307, 2012

Whatever you do … make good art !

By |July 3rd, 2012|Dare to Dream, Finding your dreams|0 Comments

I’ve had a day at home today and done a few interesting things. One was to do an Instinctive Drivers questionnaire which looks at what my natural drivers, ways of thinking and methods are. Many call this someone’s ‘flow’. When it feels easy. When it feels instinctual. The other things I did is sat and listen to a commencement address by Neil Gaiman to the University of the Arts. And once again it made me think about my life and what I’m doing and where I’m heading. So here for your enjoyment is Neil’s commencement address.

I’ll let Neil speak for himself but here’s some of the things I found challenging or instructive or inspiring (my words) …

  • If you are naive or don’t know things and hence don’t know things are impossible then that’s a good thing as then it’s easier to do as you’re not bound by other people’s expectations or rules or paradigms
  • Am I settling ? Doing what I have to do before doing what I want to do ? (People like Neil and Steve Jobs sound very similar. they love what they do. It doesn’t feel like work. What is that for me ?)
  • Imagine where you want to be – like a distant mountain. As long as you are walking towards the mountain then you’re on the track and that’s OK.
  • Everyone will face the problems of disappointment, failure and disillusionment – they are part of the journey. So learning how to deal with these and get over them is part of the journey too
  • Be wise and if you can’t be wise, then pretend you are wise and do what they would do !
  • Enjoy the journey. seriously – don’t worry. Enjoy the journey.


Challenge: How does this encourage, inspire or challenge you ?

Read More
111, 2011

You’ll know it when you find it ! (Steve Jobs)

By |November 1st, 2011|Finding your dreams, Passion|1 Comment

I’ve said this before, but when I was interviewing the 10 famous Australians for my recent book ‘A Life That Counts’ I found it both an inspiring opportunity but also, surprisingly, a somewhat frustrating process. These highly successful Australians had many common traits but one thing stuck out to me – they LOVED what they did and I was struggling to find that out for myself. So I have spent a lot of time reflecting on what this is for me. And I want blogs like this to inspire you to do that for your own life.

In many of my personal development workshops I teach on this. Finding the core, authentic you. Finding what you love. Following your heart and the outworkings of this is passion and energy which ironically enough makes you more successful at what you do, as well as making life a much more enjoyable journey.

I’m reminded of people like:
* Walt Disney who said “I don’t make movies to make money, I make money to make movies”.
* Or Oprah Winfrey who says that “I have never interviewed someone who is extremely successful who doesn’t love what they do”.
* Or Steve Jobs in this video who says “I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going is that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love … to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know it when you find it.”

My Challenge

You’ve got to find what you love ? So what excites you ? What are you passionate about ? What do you think about a lot ? What do you wish you could be doing ? What gets the motor firing on the inside of you ? Maybe it’s not one thing like is the case for me. But why go through life not doing what you love – we have only one life after all.

And if you don’t know – I would be honoured to try and help you. Go and buy my workbook at

www.alifethatcounts.com.au/shop.php

That is exactly why I wrote it. To make my book come alive in your life. To help you on this journey of discovery. To help you find your dreams (the what and the why) and have the guts to not only dare to dream but to follow them. And then to have tools, strategies, techniques and examples for how to chase those dreams successfully (the how).


And as you live an inspired, purpose-driven life that counts – then I am inspired to do the same !!!


Read More
1110, 2011

The biggest legacy Steve Jobs left wasn’t the mac / ipod / iphone …

By |October 11th, 2011|Dare to Dream, Finding your dreams, Life lessons|0 Comments

RIP Steve Jobs. An amazing man. An entrepreneur. A visionary. The founder of Apple and Pixar and Next. A man who changed the world as we know it. But more than that. A great human being. A family man. A man who did what he loved.

Watch this video – his commencement address at Stanford University. There is no need to say anymore. What he says in this is the biggest legacy / lesson he could leave us – far more than the Apple Mac computer, the ipod, the iphone etc.

“I love what I do … You’ve got to find what you love … if you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. And as with all matters of the heart, you’ll know it when you find it !”

