Welcome back

Ok folks

Well that's a good few months I've been away from here and in truth I almost feel as if I've been divorced from my life for 6 months whilst battling with the vagueries of unemployment, dreams, desires, ambitions and keeping the family alive.

I'm presently engaged as a recruiter for Royal & SunAlliance in Bristol by day and the rest of my time is split between my five main passions Family, Coaching/Speaking, Art, Reading, Residual income streams.

I'll get back to coaching and speaking properly this year once I've secured our income and started settling some outstanding issues.

Hope to see you all again soon.

Space in which to breathe

Having just come back from a long weekend away in sunny Devon (pics to follow) it occurs to me that what we perhaps need more often than not is space in which to breathe.

Of course, if you are alive, then you must be breathing but my suspicion is that 99% of the time we are actually not breathing deeply enough and not getting the full extent of the world around us, we are merely existing.

In order to breathe deeply, to fill not just our lungs but also our minds and to enjoy the fullness of life around us we need to give ourselves space every once in a while.

The funny thing is, we don't actually have to go anywhere different to do that. Obviously it works best if you do, but how many of us can take a holiday or even a time-out ust when we feel like it? If you can, that's great, but for most of us, we may have to use different routes to achieve our goals.

One that works for me (after years of practice it now takes less effort) is to think about a favourite place, where dreams are made and peace and tranquility become the order of the day (mine is a beach in Cornwall for instance) - once you have a strongpicture in your mind of this place, you can strengthen it's influence by watching yourself going there and seeing yourself in situ, enjoying the scene and you can tap into those feelings - this will allow you to divorce yourself from your present reality and for a period of time - you can create space to breathe.

I wonder where your favourite place is?

Does it pay to think?

In short - no.
But can you turn thoughts into income or revenue? Well the answer to that would be yes - it happens all over the world every minute of every day. So ok, what's the secret to turning a thought into money in the bank?
First of all, it might pay you to give a lot of consideration to what you're thinking about. If 'living thoughts' and my own oft used process of dreamboards are indeed any part of reality then we do indeed need to be careful what we're thinking about.
Secondly, if the first thought follows through, then it's also safe to assume that just thinking about something may not necessarily bring about fame and fortune - the magic ingredient is ACTION.

Ok so how do we get from thinking the right thoughts to taking the right action?

Well that, dear reader is the crux of the matter, because it is very often the case that as human beings we choose to be exceptionally busy - either on the wrong actions or doing those things that come easier to us - "I'll get around to it later" is a phrase we may all be familiar with.

What I'm suggesting isn't new - in fact I am merely adding my own opinion on this point to those of such luminaries as Anthony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, Susan Jeffers, Robert Kiyosaki and David Schwarz - the suggestion being that the Actions we need to take, we may never accomplish if all we look at is the how, the why or the wherefore - these are barriers to action.

Far better to split the action up into little steps that we can easily take, that we can accomplish, that we can reward ourselves for achieving, on our way to the overall goal.

So, does it pay to think? No, but it does pay to plan and to do and that is why I'm writing these blogs and articles - they are positive action towards my goals.

What are you thinking about and who will pay you to just do that?

The search for enlightenment

continues....

Last night I watched 'The Secret' on DVD with my other half. We both know most of the stuff on it anyway but I still marvelled at how easy it has been to fall into the trap of being 'normal'.

Whatever normality is, it's different for all of us - there is no 'norm' about it. I've been saying for a long time to anyone that will listen that I agree with the thought that we create our own reality, or in other words, life is however you make it - but seeing it again, watching the glorious simpliciy of the law of attraction I am forced to concede I still have much to learn and many thoughts still to have.

I've now been tasked with opening my mind, allowing the river of possibility to flow passed my consciousness and to really planning what I want to do with the rest of my life.

See - even though these are the sort of thoughts I challenge people with through coaching, I still need to take stock and take action myself sometimes.

Think I need to do more reading and drawing, good food for the soul.

And I still think Ross will get his new bike - just like that kid on the DVD.

The start of tomorrow

is a thought from today. Or in actual fact, for me it's a couple of thoughts from last nights coaching session with Bob Foster.

What's this? I need a coach myself? So how good am I as a coach for you?

Well it's like this. Most good coaches either have a coach themselves or they associate with coaches and share ideas or they have a mastermind group to help them achieve their goals.

It's the sort of thing that coaching often prescribes for others so why not for coaches themselves right?

Bob asked me some interesting questions to start this particular ball rolling and I suspect the answers may be difficult to face but if I can do so, I'll be a better person and probably more succesful for doing so.

I wonder how often other people challenge themselves in this way?

What do you think?

Paris Hilton - Reality of fiction?

Ok, so obviously Paris herself is a reality, but what I wanted to talk about was the difference between her version of realiy and yours, or rather is there such a thing as reality?

To quote Wikipedia

Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist."

So the fact that we seem to have different levels of reality may have something to do with how we view things, or how we relate to the existence of things?

In Paris Hiltons' world reality may include riches and parties and celebrity friends and these may not be in your own on a daily basis but I suspect that her recent incarceration added a slightly different view of reality to her mind - one that you may already have encountered.

Why bring this up at all? Well, it's my belief that there is actually no such thing as reality, it is simply a word that has been coined to express a view on all that we know of our world and how we see it. Therefore, we all have our own reality and this might explain why some people in society, who's view is radically different from the mainstream view are seen as undesirable or even evil.

Paedophiles, Rapists, Murderers - all have a reality as well, just not the same maybe as yours.

I'm not about to condone these things for I also see them as unfortunate aspects of humanity, but if I'm right - perhaps their reality is just as 'right' for them as yours is to you?

The power of positive thinking

Is that it affects all the actions you then take. You can approach even the dullest task with more fervour and energy when you are in a great mood.

The interesting bit is the last word - mood. I'll go back here to my favourite thought, that emotions come first. Dan Goleman in his books on Emotional Intelligence suggests that how we feel affects how we think and therefore it is emotions that drive our actions.

I've had a great weekend and it's largely down to the idea above. On Sauturday I allowed my daughter to drive our actions with her emotions - we just had fun and I tried to make sure that I allowed as much freedom as possible with a day out at Horseworld.

On Sunday I spent the day working hard for the Wellbeing Network at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, raising awareness for both the Network and it's support of the Penny Brohn Cancer care charity here in Bristol.

All of this stuff made me feel good and that set me up well for the week.

Wonder how the rest of it will go?