What do you want to create in your life?

My coach Michael Neill often has asks the question, “what would you do if you were not afraid?” I use this question as a guide to what projects I decide to pursue and often my initial fear of undertaking a project is in direct proportion to the positive impact the project could have on my life. Fear is often imagination used poorly or False Expectations Appearing Real.
Challenge your fears and have The confidence to create…

Living your Passion

This is one of the best talks I have ever heard. Passion, humour and intelligence. It made me think about a lot of things,in particular what I have given up on in my life when success may have been around the corner . What can you learn in the future that you may have not even considered in the past.
And how you can live with passion everyday…!

Success is within your reach! (Part 2)

Every human being who has walked the earth and will ever walk the earth has the infinite ability within them to create the life they want.
And success really is the achievement of that. It’s the reality of living your ideal life and being happy.
When we are happy, we are healthy and rich. So we were made to be happy – to be successful ! This is our default position which we sometime forget .
So when you do something – with the full intention of achieving the happiness you aspire to – believe that you CAN achieve it!
Know that you CAN do it!
And when that voice of negativity comes into your mind, you can tell it to “Take a hike! “Or just notice it for what it is..” a passing thought” and let it go…
You can respond to the negativity with a positive affirmation of “I CAN” and “I WILL” or a “I WANT TO”. And feel the feelings of being able to do just that.
When you affirm that you can and you will, you are actually giving yourself strength both mentally and physically.
And that puts you in a really good position to go out there and grab success with both hands or let success be a natural outcome of your happiness.
Try it today, remember you have a choice!

Start believing that you are made for success and claim it today for yourself!
A little self-confidence really does go a long, long way – as you will see when you start implementing this valuable lesson in your own life.

Re-create the life you really want!

Success is within your reach! (Part 1)

Let’s face it! There aren’t too many people out there that don’t want to achieve success in their lives. Whether that’s success in personal areas such as relationships or success in professional areas involving career and promotion, we all want our piece of it!
One thing though that holds so many people back is that negative voice inside our head that critiques us on absolutely everything we do. That not so quiet voice that issues the cant, wont, no point in trying type commands…
It can be debilitating…but there is hope!
After all, for many of us, that voice of negativity has been there ever since childhood. Like the critical teacher looking over our shoulder, endlessly criticizing the work we do.
We certainly can be our very worst critic, but we need to understand and believe that success is within reach!
If we want success, if we are willing to go out there and grab success and its opportunities with both hands, we will.
In his “Inspiration a Day” mailing list, Josh Hinds said: “When you do a thing, know that success is within your grasp! All too often we are our own worst enemies. The bottom line is you were made for success!”
It’s true!
You were made for your success !

Do what you LOVE!

With all the news and talk of this global economic crisis that’s happening around the world, it’s fair to say that a lot of people are feeling a little nervous.
Many people are definitely feeling the pinch with the purse strings well and truly tightening.
But during this period of hardship, many people are feeling dissatisfied with their current jobs and careers.
Many people just aren’t LOVING what they do!
And it’s making them miserable!
Typically, people spend five days a week at work and if you can’t stand your job, it’s hard to say the least! Five out of seven days a week – that’s quite a lot of your life!
And consider the fact that most of us start working fulltime around the age of twenty and retire at sixty-five. That means we work forty-five years!
So if most people don’t like what they do, and they spend about forty-five years of their life working…doesn’t that sound like a situation in need of desperate change?
It certainly does for many people today who aren’t just facing dissatisfaction in the workplace…but also the very real issue of not having enough money to cover basic costs.
Living pay check to pay check, combined with the job dissatisfaction really is a recipe for depression and burnout.
But there IS something you can do about it!
You have to break that old belief system many people have. The one that says the business of making money is a hard one that isn’t enjoyable at all.
People believe that you have to slave away in a job you hate, just to make ends meet.
Now, I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like much of a life to me. Particularly if you’re finding it very hard to make ends meet – or worse – you’re unable to make them meet at all.
My advice to everybody I deal with who is battling with workplace dissatisfaction is this: Determine what you really, really love to do!
• What makes you happy?
• What do you wish you could do and make money doing?
• If you could make money in any way, how would you make money?
• What wouldn’t feel like work to you at all?
By LOVING what we do, we enhance our life!
Marsha Sinetar who wrote the famous book, “To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring” said:
“Expressing your enthusiasm can add years of creative life to your time on earth.”
And how true that is! By loving what you do for a living, work no longer feels like work. Instead it feels like the life you LOVE!
And to get paid for it at the same time…wow!
Determine what you really love doing and then start creatively brainstorming over ways you can combine that which you love with income generation.
Start writing it all down NOW!

