A simple step

Throughout our lives we experience countless relationships with others, from our parents, siblings, children and families to those we work with, play sport with and meet as fleeting acquaintances. Every relationship we have has an influence on who we are as a person, from the briefest of encounters to the longest of partnerships. We experience feelings and emotions from all those we meet and engage with.  Relationships are a choice (such as the selection of a partner, lover and spouse), all begin either through a genetic  connection or from a chance encounter.  What draws us to one another? 

Today is my birthday and I'll remember it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I was reminded today about the fact that people come to things in their own time, and that there is a right time for everything. You know how sometimes you feel that things just aren't clicking - but you know that what you are striving for will happen and that the right things will all connect at the right time to manifest your 'dream'. Today I facilitated a meeting between two people who I respect very highly, both extremely experienced in their fields. The meeting was to bring them together as a final attempt at gettting them to do business together. Until today, both people were focused on achieving the same thing (a business partnership) but for whatever reason they did not see eye to eye and the trust simply wasn't there to 'make it happen'. So we tried a last ditch attempt by asking each of them what they would be doing, on the assumption that they WERE in business together ......

As a little boy, like most people, I used to love doing dot-to-dots. It's one of those things that can be so much fun - at first a collection of random black points and after a while, as if by magic, a picture appears of an elephant, a bus, a truck or Yogi Bear... Today, my dot-to-dots are still a reality. Everything that we do has a connection in some way with something else that we have done. In marketing and sales, nothing is more real - we develop networks of people, like-minded individuals who want to work together to achieve common goals or who simply enjoy helping one another out. In soccer, we join the dots - thinking ahead a few steps, before we take that next step and kick the ball. Connections are often made deliberately, although for me 9 times out of 10, they happen 'by chance', or at least, the ones that really spur me on do! Having a focus and vision and staying true to it is what creates these 'by chance' connections. Going to a conference recently I...

We are all influenced, every day, by the events that occur, by the people we interact with, by the way we feel. We choose the latter - we are responsible for the way we feel. We seek peace of mind and contentment. We try to control what happens in our lives to achieve this. Can we control what goes on, or not? We can control - How we feel What we do Where we go How we go about it We all have triggers - words, experiences - that influence us. These triggers relate to past experiences and to the way we deal with them. Understanding our own minds helps us to move past these and gain clarity on the positive influences, the things that help us to move forward confidently.