I ran a Business Development Bootcamp with my friend Anthony a couple of weeks ago and one simple, profound thing I learned from him was this notion of starting easy… and it’s changed how I work ever since!

How often do you start your day with a long task list of things to do?

Things you’ve got to do, need to, have to… must do etc. If you’re like most people then I’d guess pretty often!

But you could start your day in a completely new way full of inspiration, passion and excitement…

For more great strategies, tools and techniques to help you take your life and business to the next level join one of my regular FREE webinars by clicking the link to the right…

Have a great day!

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the Mayonnaise Jar and the 2 Beers.

This is a story about a professor who stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.  When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full…. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.  He shook the jar lightly.  The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.  He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.  Of course, the sand filled up everything else.  He asked once more if the jar was full. Read more…

Accelerated NLP Training – what is the barrier to you creating something amazing in your life – right now?

Business NLP 101

We no longer live in the Information Age.  We live in the Age of Information Overwhelm.

We live in the Recommendation Age.

I recently started collecting video testimonials from clients who have discovered a new system for focussing faster and more effectively.

We love social proof.  If you run a business, where is your social proof?  How do you transfer emotion to your ideal clients?

People want have an experience – to see, hear and feel how you can help them.  They want to know, like and trust you.

One of the fastest ways of doing that is through focussing attention on videos, testimonials which transfer the genuine emotion of your clients.

I am privileged to have worked with some truly amazing people and businesses.  Thank you for helping me, help you, help others. Read more…

I woke this morning to the most magical sunrise. It fact it was not the sunrise itself that was so magical but the clouds, in the way that they reflected and dispersed hues of orange, yellow and red stretching into silver lined clouds beyond.  And seeing them melting into the infinite blue sky beyond that really struck me.

It’s incredibly inspiring looking outside myself and being absorbed into nature and the world around rather than being absorbed in my own thinking; my own needs and desires.  I think it’s called being fully associated, or really in the moment!

And this morning I did that as I went for a run.  It was a truly magical, connecting and enthralling experience. I found myself running through deserted woodland, with the dew rising slowly and effortlessly from the green foliage around.  I’m feeling soft branches and leaves brushing my skin and the intense heat of the sun my forehead.  And I notice I am thinking of nothing and feeling everything.  And then as I become aware of the droplets of sweat beginning to fall from my forehead I notice myself saying ‘this really is beautiful’!  A big grin spreads across my face.

This I believe, is what life is about – experiencing the depths of our emotions, experiencing the here and now and perhaps more than anything, experiencing energy.

A couple of apparently profound thoughts came to me today while running and later sitting on the beach.  And one of those was about this concept of energy or flow.

I remember thinking to myself a long time ago about ‘flow’.  A  state of flow was something I really aspired to experience on a regular basis, in fact all the time. I became consciously aware of creating a state of flow myself and noticing when I was not in that state so that I could adjust my thinking, physiology and language patterns in order that I could get back into flow.

I think it is this, our ability to manage our state, change state and create a state that is really the difference that makes a difference in our experience of life, in our ability to be happy and to be, do and have anything we really want.

The only reason we do anything is for a feeling…

As humans we are emotion, or feeling driven creatures. We do things to gain pleasure and avoid pain, and often both are motivating factors at the same time.

There are three ways primary ways we create emotions. Firstly, we create emotion by what we focus on. So if you focus on something you want to have in your life you will have one emotional reaction, and if you focus on something you don’t want you have a different emotional reaction. Focus, whether thinking internally in our minds or looking outside of ourselves creates emotion or feelings.

Physiologically, or moving our body also creates emotion… if you slouch now in your chair and don’t move you create one emotion. And now as you sit up and smile and take a deep breath you will create another emotion. We really can profoundly affect our experience in the here and now simply by moving out body.  Motion creates emotion!

And finally our language, the words that we say to ourselves, also creates emotion.  Just think of the difference in your experience if you say to yourself “I feel fine” or “I feel great”.

These are the three core components that create the emotions we feel on a day-to-day basis, and indeed from moment to moment.  Language, physiology and focus.

How are you creating energy?

And in mastering and modelling the difference makes the difference in creating different states that you want in your life, you can become master of your emotions.

“What we see and hear is what we think about what we think about is what we feel. What we feel influences reactions. Reactions become habits and is habits that determine our destiny.” Bob Grass

So I wonder what it is you will be paying attention to today.  And I also wonder how you will be using your inherent ability to change the way you are using your body, your language and your focus of attention to create new experiences and the states that you want to experience moment by moment….

Grinning from ear to ear and very excited to be back, I have just arrived in the UK to grey skies and a damp Monday morning having been away for about 5 months. Time to reflect on what an amazing journey I have been on in that time, and perhaps what kind of journey you have been on too….

It has been about 8 weeks since I finished my Vipassana meditation where I spent over 10 hours meditating in silence each day and the other 14 hours not speaking, reading, writing or even allowed to look into other people’s eyes….

Meditating 10 hours a day!

You might be wondering then, what on earth I actually got up to and how that journey has affected me now that I am back in the UK. Read on to find out….

Day seven and I am all set to go – I’m fully committed – only three days left to go out of ten days in total silence, showing me Buddha’s path to enlightenment and liberation. Little did I know that when I decided to go on this experience, but I am here now and committed to finishing my stint!

