The Lucky Country (WT580)

The Lucky Country (WT580)

Blog

WT 580 The Lucky Country

When I was starting to go out on my own with girlfriends we went to a pub in Newcastle called The Lucky Country. At the time I didn’t think anything of it. It was just a name.

That’s all changed now, especially with Covid19.

As we’ve travelled around Australia for the past two and a half years we’ve experienced many places; some hot and humid, some freezing cold, wet and windy, others dry and desolate. Some places were tiny, like where we are tonight at Venus Bay in the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia; full time population about 30.

Other places have been bustling with lots to do and millions of people like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

What’s my point?

As we’ve travelled, I’ve really come to appreciate Australia and Australians and I  understand that we really are very very fortunate to be living in The Lucky Country.

Over the past 6 or 7 weeks we’ve driven over 5,000 kilometres from Darwin down through the centre, out to Uluru, stopped off at Coober Pedy and Woomera to Venus Bay.

We’ve been lucky to have water and electricity. We have gas for the stove. We have diesel for the motorhome. We have food. We have clothes and we have a heater if we get cold.

We have also mostly been free to travel around.

Other people in other countries are not so fortunate.

I just want to take a moment tonight to express my gratitude.

To appreciate how fortunate I am to have been born in this country and to live my life feeling both safe and free.

What do you think?

Is Australia really The Lucky Country?

Regards Shirley

P.S. Our signature Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience is now open for registrations and we only have one spot left. The experience runs over 4 Thursdays in September. If this is of interest to you, let’s chat. For more information Click Here.

P.P.S. Save the date for Friday 20th August for our next free online training. We’ll be doing a LIVE re-run of How Your Personality Affects How Well You Lead. Mark your calendar now for 11:00am Sydney time. There’s always something more you can learn.

P.P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.                   

Careful What You Focus On (WT579)

Careful What You Focus On (WT579)

Blog

WT 579 Careful what you focus on

I was chatting with our neighbours in the caravan park at Yulara, Northern Territory (near Uluru), when a lady came up and told us that she had been robbed the night before.

Thieves had stolen her husband’s beer from their $2,000 fridge plus a 6 pack that had been left outside. The thieves left the fridge.

When I shared this story with Ross, he said he had heard that same lady asking some other neighbours about security the day before.

Be careful what you focus on because you get whatever it is you focus on, especially what you fear.

Fear is such a powerful vibration and our vibrations attract things into our lives.

Years ago I used to be frightened of a particular event happening and I would say to Ross that it was my biggest nightmare.

Of course, my biggest nightmare manifested.

Because it involves other people, I won’t share the details, however it was a powerful example to me of changing what I focus on.

Simply put, you get what you expect, so expect the best.

In the lady’s example she was focussed on and fearful of being robbed and that’s exactly what happened.

Wouldn’t you rather invest your time and energy and vibration focussing and manifesting what you want.

Careful what you focus on.

Regards Shirley

P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

Are You Open to Receiving? (WT577)

Are You Open to Receiving? (WT577)

Blog

WT 577 Are you open to receiving?

Wow! What a couple of weeks we’ve had.

We’d been at the van park in Darwin for a few days when we found out at midday on a Sunday that we were going into lockdown at 1pm that day. That was an hour later.

Ross and I were in a panic.

We’d also been told that the supermarkets were going to close and we had little fresh food in the motorhome.

As we were frantically packing up the motorhome to drive to the shops one of the neighbours came over and offered for us to go with them.

“Yes please!” we smiled.

We were so grateful.

When we got to the shops there was a line up to get into Woolworths grocery store. We waited in the sun for what seemed like an eternity.

As we neared the entrance to the store, an employee offered us masks.

“Thank you!”, again grateful for the gesture.

Over the next few weeks we were invited to join our neighbours and their group to watch the State of Origin football matches and join in with Happy Hour of an afternoon.

On a number of occasions, different members of the group offered for us to go with them to the shops.

This was an amazing offer for us because our only other means of transport was riding our electric pushbikes and we were 5km from the nearest shops. In the Darwin heat of 32 degrees Celsius and 90% humidity, we said “Yes Please and Thank You” to every opportunity we got.

Now, why am I telling you this?

It’s because we haven’t always been that way. In the past we were fiercely independent and proud – too proud to accept help.

Not these days. If someone offers to help me, I’m a grateful recipient.

Likewise we also expressed our thanks and gratitude by reciprocating with a carton of beer (which I managed to carry on the back of my pushbike – but that’s another story).

Being open to receiving can be a challenge for some of us, so your challenge this week is to say “Yes, thank you”, when someone offers to help you in any way OR you can also choose to ask for help if you need it.

People are not judging you harshly for asking for or accepting help.

Most of us want to help. It’s how we feel good about ourselves.

So if you must, look at it this way, by accepting the help, you are actually helping someone else feel good about helping.

Are you open to receiving?

P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

It’s 11 Years (WT572)

It’s 11 Years (WT572)

Blog

WT 572 It's 11 Years

Have you ever started something without any expectation?

Maybe you started going to the gym and then found that a few years later you’re still going to the gym.

Well, to my surprise and delight, that’s what has happened for me with the Weekly Thought.

I started writing a Weekly Thought to my database 11 years ago.

When I started I didn’t know how long I would keep going; that would depend on the readers and whether my thoughts were of interest.

And here we are 11 years later and I haven’t missed one single week in all that time.

