CategoriesActionProgressThink About It

Rage Against Your Demons

Posted on July 5, 2022

Many people have told how childhood comments about the unlikelihood of their success, ultimately helped propel them to success.

Remember the teacher that said you’ll end up in jail or the friends that said you’ll never make it. Even your parents can influence your decisions by the comments they make. Such things as, “Oh David doesn’t like to play the piano”, or, “Darla just isn’t that sporty”, can shape a child’s view of their options whether you thought it did or not.

Some give up at this point but others see it as their mission to prove those naysayers wrong. The, “I’ll show them” attitude comes out and may be out forever now.

But once you see some success, you can invest in some self awareness and make this raging a part of your past, or part of your early days. Now is the time to want the outcome because that’s your dream, not because someone else fired you up

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CategoriesActionObserveReframe your thoughts

New School

Posted on July 4, 2022

Starting fresh can be filled with excitement, concern, uncertainty and delight. When you start at a new school, it can feel pretty full on.

There are all the new ideas to hear and assess, new rooms to explore, teachers to get to know and friendships to develop, and these all take energy and time. Though it’s well invested time.

Throw yourself wholeheartedly into the new situation and run with it. It may be a little uncomfortable at first, but soon you will be feeling confident and well into they flow. Some might even say unstoppable.

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CategoriesObserveThink About It

The Jump In Thinking

Posted on July 3, 2022

Media, influencers, politicians and even your friends and family use the jump in thinking to bring you to a conclusion of their choice.

They’ll state something most people can broadly agree with so you’re nodding your head in agreement. Then they add in words like, “that means”, “what will happen next is” or “obviously…”, to name a few.

They then jump to their point and how they think, or want you to think, things will play out next. If they say it with confidence and certainty, you are more likely to make the jump with them and adopt their point of view.

Harmless enough over minor things like who the best drummer in the world is but less so when discussing more impactful issues.

Some people are very good at bringing you along with them without you stopping to think. However, with all “this then that” commentary and any future guessing, you certainly should stop and think about the statement. Ask questions like, “Is that the only possible outcome?”, “Has this person been right on all of their other guesses about how the future will unfold or why a person is like that?” or, “has this happened frequently or rarely in history?”.

It’s easy to simply go with the thought on offer. However, once you let others influence how you think, they have more control over your life than you’d imagine. If you think the Russian media might be overly biased or misleading in their coverage, have you considered that the media you consume could be similar?

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CategoriesActionObserveProgressThink About It

Finding Purpose

Posted on July 2, 2022

You need to search for it within. Do some soul searching. Have some tough conversations with yourself. Then act on it. Slow or fast but get going in that direction. It will become more clear as you bounce along that route.

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CategoriesActionGratitudeHealth & FitnessReframe your thoughtsTime

School Sports Days

Posted on July 1, 2022

If your child is having a school sports day, do what you can do to go. And when you are there, cheer on your child. Only positive vibes, praise and encouragement though.

Cheer on their friends too, even if they are on other teams. This isn’t the Olympics and all kids should have some cheering. For most people, it’s not often in life when people openly cheer for you.

Remind your children to thank the teachers, helpers, organisers, refs, coaches, timers, medic, etc. These people all helped to make this great day happen. You could go say a few thank you’s too. Nothing like good role modelling and a display of gratitude to people who deserve it (and probably greatly appreciate the acknowledgment).

Remember good sportsmanship and respect. Have a lot of fun. Watch your children, especially in every event possible. Encourage them and praise them often.

Help any children that aren’t feeling well or seem a little down. Check in on them and help them find their smile. Especially children for whom their parents or carers were unable to attend. Learn their names and then shout their name, support and encourage them and make them feel special and a part of the day.

Despite the protesting from your child or others that they do not want you to cheer, be embarrassing or shout their name, there is a little piece in side of them that is delighted that someone has noticed them.

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CategoriesActionObserveReframe your thoughts

Be More Accurate, Especially In Grouping People

Posted on June 30, 2022

I like to include others as much as the next person might, but more accuracy in our speech could help tone things down at the moment. When a person talks about we, they, all, it is rarely accurate. Few things involve 100% of a specific demographic, especially the larger ones.

Men don’t speak for all 4 billion men. Women don’t all have the same values as each other. There are black conservatives and Catholic liberals.

Look around this great big world. Regardless of our physically distinctive attributes, the mindsets inside are unique to every human. Someone from the English countryside may have more in common with someone from Thailand than London.

People tend to sort their preferences on the detail of each individual topic. It is presumptive to assume a particular person will share the exact same view on a topic as you. And remember what happens when you assume.

Their is strength and power in numbers but lets relax how many people we try to include in our group. It is more honest and accurate.

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CategoriesActionGratitudeObserveProgressThink About ItTime

900 Reasons

Posted on June 28, 2022

To celebrate. To reflect. To be proud. To be satisfied. Why? Well, because this is my 900th consecutive daily blog post! ?

What started out several years ago as a personal challenge to write a daily blog post for 1 year – 365 days – has gone on a little longer.

I’ve had thousands of readers from 80 countries now. I’ve gotten so used to doing a daily blog, long or short, that it really is a habit that took discipline to get started.

So, happy 900th!! I hope you’ve enjoyed the posts, they’ve made you think and you feel like a better person for stretching your mind in different directions.

Thank you for reading and sharing. Let’s keep going! Maybe I’ll reach 1,100 or even 11,000. What topics would you like me to write more about? DM on Instagram or LinkedIn.

If you enjoy reading positive and useful content, then check out my book, Achieve Anything. It’s currently £0.75 for the ebook and the Hard cover is 44% off! It’s cheaper than the paperback at the moment. And if you like audio, my audiobook should be online by the end of the week. Enjoy!!

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CategoriesObserveThink About It

Value Sorting

Posted on June 27, 2022

When you make decisions, you do so by sorting your values in a hierarchy. Sometimes that is why we find it hard to make a decision. If two important values are equally important we find it difficult to choose one over the other.

The value you put at the top of the hierarchy at any given time is your guiding factor in that moment. You can switch the top value depending on the subject at hand.

If winning is your core value, then anything else can be subordinated to that value. That is where cheating can enter the picture. However, it might not, if the persons value for fair play is higher than their desire to win.

So you can read someone’s value chart by the decisions they make. You can only read their value chart based on their current awareness though. If they haven’t become aware of the other values that could supersede or challenge their top one, then we can only see what they are doing with their current knowledge, self-awareness and personal bias.

Try to not project your story of them onto their value chart. You could say that a person is doing something for x or y reason. You really have no idea. But you can see what seems to be their highest value and get some insight into their intent. Have fun with this observational activity.

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CategoriesActionObserveThink About It

Define Words First

Posted on June 26, 2022

If you’re planning something or having a chat, debate or discussion, it’s useful to define the key words first.

Pants in the UK are underwear in Canada. This is a minor but funny one.

When someone says they’ll call you first thing tomorrow, if it’s important, it’s a good idea to confirm an actual time.

One word getting a lot of air time at the moment is the word ban.

In a car context, if I drove on a road with a speed limit, you would not say cars were banned on this road. Yes, there is some regulation of the cars, but most people would not say cars are banned on that road.

If there were construction crews on the road ahead, and traffic was being regulated differently than some other nearby roads, most people would not say cars were banned on this road. They would recognise the different driving conditions, but they would not usually claim that they’ve been banned from that road.

Bear this in mind while consuming news and social media over the days and weeks ahead. Understand what the differences are, especially the limits, as differing limits are not the same as a ban.


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