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What do you want the rest of your life to be about?
In the absence of all fear, who would you not be afraid to be?
If life handed you a ‘golden ticket’ what dream would you manifest?
If you won $70 million how would you spend the rest of your life?
Why ask these questions? Why ask them now?
Because at this point in time humanity as we know it rests on an all important threshold – a threshold that holds within it the potential for great change and tremendous transformation on all levels. However in order for this global and world change to take place, it requires a new generation of leader, men and women who are willing to rise up and find the courage and strength within themselves, to first transform their own lives in doing so transform our world.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi
There is no coincidence that you have been drawn to this place, to read this article, and to question and delve into the relevance of it for your life.
For you are one of the many ‘spirited warriors’ and leaders around the world that at this time in humanity’s consciousness is being called, summoned and gathered to be the force of change, first in your own life, second in the lives of those you love, and finally as a powerful example in the world.
So how do you embrace this new quest, this new mission?
The Answer:Exists simply in being willing each and everyday to embrace, engage and enact ‘small acts of courage’ in your daily life.
The greatest barrier to all human evolution and growth is the ego’s fascination and preoccupation with the emotion of fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of financial security. Fear of not being safe. Fear of being hurt or abandoned. Fear of being rejected. Fear of being unloved.
The good news however, is that in each of the situations that you experience fear, you are also presented with a unique opportunity to choose in favour of your highest self, to choose in favour of your soul, to choose to embrace courage.
So each day, as you go about your daily lives, take a moment in the morning before you start your day to expand your own consciousness, your own internal capacity to move beyond the mind’s limits that keep you captive, and instead seek to find your power, unleash your potential and BE courageous by answering the following questions:
Where in life is my soul calling out for more joy?
What am I afraid would happen if surrendered and let go of my attachment to success?
What one small act of courage can I take today that would bring me greater happiness, joy and fulfilment?
Remember, courage is not something that you need to find.
It doesn’t exist outside of you. It is part of your essential nature, it is an inherent and everlasting aspect of your soul already. All it needs is for you to stand in your power and embrace it.
To respond with courage, when life would want you to react. To stand-up and be counted, when life would have you hide. To take responsibility, when life would have you blame outside influences. To speak your truth, when life would have you keep your feelings hidden. To be your authentic self, when life would have you give in to other’s expectations and needs.
Every moment is an opportunity to show the world your truth. To be COURAGEOUS.
Life Wisdom for Today
“Feel the fear, but do it anyway!” – Susan Jeffers
What can a simple, ordinary, everyday Hobbit by the name of Bilbo Baggins teach us about life and leadership?
Well if you’re anything like the millions of adults and children world-wide who have already seen this phenomenon of movie, you’ll realise that there are a few key ingredients that every life adventurer, hero and ‘quest taker’ needs to be successful on the journey towards rediscovering the courage, power and purpose within.
After close to 3 hours of stunning landscapes, epic battles fraught with danger, incredible computer generated imagery, and an ending that left everything up in the air The Hobbit which has already taken in excess of $1 billion dollars at the box-office world-wide certainly has a story and deeper message for all of us.
So here it is …
My Top 8 Life and Leadership Lessons from Middle Earth …
That will help you develop greater courage, certainty and confidence to follow your own personal life quest.
1. You Must Be Willing to Leave Home
As with all great adventures the quest for greatness always begins … well from ‘The Beginning’! In the case of The Hobbit a young Bilbo Baggins finds that his first step in embracing the ‘unexpected adventure’ is simply that he needs to first leave the comfort of his own home. The place where he has his routine, is accustomed to habit, where there is no uncertainty or challenges to be faced.
All of us have our own homes. The quiet little places that we call our comfort zones. All of us also have at sometime chosen to stay where we are, rather than take a leap of faith, a step of courage and join an amazing adventure of life.
The Lesson: You will never find your holy grail until you have the courage to leave the comfort of your own home.
So where do you need to leave home? What unexpected adventure do you need to step out and embrace today?
2. You Need a Team on a Quest
Have you ever noticed that nearly every person who has ever been successful in life – did not get their on their own? After all … any quest that is worthwhile needs the support, alliance, skills and encouragement of a committed and supportive team.
Along his journey the young Hobbit Bilbo is joined by a wizard, dwarves and elves, each with their own skills, talents and innate abilities. Some can fight, others shoot arrows, some weave magic, while others provide encouragement, acknowledgement and support.
