The Onsen and the importance of living your passion…

Two years ago I went skiing in Japan, Niseko to be exact, and experienced an Onsen for the first time. Now, those of you not familiar with the concept, an Onsen is a term for hot springs in Japanese though the term is often used to describe bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs.  


Apart from the amazing skiing in Japan and the awesome food and the wonderfully friendly people the Onsen is a real treat, especially after a hard days skiing the powder, as these monkey's will attest to.

Unfortunately I was not skiing in Japan over the weekend but I did spend it in Sorrento for some well-deserved R & R. 

So Friday night we headed off to Sorrento primarily to rest and rejuvenate but also so that Stephanie could introduce me to the soothing treat she had found a few weeks earlier. Believe it or not right here in Victoria on the peninsula are some of our very own hot springs. These hot springs are amazing with pools ranging from 37 degrees up 43 degrees and the water is amazingly good for the health.

Ok so maybe you don’t want to hear about my wonderful weekend bathing in the hot springs, I feel fantastic by the way and my skin, smooooooth. What was impressive is what the owners have built there. As an excerpt from their web site describes how it all happened…

‘Peninsula Hot Springs was founded by brothers Charles & Richard Davidson and Norm Cleland’.

‘The inspiration for the project began when Charles visited several hot springs while living in Japan in 1992. This sparked off several years of touring and studying hot springs around the world’.

‘In 1996 Charles heard a rumor that hot geothermal water had been discovered on the Mornington Peninsula in 1979, and a search of Department of Minerals and Energy records substantiated it’.

‘In 1997 the two brothers formed a partnership and they bought the 42 acre site on which the hot springs now stand. It took several more years of hard work to design the facility, secure the water license, obtain a planning permit, and drill a bore some 637 meter deep to a plentiful aquifer of 54 degree C natural hot minerals waters. The Davidson brothers then found an investor, in the form of Norm Cleland and his family, and together proceeded to build the Stage one Spa Dreaming Centre facility, which opened in June 2005. In December 2009 the second stage Bath House centre penned vastly increasing the number of bathing experiences and providing a area for children and families. Future plans include an increase in bathing experiences, accommodation, a restaurant and more wellness focused facilities’.

For me, both as a business mentor and personal development coach, it is amazing to see what they have built. The passion that has gone into the project is obvious and truly inspirational. No expense has been spared and the experience for the patrons is top notch. It is fascinating to see that it has taken them since 1997 to build what we see today. In a world of fast food and instant gratification it is important to remember that sometimes dreams take time, especially big dreams. To see the persistence, dedication and commitment that must have gone into the making of the bathes is worth writing about and also worth the drive to experience.

Noting that it took several years just to secure licenses to design and build the premises and drill the bore. I know for me I sometimes expect that things will be perfect right now and that success should happen yesterday. But in truth it takes persistence, determination and a real commitment to see the project through. This is where passion comes in, for without it, chances are you will quit before it has even got off the ground.

Passion is the driving force behind many of the world’s great projects, companies and individuals. Many things have gone by the wayside just because the passion was not there. The world would be a colder place without the passion that has driven these amazing things. Therefore it is important that we follow are passion. When we do we are twice as likely to have the success that we have dreamt of, experience twice the fun and realize twice the joy. At the end of the day that’s what life is about…Joy!

So what are you passionate about? What is it going to take for you to go and make it happen? When do you get the courage to seek help, to find mentors in those that have been there and are now living their passion fully?

If you can’t connect with your passion or the fear is too deep, just for a moment entertain the possibility that your passion could be made known to you. What if it was possible to know your passion? What if it was possible to live that passion fully?

Passion is the hot spring of life, it gives meaning, it gives energy and it heals the lost soul. So go out into your world and be passionate about what ever you do, even if for the moment it is not your true passion. Living passionately will bring you more joy, success and the possibility that you too can live an abundant and full life.

Have a great week and may the passion be with you…Oh and don’t forget to visit the hot springs next time you are on the peninsula it is well worth it. Check out the web site: 

http://www.peninsulahotsprings.com

Regards Marcus

The reality of time and the myth of multi-tasking uncovered...

