Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”  Robert Schuller (Pastor, Motivational Speaker & Author)

The Olympics or Commonwealth Games attract large groups of people from all over the world who spend countless hours watching the skill of people who have a passion for the sport they’re involved in.  These athletes are prepared to spend a huge chunk of their lives practising & perfecting their sport to a point where they can at the very least, gain entry to race or play against others in their chosen sport.  This level of skill that we may marvel at doesn’t happen overnight.  We all know that they’ve probably had to give up something else in pursuit of the excellence they are going to need to achieve their goal.  This is called the Law of Sacrifice.  In his book, “Working with the Law,” Raymond Holliwell says, “Something always has to be sacrificed for something else.”  Even if you consider something as simple as watching a programme on TV, there are other channels we could watch, there are programmes like Netflix or you tube. We could choose not to watch at all and go out for a walk.

It is all about the choices we make in life.  We all have the same number of minutes in a day so how are you choosing to spend your minutes?  We often label success as the financial achievement, or being recognised in our external environment.  However, some will consider the progress they have made with their internal environment as being more of a successful milestone.  Stepping up to the mark, may actually be the spectacular achievement for some, the milestones they have reached internally that generate the confidence to partake in the sport called life.  Too often we are hearing of those who have found the going too tough, who have chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice, who haven’t felt safe enough to put in the preparation to be the person they want to be.  What is the achievement your internal guidance system is nudging you towards?  When will ‘now’ be the right time to start taking the preparation steps towards that achievement?

Enjoy your preparation!

“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.”

We’re told the probability of how many millions of sperm fight to fertilise an egg and therefore how special and unique we are. Apparently there is no one else in the world like us and I haven’t the time to bother trying to dispute that. We may have physical characteristics and ways of behaving that are like other family members but ultimately none of them are exactly like YOU. Knowing that to be true can be a catalyst to utilise the talents you have and make a difference in the world. It doesn’t have to be like the first person to fly to the moon or create Virgin airlines. But even as a parent we can chose to bring our children up with certain beliefs that ultimately help them reach their potential and recognise their own uniqueness.

Neuroscientist, Mark Waldman says, “Feeling that your life is meaningful is an essential component for happiness, well-being & life-satisfaction. When there’s a global threat like this pandemic – our perspective about what the future may hold can challenge our core beliefs about everything.” All this uncertainty can stir up the anxiety, worry & fear. What if it was an opportunity to do something we have dreamed about for a long time?

Looking into someone else’s life from the outside may look appealing. We may think they are achieving something we are not. For whatever reason we may strive to be like them and in so doing neglect the talents and skills we have to offer the world.  For some people it can feel uncomfortable to step outside the crowd, be the tall poppy that we love to hate in New Zealand. To neglect to live our purpose can cause us to feel unhappy or even ill. This uniqueness will continue until the day we die. Don’t allow the fears you have, stop you from being that unique being you came into the world to be, so you die with all your dreams and desires fulfilled as unique as you were when you were born.

Enjoy being YOU!

“My country didn’t send me 5,000 miles to start the race.  They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”  John Stephen Akwari

1968 Mexico Olympics from Tanzania

Are you the sort of person who has lots of ideas and loves starting things?  Or are you the sort who likes seeing the results of a job well done.  Unless you work in a team of people who have their designated jobs in the process of completion, it will be up to you to start and finish.

I’ve just been on a course about epigenetics – they used to think that our genes were set in concrete. But now they are realising that there are some genes that can’t be changed & others that can. It is an emerging field of science & fascinating to me, hence my desire to go on the course. There I found out that there are 6 different groups of biological types who respond differently to the challenges of life. And each group is driven by a different hormone/chemical.

So for me to finish something I need to make it a challenge, now I know that, I might finish off some of the tasks around this house.  Another group has to have lots of little tick boxes & others need certainty to keep them moving forward. Fascinating how we all react to life. Do you know what keeps you motivated to get things done? We don’t need to be too hard on ourselves. It may be a matter of our biology. Being an observer may help us to see what our patterns are and therefore how we might be able to change.

Enjoy finishing what you have started!

p.s. John Akwari fell at the beginning of the marathon. He dislocated his knee and hurt his shoulder but he finished the race.

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.”   Jim Rohn

Jim was one of the first people I listened to on tape back in the 80s.  Gentleman Jim is what they called him and that is how I also perceived him.  He had a presence about him and from a very early age he had done what unsuccessful people were unwilling to do.  This had caused a quick rise up his success ladder.  It was the second sentence that stuck out in my mind back then.  These words had been passed down to him by his mentor and they are based on the understanding that we all grow from our challenges.

Were you told as a child that anything worth having was worth working/fighting for?  I was watching my 2 year old grand-daughter learning how to solve a wooden jigsaw puzzle.  She did it and tipped it out several times before she obviously decided, “I’ve mastered that,” and moved on to the next thing.  If we don’t take those first steps as a child learning to walk, we don’t learn.  Was that an option as a child?  I’m sure you didn’t give up the first time you plopped on to your butt, or you wouldn’t be walking today.  Just look back at some of the challenges in your life and see how you’ve had to grow to surmount them!