The Lesson:Don’t struggle on your own, when all around you are people with the skills and willingness to help.
So… what door do you need to knock on? Who do you need to ask? Who needs to be a vital part of your leadership team?
3. You Need an Inspiring Vision
How do you get people to follow you on a quest? Especially when that quest may involve uncertainty, challenges and hardships?
Every great leader knows that an ‘inspired vision’ is the fuel that brings people together as one, and creates the inspiration and influence to unleash real magic in the world.
The Lesson:Vision ignites souls. Vision connects. Vision has the capacity to powerfully create change.
Is your life or business vision clear? Does it inspire you? Does it move you to be filled with tears of joy, happiness, gratitude? Remember – if doesn’t move you – how can you expect it to move others.
4. You Need to Believe in Magic
Isn’t it funny how as children we can believe that anything is possible, yet as we grow older we lose that sense of enchantment, that sense of mystery and wonder to even believe in the unbelievable?
The reality is that each of us have access to our own wizard, our own ‘Gandalf’ within. The power to weave and create magic within our lives is not outside of us, it’s an inherent part of our soul that is just waiting to be awakened.
The Lesson:To create magic in your life you first have to believe in it. To believe in it you have to know that you are the co-creator.
That by shifting your awareness, your consciousness, your thoughts and beliefs – just maybe , you can create miracles – powerful shift in perception.
What do you believe in currently impossible to change? Where do you feel stuck and limited? What would truly owning your power mean to you?
5. Find Your Courage
A great revelation from the unexpected adventure of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit is that courage in not found in the absence of fear. But rather true courage is the ability to take action in spite of great fear.
Every great leader and master has experienced some form of fear in the midst of pursuing their highest goals and dreams. The question is: will you choose to act from a place of “creation” or “desperation”, will you choose to “respond” or “react” to your situation?
The first is driven by a belief in self and the faith that the power to create the results you want are within you right now. While latter is driven by fear, a need to escape or get out of a situation that causes you grief, pain or hardship.
The Lesson:Your greatest life challenge now, also holds within it the seed of great opportunity. How you choose to respond or react is up to you.
What action do you now need to take in the face of your greatest fear or challenge?
6. It’s What’s Underground that Often Matters Most
At one point in The Hobbit movie Bilbo and his faithful companions find themselves captured underground, beneath the earth in the goblin’s lair. A place that is just filled with nightmarish ghouls that want to destroy them.
Often when we look at our life results we can sometimes feel disappointed and disillusioned that we are not where we ideally want to be. We can easily look at what’s happening in our life on the surface, and question why we’re not producing the financial fruits, the relationship fruits, the career and business fruits that we really desire. However as T. Harv Eker often says “It’s the roots that create the fruits”.
Just like in The Hobbit sometimes we have to look for the goblins, the beliefs and limiting patterns, that exist within our own unconscious thoughts that lie beneath the surface. Just knowing that we have almost 60,000 thoughts a day of which 90% are the same as yesterday should tell us something!
The Lesson:If the “roots create the fruits” then you had better start first attending to what’s really beneath the surface of your own consciousness.
7. You Need to Find Your Inner-Warrior
Go back 1000 or even 2000 years and you’ll notice that in the shadow of the great wars, battles and conflicts was an inherent ‘warrior spirit’ within the heart and souls of men and women who were driven by the need for survival, and the glory of conquest.
In our modern world, we have almost forgone the need to connect with our ‘inner warrior’ that part of every man and women that can be the fuel, the fire and the persistence needed to realise a chosen objective. After all, how many of us really feel threatened by our existence, how many of us find ourselves in situations of survival or battle every day.
While many may shirk at the notion of being a ‘warrior’, sometimes in life we need to find the inner-courage, the inner-fire, the positive anger that helps us to ‘take back our power’ and breakthrough limitations that keep us captive or stuck. Even Bilbo Baggins had to pick up his Elven sword and find the courage to step forward and slay the wilder beast.
Life Lesson:Don’t be afraid of showing your ‘inner-warrior’. When you channel your positive anger towards a worthy cause, you ignite the spirit of destiny that exists within every leader.
Where do I need to pick up my sword and fight for what I believe in today?
8. The Movie Doesn’t End
If you’re like me, then you were probably left feeling a little deflated with the ending of The Hobbit – An Unexpected Adventure.