As a coach one of the things I hear a lot is 'I wish I had more time' as there always seems to be more to do than the time available. Time is an interesting phenomenon, some might say that it is a manifestation of our conscious reality rather than a reality itself. If time is a manifestation and not real then surly we can manipulate time. Actually it is something that I often teach sports people, the art of manipulating time. I also use this skill to slow time down when I am running late for a meeting. Yes I slow time down... I know I hear you, this time he's gone mad, 'you can't manipulate time', maybe maybe not!

Let me show you the skill and then you give it a try and let me know if it works... In some ways it works a little like manifesting anything. Have you ever manifested a car space? You know you imagine that the car space is going to be free as you arrive and if you believe hard enough nine times out of ten it will be there, well it is for me, so back to manifesting time.

The art of manifesting more time starts with the process of slowing everything down. One of the practices I get clients to do is to physically slow down. Walk slower, talk slower and move slower. This process alone will help you to manifest more time. I know the left brain is having kittens, as it does. But when you physically slow down you send a message to the universe that commands that time slows down. Now does it really slow down, no not really however, if we look at it from a quantum physics point of view maybe it does. You see time is part of Albert Einstein's relativity theory in that, time is relative. 

If you imagine two people at a party, person A is having a great time and person B wishes he was somewhere else. Which of these two people experience time going faster and which experiences time going slower? If you picked A going faster and B going slower you would be right.

So in this example who is right? Both of them, they are both experiencing time differently, did time go faster or slower well it all depends whether you are person A or person B. So if you can have time go faster or slower, depending on the enjoyment you are experiencing, without being conscious about it then surely you can manipulate time if you are conscious about it?

Now back to manifesting more time, here are the steps;

Step 1: Physically slow down

Step 2: Imagine time slowing down

Step 3: Command time to slow down

Step 4: Do one thing at a time

Believe it or not multi-tasking does not help you to get more done...if you don't believe me check this video out...

Dave Crenshaw, author of the Myth of Multitasking, walks you through the original multitasking exercise example.

Think you're a good multi-tasker? take this test. Download the exercise file here.

So go forth and manifest more time, get more done and stop the endless cycle of stressing about time, there is plenty more things to stress about...

Have a great week, check you next Monday and remember 'there is no time like the present, as the past is history, the future a mystery and now is a gift that's why we call it the present'.

Cheers Marcus

Biting your tongue, showing interest and the coming of snow…

Good morning and thanks for reading my blog on this cold winter morning, well cold anyway and nice to see some sun. If you had not noticed winter is finally here, so exciting. 


'There is snow on dem dare hills!' 


I know most of you are probably saying, ‘what a crazy man excited about cold miserable mornings’, crazy I’m not but excited I am you see it’s my favorite time of year. In the immortal words of British adventurer Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes;

‘There is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing’.

It is a bit the same with communication, there is no such thing as bad communication, just inappropriate words. Likewise ‘you can say anything to anyone as long as you say it in the right way’. I have a wonderful friend of mine who has an amazing way of using the right words at the right time. He could be telling you that you smell but he does it in such a way that you walk away thinking it was a compliment.

So what does it take to make sure that the words we are using are the most appropriate as possible? There are two parts to making sure that we use the most appropriate words as possible. The first is awareness, awareness of what is happening in and around the conversation and awareness of what words are landing well and what words are giving us negative feedback. Our awareness needs to include a consciousness of what words we are using and what words we choose to use in the next moment. The second part will help us in the first part and that is our ability to truly listen to the conversation and in particular the person who is speaking. When we listen to a conversation with both ears we become attentive to how the communication is landing. Most of the time however we are so concerned with what we are going to say next that we don’t actually listen to what the other person is saying.

Listening is therefore one of the most important things in the communication process. If there is no listening it is very hard to have true awareness of the communication process. So how do we listen to a conversation as we are having the conversation? Well I’m glad you asked, one of the techniques that I use is a thing called active listening, I know you have probably herd of or learnt about active listening. For those who have not and those that are not using it here is a refresher.