Enjoy learning to be ‘better’!

“Self-confidence is the best outfit, rock it and own it!”

In my day job, so to speak, I work with undergraduate physiotherapy students. At the moment I have one student in particular who is allowing her lack of self-confidence to hold her back. She is self- doubting every decision she has to make. It will come, as she repeats moves and techniques and becomes more familiar with the feel of different tissues and when they are stiff or ‘normal.’ And when she becomes more sure of that, she will have more confidence in her diagnosis, and of course the treatment is based on that decision.

However I saw a woman in her mid-fifties several years ago who had been told all her life how useless she was. When we have been given that information by our primary carers or maybe a teacher, and when that has been repeated enough times, we believe that with every fibre of our being. How can you run a business or make executive decisions if you believe you are useless? It takes a lot of work to let that go, leave it behind and move forward without that anchor weighing us down! We have to do the inner work to believe that we are worthy, or that we deserve to get the results we want when we have worked so hard.

Unfortunately the subconscious is so much more powerful than the conscious mind and it stores all those old memories of when we perhaps didn’t do as well as we would have liked. It remembers and disputes our thought processes when our conscious mind tells us we are worthy, we deserve etc. We all need to kindly but firmly tell that subconscious part of us, that we have chosen to make some changes and we are now ‘rocking it,’ or whatever words feel comfortable for you! They have named it “fake it until you make it,” but it is more than that – we are reprogramming our minds with new words!

Enjoy believing in yourself and owning it!

I have just been reading an article and thought you might like to hear what advice the author was putting out. She was acknowledging the journey she has been on with the self-talk that she used to accept. Not any more! The problem is, we believe the nasty things we say, the judgements and criticisms. We all do it, and if we can learn how to reframe those thoughts, we can change the way we feel about ourselves on a daily basis. I was speaking to a client earlier today who said, “I’m my own worst enemy,” and we all can be but we don’t have to be all the time or even most of the time.

Sandy Woznicki highlighted 6 steps that she has found very helpful and I’ll put the link at the bottom so you can read the full blog article if you choose.

Step 1: Say hello – recognising that this voice is not actually you, can help step back and see the link to a voice from your past that is trying to keep you safe.

Step 2: Change how you experience the bully – this is the reframing I was talking about above. Reframing any situation that you don’t like or feel uncomfortable with is a great tool.

Step 3: Find the positive intent – these voices are always wanting the best for us and trying to protect us from doing something they think is out of our league.

Step 4: Choose a neutral or positive thought instead – instead of completely going to the other end of the belief system, add in another word like choose. E.g. I’m choosing to believe…. Or adding the word ‘yet’ e.g. I can’t do that yet!

Step 5: Give yourself permission to be imperfect – this is huge for a lot of people who have been brought up with the saying, “If you can’t do it perfectly, don’t do it at all.” Sandy suggests writing yourself a permission slip to be imperfect. I, Robyn, give myself permission to run a webinar and not do it perfectly.”

Step 6: Know that you are not alone and can ask for help if you need it. Even a good friend can usually help you see the positive things about you and support you to stay on track with the first 5 steps. And usually we can also find out that they have similar conversations in their heads too and that can be reassuring.

Enjoy standing up to your inner bully!

Here’s the Link

“There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”  Nelson Mandela

Imagine what would have happened for his people, if Mandela had chosen to live a small life & not pushed forward through thick & thin to hold true to his dream!  What dream do you have that is pulling you forward to be bigger than you presently are?  Small dreams are a good start but they may not hold the passion to ultimately get you where you want to go.  That small dream may only be considered a goal or one step along the journey.  Mary Morrissey talks about asking yourself several questions about that big dream: is it worthy of me (giving up my life for it); does my dream make me feel alive; does it fit with my core values – do you know what your core values are – the dream won’t feel good if it doesn’t fit with your core values; is the dream going to require me to grow; do I need help from a Higher power to accomplish this dream; is there some good in my dream for others?

If you answered YES to all those questions then you will have a lot more Passion & a bigger WHY to fuel your desires & push, to pass any obstacles.  Nelson Mandela must have had a huge passion to overcome all the obstacles he faced.  You may not want to be a world leader, but what is the life you could be capable of living, if you gave yourself permission to get excited & passionate about your dream, despite the setbacks?  So that you would then take some action to live that life?

Enjoy living the life you are capable of!

“It’s not about perfect. It’s about EFFORT. And when you implement that effort into life, every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs. Keep going. Remember why you started.”

