The Ever Changing world

Good morning and welcome to my blog this week we are being blessed with a blog from one of my new team members Jenny. Jenny is an amazing coach in the making and is coming near to the end of her year long training. She has been a business expert for many years and decided to refine her wonderful skills for assisting people to transform into formal coaching and mentoring. I hope you enjoy her blog and I look forward to introducing the whole team to you over the coming months, there is six of us now...

Physicists will tell you the the universe is forever changing, it isn't something we can stop, change or control. We live in an ever changing environment, yet, change is something that can often be seen as a threat to many people.

Why am I harping on about change? My life is in a constant state of change, which generally I embrace. I have lived in four countries, spent a great deal of my working live travelling around the world, and changed careers. I believe without change, we do not grow, will not be presented with new and exciting opportunities, and have the chance challenge ourselves and jump out of the comfort zone.

However, every now and then, change can be stressful.  We can let it weigh us down - like the weight of the world is on our shoulders, yet for no real reason.  I am feeling a little of this now.  

The changes I am facing right now are:

• changing employment - retrenched from full time PAYG,
• changing careers - business development to business coaching,
• moving cities - Sydney to Melbourne,
• selling one home in Sydney
• buying a home in Melbourne

How do we cope in a period in our lives when we are confronted with what seem like an insurmountable amount of change? How do we cope when it is in a work situation, when it is personal change, or when it feels like change all around? How do you manage the change, keep the stress levels down, and not feel like you are not managing (or feeling out of control)?

I have found that the following helps me with managing change:

1. Identify the change

• I know it sound silly to write this down, but when you actually list what the changes are, it seems to simplify the situation

2. Embrace Change

• Whether you wish to embrace change, or simple just accept that change is going to happen, you can harness all your energy into managing this, make sure you have positive energy around you. It is pretty surprising how much negative energy we can put into fighting change, or allowing it to stress us out. The retrenchment was a surprise for me, however after the initial shock, I realised it was a blessing in disguise. I could now finally pursue my dream of my own business without the dilemma of giving up a well paid job (I was going to say secure, but that wasn't that case!!)
• Accept that some level of change is inevitable, and when it presents itself ( as it is doing with me now), try and divert your energy into ensuring that the change is presenting a new adventure for you, where you will grow, learn and see new opportunities.

3. Work out what you can manage, what is creating stress and what to delegate.

• Once I jotted down the changes I was facing, I thought that all of this is manageable, however, when detailing my "to do" list, I realised it was the little tasks that were creating my stress. For example, the actual packing my house up seemed to be causing me all sorts of angst, so I investigated the cost to have someone come and pack it for me - it was money well spent.
• The price my house will fetch is also causing some level of stress, however I listed down what I can do to help such as fixing up my garden, ensuring the house is looking neat and inviting.  Then I put my trust in my Agent (the professional) that he will do his job.

4. Fight the fights that are worth fighting

• This is something a very wise boss once told me. In a work situation in the corporate world, I have seen people expend a huge amount of energy and emotion in trying to take on every issue/change or challenge that they are confronted with. I have finally learnt to let some issues/decisions that I disagree with go, and focus my attention on the issues that mean the most to me (and I have some chance of influencing the outcome).
• In a personal situation, I change the meaning slightly to "identify what you can manage, and let go of the unmanageable issues". I looked at what I can manage in the move and what I can not. I started to stress that initially I was not going to have somewhere to live (that was my own) as finding, buying and moving into a house in 6 weeks was a long shot. I worked out where I could live for a few months and accepted that this was the situation (got to love your friends!).  One less issue to worry about.

5. Create short term goals and reward yourself

• Once I identified the manageable issues, I set some tasks and goals (again, writing this stuff down seems to help clear my head)
• Set some easy short term goals - and when you reach them, congratulate yourself. It will help you see progress, and a bit of "self congratulations" can really help in motivating you for the harder tasks. I fixed up my garden (with the help of my family - see point 6) and now my garden looks neat and homely - one less task to worry about.

6. Espouse the change (share it) and draw on your support group

• Once I started to share the changes I was facing (including my fears and issues) with my friends and family, I realised I have an amazing support group. They were all there as a shoulder for support, a sanity check and to help out with some of those tasks that just seemed overwhelming. Dont ever underestimate the value of friends in times of need - they are there for the good times and the not-so-good times!