I have to say, I’m impressed. I can count on one hand the commitments I’ve made in my lifetime and this is one of them.

Thank you for being part of our community.

Thank you for replying and letting me know which thoughts resonate.

Over the years I’ve had people tell me they’ve gone to work specifically to access their computer to hear what Shirley had to say on a Friday morning when they had an issue or situation to deal with.

I’ve had people give me great insights around weekly thought topics which have then made me stop and think some more.

Others have given me stories to share.

I’m just so excited to celebrate another year of thoughts.

I’m not done yet, nor is Infinite Intelligence, who often speaks through me, so we’ll commit to another year and see how we go.

As always, on the anniversary, I love to give a gift to celebrate.

This year one lucky reader will have the choice to either join my Leading Yourself and Leading Others Experience in Newcastle NSW Australia in September 2021 or one year’s subscription to our online Leading Yourself and Leading Others Membership. Both valued at over $5,000AUD. (You can find out more on my website under the “Get Shirlified” tab.)

For a chance to win, all you need to do is to click on this link and tell me in 25 words or less why you want to win.  You have until 12:00pm (noon) Thursday 17th June (Sydney, Aussie time) to enter. I’ll announce the winner in next week’s thought.

So what’s the message today? It’s a great quote from Les Brown. He says, “You don’t have to be great to get started but you do have to get started to be great.”

What is something you want to start doing?

Just start, you never know where it will lead or how long you might end up doing it.

Good luck with your entry.

P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

Don’t Assume Malevolence (WT567)

Don’t Assume Malevolence (WT567)

Blog

WT 567 Don't assume malevolence

You know I love quotes and mantras. Well here’s another one that a colleague of mine shared with me recently. Thank you Mark!

It comes from Jordan Petersen, “Don’t assume malevolence, when ignorance will suffice.”

First of all we’d better define malevolence. Without consulting the dictionary, in this context for me it means, don’t assume malice. Don’t expect that someone is intentionally wanting to hurt you in some way.

When you combine it with, “When ignorance will suffice”, my interpretation is that the other is not even aware of the effect they are having on you. The meaning of ignorance is to not know something.  

Okay, so why the English lesson?

These words remind us to not jump to conclusions. They remind us that our suffering is caused by one thing and one thing only and that is our thinking. They remind us to not get caught up in what Loretta Malandro calls Automatic Listening, where we make stuff up based on a reaction and judgement we have to a situation and then we create a story and look for evidence to predict the future and prove ourselves right. In NLP, we call it mindreading.

We do this from a very young age and for many, the ignorant ones, they continue into old age. But not you! You know better.

Here’s an example:

Christine was venting to her colleague about her manager. “He’s horrible, Shirley. He never asks me how I’m going or if there is anything I need? He’s just not interested in me at all.”

“Do you know that for a fact?” I asked.

“Well, that’s what he does”, she replied.

“Yes, that’s what he does. Do you know for sure that he is not interested in you or your work?”

“No, I suppose I don’t know for sure. But he’s horrible.”

“Yes, I understand that’s what you think. How about you ask him what he is thinking?” I encouraged her.

The following week she reported in. “You were right”, she said.

Now that was an interesting comment because I had simply asked her to ask her boss a question.

“He thought that because my personality profile was a Driver or Director (depending on the profiling system you use), he assumed that I wouldn’t want to talk about what was happening for me or what I needed. In fact, he was very interested. He was actually holding himself back, thinking that that was what I wanted.”

“Well, there you go. Don’t assume malevolence, when ignorance will suffice.”

Your turn! What situation have you recently reacted to and decided the other was acting from malicious intentions?

How about you go and have that conversation and check it out and save yourself the angst and grief of reacting to what you’re making up.

P.S. Our next free monthly webinar will be held next week on Friday 14th May at 11:00am Sydney (AEST) time. This month we’re focussing on improving team productivity through a secret system. Click on the link to register, even if you can’t attend, you’ll be able to catch the recording. https://shirleydalton.convertri.com/processes-webinar

P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

What Lesson Did I Just Teach? (WT566)

What Lesson Did I Just Teach? (WT566)

Blog

What Lesson Did I Just Teach (WT566)

One of my weaknesses is that I let everyone else go first and I put myself last. It’s not a great quality and for the most part it only affects me (and of course, Ross from time to time).

I was horrified the other day to realise that I may have taught this to my friend’s 2 year old child, unintentionally of course, but a life lesson, none the less.

Here’s what happened:

Magnus was climbing the slippery dip at a local café where we were having breakfast.

Another kid, possibly the same age and a bit bigger in size, height and weight started climbing too.

I was standing behind Magnus to make sure he didn’t fall backwards and the second kid pushed his way past and up to the top of the slippery dip and I let him.

This same kid also attempted to take Magnus’ water bottle off him in another section of the playground but Magnus fought back.

Wow! Such an innocent event and yet so powerful in what it teaches us as well as the beliefs it generates. Powerful also in that our beliefs dictate our destiny and our beliefs are often created at a very early age.

Whilst I’m working on my own limiting belief of letting others go first (which I learned from my dad), I apologise if I just taught that to Magnus.

Remember, what you tolerate you teach.

What are you unconsciously teaching your kids?

Regards Shirley

P.S. Our next free monthly webinar will be held on Friday 14th May at 11:00am Sydney (AEST) time. This month we’re focusing on improving team productivity through a secret system. Save the date and we’ll share more over the coming weeks.

P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

Pin It on Pinterest