And to be fair with six days behind me and only 4 days to go, it’s a walk in the park now, the final furlong! This is going to be great, having had a pretty tough time of it for six days, I’ve have had my breakthrough and I am committed to writing my book. It’s all good… I have even found that by sitting on my knees with my feet tucked behind me while meditating, I can sit still for over an hour without too much discomfort and without my back going into spasm. I’m not yet sure that I can do this for 10 hours a day, but it beats sitting in a half-baked backbreaking lotus position which I simply couldn’t handle with two crushed vertebrae in my spine.

So feeling rather confident and puffed up like a plump robin, I find myself sitting for 45 minutes after lunch when the teacher calls me up to the front of the dhamma hall as he does with most people to check they are doing things correctly. I get up and start walking towards him and notice that something’s not quite right. But before I know it my head hits the ground and I crumple into a pile on the floor. I don’t really know what happened so my natural instinct is to pull myself back up and start walking again. I collapse again. Only this time I don’t get up. The commands simply aren’t getting through to my lower body, I have two dead legs. Waking most people out of their deep trance, I realize I have caused an imbalance in the otherwise equinamous vibe of the afternoon’s meditation session so I slowly drag myself to the front of the room with my legs trailing like a leper’s behind me.

I sat there feeling slightly embarrassed, in pain and hopeless as the teacher completely dismissed the incident and instead checked to see if I was meditating correctly. He didn’t acknowledge that anything out of the ordinary had occurred and so I figured whatever did just happen couldn’t be that serious or injurious to my health. Now that is equinomous… model that!! After a few words from the teacher and reciprocating nods of the head from me, I quietly limped back to my matt and sat back in the same position with my feet tucked behind me. Within moments I realized that there was something adrift; all was not well. I slowly got to my feet and hobbled to the back of the room and then left the hall to journey once again to my home, this time hopping on one foot.

Oh dear, it would appear I did some serious damage to my foot. The rest of the day I am confined to my bed trying to make sense of what happened and more to the point trying to assess the severity or damage. Have I broken my foot or is it just badly sprained? Lying there feeling sorry myself, I eventually let go of what was happening to me and simply became aware of my feelings, aware of my foot, aware my unconscious mind, my untamed mind taking me on this journey.

Then as the afternoon passed I started to become frustrated and wonder what I was missing out on; the experience, the journey, the enlightenment that the others were having that I was missing out on.

After a few of hours of completely unequanimous behaviour I decide I can just hop my way to the finish line and I made my way to the meditation hall. I began to meditate again. The last two or three days were as usual challenging but also rewarding as I slowly began to accept and understand the teachings of Buddha and the universal laws of nature that were in those teachings.

To be honest, there’s nothing that profound or especially enlightening, or even that challenging in the teachings. They are to me and I believe most people common sense. It is not some religion, doctrine or dogma but an understanding of the universal laws of nature.

The meditation technique works on a practical basis by scanning the body for sensations and then ensuring our conscious minds do not react with craving or aversion to those sensations. How that works on an unconscious level I pretty much understand – reprogramming the mind to not react to physical sensations or anchors which otherwise would trigger certain behaviors, but I have not experienced a fundamental transformation by meditating in that way for just 10 days. Having said that I am much more mindful and centred these days, but that may well have as much to do with the amazing and enlightening journey I have been on these last five months as the 10 day Vipassana meditation.

In NLP terms the process is to me like collapsing anchors at an unconscious level. I’m just not sure that I want to turn into a monk and spend my life meditating two hours a day or more in order to collapse craving or aversion anchors. And I do not like the idea that apparently once you commit to the path of Vipassana meditation you cannot and should not look into other disciplines. Apparently this is so you can truly master the technique. I have no doubt that it works for many people. It is similar in my quest in becoming a real master in NLP, to commit to one discipline and become a master in that rather than a jack of all trades. But paradoxically NLP encourages us, even requires that we explore, model and learn from other disciplines and people. It is the pursuit of excellence, or a commitment to a process of modeling excellence that is so much more flexible and I believe powerful than Vipassana. With Vipassana meditation I can’t get immediate changes in others. With NLP I can.

Either way it was a very challenging, enlightening and profound experience and I would recommend others to go on that journey if only to explore the edges of your boundaries and comfort zone and experience an extended period of reprogramming your mind to just BE. I think the journey enlightens us to another way of being. One where we can remain equanimous or perfectly balanced no mater what is going on around us. Now tell me someone who wouldn’t want that with all that is going on in the world right now?! As usual, knowing something and living it are two very different things; I think the idea behind Vipassana is to live and experience that equanimity or balance on a consistent basis so that it becomes a deeply ingrained way of being.

So as I sit here watching the drizzle fall from the grey London skies outside, I am reminded of what a wonderfully enriching journey I have been on these last few months and how no matter what does or doesn’t work with Vipassana meditation techniques the principles and underlying psychology behind the technique is useful for all of us to keep in mind. With so much going on in today’s busy world and with so many challenges around us, it is perhaps more important than ever to remain in our flow, not craving or averse to any experience or emotion but in stead to be really present, alive and open to the Universe and all the wonders it has to offer.

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” Anais Nin

And on that note, I will leave you to enjoy the sunshine that has just emerged through the grey and apparently impenetrable clouds, as it always does!

Until next time…