rang his building and told him what had happened. He came and collected us and we were all transported back to his office. There were lots of thanks and appreciations offered and we were so glad to see this small act of human kindness offered on the very day we were departing our country and what had become its increasingly gloomy outlook.

From there on in all went well. Our shipping guy really looked after us. We even got to see our cats in the loading hanger where they would wait before been taken out to the aeroplane. We were concerned about how we were going to get to the main airport departure area but our guy drove us out there personally and took us right to the door. He was effectively our seeing you off party as we stepped out into a new life of, well, we didn’t really know what.

As we sat waiting for the boarding call. One last pleasant surprise happened. We knew our cats were going to travel on the same plane as us but we wouldn’t be able to see them as they would be down in a special area of the cargo hold. As we watched the baggage handlers going about their loading tasks we saw one little trolley arrive with just our cat boxes on it. Thus we got to see the cats loaded onto the plane which we ourselves would be sat on in just a few more minutes. The handlers lifted and carried the boxes with great care which was nice to see but most of all was the total reassurance that our cats hadn’t by some stupid error got left behind. They were on the same plane as us.

Thus we departed England. Destination Sweden and this time we weren’t on holiday. There was no return aeroplane to catch in a couple of weeks time. And as it turns out we have never been back. Not once in all these ten years.

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David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 14 juni 2011.
Home Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
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Simply viewing Apple kit provokes religious euphoria
Fanboi brain scan backs Church of Jobs

By Cade Metz in San Francisco.

Posted in Music and Media, 19th May 2011 18:22 GMT
  
Source:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/19/fanboi_brain_study/

A team of British neuroscientists has confirmed what IT atheists have known for years - that the brains of Jobsian cult members respond to the sight of Apple products in much the same way that religious believers respond to religious imagery.

In a recent BBC documentary, Secrets of the Superbrands (BBC iPlayer), the neuroscientists ran an MRI scan on the brain of Alex Brooks, the editor of World of Apple, who claims that the Jobsian cult is “definitely” on his mind 24 hours a day. They discovered that photos of things like the iPhone and the iPad make certain parts of his brain all tingly.

“We see quite an amount of changes in the brain when he’s actually looking at Apple products, which is quite fascinating,” explained professor Gemma Calvert, a neuroscientist at the University of Warwick. “There’s much more activity in the visual cortex, an enhanced visual attention, if you like, to Apple products.” Much the same thing occurs, she explained, when holy imagery is shown to religious zealots.

“This suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion,” she chillingly elaborated.

The study’s test group extends to, well, a single person, but our own research indicates the finding can be extrapolated to every fanboi on earth.

In the interests of science, El Reg’s San Francisco bureau this morning wrapped a portable MRI scanner around the brain of its very own Apple cult disciple, hopelessly addicted fanboi reporter Rik Myslewski. His grey matter responded to a selection of Apple products in much the same way that the average American responds to images of processed food and Charlie Sheen.

So there you have it. Apple is indeed a religion. Amen. ®

And Happiness is  

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David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 22 maj 2011.
Home Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
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I posted the above video last year on my other blog over at: http://dasanka.posterous.com/

I’m posting it again here this year on the new blog because Valborgsmässoafton is one of my favourite Swedish customs
and this particular video is my favourite.

Being one of my favourite Swedish customs it comes clearly under what I call a “cultural pleasure event” and ‘pleasure events’ are what help to expand our happiness factor. I will write more on this in later posts but this post is about Valborg.

Last year I wrote a full length article giving all the details about this celebration but I don’t want to put the full history and all that stuff here again so I will cherry pick the article and summarise.

Valborgsmässoafton

Sweden can seem such a strange place to us British expats. Even after nearly ten years here now I still find it strange that Sweden’s witches ride their broomsticks at Easter time and not Halloween. Now it’s bonfire night time. This is at least a little more understandable. Sweden didn’t have Guy Fawkes so burning his effigy on 5th November wouldn’t make much sense. However their main bonfire celebration does appear at this end of the year and not in Autumn. It is of course a remnant of one of the old pagan fire festivals so it does come with a good pedigree.

