What’s Thanksgiving all about?

November 26 is Thanksgiving Day in America – that long celebrated annual holiday weekend filled with the quintessential American delights of stuffed turkey, pumpkin pie and enormous parades.

But what’s Thanksgiving Day all about?

As a Kiwi living in London with a fair number of American friends scattered across the globe, I’ve often wondered about the history of Thanksgiving Day.

It turns out that Thanksgiving has a very long history (thanks Wikipedia 🙂 ), but the original essence of the celebration (dating back to the 17/18th centuries) was to give thanks for a good harvest.

It’s a moment in time when people come together in celebration; in acknowledgement of each other and the beauty of the circle of life. And it feels good. It’s a revered holiday in American culture. People travel far and wide to go ‘home’. Schools and colleges close. Families get together in celebration. The poor get looked after with food baskets, and much more.

Thanksgiving is about gratitude

And in my opinion, gratitude is one of the most important and loving values we can hold.

So what’s gratitude? It’s “the feeling of being thankful and appreciative”. It’s about reflecting on all that’s good; all that’s beautiful; all that’s abundant in our world and lives.

Reliable research demonstrates that in experiencing gratitude there’s a positive impact on one’s mental and emotional state. Quite simply, we become happier….

Practising gratitude is something we can do each day of our lives. And in doing so, I promise, you will feel different. More alive. More passionate. More extraordinary.

Practise Glorious Gratitude

So how about it? How about setting aside five minutes (or more) per day in the quiet of your mind’s eye, and practising glorious gratitude?

What does that mean?

Well, it’s that moment when you acknowledge all that you’re grateful for – the big and the small, the important and the trivial.

Here are a few of the parts of my life that I’m ABSO-Bloomin’-LUTELY grateful for today:

My excellent health and increasing fitness.
My glorious family (husband, daughter, stepson) with all their idiosyncrasities. 🙂
The people who are supporting me to achieve the vision I have for myself and my businesses.
My love of learning and having the time each week to read stacks of books.
The beauty (and chill) of late Autumn in London.
Being able to work from a home office and listen to classical music all day while I work.
Living in the best city in the world – London.
My New Zealand family who ensured my husband and son had a fabulous time there last week.
My coaching clients who trust me to support and guide them to achieve their personal and professional goals.
My will power in not eating sugar for the past week – yippee!!

My gratitude list is never-ending….

Go on, try it. How about taking a short walk, or sitting quietly and closing your eyes for a few minutes and reflecting on what you are grateful for. I’m certain you’ll feel good for the experience. And it gets even better. When we make a habit of expressing daily gratitude, it becomes addictive… simply because it makes us feel good. And I like that. 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving, America (and Canada). Have a fabulous day of celebration and gratitude.

ACTION: What are you most grateful for today? I’d love to know. How about sharing in the comments below?

Could some guidance from me be helpful to you? If so, please arrange a free 30 mins Skype strategy meeting with me. Here’s my calendar to book a meeting. I’d love to support you in some way to gain ‘seductive clarity’ in any aspect of your business or life.

2016: THE Why – What – Who – How – When

2016. It’s not that far away – excited? I certainly am although I’m going to finish 2015 strongly first.

While we close off 2015 and prepare to round the corner to 2016, what are the business questions we should be asking ourselves in readiness for the New Year?

What would make the difference between a good and a great 2016 for you?

It takes a bit more work to go from good to great… and the work should be fun… and worth the effort with the results.

Here’s my take on the ‘Why – What – Who – How – When’ questions we should be asking of ourselves as we begin planning our businesses for 2016 to ensure we go from good to great.

While the questions may seem simple on the face of it, like anything, the more deeply we think, the more honestly we answer them, the stronger the answers we receive and the more alive and empowered we feel.

WHY – in 1 question

WHY do you do what you do?
This is ‘THE’ passion for your business. This is about being in love with your business and the difference your products and services make in the lives of your customers. If we aren’t passionate about our businesses, it’s unlikely we’ll be excited about the upcoming year.

