Quick Progress Update

Wee quickie: Progress, how do you know you've made it?

I meet a lot of people who tell me how stuck they are yet, when they tell me the things they have done, you find out they are amazing. One of the problems, in my opinion, is how stuck people gauge their personal progress.

So here's a wee thing; think about yourself a year ago.  Think about who you were, where your life was, what you knew and what you were doing.  Now ask yourself, how has the 'now' you progressed from the 'then' you?

Now, think about yourself three years ago and ask the same questions.

Keep going if you want to really become amazed at yourself. You ten years ago and you now are very different people I bet!

You've never stopped progressing.  Every day you become more special. You should just accept how special you are :)

Ah jaysus, I'm on fire!

When was the last time you felt a spark? You know those moments when, from somewhere, something begins. It can be something sparking inside you or maybe it's a spark that jumps between you and someone else, but you know the feeling I'm talking about. Think, when was the last time you felt it?

I've wondered how cool it would be to bottle 'spark'! What would you do with it if you got it?

The interesting thing is that, scientifically speaking, sparks require polarity, positive and negative.  That's something we all accept.

So why in life do positive and negative not create sparks. In fact, they tend to repel each other and attract themselves. It contravenes every law of physics we know!   In some cases it does work, for example the spark between masculine and feminine, but what is it we have to do to create a spark within ourselves? 

I don't necessarily have the 'right' answer (although I'm intrigued to know if you have thoughts) but here's a thought. When I speak, coach and train I often feel the spark between me and the people I am talking to. It's a tangible energy that builds up between us and often starts a fire that keeps on burning long after we have done what we came to do (and can I pop in here that it burns in us all, including me).  So what if a spark isn't a spark caused by polarity, what if it is a spark of pure energy?

Given enough energy you can ignite anything but to really catch it needs two things persistence and focus. It's the life equivalent of sunshine and a magnifying glass. So here's a wee thought for you tonight, what is it that you want so much that when you think about it you feel that spark do everything it can to ignite. Think about it and feel it. But this time, just for 5 minutes, don't ignore it. Don't run from it. Don't extinguish it. Focus everything you have on it. Dream it, feel it, imagine it, live it.  Feel that spark turn into a small flame and allow it to begin burning. When it is, go to sleep and allow it to really catch overnight so that when you wake tomorrow, you're on fire.

"It only takes one tree to make a thousand matches, only takes one match to burn a thousand trees"

Accepting being awesome

How are you with compliments? Can you accept them or do you do that thing where you feel duty bound to reject them by qualifying them with some balancing statement (e.g. 'you look great!' 'oh no, this is just something I threw on and my hair's not been washed in days')?

If I could do one thing to change the world it would be to teach everyone how to accept a compliment  with gratitude. It could transform everything! Imagine a world where everyone could accept that someone else has something nice to say to them? How crazy would that be?

There is a perfectly good reason for not being able to accept a compliment. It's so that you can maintain your crappy view of yourself inside your head. Simple as that. The rejection of a compliment is a perfect example of your mind's ability to ignore anything it feels conflicts with your established view of the world.  Does that make sense? 

You believe the world is flat. Someone says the world is round. If your belief system is strong enough, your mind can, and more than likely will, simply reject that reality.  It does it all the time. 

So, if you find you can't accept a compliment, what is it that you believe about yourself that is so powerful that prevents you accepting, whole heartedly, that you are amazing, beautiful, perfect and, above all, a kick ass person to know? And why the hell would you believe that about yourself?!

It's time to accept that you are amazing, beautiful, perfect and, above all, a kick ass person to know. So from now on I want to give you the special compliment mantra. This is the important phrase you will say from now on every time someone says something nice to you. It's really important so you might want to write it down.  Ready?  The phrase is...'Thank You'

Do it. Every time. It will make you feel amazing. Ready for practice...

You are amazing, beautiful, perfect and, above all, a kick ass person to know. Your response?