Dreamers and Goal-Setters

No doubt you have heard of dreams and goals before, right? Many people just place dreams and goals into the same basket, but the fact is, they are quite different.
Dreams are things that many people have. People will say that they dream of being wildly successful and incredibly rich. But they leave it at that. They are vague about the dream and don’t really have any serious intention of making that dream a reality.
And so, it just remains a dream.
On the other hand, goals are great achievements that people create with specific detail…with every intention of making happen!
Introducing the dreamers and the goal-setters
As great as goals sound, in our society today, the majority of people are dreamers! They have a dream list – in their mind – of things they would like to have in their life. But they don’t really give these dreams much thought and believe that they may just happen somehow.
Examples of things dreamers say might be:
• “I want to win the lottery!”
• “I want to be famous, but I don’t know how!”
• “I’d love to be rich, but don’t know how that will happen.”
• “It would be great not to have debt, but if it’s meant to be, it will happen.”
Any of that sound familiar to you?
Many of us are dreamers because we’ve been conditioned to think that things are “too hard”.
Many of us were bought up to believe that to make great money, you have to have extraordinary talent or ability.
Many of us were also bought up to believe that success and money only come to them if they trod all over other people.
There is a lot of negativity surrounding the sorts of dreams many people have. And as a result, people don’t get serious about their dreams. They don’t get serious about turning their dreams into solid, specific goals.
On the other hand, goal-setters acknowledge that they ARE deserving of the things they want and they know that they can get what they want if they know what they want and are willing to take action.
So who are you?
Are you a dreamer or are you a goal-setter?
If you’re a dreamer and you desperately want to effect change in your life to bring your dreams to reality, TAKE ACTION!
Think about what you really want your life to be like, and then start DOING things to make it happen.
And remember this fantastic quote – another favourite of mine – from Harvey Mackay:
“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.”
Start turning your dreams into goals that WILL happen TODAY!

Leadership principles to apply for everybody!

You know, often when I’m talking to people about leadership issues, many will write the topic off because they just don’t believe they are a leader.
There is a common misperception out there that leaders are people in well paying, executive jobs. In other words, people just think that to be a leader, you must be in a corporate career.
But the fact of the matter is that leadership is something each one of us has at some point in time.
Examples of everyday leaders
If you are in a partnership with a spouse, if you have children, if you have friends, if you have relatives…there are many non work-related situations where you need to take on those attributes of good leaders.
I have an excellent quote that I have loved for a long time that really brings the whole leadership topic down to the earth level. Here’s what it says:
“If I accept you as who you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.”
That quote came from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – many of you may have heard of him, but for those who haven’t, he was a German natural philosopher who was also a novelist, playwright, diplomat and poet.
Read that quote again, because what it says really is amazing.
It basically says that for us to be great leaders…
…we must see the potential in other people!
Think about your really great friends. Chances are, they are people who encourage you in everything you do! They are people who are there to help you achieve those things you really want to achieve in your life.
They treat you as though you are capable of becoming – just as Goethe said!
Great friends do this, and great bosses, parents and spouses do as well.
Recognising one’s potential is the attribute of a great leader, but as you can see, it’s also a great attribute when it comes to our personal relationships as well.
It’s all about believing in other people and acting and saying things in accordance with that.
If we open our eyes to this great leadership attribute and start implementing it in all of our interpersonal relationships TODAY, it’s amazing what effect it will have both on yourself and on everybody you know.
Believing in other people is contagious as well. If you really give somebody else encouragement, it makes them feel great! And then they will do the same to somebody else, who in turn will feel great and pass it onto others.
You don’t have to be a high flying executive in a suit to start implementing great leadership qualities like this one. Try it today and put it to the test!

HAPPINESS!

Many people often ponder long and hard about the meaning of life. Some people will take extraordinary journeys to try and discover what it is they were put on this planet for. And sadly, some people resign themselves to never actually knowing.
Then there are people who believe that we are pre-destined for some sort of end result.
After talking to many people over the course of my career – and through my own personal experiences – I have come to the conclusion that we are here to be happy!
We are here to create a happy life!
As human beings, we aren’t supposed to stress. We just weren’t designed for it.
It is medically proven that stress can cause so many illnesses in humans. From migraines right though to really serious conditions such as cancer.
Through stress, we really can manifest an illness.
So it just goes to show that the human body just isn’t designed for stress. We are meant to be physically well, and to retain physical health, we need to be happy and content with our lives.
So…how does one actually do that?
When I talk to clients who want more out of their lives, I ask them to take some time out to really assess where they are at in their life.
I get them to examine every aspect of their lives:
• Their family
• Their friends
• Their career/business
• Their health
• Their wellbeing
• Their lifestyle
• Their finances
And I get them to rate where they are at right now.
After this, I get them to list exactly what they want in each of these areas that will bring them the happiness they want.
Everybody can create the life they want!
Once you know what you want and are willing to take action to make it happen, it will happen!
And don’t buy into of negative thoughts that would stop you from doing this.
For instance, if you’re in your forties and want to go back to university to get a degree, don’t let thoughts of being “too old” stop you.
If you want to lose weight, don’t let thoughts of “it’s too hard” stop you.
Know what you want. Be specific with what you want. Then DO IT!
You really do have the power to make it happen, so start today!