WHAT – in 2 questions

WHAT is your vision for your business?
While you may be clear about your vision, it’s really good at the start of new beginnings to recheck it as things change; we change. In the lead up to 2016 check in with yourself about what you want to achieve in your business and your life.

WHAT are the key products and services you are going to focus on in 2016?
There are so many products and services that we can offer the market. What are the few key ones that are going to make the difference to your business? The ones that will make the biggest impact for your customers and, in being successful in selling those products and services, will make the biggest difference to the success of your business.

WHO – in 4 questions

Who is your team?
Regardless of the size of your business, we don’t do business alone. Think about your team and love and nurture them. In return they’ll love you (hopefully) and your customers. Recruit your team for your values too; make sure they’re aligned to where you want your business to head and how you’re going to get there.

Who are your customers – current and new?
Think about what the perfect customer looks like for your business and map a plan to seek them out. We can’t be everything to everybody – so there’s no point in trying to be. Target your market. Niche! And then go after it with love and passion. Make a difference in the lives of your customers.

Who are your key suppliers?
Your suppliers are critical to your success in business so they must be nurtured too. Think of ways that are mutually beneficial to deepen the relationship with your suppliers.

Who are your business partners?
Partnerships and joint ventures are the key to success in business. Think of ways you can deepen the relationship with existing partners, supporting them to be more successful. Find new partners and support them to achieve success too. In return, they’ll be there for you.

HOW – in 1 question

HOW are you doing to deliver on your WHAT?
The HOW comes down to six areas of business that need to be thought about and planned for: Branding, Marketing, Sales, Finances, Operations/Systems, Team. What are you doing in each of those areas of business to achieve your vision?

WHEN – in 1 question

WHEN are you going to do everything in your year?
The WHEN is planning your long-term and medium term strategies and the key actions that must be undertaken to achieve your WHAT.

The WHEN is the one area that many entrepreneurs and business owners don’t like too much because it takes time to plan out the year. Unless the year is planned and written down, I can almost guarantee your business will control you, rather than you controlling it.

Ohh… there’s one more WHO…

I almost forgot. 🙂 The final question you must ask yourself is this. WHO is going to hold YOU accountable for achieving your WHY – WHAT – WHO – HOW – WHEN?

You? Possibly. How about finding yourself a mentor, business coach, guide, mastermind group, and ask those people to hold you accountable for delivering your 2016 business goals? I promise you in making that investment in yourself you’ll have a much stronger, more successful business by December 2016! Now that sounds exciting to me.

ACTION: I’d love to know if you’re already planning for 2016 and if so, which area of your business are you most excited about in 2016? How about leaving a comment below?

THE 3 Questions to Working Your Passion

“Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.” – John Wesley

The phone doesn’t stop ringing. Emails are pouring in. Your bank balance is growing. More and more opportunities for business are coming your way. Why?

You’re living your passion, your dream. You’re getting noticed. You’re standing out.

Sound like a dream? Sadly for many it is. Too many business owners are wallowing in the sea of sameness – there’s nothing that stands them apart from their competitors. They’re one of many, rather than the one who stands tall and gets noticed.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Business doesn’t have to be hard, or worrying, or sleep depriving.

Business should be a joy – that thing that gets you out of bed in the morning with a skip in your step, a smile on your face… a ‘seize the day’ energy and motivation.

VIVA – Vision Internalised is Vision Actualised™

It’s VIVA that stands successful business owners out from those who aren’t successful. It’s VIVA that creates momentum, focus, excellence and results.

As Steve Jobs once said: ‘The only way to do great work is to love what you do.’ That’s passion.

Passion understood in 3 Questions

You might be asking: ‘So where do I start with this passion thing? How do I find my passion?’

Passion comes from 3 areas. Purpose. Vision. Values.

Answer these 3 key questions and you’ll find your passion.

Passion Question 1: What’s my Why? Why do I do what I do?

Unless you’re totally clear on Why you do what you do, you’ll just have a job that might bring in some money. Your Why is your purpose or your mission (to use 1980/90s language) – the key thing your business does.