Active listening comprises of three parts:

Part one: Listen to what someone is communicating to you.

Part two: Paraphrase back to them what you have heard.

Part three: Listen to the response.

In action it might sound something like this;

Person 1: I am really concerned about spending that sort of money on the project because it seems irresponsible.

Person 2: So spending that amount seems irresponsible?

Person 1: Yes in my experience we could achieve the same result spending far less using company X.

Person 2: Yes if we use company X you believe we could save and get the same result?

Person 1: Yes I do.

I know it is a silly example but as you can see the effect is two fold, one the person feels heard and that you understand them and two you begin to have a greater awareness of the conversation because you actually heard what was being said. When you have to paraphrase a conversation back to the other person you make sure that you have heard what they are saying and therefore listen more attentively. It is very embarrassing paraphrasing back when you have not actually heard what is being said.

So go out into your week bite your tongue and let the other person finish what they are saying, show interest by using active listening and build a greater awareness of communication happening around you, I dare you.

Oh and back to the great weather we are having, snow is on the way (the picture at the top of this blog is an image of Mt Buller as of this morning so snow is actually here, oh and to the right is me out for a gentle morning of skiing, well maybe me a few years ago.) and if you have not guessed by now I LOVE SKIING. In the next few months if you don’t hear from me I’ve gone skiing, see you on the slopes...

Have a great week Regards Marcus

Who needs a coach...bah humbug!

It's funny but it is something that I hear quite a lot, who needs a coach... ah poppy cock or something like it and you know what some of the time I think the same. I know a coach wondering who needs a coach, and then it hit me, I need a coach. Well let's be a little more accurate as I have had a coach and she did a wonderful job for me at that time and in that space, but now? I have been searching for a mentor, an advanced coach in my book, for quite sometime. I have looked out into the world of the rich and famous, in particular in the area of my passion speaking and educating, and for a long time no luck.

There is an old saying that when the student is ready the teacher will appear, and did he appear! I soon reconnected with the power of finding the right mentor/coach to help you to propel your business forward. 

Part of the readiness is mindset and being completely open to making it happen. The other part is being open to possibilities that you can have any of your dreams come true. A lot of business leaders that I coach aim way to low and inevitably hit. The time has come to stop aiming low and to reach for the stars. Sometimes however we need help to not only imagine that reaching the star's is possible but help actually making it a reality. This is where the mentor or coach comes into its own. As a coach I knew that having a coach was important but I did not see the overwhelming benefits until last week. Sometimes to realise the need you must experience the benefits and this is exactly what I have done. You know the old saying a plumber has the worst plumbing etc...it's a little the same.

My mentor appeared almost out of no where, an old friend I had not seen for many months to be precise. The minute he told me about what he had been up to and the extraordinary success he had achieved by finding his mentor I knew I had to ask him. Thankfully he agreed to mentor me and in the brief conversation that we had I went out into the world with a new and excited vigour.

The power of having someone walking with you, in your shoes so to speak, and the comfort of having support is worth a fortune. We have only had our first catchup but in that time my mind has expanded into the possibilities and I can now see how I can make all my dreams a reality. I feel excited, motivated and determined to make my business as successful as I alway knew it could be.

So are you receiving the success that you know you deserve? Are you making as much money as you dream you could? How would life be different if you could make $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 a month more than you do know? It may just be possible...so do you have a coach or mentor? 

If not, now is the time to find one. And if you are worried about the cost it's time to transcend whatever poverty consciousness you have and to trust that you can make it happen, with a little guidance.

So get a mentor/coach, set a goal and make it happen.

Have a great week and remember 'don't be afraid, anything is possible!'

Regards Marcus

P.S. Next week I want to share my experiences with Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Communication. It is important so tune in next Monday.

Letting Go! What's that got to do with communication?