Change is inevitable. Some we create for ourselves, some change is thrust upon us by others and some change just happens (the change in seasons). Fighting it all the time is energy consuming (and negative energy at that), some change will happen regardless of what we desire, other changes we can manage, delay or divert, however, there will always be change in our lives.  How boring would life be without some little change!!

Strangely after writing this, the changes I am facing seem a little smaller, more manageable and definitely more exciting. Thank you!!

Embrace the change that you are presented with, and have the courage to instigate change that your desire. Just remember.......

"life is a journey, not a destination". Randolf Waldo Emerson

Cheers Marcus and Jenny

Sure you want to be a leader?

So you think you want to be a leader? The following video on leadership and how a movement starts is not only inspirational but prophetic.

As the leader of Intrinsic Success I am proud to announce that two brave souls will be joining the company at the end of the month. Welcome the loverly Jenny and courageous Greg to my now growing company. As you have seen from the video these are the two most important people at Intrinsic Success. I will have a more formal announcement and introduction on our new web site in the next few weeks but for now I am so honoured, excited and grateful for their courage and enthusiasm for what Intrinsic Success is.

Until next week, dance like nobody is watching and may your movement bring an abundance of followers.

Regards Marcus

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. 

Engagement - A Life Changing Experience

Well another week has gone by and this week I have been playing Mr Mum and Mr Dad as Stephanie has been away in northern NSW working as an assistant on the Shamanic Midwifery course. Thankfully I have had lots of help from my Mum, yea for mums, and what a great help she has been thanks Mum. Now trying to juggle family and the extra responsibilities with an already busy work schedule has not been easy and as I sit here on Sunday night I am a little tired.

I was watching Undercover Boss last night, one of my favorite reality shows, and I could not help but to be dragged into the emotion of it all. It was a particularly emotional show with a boss who connected deeply to his staff and had some very big awakenings. I can’t help but be moved by the deep connection that was felt by all and the life changing results that this connection achieved. It made me think about the whole connection and engagement theories that we talk about but often give lip services to. As I have said before, and no doubt will again, engagement is the key to success or more importantly how we engage. It makes sense that the more we engage and the deeper that engagement we have with anything the more success we are likely to receive. So how are you engaging with your business and your world?

If you are a sole trader or small business owner you might want to look at how you are engaging with each of the domains, or in our language, the pillars of your business. How are you engaging with the finances, the marketing, the sales or in the structure of your files and records? I can bet that the areas that you dislike engaging in are the things that need the most attention. Unfortunately when you are a sole trader you have to be the HR manager, the finance manager, the marketing manager, the sales manager, pretty much everything. Now if you just can’t engage with any of these areas because you just dislike them, like me with my finances, then get someone in who loves engaging in that particular area to help. If you can’t afford it then learn to engage by listing the benefits of engaging in that area and then apply that to your passion. So how is engaging with your finances going to help you to build a successful coaching practice, as in my case. Sometimes we need to segway our engagement so that we can engage in those things that at first thought we can’t stand.

Now if you are in a larger organization where you have employees who report to you or you happen to own a business that has employees then engagement becomes critical to the bottom line. Employee and staffing costs are often the most expense outgoings in any business, so making sure that they are performing is essential if you want to make a profit. It goes without saying, so I’ll say it anyway, that the more engaged employees are the better they will perform. Engaged employees also cost less from a sick leave and turnover point of view. A recent statistic that I read said that over 80% of employees do not like what they do. A scary statistic to think that 80% of staff are disengaged with what they are doing.

I have a theory called motion theory, which states that everything in the universe is constantly in motion. Employees are no different in that employees are either moving towards or away from your business. Those that are moving towards the business are engaged and therefore perform better, have fewer sick days, greater loyalty and have a happier and more enthusiastic demeanor. Now this has to be good for business as an engaged employee is more likely to engage with customers in a positive way. On the other hand those that are moving away from the business and disengaging are more likely to have higher sick leave, less company loyalty and will be less enthusiastic or happy. Now I don’t need to tell you how this comes across to customers just take the supermarket check out person, ‘Hi, how are you’ in a drool monotone voice reading from the employee training manual. Just for fun, change it up a gear next time you meet one of these employees, there not just in supermarkets, and give them a response that is not in the manual.