I’m in an organisation that is trying to help all of us who are enrolled, to do exactly what this quote is about. They call it the DMO or daily Method of Operation. They are encouraging us to ‘implement any effort’ we are putting into our business, ‘every single day.’ Depending on our personality and the way we have been brought up, we may strive for perfection. In doing so, we don’t actually do the activity regularly because we can’t achieve that perfection and give up, only to try again in a day or 2 when we get the nudge from our coach or mentor. It is that persistence that Napoleon Hill talks about in his book, ‘Think and Grow Rich.’ He says, “this quality is to character what carbon is to steel.” Knowing WHY you are doing what you are doing is an important driver. Having the desire and the WHY is paramount to get anything started, but we need the added will power to keep us going when things get tough.

For a lot of people those times are tough right now! Giving up is not really an option unless you have a rich benefactor who is there to prop you up. The problem is, when we give up we can resort to victim thinking…. Blaming and justifying are 2 characteristics of being a victim. And the problem with feeling like a victim is that our situation can only get better when that other person, workplace or government, changes that thing that is affecting us. The only way to move forward is to reframe the problem, refocus our attention to a solution and redirect our energy to get the result we want for ourselves, rather than waiting for someone or something else to change. When you go to the doctor he makes his diagnosis and based on that, he might dish you out a prescription. He has several different choices and you may not respond the way you would like to the first option. But the doc and you, presuming he has the diagnosis correct, will search until you find the magic solution. If your WHY doesn’t change, then you may have to look at more than one solution before you make the change you desire. The responsibility is yours, the persistence is yours and then the effort that pays off is YOURS!

Enjoy doing a reframe and refocus, then redirect your energy into that solution daily!

“The mind is a powerful force. It can enslave us or empower us. It can plunge us into the depths of failure or take us to the heights of success. Learn to use the power wisely.”

We are seeing signs of the power of the mind as we traverse the times of Covid 19. The instructions from the medical personnel, both here & in other countries, all served to make people believe the world was about to end if we didn’t obey all their commands. Whether we did (believe them or obey them) or not is another matter & not a subject for this newsletter. But there was a level of fear & anxiety in a large proportion of the population and not all about the pandemic as such. On top of that, the finances of a huge number of people have been affected to the point where they have either lost their jobs or expecting to. Either way the effects on the brain from the stress we are experiencing is creating a sense of enslavement.

The sooner we can turn that around to empowerment the better. It not only makes us feel a lot better but it also changes the frequency of the thought patterns that go out. Collectively this can make a huge difference to the frequency of the world’s patterns. I know this sounds like woo woo, but probably when they first realised that the world wasn’t flat, those who believed the world was round were probably thought of as woo woo.  Quantum physicists are proving to us constantly & it’s like gravity, whether you believe it or not, gravity is still working here on earth. The only reason it is harder to use the power of our minds in a positive way is because we have been thinking ‘in a different groove’ for so long, that we need to focus on where our attention is, become aware until it is what is called unconscious competence. In other words we are doing something without thinking about it.

If we can all do this, I think there is hope for the earth, the world. But even if a large percentage of us can commit to this undertaking, it will probably be the most meaningful thing you have done in your life. This is a way we can all ‘save the planet.’ And no this is not a ‘pie in the sky’ idea. Everything in the universe is connected by our energetic frequencies. Let’s do this! Believe in your power to connect your thoughts with everyone else who has a similar ideology, to bring this world into a better way. Thanks for your contribution!!

Enjoy this process & the anxiety will start to evaporate!

“Imagine what you would do if you could do all you can?”  Anon

How many of you have a vision or a goal of what you want to achieve in the next few months, the next year or your lifetime? I know the global situation may have disrupted what you thought you wanted. But this doesn’t mean stop having a vision and goals. You’ve heard me rant on about the Law of Attraction, and it is a natural Law, just like the Law of Gravity & I’m sure you all take that seriously. A Law that works along with your beliefs. If you believe that you can achieve a certain thing, then you will. So let me ask you, how many of you think you are achieving your potential? How many of you believe you can, really believe right down to your core?

For many of us the belief is only superficial. The conditioning of our minds from parents, teachers, siblings and others, has the core of us believing things about ourselves that aren’t true. There is another quote I could have used today from Les Brown, that amazing motivational speaker who started off in life from a very impoverished situation. But the encouragement of one teacher helped him see that his whole life didn’t have to stay that way. The quote? “Don’t let someone else’s opinion of you become your reality.” Just in last couple of days I’ve heard of people being put down on Facebook. One woman I heard of who has a huge following & does some great work. But because she chose not to support the blacks in her business group, chose not to use her group as a political soap box she was singled out and got a lot of very negative comments. If we don’t allow ourselves to see this for what it is and take those comments to heart, and put ourselves down, we have allowed those opinions of others to bring us down. This does not support the Law of Attraction in a positive way. The Law of Attraction is ALWAYS working, but it depends what frequency you are putting out, what comes back to you.

So really imagine or visualise what you would do if you believed that you could do all that you can. Not 30%. Not 50%. But 100%!

Enjoy doing ALL that you can!