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I have had prayers answered - most strangely so sometimes - but I think our heavenly Father's loving-kindness has been even more evident in what He has refused me. - Lewis Carroll Fathers day today - did you ring yours? Is he still alive? Did you catch up over a fish or beer or brunch at a trendy café. Do you wonder who he is or where he went or why he had to go away? Milestone dates like these - fathers day, mothers day... where we are bombarded by Hallmark moments and Bunnings ads that are so mass generated as to be cringe worthy.Do they have any idea of the potential customer base they may be alienating. I long to hear of the teacher who acknowledges that the fathers day card activity may need some tweaking to meet her class demographic of 2013. The nuclear family is hardly the norm. What of those who sit today or on mothers day or any other culturally inept example of celebration missing their dads without the soch-med-cred of fitting the event to a tee? There are dads who may never be known. Or those who have been taken too soon or confusingly by cancer, alcoholism or prison. The suicide's, the workaholics, the ones that are unnamed on birth certificates or lost at sea. There are dads whose babies have died before them who must face today without a child. The truth is we all had one. A sperm donor a contributor to DNA pool. Was he tall dark and handsome? An entrepreneur or engineer? In todays mix of blended families we may be lucky enough to have more than one. A step father, a foster dad, a grand father great or otherwise. How we know them, love them and connect with them may define us, bind us or blind us. We do our dads a disservice to lump them all together and expect them to be here today, wearing the socks we've bought them and eating the breakfasts we have prepared. I believe that before we incarnate we choose our parents. For the lessons they will teach us and what we decide we would like to learn this lifetime this time around on this planet. If you incarnate to a couple of teenagers ill prepared for parent hood it's no great surprise when the relationship doesn't show longevity. Perhaps if the early loss or death of your dad builds your character, your fortitude, your compassion and your care you have an opportunity to DO things you would not have chosen to DO otherwise. To connect with other people, to champion a cause. To give love to another dad whom you may not have had space or time for before. If your dad was a hard task master what did you learn? If he was a softie, a push over, a woman on her own wat and how does that make you? Our dads are there to teach us, by their presence or by their absence or even by the fact that we may never know who they were or where they came from. I was reading through an old journal today and I found two fathers day gems. My first babies first word was uttered on fathers day it was Dada. It was a special thing to share with her today her first fathers day without her dad. A life lesson - that has stuck with me was also noted. My dad reminding me that when I didn't get something I didn't want it bad enough. I'd been turned down for physiotherapy school and was very woe is me. Expecting comfort and consolation I still recall the fury at being told it was all up to me. But I got it. Yep I should have studied more, not gone to the pub, chased the boys, thought I was good enough to get in without the work. And every time since when I miss out on anything I know more and more clearly my dad is right. If I really want anything I can create it. And when I miss out it's ok - I can't have really wanted that thing anyway. The picture above is my darling dad. I love you x x And I'm really really glad you are alive today. Today I have been thinking a lot of my own dad and a lot of the dads who are not here and the dads that are. My kids were scrapping tonight and I had to cut my phone call short - it's ok I know he heard what I wanted to say. My dad is lighting a candle for my brother in law - a dad I've thought of today who is on the other side. There are many of them. All my grand dads, the closet person I had to a step dad, my daughters dad, dads of my nieces and nephews, mum and aunties. Maybe your dad or a dad you have loved too. Dads of friends and friends children who through misadventure, mismanagement or mystery are not with their children here on earth today. Dads who lead good lives, full lives and long lives. Dad's with lives cut short too soon. They are all here - larger than life, in our thoughts, our memories and our circumstances. Our heavenly fathers. Those who seeded life as we know it. Today is the day we in New Zealand hold them in our hearts and thoughts and thank them for being the ones we all chose to have as our parents. Happy fathers day everyone - x
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#handwrittengoals
#lmaaugust #photochallenge #handwritten goals. Year two of participation. 2012 #somethingthatmoves #day6 threw me out of the game for the remainder of the photo challenge. I realised I needed to get off my arse and DO. What a year though. Couldn't wait for August to come around again to give it another go. Check out www.livemoreawesome.com #lmaaugust twitter, instagram, facebook to see AWE-some images. Create your own AWE. 2013 #handwrittengoals #day6 again another B.F.O moment. Ruling hand since. Pushing me just a little bit further in every task - feeling awesome just by the contemplation of "it" or the completion of "something", "anything". Finding AWE and then some. Pure Adrenalearn. There's the one more time with feeling moments. #anightout, same crowd, same dress embroiled in innocent tasks staged to look dodgy - Friday nights - both years. Some things never change. Mischief with some folk is guaranteed. Mantras. There are lessons in every #instagram moment. Waking not knowing what the image will be, observing the day to see what cul-de-sac I'll pull into. The pressure of no idea, looking the wrong way at