Tag Archives: #Life Change

Empowerment

Empowerment

“If there was one wish I had for you, one gift I could give you, it would be empowerment.  People without empowerment act from a survival basis and must do whatever they can or need to do, just to survive.  Empowered people act from their sense of what is right and wrong, their conscience guides them.  Empowered people don’t get up in the morning wondering what they can do wrong or to hurt others; they look for ways to make the world better.  I wish for you #empowerment.”

Excerpt from Executive Mastermind Program 2001

#Empowerment

Break free to Empowerment
Image from theindianuprising.blogspot.com

The daily news shows graphic images of people living in fear, striving for survival, hungry for love, affection, even just acknowledgement.  These are people who are not empowered.

Less often we see images of people walking purposefully, striding out, or relaxed with their families, feeling confident, happy, secure.  There are two reasons for that:  Firstly, it’s not graphic news and it doesn’t sell newspapers or TV airspace time, but secondly and sadly, there are fewer people living a life of empowerment.

If empowerment was a choice, why don’t people take it?

There are probably three main reasons.

  1. Power-hungry bullies, including governments, corporations and others in positions of power and authority find it easier to govern or rule people who fear them and don’t know that they can choose a better life.
  2. Ignorance.  They have been conditioned to living in fear or survival mode for so long, it’s not part of their reality and they neither know nor understand it, nor do they believe there is anything in life for them other than what they have.
  3. Challenging life situations, where people have been born into or acquired a challenging situation such as poverty, chronic illness or accident causing a massive life and/or health change or other similar circumstances.

Let’s look at these reasons, and their contradictions.

#Empowerment

Under pressure from big brother!
from gscblog.typepad.com

Power Hungry Bullies oppressing people over whom they have a measure of control.  It is far easier to herd sheep from horseback than say, a pride of lions.  Why is that?  Because the lion is not afraid of a man on horseback!  If you are in the ‘herding people’ business, it pays you to have them frightened of you!  It’s that simple.

The ‘people herders’ are governments, large corporations (think Monsanto, Halliburton, General Dynamics, etc.), employers where there are dictatorial bosses, and even within families, a spouse might dominate their partner.  These bullies think they need to exert massive and overwhelming power to get what they want.  However, in most cases, they are coming from a level of fear and insecurity also, where their fear is that if their “subjects” become empowered, they will rise up and overthrow them!

The contradiction is that empowered people don’t really need to overthrow anyone else.  They feel confident and secure within themselves and are already in control of their lives.

#Empowerment

MONOPOLY ON FOOD SEEDS
Image from worldtruth.tv

Ignorance and conditioning.  These are the people held down by their conditioning and the bullies they ‘live under’.  Conditioning is one thing – education and positive experiences can, in time, overcome conditioning and in the right circumstances, enable empowerment.  Getting out from under a genuine bully is another – their fear of losing control can be extreme and their actions to retain control can be extreme also.

Awareness is the first step for those living under oppression.  Only once the awareness is there, the long trek out can begin.

Challenging life situations.  Let’s break these down into poverty and poor birthright, and accident and illness causing an acquired chronic situation.

Poverty in a developed country may be an income of $200 per week.  It may be as high as $500 per week, depending on the location and circumstances.  However, in some developing countries, $200 per year is a fortune, it is fabulous wealth!  Poverty is relative to the location and circumstances, but just as real in any circumstances.  Where there is education, there is a way forward.  Where there is no education, intervention is often necessary.

#Empowerment

Poverty from birthright, caste and cultural status
Image from secularpakistan.wordpress.com

Poor birthright can mean a person born into a caste, race or class situation where they are deemed to have no rights.  Many developing nations have this problem.  The crazy thing is that when a person of poor caste migrates or is relocated to another country, often this condition vanishes because that caste or class distinction is not recognised outside their own culture.  Education can be the starting point for this transition.

Chronic illness and acquired injuries forcing changed life circumstances.  An insect bite can change your life.  A momentary lapse of concentration while driving can do it too.  A sporting injury can take a person from Olympic glory to total dependency on a full-time nurse.  Life can change without warning.  There is no easy way back from this and lives can change forever.

However, empowerment does not rely on wealth, power or influence.  Empowerment is firstly, a state of mind, preceding the physical changes that can occur because of it.

#Empowerment

Nelson Mandela
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk

Look at Nelson Mandela’s example:  Imprisoned by a brutal regime for 27 years, he emerged as a man ready to be president of a nation emerging from possibly the darkest period in its history.  When he passed away recently, he was revered as a leader, an example of a man who empowered and united a nation by his example.  How could that happen?

