Hi Ho It’s Off to Work We Go (WT531)

Hi Ho It’s Off to Work We Go (WT531)

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by Shirley Dalton | 28 Aug, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

off to work we go

It’s been miserable in Tasmania the past few days. The weather has been wild. Lots of wind and rain and snow in the mountain areas.

“So what?” you might think.

Well it doesn’t stop the penguins, plovers or pademelons from their daily routine.

I’ve been so impressed watching the wildlife as we travel around. It doesn’t matter what the weather conditions are, they’re out fishing and foraging for food.

They don’t complain. They don’t wake up and moan, “Oh, I don’t feel like it today. I think I’ll have a doona day. I think I’ll stay in bed. I’ll ring in sick.”

Nope! That doesn’t happen.

Hi Ho it’s off to work they go.

David Bayer often references nature when talking about mindset. He’s on a mission to end all suffering. Now that doesn’t mean physical suffering; he’s talking about our psychological suffering, which of course comes from our thinking.

If you look to nature, there is no (psychological) suffering.

Watching the animals has made me aware of how much I look for excuses to not do things. It’s also made me away of how much my “stinking thinking” causes my misery.

As I sit here getting buffeted from side to side in the motorhome, the wind seems to be getting stronger and stronger. I am grateful. I am grateful I have you to write to and I’m grateful to be inside, out of the weather, even though I now have to go out because the motorbike just blew over and hit the motorhome. OMG!

How about you?

Are you causing yourself misery?

What can you be grateful for?

Next time you find yourself in a less than optimal state, how about you remember the animals. Don’t dwell on your thinking and just get yourself into action.

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It’s the Same Old Same Old (WT529)

It’s the Same Old Same Old (WT529)

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by Shirley Dalton | 14 Aug, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

It’s the Same Old Same Old

Have you ever found yourself saying, “it’s the same old, same old”?

According to Dictionary.Cambridge.org, it’s a phrase that’s “used to say that a situation or someone’s behaviour remains the same, especially when it is boring or annoying: Most people just keep on doing the same old same old every day.” 

Doing the same old same old behaviour concerns me when we apply it to work that we don’t want to be doing and in some cases, work that we “shouldn’t” be doing.

Another of my favourite phrases that is relevant to our discussion this week can be abbreviated to “HABU”.  “HABU” stands for “Highest And Best Use”. Of course, we’re talking about your genius, your skills, your contribution and your time.

As I’ve been working with members in our Leading Yourself and Leading Others membership and fellow travellers on this journey of life, I’ve observed a common theme over the past few weeks.

Many have been lapsing back into old habits. They’ve been seduced back into doing tasks that they don’t want to and isn’t their highest and best use.

How about you, does this apply to you, too?

It’s something I have to watch for myself as well. Making a decision and sticking to the plan tests us all.

The way forward is to look at our beliefs. If our beliefs are not in alignment with the results we want to achieve; we simply won’t achieve them. We can’t. It’s not possible because our beliefs dictate our destiny and they generate our thoughts. 

We might think that we’ve made a decision and are actually taking action, however, we often find that we can sabotage ourselves and not stick to the decision or commit to the discipline of the action and thus find ourselves back doing the same old same old.

For example, you can’t decide to start delegating and then continue to do the tasks yourself. If your beliefs are not in alignment with delegating, you’ll find all sorts of reasons and excuses as to why you must keep doing the tasks. Your vibration will also ensure that you attract people or situations into your life that prevent you from moving forward. 

This is a very serious topic. I want for you, what you want for you. Maybe it’s time to change those beliefs; make some new decisions and start looking for the evidence to support your new decisions. This is Mindset 2.0; stacking the evidence to prune your old neuro pathways and rewire your brain so you can stop doing the same old same old and start doing the things that you say you want to do.

The Power of Intention (WT527)

The Power of Intention (WT527)

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by Shirley Dalton | 31 Jul, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

WT527 The Power of Intention

Over the past few weeks I’ve been playing The Cashflow Game online, from Rich Dad Poor Dad author, Robert Kiyosaki, with a couple of my colleagues.

