We spend a lot of energy venerating our knowledge, but actually what we don’t know is far more exciting than what we do know.

Listening to the same piece of music, watching the same film, reading the same book, walking the same route over and over again are all things that most of us would prefer to avoid.

Discovering new things, either wholly new or new elements of something, as we learn it and learn more about ourselves, is where the stimulation lies.

We enjoy discovery and learning and once we have learned what there is to learn it is time to move on.

So why do we so often repeat the same patterns and the same solutions in our lives, our work and our societies?

Do we have to know that something is right, is going to work, is “better” than what we are used to before we try it?

We know that so many of the old patterns we use in our life, work and society do not work and yet we persist.

Just because something is familiar does not make it right or optimal. It just makes if comfortable.

It is alright to settle and it is alright to compromise, it is not alright to settle for compromise.

If we want to live happy and fulfilled lives, if we want to make valuable contribution to the world through our work and if we want to leave a safer and more healthy society for our children, we must continuously challenge the solutions of the past and innovate to a new level.

We must seek out our ignorance and replace it with learning.

The irony is that somewhere deep down we know the right thing to do and yet we find the patterns that we have created through our lives are so difficult to change.

Next time you make a decision listen carefully to that inner voice and dare to take the path towards what you don’t already know, dare to take the journey where the road ends.

If you take time planning your journey it does not need to be scary.

“Adventure is just bad planning”. Roald Amundsen

Right now our society needs many, many more people who are willing to go “off piste”. To follow their hearts, rather than the well trodden path. To explore, experiment, challenge, rebel, invent, innovate and create. Are you the rebel?

Would you like help in breaking free of your old patterns to find your peace and potential?

nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile + 44 7775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk 
www.authentictransformation.co.uk

. . .if we wait for the moment when everything,
absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
Ivan Turgenev

It’s been about twenty five minutes and I’m feeling more positive, more excited and more looking forward to the future. I am in fact, bullish.
 
Why?

Simple, I set myself a challenge …
 
Now I have been setting myself goals for years now. I am still learning about how to set them and how setting a goal actually works. I know that I have to put an end date on it. I know it needs to be clearly defined in what it is. It’s just … when I hear the word “goal” or say the word “goal“, it doesn’t inspire me. It doesn’t get me of my seat, feeling jubilated, carried away by the sheer force of positive emotion. No.
 
Thirty minutes ago I stumbled upon a way to inspire me and rev me up. I set myself a challenge.
 
I am motivated to grow bigger muscle and I am having results, finally! However, I challenged myself, to see if I can do it, by a certain time. I wanted to set myself a target date that is coming quickly, so that I will have to really push myself to achieve it. I want to see and experience my boundaries.
 
My challenge is to grow my muscles to certain point, by a certain time. I have challenged myself to gaining eleven pounds of muscle before my birthday on October 1st. I currently weigh eleven stone three (72kgs). I have never had any more muscle than I do now. It means so much to me to increase my muscle mass and develop my shape. As I learn I grow.  
 
If I manage to rise to this challenge then it will prove one thing … Anything is Possible.
 
I will go out on my birthday with my head held high. “Friendly bullish” that’ll be me.
 
I can’t wait!
 
Now … I need a plan … … Got it!
 
Warmest wishes,
 
Dan

Have you ever started out wanting to be someone or achieve something when you were younger and found it changed or just remained a dream?  Some of us have always known what we want, but few have had that luxury. Most of us if we are honest have a mixture of hopes and anxieties and feel uncertain about many things. Sometimes we are on tracks that we have been pushed on to are not at all happy in.  How do we find what it is that is to be our ‘legacy’ in life?  Ever wondered why you are here?  I was buying a ticket in the underground and the guy behind the counter who was very helpful said ‘no problem luv that’s wot I’m ere for!’ and I remember saying ‘I wish I knew what I was here for!’

Some of us need more purpose than others – we are all different.  We all have a need to be significant in some way and everyone has their own particular version of it. The thing is that we live in a world of change.  Everything is changing all the time – the world, our neighbourhood, our workplace and especially the cells in our bodies!  You would think that with all the changes we constantly have to cope with that we would be used to change by now, but most of us still do not adjust well and find change stressful.

Where is your journey taking you?
It stands to reason that if we use the metaphor of life being like a journey, that changes will occur in our dreams and goals too.  There are phases in life and our needs and wants change as we get older.  Those who are the most content seem to roll with the waves and adjust quickly to the route twisting and turning.

Have you ever envied a school friend or colleague who has simply sailed along and achieved all they ever wanted to?  It can happen but most of it probably wasn’t plain sailing if the truth was to be known.  This is one of the things that can put us off even trying – the misperception that it is easy for Joe Clever clogs or Polly Privileged.  Now we are seeing how perfectly ordinary people can make their dreams happen by having it highlighted on TV especially in talent shows and true-life stories.

Sometimes we grow up with – I know I have said it before ‘SELF LIMITING BELIEFS’ that rule us – and they don’t even have to be subconscious.  Family sayings like ‘you’ll never be anything more than a karaoke singer’ ‘the only audience you will be in front of is a captive one!’ We get programmed into thinking negatively because we hear negative comments over and over again and become programmed.

Aside from self limiting beliefs of course there are other factors that affect our life outcomes:-
• Outside influences and circumstances beyond our control i.e. lack of money for education, illness, stress caused by family breakups.
• Family expectations and circumstances.  It takes courage to step out and do something that no-one in the family have done before!  ‘Mum, Dad, sit down…you see I have decided to leave college.  I am going to join a circus and become an acrobat.’
• Our experience of life so far – we may have had many setbacks and may have deep issues of low self-esteem that simply glue us down.
• Our deep down desires (needs and wants) – we may have a conflict and not know which path to go down because there are too many possibilities.
• Past lives – some believe that we choose our life, our relatives and circumstances before we arrive.  However, there can be unfinished business from a former existence that may affect our ability to move on in this life until it is resolved.
• The way we look at life – our own personal framework influenced by our character and personality.

