Well, as promised, today I will briefly talk about my 30 day self-imposed media ban, which is now well and truly over. The whole idea of the media ban came out of an idle conversation with my wife. A lot of the reading I had been doing was about positive transformation and focusing on the positive aspects of life, rather than the negative. Someone suggested giving the news a miss for thirty days and seeing what effect it had on my life. Having decided to give it a try, I cut off all media feeds in Facebook and Twitter and stopped visiting any "news" sites on the internet, as well as virtually stopping watching television, except for my beloved volleyball. What was the result?
The first real effect I noticed immediately was the sheer volume of free time I had on my hands. One of the things I have tried to instill on myself is discipline regarding when and how I write. If you are going to successfully write novels you need discipline or you will still be writing the same novel a year from now. My writing time is in the morning and every week-day I will try and write for three to four hours. Although the actual output varies; anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 words a morning, this discipline has allowed me to almost complete "Just a Drop in the Ocean" in a little over two months. At close to 200,000 words the novel is a massive work, but with discipline it was easy enough to achieve. Admittedly there is now at least another two months of editing and rewriting to do, but my point still stands. Discipline achieves results!
The first real effect I noticed immediately was the sheer volume of free time I had on my hands. One of the things I have tried to instill on myself is discipline regarding when and how I write. If you are going to successfully write novels you need discipline or you will still be writing the same novel a year from now. My writing time is in the morning and every week-day I will try and write for three to four hours. Although the actual output varies; anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 words a morning, this discipline has allowed me to almost complete "Just a Drop in the Ocean" in a little over two months. At close to 200,000 words the novel is a massive work, but with discipline it was easy enough to achieve. Admittedly there is now at least another two months of editing and rewriting to do, but my point still stands. Discipline achieves results!
After lunch and for the rest of the day, effectively the time is my own. Whereas before I might spend this time trolling news websites, checking Facebook or Twitter for interesting stories, or just mindlessly sitting and watching the television, I now had to find something different to do with my time, or risk the travails of utter boredom. What I have done is immerse myself in the writings, videos and audios of some of the greatest transformational leaders on the planet and the effect on me personally has been mind-blowing. I can honestly say, in the past month I have learnt more about myself than I did in my previous 55 years. Today, I want to bring you just some of the amazing insights I have discovered that have made such an enormous difference in my daily life, my perspective on life and my visions for the future. Join me on a journey of self-discovery. It is exciting and joyful. It explains everything that life is meant to be.
Perhaps the greatest insight comes from the first book on this topic that I read; Rhonda Byrne's - The Power. In this book Rhonda explains that we were not meant to struggle through life, that in fact we are meant to have a wonderful life, full of all the things we want and desire. The key to achieving this wonderful life is incredibly simple - we just have to "love". We have to love everything about life and be filled with gratitude for what we have. It really is that simple!
As someone who had spent most of his life rallying and fighting against the world for what I viewed as its imposed constraints on me, this was a profound revelation. In a; "Saul on the Road to Damascus" moment, I suddenly realized that everything I hated and disliked about my life and about myself, I had actually created. It was my own blaming the world and other people for what was happening to me that was in fact creating that reality that I so despised. The great thing was that it was so easy to change it - all I had to do was give love. So, that was the start of my journey of self-discovery. I began to be grateful for all the things I had; from the little things to the big things - from my morning cup of brewed coffee through to the fresh air we breathe and the simple fact that I was alive for another day.
It is impossible to understate the difference this simple mind-set change brought about in my daily life. No longer did I spend days feeling bored and miserable. Suddenly the world went from being a miserable mistress who was out to destroy and cripple me, to a wonderful wife who wanted to love, care and nurture me. My days are now filled with the things I love, the things that excite me and the things I am passionate about. I never get bored anymore - there are just too many fun things to do, interesting books to read, inspiring videos to watch and fascinating audios to listen to. One small change is all it took - maybe it will work for you also. Give it a try' what have you got to lose?
As someone who had spent most of his life rallying and fighting against the world for what I viewed as its imposed constraints on me, this was a profound revelation. In a; "Saul on the Road to Damascus" moment, I suddenly realized that everything I hated and disliked about my life and about myself, I had actually created. It was my own blaming the world and other people for what was happening to me that was in fact creating that reality that I so despised. The great thing was that it was so easy to change it - all I had to do was give love. So, that was the start of my journey of self-discovery. I began to be grateful for all the things I had; from the little things to the big things - from my morning cup of brewed coffee through to the fresh air we breathe and the simple fact that I was alive for another day.
It is impossible to understate the difference this simple mind-set change brought about in my daily life. No longer did I spend days feeling bored and miserable. Suddenly the world went from being a miserable mistress who was out to destroy and cripple me, to a wonderful wife who wanted to love, care and nurture me. My days are now filled with the things I love, the things that excite me and the things I am passionate about. I never get bored anymore - there are just too many fun things to do, interesting books to read, inspiring videos to watch and fascinating audios to listen to. One small change is all it took - maybe it will work for you also. Give it a try' what have you got to lose?
