Categories
Belief Choice Feeling Growth Life Lessons

5 ROCK SOLID LESSONS MY POOCH TAUGHT ME LAST YEAR?

apple

I am never too proud (or self inflated in my smartness) to take the good advice offered to me by those around me. In this case it is the wise examples of our pooch – Apple – who is currently 13-years old (or 91 in ‘dog years’).

I often tell my coaching clients to look into nature for the answers to some (and sometimes all) of the challenges they might be facing. I ask them, what can you learn from observing mother nature? How does she deal with a similar situation?

This time I decided to pay attention to what my pooch is showing me is the way to live a joyful, fulfilling and carefree life.

Our dog obviously behaved herself in a former life and therefore came into the world into a caring and loving family, so she got off to a good start. 

Categories
Book Growth Perspective Success

A (LONG) LIST OF MY BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

I have read 100’s of books over the last 20 years, when I made a commitment to self education through reading non-Fiction books. It really was a game changer for me. Here is a list of some of my favourites – by topic. I have an asterix besides some of my more favourite favourites. I like to read quite broadly, so that I am more likely to come up with novel and creative ideas, but putting different pieces together in unique ways.

Generally I have 2-4 books going at once.

  1. A business related book
  2. A self-help book
  3. A more technical book to enhance my skills as a coach (e.g. psychology, neuroscience, epigenetics, nutrition, etc.)
  4. A fiction book (mostly something far removed from ‘reality’, but with good messages built into them)
Categories
Choice Feeling Growth Life Lessons

3 Essential Ways to Step into 2021 with More Ease & Grace

graceESSENTIAL WAY 1: Sorry in advance, but this might be uncomfortable

That title sounds like a line a doctor might use when you are in a compromising position on an examination table and they are adjusting the rubber glove on their right hand…

One of the things I have witnessed, doing this coaching and therapy thing for the last 13 years, is people’s avoidance for wading through crap. No surprises there.

The crap I am referring to in this case is the collection of stuff in our past that is stored in the quagmire pit of things that were not fun, comfortable, or pleasurable (and usually from our past).

Here is what I have also learned (and I am sure you have too).

Categories
Acceptance Choice consciousness Growth Life Lessons Perspective

Leadership and the Most Difficult First Step on the Path to Self-Actualization

queenIf you have read my work before you might well have read my definition of what leadership is all about. It goes something like this: ‘A leader creates the environment that is conducive to the success of the team.

This applies to whether we are being a leader of ourselves or of others. And for the purposes of this conversation I am most interested in personal leadership. Leadership of self, and as it relates to the path to self-actualization, which according to maslow’s model is at the top if the pyramid.

My personal experience, observation and hypothesis is the singular hardest step to take on the self-actualization path, or what I also call the personal development or personal growth path, is…

Acceptance of personal responsibility.

When I was in my 20’s I used to believe I was ‘unlucky’ and that is why bad things happened to me. I used to think it was because of bad bosses, that I didn’t have a higher level of professional success. I used to blame my girlfriends personality on the relationships not working. I blamed people’s lack of attention to my needs for me having a skiing accident that required a knee reconstruction. Blame. Blame. Blame.

Categories
Choice consciousness Emotional Growth Nutrition Optimum Health Relationship Success

A Holistic Investment Strategy

investment

How about I just come straight out and say it.
If your investment strategy does not include ALL parts of your life, you might want to go back to the drawing board.

What good is an investment strategy that is one-dimensional, when life is a multi-dimensional experience? In The Guidebook to Authentic Success, I talk about the importance to consider all facets of your life, so you don’t become hyper-fixated on one area of your life, while other parts of your life turn to poop.

For those who want a reminder of the 8 Pillars when it comes to AUTHENTIC Success, they are:

  1. Daily Joy
  2. High Quality Relationships
  3. Feeling Connected
  4. Growing / Evolving
  5. Meaningful Life Goals
  6. Financial Flow
  7. Being Aligned with Authentic Self
  8. Optimum Health & Vitality
Categories
Choice Goal Setting Tips Growth

The 7-Steps to a Mid-2020 RESET

stableI thought with this post I would share with you a simple 7-step plan I whipped up last week, as part of the Life Audit program I facilitated.  One thing I am very clear on, is the idea that it is better to have a plan, even if it is not 100% ‘perfect’ rather than no plan at all.

When we have no plan, we tend to get blown around in the wind. We are rudderless.
We are more likely to experience uncertainty, we are more likely to be second guessing ourselves and we are more likely to be marking time on the spot.