I’ve really enjoyed playing and have learned so much. I’ve learned lots of lessons about dealing with financial crises, like when you land on the divorce card and lose all your money or you find yourself redundant or the value of your shares gets halved and let’s not even mention the cost of having children when you land on that one.

There are plenty of positive scenarios as well, like when your shares double or you get to sell a condo or house for a big profit or your business brings in lots of extra monthly revenue.

It’s a great game and it’s free. I’ve included a link at the bottom of the thought.

The reason I’m sharing this is to also share a major lesson I learned from one of my game partners and that is, “To be intentional”.

In a couple of the games I was losing big time. I was getting annoyed and wanted to just quit and give up (life lesson number 1). My colleague, who is an Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) master coached me, “Power of intention, Shirley,” she said. 

“What do you mean?” I asked. 

“Have a look at where you are on the board and see how many moves you need to make to land on the opportunity you want.”

I still didn’t understand.

“When you click to roll the dice, be intentional about the number you want to roll.”

“Oh, okay”, and so I did.

In this week’s game, I won twice because I was intentional. I worked out the number I needed to roll on the dice to land on my dream and I was intentional about having enough money to buy it and I did.

I loved the reminder to be intentional. My partner also reminded me, “Be intentional in life. too.” It doesn’t only work in the game. The power of intention can bring you extraordinary results.

It was such a great reminder; such a great lesson. I am so grateful and wanted to share with you.

Here’s the link if you’re interested. You can play by yourself or with others: https://bit.ly/shirleycashflow. Let me know what you learn (about yourself and about managing your finances).

Don’t Give Up Give Over (WT524)

Don’t Give Up Give Over (WT524)

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by Shirley Dalton | 10 Jul, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

WT524 Don’t Give Up Give Over

Twenty plus years ago, when Ross and I were in America for a training course, we went to a special spiritual type of shop where I purchased a tiny set of Indian American Oracle cards.

The cards have beautiful artwork of American animals and their Indian totems. One of the cards that often seems to show up for me is a picture of a graceful white swan swimming on calm waters. The words on the card read, “Don’t Give Up, Give Over”.

I love this card because it reminds me to give up the fight; to let go of the stress; in other words to surrender, and the past few weeks that’s exactly what I’ve done.

I was talking to a colleague of mine who has developed some great document management software, so you might think he is quite analytical. During the conversation, I expressed how I had to surrender to the Universe.

“That’s really interesting that you use the words Universe and surrender, Shirley”, he said.

“Why is that?” I asked.

“I’ve just finished reading a book by Michael Singer. He’s a billionaire and the book is called ‘The Surrender Experiment; My Journey into Life’s Perfection’.”

I was hooked immediately. It turns out that Singer also wrote “The Untethered Soul” and whilst I haven’t started to read his book yet, my colleague was telling me that Singer wanted to be a hippy and live in the woods but so many people kept asking him for his expertise in IT. So he started a company that has grown to become one of the biggest in America – all because he surrendered.

As I heard the story, I wondered about my own journey. Every time I aim to move away from the systems work I’ve done with clients for the past 14+ years, the Universe sends me another project. Rather than fighting it, I surrender!

I’ve now found a way to incorporate the parts of the systems work that I do like into my offering and delegate the parts I don’t. I’ve renamed my success path to “The Blueprint for Business Freedom” because ultimately that’s what my clients get. They get the freedom because we focus on the 3 P’s – People, Processes and Possibility. This encompasses all of my passions.

So my message to you today is, “Don’t Give Up, Give Over”. What is it that you are resisting? I encourage you to surrender and see what the Universe has in store for you. I’ll bet it’s even better than you can imagine.

Let me know. I’d love to hear your journey and story.

You’ve Got to Be In It to Win It (WT521)

You’ve Got to Be In It to Win It (WT521)

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by Shirley Dalton | 19 Jun, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

WT521 You’ve Got to Be In It to Win It

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for entering to win 12 months access to our Leading Yourself and Leading Others Online Membership, as a way of celebrating 10 years of Weekly Thoughts.

