GREAT BOOK TO START YOUR WEEK

I'm a big fan of Robin Sharma. I love his books and his easy, relaxed style. His first book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" was wonderful and last week I read his most recent one - "The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari." I was not disappointed.

As in the earlier one, this book takes the form of a modern fable featuring a character who learns many lessons and makes many personal changes during the course of the book. The story is of a journey, not just a physical A to B one but a spiritual, insightful personal growth one too.

You can't help but absorb Sharma's messages along the way. The book can be read at so many different levels and is a treat for both your conscious and unconscious mind. Like all my favourite books it'll be one I'll come back to again and again. If you're looking for an easily readable story to lift and inspire you, I'd urge you to read it.

To cap it all off, after finishing it I tweeted how much I had enjoyed it and got a direct message back from the author himself. Nice one Robin!
Michelle

PASSION AND BELIEF

What are you really passionate about in your life?
Today's new video features Suzanne sharing her passion for her allotment. She looks at how being passionate about one area of your life can be used to extend the success it brings to other areas too.
Here's the link to the video and to the other videos on our You Tube channel.

I'm a big fan of Anthony Robbins. I love his upbeat "Go get 'em!" style.
Live with passion is one of his favourite phrases - you'll find it throughout his books and audio programmes. I love this concept. Find what you're good at, find what you're passionate about, know how this makes you feel and transfer that to other areas of your life.

People are invariably best at doing the things they are passionate about........ so what's stopping you?
Michelle

BLOCK OR BLANK?

Much of the way that we feel about a situation is determined by the way that we think about it. Remember the story about the man borrowing the lawnmower from last week? Today's post was inspired by the fact that when I first opened up my laptop to write this piece, I hadn't known what I was going to write about.

Now I could have seen that as a problem. If it had gone on for any length of time I could have labelled it as writer's block and got myself worked up about it. Instead, I chose to see it as liberating. I chose to think along the lines of - here I go with this and I'm not sure where its going to lead me.

I chose to come at it from a place of inspiration, not one of worry. Seeing this page as a blank canvas on which to create something unique really helps me. Sometimes I find it easier to get out of my own way and just let things flow. Why not try it? You never know where it could take you!
Michelle

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

I'm facing a few decisions in my life right now, as I'm sure are many of you. What I'm asking you to think about today is not so much what decisions you have to make but how you are going to make them. In true NLP style I'd urge you to think about what has happened before and learn from it. Think about a good decision that you made in the past, it needn't have been a major one, just one that you can look back on now and know that you made a good call. How did you make the decision itself? What was it based on? Did you base it on weeks of research or on a gut instinct. Do you like things to look right, sound right or feel good when you are deciding? It's true that most of us will make many of our decisions in the same way, regardless of the content of the matter itself, so it really does help to tune in to what works best for you. Let's say that like me you're a gut instinct person who makes their choice on something feeling right, it's about becoming to recognise just what that right feeling is for you. This will be different for everyone but importantly it will be the same for you each time. Learn to recognise this and know when you've got it. Once you can trust your own subconscious yes signal it really helps take the pressure off deciding. Michelle

FLEXIBILITY

In NLP one of the fundamental or core principles, the so-called presuppositions, is that the most successful person in any team is the one with the most flexibility.

This is the subject of today's new video. In the video Suzanne talks about flexibility and about adapting what you are doing to different situations. It's crucial to be aware of what is working well and to know how to change it to work even better in different situations. If you keep on doing something that isn't working, you'll keep getting the same bad results. As Henry Ford said, "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

We release new videos every 10 days. Be sure never to miss one by subscribing to our You Tube channel.
Michelle

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU THINK

Do you ever think about a situation before it happens? Of course you do, that's natural, but have you ever given thought to the way you think about it?

I think this is well illustrated by a story that Michael Neill tells in his book "Effortless Success". A man goes over to his neighbour's house to borrow her lawnmower. On the way he thinks about arguments they've had in the past about things that he's borrowed and returned late. He thinks about the time she borrowed his pruning shears and broke them and how she lost his best ladder, yet he didn't even say anything. By the time he gets to her front door he is steaming. She opens the door and smiles warmly at him - "hello there, great to see you, what can I do for you?" to which he simply barks, "and you can keep your damn lawnmower!"

So much of the time when we dread things or when things go badly it's because we have anticipated that this will be so by our negative thinking. NLP is about controlling your brain and that begins with accepting your brain as something separate from you, something that you can control. This small step can be a fundamental leap as it empowers you to do something about your situation, not just passively sit back and accept the hand you've been dealt.

Think about your day ahead, how do you feel about it? Ask yourself how much of this is due to fact and how much is down to the negative thoughts you have about it. It's all too easy to allow ourselves to be wound up before we meet with certain people, all because things maybe didn't go well when we met them last time and we are projecting the negative thoughts about that forward into today's meeting.

So take a bit of time today to notice what you are thinking......... More soon.
Michelle

CHILLING OUT

When you read this I will be far from home. I've headed off for a couple of days to rest and recharge my batteries. I love travelling and driving long distances gives me a great opportunity to relax. When I'm driving I love listening to CDs or to my iPod. I sometimes listen to music but more often listen to audiobooks. On this trip I'm planning to listen again to Napoleons Hill's "Think and Grow Rich." If you haven't read or heard it, I'd urge you to do so. It's an absolute classic and full of some really thought-provoking ideas. When you're away it's a wonderful opportunity to do something different, to break from your normal routine. Much as I love my jobs, I also very much love not doing them sometimes. I'll be away on my own and that gives me a great chance to relax and take stock, to think about where I'm going and about where I want my life to go next.

Some of my very best ideas have come to me when I've been out of my usual routine. I find I'm often most creative when I'm not trying to create anything at all. Just switching off and letting my life flow ......... Sometimes that works much better than struggling and trying to force ideas to come when they're just not ready to.

Sometimes we do better when we try less hard .....
Michelle