In all seriousness we have three categories that we place employees into, they are either - Advocates, Fence Sitters or Detractors. Advocates are those that are moving towards the business and engage. These are the employees that enjoy coming to work, are passionate about what they do and the company they work for and the group that we are likely to get the most out of. The second type of employee is the Fence Sitter, these are the employees who are there to do there job and rarely put in over and above but seem to like where they work. These employees are however easily swayed. The third group is the Detractors, these are employees that are in the process of or have disengaged from the business. These employees, depending on the distance of disengagement, don’t like where they work and at the extreme can become toxic to the organisation. These employees hate to be alone and will try to recruit other employees to join their cause. This is where the Fence Sitters can be influenced to join them, which can turn into a mutiny if not taken care of quickly. I am sure we have all been a part of one or all of these groups at some time I know I have. Now both the Fence Sitters and the Detractors, as long as they have not moved too far, can be turned around and encouraged to become Advocates. In fact it is possible to have a company full of advocates. If you don’t believe me check this site out http://www.zapposinsights.com/main/ Zappos is an online business, which started out selling shoes and has now moved into a wide range of merchandise. Their employees are primarily all call centre staff, but a call centre with a very big difference, all their employees are Advocates and moving towards the business. Some of the most engaged employees I have ever seen. They are so successful at employee engagement that they now take tours and run workshops for other organizations that want to learn their secrets.

Engagement is crucial if we want to have a more successful business and successful life. So this week I challenge you to take a look at how you are engaging with your world, identify where you could engage deeper and make an engagement plan. Learn how to love what you do and if you can’t go find and then live your passion, the world will be a better place for it…

Thanks for reading…

P.S: As the Gallup organization have found:

The world's top-performing organizations understand that employee engagement is a force that drives performance outcomes. In the best organizations, engagement is more than a human resources initiative -- it is a strategic foundation for the way they do business.

Research by Gallup and others shows that engaged employees are more productive. They are more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and more likely to withstand temptations to leave. The best-performing companies know that an employee engagement improvement strategy linked to the achievement of corporate goals will help them win in the marketplace.

P.P.S: Now you don’t have to go to the USA to get extreme employee engagement you just need to call us. If you want to engage more with your small business or have your employees engage more with your organisation the benefits are far and beyond increased profit. Why not give us a call to see how our Engagement Success Technologies can help you to have greater success. It does not cost anything to get an evaluation…

More Lessons from Planet Earth

Even as I write this the lessons from last week, and it was a big week, are drifting off into the depths of my psyche. I remember it had something to do with the father wounding and the constant battle over the years to heal this wounding but last week a new insight appeared.

I had some confronting meetings last week that lead me to a realisation of the importance of emotional intelligence in business and in life. I had always known that my father was emotionally void and distant but I did not realise the depth to which that disease had afflicted me, until last week. Confronted with a situation where I had not lived up to expectations with tasks I had agreed to do, in a new business partnership. This greatly effected both of my partners as they where waiting on me to do what I needed to do in order for all of us to move things to the next level. Now I had real honest reasons why these had not been done. Business and making a living got in the way, but this was not the issue. My partners are both coaches and have a deep understanding of the human psyche and helped me to realise just how far I am from being able to connect my extrinsic world and my intrinsic world. 

The extrinsic world is the face we all put on when we go out into the world, and the intrinsic world is that deeper knowing self that would seem to be very fragile and hence why we don’t lead with this part of the self. When they expressed there disappointment and frustration at the situation I found myself getting angry and upset. Angry that they did not understand how difficult it had been for me and disappointed that i had let people down. This led to the realisation that the centre world of the entrinsic, as I have now termed it, is the most important part of self to understand. Now this maybe easy for a lot of people, however as I looked out into the world in pain, anger and frustration, I realised that it is void in much of our community.

This confronting meeting led me to the understanding that what people really want is to connect with the true self of others. In that I mean is that part of you that is the expression of whom you really are, vulnerable, scared, seemingly delicate and fragile. It takes a great deal of internal honesty with yourself to be able to express this fully to others. You see I have been trained to be a pleaser, anyone else with that affliction? My pleasing gene is so strong that it will over ride my true self, my real desires and place the feelings of everyone and everything above mine. It also leads me to be less honest with myself about what I can and cant do and what my true desires are. If I did connect to that honesty it may not be possible to live out the genetic desire to please. On the extrinsic side, the outer world, I am very honest however on the intrinsic side I sacrifice my honesty to myself so that I can fulfil the pleasing gene. 

So now what? It is one thing to have the realisation and another to integrate it so you can live it out in the world.