Just when it appears that good had triumphed over evil, and that the adventurers were about to realise their quest – the movie ended. Yes ended, without any resolution, without any conquest, without completion. Why? Because the director in his or her wisdom knew that the real story was not complete, that in fact there just might be another movie or two still before we arrive at our destination.
Isn’t it funny how our lives are pretty much the same. We are here for a moment in eternity, a fleeting glimpse between a birth and a death, where the only things we will take our life experiences, the ways that we have grown and the gratitude for the people we have most influenced.
Life Lesson:Great leaders know that they only have a short time in this life. Perspective helps us to realise that we only have a moment to make a difference. To stand for something great that we believe in. And to be the very best that they can be.
So what do you want the rest of this movie that is your life to be about??
The greatest gift we have as human beings is our ability to consciously create our destiny through the setting and realisation of intentions. The start of the year provides the perfect catalyst and cycle of life-force energy to powerfully sow new seeds and to set powerful intentions for your new year.
Top 6 Principles for Creating Powerful New Year Intentions
So in this short master-class video I wanted to share my Top 6 Principles for creating powerful New Year intentions that will help you bring greater clarity, focus, and intent to what you want to create, manifest and receive in your life over the next 12 months.
1. Expand Your Tent, Stretch Your Desires, Dream Bigger
The number one reason that most people don’t get what they want, is usually because they don’t really know what they want! Getting clear on your intentions before the start of the year is a brilliant way to give your life greater direction and purpose.
However, as human beings we’ve also been conditioned into thinking too small. As individuals with truly unlimited potential, we often choose goals, outcomes and intentions that keep us within our same comfort zone. Instead of shooting for the moon and reaching the stars, we aim for the clouds and often hit the ground!
So this next year, make sure to set one BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) that will make you stretch and reach beyond your comfort zone. After all, it is only when we reach beyond ourselves that we discover just what we really capable of.
2. Set an Engaging and Inspiring Theme for Your Life
While goals and outcomes may give us strategic direction and focus, it is sometimes better to also set an ‘overriding theme’ or purpose for your life over the next year.
So if you could describe your next year as though it were a book title what would it be? E.g. From Rowing to Sailing, Stand Up and Stand Out, Inspired to be a Loving Mother, Money Mastery Made Easy
You set the direction of your life through your intentions. When you set a theme for your life it gives you reason to align your thoughts, actions ad behaviours each day towards the realisation of your theme and life purpose.
3. Look Closely at Your Motivations
When you set your intentions it helps to look closely at each one and ask the question “What is my motivation for creating this? Is it fear or love?”
You’ll be surprised at just how many of our real desires are driven by unconscious patterns and forces that stem from fear. And when we try to ‘create’ from a basis of fear we simply end up creating more fear.
So it helps to remember, that you may not always get what you consciously want, but you will always create in your life what you unconsciously want! Therefore make sure that your dreams and intentions are fuelled by love.
4. Turn Your Intentions into Symbols
Too often we get so caught up focusing on the physical and material aspects of what we are trying to create i.e. the form. But in the art of deliberate co-creation, we need to learn to release and let go of the form e.g. focusing on having the boyfriend that is 6 foot, tall, dark, handsome, rich and has the perfect abs. Instead we need to ask for what we want, and then trust that God, the universe and spirit will bring you this – or something even better!
A great way therefore to get out of thinking in the constraints of ‘form’ is to simply turn your intentions into symbols i.e. draw, paint, cut out pictures or create a mosaic of the ‘essence’ of what you are trying to create in your life – and most of all what emotional trait it would give you.
5. Make Sure Your Intentions Serve Others
When muscle tested, candidates that set intentions where there was only perceived or real benefit to themselves consistently tested weaker than those who set intentions that also would provide a benefit to others.
One of the keys to life transforming new year intentions is that the more your intentions serve others, or aid and helps some worthy cause, the greater the energy that surrounds them, and the quicker that they manifest on the material plane. Is it any wonder that it is often those celebrities, and successful individuals that contribute and serve humanity in greater ways that consistently seem to receive and enjoy greater rewards??
6. Expand Your Personal Presence and Self-Worth
It goes with out saying, that in order to experience more in your life, you first have to become a person that is capable of receiving more. Self-worth and self-image are inextricably linked to what you are willing to allow and receive in your life. Choose to see yourself as someone that is worthy of greatness, and you become a person that attracts greatness into their lives.
