Interference Wave and the Breakthrough to Success

It got me thinking the other day that fear seems to be the biggest block to success for most of us. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of the past, fear of the future, fear of what others might say or do, fear of speaking in public and fear of our own magnificent. It reminds me of a quote which one of the participants in my Double Your Client in 90 Days workshop shared;

‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?
You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world. For those around us to feel peace, it is not example to make ourselves small. We were born to express the glory of god that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us. While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same. When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others.’
- Marianne Williamson

And yet the list of fears goes on and on and I am sure you could add one or ten of your own. These fears consciously and unconsciously holding us back from moving forward into our light and manifesting the life that we dream of, stopping us breaking through to the success that we all deserve.

I was reading through some old research that I had done while I was studying kinesiology on quantum physics and interference waves. This research shows that when two identical waves are at 180 degrees to each other they cancel each other out. Now this is the whole theory and workings of noise cancelling headphones. I then looked at how I created rapid success for myself, over came two very old fears (money and success) and I got to realising that I matched my fears with the 180 degree action wave and the fear vanished.

In essence I was able to move forward in action because the amount and the speed of action was equal to or greater than my fears. Therefore the greater your fears the greater your actions must be.

Once your reach the magic 180-degree mark then your actions become free of the fear and you can reach the breakthrough and success manifests instantly. Sounds easy right….I guess its going to be a little trial and error and the real message is to get moving as fast and as completely as possible. Remembering that it is the speed and mass of the action that is required to counteract the height and depth of the fear that is stopping you.

Now you don’t have to know what the fear is but rather how big it is and the acknowledgement that it is stopping you. So give it a try:

1. Choose massive action;
2. Fill up every spare space that you have with specific and targeted action.
3. Get moving as fast as possible running toward the fear.

If the fear is still getting to you then you need more action faster. Keep going until you realise that success is manifesting in abundance all around you and the fear that you thought was real seems to be gone.

Have a great week and may the action be with you.

Cheer Marcus

The Many Faces of Fear

I have just finished another Sunday running my Double Your Clients in 90 Days one day introduction workshop for health care professionals and yet again I saw the insidious, destructive and interfering power of fear. I am amazed at just how sneaky and cleaver fear can be, hiding in the most unlikely recesses of our thoughts and feelings. I have seen how fear can stop us in our tracks when moving forward could be the most exciting experience of our lives.

I remember when I was younger, I know a distant memory, although in my mind it was yesterday, it is today and maybe even tomorrow, anyway when I was younger 10 or 12 my father took my brother and I to Disneyland. At Disneyland there is a ride called Space Mountain which, is an inside roller coaster. I can remember walking down the ramp to get on the coaster and hearing all the screams coming from those already enjoying the ride. These screams highlighted an already building fear, to the point that half way through the cue I decided to run away. A little embarrassing considering my brother who is five years younger than me excitedly continued on. I waited out the front for my Dad and Brother to complete their journey into the unknown only to see the exhilaration and joy on their faces when they eventually appeared. My brother shouting lets do that again. It took me at least five of these excited greetings and lots of convincing from both my Dad and my brother before I decided to break through my fear and go on the ride.

I can still feel the fear and apprehension of walking into the area where you got onto the ride, seeing the coaster move off into the distance with the familiar sound of click clack as the coaster climbed the track to its final pinnacle where it dropped into the nothingness of darkness and surely death.

So with the fear still very present and my stomach wanting to release all of its contents, I got onto the coaster. By this stage I was trembling, nearly crying with the overwhelming fear that maybe my life would end in a sea of mangled roller coaster mess as we catapulted off the rails and into the ground below.

As the coaster jerked off into the distance, with me on it gripped by the fear, surrounded by excited patrons including my brother and Dad who by this stage are laughing at me, in the most loving way possible but seeing the silliness of my fear. (Isn't funny how everyone else can see the funny side but when your in the middle of it...IT'S NOT FUNNY!) When we got to the top of the coaster everything turned black and we disappeared into the dark recess of Space Mountain. Now I have to say the first few corners felt like I was going to die but then I began to let go and enjoy the ride. The feeling of impending death disappeared with every up, down, exciting and thrilling turn. Once it was over I wondered what the fear was all about, as I too now joined in on the harmony of my brother and I going “can we do it again…come on Dad, again, again”.