When it comes to life and winning, you have to be in it to win it.

Congratulations to our 7 winners:

  1. Annie
  1. Luke 
  1. Lynda
  1. Corrine 
  1. Ryan 
  1. Anne 
  1. Michael 

In case you are interested in how we chose the winners, we actually didn’t. The universe chose for us. 

We simply assigned a number to each entry and then each day, Ross loaded the numbers into a random number generator on the computer and the number generated became that day’s winner. I trusted totally in the process. Remember, life is always working for you.

And speaking of life always working for you, about 25 years ago, Ross and I sold our house and headed to Western Australia for a big adventure. What we didn’t know was that the mining bust that had caused Ross to lose his job in New South Wales was also happening in Western Australia. We looked everywhere for work and eventually had to ask our family for help.

Ross’ brother was working in a mine in Queensland and was able to get Ross an interview. By the time we drove back across the Nullabor to Dalby in Queensland, not only was there no job interview, but Ross’ brother and his wife were packing up and heading to Mackay. He too had been made redundant. 

How could life be working for us? We decided to buy a business. The local accountant advised us against it. The bank wouldn’t lend the money. We were desperate to buy the business and no matter what we did, it just didn’t happen. And aren’t we grateful we weren’t able to buy it. If we did, we would have still been living there, eeking a modest living or bankrupt because we wouldn’t have been able to sell it.

Life is always working for you. As it turned out, I got a job with the Queensland Department of TAFE as a Marketing Officer in Toowoomba and within a few months I got a job and a promotion with a different Government department in Brisbane. Life is always working for you.

So here we are, living the dream, travelling and working around Australia.

How is life working for you? Are you looking for clues or are you focusing on all the negative things that didn’t go your way?

Look at Me Look at Me (WT518)

Look at Me Look at Me (WT518)

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by Shirley Dalton | 29 May, 2020 | Blog, Mindset

WT518 Look at Me Look at Me

Most days Ross and I enjoy a walk together, usually in the morning or middle of the day. Today was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and although the temperature was only 13 degrees Celsius, we felt warm with the heat of the sun. 

We came upon a bridge over the Lachlan River in New Norfolk, Tasmania. The bridge was just wide enough for two people to walk side by side. As we neared the bridge we saw a young man walking towards us. He was a large man. In fact, he took up most of the width of the bridge, leaving no room to pass. 

We waited politely for him to cross. Both Ross and I looked up and smiled at him. He stared at the sky to avoid eye contact as he walked past us.  

I find this sort of behavior both intriguing and annoying. I say annoying because I was brought up to “Be Sociable”; to always acknowledge people and smile and say “Hello”. For someone to walk past me without acknowledging me goes against my value set. I also find it intriguing for the same reason. Obviously, people have a different set of values and of course, they are entitled to do whatever they want. There is no law that says you must look at me and smile when you walk past me. 

So why am I sharing this story with you? It’s an opportunity to talk about Values and Values Collisions. A Values Collision occurs when we perceive someone’s behavior as unacceptable to us, yet there is no tangible concrete effect on us as a result of the behavior. Here’s another example: Let’s say you smoke cigarettes and I don’t. It’s your right to choose to smoke. I can’t force you to stop simply because I don’t like it and unless we are near each other, there is no tangible concrete effect on me. 

The next logical question then, is “How do you resolve a Values Collision”? 

Using the above smoking example, I’ll show you a couple of options: 

  1. I can change my value to be the same as yours. I might start smoking. 
  1. I can ask you to not smoke around me, whilst still respecting your decision to smoke. We call that “influencing the other’s behavior”. 
  1. I can attempt to influence your value by “modelling” the values I’d like you to adopt (ie not smoking) or “consulting” to you. I can provide you with information to see if that might influence you to change your value. 
  1. Finally, if we are not able to satisfactorily resolve our values differences, then we might need to alter the relationship. 

Values Collisions occur all the time. They are part of life. They occur in the family, in the workplace, almost anywhere you have people. We are not wrong because we have a different set of values.  

Following on from today’s message, what Values are important to you and how will you choose to resolve any Values Collisions?

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