Focus On the Bigger Picture (WT430)

Focus On the Bigger Picture (WT430)

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WT 430 Focus on the bigger picture

When I was studying to become a school teacher, I learnt one of the most impactful lessons of my life. 

It was during my practicum at a high school in a seaside community.  

Enthusiastic and passionate about learning and education and wanting to deliver the most fun and informative lessons to my students, I found myself preparing lessons and creating games well into the early hours of the morning before heading off to school to teach them. 

One particular class was scheduled to be tested and I was devastated with their results. 

“How could they not study? How could they not learn this?” I cried to my supervising teacher. “I put so much time and effort into making their revision lessons so much fun.” 

“Shirley, it’s not about you”, she said. “These kids have a different set of values to you. They don’t value education. They would rather surf and smoke pot.”

This was totally confronting for me. I experienced so many emotions. I wanted to give up. I wanted to scream at them. I resented them for not appreciating the effort I had gone to to make their lessons interesting. I was distressed for them that their future depended on them learning and none of this seemed to matter to them. 

“Shirley, if you are going to make it in this system, you have to accept that the kids you will be teaching will not all share the same values as you, and that despite that, you still need to show up and give your best effort”, counselled my wise and experienced supervising teacher. 

Sadly, I accepted her advice. She was right. I needed to focus on the bigger picture. I was there to teach and do the best job I could, to help as many as I could. 

It’s been 30 years since I learned that lesson and it still applies today.  

The people you are working with in your organisation may not share the same values as you. 

That doesn’t make them wrong and you right. It doesn’t mean that you have to convince them, rather, focus on the bigger picture.    

What outcome do you want to achieve? What is best for the organisation and your people? 

Focus on that.  

Invest your time, energy, passion and enthusiasm into achieving the end result. 

Focus on the bigger picture.

Learn It With a Story (WT424)

Learn It With a Story (WT424)

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WT 424 Learn it with a story

A friend of mine, Janet, recently enrolled in a program with Jim Kwik to enhance memory and learning strategies. Part of her homework was to teach someone what she was learning. Of course I was a willing participant, both from a learning perspective and also to support her and be her Accountability Buddy.

Since I too am required to share, I thought it would be a good topic this week. 

Here’s a little story I made up. Read the story and I’ll explain what it really means. 

“The SALT got poured over the chocolate coated MAGNUM icecream and fell into the TIN FOIL that was buried in the SAND. At night the glow worms glowed PHOSPHORESCENT YELLOW and stunk like BLEACH, which made us all go “ARRGGGHGHHHH”, until Peter came along with POTATO chips and chocolate MILK which was good for our bones. 

Notice the words in upper case: SALT, MAGNUM, TIN FOIL, SAND, PHOSPHORESCENT, YELLOW, BLEACH, ARRGGGGHHGGGHGH, POTATO, MILK. 

These words relate to the elements in the Periodic Table numbered 11-20. 

The trick with memory according to Jim and Janet is to make it relevant to something you know so you can remember it easily and to make up a story.

Salt – Sodium, Magnum – Magnesium, Tin Foil – Aluminium, Sand – Silicon, Phosphorescent – Phosphorus, Yellow – Sulfur, Bleach – Chlorine, Arrggghghhgh – Argon, Potato – Potassium, Milk – Calcium.

You could make up any story. Janet’s story was quite different to mine because she has different triggers.

It’s a cool little tip if you have to remember steps in a process or a list of items or even names. I’m still working on it for bigger chunks of information. I’m keen to learn so I can pass this to participants in my leadership program when they have to recite a very special poem.

Your homework this week is to give it a go. See if you can make up a story to remember the first 10 elements: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon. As a hint, your story could include balloons and batteries or trees or diamonds.

See how you go.

What Do You Need to Measure? (WT423)

What Do You Need to Measure? (WT423)

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WT 423 What do you need to measure?

You’ve heard the saying, “What gets measured, gets managed”. 

I confess I didn’t quite understand the impact of this statement until recently. 

I set myself a goal of doing exercise at least 4 times each week. 

Of course I never feel like doing exercise; it’s very easy for me to make something else more important. Consequently I wasn’t meeting my goal. 

I decided to use the calendar on the wall and simply place a “tick” on the days I did exercise. 

It soon became very obvious how many days I was wimping out. 

Being able to see the ticks (or lack of) actually started to motivate me and soon it became a game between Ross and me, as to which one of us got to place the tick on the calendar. 

Last month I met my goal and exercised 4 times every week, even 5 times on some weeks. 

I was astounded at how simple this was. 

I have now added a few more things to the calendar to remind me to do them. 

How about you? 

What do you need to measure? 

What’s your system and if you need to, who can you ask to hold you accountable?

You Must Write it Down (WT420)

You Must Write it Down (WT420)

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WT 420 You have to write it down

 According to Brian Tracy, the best research shows that, less than 3 percent of Americans have written goals, and less than 1 percent review and rewrite their goals on a daily basis. If we use these statistics as a generalisation, it shows that very few people write down their goals. 

Now I am not about to tell you to create sophisticated goals or spreadsheets or budgets; it’s not my thing. What I will say though is you have to write it down. If you want something, you have to write it down somewhere.  Somewhere being the important point. 