And so the fear of that scary inside roller coaster was gone for good, I had broken through.

Now most fear is not as obvious as that one, but never the less will stop you meeting the exciting and most joyful thing in life…YOU! Fear more often hides as excuses; reasons for not doing the things that deep inside we know we need to do. It will stop us meeting our destiny, of diverting the inevitable and us living the fullest life that we can. Life is a wild adventure and once we get over the fear of meeting this adventure we realise just how amazingly exciting and thrilling it really is.

So where is your fear hiding and how does it show up in your life? Remember that sometimes your thoughts and feelings will deceive you. In that I mean that the fear will show up in excuses that appear real and reasonable and understandable but its fear non-the-less. So how much longer are you going to let fear stop you meeting your most adventurous life? How much longer are you going to let it stop you from living the biggest version of whom you really are?

At some moment we realise that time is running out and that eventually the roller coaster is no longer going to be there. When you see an opportunity to get on the roller coaster take it with both hands, jump on board and push through the fear so that you can experience the overwhelming joy of it all.

Its funny but if we run towards the fear, fear tends to disappear. So what ever you fear run towards it as fast as you can and watch it eventually disappear.

Have a great week and remember, when your roller coaster opportunity appears jump on it quickly before the fear overwhelms you. Know that your thoughts and feelings are going to tell you not to. In this case you have to dig deep and connect with that knowing inside that tells you that this could be the most amazing adventure, a life changing experience, that may have you meet your wildest dreams, desires and goals for your life. Oh and go with your first thought or feeling which is usually the one that says yes lets do it. Fear generally comes after that thought and you guessed it the more your think about it the less likely you are to do it. Fear builds over time, it does not get less!

Cheers Marcus

Redefining Possibility

I often talk to my clients about possibility and how with just one question you can get the brain to open up to things that you might feel is impossible. So is it possible to increase your income ten fold in the next three months? Is it possible to have the life of your dreams complete with new house, shinny new car, maybe a new girlfriend or wife or maybe just freedom.

The most powerful question you can ask in the opening up to what might be possible is this:

What if it were possible?

What if it were possible to have the job of your dreams and still get paid what you do in your current corporate gig? What if it were possible to have it all with less effort? This question allows the left brain to relax and get into 'solve mode' which it loves.

A few months ago, even though I talk about possibility, my dreams seemed like they were going to elude me for the rest of time. In fact I almost gave up! However remembering my own words I decided to knuckle down, bunk in and hold the fort determined to succeed. Sometimes it takes some real determination, courage and a swift kick of reality up the backside to change the impossible into the possible and then into reality.

I have always been a positive person, always believing that success might be just around the corner but when you have had 44 years of believing success maybe just around the corner sometimes you loose sight of this positive perspective. Well I am finally here to tell you not to! That every time your brain tells you that success and your dreams or desires are not possible, knuckle down and change this reality. Turn the question upside down and ask but what if it was possible? What then?

I am please to report that in 75 days I reached the possibility. I have gone from white belt to black belt in just under three months. What is white belt to black belt all about? Well those of you that are interested you can look up the following address www.thoughtleadersglobal.com. It’s just me practicing what I preach and with the help of my mentor, success and a new reality is now upon me.

I realised through the process that sometimes success takes a lot of hard work, determination, courage and some good old fashion stubbornness. To aim high, follow a dream and make it a reality. This reality would not have been possible without help. Help of my mentor Peter Cook, help from my family, thanks Steph and help from all those that believe in me.

Now the journey is not over, quite the opposite, it is just beginning. We are all on this planet together to primarily help each other. Help each other to feel better, have a better life, reach our dreams, love, laugh and experience joy. So I want to help you realise the possibility that you can have your dreams come true.

If you are sitting their wondering how you are going to make your dreams a reality, stop wondering and call me that’s why I am here, to help you! Ask the question ‘what if it were possible’ and then go make that happen…it is possible!

Have a great week, dream big, never give up and go make it happen NOW!

Cheer Marcus

Miley Cyrus and changing habits...