The more of these exciting and inspirational transformational leaders that I became exposed to, the more interesting ideas I began to consider and start to implement into my life. There are way too many concepts to try and explain in one blog, so I will focus on just a few of the revelations that have blown my mind over the past months.
One thing we as human beings regularly do is ignore the most powerful part of our brain - the subconscious. What we don't realize is just how powerful our subconscious really is. Scientists now believe at least 90% of our lives and actions are governed by our subconscious - but who among us is actually aware of what is in their subconscious? Our subconscious is actually filled with everything we have been told and taught by others over the years, and accepted as true - our parents, our teachers, our bosses, our friends, and society in general. It is filled with a whole plethora of self-limiting beliefs that it will throw at us every time we dare to consider doing something new, exciting or innovative.
If you think about this for a while you will intuitively know it to be true. Just think of the last time you had what you thought was a great idea, or something different and exciting that you wanted to try. Immediately that the thought appeared inside your conscious mind, a small voice started to tell you that you couldn't possibly do that; you are too old; you are not smart enough; that's just too risky. This small voice is your subconscious (ego) trying to dissuade you from trying anything new. Removing these self-limiting beliefs that are rooted deep in your subconscious is one of the biggest areas that many of the self-help gurus are targeting. By using some simple techniques it is easy, with practice, to retrain the subconscious mind and remove these limiting beliefs. Doing this will open you up to so much more opportunity and give you immense power to achieve the life you desire.
One thing we as human beings regularly do is ignore the most powerful part of our brain - the subconscious. What we don't realize is just how powerful our subconscious really is. Scientists now believe at least 90% of our lives and actions are governed by our subconscious - but who among us is actually aware of what is in their subconscious? Our subconscious is actually filled with everything we have been told and taught by others over the years, and accepted as true - our parents, our teachers, our bosses, our friends, and society in general. It is filled with a whole plethora of self-limiting beliefs that it will throw at us every time we dare to consider doing something new, exciting or innovative.
If you think about this for a while you will intuitively know it to be true. Just think of the last time you had what you thought was a great idea, or something different and exciting that you wanted to try. Immediately that the thought appeared inside your conscious mind, a small voice started to tell you that you couldn't possibly do that; you are too old; you are not smart enough; that's just too risky. This small voice is your subconscious (ego) trying to dissuade you from trying anything new. Removing these self-limiting beliefs that are rooted deep in your subconscious is one of the biggest areas that many of the self-help gurus are targeting. By using some simple techniques it is easy, with practice, to retrain the subconscious mind and remove these limiting beliefs. Doing this will open you up to so much more opportunity and give you immense power to achieve the life you desire.
Another incredible revelation for me personally was the idea that we are actually not broken, we really don't need to fixed - we were born perfect and we still are perfect in every way. The only thing that we need to do, to fully experience the joy in life that we were born to experience is to change our mindsets.
When we were babies and children we had absolutely none of these self-limiting beliefs. Whatever we wanted to do we genuinely believed we could do, and that is the state we need to seek and approach in order to rediscover our incredible power as creators. WE are the ones that have total control of how we feel, how we react and how we choose to live our lives. If we get our mindsets right then our reality ABSOLUTELY will change.
Probably the best example of how to do this is one given by Andy Shaw, the creator of "The Bug Free Mind", who I talked about in an earlier blog about worry. He puts it this simply. "In order to achieve the things we desire in our lives we must first experience that thing we desire in our minds...we must experience the certainty of actually having it and enjoying it in our minds before it can be brought into reality. When we have enjoyed it in the reality of our minds we must detach ourselves from it and work diligently toward bringing it into everyone else's reality.
We have so much untapped power that we can use to make our lives so much better.
When we were babies and children we had absolutely none of these self-limiting beliefs. Whatever we wanted to do we genuinely believed we could do, and that is the state we need to seek and approach in order to rediscover our incredible power as creators. WE are the ones that have total control of how we feel, how we react and how we choose to live our lives. If we get our mindsets right then our reality ABSOLUTELY will change.
Probably the best example of how to do this is one given by Andy Shaw, the creator of "The Bug Free Mind", who I talked about in an earlier blog about worry. He puts it this simply. "In order to achieve the things we desire in our lives we must first experience that thing we desire in our minds...we must experience the certainty of actually having it and enjoying it in our minds before it can be brought into reality. When we have enjoyed it in the reality of our minds we must detach ourselves from it and work diligently toward bringing it into everyone else's reality.
We have so much untapped power that we can use to make our lives so much better.
Another major source of irritation and suffering that we bring on ourselves is worry. Worry is absolutely not a problem for me anymore. I look at life from this perspective now; No matter what I did in the past, what mistakes I may have made - nothing I do today can change them. In fact I truly believe that I am EXACTLY where I am meant to be today, BECAUSE of what I did in the past - therefore why on earth would I ever worry about the past.
I no longer agonize over the future either. I absolutely believe, without a shadow of a doubt that the future is MINE to create. The future is nothing more than a reflection or a result of the things I do today. If I am doing what makes me truly happy - "following my bliss" then I am absolutely certain that the future will also be wonderful. So, no need to worry about that either.
