Exploring the creativity of the human spirit with just five simple questions. Those questions give us a window to explore the journey and life story of people that look like they have it sorted.
Episodes
Sunday Oct 04, 2020
Sunday Oct 04, 2020
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Welcome to this week’s Sunday reflection. These Shortcasts are mostly unplanned and are created as a way of connecting with you through whatever is occurring for me in the moment.
Last week I had a piece of music running through my head. It had been ghosting me for days and is a particular recording of the Lou Reed ‘Perfect Day’ song that was done by the BBC years ago. It’s a personal favourite of mine that often pops up when I reflect on my perfect days. I believe songs that ghost us are there as a reminder of something and that’s why I did Perfect Day last week.
However, on this occasion I realised the song had been triggered by a topic of conversation in the Change Your World Everyday personal development group. The coach that week was Sally Baker and as always it was an interesting conversation.
Last week I forgot to add Change Your World and Sally Baker into the footnote links. I have gone back and added them, but I just want mention it here because they both do some great work and are worth checking out. Link here to the Perfect Day Shortcast.
This week’s topic has arisen out of a conversation with my Mother-in-Law, which directed my thoughts towards the question…
“What are you missing that is right in front of you”.
I love making wild food. It has been fantastic bringing food in from the newly established garden plot this year, and this is something I will expand on in years to come. I also love foraging for free food, there is a lot of satisfaction in picking something up that would be left to rot and making good use of it. Or trying out something new like I did with last year’s acorns.
One thing that has always fascinated me is the rarer foods. The things we don’t see very often. My mother-in-law recently pointed out that the two bushes in my front garden are quince. These bushes have been there for years and I keep trimming them back when they get big, but I never knew what they were.
It was right in front of me and I didn’t know it!
Apparently they are Japanese Ornamental Quince and they produce a fruit that has an amazing perfumed smell and makes a delicious quince jelly. Having discovered what they are, I have now discovered that the riverbank opposite our house is full of them! So I have been out foraging and started making my own quince jelly.
All the years I have lived here, and I didn’t know that resource was there – right in front of me. Which made me wonder what else is in our lives that we don’t know is there? What is it that we don’t do, that we are not aware that we could do?
Looking at my health journey, if you had told me years ago that I could be this healthy at 57, I wouldn’t have believed it were possible, and yet this resource has always been here for me I just never explored it. The same thing with the Podcasting journey.
Inner Resources
There are so many things that are just in front of us, and we don’t reach out and grab them. The quince has been such a fascinating eye opener. An opportunity to look and see what’s out there, all around us and within us. Unless we look we don’t see what’s available all the time, just waiting to be grasped.
In the business world companies are starting to do an audit of the resources they have within their organization that they weren’t aware of. They have been used to looking outside the organization to pull new resources in, and all along they already had them and didn’t know it.
So this week’s gift, thanks to the quince is to be open to what’s possible, be open to what’s in front of us, because sometimes what we want is staring us in the face.
So my invitation this week is have a look around your life. What is there that you are not seeing, and what could be useful?
Before I go, just a quick reminder that I will be back Live on the Facebook page at 5pm on Wednesday evening with my LIVE@5 where I will be talking about the forthcoming event Spirit-duality and sharing a bit about my personal journey.
Links:
Sunday Sep 27, 2020
Sunday Sep 27, 2020
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What is the perfect day? Have you ever considered what this looks like?
The point is, other than for big occasions, we don’t spend enough time actually creating our perfect days. Is this because we are afraid of setting up an agenda for disappointment?
Also, are perfect days only perfect when we look back on them and see them in a different light? For example our prominent memories are the ones we focus on, so when we look back we draw out those prominent points, and we constantly recreate our feelings around those points, which can distort what actually happened at the time of the event.
So when you reflect on a perfect day in your life, can you re-connect with the feelings of that event? Could you think back to what was a perfect day and could you recreate that day? What does it feel like now?
Sean Anchor on Happiness
I while back I watched a talk by Sean Anchor who suggests that before you go to sleep each night, that you replay the highlights (the best bits) of your day, and create a gratitude list. (Link to the talk below)
He suggests enhancing and reinforcing the best bits so that we get to experience them twice and when we look back we remember each day from a positive perspective.
What about creating perfect days going forward?
When I woke this morning, I knew the topic for this podcast was going to be the Perfect Day so I thought, perhaps I’d better focus on creating this day as a perfect day.