sunrise, pulling off the road to catch sunset - saved by the yahoo moments when the perfect graphic representation of concept is spotted, captured and posted. A wee wow at completing a complusive daily ritual. The whole months been #abitmental thanks to #jimihunt. It's awe-some to speak in #hashtags. One man's mission to lilo the Waikato and Live More Awesome is Jimi Hunt's book - inspiration for epic journeys a great big yahoo in itself. Buy it. His #handwrittengoal to make NZ the happiest country in the world by 2020 is cult worthy. Participated in a challenge? Any challenge? Got a goal, aim or ritualised meditative practise? Try 100 days of cupcakes, a year with a slow cooker? Sticking to your knitting is a whole journey in it's self. Fascinating observation breeds innovation fodder. Tomorrow #day21 #Exercise - thank god! The most under utilised anti depressant I could do with OD-ing on. A virus has cut swathe through my household. The 2013 winter has been testing in the health realm. Rickshaw Run training depends on #lmaaugust day 21 and the next 5 months of it. The first 4 weeks only you notice the changes, after 6 weeks someone else notices and after 12 weeks the world notices. That's a time line for AWE some change with exercise. I'll check back. The absorption in a challenge task makes for fascinating observations. Fascinare is to cast a spell - on yourself. As you wake up to what is AWE-some in your life and how you can tweak it makes it more fun for yourself and those around you. Zero tolerance for negatives is a challenge mooted in all DO learning workshops. Become the observer of your internal and external dialogue and master it. Tell the voice in your head to rephrase that please. Eliminate bitchin, griping and moaning. State outcomes with certainty, allow things to be happening perfectly according to the plan. Believe you have the perfect amount of time to achieve what ever it is that you need to achieve. I was stalking a facebook poster following their long, long, long journey home to the UK... via every bad weather system, flight delay, hideous fellow passenger and reroute. Ironically created exactly as he foretold from his first post the night before departure - "having trouble sleeping in anticipation of my long journey home". Be careful what you wish for. Challenge yourself to avoid doomsday prophecies and crystal balling for the next month and see how much more AWE - some it becomes. The rest of the August is pure anticipation - my best friend - how to choose just one? A thank you note to who for what? Looks like I'll receive something, can't wait. A stranger - someone I'm yet to meet, how exciting. There is one interesting thing about every person on the planet. My neighbour - you are going to love their tee pee. #day8 #abookI'mreading Authenticity is tested when we embrace challenge. Will we remain open, share willingly, disclose our true selves, demonstrate strong will, push through fear, belief bust barriers? Or will we tire easily? Give up, run out of places to go for inspiration? Betray someone or something by acting out of integrity? Pause and look exactly where we you are at that moment. When challenge would appear to win. Observe what you are already doing and celebrate how perfectly AWE-some it already is. Add some thing to it. Read some thing more high brow, draw eyebrows on it, climb higher, share your struggle with another. From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere. Dr. Seuss There are countless times in life - sometimes in the same day that we ponder the purpose, plan, place and pace of the journey. That B.F.O moment ...the Aha that's why I had to DO that, hear that, see that, learn that, repeat that experience - the metaphorical click of OOOOOO - thats why! Too long ago with ProgressiveEnterprises "Operation Phoenix" rebranding Three Guys supermarkets to Countdown's I wondered aloud often - Why the universe had decided that me facilitating the same customer service course 3 times a day, 5 days a week for 10 weeks was something I needed to DO? - I get it now. Customer Service workshops became the bread and butter when I started my own business in 1995 and remain so. I have the faith to perfectly pitch every one liner, snoozy audience wake up call on the topic to any individual. It makes the content easily transferable to any industry group who wants a customer service pick me up. I had to find ways to make it sing to myself every time every day so I trust that others will find it of worth. Because I practiced it again and again and again and then some more. I learnt to keep my place when lost staring at another green shirt in the same room with the same poster with the same story time and time again. It taught me contextual memory anchoring, the ability to keep my own state vibrant and the certainty that every participant deserved to experience the best I could be one more time with feeling. No one wants to be the last customer of your weary day. Or to feel that you've been there done that and really can't be faffed to be there again right now. Training hotel induction provides me with a playground for new workshops and new material. I am in an audience comfort zone. I grew up in that world, cut my cloth there so to speak - it gives me the freedom to craft new content; to test out the tricky stuff and see how it is received. I can feel how these audiences like to get their stuff so I can tell when something I'm pitching is falling flat or hitting home. It sends me back to the drawing board or into the streets. When it stands on it's own feet in hospitality I can take new content out wide to the world. New clients, new markets, new projects - as my mum would say - same shit different bucket - T.M.B.A.W! Spending hours on social media platforms, home in the evenings on the farmlet while my engineer works away and my kids claim theTV has opened up opportunities to support others in learning what may work or won't work for them in the same arena. Childhood trips to Asia and beyond - experience