One of my fabulous clients shared with me how he had set his intention for a monthly income of a minimum amount of $6,600 AUD. He documented this in an informal agreement with his partner and within a month or so he rang to tell me that he had been offered an opportunity that would pay him a monthly retainer of $5,000 USD. When he did the sums he laughed out loud because the currency exchange was about $6,600 AUD. 

On 12 December 2017, I wrote two cheques to myself and placed them on the bathroom mirror. One cheque was for $10,000 for a VIP consultation in the Bahamas. You know I recently went to the Bahamas. What you may not know is that I won the consultation and so I now have a big pink tick and the word “Done”, written across the cheque.  

During the last couple of days I have been reciting an affirmation that says, “I allow the universe in and my ego out.” I have been very focussed on being open to messages from the universe. I wrote this affirmation once, as it came to me. This morning I picked a card from Deepak Chopra’s Success Cards and it read, “My objective is not to get rid of the ego, simply to be aware of how it leads me and where.” On the front, the abbreviated affirmation read, “I am aware of my ego.” I laughed loudly when I read this.  The universe does indeed have a sense of humour.  

To top it off, we phoned the US tax department today to enquire about the progress of a tax refund we’ve been waiting on for a year. The lady informed us it had been posted on 22nd June and no surprise, there it was at the Post Office today. 

My point. You don’t have to write it a thousand times, although that can help. You don’t have to write it neatly. As long as you know what you want, you must write it down. You can even type it once into your Notes on your phone. There is something magical and tangible about the energy and vibration of writing things down. 

I forget where I learned this, but the energy and vibration increases from thought to spoken word to written word and of course to taking inspired action. 

What is it you want? 

Have you written it down or are you in the bucket with the 97% who have not?

We Do Without Doing (WT419)

We Do Without Doing (WT419)

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WT 419 We Do without doing

This week’s thought is short and sharp and maybe a little challenging. 

Every now and then I feel the need to consult an oracle and since I am not a member of a particular church, I use various affirmation cards and The Book of Runes.

This week, I selected a rune and read the message. It seemed fairly apt for where I was at, however the last sentence really resonated with me, “We do without doing and everything gets done.”  

I sat on the bed to digest this. 

In my heart, I know this to be true. In my head, I want to control things and know HOW things are going to work out. 

The rune and this week’s message is about faith, hope, intuition and trust. 

So many people I have spoken to this week are in pain. They are desperate to know the outcome. They are in a hurry to get “there” and yet we know that the universe or God always comes through although not always in the way we expect.  

So why do we get so caught up in having to know HOW things are going to happen? 

And whilst we’re on this theme, I’ve been reminded this week to come back to doing the things I love to do.  

According to Katie Ryan, the Divine Detective, there is a difference between what we like to do and what we love to do and she challenged me this week to only do what I love to do and if I couldn’t avoid something I didn’t love, then to find something about it that I did love.

All week I’ve been asking myself, “Do I love it?” 

If the answer is “No”, I allow myself to not do it, (if I don’t have to). If I do have to do it, like reconcile my accounts, I focus on what I do love about doing that; the feeling of having everything balanced and knowing exactly where things are at.

This week, I encourage you to pay attention to what you love doing and focus on that and let the universe or God take care of it for you.

As the message from the rune says, “We do without doing and everything gets done.”

My Money Supports the Web of Life (WT412)

My Money Supports the Web of Life (WT412)

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WT 412 My money supports the web of life

Tomorrow I am heading to the Grand Bahama – one of 700 islands in the Bahamas. 

“Cool. Sweet. Awesome”, you might say. 

And yes it is all those things and more and I’m only going because I was fortunate enough to win a magical consultation with 2 world class marketing consultants. 

How did I do that? 

Simple – I played the game. 

I submitted a video. I did my homework and I put my hand up and showed up. 

And what has this got to do with this week’s thought on money? 

Before the competition, a trip to the Bahamas had not been added to my budget, so whilst I won the consultation, I still have to fund my airfare and accommodation, etc. 

Looking for inspiration this morning for the Weekly Thought, I picked out a card from Deepak Chopras’ Success Cards, “My Money Supports the Web of Life”.  The picture on the card was of 7 fish in a circle, facing inward. 

The back of the card read, “When I use my money to nourish the web of life, I create true happiness and fulfilment. I am successful.” 

This was one message I needed to hear as I juggled the accounts to make this happen.

Life is a series of priorities and choices.  

I remember a talk by Dr. John DeMartini, in Sydney years ago, where he explained how much our values determine what we do with our time and money. He gave the example of inviting his girlfriend to a science lecture on a particular day. She agreed to go, then her girlfriend invited her to go shopping on the same day. She changed plans, then DeMartini told her it was a decoy because he was actually flying her to Venice where they could enjoy a romantic weekend. Of course she changed plans again. 

One of my highest values is personal and professional development. Winning this trip is a gift from the universe and so I will take on board Chopra’s advice and use my money to nourish the web of life, knowing that this will create true happiness, fulfilment and success. 

What will you do this week? 

How will you nourish the web of life?

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