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Our mornings, every single one of them, start the night before.
His wonderful book, “the biology of belief”, Professor Bruce Lipton speaks of the force of thinking on our bodies. Every one of the 50,000,000,000,000+ cells in our existence is affected directly by how we are thinking. We interpret that physical reaction as a feeling. An emotion. More simply, HOW we are thinking affects how we are feeling. Professor Lipton concluded this many, many years ago. his initial conclusions were not readily accepted by his peers, colleagues or the medical profession. He endured ridicule, dismissal and hubristic condescension; a frequent reaction to original thinking, or as Dr Edward Bono called it, lateral thinking. Professor Lipton's research, development and conclusions are now utilised in the system of thinking known as Neuroplasticity; a whole new development of how we can change, modify, or influence our thinking consciously. Which gives strength to the practice of a Morning Ritual, in which we choose a thought, an idea, or a project (goal), to direct or redirect our thinking. It's back to decisions, isn't it? We can pretty well decide how we're going to think, which will affect how we feel, which will influence how we, act, react, or respond in any situation in life. Any situation at all.
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Regular training trains the body, the mind and the nervous system in the wisdom and discipline of exercising.
Friend, good morning. The habit of exercising routinely has more than just a physical effect. Training affects are wonderful. They create miraculous changes in our minds and bodies. They increase our energy, invigorate all our systems, sharpen our minds, help stabilise emotions, rest, relax and revitalise our very existence. But there is more. Regular training also creates a pattern of activity that washes over into every other area of our lives. When we discipline ourselves into doing it a regular basis, we also train our minds to the practice of discipline, regular activity and the habit of committing to what needs to be done. In anything. Tony Robbins and Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale and Brian Tracy and all the other energetic and motivational people who fire the world up and try to keep us thinking and acting in a useful way, may well have found their source over four hundred years ago.
That was when William Shakespeare penned the words, " Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we all might gain, by fearing to attempt." Which pretty well encapsulates the self-help movement, doesn't it?? In 1859, Samuel Smiles wrote "The greatest things in daily life are achieved not so much by the extraordinary powers of genius or intellect, as they are by the extraordinary application of simple means and ordinary powers, with which we're all more or less endowed."
Let that be your thought for the week. Do it simply, with extraordinary application. The workshops, starting soon, are about PREPARATION.
You know what's said, 'Fail to prepare, and you prepare to fail', a good reminder for getting ourselves back in the groove, doing what we NEED to be doing, not thinking about it, talking about it, but DOING it. Click the link HERE and take a look. See if this might suit you. They've gone down very well with groups, and individuals. Might be just the thing for yourself. Get all the details HERE They're sharp, to the point and effective in switching on, increasing energy and making the most of yourself and your life. And it won't break the bank. Somebody was telling me recently about Steve Jobs and his views on focusing.
Now I suppose many of us have the same views, but as we’re not as famous as Mr Jobs was, our views on focusing wouldn’t have the same impact on the listeners. And that’s fair enough. When someone has made a great success of his life, and by all accounts Steve Jobs did that, it behoves us all to observe as well as we can what he did in his life that perhaps we could emulate. What he said about focus was: “What focus means is saying no to something that you, with every bone in your body, think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up in the morning thinking about it, But you say “no" to it, because you’re focusing on something else. “ Now that’s a very telling statement. He wasn’t speaking about idle distraction. He was speaking about an exciting idea with bags of real potential, and in spite of the promise of the idea, you stick to what you’re at. The strong point in this statement is that when we start something, we should finish it. That to me, seems to be the lesson in this statement, to hold our attention fast to the task. Start, get to the middle and see it through. And of course, the bright shiny distracting idea will still be there when we’re done. What do you think? In correspondence with a gentleman recently, he observed that 'As long as you feel pain, you're alive, as long as you make mistakes, you're still human, as long as you're trying, there is hope.
Pain, mistakes, difficulties, they're all a part of life, aren't they? And what's important to remember is that they will always be there. However, no matter what we've done before, what will determine our lives, and the quality with which we live, is how we think about, and feel about, and how we handle, pains, mistakes and difficulties. In other words, it isn't so much what happens in our lives that shapes us, but how we choose to respond to what happens to us. This is a lesson worth repeating again and again. And again. I never knew of anybody who didn't at some time or other in their lives, need a helping hand, a guiding word, a piece of useful advice.