for Enculturation workshops and opportunities to work off shore. A random stranger, a scheduled meeting, trending article or a good friend catch up - they all have purpose. It would appear that nothing is by chance at all. What part time jobs, books you have picked up, things you once tuned into - have impacted where you are today? Did the months as a roading engineer give you the understanding of infrastructure and transportation to DO the reports that are now required? Did time on the front line prepare you for stress and hardship and being out in all weather? Time stuck home with a sick child - the opportunity to practise patience, develop a new product or light the internal fire to be well again and in the world - that may have never have happened with the same degree of passion or purpose otherwise? Did you travel to Invercargill in labour to know that you can focus and handle pain, did a loved ones illness send you on a path as a nutritionist? Or did you decide that a holiday away from the pain is what you really needed to be once again declared sane? If observation is the key to innovation what is it that you have had the chance to see? The moments that we think there is no reason for us to be somewhere are the most profound moments of all. Go where you think you know no one and find your future partner, client or a long lost gem. Head scratching moments, delays and deviations can be worshiped as moments of magic when out of control we may be being guided along a path that is not of our own making. We are here for a good time not a long time and it's opportune to remind ourselves of that often. The Celestine Prophecy on recall suggested that the path to enlightenment requires all the bit parts we have played to date. So stop for a moment on the road to fufillment and ask what are you DO -ing here? What might be the value, the point or the learning? The reason why for how or the why not? Is the message practise, research or promise? Are you honing a skill, working out what you don't like, there to meet someone or be someone? Or is there really no reason at all why you are here, there or anywhere? What are you DO-ing here at all? T.M.B.A.W ! If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? 1710 George Berkley _ A treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge. Observation and knowledge of reality = Interpretation? How we experience something may be in dynamic relationship to our understanding of it's environment. If a system is unsustainable it disintegrates. Habits, practice and attitudes. Locations, data, processes. Rapid evolution always requires adaptation. T.M.B.A.W - is the latest professional training program I've designed for DO Learning. T.M.B.A.W will encourage people to realise there are always solutions. Working collaboratively and efficiently with others, interpreting our environment in real time here and now is the express way to achieve what it is that we need to achieve. New Zealanders brush and floss our teeth, other cultures practice oil pulling .... - keep it clean people! This Aruveydic wonder treatment involves the swirling of cold pressed oils around the mouth and gums for excellent dental and general heath benefits. And on a continent such as India where the old brush, paste and floss may have been a later arrival on the dental hygiene scene - oil pulling has resulted in gorgeous healthy pearly whites for a long time. How long have you known about it? Tempted to try it? Or maybe Google it to find out a little more? If you long for good gum health, have any skin issues or would just like a whiter smile I bet you might just DO a little more research on it. Travel creates opportunity for us to take a study tour - The observation of group agreed knowledge, a culturally varied reality. How we DO what it is that we do? How do we interpret what happens to us and around us? Which is the right way? "Fascinare" - to cast a spell, long a theme of DO learning workshops - encourages participants to become fascinated in observing what is happening in their environments, to engage with it again. Understanding that everyone is DO-ing the best they can with what they know at the moment. - no right or wrong just useful. - no good or bad just different. Examples of gazillions of other ways to do things are just a pinterest board away from you and millions of other googlers and influencers. Are we over loaded? How are we responding to the access we all now have to the collective consciousness. DO we need this many options of ways to DO things. So many directions to turn that we get stuck and sit still unable to move forward at all. The paradigm shifts of the GFC are rippling through our networks. Everything that goes on tour goes on facebook. To deal with overload we may find inspiration in the observation and understanding of how others achieve success. Perhaps our current perceptions are limiting our actions. Our interpretation clouding our vision. At the perceived peak of the anthropocene, on the edge of the slippy slip into cloud computing, sims, social networking a penchant for being twit faced - alternate realities are easily perceived. Our current systems in local governance, communities and lifestyles face challenges to sustainability. Extreme weather events, changing use of assets, technologies and system failures. Observation drives innovation. Efficient application of resources, collaborative methods of finding solutions. A system that views change as lineal and sequential has disintegrated, people are not sure how to respond in its absence. Affecting all areas of the organisations ability and effectiveness. In local government overload comes from all directions, central government, internal work relationships, engaging with ratepayers, stake holders, elected members. Our local councils are not alone in needing to find solutions for how to achieve more with less. Leaders in big business such as Apple, Google are changing the corporate environment - there are multiple examples that can be applied to civil