Categories
Choice Emotional Fear Growth Life Lessons

A Sneak Peak Inside My Next Book

I have been threatening to send you a sample from my upcoming book, so here is the PREFACE, which gives you a sense of where I am going with the book, plus I get to share with you some of my (mis)adventures and insights along the way.

Please enjoy.

PREFACE

“It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.”

Henry Poincare (French Mathematician)

Have you ever been to Bali (Indonesia)?

What a magical place. Beaches. Balinese massages. Sunshine. Great surfing. Outstanding food (did anyone tell you Bali is a food mecca?). Beautiful local people. Such an amazing place to relocate to, in order to start the next phase of your life journey and professional transition. What could possibly go wrong?

And yes, I was chuckling as I wrote that line, as I am sure at some points in your life you have uttered those very same magical and fateful words. “What could possibly go wrong?

Categories
Book Growth

9 Insights You Really Need to Know

I read a lot.

Sometimes I read a book and think, “That is friggin’ incredible! Imagine if everyone knew that.”

The things you learn by reading non-fiction books is LIFE CHANGING.

But since most people won’t read a 700-page book I might recommend, I decided I would select 9 insights from 5 books I have recently read, to share some incredible insights, and maybe even entice you to read the whole book.

Let’s jump straight in with Book 1.

(Note: I will be diving deeper on these subjects in a LIVE Presentation and Q&A Session on 31 Aug, so if you are reading this after then, send me a message and I will give you the link for the recording.)

Categories
Belief consciousness Growth Spirituality

A Practical Conversation on ‘Spirituality

You know I like to keep things practical.

I am about doing more of the stuff that uplifts us, makes us more powerful, capable, expansive and competent; and doing less of the stuff that holds us back, diminishes us, constricts us, and triggers our survival emotional states.

So I consider the topic of ‘spirituality’ and a ‘spiritual practice’ through that lens.

And here is how the conversation / riff went.

This conversation became a part of my resilience program on how to become a natural Superhuman (a combination of Leader, Warrior and Sage).

I am interested to hear what it brings up for you, and do send me any questions you might have.

You can watch the video – just click on the image below to watch it on YouTube below – or if prefer to listen to the audio version, click HERE.

Categories
Growth Meditation Nutrition Optimum Health Rest Success

8 Pieces of Advice for Smart, Busy People

Not that I own a car now.

I used to.

Now that I live in Bali, I own a scooter, but the same rule applies.

Doing maintenance on my scooter, means it continues to run well, and doesn’t let me down when I am trying to overtake a rubbish truck while going uphill.

It is essential, in my mind, to an easeful life.

And a flourishing social life. Woohoo!!

PLUS it is something that if I don’t do, makes my life way harder than it needs to be.

Likewise if I don’t take care of my health – via maintenance – I am likely to be dealing with a train wreck or health scare downstream.

I know you know this already.

But given the proliferation of confusing or bad advice (and the many distractions with shiny new things to focus on) it can be hard to know where to direct your efforts.

So I am going to share some absolute basics for maintenance and expand on the idea where necessary.

Tick these off and you are on the right path.

Categories
Acceptance Emotional Feeling Growth Life Lessons Perspective

Don’t Do This…Unless You Love Rollercoasters

I am not sure of where you are at when it comes to roller coasters.

Occasionally, they can be fun.

Like once or twice a year (for me), but definitely not weekly.

Pass.

So I would like to (strongly) recommend you don’t make a habit of this.

Unless of course you love roller coasters, and especially the emotional kind…

Categories
Acceptance Emotional Gratitude Growth Joy Perspective Relationship

Lessons My Dad Taught Me

I am back in Queensland (Australia) as I write this.

Sitting at a table out the back of mum and dad’s place, drinking a cup of tea, and reflecting on my dad and all the things he taught me.

Dad passed away peacefully in a beautiful palliative care hospital a little over a week ago, with family at his side, after having been ill for the last 6-months.

My life (particularly over the last 20 years) has been one of curiosity and deep observation of my relationship with life, so I might learn and grow, and share my lessons along the way.

As I reflect on my dad, I realise a lot of what makes me ‘me’, were great lessons passed on from my dad.

And although dad was a school teacher throughout his working life, it wasn’t through teaching verbally that I learned most from him. It was how he acted, behaved and showed up in life, where I learned my greatest lessons from dad.