The Empowerment Tone Scale

#Empowerment

Empowerment Emotional Tone Scale

In the EMPOWERMENT TONE SCALE image, the TONE SCALE is shown on the left of the image, with the emotions listed in ascending order beside the scores.  Empowerment is shown as an emotional state, a state of mind on the image, at the top end of the scale.

The broad blue vertical arrow shows the emotional range in which most people live.  You can verify this by walking on any street and noting how many people are smiling from the inside, happy and carefree, and how many are walking with heavy hearts and steps.

The challenge of empowerment becomes one of understanding how to raise the emotional state of a person from their state of concern to where they take an interest in the world around them, and are no longer concerned with fear or survival.  There is a simple, standard starting point.

Ask the question of yourself:  HOW CAN I….?

What this simple question does is propel your mind from wherever on the tone scale it is, up into the region of creativity, as your mind automatically tries to answer the question.  Eventually, your mind starts to live up in that area of the tone scale, as you repeatedly bounce it from down where you asked the question, to where you want it to be.

However, note that between wherever you are on the tone scale, and where you want to be, you need to traverse, and experience all the other emotions on your journey to empowerment.  If you have been living in a state of ‘covert hostility’ for example, you will need to pass through and manage anger and pain and the other emotions on your way up.

At first, it will frustrate you and anger you, but perhaps that is just part of the journey.  Along the way you will experience many emotions and soon understand that you travel up and down this emotional tone scale many times daily.  However, you will soon find that by understanding it, being conscious of it and working with it, you will learn to live in the conscious, empowered part of it.

How can you train yourself and your mind for Empowerment?

#Empowerment

A little intervention to get started!
Image from weheartit.com

Empowerment must be from within you, but intervention and education is usually needed to spark the fires of creativity and imagination alight.  Once the inspiration for and understanding of the principles of empowerment are held, it’s up to each person then to continue the empowerment journey.  A supportive environment is preferable and will speed the process.  If that is not where you live, then you need to create that through the empowerment process you use.

The most effective way is to take on a program that sets out an empowerment routine for you each day.  A routine that sees you establish small, achievable goals daily, for you to congratulate yourself on their achievement each evening.  A program that gives you an affirmation each morning to carry you through.  A program that teaches you awareness and an understanding of what really goes on in your life, your heart, mind and soul as you make your way through your day.

This all happens, regardless of whether you are aware of it.  Being aware just means you can control it and create in your life those dreams and goals and experiences you want.

It’s worth empowering yourself to do it.

In coming blogs, I will be discussing more on empowerment, on topics such as:

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for children and teens

We will refer back to this post also, because this is the foundation of empowerment, the fundamentals on which true empowerment is based and built.  Until and unless the process of empowerment described above occurs, nothing else can change!

Begin your journey to Empowerment in your own Personal Empowerment Program; Click HERE, NOW!

If you feel this blog has empowered you, please feel free to share and reblog this information to your friends, family and other people in your network.  Every person on the planet desires empowerment and every one of us deserves the opportunity for it.  Please help.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Don’t confuse poor decision-making with destiny. Own your mistakes. It’s ok; we all make them. Learn from them so they can empower you!”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Please also refer to my related posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Empowered by Love

Financial Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

Empowerment for Children

Personal Empowerment

What would an empowered man do?

Mapping Your Future

Mapping Your Future

#Mapping your future

Travelling into the future!
Image from www.dailygalaxy.com

“If time travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future?”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

Recently, I took a midweek weekend with my wife.  We invested two days at the resort where we had our wedding reception.  We took the bridal suite (midweek rates are excellent!) and over two days, we discussed our past year, looked at what worked, what didn’t and looked at mapping our future.  Susan wrote about the first part of it in her blog on Owls and Orchids under the name of “Through the Looking Glass – Part 1” and is currently working on “Through the Looking Glass – Part 2”, of what happened at our review session.

This is all part of the Life Change 90 program, and yes, we actually live this program and everything in it; all the activities recommended in the program to make our lives better, we spend the few minutes a day required to practise them.  The annual “year in review” session and #mapping your future is one of the recommendations and it was just wonderful!

#Mapping your future

Eagle Heights Resort Hotel
Image from http://www.discovertamborine.com.au

As an aside, we held our wedding reception at this resort and when we returned, they treated us like royalty!  It was fantastic, the bridal suite and all the trimmings and at midweek rates better than a cheap motel on the strip!  But back to the blog…

Our review had us looking over last year and what worked, or didn’t work for us, and asked what we will do differently to change that.  It asked what did work, and how we can do more of that to maintain the achievements.  It also asked us to look forward; that is what this blog is about, mapping your future.