service. A multi-media, environment immersion learning workshop will provide the wake up call to participants. Spark ambitions, clarify values and limits. Effectively and collaboratively. The T.M.B.A.W DO professional training workshop is a one day course which supports small teams of workmates with similar challenges to find new ways to support the delivery of product and service. T.M.B.A.W applies to any service based industry - hospitality operators, tourisim, retailers and to each of us - It's great life skill stuff.Try a one to one professional development session. This workshop has given me a wake up call - my clients were saying help! please, but we are not sure what with - The challenges were the same across varying requests. I get a monumental buzz on when a new workshop takes form - the synchronicty runs high and the content download from the collective consciousness comes fast and furious. There are hours at the computer, writing , researching and the conversations with clients, friends, randoms and others all seem to pick up on similar content or themes. It lets me know when I'm on the right track - Sir Avery turns up at conference, then you turn on the TV and his presentation is replaying, when the book you were given for christmas turns out to be just that book, and R.A.S activated people have talked to you about it more than three times so far this week. Yes it's on you tube - these are the types of content down loads you start to listen to when you are given infomration not just in one form but many - the ripple effect. As if to validate that this is the content that needs to get to a wider audience. I'm excited as are the clients who have requested the T.M.B.A.W professional training program. Contact me if you would like your workplace to work more efficently and collaboratively. The continual and rapid rate of change is at risk of leaving some workplaces adrfit.Valuable and motivated employees may become disillusioned and leave impacting the ability of the organisation to move forward at a comparative rate. Those who are struggling to adapt to change may face restructure as levels of service and the application of new technologies and extreme weather events fundamentally alter the daily tasks we are required to perform. Some are ill equipped personally to cope with the overload of change asked of them currently. Some admirably are taking up the baton and adapting to the organic, collective and collaboration processes that help to sustain systems, adapt and evolve. T.M.B.A.W is a full day training workshop that focuses on: What has changed how and why in the ways we provide products and services. How is the world responding to real-time now. – A study tour of difference and how it impacts me. How to value, utilise and effectively apply existing skills with a sense of urgency and energy. Working efficiently and collaboratively. How to personally handle change overload, depression, stress and organic change. Interpretation skills - How to observe and respond to our environments in new ways. For learning to take effect it needs to be motivating, to provide a wake-up call – delivered in a format that is in its self; paradigm shifting. Fresh thinking and new processes to address our changing realities in 2013 and beyond. So here and now in real time - when we get stuck we can just yell T.M.B.A.W Click the pic to contact Lisa regarding TMBAW workshops. Social Engineering, Human economics - both topics of research on our family jaunt to the Sunshine Coast. A holiday is always a journey. Gigantean leaps in awareness and evolution of life skills that take some assimilation when re-entering the mainstream. Today's blog topic is "Betterness". A new wave of business thinking? Or a habit for a life line? Hitting the Arrow, 500 emails, a snag with the GST return, and missing the school bus yesterday was as brisk a wake up call as diving into the river literally. I sat in the rainbow lit spa, Rainbow beach on Monday night attempting to commit to cell memory what HOT felt like. Two weeks of sunshine, bikinis, beaches, tropical fruit and relaxation hopefully imprinting the DNA before the 18 hour trek home to a -7 degree frost and the cold metallic barrel of a long hard winter where making swede a delicacy lies before me. Your soaking in it - mantra. The urge to push myself under, to stay longer, to avoid coming back was tantalising close. The Plantation Resort had apartments for sale - A dual lifestyle beckoned. If animals had passports we could be there now. Cultural flexibility skills kicked in and we made ourselves taste everything about that option, exploring all we could of our surroundings to make sure the Disneyland effect could fade and we could see without our rainbow coloured glasses on. They slid to the end of our noses. BFO's for me always come from what we souvenir when away from the norm. A multitude of tips from holiday reading - Betterness: Economics for Humans by Umair Haque, will mix it up with dreams from Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern and a more fragrant home thanks to buddha bum frangipani and lemon grass scented candles, gifts from my kids. For them the priority carry on luggage included a sand dollar, four clip on koalas, super hero outfits, new swimmers and thongs demonstrating belief in the future, whimsy and wonder not that different to my own take home items. In a workshop I developed back in 1900 & 90 something - "small world" we explore the topic of culture shock and how to deal with it. I'm always fascinated when you arrive at a new place how the colours are bright, the smells and sounds enticing and all the fashion in the shops has an AMAZING MUST HAVE NOW kind of influencer. By the time you immerse in it all, roll around a bit and suck on the juicy bits you realise that you are so over things with studs on them you can manage to not own any except for those already in your snow tires. Fascinare - means to cast a spell. To take the essence of what you are looking at and immerse in it. To