What difference do you want to make in the lives of those you serve? That’s your Why!

To help you, my big Why is Success! I delight in guiding small business owners achieve business success which then leads them to create THEIR dream lives – however they define their dream and success.

Passion Question 2: What do you want to achieve in your business? What’s your vision?

Purpose is what drives us, and vision expresses that purpose. Vision is the big picture of what you aspire to achieve. Vision is the big dream for your business (and your life).

Passion Question 3: What are your values?

What are the foundation stones that support you to live your life? How do they translate into values that support you in business?

Some see values as those ‘waffly words’ that hang on the walls of corporate offices. Hmmm, sadly that can be true. But values as those core emotions that are key to us. Personally I’m highly value driven and I hope you can ‘feel’ my values as you connect in and get to know me.

Let’s get passionate

While answering the three passion questions can seem a bit daunting, don’t think you have to do it alone. Get help. I promise you, when you’ve gotten your purpose, vision and values nailed…. you’ll be swinging from the rafters and popping open the champagne, as something will have changed. You’ll feel alive, passionate and extraordinary, or at least invincible, as you start focusing on living your passion every day through your business and in your life.

Here’s the thing. When you’re living your passion, it oozes from you and people feel the vibe. They want to be around you and they want to work with you. That’s how you grow your business. By letting your passion shine brightly for all to see.

Here’s what one of my clients, Jenni, emailed me recently… ‘My sizzling continues! Thank you! And it is attracting opportunities.’ I wish that for you and your business too.

ACTION: What’s your ‘Why’? I’d love you to share in the comments below. Perhaps your Why might act as an inspiration to others.

What’s Your Story?

“Purposeful storytelling isn’t show business. It’s good business.” – Peter Guber

What’s your story so far? How did you get to where you are today in business and life? What are the twists and turns you’ve encountered and conquered?

Stories have the ability to paint a picture with words, tapping into the imagination of the listener or reader and allowing you to connect with them.

In my experience, the best way to connect to people is to hear the stories of their lives and to tell our own. Nothing made up. Just the honest truth about who we are, and the journey we’ve had in life so far. That raw, honest truth and vulnerability is what connects us to others and them to us.

The simplest and perhaps the most powerful way to articulate your personal brand is through the art of storytelling.

How can you tell your story to great effect? To build rapport with the community you want to connect with and serve over time?

Your story isn’t your entire autobiography. It’s a snapshot that gives you the perfect illustration in a specific situation. For example, when I teach entrepreneurs how to maximise their profits it helps when I tell them about my own experiences (good and bad, easy and hard) growing businesses to have multi-million pound revenues and profits.

When you begin to articulate the personal stories behind why you do what you do, they add to your credibility, show that you are genuine and have personal experience of your subject. People connect with you, and like you, and they come to trust you.

3 Steps to Great Stories

1. Be purposeful with your personal brand stories
Make sure you share the stories according to the requirements of the opportunity you are pitching for. And make sure the stories are not just the glossy tail end of the story. We connect with the struggle. Connection and empathy from others comes from the journey you’ve been on, not just the destination you’ve arrived at. After all, they are probably on a similar journey to the one you’ve been on and they want to know they can travel on towards the end result you’ve reached ; the one they want too.

2. Use stories that have concrete evidence
If you have figures such as “improved response time by 15%”, then provide evidence that supports your story and what impact it has had. Make sure you always use both concrete data and stories. The combination of the two will provide you with a compelling case when it comes to someone employing you or being chosen in a business deal over your competitors.

3. Ensure your stories are authentic
Stories that are authentic and in need of no exaggeration or embellishment are the most impactful and memorable! In business, if you are being considered alongside other candidates who are all equally as well qualified, what will make you stand out? It’s the connection and impact you make with the experiences you share.

When we are authentic, we are at our most open. When we willing to show our vulnerability, we are seen as being real; being human. Being real gives you your best chance of making the right deals and landing your dream business opportunity. Presenting your own personal and relevant stories when pitching to potential clients to win work will endear you to them. You won’t always win the work but you will be held in high regard for your honesty and authenticity, rather than for delivering a ‘plastic fantastic’ pitch, as often occurs in some industries.