Whether it’s that you lack purpose, are negatively programmed or your circumstances are holding you back or you simply are not sure which route to go down, the key to finding your path in life lies within.

Know Thyself
Knowing who you are i.e. your strengths and weaknesses, what you want, how you function best and so on takes time and as I mentioned previously we do change and develop as we grow older – that is to be expected and encouraged.  The only way we can really get to know ourselves is by living life to the full.  Taking a certain amount of risks and making our own opportunities.  Not staying on the edge of the pool but diving right in!  Involving and engaging ourselves.  It also takes reflection and contemplation i.e. listening and learning from the wise that have done it all already – and listening to the voice within

Appropriate choices
We have to make realistic and authentic choices.  There is no point doing something that we are not suited to just to prove that we can take risks.  We have to think about the consequences and implications of our decision-making.

Authenticity
We can only be as true to ourselves as our awareness will allow.  There are always areas within us that we are not aware of.  If we saw all our strengths and weaknesses in one go it could be a bit too much to cope with!  Authenticity is about an attitude of mind and a way of living life.  Being as honest as you can be with yourself and others.

Having a Plan
There is a well worn saying ‘those who fail to plan – plan to fail!  However, it is logical.  If you are going on a journey you begin with the end in mind – the route may vary but you know where you are going…

Taking Action
We can make changes in our thinking that govern our whole being, but those changes will not stick and become part of us unless we take positive physical action.  Whether it’s changing jobs, changing partners or getting a makeover – you have to make those changes show and that in turn helps your mind to accept the changes as fact.  Like on the computer when you have made changes to a document and are closing the file and it says ‘do you want to save changes?’ – you have to take physical action and click the box.  Not taking action keeps it all as theory in the same way that dreams remain dreams instead of goals that have been achieved if no plan is made and no action taken.

So being on track is about understanding the journey, knowing yourself, making plans that evolve and can be flexible and taking action – as a way of life!

© August 2008 Helen Bright Dip Clin Hyp, PNLP, Lifecoach

I am enjoying the summer lull and getting in some fairly serious cycling. For the first time in a while I am feeling quite fit.

My baseline route takes about an hour and includes a couple of climbs. My riding on this route tends to be like a time trial, the time it takes and my average heart rate give me an indication of my fitness.

One of the lessons this practice makes obvious (although not necessarily easy) is that of pacing. If I go too fast at the beginning, it makes the later parts certainly harder and probably slower.

Another lesson is that after a hard effort, to go over a climb for example, if I allow some time going more gently for my heart rate to come down and to recover before the next hard effort, I will also go faster over the whole ride.

Many of us run our lives a little like a time trial too, we race around trying to squeeze in as much as possible, both at work and at home. Inevitably as different demands are made on us and we attempt cram more and more in, without letting anyone down, some things get lost on the way.

If I can have the discipline when cycling to pace myself carefully over the early part of the ride; and to allow time to recover after a hard effort, I know I can go faster with less discomfort.

In the same way if we can pace ourselves in our lives making a little extra time for recovery, for reflection and for planning, we can actually get more done and with less discomfort.

We may feel guilty that we are not being as “busy” as we should be, but surely it is more to do with effectiveness than busy-ness? And busy-ness is not the same as effectiveness.

As three time Tour de France winner, Greg Le Mond said, “cycling doesn’t get any easier (as you get fitter), you just go faster.”

If you would like some help with reflection and planning for your life and work, perhaps you could take advantage of my three for the price of two August offer and I can help you.

If you want make some really focussed time for reflection you might like to join us for The PIE Retreat in October. See Neil talking about PIE on MNBTV.

with love

nx
neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile 07775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk
 www.authentictransformation.co.uk
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
  - George Orwell

At a recent meeting that I went to, we were asked to write down the qualities that our ideal practitioner would have. I’d like to share those thoughts with you:

My ideal practitioner would

 ·        be experienced in treating a wide range of conditions

·        be aware of prognosis, medical conditions, drug interactions

·        be aware of appropriate other therapies e.g. nutrition, herbalism, diet

·        be contactable and returning messages

·        be friendly and confident in their subject

·        let me know what they are doing and why

·        be self aware

·        not talk about themselves during the consultation

·        make it clear and simple in making appointments

·        be value for money

·        be recommended by someone I trust

·        be able to make home visits if necessary

·        respond quickly

I then put the same question to some of my clients. I realize that I don’t manage to achieve all of these all the time, but I try.

Some of the feedback that I received from was:

‘I agree with all the above Mike and would add a human response/communication skills (category) and the offering of a supportive role - gaining trust (and in doing so) feeling confident in the diagnosis/remedy offered. Also feeling the practitioner is interested in/motivated by the person and the condition. All of which you do.’

‘I agree with the above! I’d like to be able to speak to you or see you at the drop of a hat, especially when things get really busy and stressful for me, but that’s hardly very realistic is it….’

You might like to think about what your ideal practitioner would be like and let me know. I am often surprised when I visit other practitioners that they give me no written information about their treatment, prices or even directions to their practice!

Mike Andrews Registered Homeopath

Clinics in London and West Sussex

mike@westsussexhomeopathy.co.uk

www.westsussexhomeopathy.co.uk