Saturday will be 30th April and in Sweden that means it’s ‘Valborgsmässoafton’  or ‘Valborg’. In English we know this old pagan festival in its Anglicised form as Beltane. Its Christianised form is Walpurgis Night.

Today as with everything else in Sweden, there are many regional varieties of Valborg festivities but throughout the country bonfires are lit on the evening of the 30th and in many formal events choirs sing in the light of the fire welcoming the spring.

I well remember the first Valborgsmässoafton I was invited to attend. Apart from the missing plot toffee, parkin pigs and the Guy Fawkes mannequin for burning it wasn’t that dissimilar to the 5th November bonfires I was familiar with back in the UK.

In some of the less formal Valborg gathering people may gather around the fire, sing songs whilst consuming copious amounts of alcohol. The songs are supposed to be about the coming of spring but in reality these days it’s just the general merry singing of people having a good time. And why not.

Valborg celebrations in Uppsala, consist of having a light breakfast including champagne and strawberries. During the day people gather in parks, drink alcoholic beverages, grill and generally enjoy the weather, if it happens to be favourable.

In Linköping the students and public gather at the court yard of Linköping Castle. Spring songs are sung by the Linköping University Male Voice Choir and speeches made by representatives of the students and the University teachers.

In Göteborg (Gothenburg), the carnival parade, The Cortège, which has been held since 1909 by the students at Chalmers University of Technology is an important part of the celebration. It is seen by around 250,000 people each year.

In Uppsala students also go rafting in Fyrisån (in English, ‘the Fyris river’) on home-made and often humorously decorated rafts.

Generally speaking modern Beltane is joyous party time affair and yes it is true many young people do unfortunately drink more than they can handle. The Swedes are even organised to handle that as well. We often see small groups of parents and other volunteers on patrol around the town’s drinking establishments on Friday and Saturday nights. They are not there to act as police but to offer assistance to youngsters incapable of looking after themselves. I know there will be quite a few of them this coming week-end.

Trevlig Valborg (Happy Walpurgis/Beltane)

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David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 28 april 2011.
Home Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
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So, rather than close the Web site down, which I very nearly did, I decided to try and liven it up with a blog. In fact I may make the entry point of the site the blog page. It seems to be the obvious thing to do. This way I don’t have to mess about with Web creation. I can just concentrate on content and I can simply make entries as and when I feel for it. Sounds good to me.

Sometimes I just feel like writing and I like to write about things which I hope will encourage others to create a better life for themselves and at the same time improve the lifestyle generally for all of us.

The main theme of the DaSanka Web site has been what I call SALDI. It’s simply an acronym for ‘Superior Abundant Lifestyle Designed & Implemented’. I now intend to be a bit more specific as I want to concentrate more intently on what I call ‘Happiness Enhancement’.

Happiness really is such an important subject. How often do we see the lives of the rich and famous falling apart as they destroy themselves or turn into recluses totally unable to cope. It seems ridiculous as these are the very people who ought to be motivating the rest of us to seek our own ‘Superior Abundant Lifestyles’, (designed or otherwise).

It’s obvious for rich and poor alike that the happiness factor has to be prioritised and enhanced. That’s where I intend to focus my attention now. A ‘Superior Abundant Lifestyle’ cannot be called ’superior’ or ‘abundant’ if it lacks the all important ingredient of happiness.

Having said all that — I shall try to stay on topic as much as possible but I can’t guarantee it. My mind flips about too much and anything offbeat can capture me and then I’m away. Yes. it’s a weakness, I know. I should do something about it, but what the hell, it’s fun, and that is after all one of the main aspects of a Happy Lifestyle.

My previous blogging has been simple and unfettered by any must stick to disciplines. I have enjoyed this informal relaxed approach to the Internet so now I’m going to do the same with the ‘DaSanKa.net’ Web site as we move forward and concentrate on the site’s blog. Let’s face it. If I don’t enjoy working on the ‘Happiness Blog’ I will have defeated my own purpose.

I’m not quite sure where this is going or what it means for the Web site but we do need a change. So, time to do something different and let’s see what happens.

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David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 19 april 2011.
Home Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
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