Visualising and seeing yourself ‘already’ as the person you most want to be, is one of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself. Is it any wonder that Jim Carey, Bruce Lee, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Oprah Winfrey all spent time imagining, believing and seeing themselves as successful at their ventures – before they even experienced it in reality.
So look in the mirror today – and instead of seeing yourself as you are – choose to see the amazing, brilliant and incredible person that you are becoming and being … right now!
Wow! Can you believe that it’s almost the end of another year? And as the ancient Mayans would have us believe, it’s also the end of a significant period in the evolution and consciousness of humanity.
So, at a time when many people start contemplating their highest goals, intentions and outcomes for the new year, I thought what better way to get the ball rolling than to take a look at …
“What Does it Really Take to Live a Happy and Fulfilling Life ?”
Why this topic? And why at this time?
Well, if experience has taught me anything it’s that in life it’s all too easy to get caught up chasing goals and dreams that on one level we believe will provide us with the fulfilment we desire, yet on another level often leave us feeling empty, unfulfilled and off-purpose.
I’ve often noticed many times as I have coached and mentored individuals, business owners and leaders, that a great number of people are hurriedly climbing the ladder of success, only to get to the top and find out that it was placed against the wrong wall!
We may also find ourselves chasing things in the ‘material’ that we believe will give us more happiness, more fulfilment, more status, more credibility, more respect. We can often believe that if we get that new job then we’ll be respected, when we get the perfect relationship then we’ll feel loved, when we win the lottery then we will feel truly financially secure.
Are You Choosing Fulfilment Right Now?
However, the problem with ‘if / when’ thinking is that it implies we can only feel loved, happy, and secure when we attain our goals, have stuff, and have things work out the way we want, rather than realise that we can choose to love ourselves right now, we can choose happiness in this moment, and we can choose to embrace the security that comes from simply trusting ourselves.
Real fulfilment comes from the realisation that all of the feelings, emotions and desires that you believe exist outside of you, are actually available to you right now.
So instead of instead of blindly following the values, goals and ideals of others, it might be easier and wiser to lay your own path, to follow your own soul’s guidance and to look within yourself (not outside) for the pathway to your greatest fulfilment.
So my questions for you are:
Are you truly living life in accordance with your own values? Or are you are trying to please others?
Are you truly committed to following your joy, each and every day?
Are you using your unique gifts, talents, skills and abilities to serve and make a difference?
Are you sharing quality time with the people in your life who mean the most to you?
Wisdom from the Dying – The 5 Life Regrets
Several years ago Australian palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware started a very enlightening, thought provoking and inspiring Blog called ‘Inspiration and Chai’, where she wrote about the final stages of the life journey as they were experienced by many of her patients who were terminally ill with cancer. Often she was with them for the last 3 to 12 weeks of their lives.
During the course of this writing she discovered that most people were confronted at the end of their life with either one or a combination of the following ‘Top 5 Regrets of the Dying’, which she later published in her best-selling book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
It’s very hard to listen and follow the guidance of your own heart and soul, when you are consciously and unconsciously trying to please and satisfy others. Living an authentic and inspired life requires all of us to have the courage to be ‘true to ourselves’ first. To value and respect our own life dreams and desires, rather than feel obliged, guilty or responsible to other’s expectations.
Just think what a shame it would have been if Andrea Bocielli had followed his father’s expectations for him to get a real job as a lawyer, rather than share his gift for singing with the world!
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard
You’ve probably heard it said before, that no one wishes at the end of their life that they had spent more time at the office!
There is a big difference between working hard and working smart. I remember the director of a company I worked for several years ago that gave up 13 years of his life to focus on growing his business, but inadvertently missed out on some of the most memorable experiences in his children’s life. While another mentor of mine created a multi-million dollar international publishing house and only works from 1pm – 6pm each day!
It’s always a matter of choice and values. So what are you choosing to create for your life?
3. I wish I had the courage to express my true feelings
Why is it that it’s only when someone is sick, dying or about to pass-over that we find the courage to express our true feelings towards them? Could it be that we allow our own fears, insecurity and vulnerability to get in the way of authentic communication and connection?
Courage is the ability and willingness to act even in the face of fear. The key to remember is that its in our moments of action that fear disappears. So who do you need to express your true feelings to today? Who do you have incomplete emotional business with?