Last night I planned to bake bread today. So that was the first think I wanted to do. Then I did 15 minutes of Yoga and went out for a 45 minute run, followed by creating this podcast. So far this day is shaping up to be perfectly what I want it to be, but the key is not to be attached to the outcome.
For example the bread may not have come out as perfectly as it did. Would I have let that spoil my perfect day?
Give yourself some wiggle room.
If we want to keep creating the things we want and re-creating perfect days in the future, we have to give ourselves some wiggle room and accept what comes, but remained focused on the positive aspects. This is how we develop an abundance mentality.
So whatever you choose today, I hope it’s a good one for you.
Getting Stuff Done
In the last event we talked about getting the stuff done. Implementing action plans to do the things we want to do to move forward. This is something I am passionate about, not only in my own life, but in supporting others in theirs too.
Through Life Passion & Business I offer Focus Coaching to help you get stuff done and I believe this is key in moving things forward through these difficult times.
Focus coaching identifies what you want, identify the blocks, take away those blocks and support you to make it happen and the amazing thing is this can be done in focused 20 minute sessions.
If you are interested follow the links below for more details.
Links
Life Passion & Business Focus Coaching
Change Your World Everyday Coaching Group
Coach / Speaker: Sally Baker
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
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Keith Blakemore-Noble is the UK’s #1 Fear Strategist
Fear is a powerful force that can drive us to change or prevent it. I have friends who don’t travel far from home due to anxiety and the fear of what might be.
At the last event, we had a couple of speakers exploring fear. One of them is the guest on today’s podcast, Keith Blakemore-Noble.
Not long after my conversation with Keith I had an encounter whilst out running that enabled me to witness the automatic response my mind and body have to fear. You can find the full story in the short cast “ Fear Rising”
In brief, I was running and something moved across the leaves in front of me, it was obviously a ferocious beast going to eat me because that is how my body reacted to it. I felt the fear climb the left side of my body and land in my brain. Once there, my brain identified it as a toad, and my body relaxed. Further along the path, I witnessed the same experience in one of my woodland companions.
The point is, my body went into shock and fear way before my intelligence kicked in. That is the point with fear, it is often irrational.
Keith Blakemore-Noble – The UK’s #1 Fear Strategist
As a young lad growing up Keith was drawn to the idea of performing and writing yet painfully shy and petrified of meeting strangers, so that dream felt virtually impossible.
He discovered IT and the safety of being the tech wizard, everyone wants your services, and whilst computers are temperamental they are not socially challenging. However, after 20 years working in IT, there came a point when stepping out from behind the screen felt necessary, but for Keith that was still a big problem.
After having spent another Christmas party hiding in the toilet to avoid people, he realised his life was seriously being held back by his phobia.
By chance, Keith was invited to attend a free personal development seminar, where he watched someone from the audience be taken through a process that gave them the confidence to dance for everyone. Whereas only moments before they were too fearful to even consider it.
This was a massive turning point in Keith’s life.
Since then Keith has conquered his fears to the extent that he has become a coach, a stage hypnotist, trainer, and occasional magician! It doesn’t get much more transformational than that! Keith has also discovered a passion for helping people release their fears, turn those fears into strengths and find their passion.
Since 2010 he has helped over 5,000 people across the planet to transform their lives, which is why he is known as the UK’s #1 Fear Strategist.
Keith has come a long way since the IT days. He has been described as someone who brings natural humour and wit to the stage. As you will hear on the podcast he has a captivating presence, allowing us to learn from him with ease.
I hope you enjoy the conversation with Keith Blakemore- Noble
Keith’s new book The Masks We Wear is now available on Amazon at a special pre-order price of 79p until Sunday 27th when it goes up to £7.99 and Keith is including £100 of resources and goodies for anyone who pre-orders.
You can find more details on Keith’s website https://keithblakemorenoble.com/
If you would like to connect with Keith you can find him on
Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Instagram and YouTube.
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
Sunday Sep 20, 2020
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This morning I am making the most of this beautiful, sunny September weather (a rare blessing in the north of Scotland).
It has prompted me to finally clear out the garage which is something I have been putting off for months. I find myself stepping over ‘useful’ things that have been here a long time and as I started sifting through boxes that I haven’t opened in over 17 years I unearthed lots of ‘useful’ things.
This got me thinking about how we keep things or keep doing because we think they are useful. They may have been useful once, but are they still useful now?