How do we break free from seemingly genetic patterns and subconscious subscripts handed down to us from generations past? The secret may lie in the entrinsic part of ourselves. There is a physiological side of the human body that is always trying to place the body in a state of homeostasis. That is our bodies attempt to balance our internal processes of things like hot and cold. This entrinsic side of ourselves is our homeostatic self trying to balance the inner emotional world with the expectations of the external world. So the secret may lie in our connection to our entrinsic or emotional, feeling self. In that sharing our true feelings about what is going on for us may actually help us to break free from these habitual patterns regardless of whether we found them ourselves or whether our parents and their parents handed them down the line.

Feelings in business, now there is a novel idea! 

So what am I feeling at this moment and what are the fears and hesitations that appear as I attempt to connect with them. As always the key is engagement, so if connection is the intrinsic identification of our feelings then engagement is the action to which feelings are expressed extrinsically. Sharing the fear, the hesitation that we may upset another or not please versus the desire to show the world that we are strong is not easy. It takes courage to live from the heart, but isn't this what makes life worth while?

I think writing a blog is a good way to over come some of this, as long as there is honesty and to the most part I am attempting to do just that. It’s not easy, it is not free from fear but it is cathartic. How will everyone take it, I don’t know, all I can do is be as honest as possible. Now this is not always going to please others. In fact it may often disappoint, but it is much better to disappoint upfront that to let down later on.

So how will connecting to and engaging with your true self, that inner world of emotions and feelings help you and your business? I believe we as a human race have a desperate desire to connect and engage with the true self of others, to know people at a deeper more real level. Let’s face it we all have fears, phobias, habitual patterns we are not proud of and those dark things hiding in the closet. I think when we engage with others at the real level of the entrinsic self we open up the ability for others to 'get us' and therefore employ us. I often talk about engagement as the most important thing in business and maybe in life. As the more we engage with anything the more successful we are likely to be. So what would happen if we engaged in the entrinsic self and opened up and shared the truth of our lives?

I have an amazing job that I am so grateful for as I get to connect with people like this on a daily basis. However it also gives me the ability to hide from myself as it is always about the other person, so in essence I have set this up beautifully so that I can continue the patterns of the genetic self. Well I wonder what would happen if this changed?

What would happen if you changed?

So with the all the fear and phobia that this blog may disappoint some of you planted firmly on my sleeve I post it for all to read....

Here's to honesty with the self...cheers.

Play from the front foot!

So here I am sitting on top of Mt Buller, the wind howling, the rain bucketing down and the temperature at near winter ranges and you ask why? As a volunteer of the Mt Buller Ski Patrol every now and then we are asked to assist at the National Mountain Bike Championships, and this is the weekend. These bike riders are some of the most committed, courageous and fearless individuals I have met. There is pretty much nothing that will stop them except for the loss of a limb or a comma in the case of the last event in Hobart.

These unique individuals spend most of their life on a bike, some 300km plus a week riding, $8,000 plus for a bike and that's just the start. Here is a great example of engagement in what you are doing, without this level of commitment and engagement in what they are doing there is no chance of success.

When I started Intrinsic Success I was enthusiastic, excited and passionate, then life happened. A few stormy days, a bit of heavy rain and a cold winter chill, which lead to a few knock backs, not reaching the success I had hoped for as soon as I had hoped, and then there were the family issues that are all a part of being a Dad. At some point during the middle of last year I had became complacent, lost and a little disheartened resigning myself to be comfortable but not abundant. The business had been flying but now it was doing just ok by all outside measures it was returning what most might call a good living. However complacency had set in which lasted until the realisation that I could not grow a truly abundant lifestyle spurred on by the fact that we had to move our son into private school so I now had the responsibility for his wellbeing.

It was actually here at Mt Buller where I turned things back around. I was riding a ski lift with a vey good friend of mine who is the owner of companies such as Car Sales .com and I was discussing my troubles and how hard it was finding work and getting myself going again. He gave me some wise advice, "it sounds like you need to stop bitching and start pitching". Interesting, stop bitching and start pitching, I thought to myself I don't bitch or complain I've been working hard, putting in the hours what did he mean? After taking a good hard look at myself I realised that I was doing a lot of peddling but not going anywhere. I realised that I had disengaged from my business no longer doing those things that needed to be done to get the work and do the stuff I love to do, coaching people and business to be, do and have more success. I realised that I needed to find the courage to put myself back on the line, to make the calls, spread the word and get out of my comfort zone and make it happen.