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
At the end of our life the only things we will take with us our experiences, and the memories and connections to the people that graced our life path.
In the Facebook era it’s all to easy to think that a quick message or post, a text message here or there constitutes a successful relationship. However its in the intimate, face-to-face connections and sharing that we create the foundation for true engagement with those we love.
So why not write a letter to someone that you have been meaning to connect with? Or take a moment to leave a Post-it Note with a loving message for someone special? Or invite your closest friends for a sit-down dinner and some real community connection?
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier
As Robert Holden, best-selling author of Authentic Happiness says, we can often spend an eternity looking for happiness outside of ourselves, than simply commit to “following our joy” in each moment.
Sadly, very few people are truly committed to following their joy, to allowing themselves permission to simply feel happier in this moment. Especially when you consider that It doesn’t take much. Seeing the beauty in a rose, watching a magnificent sunset, doing a random act of kindness for someone else, giving ourselves timeout to meditate, reflect, pray, or even just sharing a story with someone close to us.
Each of these is an opportunity for us to engage our joy and embrace our authentic happiness – and best of all they’re free!!
Applying the Lessons to Your Life
So why are these regrets important? Because they are an adamant reminder of the true values that each and every soul confronts prior to its passing. That it is not the material that is most important, but that it is the experience, the learning, the growth and the contributions that we make to this world as human beings that mark the value of our existence.
If any of you have seen the movie The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson then you’ll appreciate that this movie was not so much about dying, than it was about encouraging each and everyone of us to live fully.
Hopefully as each of us reflects on these regrets, we will appreciate what it really means to live fully. Hopefully we will find a path back to the ‘real fulfilment’ that is available to us in this moment.
As for me, I’ve placed a large poster (above) on the wall of my office with the 5 Life Regrets re-framed into ‘My Commitments to Life’, so that each day I can remind myself of what is most important, and that each day I can grow a little closer to appreciating and acknowledging the fulfilment that is available to me right now… if I were to see it.
Namaste.
Read more about The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, by Bronnie Ware, published by Hay House RRP $17.95. Also available on Amazon. To read more about her inspirational blog visit www.inspirationandchai.com
Are you consistently applying lots of effort, but receiving very little reward?
Do you often feel like you’re taking two steps forward and one step back?
Does your heart long to experience less struggle and striving, and more freedom, flow and fulfilment?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then the good news is ‘you are not alone’!
In fact you have probably got more in common with the other 7 billion people on the planet who are actively seeking to expand, grow and develop, yet consistently find themselves being held back, resisting and sabotaging themselves from their innate natural state of freedom, flow, success and fulfilment. Welcome to Life 101!
The greatest gift of our soul is that it is always seeking to experience greater, and greater expansion and growth. Yet the reality is that anything that is moving will always experience some form of resistance, while anything that is stagnant or resting in the same place will eventually fade away and die.
Your job therefore as an ever expanding soul and being, is to evolve and become the best you that YOU can be, and this requires learning how to align your own internal energy to produce your greatest results with ease, joy and happiness.
So how do you align yourself for success? By understanding that when your actions and behaviours are aligned with your thoughts, when your thoughts are aligned with your values, when your values clearly reflect your life and soul purpose, when your soul purpose is aligned with the higher purpose for your life, and when your higher purpose contributes towards the Divine Will for humanity and the world – then miracles are possible.
So how do you create greater states of internal alignment between your body, mind, soul and spirit?
5 Simple Practices to Align Yourself for Success
1. Creating Greater Rapport Between Your Ego and Spirit
Much of the conflict that takes place in our everyday lives takes place at one of two levels – our conscious behaviour, thoughts and patterns, and our unconscious behaviour, thoughts and patterns.
Your job as the master of your life is to harness the innate intention of your soul to direct your will towards bringing greater harmony, balance and purpose to these two aspect of your being. This inner-battle is best symbolised by the images presented in the major arcana of the mystical tarot that depicts two horses, one black (representing ego), one white being (representing soul) being guided by a chariot driver (yourself), who holds the reigns and must direct these two aspects of self to work together towards its highest intent.
Contrary to popular myth it is not necessary to rid yourself of ego, for to do so would be futile. Your ego brings great strength, resilience, and power to your life when it works in harmony with your spirit. Likewise, a life that is completely bound in spirit, without the grounded connection of ego would spend most of its time with its ‘head in the clouds’, dreaming, but producing little result.