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve encoutered to make the big choices in life … the best way of avoiding the thinking that you have something to lose.”

Read More
1910, 2010

Put some energy into your life

By |October 19th, 2010|Action, Finding your dreams, Motivation, Passion|1 Comment

I was thinking about various books and speakers the other day and one interesting thought came to me.

The authors and speakers who are most successful (eg Richard Branson and Anthony Robbins at a recent seminar) refer often to “never giving up” or “always find a way to make it happen”… It was only the lower level speakers and less known authors wo you often hear say, “this only takes half an hour a day to be successful..”

They annoys me because they are lying to sell their system / product. To achieve requires effort. The key is to get your purpose, values, emotional state, strategies and life structure right, so that you can ENJOY putting in the effort along the way.

You may remember a video I had in one of my previous posts from Michael Jordon (one of my heroes). In it he says …

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

And after two Olympic Games, I absolutely know this to be true. You achieve because you work hard at it. Talent is never enough. A system may be good but it takes work. You will inevitably face obstacles and at that point you need perseverence and mental toughness to keep going. To be successful requires:

1. Putting effort and energy into your life (and the many forms that that takes)

2. Putting it into the best strategies, decisions and structure. (don’t find these first before you find the energy to put into them)

My challenge today is to find that energy FIRST. Forget the structure or strategy. That gets added once you find and have the energy to apply to it. This is the key !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-EMOb3ATJ0

Read More
2108, 2010

But I don't know what my dreams are ?

By |August 21st, 2010|Dare to Dream, Finding your dreams|6 Comments

There are so many books, songs, articles, blogs, websites that encourage us to go after our dreams. I absolutely agree.

But what if you don’t have any particular dreams ? What if you don’t know what they are ?

In this blog I want to give you a whole series of questions that you can use to think and ponder on to help you discover those dreams and passions inside of you. Use these to scribble. To write. To brainstorm. To dairise. To journal. To think on. And remember that dreams evolve and grow. They are not always  clear from the start. Like a little spark you discover them and then as you pursue them they will either grow or die out. And the ones you want to follow are those ones that gorw and grow. They excite you and energise you as you think about them and as you take step after step to follow them.

o      Who am I ?

  • I spend a lot of time thinking about ?
  • If I could be anyone I would be ?
  • I love myself when I ?
  • I am happiest when I ?
  • My greatest talent is ?
  • My strengths are ? Or if this is difficult – my friends and family would describe my biggest strengths as … ?
  • My weaknesses are ? Or if this is difficult – my friends and family would describe my biggest weaknesses as … ?
  • I am most confident when ?
  • I would like to become ?
  • The 3 things I like most and least about myself are ?

o      What do I like ?

  • If I could do any job I would ?
  • If I was free to do anything I would ?
  • I love doing ?
  • What do you do that you find easy and would be happy doing all of the time ?
  • If the doctors told you that you had only a year to live how would you shape your life ?
  • What am I good at ? (there should still be a matching of talents to desires)
  • The three people I admire and respect the most are ? Why ?

o      What do I want ?

  • When I was growing up I wanted to be ?
  • My dreams as a child were ?
  • I want to start ?
  • I want to tell the world that ?
  • I will never ?
  • What excites me is ?
  • What would make you most excited to wake up in the morning to another day ?
  • I want my life to ?
  • Name 1) one place to visit 2) One thing to do before you die 3) one thing to do daily 4) one thing you’ve always wanted to learn

o      My greatest moments of joy and fulfillment in my life so far have been …

o      What would you do if there was no way you could fail ? If you were ten times smarter than the rest of the world ? (Don’t judge or fool yourself. Be honest and play like a child. Do not limit yourself. The time for getting ‘realistic’ is not here. This is a time for reversing repression and discovering those things deep down in your heart and soul.

o     What would you do, day to day, if you had $100 million in the bank ?

o     What would you do if you were told that you were going to die next year ?

o     How would you change the way you lived NOW if you were told that you could never retire


Read More