How to make 2009 Amazing:Step 4

Keep doing what works until you’re there!

So! You know that to make 2009 you’re amazing year, you need to decide specifically what you want, take action and pay attention to what actually works.
Then you have to keep working on those things that do work until you reach your goal.
If something you are doing is working for you…
…keep doing it!
You can also try and improve your results by making changes to that process that is working for you. Tweak it here and there and see what happens.
If you have great results – continue doing that thing or improve the process again for even better results.
If on the other hand you get a bad result, don’t despair! Remember Mr Edison!
Keep going and never give up!
Persistence really is KEY when it comes to achieving your goals!
You won’t get to your goal otherwise, so keep on keeping on. Focus on the positive things that are working and give yourself rewards for that.
For instance, if your goal is to lose weight in the new year, set milestones for yourself. And once you reach a milestone, be sure to treat yourself.
If you fall off the wagon, don’t worry! Just make sure you get back on for the next day.
What will motivate you to keep on persisting is the achievement of those mini milestones. As great as that is though, you need to focus on the end goal.
Each day, take a few minutes to read your goals out loud to yourself. It’s also a good idea to create a positive affirmation and read that out aloud in the morning and in the evening as well before bed time.
The affirmation should be written as though you have already achieved your goal. For instance, “I am feeling so amazing now that I’m 10 kilos lighter!”
And when you say that affirmation out loud, feel the feelings that come with the achievement of that goal.
By doing this each day, you are staying motivated – and that will help you to stay on track. It will help you to keep on doing those things that work, until the materialization of your goal!
Have fun with it!
Goal-setting and setting up a plan to achieve the goals shouldn’t be an arduous task. Make it fun by following the four steps inspired by Anthony Robbins’ famous quote!
And remember this! 2009 WILL be your amazing year if you decide ASAP what you want, take action to achieve it, pay attention to what works and what doesn’t and NEVER give up until you get there!

How to make 2009 Amazing: Step 3

Pay attention to what works!
Now that you understand the importance of getting specific about your goals and taking action to achieve them, it’s time to elaborate a little more on the action part.
Sometimes in the process of taking action to make our dreams happen, things don’t work well.
We may find that a particular course of action works really well, yet another course doesn’t yield results at all.
Now, this is where people can fall into a pretty significant trap – one that is detrimental to the achievement of a goal.
Many people focus too much on the stuff that doesn’t work!
Say for instance you are really passionate about your £200,000 income goal. You get what you think is an amazing, earth-shattering idea when you are in the shower (yes – that’s where many of us get our lightbulb moment ideas!) and dry off with every bit of excitement!
You put your energy into the idea that you think can help you achieve your income goal.
But then you find that this idea doesn’t help you at all. In fact, the idea you had is a real flop!
What do you do about it?
It’s natural to be disappointed, but given the situation there are two things you can do:
1. Be disappointed, yet get back to the task of achieving your goal by implementing other ideas; or
2. Be disappointed and get into a big depression over it…that stops you dead in your tracks!
Unfortunately, too many people do the latter. They get so down about the outcome of a ‘failed’ idea that they just give up. The wheels completely fall off!
If you are to actually achieve your goals, option 2 just isn’t an option.
You have to do as successful people do!
You have to pick yourself up off the ground after a disappointing outcome and say, “What went wrong? What can I do NOW to get on track to achieving my goal?”
It all comes down to how you approach perceived (yes I’m using that word here) ‘failure’.
All of us will encounter ‘failure’ in our pursuit of goal attainment.
But it’s not so much the failure that can make us fall short of our goal – it’s our response to it.
Failure is an OPPORTUNITY for us to assess what works and what does not. It’s an OPPORTUNITY to help us get on track.
It’s a stepping stone to success.
Imagine for a moment if that wonderful inventor of the incandescent light bulb – Thomas Edison – gave up after the 100th attempt at getting that bulb to light up?
It took him hundreds attempts to finally make it work.
If he gave up at attempt 100, he would never have achieved success.
The reason why Edison prevailed? He saw failure as a stepping stone to success!
He even said in his own words, “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
Persistence is what will get us to our goal. And we need to focus on the things that work and not the things that don’t. This way we will stay motivated and on track!
And that’s what you too must do in your pursuit of achievement!