Time Travel is nothing special, really.  There are movies made about it with fantastic scenes created as visions of what is to come.  However, we travelled a year into the future and created visions of our own futures – probably better than a movie.  Watching a time travel movie is OK, as long as you pay your $15 at the door but two hours later, it’s over.  With what we did, the future we visited is real, and we are heading there now!

The three parts to time travel, and mapping your future.

Part 1 – the destination.

#Mapping your future

Back to the future? Let’s do this EVERY year!
Image from www.gdefon.com

The destination in any journey is the goal.  When mapping your future, it is actually a series of goals, sometimes linked, sometimes not.  We set a number of goals and whilst some are definitely connected and some are serial, or stepping-stones to each other, others are totally separate and stand-alone.

Our business and career goals include milestones for business achievements.  A certain level of results within 3 months, but a greater level within 6 months and an annual target to work towards.

On a personal level, we have personal health and wellbeing goals which are separate to the business goals.  However, there is a connection:  Unless we remain healthy, we can’t run the business properly.  In that respect, everything affects everything else but at first glance, those personal goals are not connected to the business goals.

We also set goals about our home.  We’d like to be living elsewhere and we have clearly set that out on our Vision Boards – in the greatest of detail.  Our vision boards have all our goals on them – a visual feast and travel guide to our future!

Part 2 – the journey.

Any journey requires planning and foresight.  Even a stroll to the corner shop for a bottle of milk requires planning – you need your wallet or purse with some money, you need shoes for the footpath, or if it’s too far to walk, fuel in the car.  When you plan a journey into next year, that requires a little more planning and forethought.

For each of the goals we set in Part 1 – the destination, we set out the action steps we needed to take to ensure we make progress to the goals.  We put timetables to these action steps and mapped out the strategies on the timetable to make sure they happen.  We know what we want; we know what we have to do; now we have to turn up on the day to do them, to achieve the result we specified.  We also know what we need to have with us on our journey to take these action steps, and what we need to be and do – this is the travel plan.

#Mapping your future

Travel plans
 Image from www.travelmuse.com

Planning a car journey requires fuel, lunch for the driver and passengers, rest stops, accommodation, money for fuel and meals and so on.  Our journey of mapping your future is very similar – a journey into the future is still just a journey!

The action steps towards the goal, the timelines and deadlines, milestones and benchmarks are all part of your journey of mapping your future.  Each time you think about a certain goal, a destination, you also think about the next steps you need to take to get there.  Just as you can’t see the road conditions over the hill, you can only clearly see a small part of the way forward.  However, you plan specifically for the close-by milestones, and more generally for the further out ones, and refine them when you get closer.  Little, successful steps forward.  There is your journey planned.

Part 3 – travelling companions.

Some journeys we take alone, some we travel in company.  It has been said that we journey through life alone and only share certain parts of it with others, for a short time.  Even within relationships there are journeys we still take alone.  However, travelling companions are an important consideration when mapping your future – which parts will you travel alone and which will you travel in company?

#Mapping your future

Your Mentors, Susan and Ray, travelling companions

I am blessed to have a wonderful life partner and travelling companion, after travelling most of my life alone.  Our midweek review session at Mount Tamborine confirmed it again; we really are in synch on the important parts of our individual journeys forward, and therefore we can share those journeys together as travelling companions.  However, if you are travelling alone, the planning process is the same.

It’s important to understand the distinction between sharing goals and travelling together.  Susan and I have individual goals and I support her totally in achieving her goals, with love and autonomy in whatever she wants to do.  Compare that to a couple where one has a goal and the other is forced to work towards it also.  No, that’s not sharing – that’s press ganging!  We travel together and share some joint goals, but always provide support and encouragement for each other’s personal, individual goals.

Celebrations when mapping your future.

Absolutely vital!  Starting tomorrow – New Years Day.  The New Year timetable kicks in and the first of the targets and milestones appear on the new calendar.  We celebrate each as they appear, reviewing our achievements (or otherwise) to consolidate success and resolve other issues to ensure success next time.

#Mapping your future

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Image from www.smh.com.au

How about you?  Did you read my “New Years Resolutions” blog a few weeks back?  Have you made your New Years Resolutions and so begun mapping your future?  What will keep you on track with all the promises and commitments you made to yourself, and your family?  What system do you have in place to ensure your progress and success?

Now is the time to nail your goals for the New Year, mapping your future is the start.  Systemizing your activities towards it is your guarantee of success so that when 2015 looms in the windscreen, you can look back and say “2014 was a great trip – what a ride!”

Start your mapping: Click here to begin your own Personal Empowerment Journey and create your future, from today!