Now before you laugh at me no I’m not a Miley Cyrus fan but my kids are and for those old enough I can still remember her father Billy Ray Cyrus. Remember Achy Breaky Heart…oh the memories!

So Claudia (11) and Brendan (8) went to their first concert the other night and yes it was Miley Cyrus. Not sure if you remember your first concert, for me it was Mi-Sex at the Springvale town hall, as embarrassed as I am I think the next one was a little better, Madness at festival hall. 

In my day the parents waited out the front however not these days so Stephanie escorted Claudia and one of her friends. Can you remember how you felt? I could see the excitement and the fear in both of their eyes before they went. Excited because they were going to do something that seemed very adult and scared because they were not sure what to expect. Now they had a great time, overwhelmed, tired, excited, thrilled and very happy with themselves that they made it. I remember that excitement and fear as I walked into the Springvale town hall only to find myself and a friend of mine and 50 girls all screaming for the band. Not quite the Miley Cyrus experience with at least 20,000 plus screaming girls. So for them it must have been very overwhelming and some of the looks on there faces from the photos I saw confirmed that.

So what has Miley Cyrus got to do with changing habits well changing habits are a bit like going to your first concert. It takes courage to know what you want but it takes more courage when what you want is something that you have never experienced before. Changing habits can feel a little like this, especially those habitual patterns that have been with us for as long as we can remember. So how do we change something when faced with the fear of the unknown?

Well first things first, we have to identify those things that are no longer serving us. The fear of cold calling if you are in an industry where this is the way sales are made, speaking face to face with people you don’t know and putting yourself out there. Or it could be personal habits like putting yourself down or being judgmental, I am sure there are some you can think of.

Once you have identified that which is no longer serving you the next step is to know what the new habit is that you are going to replace the old habit with. When you create a habit void it is important that you fill it with something else, so choose a new more positive habit to replace it with. 

Now, looking at where you are and where you want to go, list all of your fears. Also answer the question; how do you know when it is time to do the old habit? It is in this moment when the old habit begins that we want to bring consciousness enough to halt the old behavior and replace it with the new behavior. Over time, as you practice, firstly noticing when the time is to do the old habit and then replacing it with a new habit, habits slowly change.

If you have any hesitation just go to the concert, walk in take your seat and hang on tight because apart from having ringing ears you’ll walk out with a great experience and a new outlook on life. The world never quite looks the same after your first concert.

So identify what you want to change. Know when it is time to engage the old habit and replace it with the new. Reaffirm the new behavior whenever you can and remember practice makes perfect but persistence makes permanent.

Have a great week…

Marcus

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

Finding the truth at an airport!

I am sitting at Hobart airport, here's the photo to prove it, waiting for my flight back to Melbourne after a great morning coaching. Nice suite and tie Marcus!

If I had a dollar for every hour that I have spent in airports I would be writing this blog from some exotic ski resort. Well maybe not writing this blog but skiing and sharing all the tales from the snow.

Apart from being with my family theres an image of what I would be doing!

But alas I am in another airport just waiting, oh well it give’s you time to think if nothing else.

So a blog... what to write about this week? Well I have just spent the morning discussing the truth. The truth about our own individual lives and how we are very good at clouding the truth and in turn having us convince ourselves of what is real and what is not. This then leads us into what we think we want and often has us diving into things that are not really what we do want. We unfortunately often don’t find this out until years later only to create the same decision time and time again.

You see reality is not all it is cracked up to be! Our reality is shaped from our left-brain point of view as this is what we have all be trained to trust, how so you ask. Thanks for asking! As some of you may know we have two hemispheres of our brain the right and the left, anyone know what they do? That’s right the left is all about analytical, strategy, systematic and linier function. In learns in words, process and structure. It lives in the past and the future and is concerned with keeping us safe. The right brain on the other hand is all about abstract, feelings and takes in its data through the senses of our being. It lives in the eternal moment of now. The issue with reality is that in our left-brain dominant world, which we have all been trained to trust more than anything else, we create a feedback loop system that creates false reality.

