On my way to the office today I walked past a homeless man whose sign read 'please give me a coffee and croissant, I haven't eaten breakfast today'. Well guess what? He got his coffee and croissant! (lesson # 1: Ask and you shall receive). As I sat there chatting to him I learned he worked 5 hour shifts, his friend J covered the other 5, he earned about $30 a day and he had just had his pension cut off because of a mix up with an address (he lives on the streets mainly). What struck me most, was that although he was -less a home (so to speak) he was happy. Why? Because he had certainty (he knew he had a place to sit everyday where he could make money without fear of being kicked out - he went on to explain how political the street world could get and that he had a good patch), connection (during the 10mins I was there at least 3 different people came up to have a chat with him) and a sense of belonging to a group or purpose (maintaining spirits high despite the injustices of bureaucra...

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When was the last time you got out of your comfort zone? For me last Wednesday was the day of getting out of my safe routine. You see I went door knocking. I wasn’t selling I was raising money for a worthy cause. It felt strange and I began to realize that most of us have built-in safety zones, we go within the boundary limits and that is it. Because to be frank with you having to stretch yourself is scary and you are vulnerable. So as I approached my designated street I practiced my speech out loud. “Hello Red Cross Calling” why did I volunteer? Simply to do just that, to get out of my comfort zone and raise money for a great charity. So as I approached the first block of units I realized that most people weren’t in or made excuses for not giving at all. In my head I was not attached emotionally, whatever they could give great, and if not, fine, said thanks and walked away. By the time I had reached the end of the street, I was more relaxed, smiled and donations came my way. As they ...

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As I sip on my Lindt hot chocolate at the Lindt cafe in Martin place I am reminded of a place, far away: rue de la confederation, Geneve. The home of the intoxicating Swiss chocolate, other tasty treats and precision machines. We love the finer things in life, good food, creamy chocolates that melt in your mouth, full-bodied wine, sexy, beautiful clothes and the wonderful trimmings in our everyday life. This is the motivator for us to get those ‘luxury items’ and have prestige. This reflects every area in our lives from work to personal relationships. We need to feel in control of our lives and often times pick partners that are not really on the same wavelength as us, why do we do that? Ah yes we see what we want to see and we filter the rest. We focus on what we want in that person to be, like “he is tall and good looking” and in our minds we have created that perfect mate. However reality it’s different isn’t it? The things we have ignored start to surface. “He is not mature enoug...

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“Whether you think that you can or that you can’t, you’re right” - Henry Ford * Have you ever wondered why someone else is always the one to get the promotion or the pay rise and yet you don’t think they’re any better than you? Have you ever wondered why you set a goal but for some reason you just can’t achieve it or something goes wrong to sabotage it just before you reach your goal? These are just two of the things that can happen when your internal language is not in harmony with what you want to achieve. If your unconscious is busy telling you “I can’t…..” or “I’ll fail…..” or “I’m not good enough……” or “I’m afraid……” or “I don’t deserve it……” then it’s likely that you will not achieve what you want because you have already embedded in your mind the belief that you will not succeed. Sometimes we build up these beliefs on the basis of past performance and then make the excuse to ourselves because we failed once, we will always fail. One thing that Thomas Edison knew was that ma...

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At the recent Christopher Howard Seminar he mentioned that in life we get what we expect not what we want. If we expect things to turn out bad that becomes our reality as we are projecting our perceptions and these are just fed right back! I was interesting to hear this again as most of us live in the drama cycle of life. We want things to go a certain way, in our relationships, career and so on. However our thoughts do something else, we introduce doubt, hesitancy into our dialogue and this becomes our new expectation, consciously or not we are not being congruent with our wants. If life gives you lemons…. Make Margaritas! According to Chris Howard. I love that concept use what you get in life, if you resist it, it will persist. So go with the flow, become in alignment with what you truly want, in every sense of the word. If you are given something you do not want, embrace it and make it a part of you and turn that energy around and make that your point of differentiator. The sooner...

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When you are at a party they are normally there, talking to strangers in complete ease as they have mastered the art of communication. They engage others easily and can be hypnotizing with their language and story telling. People gravitated towards them as they have such strong magnetism, a special “je ne sais quoi’’. True communicators and relationship builders. They are interested in others and genuinely show it, they build rapport with their physiology with their usage of language and they engage others. If you are in a conversation and totally present in that moment and listen with your whole body you too will be interesting. I was a witness to this just recently, he was a master communicator it was like watching a ballet dancer on a stage, he had poise, elocution, pace, and technique and he lead the audience where they needed to go. It was a magical experience. Then you see how people communicate nowadays, short abbreviated sms, Emails that are one way dialogue that have quick,...

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What do you notice when you move to another country? The smells, the people? Or do you notice the differences? I met a lady at the bus stop last night, I could clearly see that she was from Latin America, she clung to her notebook (doing English classes I thought) and had a T-Shirt in Spanish. So I approached her and tried to make eye contact, smiled and said ‘hola’ Then I took a ride back to my native Spanish and conversed with her, we got on the bus and talked some more. She had recently arrived, in fact she still had one foot back in Peru and I am sure her body clock was still adjusting! What did she think of this place I wondered? She had innocence about her, as if she had just got her passport specifically for this intention: to move to another country. No family connection, just her husband, also Peruvian. When you are new to something everything feels foreign, it can be very daunting and alien however you know you have made the right decision, you soldier on and get familiar...

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What do you really want in life? It’s interesting we go through the school system wanting what others have, so we can fit in and not be considered different from anybody, not to stand out. Then as we hit our adolescent years we grasp the concepts of individuality and standing out, through our actions, behaviors and the clothes we wear, the people we hang out with. By the time we are in our late teens/twenties we are thinking either about university our life career, traveling the world for a year or simply as some young adults do these days go down the path of discontentment, blaming their families for their state, get involved with drugs and or crime and often times start their own family and the pattern repeats itself. So when do we consciously create out our future destiny? It gets shaped at various points in our lives and its NEVER too late to get on a different path. Age is relative; happiness is whatever we make it. That is the beauty about being the master of your destiny, when ...

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