A PLAN gets us moving. And it is through movement, that we get a better perspective of what is working and what is not working. Movement, through a plan, also stops us from stagnating. The added benefit is also that as we start moving, we notice new things we were not aware when we were standing still.

So if you are after a PLAN about how to reset things for the second half of 2020, then I encourage you to check out my hand written plan below.

Categories
Choice Feeling Growth Success

The Number 1 Thing Necessary to Making Great Decision

time outFor those that don’t know; I am in the middle of writing Book 5 (I just passed the 25,000 word mark on the weekend).
A long time ago I had set this goal of completing 5 books in 10 years. The end of 2020 will be the end of the 10 years, and I am still on track to make my goal. Woohoo!!

The book I am writing at the moment is on decision-making mastery.
And lucky for me (as part of my research in 2020) there are lots of public cases of what not to do, and fortunately there are also great examples of great decision making. I have a clear idea of the DO’s and DON’Ts.

So in this article I will share with you what I think is the most impactful element of high quality decision-making.

I will also be encouraging you to get very good at the ‘time out‘ signal – like they use in a basketball game when the team needs to centre and reorganise themselves. You make the letter ‘T’ with both hands.

 

Categories
Choice consciousness Growth Nutrition Optimum Health Rest Self Love Stress Success

The Message I Most Want to Share

humanI was very excited about 2020.
I was thinking that it would be an amazing year of possibility and potential. It had the potential to be something truly unique, memorable and great.

Now of the list of things I thought might unfold in 2020, the idea that one of the trillions and trillions of viruses on the planet would be the main player and the world economy would be rattled significantly was not even in my Top 100. If I had a list of Top 500, it probably would not have featured there either. Maybe I am not watching enough world ending catastrophe movies!

So what has this experience taught me, and what do I most want to share, in order to be best serve people?

My role for the last 15 years – since I wrote my first Newsletter in 2005 – has been to learn as much as I could about HEALTH (physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual) in order for me to digest and trial the best of the best and then pass what I have learned to others. In 2008 this joyfully became my full-time job.

I have always believed as individuals we have an incredible amount of power and untapped power to become truly remarkable human beings, who can make remarkable contributions to the people around us and the world itself (and even beyond our planet).

I have one principle message I want to speak on today, so there is a potential this Newsletter might be my shortest ever (but I have been wrong before!).

Categories
Belief Choice consciousness Growth Nutrition Optimum Health

Making Great Health Choices Requires Knowing What the Choices Are

yinyangI have written books about a number of subjects over the last 9 years, and all of them are in alignment with my favourite passion and principle value – HEALTH and VITALITY. I have ALWAYS been fascinated with the subject of how to create a healthy body and mind.

And the deeper I go, the more I get into the associated aspects of our health like our emotional health, our psychological health and even our spiritual health (feeling connected to something bigger than us). A physicist might call it the unified quantum field and someone else might call it Earth, source, or God or the collective consciousness.

So while this corona virus experience is happening (I choose not to use the word ‘pandemic’ as it is a word that triggers an unconscious emotive response activating the stress response and even WHO have chosen to no longer officially use that terminology), I have not only being paying attention to the things that relate to our immediate health – like boosting our very intelligent immune systems and working on deactiviating the sympathetic nervous system – but the health impacts of things in the intermediate and long term.

One of the things I feel I can’t ignore are the conversations around vaccines. So I set out to do even more research on this and hear conversations from both sides.

Categories
Belief Choice consciousness Doubt Growth

How to Remain Consciously Aware When You are Really Really Confused!

confusedI have written a LOT over the years about the importance of having the upper brain (cortex) running the show; instead of the mammalian part of the brain when things are more complex. Human thinking versus dog thinking (where the solution is to bite it, pee on it, or hump it!).

Now is definitely a time to keep our sh#t together when there is so much craziness going on around us. Staying calm, centered and consciously applying wisdom in this period of uncertainty, is essential.

Full disclosure: I have been back and forth on writing this Newsletter for almost a week now. Normally I sit down to write my newsletter every 2 weeks and it takes me about 1.5 hrs to collect my thoughts and then type them out. It does not take a week!

So to remedy this I decided to take a step back and ask myself why I am here, now, in this body (as a human) in this specific period of time in the 4.5 billion year history of planet earth.

Here is why I think I am here: To help people wake up to a deeper level of intelligence, a deeper level of wisdom, and a deeper level of conscious awareness, so they can make high quality choices that support themselves (their bodies, minds and spirit), that supports other people on the planet and supports the planet itself.