All I have is the NOW - today, this minute and if I spend this minute in a state of gratitude, thankfulness, joy and love, then my world is at peace and all is well. It is such a simple and rewarding way of living and it is one that is available to everybody - you just have to make the decision to live this way.
I no longer agonize over the future either. I absolutely believe, without a shadow of a doubt that the future is MINE to create. The future is nothing more than a reflection or a result of the things I do today. If I am doing what makes me truly happy - "following my bliss" then I am absolutely certain that the future will also be wonderful. So, no need to worry about that either.
All I have is the NOW - today, this minute and if I spend this minute in a state of gratitude, thankfulness, joy and love, then my world is at peace and all is well. It is such a simple and rewarding way of living and it is one that is available to everybody - you just have to make the decision to live this way.
Finally today I just want to touch on something I watched last night. I was watching an interview with well-known surgeon, author and transformational leader, Bernie Siegel. Bernie was asked to describe the feeling he experienced when he was "having it all", which is what the series was about - how to have it all. He described the feeling as one of peace - peace with everything in his world.
He went on, however, to express a thought, which I can only echo. He believes that in this century man will rediscover his humanity. If the twentieth century was the century of nation states, of war, of anger, of racial and religious hatred and of suffering he expressed the opinion that perhaps the twenty-first century could well be the century where man has the opportunity to regroup as a common species and work together toward saving the planet. He likened it to one of his patients; "If my patient has a high temperature, as a doctor I instinctively know he is sick. The earth is currently experiencing a 'high temperature' and I hope that maybe the people of the world will rally around each other and unite in order to save the patient."
This whole movement of self-awareness, self discovery and transformation that was initially given such an immense impetus by the release of the movie "The Secret" in 2006 continues to grow exponentially every year. Eventually the sheer volume of people that deliberately choose to live their lives with joy, with love and with happiness, to care for others as they do themselves and to cherish their environment, will ensure a tipping point is reached and this world of ours will begin to slide into a much better place to live. Now that is an EXCITING thought!
He went on, however, to express a thought, which I can only echo. He believes that in this century man will rediscover his humanity. If the twentieth century was the century of nation states, of war, of anger, of racial and religious hatred and of suffering he expressed the opinion that perhaps the twenty-first century could well be the century where man has the opportunity to regroup as a common species and work together toward saving the planet. He likened it to one of his patients; "If my patient has a high temperature, as a doctor I instinctively know he is sick. The earth is currently experiencing a 'high temperature' and I hope that maybe the people of the world will rally around each other and unite in order to save the patient."
This whole movement of self-awareness, self discovery and transformation that was initially given such an immense impetus by the release of the movie "The Secret" in 2006 continues to grow exponentially every year. Eventually the sheer volume of people that deliberately choose to live their lives with joy, with love and with happiness, to care for others as they do themselves and to cherish their environment, will ensure a tipping point is reached and this world of ours will begin to slide into a much better place to live. Now that is an EXCITING thought!
So, returning to my media ban. Will I go back to the way things were before? The answer to that is a resounding NO! I still watch virtually no television. I haven't reconnected my media feeds and I now only occasionally glance at the headlines on the news websites. The truth is - I don't need or want the negativity that the world wants to continuously bombard me with. I cannot change the world, but I can change people's lives, one life at a time and that is what my focus is now.
Four years ago this month, I embarked on my own personal voyage of self-discovery. At the time it seemed like I was running away from my past, but the reality is clear to me now. I was following a very well defined path that would lead to the changes that have made my life infinitely better than it has ever been before.
I urge you, if you are not happy with your life, seek the answers - begin your own voyage of self-discovery. Happiness and joy and everything you ever wanted from life are there for the taking - you just have to want to create them. Don't wait 50 years to begin your voyage - start it today. There is only NOW! So use your now to begin your own personal renewal.
If any of this resonates with you, please don't hesitate to leave a comment, ask a question or contact me directly. I'll be more than happy to point you in the direction of experts with far more knowledge than me that can help you on your personal journey through life.
'DON'T DIE WITH YOUR MUSIC STILL INSIDE YOU - ENJOY YOUR LIFE!"
Four years ago this month, I embarked on my own personal voyage of self-discovery. At the time it seemed like I was running away from my past, but the reality is clear to me now. I was following a very well defined path that would lead to the changes that have made my life infinitely better than it has ever been before.
I urge you, if you are not happy with your life, seek the answers - begin your own voyage of self-discovery. Happiness and joy and everything you ever wanted from life are there for the taking - you just have to want to create them. Don't wait 50 years to begin your voyage - start it today. There is only NOW! So use your now to begin your own personal renewal.
If any of this resonates with you, please don't hesitate to leave a comment, ask a question or contact me directly. I'll be more than happy to point you in the direction of experts with far more knowledge than me that can help you on your personal journey through life.
'DON'T DIE WITH YOUR MUSIC STILL INSIDE YOU - ENJOY YOUR LIFE!"
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