That was eight months ago and since then I have tripled my clients plus, had two amazing individuals sign on board to become Intrinsic Success coaches and help me to build the business and now for the first time I can see the true potential of my business. One might say that I have now opened up to the horizon of possibilities and wow what possibilities.

So have you become complacent, are you peddling but not going anywhere fast, are you not putting it on the line, putting you on the line? Where are you hesitating to make the calls, go to the meetings, take up the speaking opportunities? As I put it with one client last week, where are you not dancing on the tips of your toes, playing from the front foot?

As a tennis player and having played pennant competition tennis for Kooyong Tennis Club, I was taught that you need to play from the front foot on the tips of your toes. If you watched the Australian Open you may have seen players dancing on the tips of their toes waiting to receive a serve. Flat-footed players are slower, not as prepared and not ready for whatever opportunity may come to win the point. In a business it is no different, playing on the front foot on the tips of your toes allows you to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities. There are an abundance of opportunities out there if you are willing to put it on the line and truly see them. Playing on the front foot allows you to make it happen and be prepared to take advantage of those golden opportunities that will come your way. Be fully engaged in your business and in your life. Be prepared to do whatever it takes to make it a success, and most importantly keep peddling even when it seems all up hill as this is all part of running your own business, all part of life.

So the message here is to play from the front foot, be dynamic, ready and excited to hit the next ball. Get into action and be prepared at the start of each week to go out and create the opportunities and be ready to take advantage of them. Reconnect with the reason that you started the business in the first place; realize the importance of your work for you, your family and the planet. Dig deep and find the courage to put yourself on the line and do those things that need to be done and most of all keep peddling. I am always amazed at how fast things can turn around when you get your heart, heart and soul aligned and in action to manifest abundance.

So are you ready to make it happen?

Passion, Purpose, Possibility!

I’ve been sitting here for the last hour trying to write this blog, getting angrier and angrier and now I’m wondering why? My plan was to write about the importance of finding your passion, living your purpose and realizing the possibilities for you, your life and your business, yet I sit here getting angry. Now this is no way to start a Monday morning surely….

So why the anger?

I like to sit with any emotion that is coming up from the inside and to distil its meaning for me right now. These emotions don’t just appear because the kids are ratty or that a few business deals didn’t go the right way; no they come up to help to guide us and move us in the right direction. Emotion is just energy in motion or the attempt of the body to get us moving in the right direction, sometimes any direction; just get moving! Now it is true that every now and then, seemingly worse over the school holidays, the kids will get on our nerves and the loss of a few important business deals can get us down but at the end of the day emotions can have great insights for us.

So why the anger, in this moment, for me? There would seem to be a pattern here that every time I get close to or nail my passion and purpose I derail myself, interesting! In this case it is anger that is rising to the surface, but what to tell me? Maybe it is the fear that if I were to live it fully that I may get rejected? Maybe I have been told time and time again that this part of me is not worth it and that conforming is the only way to receive acknowledgement and acceptance, mmmmm!

Now here is a scary thing, insight into the private world of Marcus Bird, deep into the dark chasms of my mind. But guess what, as I write this, the anger is subsiding, so maybe I’m onto something here. Generally when you get to the bottom of the emotion the emotion tends to go. The body has sent the message, it has been received and then understood and now its job is done and it can retire back to the deep dark subconscious world from which it came.

One of the hardest jobs for us on the planet is to do exactly this, to find our passion, live it on purpose and to realise the possibilities, the rewards of abundance that await. In some respects the lack of some or all of this leads one to becoming lost, confused, disheartened and in the worst-case scenario depressed. You see it is imperative that we all have something to live for, some reason for being. As we look into the night sky and see all those billions of stars it is easy to feel the insignificance of life here on planet earth. It is just as easy to look into the smallness of your life, doing the dishes, cleaning up after everyone, going to work same old same old and feel the same way. Once upon a time religion used to play an important part of human life. From the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mayans and Aztecs to the birth of modern religion, religion or the belief in something always played a key role. This belief in a lot of cases answered the question of what is life all about and why am I here. Now that many have moved away from faith the eternal question is not being answered or fulfilled in any meaningful way and finding the answer within has been hard. It is imperative however that we find this answer and give true meaning and purpose to our lives. But ‘why’? I hear me ask.