I realised too, as I write this, that he not only ‘taught’ me a lot of life skills, but he taught and influenced 1000’s of teenagers (he was a high school manual arts teacher) over the 35 or so years he was teaching.

Nice one dad!

So let me share with you, what I feel are his greatest gifts and have most influenced the building of my character.

And before I get into my ‘list’, I was chuckling to myself, that dad never drank, smoked or swore, and on this one I might have gone a slightly different direction, and have the bumps and bruises to show for it. I never got into smoking, but I am not sure I can say the same for the other two.

Categories
consciousness Emotional Growth Happiness Tips Rest

The Power of a ‘Getaway’ To(ward) Self

I am a HUGE fan of what I call “GETAWAYS“.

I just came back from one last week.

And I attribute them to being a major part of my mental health regime, my physical health regime, and from a business perspective they are creativity on steroids.

I reckon that my creativity, productivity and sheer volume of really powerful ideas for life and business are multiplied by a factor of at least 10!

A well organised and intentional GETAWAY is like a Quantum Leaping event.

They are raw POWER as opposed to sweaty and messy FORCE.

In your tool-bag of ‘Tips to help you flourish in life’, GETAWAYS are right up there.

Convinced yet?

I hope you are well on your way, BUT HERE IS THE THING…

The GETAWAYS I am talking about are not about sipping martini’s on the beach.

Those might be relaxing (until the dehydration sets in), but they have nothing on what I am talking about.

I am talking about a GETAWAY back to SELF.

Something else entirely.

(The martini’s on the beach are actually numbing yourself to feeling self; so they are very different).

The GETAWAYS I am talking about are evolutionary.

Now are you convinced?

Categories
Choice consciousness Growth Perspective Problem Relationship

The 3 Essentials Parts to Setting ‘Effective’ Boundaries

Listen or Download – me reading this from Dropbox

Hands up if you are slightly crap, or totally crap, at setting boundaries.

Want to know a secret?

It might not be that you are bad at setting boundaries.

It might be that you are missing two other essential elements to get the best out of your BOUNDARY setting.

Or then again…

You might never have given enough thought, attention or energy to establishing what a boundary looks like for YOU.

In my experience there are 3 ESSENTIALS when it comes to getting the most out of boundaries.

When I say ‘getting the most’ I really mean…

More PEACE, harmony and space to be and express YOU.

Let’s dive straight into the 3 Essentials, which are presented in the order of their application.

Categories
Acceptance Choice Emotional Fear Growth Pain

A “7th” Way We Make Life Harder Than It Needs to Be

You do know I could go all year on this topic.

And I am now committed to writing a short, compact book, on 18 ways we make life harder than it needs to be (and more easeful alternatives), which will be published by the end of the year.

But for now, we will keep the conversation going, which we started 2 weeks ago.

If you didn’t see the first list of 5, check it out here.

This week, we will continue the theme.

Essentially the theme is this:

By the choices we do or don’t make and the actions we do or don’t take, we make life much HARDER than it needs to be in the long-term and for a majority of our waking hours.

And for you, me and everyone on the planet, I think we could all do with less HARD and more PEACE.

Plus if we do hard, it is because we chose to, knowing the highly positive benefits at the back end.

So let the conversation continue…

Categories
Choice Decision Making Growth Life Lessons Perspective

How Not to Make Terrible Decisions

This post might save you an inordinate amount of pain in your butt.

And who wouldn’t want a bit less of that?

You know I am big on decision-making, and how it shapes our reality.

I also have a lot of experience in the decision-making space, having not only written a book on it (Decision Making Mastery), but also having attended one of top leadership academies in the world (Royal Military College, Duntroon), was an Army Officer for 14 years, did consulting on bomb management to a bunch of Olympic Games, and been coaching for over 15 years.

I am not tooting my trumpet.

I just want to let you know I have some experience in the topic of decision-making, and how not to suck at it.

Sucking at it, is something I find is pretty common (unfortunately).

And the consequences are significant and make peoples lives much harder than they need to be.

I have also paid extra attention to a blind-spot playing out in a number (most) of my clients of late.

And because I am super curious, I am now even more clear about what the issue is.

Which is something you will DEFINITELY benefit from.

So let’s walk through the process.