look and learn, to become engaged with things again. How long has it been since you have changed your environment? Immersed in a new world and got over excited about things from another perspective. Dived into the void and swum in things unfamiliar. Stepped out of your comfort zone and looked at what you would like to DO better or instead of what you are DO-ing now ? When was the last time you sucked on something new? Smelt it, dealt it kind of living. It would appear that those in the land of OZ are so much better at things than us Kiwis. Across the ditch they dress smart, smile, welcome you, joke with you, enjoy and cater for children and respect the flags - they genuinely seem to like their jobs and going to work each day. My "oh I know so much better than you" persona has decided that Australia may be yet to experience it's GFC. Things seem over geared and a little fragile. Retail down, cash rates changing, resorts in receivership proving tempting to buy though development may never ever ever get it back together. There is a smell like a dead rat in the rafter, like something has crept inside to hide from the winter and eaten up large on handouts. You can't quite place where the smell is coming from; it's almost sickly sweet... but you know somehow in your gut it has potential to get a lot worse before it gets better. How DO we make things better? Umair Haque has inspired me to toss out the mission and vision statements, objectives and strategies of doing business and to get jiggy with ambition, intention, constraints and imperatives. Good thing my business isn't called "objectives unlimited" anymore because that is so last century. The Night Circus has challenged my perspective on black and white, its entered my dream state and cast a spell. The DO party animal in me craves a Night Circus event. Contact me if you have an ambition for one too. I intend to find more ways to weave magic in daily life to invest in human potential and to correct the effects of old school ways of doing business - no pursuits that lead to diminishing the common wealth: widening economic inequality, the depletion of the natural world, and more. To get out of this trap, we need to rethink the future of human exchange, we can be inspired by our values and intentions and impose on ourselves limits of what we will DO and not DO. We can become more aware of the mechanics holding the game together and D.A.R.E to DO things another way. Engaging all our senses and sensibilities. Reaching inwards to find the human potential and immersing in things that delight our senses. We can become more child like on our journey. Trust that the future will be warm and welcoming, that treasure can be found where ever you go and that first step to being a superhero is to look the part. There is definite climate change amongst us. The world is experiencing rising anxiety. It may be as easy as tapping it out with Brad Yates on you tube. It may be as simple as taking a break to get better. Winter learning workshops with me supporting you with what to DO next will certainly engage the senses and warm up human potential - I'm back at the desk and charging ahead with gay abandon. Come join my circus and play. The pursuit of mediocrity is always successful. Was a mantra to a guru HRM that I was head hunted by years ago. She pushed me to stretch out of my comfort zones and aim to be legendary. What a role model she was and is. OK service just isn't good enough. "I shopped at New World today and nothing bad happened to me." - said no one to anyone ever! Perhaps I'm just having a bad day but I'm really a tad angry and frustrated. I'm f'd off. At the ineptitude and lack of drive I've been experiencing lately. If my anger at others really is a mirror of what's going on for me personally then I guess its a loud call that I need to push myself harder. To scull a shot of life's wake up call each morning and realise none of us have the time not to get this. Reason 1 for the Rickshaw Run. Time to push the limits. D.A.R.E again to live out loud to see how far I can go doing amazing things to support others and to feel the colour it adds to my life. But first - get the work done, the proposal emailed, the invoice out, the GST in, the house sorted and the washing put away pronto. Check out CK Lewis on you tube - "Everything is awesome yet nobody is happy"; to get the drift of what I'm saying. We are experiencing the anthropocene. The time epoch where humanity holds the perceived balance of power on the planet and it's wasted on a generation of us with a huge sense of entitlement demonstrating activity that inspires very little exemplary at all. The generational inequity is daunting - benefits, expectations of social welfare, government and entitlement are everywhere. You don't have to move your feet far off your ottoman or even lean forward on your couch to hear the media bag yet another aspect of how hard life is in today's world. Get real! Count a few of your own first world problems... The charger on my i phone 5 means that now none of my techno wired house features work without adapters is an all too common cry. I remind myself that the women of Macetown managed to wear layers of white petticoats under well pressed dresses laundered by hand at minus 14 degrees c in the river in winter any time I want to B-itch about having to fold my washing warm and soft from the dryer. Those with the means manage to excuse ourselves from the most character building of activities. Because when we are executives we buy into the perks. A lust for luxury and desire to be elite. Convincing ourselves that success is a ticket out of service and selflessness. We deserve to sleep in, eat out, have nannies, fly first class while someone else scrubs the dunny, disciplines or hugs the kids and empties the cat litter. In training sessions when asked to describe customers most groups serve a nation of drama queens, haters, wasters and complainers. Put that together with most of the customers who are getting appalling service every