The Practice:
Take out a blank piece of paper out and simply draw a line down the middle of it. On the left side write the title ‘Gifts of my Ego’ and on the right side write the title ‘Strengths of my Spirit’.
Now brainstorm all the benefits and strengths that both your ego and spirit provide you.
When you have completed your lists imagine that each is a horse, and ask them: What they need from you to create a more harmonious, productive and fulfilling life? How can they each work more closely with each other to use their gifts and strengths for your greater good? Who do you need to develop yourself to become a better ‘chariot driver’?
2. Let Your Soul Be Your Guiding Compass
Whether you realise it or not, your own soul is your best and most trusted ally in life. It knows exactly where you are, where you need to be, and what brings you great joy in each moment. All you need to do is find the stillness within and take the time to ask it for its highest guidance for you right now.
The Practice:
Take out four pieces of paper and on each write in the big letters the letters N, S, E an W.
Find a large space where you can move freely in your living area or home, which is quiet and where you won’t be disturbed. Stand in the middle of your room. Place each of the pieces of paper at least a meter away from you in a circle, where the N is placed at 12 o’clock, E at 3 o’clock, S at 6 o’clock and W at 9 o’clock (representing the points of a compass).
Now as you stand in the middle close your eyes and place your hand on your heart. Ask your heart to be awakened and to provide you with the highest clear guidance for your soul. Then ask your soul to show you the direction that you are currently heading in your life, and as you feel compelled simply turn in that direction and take a step forward. Open your eyes and see where you are on the compass.
Go back to the centre of the circle, close your eyes and now, ask your soul to show you and guide you in the direction of your highest life path at this moment. Turn to it and take a step forward. Open your eyes and just notice where you are? Is there a difference? How do you need to bring your current life into alignment with your highest soul path?
3. Learn to Love What You Resist
In my many years of working as a hypnotherapist and counsellor what I noticed most amongst my clients who were experiencing limiting behavioural patterns, self-sabotage and resistance was that every behaviour has an underlying benefit to the soul.
The Practice:
So rather than fight or resist the behaviour, instead start by first thanking it for being there, thank it for all the benefits that has been providing you (even if you don’t see any in it right now).
Then ask it if it would be willing to share with you why it is presenting itself to you? Ask it to share with you its higher purpose and benefit?
Then ask your higher-self to share with you some alternative and more empowering ways to experience those benefits right now?
Simply by learning to love your resistance you allow it to share its greatest gifts with you, and by doing so you create the pathway to integrating yourself towards wholeness, rather than living a fragmented life.
4. Let Go of What You’re Tolerating
As simple as this sounds, it is often one of the most challenging realisations for many people. In the same way that trying to hide inflated beach balls under water takes lots and lots of energy, so to, the people, activities and tasks that you are tolerating in your life right now, are also draining your chi and life-force energy.
The Practice:
Make a list right now of all the things in your life that you are currently tolerating, know you need to stop, or that you need to complete.
Then go to work at eliminating these ‘beach balls’ from your life!
5. Your Only Job Is to Get Clear
I was recently at a seminar in Melbourne recently where the seminar leader shared some powerful advice that really resonated with me. He said ‘you only job in life is to get clear about who you are, why you are here and what you do’. Then you simply need to allow the people, places and situations that resonate with your true-self to turn up!
Surprisingly, the number one reason most people don’t get what they want, is because they don’t really know what they want! Or if they do know, then most of the time what they want is really being driven by other people’s needs, expectations or demands.
The Practice:
So what do you value in life? What do you hold as being most important to you? If you had only one more year to live what would you do?
If you won $70 million in the lottery what would you do with the rest of your life?
If I gave you a magic wand and three wishes, what three aspects of your life would you most want to change and how?
Learning to align yourself for success, and developing greater levels of alignment both internally and externally is one of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself. Just as a river that is free from obstacles, rocks, sticks and branches will flow with ease, so too your mind, body and soul when aligned have the capacity to produce and reflect tremendous life force potential.
Remember, you are here to be the best YOU that you can be!
Q. What do Oprah Winfrey, Zig Ziglar, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Seth Godin have in common?
A. All set very clear, directed intentions for their lives and then found the courage and capacity to make their visions, goals and dreams a reality.