So, what’s your story? What will you share with your potential customers or community to build the beginnings of a long term relationship? How will your story augment the development of Brand You?

ACTION: I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic of sharing stories in support of building our personal brand. How about writing your comments below?

How to create “Brand You”

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”. – Aristotle

The concept of branding yourself has to do with first uncovering who you are as a person. Your brand isn’t an ad campaign or a tagline; it’s a combination of your beliefs, interests, talents, ethos, skills and values.

Personal branding is not an act or a display for others

It’s you being you and nothing more. But sometimes it isn’t immediately easy to know or say what being ‘me’ is. We can look at our friends or colleagues and see their strengths shining through, but often we feel less certain about our own.

So, what are the characteristics and qualities that combine to make you, you? ‘Who am I and what defines me?’

Ask yourself these three questions as they will help uncover these characteristics:

What are my values?
What are my strengths?
What am I passionate about?

Ask your family, friends, relatives or that special someone what words come to mind when they think of you. As scary as this exercise might sound, I’m quite sure everybody will have something to say about you, no matter what it is. Take notes. These will all be helpful insights into how people perceive you.

How about asking them two questions:

If you could describe me in just three words, what would they be?
What do you feel are my unique attributes?

Be aware that the answers may or may not match up with how you want to be perceived (or indeed, how you perceive yourself). But if you ask those close to you, or people you know to be perceptive, chances are they will have a good idea of the real you that shines from within.

Values – are they important?

Yes! You must infuse ‘Brand You’ with your values. This is how you get to do the work you love and love the work you do. It’s how you create a business that attracts customers with complementary values. It means you’ll be able to speak to them with your own, authentic voice, which in turn leads to trust and loyalty.

The specific words you use to describe your values won’t be set in stone as life is a journey and how we see ourselves will always be subject to change and growth, but the underlying principles are an intrinsic part of what makes you, you.

Focus on Strengths

It is tempting, especially in business, to want to be all things to all people. But when we think of the best brands, even the biggest brands, they always play to their strengths.

At school, we’re often conditioned to focus on improving our weaknesses rather than building on our strengths. I’m all for receiving a well-rounded education, but when it comes to business it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of spending all our energy on trying to fix what we’re not so good at instead of changing our business model to work with what we’re awesome at!

Which of your strengths do you most value above all others? How are you putting them to use in your life right now, and could you develop more ways to make the most use of them?

Passions

When you’re honest with yourself about your strengths then you’ll find your passions may automatically surface at the same time; after all, it makes sense that what we’re good at makes us feel good too!

What is it that really makes you come alive? When have you felt that spark of joy and feeling like you are on the right track?

Look back from your future

You’re looking back on your life and saying to yourself, ‘I did it!’ What does ‘it’ look like for you? What is your potential realised? What is your vision achieved?

Your vision is at the heart of your personal brand. It’s the best version of you and your life that you can think of; it’s you living and working with purpose and realising your potential.

Put it all together, and….

That’s where the magic is. When you combine your values, strengths, passions and vision, you’ve nailed who you are! You’ll know if you’ve got it right because you’ll be energised and excited by what’s come together. You’ll be itching to get out into the world and to spread the messages according to ‘Brand You’.

When you are working authentically within your personal brand, you develop impact and influence. People feel the real you and trust and connect with you.

That’s the power of personal branding.

ACTION: Who do you know who most authentically lives within their personal brand? I’d love to hear your thoughts. How about leaving a comment below?

Are You A Personal Brand?

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”- Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder, Amazon

Imagine your friends, family, colleagues and clients in a room together, and the main topic of conversation is you. How would they describe you to each other? Would they be able to describe what you do? Or what you stand for?