We all have a future, the difference is that if you have been mapping your future, it’s more likely to be the one you want, rather than someone else’s idea of what your future should be.

We’ll see you there!

If you found value in this blog and feel it could be of benefit to others, please share and reblog it, so that everyone has a chance at mapping their future too.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”
― Oprah Winfrey

Merry Christmas Wishes

Merry Christmas Wishes

#Merry Christmas Wishes

Merry Christmas Wishes to all!
Image courtesy of nyse-trade.com

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”
― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Who will you send Merry Christmas Wishes to this year?

Christmas has changed.  Looking around the world, and down through the ages where the legends of Saint Nicholas and the various other Christmas figures began, we grew up with a romanticized view of Christmas.  For some people, Christmas meant snow.  In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it was intense heat.  But always, the #Merry Christmas Wishes went out to people everywhere, mostly with a picture of a guy in a Santa Suit, en route from the North Pole with Reindeer pulling a sleigh of gifts for children all over the world.

Collecting the mail at Christmas time was exciting.  Checking the mailbox to see who had sent Merry Christmas Wishes to you, seeing who had replied to your Merry Christmas Wishes to them, and perhaps a parcel arriving, wrapped with string and a little bow….  That one HAD to go under the tree, until Christmas morning…

Some homes and probably most, had Christmas Trees, the lucky ones had real trees, some had pine tree branches, others had store-bought trees, and all were decorated for the occasion.

So what happened to our Merry Christmas Wishes?

#Merry Christmas Wishes

All the Christmas Cards
bouncingoffthewalls.ca

It seems that from when life sped up, computers made sending E-Cards easier and cheaper than the escalating cost of posting Christmas Cards, and the nuclear family scattered to all corners of the globe, that somewhere along the way, Merry Christmas Wishes lost their power and attraction.

Almost.  Those who have not lost themselves in the commercialism of Christmas and who have a family to share the occasion with may still have it.  However, a new type of Christmas Celebration has evolved; that of the Christmas Orphans.  Here, you are a person or perhaps a couple alone for this wondrous day of the year, perhaps working or living away in a city remote from family, or you no longer have family.  Your personal circumstances may not allow you to share Christmas Day with your birth family, for a variety of reasons, and your Merry Christmas Wishes have nowhere to go.

Then along came the Christmas Orphans parties.  Here, people in these situations arrange their own parties, often strangers until the day, but quite often, friends afterwards.  The parties are advertised either by venues, organisations, churches or individuals who want to host the party.  Most people bring something to contribute, and it’s a great day.  For some people, literally a life saver!  Christmas alone can be a challenge for some.

But for those for whom this is Christmas and no matter how much they enjoy the Christmas Orphans parties, there is often regret, even some remorse, for the situations in their lives that has brought them to this moment, when they have no family nearby to share their Merry Christmas Wishes with.

#Merry Christmas Wishes

The First Noel?

I regret the passing of Christmas and the commercialism it has now become.  Retail stores bank on the billions of dollars spent at Christmas time to shore up their balance sheets and make their profit and loss sheets acceptable, because consumer confidence around the world in recent years has been at an all-time low.  The televisions blast their “spend big at Christmas Time” message at ever decreasing intervals during the rubbish programs broadcast by the TV stations, because this is not a TV Ratings period and they can get away with broadcasting the same “Christmas Specials” they have used for the last decade.  I don’t know how many more times I can watch “The Griswalds”, “Polar Express”, “Uncle Buck” and the obligatory “Christmas Carols in the Park” broadcasts!  Fireworks displays are in every town and village centre, sometimes in many places throughout cities and towns; the signage is out but the spirit feels low.

Yes, I regret not having the family experiences we had as children for our Christmas each year.  We all have to grow up and create our own lives, I understand that.  But I miss the old spirit of Merry Christmas Wishes I grew up with.

Christmas for me was always about sharing with my loved ones, not trying to buy their loyalty or affection.  The Christmas Spirit, if it only comes out once a year, is a lie.  If it takes an event of this magnitude for anyone to say to another “I Love You”, then they are lying too.

Is there anything about the spirit of Christmas that should NOT apply EVERY day of the year?

#Merry Christmas Wishes

Family gathering at Christmas
Image from bathknightblog.com

Yes, perhaps one thing and it is purely logistical.  Christmas is a time of everyone gathering around to celebrate, but because we all have our own lives and homes, often separated from each other and from close family, we can’t see each other every day of the year.  However, if the gift giving and all those feel-good feelings towards one another are reserved for just that one day, then perhaps the spirit of commercialisation of Christmas has won, and the Old Christmas Spirit has gone forever.