A few years ago one of my best friends died suddenly but not unexpectedly, you see he had been suffering from alcoholism. One night the drink got the better of him and he had a fatal accident and died alone in his apartment. It was a sad morning that morning but as I said not unexpected. We had tried so many things to get him over it, dragging him to rehab, rescuing him from himself too many times to mention and during these exchanges we had spoken of him dying from this disease and although he said the right things you could see it in his eyes that he had just given up. He had lost his passion, there was no more purpose and he could not see the possibility of getting out of this situation. Now I know there was a lot more to it than that, not being able to live up to others expectations, not being able to rationalize the Father wounding etc…. But his giving up and not being able to connect to these three essential ingredients of life played a role.

I think that finding your passion, living a life of purpose, answering that questions of why am I here and then realising the possibilities that you can be, do and have all you are meant to have is an important if not imperative part of life.

So what are you truly passionate about? What is it that stirs within you that is dying to come out and express itself in the world? Why did you start your business, what was the spark of passion?

I facilitated a planning day workshop for a wonderful client of mine last Friday and had a number of my own realizations during the process. One of these was that there is great importance at coming back to the reason that you started your business. To constantly remind yourself of the passion that ignited the desire to begin. The true purpose for beginning the journey and to see all the amazing possibilities that lay before you. It is so inspiring to see people and businesses connecting to this. Activating the power of this and leaving a workshop, like this one, motivated and excited at the future.

As ‘modern’ humans I think it is important that we all live with passion, know the purpose of our being here right now on the planet and to actualize and activate all the amazing possibilities that expressing this passion has.

I often talk about alignment with my clients and in fact my Double your Clients workshop gives a great deal of focus to this. I believe that when we align with our passion and live life on purpose the universe helps us out in abundance. My amazingly beautiful partner Stephanie is a shining example of this, this week. She has recently found her purpose and aligned herself with it. The interesting thing about finding our purpose is that most times it brings up great fear, “who me, no I couldn’t do all of that, little old me…..” But since she has aligned with her passion and her purpose all manner of things are coming to her. Stephanie is a Shamanic Midwife, Birth Attendant, Kinesiologist and an amazing Mother. It took a while for her to come to the realisation that helping couples, in particular women, get pregnant and give birth was her calling. Her business, Getting Pregnant Giving Birth, was launched recently and wow things are starting to happen. In fact one of her blogs has been quoted on the web site of a lady whose book she is reading at the moment, what a coincidence or maybe a clear sign. There are many more of these amazing signs for her, little confirmations that she is on the right track.

Anyway I think the message here is that identifying your passion, living it on purpose and seeing the possibilities allows us to have feel hope, experience true freedom and have a full life. It is not a replacement for faith, belief in something bigger than ourselves, but rather an awakening to the fact that we have meaning, purpose and value being here. Yes even little old me has a reason for being, a purpose that needs to be realised and expressed so that the rest of the people on the planet can be all they can be.

Like a forest ecosystem each animal, plant and organism only thrives because of the symbiotic relationship to the organism next to it. If any one of these organisms is not truly being everything that it can be then it affects every other organism. The old saying; ‘when you live your truth you give others permission to live there truth,’ highlights the importance of all of us thriving. Living passionately and on purpose is contagious. It has the ability to infect the person next to you. Maybe if we all lived this truth then the planet would be a very different place.

This is the now happy, relaxed and certainly no longer angry Marcus signing out.

 As they say, and to be a little kitsch, ‘go forth and prosper’ or as I say ‘live passionately, on purpose and see those amazing possibilities. You are an amazing, wonderful, incredible human being, now go express it in the world and make this world a better place for you and for all those you infect’. 

Overcoming the Sole Trader Blues!

Now every once and a while most solo entrepreneurs or sole traders, you know people like us with a staff of one, ourselves, or a small team, goes through the ‘Sole Trader Blues’.  Those times where you feel unmotivated procrastinate and feel less than inspired. Where you sit at your desk looking endlessly into the computer hoping something exciting will jump out at you and fire up that passion you had yesterday. Well believe it or not I had the sole trader blues last Thursday.