Did you? This realisation got me thinking about the word 'useful'. I read in a post somewhere recently about how a sage, I think it was Socrates, on being told what he suspected might be idle gossip, asked three questions. Is it true? Is it good or kind? Is it useful or necessary? If it didn't fulfill at least one, and preferably all three of these criteria, he didn't want to hear it. They seem to be good measurements of merit, don't they? So, perhaps we can take a direction from that. Maybe we find how we can make our conversations, correspondence and general communications, true, kind and useful. Now there's a Mindful Exercise. Those of you have a certain age may remember a lady by the name of Mae West.
May was famous for her nonchalant attitude and her quick one-liners. One of her sayings was “I don’t so much think about the men in my life, as I do about the life in my men! “ May had her priorities organised. Many of us want to live longer, to stay around for a bit more, especially when we get to the middle and more years. Somebody said to me recently “who wants to live to be 100? “, and he then promptly added “I suppose if you ask any 99-year-old, you will get a very definite answer.” While it is a great achievement to extend our lives, we need to ensure in as far as we can that we keep good physical and mental health. Dr James Rippe, Director of Exercise Physiology of Harvard University stated some years ago that physical exercise, done regularly, not only lengthens life, but helps maintain activity, and more significantly, helps to prevent illness. Two factors help to ensure this. The first as lung capacity, and the second is good muscle tone. Both of these factors contribute to a well-ventilated system and a vibrant healthy circulation. Regular exercise, good breathing patterns, and a halfway decent diet will get all of these in place for you. Put these in place and Your body will find it physically impossible to not respond. Start today. Friend, good morning.
In training, the key to success is consistency. Sometimes you may find you’re not in the mood, or you’re short of time, or there’s a pressing problem, or your mind is engaged. All of these things can contribute to either skipping your training entirely or doing it in a haphazard way. To apply yourself regularly and to make sure you get full benefit from every session you do, is a skill Learning that skill and applying it will raise the value of every workout you do. What this means is that whether you are short of time, are under pressure, or distracted in some other way from your plan, you will be able to apply yourself to your program, ensure continuity, achieve consistency, and make sure that you get good results. This is the secret of every successful trainer, consistency. As in everything else in life, you will have good days and you'll have bad days. But because your practice, application, is consistent, it is physically impossible for your mind, body and attitude to not respond. This response overspills into everything else. You'll find that as you decide to deal with the matter of consistency in your discipline of training, you'll do the same in your work or any other area. There's a saying that 'as you do one thing, you do everything.' That means that as you cultivate the habit of training, for 10 minutes or two hours, the mind is inculcated with that attitude, and your training becomes not only a physical workout, but a mental exercise. Of course, there will be days when your performance will not be as wholehearted as it is on other days. But that’s life, isn’t it? Though there are days when the intensity may not be in the workout, but keep in mind that you're still making progress. At the end of a three-month period, for instance, your mind and body won't know the difference with which you applied yourself on any given day. What they will know, though, is that the work has been done and that they will have responded accordingly. Go to it.  Some people never give up. And they often succeed.
But they sometimes they do fail. Others fail more often than they succeed. And they don't give up either. Some fear failure with a terrible dread. "What'll I do if it doesn't work?" "What'll people think?" "How will I cope?" Others fear success with an equal amount of horror. "What'll I do if this works?" "How will I keep it up?" "What will people expect of me?" "How will I cope?" Success and Failure are uncertainties. There are no guarantees. You can do nothing, and cogitate for the rest of your life wondering what if you'd done it. What if it had worked? Or you can work like blazes at it, and have the rug pulled from under your feet. But be glad that you used the resources, abilities and talents you had to chase the dream, even if it did elude you this time. Or you can put every ounce of your existence into it, and survive, or achieve, and be glad that you used the resources, abilities and opportunity that this wonderful life affords us, to have ACTED, used your resources, and to have done your best.  In training, the key to success is consistency.
Sometimes you may find you’re not in the mood, or you’re short of time, or there’s a pressing problem, or your mind is engaged. All of these things can contribute to either skipping your training entirely or doing it in a haphazard way. To apply yourself regularly and to make sure you get full benefit from every session you do, is a skill Learning that skill and applying it will raise the value of every workout you do. What this means is that whether you are short of time, are under pressure, or distracted in some other way from your plan, you will be able to apply yourself to your program, ensure continuity, achieve consistency, and make sure that you get good results. This is the secret of every successful trainer; consistency. As in everything else in life, you will have good days and you'll have bad days. But because your practice, application, is consistent, it is physically impossible for your mind, body and attitude to not respond. This response overspills into everything else. You'll find that as you decide to deal with the matter of consistency in your discipline of training, you'll do the same in your work or any other area. There's a saying that 'as you do one thing, you do everything.' That means that as you cultivate the habit of training, for 10 minutes or two hours, the mind is inculcated with that attitude, and your training becomes not only a physical workout, but a mental exercise. Of course there will be days when your performance will not be as wholehearted as it is on other days. But that’s life, isn’t it? Though there are days when the intensity may not be in the workout, but keep in mind that you're still making progress. At the end of a three month period, for instance, your mind and body won't know the difference with which you applied yourself on any given day. What they will know, though, is that the work has been done and that they will have responded accordingly. Go to it. 
Those of you have a certain age may remember a lady by the name of Mae West. May was famous for her nonchalant attitude and her a quick one-liners. One of her sayings was “I don’t so much think about the men in my life, as I do about the life in my men!“ May had her priorities organised. Many of us want to live longer, to stay around for a bit more, especially when we get to the middle and more years. Somebody said to me recently “who wants to live to be 100?“, and he then promptly added “I suppose if you ask any 99-year-old, you will get a very definite answer.” While it is a great achievement to extend our lives, we need to ensure in as far as we can that we keep good physical and mental health. Dr James Rippe, Director of Exercise Physiology of Harvard University stated some years ago that physical exercise, done regularly, not only lengthens life, but helps maintain activity, and more significantly, helps to prevent illness. Two factors help to ensure this. The first as lung capacity, and the second is good muscle tone. Both of these factors contribute to a well ventilated system and a vibrant healthy circulation. Regular exercise, good breathing patterns, and a halfway decent diet will get all of these in place for you. Put these in place and Your body will find it physically impossible to not respond. Start today.  I never knew of anybody who didn't at some time or other in their lives, need a helping hand, a guiding word, a piece of useful advice.
Did you? This realisation got me thinking about the word 'useful'. I read in a post somewhere recently about how a sage, I think it was Socrates, on being told what he suspected might be idle gossip, asked three questions. Is it true? Is it good or kind? Is it useful or necessary? If it didn't fulfill at least one, and preferably all three of these criteria, he didn't want to hear it. They seem to be good measurements of merit, don't they? So, perhaps we can take a direction from that. Maybe we find how we can make our conversations, correspondence and general communications, true, kind and useful. Now there's a Mindful Exercise.  “Show me your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are.”
That sounds like an arrogant statement, doesn’t it? But there is a strong truth in it. Apart from characteristic influences, there are judgements and opinions that we often need to discard in favour of our own decisions. That's what we call the courage of conviction, don't we? I doubt there is anyone in existence who has not experienced discouragement, censure or ridicule when they have expressed an aim, a goal, or some ambition that doesn’t sit well with current companions. I say “current” because what happens is that the person aiming to achieve, if he believes in what s/he's doing, in himself, and in the truth of that belief, will inevitably outgrow that level of companionship. He or she may be told that she’s losing the run of herself, getting too big for his boots, living in a fantasy land, and ultimately, to “get real “. All too often, a misguided sense of loyalty to a known circle of companions, ambition can be undermined, and someone can be coerced into submission to the low opinion expressed by companions. I saw a remarkable case of that as a youngster in Wexford, when a pal of mine, a gifted and studious musician, who could, at the age of sixteen, do things with a trumpet that older, experienced and semiprofessional musicians could only dream or talk about. The ensuing discouragement, heartless ridicule, endless criticism, flung like mud at every opportunity, was at first resisted. But because my pal insisted that he wanted to play music with his 'friends', some of the mud started to stick, the resistance weakened, the resolve corroded, and his enthusiasm and ambition were swallowed up in a slurry of envy, ill-will and malevolence. Within two short years, his ambition, and talent, were beaten down to the level of mediocrity, conformity, an acceptable level of average. Peers' intent was completed; my pal's potential destroyed. This then becomes a case in which to practice integrity. Integrity is being true to oneself. That's all. And when we believe in our aims, ambitions, our dreams, we have an obligation to ourselves to take whatever steps are necessary to fulfil them. In that case, we need mental strength and emotional resilience. We need to take time to ourselves and decide how we want our lives to be. To do otherwise is to abdicate the responsibility we have to ourselves, and to those who trust us and believe in us. We need to choose our own path. But we tend to look at what the majority do as the correct thing to do. But that’s not always true. And especially not for the individual who seeks to explore his own potential, who seeks to make the most of what he or she believes life has to offer. We may sometimes need to fly in the face of convention, opinion, and most certainly, approval. Not an easy thing to do, especially if the disapproval is coming from an unexpected quarter. So, when you set yourself a goal, be sure that it’s your personal aim, be clear on what it means to you, and be ready to walk through Hell and High Water in its defense. Otherwise, all you've got is a wish. In correspondence with a gentleman recently, he observed that 'As long as you feel pain, you're alive, as long as you make mistakes, you're still human, as long as you're trying, there is hope.
Pain, mistakes, difficulties, they're all a part of life, aren't they? And what's important to remember is that they will always be there. However, no matter what we've done before, what will determine our lives, and the quality with which we live, is how we think about, and feel about, and how we handle, pains, mistakes and difficulties. In other words, it isn't so much what happens in our lives that shapes us, but how we choose to respond to what happens to us. This is a lesson worth repeating again and again. And again. Have a Great Day and Do Well... Somebody was telling me recently about Steve Jobs and his views on focusing.
Now I suppose many of us have the same views, but as we’re not as famous as Mr Jobs was, our views on focusing wouldn’t have the same impact on the listeners. And that’s fair enough. When someone has made a great success of his life, and by all accounts Steve Jobs did that, it behoves us all to observe as well as we can what he did in his life that perhaps we could emulate. What he said about focus was: “What focus means is saying no to something that you, with every bone in your body, think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up in the morning thinking about it, But you say “no" to it, because you’re focusing on something else. “ Now that’s a very telling statement. He wasn’t speaking about idle distraction. He was speaking about an exciting idea with bags of real potential, and in spite of the promise of the idea, you stick to what you’re at. The strong point in this statement is that when we start something, we should finish it. That to me, seems to be the lesson in this statement, to hold our attention fast to the task. Start, get to the middle and see it through. And of course, the bright shiny distracting idea will still be there when we’re done. What do you think? Have a Great Day and Do Well... The workshops, starting soon, are about PREPARATION.
You know what's said, 'Fail to prepare, and you prepare to fail', a good reminder for getting ourselves back in the groove, doing what we NEED to be doing, not thinking about it, talking about it, but DOING it. Click the link HERE and take a look. See if this might suit you. They've gone down very well with groups, and individuals. Might be just the thing for yourself. Get all the details HERE They're sharp, to the point and effective in switching on, increasing energy and making the most of yourself and your life. And it won't break the bank. Have a Great Day and Do Well... In 1859, Samuel Smiles wrote "The greatest things in daily life are achieved not so much by the extraordinary powers of genius or intellect, as they are by the extraordinary application of simple means and ordinary powers, with which we're all more or less endowed."
Let that be your thought for the week. Do it simply, with extraordinary application. Have a Great Day and Do Well...  In correspondence with a gentleman recently, he observed that 'As long as you feel pain, you're alive, as long as you make mistakes, you're still human, as long as you're trying, there is hope.
Pain, mistakes, difficulties, they're all a part of life, aren't they? And what's important to remember is that they will always be there. However, no matter what we've done before, what will determine our lives, and the quality with which we live, is how we think about, and feel about, and how we handle, pains, mistakes and difficulties. In other words, it isn't so much what happens in our lives that shapes us, but how we choose to respond to what happens to us. This is a lesson worth repeating again and again. And again. |
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