How it does this is that the further we move from an event in our lives the less truthful it becomes. Take a memory from your early childhood; remember what happened and the feelings that it gave you. Now I bet if you asked a sibling or a parent their memory of this shared experience they would tell you a different story. Now what is real and who is right? The answer is no one and everyone as all these realities are only past perceived realities.  The further we move from the event the more it becomes a perceived reality rather than a true reality of what actually happened. Now if we come back to today all these past-perceived realities are projected into the immediate future creating a future perceived reality, which then creates a now perceived reality. None of which are necessarily the truth. Confused yet?

It’s ok because half of the confusion comes from thinking of reality from the left-brain which can’t actually understand reality on it’s own. In steps the right brain that only lives in the moment of now. You see reality only lives in the moment of now. From a left-brain point of view the past might have us believe that we are not worthy, not good enough and what we should or should not do. This reality then leads us into doing things that are not truly aligned with our truth. Now we believe that we are doing our truth based on the left-brain view of the world and past-perceived reality creating future perceived reality creating a now perceived reality none of which is the truth. When we take the same image and overlay the right brain we find that all the drama associated with an event or situation is allowed to disperse. The right brain helps us to step out of the perceived reality space and actually connect with the truth. Once we have this truth we can use the left-brain to create actions that move us forward into the new reality, the truth.

So that’s all well and good but how do you know the truth. Well that my friend is a journey of delving into the depth of who you are. The first step is to become conscious of the truth and how your past and future are creating your now. The secret to this is to look at the dramas in your life. It is the perceived reality that often creates drama. To then look at the truth of this reality, this drama and decide which is true and which is not. Once you know this authentic truth it is time to become congruent and to take this congruence out into the world a bit like taking your new puppy for its first walk. It’s a little scary, a little unsure, a little unstable and a lot of faith that this is the right thing to do.

Accessing the right brain will help you to connect with what is really going on. Some may call it intuition others a knowing and for some it is gut feel. In a lot of cases it helps to get someone external to help you to connect with the truth for once you connect it is easier to keep the connection. If you can connect to your knowing, check in and try and identify your drama. What is the perceived reality that you have created for yourself? Is it your ultimate truth?

So go out into the world and find your truth, see where you are deceiving yourself with a perceived reality and make the truth, your truth, real!

Thanks for reading until next week, Nanoo Nanoo, for all those eighties kids. For those who don’t know what this is check out channel 11 and the old re-runs of Mork and Mindy.

P.S: if you want some help to find your truth drop me a line marcus@intrinsicsuccess.com

P.P.S: if you want to know more about the brain check out this video from the TED website it is well worth it! http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Your Story is Worth it!

I spent the weekend at the National Speakers Association of Australia convention and had some very eye opening moments. There was so much good stuff I heard, so much I learnt and a whole lot of amazing speakers that not only inspired but also gave me lots of great ideas to spice up my performances. I also got to hear from and speak to some very successful authors who shared some great wisdom. Now I could write a whole swag load of blog’s from the convention, which I might just well do, however today or tonight as the case maybe I have to pick just one.

So what topic shall I pick, so much good fodder, so many memorable moments, mmmm! So I just choose to go with whatever inspires the heart and in this case it came up with the title ‘Your story is worth it’

It is amazing at how many people love to hear my story and how reluctant I often am to share it. But it is our stories that help people to feel closer to us and inspires them to connect to us. This connection is the most important thing that we can focus on, as it is connection that more than often has people buying our product or service. It does not mater if we run our own business or work for someone else, connection is the most important thing you can foster. We all prefer to deal with people we like or have things in common with. The more intimate we feel with someone the better we think we know them. It helps us to feel the authenticity of that person and this authenticity allows us to connect deeply.

The more we connect the more we want to do business with that person and as that connection grows, the more we are likely we are to refer them to others. Now it is one thing to get business from the people we know it is another to get them to refer us to the people that they know. This is how we build a successful business or career, by getting others to refer us. We would all rather do business with someone that has been referred to us. So connection is imperative if we are to be successful and receive referrals.

So what is your story? Do you feel comfortable sharing it? A lot of the people I speak to, including myself, are hesitant to share their story. Maybe it was all the times we were told as kids not to big note, brag or stand out. Maybe it’s just part of the Australian collective conscious which commands that you don’t stick your head up too high as tall poppies get cut down. But then again maybe it’s not about this at all but rather just finding the courage to share honestly and openly your amazing story.