Simply put, branding has traditionally been the process involved in creating a unique name and image or perception for a product in the consumer’s mind. The Mac ‘apple’ immediately evokes a perception of style, creativity and efficiency. ‘Kellogg’s’ says breakfast. ‘Nike’ says fashionable fitness. Brands promote an emotional response and when successful they increase customer loyalty, awareness and perceived value.

As Kevin Roberts – Global Executive Chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi says, ‘brand loyalty is where the money is, it’s why your customers use you and choose you more often, you or your products are a part of their life, their own story. Apple isn’t irreplaceable, but it is irresistible, so that we become loyal to the brand even beyond reason.’

Stand out and get noticed

Branding on a personal level does much the same thing; why should a potential client select you and your business over someone else’s where the service offering is the same? Often it all comes down to perception and presence. It goes beyond reason. You might be a wonderfully talented person, but unless you project your personality, expertise and general awesomeness to the world (or at least the people who matter in your world), you might lose out because people don’t quite ‘get’ you.

Personal Brand = Personal Purpose

What do you want to be known for? What impact do you want to make on the world? Is this immediately apparent to others either when they meet you in person, or, more likely when they look you up before meeting you? Over 1 billion names are searched on Google every single day, and the information they find for you will in some way affect whether they decide to do business with you, promote you or simply get in touch with you. It will affect their perceived value of you and what you do, and more frequently our first impressions are formed at this virtual stage before we even meet people. So it’s crucial to cover all aspects of our personal branding and make sure they are aligned, both online and in person.

7 great reasons for creating and maintaining your personal brand:

1. Establish Your Credibility
When you take the time to really get to the heart of who you are and what you do, you begin to build a personal brand that others will trust because what you are promising is what you will deliver. When you provide value to others on a steady basis, you soon begin to establish your credibility and build that trust factor, which is one of your greatest promotional assets. Word of mouth travels fast, and often won’t cost you a penny.

2. Differentiate yourself
We live in an intensively competitive world and it’s only through personal branding that you can really identify what makes you different and use that to stand out amongst the crowd. Each one of us is a unique combination of skills, values and passions, so that we each have something unique to offer. Perhaps you have the advantage of a personal story that will really connect with your customers/audience, or you have identified a key problem you can offer a solution for that no one else in your field has addressed.

3. Focus on the Work that Matters
As you go through the personal branding process, your self awareness will increase, deepening your understanding of yourself and what makes you unique, powerful and valuable. This in turn will lead you to focusing more on work that utilises your unique qualities (and is therefore of more value to others) rather than trying to be all things to all people.

4. Increase Your Visibility
When you narrow your focus on your strengths and identify your target audience you will become much more visible to the people who really matter; your potential customers/clients, and also the people in your field who are considered the influencers, who will help to bring you more customers etc. Because you have taken the care to really think about your personal brand and what it is that you can offer, you will be appear as someone trustworthy and a go-to expert.

5. Build Your Network
Growing your network is crucial for business and career success; it opens doors to opportunities you would have never thought of. Your personal brand is similar to a magnet; it attracts likeminded people who can be very useful to your career or business.

6. Magnetize Opportunities
As a result of your growing network, not only are people more willing to help you, but they will actually provide you with more opportunities, which could be a new business idea, a joint venture, co-writing books or even customer referral. When you have a strong, authentic and memorable brand that always delivers, people will always be willing to recommend you to others and want to work with you in the future.

7. Build Your Value
It all comes down to what you can do for people who need what you can do. Once you begin to get a bigger view of who you are, your values and what you have to offer others, you begin to build your value. Other people will only start seeing you as valuable once you do.

Personal Branding leads to Business Success

Whether your business is big or small, thinking about your personal brand is a must if you want to stand out and get notices in our ever increasingly competitive business world.

ACTION: Personal branding is a passion of mine. I’d love to hear your thoughts on people in your world who have strong brands. How about sharing in the comments below who those people are and why they have made an impression on you?

Are you standing out in your niche? Be a Personal Brand!

Imagine this. You’re at a business networking event, and you say hello to someone and ask, ‘What do you do?’ And they reply, ‘I annoy burglars!’