7 Pillars of Life

When I first started my Personal Development journey I was excited about everything and investigated all sorts of techniques and systems, some of those spiritual.  One of those systems, that I symbolise proudly everyday as a tattoo, had the following incredible 7 'pillars' that it was built around.  Here are those 7 pillars.  What the system was, doesn't really matter, what matters is that you understand how true these are;

1. The world is what you think it is
2. There are no limits
3. Energy flows where attention goes
4. NOW is the moment of power
5. To Love is to be happy with
6. All power comes from within
7. Effectiveness is the measure of truth

I think they are beautiful.  A perfect summary of how to live an effortless life.  Look out next week and I'll expand on each one in turn over the course of 7 days with a wee optional exercise for you to do :)

Aloha :)

The dusty corners of your head

I was digging through some old files on the computer tonight getting ready to transfer onto my shiny new one and I found some amazing things that I'd forgotten.  Things I'd put some serious work into, filed away and then never looked back on as life and HeadStrong moved on.  If I must say so myself, some of it is really good!  And some of it has reminded me of many of the things that were important to me back then and perhaps should be important to me now (i'm going to post one of those things straight after this post).

This is what happens isn't it?  We work hard to make things like relationships, careers, lives, hobbies, businesses, families, health and then before we know it we forget the hard work we put in and take it for granted.  Just another file in the big disc drive of life.

If you look back tonight, what have you done that you are proud of?  The answer 'nothing' is banned due to the fact it's total bollocks, there will be at least one thing if you are really honest with yourself.

We put work into these things because they matter and because they are important to us. So keep them, cherish them, repurpose them and realise that much of what was important to you then, if your honest, is still important now.

Be proud of your old files.  They made you who you are today and many of them can help you become the person you want to be tomorrow.

The 'old you' is gone. Long live the 'new you'!

So today my kids embarked on new adventures. Jodie, my oldest at 13, went on her first substantial school trip on a 24hr round trip to a theme park in England and at this very moment Amy, 11, has attended her school dance to celebrate the move to high school and is now being driven around Glasgow in a pink limousine! It's been quite a day for both of them I'm sure. I'm now sitting here waiting to hear all the amazing details.

Everything evolves and moves. Nothing stands still. It can sometimes seem like time is static but it's not. We get older (in fact, it is a fact that you are older now than you were when you started reading this!) and time moves forward without ever looking back.

So why don't we? Why do we try and hold onto the past, wanting all things to just stay the same? We waste time wanting to be the 'old me' again and never fully embracing the chance to be someone new. We mourn the loss of our children's innocence when we should be celebrating their independence. We look in the mirror and curse the signs of our ageing rather than wallowing in our experience and learning.

My kids are growing and evolving every day, as am I. Our culture has developed a fear of a fundamental law of nature, time. It's the equivalent of starting a campaign to complain about the colour of the sky. Its pointless. There is nothing you can do.

Time moves forward. Never back. Do you?

Tough Love on a Saturday

Righty oh, it's tough love time. I'm delivering a course this weekend and one of the parts of it involves our amazing delegates telling us stories about things that have happened to them at any point in their lives. But this is raising a problem.

The problem isn't the presentations or the speaking. Nope. The problem is our delegates accepting how amazing they are and the incredible things they know, have done, have seen and have experienced. This happened to me yesterday as well and is frankly happening so much I think this may be something that many people are affected by.

So, I have to ask, do you not have any idea how simply amazing you are? Do you have no idea how special, unique and incredible some of your experiences are? Do you just gloss over your stunning achievements dismissing them as just something you did?

You are f**king incredible. You, and I don't know you personally, will have been a part of some incredible things but do you ever stop long enough to really, truly appreciate them?

Today we found people who have;
- done the biggest bungee jump in the world, "yeah, but noone would find that interesting" - WRONG! IT'S AMAZING!

- changed the face of all the worlds theme parks forever, "but it's not really a story" - WRONG! IT'S AMAZING!

- had coincidental meetings with Glasgow friends on deserted islands 300 miles off the Gold Coast of Australia "it was just one of those things" - WRONG! IT'S AMAZING!

Do you not get it? You are special and the things you have done are special. You should be proud of everything, the ups and the downs.

Spend at least a few minutes of tonight enjoying the amazing things you have done. And then go do some more...