We all have one, a story that is heart felt, touching and real. As humans we all have experiences that are happy, sad, distressing, uplifting, depressing, devastating, painful and joyful. All these emotions have value to each other as sharing helps us to feel normal and builds a kinship with others. These stories also have great lessons and teachings weaved throughout them. These lessons have value for others and are likely to positively touch and intern change another’s life. We may not see its effect or the results of that wisdom but it’s there and its important.

Finding the courage to share your story is often half the battle. Moving past the ‘who would care about my story’, ‘its just not that interesting’ and ‘I’m scared what people will think’ may just help another more than you will ever know. Maybe it’s time to stop all this rot and start to share more of yourselves, through your story.

So your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to write out your unique story. To then share it with one person that may not know it.

‘Share more of who you really are through the experiences that you have really had’.

Remember your story is worth it. Own it, believe in it, share it with passion!

If you feel moved to share it with me I would love to receive them.

Thanks for reading until next week, share your story with passion!

The $1,000,000 dollar challenge! One great love, an enlightening dinner party, and two clarity defining breakfast meetings.

So I’m sitting here in a café somewhere in Melbourne contemplating the week that was and the weekend that still is. I know it’s Monday morning and I’m running behind with my blog and my Monday morning inspiration to my clients and its all for a good reason.

So I’m letting go of the anxiety that is building inside me that I have to meet expectations. Expectations of others, of what I think needs to happen and of the expectations that I have set up for myself. All playing into the great wounding, the great baggage game that we all carry from our childhood, past lives into our future hopes and dreams. In fact it is often the future that activates the past wounding and creates urgency, pain and unfulfilled dreams in the now.

Over the last twenty-four hours I have had an enlightening journey with my partner Stephanie, and enlightening dinner party with friends and finally this morning two enlightening business meetings with friends. Through all this I discover that I have allowed the dark to cover me yet again! It is funny how sometimes the dark comes disguised as the light only to appear as the dark right when you are in the middle of it. Now let me clarify the ‘dark’ as it is not some kind of spooky Hollywood Nightmare on Elm Street blockbuster but rather those things that we let get in the way of our success.

Maybe all this is not making any sense but right now I am just going with what is coming. The dark comes to show you everything that you are not! I have seen many hundreds of clients over my time as a kinesiologist, counsellor and coach and when I ask clients what they want they inevitably start by telling me all the things that they don’t want. In a funny way this is the purpose of the dark, to show you what you don’t want or in this case what you are not. In this way the dark actually appears to help you to see the light that you are. The dark is just energy like everything in the universe. All of which is aimed at growing the light of having us move into the biggest most beautiful and radiant version of ourselves.

Which brings me to today’s blog, how to turn a fake million dollar note into a real million dollars. It’s a challenge that was set for me last night by my beautiful friends Duncan and Fiona. I set Duncan a challenge for his blog a few weeks ago, which was to complete the title ‘greed is good’. Being a spiritual warrior it was potentially a challenge as sometimes we see greed as bad and certainly the popular media would have us believe so. Anyway Duncan did an amazing job, you can check it out at http://www.kidneycoach.com , so now to my challenge to blog about how to turn a fake million dollar note into a real million dollars! Well not actually just a blog but rather a real life challenged based on the guy who swapped a paperclip for a house.

Do I know how I am going to do it, no way, so where to from here? This is where I step into my power and become radiant and manifest the reality that this is possible. Money, like everything in the universe, is just energy and certainly not real. Money is just paper, or plastic and in most cases is just thin air travelling from one account to another never really seeing the light of day. So what is the reality of money? If money is not real and our society is just built on make believe, so to speak, then why not manifest a real million dollars out of a fake million dollars. The funny thing is that this fake million dollar note cost $7.00 to buy so someone is actually making money from that fake million dollar note. One of the reasons this challenge has come about is that part of my father wounding revolves around money and my limiting belief about not being good enough to have it, keep it and love it. So if money is not real then my wounding starts to disintegrate. This challenge was also manifested because of the gentleman who swapped a red paperclip for a house in 16 trades. He went onto ebay asking someone to swap a paperclip for something and a person swapped a pen. He then swapped the pen for something else and it got bigger and bigger until one day he had a house. If you have not heard of this guy, Kyle MacDonald, check it out at http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ as he now has a web site, a book, he’s a speaker and the list goes on all because of one crazy idea. He broke through the mindset that his goal was crazy, not real or achievable.