Well, what are you going to say to that? Most likely, you’re going to ask another question. Perhaps you’ll ask, ‘Tell me more?’

And the other person may reply, ‘I’m a locksmith and security expert and my total focus for my clients is to ensure they, their families and their business premises are totally safe and secure at all times. At no time has a property that I manage ever been burgled or security compromised.’

Wow, what will you say next? More importantly, will you remember this person at some future time if you’re ever in the market for a security expert to assist you in your business or home? The chances are very high that you will, and if you’d swapped business cards at the networking event, you may well call and ask for their assistance. You might even recommend them to people in your world if the chance arises, just because they stood out when you met them all that time ago.

That’s the power of personal branding

Everybody’s heard of the word ‘brand’ and mostly we think about brands in relation to companies like McDonalds, Coke, Apple and Virgin. But think of those last two, Apple and Virgin, and the two people most associated with those companies; Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson. In his black jumper and steel-rimmed glasses, Steve Jobs never detracted from the Apple brand, he embodied it. The same is true of Richard Branson; he’s a walking entrepreneur, he never wears a tie, is awkward in interviews, and his whole being is on the pulse of what his customers want, need and never even imagined possible.

Okay, you may be thinking, but these are two of the most successful people on the planet in recent history. How is personal branding really going to make a difference to my life, career or business?

You must have a personal brand too

Regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, searching for a job, are an employee or even a student, it will benefit you to think about and own your personal brand. How would you answer that question right now, ‘What do you do?’ Because the reality is nowadays that when people ask that question, what they really mean is ‘Who are you?’ And it’s up to you whether your answer is a conversation starter or stopper.

When you pay attention to your personal brand, you create a vision for your future, and with your brand strategy a path of action with which to get there. The impression you make, the interactions you have, the products you create and whether you are truly authentic and consistent are all key ingredients of personal branding and hugely impact your success as a business owner or employee throughout your career.

It’s time to stand up, stand out and be counted

What do you want people to think of when they hear your name? Who are the people you want to know your name? What can you offer them that will make their lives better, easier or happier?
Reputation has always been a key to success and in today’s digital and social media age you have more opportunities than ever before to build your reputation through your style, presence, connections and expert content. And don’t think that content is only for ‘creative’ people. Whatever you do, in whichever field, people will always ‘Google you’ before they meet or employ you. What will they see?

With just a little knowledge and dedicated time and effort, you can begin to influence all of those impressions and build trust.

Excited? I hope so. Your future success in business depends on your personal brand. Go for it. Create a personal brand that people would walk over hot coals to work with.

Don’t leave your reputation to chance when you can easily be your very own brand guru.

Action: Do you have a personal brand? I’d love to hear what you have done to create your personal brand. Let’s get a conversation started. How about introducing yourself below, telling us about you?

What is Freedom?

I visited Gallipoli in Turkey recently with my father who’s from New Zealand. Gallipoli is a special place of remembrance for New Zealanders and Australians as so many of our young men (ANZACs) lost their lives there during WWI.

The beauty, tranquillity and peacefulness of the many cemeteries and memorial sites in and around Gallipoli belie the horrors of war over 100 years ago. Dad and I found the journey deeply moving and thought provoking.

And what were our young heroes fighting for? While that question could be answered in many ways depending on what side of the war you were on, it’s commonly agreed that they believed they were fighting for freedom. Our freedom!

Now on TV as we watch the war zones around the world, or observe the plight of the thousands upon thousands of migrants who are risking their lives to arrive in Europe, we know that relatively speaking, if we live in certain parts of the world, we live with freedom. But do we?

What is freedom?
What is freedom? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now.

For me, freedom is the ability to live as I choose. To act, think and do as I please. To be self-determining!

What does freedom mean for you?

Sadly, I meet people all the time who limit their personal freedom. They live small. Day to day, they live with little meaning or joy in their lives. They live in ‘victim mode’ or they live with regret. They live in a state of struggle at worst or simmer at best.

That’s not freedom, in my book. That’s like living in a prison.