So it’s the end of one busy week and the start of another. Sometimes the weeks just seem to blend into each other in a never-ending blur of meetings, phone calls, training and coaching. Now its great being busy and I love what I do so it’s easy to keep going. However sometimes the internal dialogue gets the better of me and I begin to second-guess myself. In the world of communication the inner dialogue can be our best friend and our worst enemy.

Today the internal dialogue is having a field day about expectations of what I should be doing. After having a restless night and waking feeling less than well I just want to have a moment off. Just a few moments to give back to myself and allow sometime to recover and rejuvenate, but alas the inner dialogue is pushing me to do more…

This is were our inner communication can be a killer, the stern master that wants to take control by forcing you to fulfil an expectation that has been set by the unknown. It is very tricky and will use any means to have you go against the more intuitive side that tells you to stop! The fear of not keeping up with expectations, of not doing what you should or have to do. So what has letting go got to do with communication? Everything!

Sometimes we need to let go of the inner dialogue that desperately wants to control us and force us to do more, to live up to more expectations and to not let the world down. Often we don’t let go of this inner dialogue until we are too sick to keep going or we face a life changing experience. These experiences can be paradigm shifting for the brain and resets the expectation level of the inner dialogue, but can hurt.

With this in mind it is also interesting to look at the outer dialogue and how hooked we get on trying to share our opinion about anything. I am often amused when I get the opportunity to listen to a group of people talking to each other as more often than not each member of the communication desperately wants to share there opinion and ends up not listening to the other preferring to communicate at each other not to each other. Our inner dialogue is a little like this and will tend to talk at us not to us.

So letting go is one of the most important things we can do when we are communicating. Letting go of our need to speak at the other in a desperate effort to prove that we are worth it. The more we can let go the more chance we have of hearing the other and participating in the conversation not trying to hijack the conversation because we need our opinion validated.

Letting go of the inner dialogue and listening to what we truly need will help us to remain balanced, healthy and on track to manifest the things that we truly want or desire.

So letting go is easier said than done. It is a process that takes some practice and as I write this I am battling the letting go to allow me to recover, rest and respect myself. So maybe the first step is being kind to yourself, respecting the beautiful fragile self so that you can honour what you really do need, above and beyond the expectations.  In my case I follow a process that helps me to let go;

Step 1: Be kind to yourself and ask the question what is the kindest thing I can do right now?

Step 2: If you hear yourself saying ‘I should’ or ‘I have to’ or ‘I must’ beware as this is the inner dialogue trying to take control. Do what you truly want to do and if you must do something, as we all do from time to time, rephrase the inner dialogue to choose to do it.

Step 3: Listen, turn your ears and awareness on and listen to what your inner dialogue or the other person is saying. When you have heard what is being said ask a question about that communication that you just heard. This helps you to confirm what you have heard and it shows respect and interest in the conversation. Consciousness gives us the opportunity to participate and from an inner dialogue point of view, change our reaction to what is being said.

Step 4: Let go of what you don’t agree on both internally and externally, try and keep your opinion to a minimum and frame it around constructive communication rather than aggressive opinionated communication.

Step 5: Communicate with people not at people, this goes for the inner dialogue as much as the outer communication.

Communication is probably the most important thing we can do in business and in life. The more effectively we communicate the better chance we have of getting what we want. We learnt from a very early age that if we wanted anything we needed to communicate in one fashion or another.  Often the louder we communicated the faster we grabbed the attention of our parents and the faster we received what we were after.

Now as we grew we realised that there were better ways of getting things than just yelling and so our communication style grew. We refined things to the point that we generally got a lot of what we asked for. Then we were set free out into the big world were we had to restructure our communication style to once again get what we wanted.

Now even though we have all been on a process of learning how to communicate, to the most part it has been unconscious and situational, directed by the people we associate with. Because of this most people don’t really know how to communicate effectively. So this is the start, learn to let go and start to communicate more softly with yourself. Learn to let go of desperately trying to talk at people and start to communicate with people.

Have a great week and be kind to yourself and the world and watch the rewards come back to you.

More on communication next week until then have fun talking with yourself and others.

Regards Marcus