During your Christmas celebrations this year, take a step back and observe yourself.  Are you expressing things to people that you would not share with them throughout the year?  Why is that?  Why can we not share these Merry Christmas Wishes type feelings every day of the year?

Will next year be different?

#Merry Christmas Wishes

Next Year?
fun-n-first.blogspot.com

What will make 2014 a better year than 2013 was?  What have you planned that will make the difference?  Nothing yet?  It’s getting late and certainly time to think about your New Years Resolutions, including something about the true Merry Christmas Wishes, and the spirit of Christmas of old, all year through!

I wish for you that the value of your presence to those you love is much greater than the value of your presents for them, and that the greatest gifts you share are those you have shared all year!  I send you my Merry Christmas Wishes too!

If you have found value in this post, please share or reblog it to your friends too.  Everyone deserves some true Christmas Spirit at least once a year!  Click here to get yours NOW!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails, and Merry Christmas Wishes!

Ray Jamieson

“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”
― Bob Hope

“Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. ”
― Mary Ellen Chase

A Success Story

A Success Story

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity. John D. Rockefeller
#Success Story

GOTCHA!                                   www.baldmarketing.com

Sometimes life sucks.  Sometimes, you can turn it around, massively.  This is Linda’s Success Story and how she turned her life around.

#Success Story

Lost her job!
www.thisismoney.com.au

When I met Linda, she was in her early fifties.  Her husband had just left her for a younger woman.  She had just lost her job because she was one of the 15,000 employees of the major employer in her city that had just closed down at short notice, and she arrived home to find that her rented house had been burgled.  The most prized possession stolen was her new laptop computer.

 

#Success Story

Oh no! Not burgled too?
archive.constantcontact.com

There wasn’t much else that anyone could take from Linda; broke, unemployed, burgled, abandoned by her husband and pretty upset with life.

However, Linda had already committed to working on a self development program.  It was scheduled to start just after all these disasters had happened in her life.

Linda’s Success Story was about to begin.

She arrived for the meeting and took lots of notes.  She had nothing much to go back home to, so there was nothing to lose by making a total commitment to her life change.  At the first program session, she decided as her goal, she wanted to get into a home of her own.  A pretty amazing goal when you consider her starting point.

#Success Story

Starting over again, more intelligently!
www.abcm.com.au

6 weeks later, Linda arrived for the first review session.  She had been working with other people on the program in the meantime for moral support, but as they had ‘normal lives’ and jobs and families to keep them occupied, she didn’t get anything more than that.

We asked for a “show and tell”.  After a small #success story from a couple of folks, Linda’s turn came.

“I bought my first house” she said, “and the contract settles on a second house in a fortnight!”

WOW!  We asked her how she did it and it was simple enough.  She was totally committed and decided to follow the goal setting program she had planned to the letter.  One of the program sessions was on how to buy property without a deposit, so she followed the steps exactly, twice!  It happened, each time, just as the program said it would!  Exactly as she planned in her goals!

When she told her son and daughter, both living away from her, they told her she couldn’t do it – it was impossible.  She told them she was lucky she didn’t ask them first, because by then, she had already ‘done the impossible!’

Of course, Linda was delighted with such a huge shift and change in her fortunes.  But her success story didn’t stop there.

When she applied for finance, she met a really nice guy, the mortgage broker.  Over the next six months, he became rather enamoured of this dynamic little lady, and they were married within the year.  Another plank in her success story – a new husband – infinitely more interesting than the one who abandoned her!

#Success Story

Never too late!
creativecouples.net

I had a phone call from Linda and Ron a while ago.  They were living in a home on the North Shore overlooking Sydney Harbour, with their four dogs.  They discovered they shared a love of dogs and walking the dogs daily was a treasured time for them.  They were calling to ask about purchasing a huge industrial property about 3 hours west of Sydney.  They already had 4 residential properties, each one paying for itself with the rent coming in, properties that they had purchased without a deposit according to the original plans, as well as the beautiful place they lived in on Sydney Harbour.  Now they were looking even further ahead with their success story!

A massive life change and success story after only two years!

What was Linda’s secret with her success story?  How did she do it?

First, she was totally committed.  Her life had been thoroughly cleaned out with that series of disastrous events and left her with nothing but the knowledge that she had to turn her life around – or starve!  She was totally committed!

Second, she had a plan and followed it.  At the program, much of which is now available in an online version as the “Life Change 90 program”, Linda chose her direction and set the goals she wanted to achieve.  She worked though the goals; she planned them carefully, then followed the plan.