Living BIG not small
Recently I felt I was living small too. I was struggling in some areas and simmering in others, rather than living a sizzling life as I usually do. I felt imprisoned, caged, and energy-less. I wasn’t sure why, as on the surface, there was so much going on in my life that was really exciting and I was happy. Yet, something was not right.

In times like that, I tend to ask myself better, deeper questions as I know the universe or my higher self is trying to teach and guide me. I look much more deeply at things in quiet reflection, often taking time out, walking and thinking, working things out.

When I make time to do this, the learning and discoveries are enormous.

True to form, my discoveries this time were no different. They were fundamental to me and the life I want to lead going forward.

I found I was imprisoning myself by my own small thinking, my own limiting beliefs and fears. My old nemesis, perfectionism, was also holding me back, as was the fear of failure and the fear of not being good or clever enough.

All those thoughts were holding me back from really owning and committing to the big vision that I’d partially created for the next phase of my business and personal life. It was as if I was telling myself that my vision was too big… and ‘little old me wouldn’t be able to do it’.

Talk about sucking the sizzle out of my own life! That’s the mind prison I was holding myself within. That’s why I wasn’t feeling a sense of freedom.

When I ‘got it’, I had a good old belly laugh at the irony of my situation, given I coach business owners, entrepreneurs and others to be high performing and to aim for the stars in their businesses and lives. Laughter is a great medicine. It puts things into perspective. 🙂

It was time to practice what I preach.

Back on the freedom trail
So, now that I’ve gotten out of my own way, my energy and excitement has returned. I’ve created some big plans to support the vision I’ve created. There’s loads of work to do as the plans unfold, and it feels really exhilarating and achievable.

Yes, the perfectionist in me will be challenged as I’m bound to make a load of mistakes. Yes, the fear of failure is ever present – hey I’m human. 🙂 I’ll just manage that going forward… I’m not going to let it overtake me.

I’ve always said that when I’m 101 years, sitting in my rocking chair reflecting back on life, I want to be able to smile and have no regrets, and to have loved the life that’s gone before me.

Today I feel free again. I feel self determining. And I remain very, very grateful to those young men who gave of their lives long ago so that we may live in peace and freedom.

‘Their name liveth for evermore’.

ACTION: What is freedom for you? Are you living a life of total freedom or holding yourself back? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so how about leaving a comment below?

You are extraordinary – believe it

The first, and one of the most challenging but crucial strategies for bolstering a sense of vitality in our lives, is to believe that as individuals, we are extraordinary people capable of great things. That sentence may make you wince, but I believe it. You are an extraordinary person. You are capable of great things.

Your past doesn’t equal your future
It doesn’t matter what we’ve done so far (or what we haven’t done). School grades don’t matter, nor do all the times we’ve totally messed up and gotten things wrong. We’ve all had embarrassing failures; we have all missed opportunities, said the wrong thing, or let ourselves down. None of that alters the fact that we are capable of much more than we are allowing ourselves to believe. I mean that in all seriousness.

Most of us resist the idea that there’s anything very special about us. We think our achievements should speak for themselves and anything else is blowing our own trumpet.

As children many of us were taught that showing off is bad manners, and many of us have internalised that to mean that self-deprecation (at best) or outright hostility towards ourselves (at worst) is the decent thing to do. I am not advocating that you turn into a raving monster of egotism – nobody likes them, for good reason. But there’s a lot of room between believing we are average at life, or even bad, and running around demanding attention and praise like a two-year-old.

Convince yourself
I’ve struggled with this concept in my life too. I’ve finally come to realise that it’s only me that I need to convince of my fabulousness. You are the same. Just focus on convincing yourself. Sadly, we are our own greatest enemies. In all honesty, we have nothing to prove to our friends on Facebook or our families or anyone else. I’m not asking you to get all “braggy” with other people, only to big yourself up to yourself. It’s called self belief.