So how to swap a fake million dollar note for a real million dollars, this is my challenge and I take it with both hands and move forward towards that reality. So anyone want to swap a fake million-dollar note, in pristine condition for something else? I have set up a blog site dedicated to this journey at http://themilliondollarnote.blogspot.com/ so you can follow me and I’ll also set up a web site so when it is up I’ll send you the link and lets see what happens.

At the end of the day the dinner conversation revolved around mindset and it’s power to influence how we succeed or don’t succeed in life. My recent mindset has lead me to fall back into the darkness, in an effort to help everyone else learn from the experience I am sure, so that I can now wake up again and move back into the light. So where is your mindset and how is it hindering or helping you to manifest what you want, deserve and need? Where is your baggage or the darkness hindering you manifesting the brightest future for yourself and your family?

This challenge is similar to the premise of manifesting a car space. I’m famous for manifesting rock star car spaces. I do it EVERY time without fail so why should a million dollars be any different? The short answer is IT’S NOT so here we go, want to come for the ride and see what happens?

Thanks for reading, have a great week and don’t forget to be radiant in everything you do….you might just manifest a million dollars!

Regards Marcus

P.S Thanks Stephanie, Duncan, Fiona, Karen and Chris for your wise words, deep questioning and loving challenge. 

The 10% of the 10% - overcoming fear!

Monday morning and it’s blog time…mmm I’m sure that’s a song, oh no that’s hammer time for all those eighties retro born individuals like me. I’m sorry for my eighties reflection, I spent a lot of yesterday with my band, playing eighties music (not Hammer Time I’m pleased to say), getting ready for another round of Weekend Warriors.  This is a program run by Allans Music for old farts that desperately want to be rock stars. It is made up of ammeters that can’t play very well but are willing the embarrassment and give it a go. The program runs for four weeks ending in a full on gig at a pub with a live audience. I’ve done it once before, not that I told anyone, which was a huge buzz and scary as hell.  This brings me to today’s blog.

Face the fear and do it anyway…

Now when you decided to go into business, whatever you are doing, I am sure there was fear present. Some of you transitioned from a big firm to your own thing. Some of you followed your destiny and fell into your own business. Others may have had a life changing experience that drove you to changing paths and into your own business. This was my experience when I came down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What ever your journey has been there was an element of fear that you had to push past to do what you are doing.

I often find that once you have pushed passed that initial fear, which is often overcome because of necessity and a need to make an income, we forget about consciously and consistently pushing through fears. Fear is a constant especially when you are running your own business. Whether it is a fear of making it work, a fear of putting yourself on the line or fear of pushing into areas that make you feel uncomfortable, it is imperative that we do it. Maybe business success all comes down to how comfortable we are at being uncomfortable. How willing we are to face the fear and do it anyway.

I used to snow ski for Australia, something I don’t tell many people, representing our country in international competition throughout Europe. During some of the most exhilarating experiences of my life I learnt how to face the fear and do it anyway. Imagine if you will placing two bits of wood a meter and a half long to your feet, then crouching down and be pushed down a mountain at 120 kilometers an hour. Imagine the wind in your face, the ground only centimeters from your nose and the chance of crashing and causing serious injury to yourself, or death, a constant reality. At the speeds that you obtain as a downhill skier the planks of wood attached to your feet are not actually touching the ground. As you look at them they rock from side to side as the ground rushes underneath them. What on earth would drive anyone to risk his or her life for such a sport? The rush of it, the adrenalin of it and thrill of it?