where they go. What a bunch of no hopers we've all turned into. Are we really scrapping the bottom of the wine barrel then whinging at the sediment? When those still unemployed are there because they won't pass the drug tests or don't want to work the public holidays. Most weeks I come up with a couple of start up business ideas. I've encouraged my kids to sell horse poo, wash cars, pick herbs to DO more. Yet an hour a day after school and I've spoiled them. So right now all of you hands up. If you are the person out there giving the crap service and whinging when you get worse service elsewhere this is the time to line up next to me, stand up and be counted. What? it's not you? If it's not you and it's not me then who on earth could it be? Is it because we have all been caught up in the quest to be entrepreneurial , creative types who can multi task and create a great work life balance? Even those who can't read or write because it's not our first language or we have a different learning style to that which the system operates in. How is it that all of us manage to stuff around finishing little and creating mayhem for others to sort out in our wake. While we primp, preen and posture, throw tanturms, cheat or lie, blog, network and lunch? Maybe we justify our mediocrity as we work 14 hour days, go without breakfast or lunch and take care of three kids while volunteering to coach the touch rugby game. Respect for people, places and things seems to have fallen by the wayside. As we meet to discuss the values for private schooling it's unanimous - manners, old school traditions. Opening doors, calling people by their surnames, standing when the boss, teacher or customer enters, making eye contact, smiling, acknowledging each other, respecting your elders are traditions we long for to give a feeling of security and comfort. If kids can't wear a formal uniform at school how the hell will they show up to work on time and dressed for success. If they swear at their mothers, and graffiti their desks and bodies will they feature on police 10 seven instead of the high school year book or the rich list ? I witness senior mangers leaving for an hours drive to a meeting, 10 mins prior to its scheduled start time. Keeping 10 people waiting ...where is the cost benefit ratio in that? Getting passport photos supplied electronically when children's applications must be hard copy takes three trips to the camera shop to sort out. None of it on purpose, but maybe that is our problem. Together in love spirit and purpose is engraved on the inside of my wedding band. Ten years this month - maybe I should now tatoo it across the back of my hand. To remind me that the connection to life is bigger than I've seen and the obligation is to get on with it, now. There is the wwoofer who came to help in the garden, learning on a study abroad scheme at the expense of the UK government and courtesy of Otago university. A sweet kid it was a major to drag herself out to meet the day before 11am, or fill more than a bag of horse poop an hour. The garden she meticulously weeded does demonstrate that she may be well suited for the career in archeology that she is following. Indeed history may be made while she digs. It took four days to clear 50 square metres, correction 10 of them are still undone. As a trainer I know that I have a tendancy to give the level of instruction that I would need to do a job. So I felt a dash of pride when I'd explained grid by grid what I wanted to have happen. Over the week my own speed increased as did my productivity. In an attempt to lead from the front I got a hell of a lot done. She was a great hit playing with the kids and read 7 books in the week that she was here. So I'm sure that contributed something to the collective good. But was it worth it? Consider my lovely neighbours scenario who had random house sitters offer to take care of their place over the summer. Great, though now they are gone and have left ALL their stuff in the garage, no rent, no fee, no care. When asked when it's going to move... their new place isn't very big... And? the point is?? Is it time to embrace a paradigm shift back to excellence? With unitasking and the rise of the intraprenurial. Some B.F.O's for this weeks journey... Focus on one thing at a time do it exceptionally well and finish it. Work in the business not on it. Look for ways to do things better and faster. Use less resources to be more productive. Respect for people places and property. Not wrecking the planet cause it's where we keep all our stuff. Time to lift the game and demonstrate good sportsmanship. If your not first you are last and second is the first loser. Celebrate winners - Drink a cup of metaphysical concrete and harden up. I'll give it a day or two and let you know how I go. Synchronicity DO you notice the signs? Put your music on to "shuffle" and immerse in the joy of the synchronicity DJ. Ever notice how the songs that are played for your metaphysical listening pleasure seem to have all the right messages as you walk along life river path? Even the tempo change seems appropriate. I'm not getting all religious on you here but I do enjoy it when the signs and symbols on the track seem to indicate that we are headed in the right direction. From Wikipedia... Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, yet are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described in this terminology by Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychologist, in the 1920s.