And this is not based on the idea that only mega-achievement counts. You are extraordinary because everyone is! For me, extraordinary doesn’t mean ‘a person who will win the Nobel Prize for Physics’ or ‘a person who will become president of the board’. It means ‘someone who knows what their passions and values are and lives in accordance with them.’ That is not the preserve of geniuses. It’s available to every single one of us.

We can do great things. We can go way beyond the limits we’ve created for ourselves. The world is full of people little different from you or me who have done it. The only difference between them and anyone else is hard work and persistence, laced with self-belief.

You are talented – practice it
‘Ah, but what about talent?’, I imagine you might be thinking. ‘Some people are just more naturally gifted than others. We can’t all win Olympic gold.’ Well, yes and no. For starters, we don’t have to win Olympic gold in order to be extraordinary. And secondly, although innate ability is a factor in outstanding success, it is way smaller than most people believe, even in physical disciplines such as sport.

In his fantastic book, Bounce, Matthew Syed debunks the myth of talent and draws on scientific research to demonstrate that success comes via the power of practice. The book is filled with the stories of supposedly ‘talented’ people who are exceptional not because of natural-born brilliance, genetic make-up or social background, but due to the huge amount of time they have dedicated to mastering their discipline.

Talent is nurtured, not heaven sent, which means that it is open to us to be as talented as we are prepared to make ourselves. We just need to get used to the idea that we’re way more talented than we give ourselves credit for, and then we must practice whatever we want to excel in, be it the guitar, stand up comedy or business.

Your potential, your joy
Don’t cut yourself off from your potential, your joy. We all have the right to be extraordinary – it’s not just for geniuses. And don’t feel you need to do anything at all in order to be special. You already are!

ACTION: What are your thoughts on this blog? Load of rubbish or does it resonate with you? I’d love to hear your comments, either way. How about leaving them below?

Generosity in Life

I think generosity is one of the most attractive of all personal qualities and one of the strongest drivers of a life that is brimming with sizzle and vitality.

What is generosity?

Many people’s first thought is that it implies money, giving it to others in need. That’s definitely a major aspect, but generosity is much more than simply donating money. It’s being generous with our resources, our time, knowledge, expertise, and perhaps most importantly, being generous with our spirit.

Generosity is about kindness, about being fully present and alive for others. If I’m with someone who gives me their full attention when we’re speaking, for example, I feel truly heard. It creates a virtuous circle of positive energy that we pass between us. It makes me want to give back to them in all sorts of ways: my own attention, my time, my support for a project or a monetary donation.
There are innumerable ways to be generous but the cornerstone is to approach every encounter in a spirit of open-hearted readiness to give of ourselves.

What can I give?

It’s the difference between going into the world thinking, ‘What can I get?’ and ‘What can I give?’ If this sounds a little bit New Age, let me tell you, I’ve seen enough to believe that it’s true what they say about what goes around comes around. There is a strong correlation between giving more and receiving more.

If you’re a grasper or a taker, in the end people notice and they don’t respond well. The opposite is also true. At its most basic, this is the principle on which networking is built. If we give, give and give some more without expectation, the most wonderful things happen.

Sometimes, when I advocate that a client practices generosity, I encounter resistance. The client tells me they fear that being generous will lead to people demanding more of them. They don’t want to be taken advantage of. Or sometimes their core belief that money is always in short supply means they are resistant to giving even very small sums.

It’s always useful to check our assumptions around any of the strategies we’re exploring on our journey to sizzling success. If something feels uncomfortable, pay more attention, not less. Explore what’s bothering you. Push yourself a little to experiment with what I’m proposing. See what happens and how it makes you feel.

Generosity rewards you

Generosity will reward you in thousands of ways. They add up to the difference between a thin and grudging existence and a sparkling openness to the world.

In my opinion, generosity is a sub-set of happiness, as being generous adds to our own happiness. While the smile, the giggle, the ‘thank you’ from the receiver of our generosity is always good to receive, just giving generously without expectation fills our own hearts and adds something – a feel good factor – to our quality of life. I like that.

ACTION: What are your thoughts on generosity? Is it something you regularly practice in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so how about commenting below?