In some respects running your own business is like a downhill ski race. Once you leave the start line you are committed down the track. Sometimes it is going to be thrilling, sometimes scary and sometimes you will be racked with fear. At the end of the race you will be left with exhilaration unlike anything else. Now a downhill ski race only lasts a minute and a half and a business sometimes a lifetime. Regardless a lot of your success will come down to how you face the fear and do it anyway. Pushing through fear, overcoming those things that scare you most may ultimately be why you succeed or fail. In a ski race only the most fearless win as any amount of fear slows you down and when races are won by hundredth of a second there is no place for fear.

There is a statistic I herd somewhere which goes like this. 90% of all businesses that start today will not see their fifth birthday. Of those 10% that remain a further 90% wont make it to their tenth birthday. Not a very positive or encouraging statistic is it? So how do you become and remain in the 10% of the 10%?

There are lots of aspects to business that assist in its ultimate success, marketing, networking, having a needed product, identifying and reaching your ideal customers, finance, internet, management, the list goes on. There are also hundreds of guru’s on the Internet showing you many systematic ways to make a million and have a successful business. Even I have a systematic program to increase your business success. However maybe, just maybe it all comes down to one thing…your ability to overcome fear!

So what is your greatest fear? Public speaking, presenting, speaking with customers, dealing with finance, getting yourself out there, networking, managing, organizing the list goes on. The first step in overcoming a fear is to identify the fear. Then, and here’s the key, RUN TOWARDS IT! Summon all the courage that you have and run towards those things that scare you most. Public speaking, which is the number one fear in the world even above death, is an obvious one that most of us have (If you are going to have a successful business then this is one you definitely need to get over and quick). When we run towards our fear we always find it disappears. It is a bit like a fog, it looks thick and scary when you are on the outside however if you run into it you find that it is just a thin layer of mist.

I remember when I realised that for me to be successful I had to learn and be comfortable with public speaking. I had herd of a public speaking course offered by the Dale Carnegie group, Dale is the author of the famous best seller ‘How to Win Friend and Influence People’ a great book. It took me five years to summon the courage to do this course but I did it. Every week of the course, which runs for 12 weeks, you have to make two presentations in front of 100 people. Every week I sat in my car and said “I’m not going in, there is no way I’m going in” and every week I faced my fear and did it anyway. At the end of the course I was invited to become a leader and then a trainer and the feeling of success I felt as I overcame the fear was incredible. It helped me to have the confidence to do my MBA amongst other things. Now it did not cure my fear of public speaking but rather gave me the tools to do it. Every time I am asked to speak I feel the fear and do it anyway.

One of the tricks I learnt was to say yes before the fear kicks in, you see fear is all in the mind. It takes a few moments for the brain to realize and activate the feeling of fear so if you say yes quick enough the fear does not have time to stop you. I am sure you have all herd of the acronym for fear, False Evidence Appearing Real. It is just the brain reflecting on the past and projecting it into the future and leaving us with a feeling akin to fear in the now. Most of us have had negative experiences of public speaking, whether it was in front of family friends as a kid where people laughed at us, never in malice just how it was.  Even at school a lot of us where ridiculed every time we stood up and spoke. There is no such thing as a naturally gifted speaker just those who have learnt to overcome the fear and do it anyway.

So what is your greatest fear in business? Go run toward it and do what ever you need to, to face it head on. This one action may just change your business success forever. Get out and present to as many people as possible. Take every opportunity to speak in front of an audience. Face the fear of finance by getting someone who is not afraid or fearful of it to help you. What ever your fears get help to overcome them or face the fear and do it anyway.

If you need help call me and I will assist you to identify your fears and provide you with strategies to overcome them powerfully. For when you overcome your fears you take back your power and you move forward into greater and greater success…try it I dare you!

So run toward your fears, face them head on and I bet you will find them not so scary.

Oh and if anyone wants to come to the gig I’ll try and get over the fear and let you know in my upcoming blog’s.

Make Passion a Priority

Well it’s been a long two weeks since I posted a blog, I had planned to post every week however this last fortnight has been a little tough. Over the past few months I have done a great job of posting a regular blog every week. However last week I was recovering from my weekend workshop, Double Your Clients, which as usual challenged me as much as it challenged my participants.