My garage, like my office and my kitchen drawers are full of useful things that I haven’t used for years. Some I have even forgotten I have. The challenge is I hate putting useful things in the bin to be put into the ground, I have a thing about recycling and re-using so I end up holding on to loads of ‘useful’ things, old computer’s, folders, files, even battery chargers. The problem is I want it to be used, but haven’t quite worked out where.
So yesterday I started my Maria Condo thing. but instead of asking “does this bring me joy”, I was asking “will I ever use this, will I do anything useful with it”.
My computer is the same. It is cluttered with useful documents and files that I intend to do something with, and when I cleared out my father’s house after his death, that was the same. There were loads of tools and old tins of screws etc. that he never got round to doing anything with.
But it is not just the material objects we hang on to. There are things we do in our life, that we keep doing because we have always done them, because it was useful to do things that way at a certain point, but maybe it’s not useful to do them any more.
This reminded me of something Keith Blakemore-Nobel said in our last event. “When you’re young you’re told not to talk to strangers, but when you reach the age of 16+ not talking to strangers can be very restrictive in your life.
There are probably numerous things in our history, in our psyche in the way we do things that no longer apply, that are no longer useful.
So my suggestion is to reflect on what you have in your life that is no longer useful? Maybe it is time to replace “that could be useful” with “this is no longer useful to me”
So that is where clearing out the garage led me on this beautiful day. I hope you find some beauty where you are.
FOOTNOTE
I will be live on the Life Passion and Business Facebook page on Wednesday to tell you about a new event that goes live in the middle of November.
The next podcast is with Fear Strategist, Keith Blakemore-Noble and we will be discussing how he overcame his fears. Keith has published 3-4 books and his newest “The Masks We Wear”
It is nothing to do with Covid – he wrote it before all this began. The book is being launched on 26th September and will be available on Amazon at the exclusive price of just 79p (Link Here) and it comes with a package of loads of additional resources, so it is well worth ordering your copy before the price goes up.
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
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Networking has always been a natural human desire, and while there are some exceptions, most successful people like Matt Clark the Linkedin Rainmaker are those with expansive networks and connections.
To connect is part of the human condition; however, 2020 has been the year that redefined what it means to network, particularly in business.
As a long term user of social media channels, I have watched the pattern change over the last few months. At the beginning of the lockdown, many of the channels went quiet. However, since it became clear that COVID is going nowhere, my Linkedin channel has exploded with people looking to replace their networking options using this online tool.
Full marks for action but is it the right action when what they want is sales?
Sales for many people is a dirty word but the fact remains that everything we do in life is as the result of a sale of some sort. This week’s podcast is very relevant in a post COVID world as making sales will be key for many businesses returning to life after lockdown. So if you need to make sales and not be sleazy, this is worth a listen.
The Linkedin Rainmaker
My guest on the show is Matt Clark, known to many as the LinkedIn Rainmaker, he discovered from an early age that he loves to sell.
As a young 18 year old from South Africa living in the UK, he landed a door to door sales job. He was knocking on doors selling gas and electricity, but he had the spark and the zest for it, and was good at meeting the targets.
Regularly earning close to £1000 per week he knew he had found his role in life. It was big money for a young man, particularly as he came from a poor background; this job opened the opportunity for travel and discovery.
Are you familiar with Maslow and his hierarchy of needs? Once our basic needs are met, most people look towards self-improvement. Matt was no exception, he used his resources well.
Fast forward a few years and back in South Africa, he co-founded a telecom sales company at age 23 and grew that to more than 6M in sales in year 3. You guessed it; they did this with door to door sales.
But here is the thing, instead of enjoying this success he ended up completely burnt out. That business could not function without him; he was the sales kingpin, and they had built this business using a physical paper system, not a computer in sight..
Kelly Clark, Wesley Longueira, Matt Clark and Arthie MooreHe stopped knocking on the physical doors and worked out how he could do it virtually. This is the story of his journey into sales automation using online systems and networking skills. While it is about making sales, it is also about connecting with people and creating real relationships.
It is the story of how Matt went on to co-develop a flagship programme with his business partner, Wesley Longueira. Together they form the LinkedIn Rainmaker and have helped thousands of businesses in 26 countries grow exponentially.
They are now on a mission to reach 10k businesses worldwide and build a vibrant community of Rainmakers!
I hope you enjoy the conversation with Matt Clark.
If you would like to connect with Matt you can find him on Linkedin.
Send him a DM message to let him know that you heard him on this podcast.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mattclarksa
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