Third, she had a supportive environment around her.  The program design with affirmations, self development, personal growth and confidence building sessions, as well as the mentors in the program, the benchmarks and nightly checking off successes, created an environment where she was congratulated either by the program benchmarks, herself with each evening’s review exercises, or the people around her; each provided moral and practical support.

That’s all she needed for her success story!  She demonstrated that all the excuses that most people put up as reasons for failure are just words!  No money, no job, no partner, no computer, these are just the excuses other people make for their failures.  Linda was a tiny lady in her fifties, with no money, no job, no close family and nothing but a good plan and determination to succeed.  And that’s all she needed!  She and Ron are living proof of it!

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.” Shaquille Oneal

The same program Linda used in her success story, to turn her life and her fortunes around is available to everyone, and you can start on your success story anytime you choose.  Anytime you choose to not accept your excuses any more…

#Success Story

Hmmmm! What’s next?
www.beliefnet.com

What you need is a program that teaches you to set goals, provides the success strategies and habits to support the goals, and the motivation and commitment to do it!  A success story is available to you now.  It’s available to everyone now.  Get yours here!

If you have gained value from this post and feel others would benefit also, please share or reblog it for them.   Let’s add some more value to this world!  A success story should be available to everyone!

“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”
Dr. Brothers

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray

Associated Links: 

Commitment to your goals and yourself

The value of a structured program

The Life Change 90 Program

 

 

Self Development why bother?

Self Development - why bother

stressguide101.blogspot.com
Turn your own light on!

Self Development why bother? 

“For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.” ― Benjamin Franklin

Have you ever wanted more?  More of anything?  For any reason?

Have you ever considered why that was?

It is human nature for people to be explorers, inventors, creators or to wish they were.  It’s a human evolutionary trait and has ensured the survival of the species so far, and enshrined man as the top species on the planet, by way of adaptation, versatility with living environments, and ability to either change to suit an environment, or change the environment to suit man.

Whilst you might not think that this affects you, it’s the same drive that makes you want to stretch just that little bit, be that little bit better, score a little higher, to want more.

As children, we wanted to impress Mummy and Daddy and how good we were at anything we did.  At school, we either strove to be the best in class or on the athletics field, or were envious of those who excelled.  We paid homage to the top athletes, the highest achievers in any competition, and if we were shown to be failures at any time, it was a time of derision, and sometimes shame for us.

This is the human evolutionary program, and it has a lot to do with the Darwinian theories.  The law of the jungle, the fittest and best survive and thrive to ensure continuity of the species.

Self Development - why bother

Law of the jungle – those most suited will survive!
www.incrediblesnaps.com

“Man is not going to wait passively for millions of years before evolution offers him a better brain.” ― Corneliu E Giurgea

So, Self Development why bother?  How does it relate to you, now?

The feelings of frustration you experience from time to time are tied in with this.  Those feelings of frustration are telling you that you are not winning, that you are not good enough to succeed at this challenge, and you need to become better.  It’s that evolutionary programming at work, pushing you to learn more, so you can be more and do more and achieve more.

That’s not to say that you are being forced into continual retraining.  It’s just a reminder to you, gently, that you need to keep up to date with your skills.

However, look at where your frustration occurs.  Does this suggest something to you?

If you are continually frustrated in a particular area of your life, let’s use relationships as an example, the frustration is urging you to develop more in that area of life.  If your relationships are difficult to begin, short-lived, painful, end badly and leave scars, you don’t really need to be told that there is probably something you have yet to learn in the relationships field.

Self Development - why bother

Sources of knowledge
collegepals.org

It’s not a call to become the guru of self development – just a call to perhaps pick up a book at the library and see if you can get some tips.

Self development why bother with growth and learning when so many people seem to get by just fine, and they seem like perfect morons to me?

That’s true too.  There are those people who appear to wander through this world, totally ignorant of everything around them and yet they seem to manage.  It’s all relative to your desired place in your world and your community.  Is THAT how you want to be perceived by the people around you?  Or would you rather some respect when you speak?

There are times in life when we decide to stretch a little, perhaps getting married, asking the question, daring to invite or allow another person into your life.  Perhaps it’s starting a business, taking your idea to the market place and asking people to trust you enough to do business with you.  Perhaps buying a house, and asking the bank to respect you enough to assist you with a home loan.

It’s times like these that you really don’t want to be seen as the village idiot.  It’s a great reason to want to try to be more than you are, to reach your potential.

But it’s not the only reason!

Self development why bother to aim even higher?

There IS so much more!  We are each born with gifts that are in some ways, unique to us.  Look at the people who come to mind when you think of greatness?

Think of great authors, perhaps Wilbur Smith, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, F Scott Fitzgerald, J K Rowling, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe and so on.