After the weekend I did not have the energy or motivation to write the blog. I was drained and perplexed at the lessons the weekend threw me.  Now I am not going to go into all of them today I’ll save that for another post, suffice to say that on the Monday I wanted to give up. I wanted to throw the preverbal towel in and go back to my old corporate world, you know the one that is safe, secure and you get a regular income for a regular commitment week in week out. So what turned me around?

Well I started to read a book called The Passion Test by authors Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood, it’s a New York best seller. I was reluctantly driven to read the book and I have to say I am glad I did as it has put me back on track. I had been getting more and more frustrated that things were not going the way I wanted them too. I began to push against the natural flow of my own intuitive nature and the universe itself. (There is a natural flow to the universe…) I was becoming a grumpy old man…not that I’m that old, not now anyway. It’s funny how books just appear when you need them. A friend and client of mine passed on an email that had appeared in her in box and she thought it might be of interest to me, and it was.

In the book they take you through a great process for identifying your passion and a systematic way of having those passions become a reality. Now some of the stuff that they talk about is stuff that I often ask clients to do, identify an inspiring vision or in this case passion, put together a vision board etc. However there are some very unique processes that Janet and Chris have developed that I found to be of great help. Identifying your top five passions and the way they question you to identify your real passions. Finding your markers so that you know it is happening, developing a vision board based on the five passions then writing a page on how life will be like when you are living your passions. Then they ask you to write out your 100^th birthday speech, which I found was a positive spin on the message to the world speech I often get clients to do, same objective just a little more positive. Then getting into action and trusting in the passion plus a lot more wonderful insights, quotes and stories. As they say:

'When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent that you are clear'

Now this is just a small snap shot of some of the exercises in the book. The most inspiring part of the book for me is the stories of both Janet and some of the most famous authors on the planet, all talking about living your passion and the overwhelming benefits that come from living a life with passion.

For me the greatest benefit has been getting back to basics, the realigning of my self, getting back into a discipline and routine that I had left behind some years ago. I used to meditate every day and reconnect with my centre, to recharge and realign myself to myself. The book inspired me to go back to basics to first start with the most important thing ME! To reconnect and stay connected even in the middle of fear, anxiety, panic, anger and all the other things that go on in our day-to-day world. To not be dragged into the drama. Their saying of Intention - Attention - No-tension has led me to taking out the tension part. I have had the intention and have given plenty of attention but it was all with an enormous amount of tension. To the point that my family was ready to disown me… A grumpy, distant unhappy person was the general gist of their feelings. However and I am so excited to say that within a week I had the most wonderful comment from Stephanie. She said to me, that was one of the best weekends, speaking of the one just gone, I feel you are so much more present with the family, you did so much and did not mention being tired or complaining. It was music to my ears and I even went out socializing on Saturday night after spending a lot of the day gardening. This may not sound epic to most of you but for me who has lived the ‘I’m suffering from chronic fatigue’ story it was big. The big part was the fear that I moved through to actually go out. As I say in my workshop ‘choose’ to make it happen and as the fear appears keep choosing, and I did.

This process has helped me to find my centre again, to be able to sit in the fear but to do it anyway, to once again live the teachings I pass on to participants of my workshops and my clients. I feel whole again, connect and listening to the wisdom that is within me and within all of us. I actually feel a sense of happiness, which I have not felt for a while, even in the face of fear, maybe that is one way to conquer fear laugh at it....

There are many quotes in the book this one is one of my favourites:

‘Your life is created first in your mind, then in the world’

So when do you choose to live a passionate life…fully. I know there are a lot of people half living their passion in the middle of transition. I know that there has to be a practical pragmatic side to life of making sure the bills are paid and that there is food on the table. However when you get on track and begin to commit to living a life of passion all manner of things will show up to make it possible. So if you are not currently living you passion full time or at all, or you want to realign and get clear on what it is then I highly recommend The Passion Test. Oh and we are going to run some of the Passion Test workshops which run for four hours and are a great way to get started, aligned and in action to make it happen. I have been in contact with one of the amazing Passion Test facilitators in Australia, Ruth Donald and she has agreed to come to Melbourne and run a few of the workshops.

If you are interested please drop me a line.

Thanks for reading see you next Monday…

P.S. If you want to find out more or get a copy of the book just click here http://www.thepassiontest.com/?af=86141