Learn to love it all.
Think about it, how often have you been asked what you’re up to on the weekend, and replied ‘nothing much’ only for your time to be filled by things they want to do.
Location:Jamaica St,Glasgow,United Kingdom
I realised recently that over the past decade I’ve visited 26 countries on 3 continents. Some numerous times, and I finally realise that travel is now as much a part of my life as staying home.
Every time the plane engine roars as I surge off to a new destination, and every time the wheels touch down on a distant land I feel alive. I feel a surge of adventure and a quiet calm as I set off to explore new lands, new cultures and make new friends.
Location:Hong Kong
Do we all need heroes in our lives? People with powers beyond our own, seemingly possessing superhuman strengths and qualities.
Of course we do, they inspire us, and give us courage beyond what we may have had before, they make us feel more secure and more confident in challenging the things that we consider evil.
But the truth about heroes is that they are not superhuman, they do not possess any special quality or magic formula, they are in fact just human.
Understanding this is perhaps one of the most empowering things that you’ll ever come across. At some level we all understand it, and yet we find reasons and excuses why it isn’t so. We investigate our heroes personality, their dreams and their ambitions, we analyse their family environments, their diets and their shopping preferences, searching painstakingly for ‘The Secret’ of their success. And yet if we really looked at success in any field of endeavour we’ll find that success doesn’t come naturally, it’s a combination of different factors for different people, mixed in different quantities and varying levels of quality.
Our heroes are distinctly human in that they probably don’t know the secrets of their success any more than anyone else, because they are continuously learning, trying new things, trying out. We
Location:En route to Hong Kong
I came across the term, productive leisure, while reading Mark Sisson’s blog, he was referring to a trip to South Africa, where he had the opportunity to go on Safari, explore the wilderness, and still make time to do what he loves to do, work and play.
If we explore the idea of designated leisure time, we’d discover that it is a fairly recent invention, part of our industrial age growth and negotiations between management and labour.
If we go a little further back in our recent history, to the pre industrial times, we discover that productive leisure was a way of life. Our work was much more intermingled with our leisure activities, although we were more bound to our local environment to remain productive.
Fast forward to the information age and we’re once again in a position where we can mix our productivity and our leisure into our everyday lives, but with modern technology we can do it on a global scale. There is very little reason why you can’t run a business in China, while travelling the world, or complete your latest book while on holiday in Egypt, Dublin or South Africa.
If you truly enjoy what you do then productive leisure is the way to go.
Location:Stratford, London
Ignorance is an unwillingness to explore further, it’s the excuse of many who fear change, and want to maintain the status quo. These individuals go through life with their blinkers on, they know something’s going on out there, but are to afraid to look up, in case reality causes them discomfort. Ignorant individuals believe themselves to be the victims of those around them, they very rarely take responsibility or ownership for their circumstances, and therefore never reach a point where they can control the outcome of their lives.
Overcoming ignorance is not a simple task, it requires a break with past habits, past thought patterns and usually a break from the stranglehold of tradition. But there is a danger facing those who overcome ignorance, some never experience it, but for some it can be worse than ignorance. Ignore after all is bliss. No the greatest danger on the path to empowerment is indifference.
Indifference is the stage between ignorance and empowerment, it’s experienced by individuals who have explored, studied and learnt a great deal about the world, and are able to recognise the truth around them, but are unable to commit within themselves to gain the knowledge, and push past their fears to commit to using their power and applying their knowledge in the area of their life that means most to them. Overcoming indifference is not quite as simple as overcoming ignorance, it requires you to truly discover your purpose, and rally those you need around you, work with them, inspire them and lead them in a dance of your making, to the tune of your mind, creating poetry and art in everything that they do.
Only by learning to empower others will you overcome indifference, and empower yourself to be the leader you’ve been afraid of becoming until now.
Remember that it is only up to us to keep the flame alive and to pass the torch on to the next generation. What they choose to do with it, is not our concern.
Location:Dublin,Ireland
Anyone who achieved anything worthwhile did so through perseverance and commitment to their purpose.
Persevering no matter how many times they’ve failed, learning through trial and error, and recognising that every drawback and every breakthrough was just another step in the direction of that ultimate prize, mastery of oneself and mastery of the energies of the universe.
Location:London
Progression is the goal of any plan. Moving from one state of awareness to another is a significant achievement, and one that I would recommend celebrating.
The interesting thing about us humans is that we want clearly defined steps and measures to identify when we have progressed. And if you have a development plan in place then your progressions (or milestones) will be easier to determine and measure. If you don’t it’s more difficult, but is more likely to be recognised externally by someone else then by you internally.
An example is a CEO of a new company. On day one the company has no clients, no business model etc… As the CEO progresses through the various stages of a company he learns to turn the company from a small enterprise into something significant. Now if you took his job title as a measure of progress, he is still simply a CEO, but if you identify the key moments in the life of the company you’ll be able to identify where he went from being a small company to being a medium sized company to being a large company. Each step of the way the CEO has progressed to a point where he was ready to progress to the next level. and while he may have recognised the milestones, the likelihood is that his clients and even competitors were far more aware of his progress.
If you try link you progress to a specific job title you’re likely to be disappointed, but if you link it to the size of challenge you want to undertake, you can then measure your progress much more successfully.
And never be afraid to take on greater challenges, if you want greater rewards you have little choice but to add greater value.
Location:Czech Republic
- Flowers are not produced until the roots, stalks and leaves are in place –
So you’ve worked on your business, you’ve got a great product, and you have systems and processes in place, and you’re now performing at your current optimum level. It’s now time to look at your profitability.
The ability to make a profit is simply the ability to sell your product at a price higher then it costs you to produce and deliver.
But in order to do that you need to have a pricing structure, you need to have a budget and a method of tracking the budget on a regular basis to ensure that your cost are controlled.
If you’re able to do that then your pricing structure reflects the profit you’re able to produce, it provides you with clear insight into your negotiation options, and ensures that you’re not underpricing your services.
You should only ever be giving something away for free that will generate more awareness, marketing and leads to sell your products.
Another key aspect to profitability is your ability and dedication to continuously innovate around your products and review your processes regularly to ensure that you are containing costs and working as efficiently as possible.
Once the profits begin to materialise it is wise to begin setting some aside on a monthly basis as a cushion, for leaner times.
When you’re achieving results, and have mastered your business, it’s time to tell people about it. This is not promoting your products or your business, but rather promoting yourself as a master. Someone who is a specialist and knows how to deliver consistent results.
Your aim here could vary, but you should aim at a minimum to catch the eye of individuals who would be willing and able to help you move onto the next level of the game.
Mastery at one level only ever provides you with the skills necessary to work at that level, self promotion allows others to recognise that you’re ready to step up and take on even greater challenges.
If you combine your self promotion with ideas of what you would do as you progress, others would have a clear picture of where you would add benefit to them.
Progression will not be far off.
Location:Czech Republic