Think of great minds, and Einstein comes to mind, along with Leonardo Da Vinci, Marie Curie, Faraday, Bell, Marconi, Isaac Newton, and Edwin Hubble.

Sports people?  There are so many; First four-minute mile went to Roger Bannister in 1954 and is a perfect example.  He inspired John Landy to become the second to achieve the feat on 21st June 1954, only 6 weeks after Bannister on 6th of May, 1954.  Since then, many have achieved the feat, inspired by these achievements.  Not only did they prove it was possible, they could probably be credited with the start of sports science, the study of what the human body can possibly achieve.

That led to the development of sciences of the mind, because it was soon realised that attitude was almost as important as physical ability when it came to achievements of physical prowess.

Which brings us back to the starting point!

Self development why bother?

Because it opens new worlds up to us, for a tiny outlay of time and energy, the results and returns can be multiplied many times over.

Knowing how someone achieved something else means you can learn from their efforts, trials and mistakes, and go straight to a winning strategy.  Knowing what mental state to be in for a specific task can mean success or failure at that task – why wouldn’t you want to know that?  Knowing how to win the love, admiration and lifelong affections of someone you admire, surely that is worth stretching yourself a little to learn?  Knowing how to be the best partner, lover, breadwinner, parent or whatever it is you desire in your life, that is why we bother!

Self Development why bother?

Self Development - why bother

The world at your fingertips! healthyshouts.blogspot.com

Because we have to earn our place at the tables in this world.  We have a choice – earn that place at the table or get the crumbs left by those who did!

The great thing about self development is that not many do actually bother, making it easy pickings for the rest of us!  So many are content with the crumbs, perhaps because they have never looked up and realised where they fell from.  However, you are reading this now, so you know about the seats available at the table, and you also probably know that this could be a first step towards taking one.

There are people who will read this, perhaps in desperation and or frustration, who have some sort of physical or health challenges and who have asked the question:  Self Development why bother? and decided it wasn’t worth it.  I say to you, no, you don’t need to be a Roger Bannister, but look at what he REALLY did!  He proved that more could be had and done, and inspired millions of people to strive for me, and who ultimately went on to create better lives for themselves, and for so many others.  Who could you be an inspiration for?

Look at your frustration – we discussed it earlier.  Perhaps you still have a gift to discover, that will ease your frustration.  No, I can’t and neither can anyone else give you a shortcut to it and tell you what it is or how to do it.  That’s up to you – it’s called personal development, your own journey of self discovery.  The truth is that the longest journey most of us will ever make is the journey to discover our true potential!  If you are wondering whether it is worth it, ask yourself if you have unexplored potential yet to be shown to the world, or even to yourself.  Are you sitting on a gift that you don’t yet know about?  You can begin or continue your Self Development journey by CLICKING HERE NOW!

Self development why bother?

Because it’s worth it.  You owe at least this much to yourself and your family!  Welcome aboard!

If you wish to explore Self Development further, it’s easy to make a start.  Look at this blog for a way to put a little self development into each day, to create better results as you progress and ultimately bring out the full potential of you!

If you answered YES to the question of Self Development why bother?, the next blog will have the HOW of this subject, some powerful tips on what you can do from where you are, to make a start and start making a difference!

The Entrepreneur’s Credo

I do not choose to be a common man, 

It is my right to be uncommon … if I can, 

I seek opportunity … not security. 

I do not wish to be a kept citizen. 

Humbled and dulled by having the 

State look after me. 

I want to take the calculated risk; 

To dream and to build. 

To fail and to succeed. 

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; 

I prefer the challenges of life 

To the guaranteed existence; 

The thrill of fulfillment 

To the stale calm of Utopia. 

I will not trade freedom for beneficence 

Nor my dignity for a handout 

I will never cower before any master 

Nor bend to any threat. 

It is my heritage to stand erect. 

Proud and unafraid; 

To think and act for myself, 

To enjoy the benefit of my creations 

And to face the world boldly and say: 

This, with God’s help, I have done 

All this is what it means 

To be an Entrepreneur.

― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

If you feel this blog has value to you, maybe it has value to others!  Please share and reblog it.  Who knows who might find a reason in here to make changes in their life too!  After all, that’s what friends are for…!

If “The Entrepreneurs Credo” has inspired you to make a start on your Self Development Journey, CLICK HERE to begin, now!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails!

Ray Jamieson

See you there!

Mixed Messages with goal setting

I’m sick of these mixed messages. I’m only human. I can’t read your mind. Unknown Quote.

What on earth is a Mixed Message?