There I was sitting at my desk looking into the abyss feeling flat and low trying to find something to inspire me back into action. I know I had a lot of things to do as the day before I was flat out, but do you think I could think of any of them in this moment! Even though I had my action plan list, my sales funnel and my priority matrix I just sat there. In that moment of the blues I could not think of anything inspiring to do. As I scanned my list nothing seemed any fun, actually quite the opposite, everything seemed a chore. ‘Ring up some sales leads’ I thought but no I can’t call anyone when I feel like this and they will probably say no anyway…. ‘Write some more of the coaching program manual’ I mussed, oh God I cant be bothered…. So I just sat there! Maybe I’ll look at Facebook or Linkedin maybe that will inspire me…to no avail. Maybe if I play a computer game that might get me out of this rut….no that just made me feel guilty that I had lots to do and here I was procrastinating. So what to do?

In speaking to a few small business owners last week a number of them talked about being in this rut, maybe it was the full moon, or just a strange coincidence or maybe it was there so that I could write about it in my blog and pass on some handy tips to get you out of the Sole Trader Blues. 

Now the blues can be triggered by many things, a few negative sales calls, the moon cycle, your cycle, a brief moment where you loose hope or loose sight of the bigger picture of your vision or just because. So what did I do?

When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me... opps that's a beatles number no help here or is it? Now seriously when I find myself in this situation and I have the means to be conscious enough to realize the rut that I’m in, here are my top tips to beat the blues, and yes playing some beatles on my guitar is one of them:

1.   Get moving – when you feel flat, down or like you are in the blues the first thing to do is to get moving. Get up from your desk change the scenery and go for a walk, even if it is only down to the back of the garden. Pick up a musical instrument and play it outside. Go for a walk along a river or the beach or somewhere that makes you feel good. One of the causes of the blues can be the lack of movement. If you have been moving forward in your business and suddenly there is a hiccup, lick a few negative sales calls, then you can be placed in a space of non movement or procrastination. The best way to get moving again is to get moving, anywhere.

2.     Take an action – Once you have had a walk or moved from your desk the next step is to take an action. Any action no matter how small and preferably small, will have you moving once again. Get up and do the filling, clean your desk, go to Officeworks and buy that stationary you need or write a blog.

3.     Review hope – Often the place that we go to when we have the blues is that place of no hope, even if it is not conscious, a lack of hope will have us stop and loose sight of what we are trying to achieve. So write a list of all the positive things that are, will, or you want to have happen in your business. More often than not there are some great opportunities opening up and reminding yourself of them is a sure fire way of finding some inspiration to get moving.

4.     Call someone – Now call someone, make a business call that you need to make and talk to another human being. Sometimes as a sole trader, of just you or a few, you can get lost in your own mind. The best way out of this trap is to call someone. It is best to call someone who is going to give you a positive response, so not a sales call as yet, but rather someone you are doing business with who is a supporter of your work.

5.     Go do something - Now at worst if none of the above works go do something you love to do, kayaking on the river, playing tennis, reading a good book, gardening, riding a bike, going to the gym or visiting a friend. It does not matter what you do as long as the doing is something you love to do. This will often kick in the inspiration gene and have us get back on track.

6.     

      Positive affirmations – As you begin to move it is important that you tend to your mind and the thoughts you are having. Regardless of whether or not they started this whole blues thing you mind is a powerful tool, use it wisely. Begin to repeat positive affirmations over and over like a broken record. Some of my favorite affirmations are:

“I think positively only”

“I am totally self confidant”

“I am passionate, inspired and in action”

“I have an abundance of new customers/clients”

“I am totally self worthy”

7.     

      Communicate – At the end of the day the best thing you can do is communicate with someone you trust, love or look up to and ask for help. There is nothing like a comforting word or a strong kick up the backside to get you moving. Because the blues is just that, a lack of movement. This lack of movement could be due to any number of feelings from, its too hard, to I can’t be bothered and any number of negative untrue thoughts.

In my case it was the support of my love one, Stephanie, and a good dose of kick myself up the backside to get out into the world and get on with the job that got me moving again but not after spending most of Thursday morning mopping about. So get into action, get moving and know that what you are doing is important, real and of great value to all of those you touch. Oh and if you get stuck CALL ME!

These ‘Sole Trader Blues’ usually only last for a few hours or a day, however in some cases they can go on for days. If they happen to go on longer than a few hours or at most a day or two then call someone, me, a friend, a colleague, someone that can help inspire you out of the blues. If you feel that your blues are more than just blues and maybe depression please seek the advise of a qualified health care practitioner. The sooner you get onto it the sooner you will be back on top.