[1] The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by meaning. A grouping of events by meaning need not have an explanation in terms of cause and effect. It's those moments of magic when you think of something you would love to have or see and the next moment its right in your path. A what do you know?! Look at that! .... isn't that ORsome B.F.O moment... I often wonder about the DJ in my head. Random lyrics, humming a melody and then when I stop to listen they are strangely on target to my task. Thinking of a longtime-no-see friend and you meet someone that knows them or they ring or appear in person on tv or your dreams. Entering the Rickshaw Run and Radio NZ features excerpts from "Bitten by the Bullet" of riding a motorbike through Rajasthan. Is it the RAS in action from my earlier adrenalearn blogs? Or is it the pixies doing their job? When we group moments by meaning rather than by cause and effect it can support or hinder our decisions and choices. It can affect our beliefs, our sense of wonder. An understanding that something bigger than us just may exist after all. Seemingly the angels are on side when it all goes swimmingly. Or perhaps they are not when you slip on the wet bathroom floor smashing the shower door and popping your MCL only to drop your computer bag on top of your $400 sunnies as you head out to work. You may begin to question if it's a good day to stay in. I have a thing that happens with photos that I've begun to take as cues from friends and spirit on the other side. The pictures invert. I can show examples of bff's and fallen soldiers. I've clicked an image on my iphone to capture a photo of a photo and it's flipped. Or a page in a memorial book in Suda Bay cemetary to help me locate a grave site that when I open the image again as a reference is upside down. To me the sychronicty or meaning is that this is a voice from spirit saying hey we are here with you - Believe. I don't get why it does it or even need to know the answer I enjoy it, soak it up and revel in it. Just going wow that's cool. I wonder how come I get to see these things and wonder what the message is here? It keeps my on track, keeps me forging ahead, wakes me up and makes me take notice. There are random signs like "11.11" on the clock - why do I seem to always glance at that time? I see turtles and Keraru - the NZ native wood pigeon so often they are my animal totem pals. Each has meaning and significance to me, I take strength every time I come across one, even in countries where there are none. My turtle stories could bore you into your shell. Suffice to say that while strolling through the Chinese gardens in Darling Harbour telling Ewar Woowar how bizarre it is that turtles often cross my path... a turtle decided to exit a pond headed straight for us hyper extended his neck and bit me on the toe of my boot. I've seen them in a wave break in front of me in the surf in Hawaii, pop a head out of the ocean beside a yacht on our honeymoon, I've been given random gifts of carvings, jewellery and drawn the turtle animal card from a pack more times than I can count, - to dates best tally... 21 times in a month of daily random card choices. Too many times to be a coincidence? Or at least one with no meaning? What signs have you noticed - had any sychronicity pixies in your world lately? I'd love to hear... If a black cat crosses your path it indicates that the animal is going somewhere - Grocho Marx The path of least resistance are you on it? Know where you are going in life? Or even where you want to be by tonight? Are you faced with choices and decisions that are confusing confounding and hard to distinguish between? I've just had a great discussion with a lovely lady who is at a crossroads of sort. I love it when someone reaches out for connection and allows me to let inspiration flow. It's all the more fulfilling when we are yet to meet in person because I can trust that the information I'm sharing is from source rather than tainted by my human perceptions of them or the way I have judged how they are living their lives. Life offers so much choice everyday at every junction sometimes it's hard to determine which outcome will be the most promising. To trust that tossing a coin could take us on a wonderful journey. Perhaps we have broken through a paradigm and are newly aware that our belief system has changed. We are brave enough to explore new horizons but we are just not certain which opportunity is the most fruitful to pick. In these instances it is important to trust your gut reactions and to learn to distinguish when you are in the flow or not. There is a temptation to race off down the first path we stumble upon. 100 yards into our dash we realise we are up to our necks in shit. The trick is to take it one little step at a time and check in with your gut often. Ask is this an Ooo or an Ahhh. And step by step feel your way along; following the path of least resistance. The path that feels good, light and fun. There are wants, needs, desires, cues, judgements and observations that get us where we deserve to go. Make lists or mind maps to feel out your journey. Start with what you really really want, what you need is as simple as base survival and what you desire is that quiet little voice that you hardly even D.A.R.E to listen to. Desire can wear disguises. It may be the nagging feeling or crowd in the grandstand telling you that you can't do that or should do this. It's time to be really quiet and ask yourself why that voice is so certain that it knows what is good for you. Maybe you really are allowed a pony or actually could be prime minister - we were each created equal with a god given right to divine inspiration. Just some D.A.R.E to follow it. Out of this voice of desire rise the seeds of fruitfulness. The passion to live by the sea, the drive to wipe out bullying, the inspiration for creativity. If everything has happened to you for a reason lifes lessons just may be in the signs. Perhaps its where things are the most in contrast. Observe what it is that you find the most challenging or confronting. Use these nuggets of wisdom to sketch out your road map but allow the universe to fill in the landscapes, the terrain and the colour for you. Reach out and connect with others - this is where the ideas flow and the synchronicity happens. Where 2 degrees of separation can pop out and become cairns by the road side - shrinking your world and putting the people and the tools in your path to take you to shores you have not even dreamt about. The cues are