Success is a very personal subject as everyone has different goals, aspirations and targets. Success is what keeps us happy at all times and should be lasting. I often wonder what success is and hear mostly that you are successful once you have a great career which earns you lots of money. However, I don't believe that is necessarily success. Most of you would agree that money doesn't always make us happy, hence it is not 'success' for all of us. Let's look at some of the things I have achieved in my life so far: I started a new life by moving from the Netherlands to Australia with two suitcases in my hand and the rest of my 'life' on a ship on its way to Sydney. It was all very daunting and scary but exciting and fun at the same time. A whole new city and country to explore and to love. Now, 13 years later, I have a wonderful family, a very close circle of friends and my own business! To me, that is success!! A few years ago I discovered I have Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia ('CML'). Th...

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What if there was more to life than just existing? What if there was a bigger plan? What if when we were souls, awaiting our birth into the human experience, we formed a plan? What if we decided that in order for our souls to grow, evolve and learn, we needed to explore and participate in certain experiences during our human existence? What if, in order to experience this growth, evolution and learning we deliberately chose those who would journey with us and assist us in accomplishing our task? What if we imagined our life here to be like a theatre production? What if we all had our specific roles, our specific wardrobe, our specific dialogue within this story that, when delivered as it should be, ended in a grand finale? What if all the people in your life, friend or foe, were in fact just playing their role in your own growth, evolution and learning process? What if they were part of your life for a reason, and whether your experience with them was positive or negative, what ...

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We know how great it feels to receive a gift from someone. I believe however that the greatest satisfaction comes from giving to others and knowing that you have made someone feel happier or made a positive contribution in some way to their life. Think of the times when you have given to others. It may have been when you helped someone resolve a problem. You may have volunteered and given up some of your time to help out at your children’s school. You may have helped someone with directions to where they needed to go. The question I ask to you is how did you feel? I’d imagine you felt very pleased with yourself and happy inside. There is something very nourishing to our soul when we give and help others. It provides us with an intrinsic reward that far outweighs what we give. It also helps to take our mind of our own worries and challenges. When you are focused on how you can give to others you are less likely to consume your whole focus on your own concerns and challenges. It provi...

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Isn’t it interesting how we spend the time and understand the sense in making a list of what we need and want for our shopping adventures and yet very few people will invest the time to write down a list of what they need and want for their own life adventure. Why do people make shopping lists? So they will not forget things. They are a reminder. So they can keep to a budget. It helps them to stay on track with their plans. It helps them to stay focused on what they want. It helps them to make the right choices. It stops them from making rash, spontaneous & poor decisions. It avoids time being wasted. It helps to alleviate confusion. Wouldn’t it be also true to say that writing down a list of what you want and need in your life would provide similar benefits for you? How often have you gone to the shops not knowing what you really wanted and them came back with a pile of things that you really did not need? Has someone persuaded you to buy ...

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A recruiter told me the other day about a young girl (degree qualified) who had been at her job for three weeks, was asked to make tea for the boss, got the cranks, and quit! Sounds ridiculous, and just a little extreme, but would this occur at your work? If the answer is yes, then pay attention: Its reasonable to say that Generation Y in the workplace can be just a little cocky, impatient and often have short attention spans. Anyone who manages or leads these young people may find themselves struggling to keep up with their pace (ie having to constantly find work for them to do) and may also become frustrated at having someone constantly questioning your decisions. Yet at the same time, Generation Y can be very passionate about a cause, adapt easily to change and are willing to embrace new technologies. Gen Y are prepared to go out on a limb and take risks and more importantly, they believe in themselves to achieve results. So what do you do to make the most of your talent? ...

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“You can’t have what you want”. I heard this on a spirituality program I was watching last night and it puzzled me. Why would they be saying that? Then it occurred to me, it was all in the language. The sentence was presupposing that if you are ‘wanting’ something, then it is something you believe you do not have or possess in this very moment. If we want something, it means we don’t believe we already have it, or it isn’t something that we already own or possess. What is it that you want? Love, health, success? Do you believe these things have to come from someone or something else? Anything that we desire is part of us already. It has to be. Why? Because I believe that we are all connected energetically – and ultimately we are all connected to a higher power, God, universal energy, whatever you wish to call it. And surely if this higher power has it, and we are connected to this higher power, then doesn’t it mean we have access? Absolutely. However, the key is to be open to acces...

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Learn how the words you use affect the results you're going to get! As an amazingly intricate piece of work, our mind is constantly filtering and sorting for evidence that the world around us matches how we think it should be. We are constantly evaluating...thinking and analysing people, circumstances, words, actions, our environment, today, yesterday, tomorrow, and in particular what these all mean to us. If you stop to think about it long enough, we are constantly evaluating. So, since we spend most of our day doing it, should we get clearer on exactly what an evaluation is? I tried to evaluate what an evaluation is and then I realised I was asking myself a series of questions. Is it possible that evaluations are questions? Of course, that in itself is a question is it not? Can it be that thinking itself is nothing but the process of asking and answering questions? Are you familiar with that little voice that pops up from time to time, that little fella that sits on your shoulder a...

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If you’re anything like me, you’re probably swamped with numerous things to do, all pulling you in different directions and all demanding your immediate attention. Thing is, we so often get caught up in doing the small things, or the more enjoyable things, that before we know it, time has passed us by and that big task that you say you’ll keep getting to tomorrow, still isn’t done! 2008 is drawing to an end so now’s the time to stop … take a deep breath … and jump right in! If you’re finding everything a little too overwhelming then make sure you take some time out each day (even if its only for 30mins) to just relax and recharge your mind. If its that you really can’t get motivated to do it, then change the environment you’re doing it in, alter the process or bring someone else on board to keep you company. Your time is valuable – make sure you like how you spend it. If your task is still too daunting, then look at it in a new way… We’ve all heard many times before that we need t...

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Is your life being affected by clutter? Without you realising it your life may be suffering as the result of clutter. Clutter can have a debilitating and detrimental effect on us. Clutter can occur in 2 forms: Physical Mental Physical clutter is the more apparent of the 2 as we can see it. Be aware though that clutter occurs also in our mental space. Let us address both of these types of clutter. Physical clutter occurs when we let go of managing items in our physical space and as a result our physical space becomes crowded, disorganised, unruly and untidy. Typical and common areas that tend to suffer from clutter are garages, offices and bedrooms. On the other hand, mental clutter occurs when we have too many things on our mind to focus on. The mental clutter generally occurs because we are thinking about things that we have not yet taken action on. It is important to understand that clutter in your physical space can lead to clutter in your mental space and visa...

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WHAT DOES MAKING A MISTAKE MEAN TO YOU? Success doesn’t mean you always succeed and never fail. It means you learn from every experience and make every experience work for you in some way. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. If we attempt to avoid mistakes we avoid what we need to learn, if we avoid what we need to learn we avoid personal growth. If you have the belief that you cannot experience failure, it gives you much more freedom to be willing to play, explore, learn and grow. Everything that happens is simply feedback, it’s a means of monitoring our behaviour, attitude, actions, to make finer distinctions and do it differently next time. Most of us see an error, every mistake as emotional baggage, a failure. It reflects badly on us. Are you beating yourself up with negative self talk - I am hopeless, why me, I cant do it – can you begin to imagine what that does to your confidence? How about more supportive questions, ones that are really going to stretch you and give y...

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