A simple step

We all have dreams and aspirations, and most of us plan in some way to achieve them. The first step is having unfailing belief that our aspirations will happen, and the second is a focus or intention that sees us through to those aspirational goals. Often that is all we need, belief and intention. Deepak Chopra talks of desire and intention in the same way. Aspirations are equivalent to desires, albeit that desire has a different connotation and meaning to aspiration... Then we exert effort and energy in an attempt to steer our lives towards our goals. It is interesting how life assists us along this journey. Life pushes us and pulls us this way and that, often in directions that seem so far from our perception of the direction we should be going in, that we feel tension and frustration... More often that not though, the belief carries us through, provided we aspire to things that are right for us and for the world .. It is then that we enter the flow of life, and the pushing and p...

Yesterday I went for a run for the first time in ages. Apart from having sore legs and feeling fitter as a result, I was struck by the beautiful colours around me. Here in New Zealand it is Autumn, the rains have begun, and the sun, when low, brings out the most incredible greens and browns. The grass was stunning and so green. I stopped in my tracks and looked around at the colour. I looked at nothing else, just colours and how inspiring it was! Rather than registering what I was looking at, I just saw the colours of what I saw. When I got home, I realized how much of our beautiful world we take for granted. Normally we spend our time running around looking at things, people, landscapes, views - we do not look at the colours..they are just there. Colour is always present, and when something is always present, we often overlook it. Have a look around you and spot the colour in your life! Adios

Today I was reminded of a valuable lesson in life. I am getting some personal coaching from Raechel. She is an internationally reknowned coach (amongst other things) and has travelled the globe learning her art. She is special, and I am very fortunate to have her as my coach. Today we set about goal setting - drawing on our previous discussions and the vision I created for the future  to establish tangible and achievable objectives for the coming years. Together, we explored previous conversations and coaching sessions to create a timeline and clear measurable goals for my life to come. For many, going through such an exercise can be very threatening, uncomfortable and confusing. Many people are offered coaching and decline because of the fear that this creates. Coaching is about having someone else help you to understand yourself, your world and the choices before you. Yes, these can often create internal tension, insecurity and fear. In reality this emotional resp...

The recent earthquake in Japan and tsunami that followed were truly devastating. Another quake in Tonga today. The earth truly is on the move. Until a few weeks ago, 2011 in New Zealand was ticking over quite nicely. The economy stirring from the doldrums, the weather sunny and warm the whole summer through, and the kids had all gone back to school. People had returned to work after the annual 'month off' and everyone had started to get excited about the Rugby World Cup. Then another earthquake struck Christchurch killing many people, injuring others and causing more devastation than this small country has never seen. I doubt that anyone living in New Zealand is completely unaffected. This, just after Christchurch had picked itself up, dusted off it's shoulders and started to rebuild. My thoughts are with all those affected people and families. The City is shattered. Go well. Christchurch is an outstanding place and community and the City will flourish again. Quakes a...

21 degrees, the sun's rays flickering through the leaves of a pine tree, a cool breeze carrying white fluffy clouds across an azure coloured sky...a fantail chirping, flicking its' tail from side to side, the faint aroma of tea tree..a small stream of water trickling down a low rocky surface. No people. Life can always be like that when we want it to be. In those times when everything just seems to close in around us, too much to do, too many people making demands on us, it is difficult to see the wood for the trees. To just stop and look around. We get more and more 'het up' and why? What does that achieve? Life is easy, life is a breeze - just make it so .. ;)

We (or at least a lot of us) have heard of the law of attraction and the book and film called The Secret - it's interesting stuff... it got me thinking about the amount of time I (and my closest friend) spend playing on PC games and Internet games like Farmville (which recently won an award as a social gaming site) and the fact that the games offer us a means of creating a new, virtual reality for ourselves. They allow us to dream and to form a reality around those dreams - pretty cool stuff. The question I have been pondering from a negative angle, was whether or not these 'virtual realities' that we create could act as a means of blocking us from achieving our desires. For example, if we're playing Sims and creating a new home for our Sims family, based around our personal desires for a new home, does this mean that the Universe will see us as having achieved that desire - the new home has after all manifested itself, albeit in a virtual fashion.. Thinking about i...

How often have you heard the words 'control freak'? Quite a lot I'm guessing. I had a meeting today at which the person I was with commented on my tendency to want to control and this got me thinking... In nature, is anything controlled? Does the weather change to suit itself - is it controlled by God or the Universe? Do flowers control their growth? Do animals control their behaviour? We are all keen on achieving peace of mind for ourselves, which in essence could be argued to mean relaxed, at peace, out of control. Feelings of control tighten us, they create seen and unseen restrictions, boundaries. A financial controller's job is to control the purse strings, mission control effectively drive the actions of the crew on the space shuttle, but nowhere in nature do I see or feel control - why is that? Someone once wrote that the best way to obtain power is to give it away, and that principle could apply equally to control - if you have ever suddenly felt 'in t...

Good morning! The most powerful thing you can do (and it is very powerful) to change the world is to  change your own beliefs about the nature of life, people and reality to something more positive  .. and begin to act accordingly. Success is a choice.. and it is possible to make friends with adversity and your misfortunes. Bear in mind that sometimes it doesn't take much to put things right - take for example a little water on a small plant to help it grow Paragon in Robin Hobbs' Liveships trilogy states .. "long or short, if you worry about every step of a journey you will divide it into endless pieces - any one of which may defeat you. Look only to the end".."teach yourself to believe you will succeed. Be now what you must be to succeed at the end of your journey, and when the end comes, you will find it is just another beginning"

We all often reflect on what is going on in our lives and the lives of others. We sometimes change our course in the light of what we see in others actions and words. I guess there is always a danger that we reflect and end up thinking too much about stuff. I do. A couple of very old commentaries have helped me with this.... What happened to you should have happened because it did…and no wishing can make it any different. Wishing reality to be different from what it is is like teaching a cat to bark. Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does Catch u