You know how people say “I want to be/do/have ‘that'”, and then you see them doing things that are absolutely contrary to “that” outcome?

What do you think it would be like as a neuron in their mind?

Torn in totally different directions, the subconscious mind tries to do what the person wants but with diametrically opposed instructions, only chaos and frustration can result!

Are we all guilty of sending Mixed Messages?

At times, for sure.  There have been times when my mind has been made up to pursue a certain direction, a goal, a challenge, and I found myself doing things totally differently, and things that would certainly prevent me achieving the goal I just set!  Why is this?

We run programs in our minds.  We are preprogrammed to a degree, just like that laptop you bought.  It was either a Mac or Windows operational platform.  It has to operate on one of those platforms, because that’s all there is.  A Mac cannot decide to run Microsoft Windows, it would need massive programming changes to be made for that to happen, and all you’d have left is the case, if it would fit!

#Mixed messages

Severely conflicted messages in action! 
Courtesy of grapevine.is

The same with us.  We can think and process new ideas but sometimes, the old ideas are the program that is actually driving us around in daily life.  To change the outcomes, we need to change the program.  Sometimes we set goals that are opposed and cancel each other out!  This so often happens with relationship goals and is a constant challenge for families.  Competition for time especially is a huge factor for consideration – there are only 24 hours in a day and sometimes the goals we set demand more than 24 hours to achieve them – and someone misses out!

The mixed messages run both ways, internally and externally.  To the outside world, they might see a flashy, even flamboyant figure, driving a sports car, the total appearance of success, but his creditors might tell you differently.  What he says might be different to what he does.

Internally, he might be saying to himself “OK, success this time, one more deal and we are sorted out again!” But then he picks up the phone, or gets on the computer and wastes the afternoon and suddenly, the opportunity for that deal has passed.

Chaos and confusion.  Sending mixed messages everywhere.  It happens in relationships, in business, in families and everywhere else we are working.  The trouble with it is that while ever we send mixed messages to ourselves and the rest of the world, we are paddling upstream in a strong current, as far as success goes, with achieving our goals!

Just imagine twenty people in your team and your bus is bogged in the sand.  You tell ten people to push on the front, and ten to push on the back of the bus.  Their efforts cancel each other out.  Lots of effort and energy expended, but no progress.  The bus is still bogged.  Mixed messages in where the effort needs to go.

#Mixed messages

Bogged Bus, not going anywhere fast! 
Courtesy of www.camping.de

If you tell 5 of those people in front of the bus to come to the back, you now have 15 pushing the bus forward, and only 5 trying to push it back.  The bus may move but there’s a lot of swearing and frustration between the two groups.

So the last 5 in front of the bus come to the back of the bus and start pushing, and you now have all twenty people pushing in the same direction!  Viola!  Success, the bus is quickly out of the bog, and you are powering along the road again in no time at all.

This is what is going on inside our minds when we send mixed messages – until they are congruent with our intended direction, we get frustration and angst and not a lot of progress!

What to do about Mixed Messages.

Perhaps the best way to ensure this congruency in goalsetting is through a structured program that systematically:

  • creates awareness of your goalsetting plans, issues and other limitations
  • teaches you how to correct, improve and align them
  • eliminates limiting fears, phobias and beliefs

    #Mixed messages

    Aligned goals
    courtesy of www.stimulbrain.com

  • teaches you to set appropriate and aligned goals in all areas of your life and then how to achieve them
  • consolidates your new awareness and better habits into unconscious success behaviours
  • ensures your financial situation supports your new goals
  • and gives you to tools to maintain the success you achieve for life.

Life Change 90 is such a program.  It is a powerful, 90 day program with a few minutes of morning and evening activities that firstly set up your day with awareness of and habits for success, then reviews and consolidates your successes each evening.

Over three months you achieve heightened awareness of any issues and limitations facing you and standing in your way of achieving your goals.  You become aware of goals that are not aligned or supporting each other.  You learn strategies, solutions and antidotes to those issues, and replace them with habits of success that become part of your subconscious programming.  This programming automatically sets you up for success.  Being embedded subconsciously as success habits gives you a lifelong program of continued consolidation of your successes.

For more information in the value of systems in changing your life around, this blog post could help.

How much does it cost?

Depending on your currency, it could be as little as the cost of two coffees a week, and it is probable that within a fortnight, your new habits will have saved you more than the total cost of the 90 day program and that money will be in your bank account or wallet!

To learn more about Life Change 90 and how to integrate this program into your life, click the logo below.

To enrol in this program, click here now!

If you feel this post has value, please share it with your friends, or reblog it for others.  Everyone deserves a change to make a change for the better!  This might be that chance!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

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