where you come in. The lines that someone utters that you have a gut response to. The offer of a job or a chance to connect with someone or something. Judgements and observations are the road signs. I D.A.R.E'd to comment on an April fools Facebook post by someone asking should she go to live in the South of France for 6 months or Stewart Island for a year. The last joke may have been on the poster. Designed to lure us into thinking she was seriously considering leaving the shaky isles. The judgements from others and her own observations that either choice was suddenly sounding very enticing may have created opportunity to exciting to ignore. The engineer and I asked GOG to define whether Grumpy Old Man Syndrome really exists and why. I love our philosophical explorations of life and its stages through the web of online learning and knowledge. References to Eriksonian psychosocial stages gave me flash backs to those first year psych lectures. That as we age there is a natural need to detach from society as we face death and leaving this world for another unknown. There is the inevitable comparisson of what we desired to achieve and whether or not we ticked the boxes and got there. Or whether we become cynical , bitter, twisted and sad that this time around we blew it and now we are out of time. Didn't D.A.R.E or care enough to at least say that we tried. For those that look back and sum up the path they have travelled positively there is the opportunity to become the wise sage. The kamatua, a healer, a helper, a light worker. To be one who gave something a go and risked the rejection and the humiliation of failure. That listened to what we thought we could never DO and did at least some of it and felt good for it. Or realised that although the temptation to live abroad in a new location sounded enticing and different, that life here ...exactly as it is now; was just to good to ignore and a new level of satisfaction in staying put was the greatest gift of all. I allow my intuition to lead my path - Manuel Puig http://www.breakthrough-hq.com/goal-setting/reticular-activating-system Ever noticed what happens when you want to buy a particular thing or know someone who has one - a car, maybe an Audi, or a designer handbag? You begin to see them everywhere? So much so you wonder if the dealer has a giveaway on that you've missed. Or perhaps you are thinking about going on holiday - Antarctica - then BAM on TV there is a deluge of doco's on the destination. The travel section of the weekend paper is featuring the wonders of the southern realm. Your kids class starts a learning module on it. And you sit next to a geotech engineer just back from working the summer down there on the bus. Why is it that when we focus our attention to something all around us the cues and clues seem to become more abundant? Answer your R.A.S has been activated ... Your reticular activation system is a part of your brain stem which acts like a radar. See the link under the picture above for a great article from Breakthrough-hq on how the R.A.S works and how it can support you in goal setting. Activating your own R.A.S. deliberately is a powerful tool for motivation and for learning. Focus yourself on something that you would like to learn more about and let the universe deliver the goods. Tune your radar in to healthy eating and lifestyle choices and you'll begin to notice all the wonderful supportive ways you can nurture yourself and your wellbeing. You'll participate in a friends healthy living research, you'll find wild berries when you walk. You choose fish over fondue off the menu, a herb tea over a coffee in the morning. Don't like something or someone. Turn your R.A.S off. Start to go other places and notice other things. Hide them in your Facebook newsfeed or unfriend them. Change the channel. The R.A.S. is the portal between the outside world and it's signals. And YOU - the living, breathing, acting power house and what you do with that information. Learn how to effectively and efficiently open and shut that door. With the ADRENALEARN natural learning framework that I use in DO Learning workshops we activate the R.A.S. to the topics and content of the session and build links and bridges to your real world experiences to ensure that the learning will continue once you re-join real time. How can you turn it on? Turn it up or tune it out? D.A.R.E is my model for change. Decide: what it is that you want to be different. Pick just one thing that you would like more off or less of in your life. I generally find it useful to focus on the things I want to increase and to play the zero tolerance for negatives game. Instead of saying I want to eat less crap I would therefore say I want to be motivated to eat more healthy foods that nurture my health. Act: as if you are tuned in to this goal. Seek out images, stimuli and experiences that support your radar and allow yourself to notice the naturally occurring incidences that arise for you as your R.A.S. presents them to you. Perhaps you can search through Facebook pages and like those with healthy lifestyle options, be sure to unlike any your may have already subscribed to that focus on 1000 great uses for chocolate. Subscribe to a gardening magazine. Do your window shopping in health food stores, eat out at vegan restaurants. Listen to pod casts on the topic. The idea is to give your R.A.S a kick start that is as cool calm and collected as an All Black setting up in front of the goal post with the whole of Eden Park silent patiently waiting for him to get it in. Review: Look at things again and again and again. Do it one more time with feeling. When your R.A.S. points out something that supports your goal and matches up take a good look at it. Say to yourself AHA!! - there's one, that's useful. Oh look there goes another one and there it goes again. Enjoy: Bottom line B.F.O of any DO experience is are you having any fun yet? Play with the concept. Go on I D.A.R.E. ya... |
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