Now, if you’re like most people these days there’s a good chance that you already have a list of goals and dreams for your life tucked away in a journal, computer or even in your wallet or purse. However, the real challenge these days is not ‘the goal setting’, but finding ways to stay committed, focused and on track once we have set an intention and goal in our lives.
So in this blog post I’d like to share with you 5 key principles to help you embrace ‘Next Level Goal Setting’ in your own life that will help you take your life, goals and dreams to the next level.
Why Distraction is the New Enemy of Goal Success
Let’s face it. In today’s world it’s not that we lack the knowledge or information to create and realise our dreams. A simple search on Google or YouTube is often enough to help us find the answer’s to our most poignant questions.
It’s not even lack time that is the issue. Rather the key challenge that I find amongst most of my clients, colleagues and students is the realisation that we are living in a hyper- distracted world.
With emails, 24/7 connectivity, social media updates, a plethora of information at our fingertips, increasing demands of business, work and family… is it any wonder that we often find it so difficult to keep our focus and intention on the goals and dreams that are most important to us?
“The primary reason most people don’t get what they want,
is that they don’t know what they want.”
T. Harv Ecker
5 Key Insights to Take Your Goals and Dreams to the Next Level
Greatness Key #1 – Create Some Focus
In this hyper-information overloaded and distracted world it’s important that you find ways to keep your focus and attention on what’s most important to you. While life may challenge you to multi-task and take more activities on in your life, we are all being quietly requested by our own hearts and souls to create ‘sacred space’ and ‘freedom’ in our lives.
“Clarity of vision, creates clarity of priorities” John Maxwell
So instead of trying to focus on too many competing outcomes, ask yourself “What are the 4 most important outcomes for me to realise my highest ideal life?”. Make sure to write these down in your journal as they come to your awareness.
Greatness Key #2 – Is it Really Important to Me?
Have you heard people complaining that there just doesn’t seem to be enough time anymore? That time as we know it is disappearing? Well, I hate to be the bearer bad news, but if you look back 10, 20 or even 50 years ago you would find that the same 168 hours a week that existed then, also exists today!
So if we all have access to the same amount time, why is it that some people seem to effortless produce results with grace, ease and fulfilment, while others struggle to even realise their smallest dreams? The answer exists in what you believe is most important to you.
So go through your 4 outcomes from step #1 and check into see:
Is this goal or outcome really mine? Or is it driven or influenced by someone else?
What will realising this goal give me? Others?
Am I willing to dedicate my life and soul energy towards the realisation of this goal?
Will I be following my joy on the path to this goal, outcome or dream?
There is a great deal of difference between goals that are important versus those that appear urgent, or that are driven by the needs or desires of others. So make sure to put yourself first, and focus only on what is most important to you.
Greatness Key #3 – Apply the Discipline of Daily Reflection
As simple as it may sound, checking in with your key goals and dreams once a day can make an incredible difference to your fulfilment and personal performance. Human beings are attention seeking vessels, what we reflect on and give our attention too grows. So why not ..
Write your goals on an index card and keep them with you at all times.
Put them on a post-it notes and keep them in your car
Create little waterproof laminated versions and place them in your shower
Even the simple act of reading your goals first thing in the morning, or just before going to sleep will begin to program your subconscious GPS to guide you to your destination.
Greatness Key #4 – What’s the Next Step?
Sometimes life is not about doing lots of planning. It’s about living and embracing the moment with spontaneous directed action. So instead of waiting for things to be perfect, instead of waiting for there to be little or no risk, why not just trust and ask your intuition to guide you towards the next best step?
Asking this single question each day, and then being willing to take action on your own soul’s response and answer has the power to move you closer to your dreams each day.
Greatness Key #5 – Take a Swing Each Day
You’ve probably heard the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Well, neither were the Great Pyramids of Giza, The Great Wall of China or even the chair you’re sitting on right now! All great achievements begin with a vision in mind, and the focus, inspiration and intention to see the result come to fruition.
Just as the act of taking one swing with an axe each day against a tree will eventually bring it down, so to you amplify your life-force energy by simply turning up each day and writing the next page of that book, swimming the first 5 laps of the pool, penning the first verse of that song, learning the first words of that new language.
Finally – Remember You Don’t Need to Struggle!
And finally reminder… especially for all the ‘A-Type’ personalities out there … ‘life is only difficult when we make it so, therefore it’s ok to create your dreams and outcomes with ease’. In the words of best selling author Janet Attwood remember:
