Binoculars
June 14, 2013
Do you see a clear path ahead for your life or business?
Or is your view slightly foggy? Is there a sense of fuzziness about who you are, where you are and what you are seeing, right now?
Binoculars.
What is their purpose? To give you an up close and personal sharper, defined view of something. Binoculars bring the distance into perspective.
How can you bring your distance, or path ahead, into perspective?
When you achieve clarity and focus, you create a better sense of direction for yourself, don’t you? Hand in hand clarity and focus lead you down the path of your choosing. They allow you to see more clearly along the way.
They bring the distance into perspective.
All you need to do is to turn the focus dial on your binoculars to make your view become clearer, don’t you?
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
Mark Twain
Who’s Getting in Your Way?
June 6, 2013
Other people. Your work. Your kids. Your past. Your life.
No, it’s you.
You are the ONLY one who gets in the way of you.
So, you want to improve yourself.
You’ve decided to invest time and money in developing ‘you’. Excellent. Fortunately you are in a very good place because unlike many people, you realise the importance of spending time with a coach who can help you work through your life to date and together you can explore ways to create your new life path.
You make a start on your new journey filled to the brim with excitement and enthusiasm. And then all too soon you find that things start ‘getting in your way’…
Who is getting in your way again? You.
It’s all too easy to blame other people or other things, isn’t it? These other ‘things’ become a mountain of excuses as to why, what, when, and how… But did you know it’s actually easier to knock down a wall than to keep building one, brick by brick?
How?
Reframing. Change your thinking. Change the language you tell yourself. Remove the bricks, one by one. Turn your changes into reality. Live them and believe in YOU.
Tell yourself – ‘I will no longer get in the way of who I will be!’
You know you can, can’t you? It’s just a matter of when.
Become a Dambuster
May 17, 2013
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the heroic feat of the Dambuster’s raid, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. Today we pay tribute to the actions of focus, determination, commitment and courage.
Today we remember…
Consider the title given to the airmen and the historical act they carried out. From the 17th May, 1943 they forever became known as the Dambusters. So what did they do?. After a review of what needed to be done, to strike at the enemy forces, a plan was created. Practice was the next step, to ensure the aim was as precise as possible. Finally the raid took place, courtesy of the brave Lancaster crews of 617 Squadron. The outcome: the bouncing bombs were dropped and the dam was busted.
How can you become a Dambuster?
Think about it. A dam is built to contain a huge body of water. A wall is built to hold back the water. A great deal of pressure is placed on the wall. When the bouncing bombs hit, the wall was smashed and the pressure released.
Are you someone who creates a strong ‘dam’ wall in your life? Do you allow life to build up to a high volume? Do you put pressure on yourself? Is your wall holding you back from being who you can be?
Become a Dambuster
Plan your raid. Fly your Lancaster toward your focus – your dam wall which is holding you back; your built up pressures, worries and anxieties. Be a Dambuster and bust your dam wall. Bombs away!
Now feel your personal sense of release and celebrate the courage you showed to make it happen. Set a new course and fly upwards to the next chapter in your life…
”There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.”
Ronald Reagan
Don’t Sit Still…
May 14, 2013
….were words of feedback that one member of an audience shared after a presentation I co-delivered last Tuesday. Or rather for this individual, this was a ‘light bulb moment’ of realisation that to do as she had always done, was from that day, not going to be her method of choice moving forward.
Result!
During our presentation we shared our thinking around the concept of change. Change in the world. Change in the world of work. Change in how we run our businesses now and into the future. The idea of change presented a hush across the room. It fast became apparent that many people in our audience were fearful of change and what it meant to them, as individuals and in business.
Change – a scary word. Change – it fills many with a sense of dread. Change – do I have to?
Really? Why?
Embrace change instead of rejecting or being fearful of it. Complacency or sitting still, as was so aptly stated, does what? Nothing. Just because things have worked well in your business for a period of time does not necessarily mean they will continue. Doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different result achieves what? The same result.
Is it too hard to give change a ‘hug’?
Adopt a gentler approach. Integrate change at intervals. Let it evolve. Invite change in. Let change happen. Remove your limiting belief around fear. Shift your focus to the unlimited opportunities you can achieve.
But remember one thing…
Don’t sit still!
“Evolution is the most powerful tool we have for dealing with change”
Seth Godin, 2001
Design a Quilt, Build a Business
April 8, 2013
Today I’d like to introduce my guest blogger extraordinaire, Anna Ryan, who designs and makes stunningly beautiful and intricate quilts. Sit back and enjoy reading how Anna describes the process of quilt design being just like the vision it takes for you to build your own successful business.
Starting a new patchwork quilt design starts with a small idea at the back of my mind, a small seed of a design that grows.
The seed goes whilst I sleep, it calls to me whilst I walk and pesters me during meal times… very much like an idea for a business…
After a while I can’t hold it back, I have to tip the seed onto a piece of paper and give it form outside my head. I sketch it out, very roughly at first. A few lines here, a few lines there, how does it look now it is outside my head?
Is it still a good idea?
If it is, adding colour and filing out the design is next – reds or blues? Cream or white?
Adding different shades of colour and playing with pencils adds depth to the idea, allows me to test the design and see if it is a solid idea, will it work?
The scariest step is committing to the project with fabric. Choosing the right texture, colour and design, do they work in harmony or fight?
Will the plan pull together?
Taking the first steps to cut the fabric is always nerve-wracking; stepping out into the unknown and committing energy and resources to an idea that a few days ago was just a seed in my head is frightening. Will it work?
The only way to find out is to take the plunge, how will I know the design works unless I do?
All of the patchwork pieces build steadily together into a gorgeous block if all I do all of the preparation before I start sewing and cut the shapes accurately.
A completed patchwork block is only half the journey done.
Now I have to build the layers, the foundations of the quilt to be able to create the finished piece. Using the best possible materials and building on the original patchwork design, the idea gains depth, texture and structure.
It is an ongoing process that can sometime takes hours, but more often than not weeks, even months to get the combinations in place to make something beautiful..
Will it be perfect?
No, but the journey is more important than the finish, the skills learnt, the ideas tested. These are more important than perfection. After all if I had never taken that first step of acknowledging the seed, I would never have creating something unique and amazing!





