“Give me a lever long enough and i will shall move the world” Archimedes

One of my weaknesses is the fact that i am a hard worker. Weakness you say? Isn’t that a good thing? Well its great to have a good work ethic and work hard to achieve your goals but its another thing to work smart. Working smart means making the best use of your time through leverage. Leverage of your time, leverage of your money and leverage of your skill and expertise.

I am a full time property investor and part of that entails renovating houses. This week  i spent a lot of my time demolishing walls, tiling floors and running cable…. that sort of thing.

I was in there pulling out nails from the existing beams in the house and suddenly realised how poorly i was using my time. Although i love working with my hands, carpentry is not my expertise so why was i busting my back doing something i could have paid an expert for?

I stopped and had a coffee to think about it and after a little contemplation i realised i was working hard and not smart. You see, beliefs get built into us as children by our parents and teachers – some useful and some not so useful. Working hard is an outdated belief and one that had to change because it just doesn’t serve me anymore.

Changing a belief doesn’t have to be a momentous occasion; its not about blaming whoever instilled the belief in you its just a case of taking responsibility to change it.

So when you come across a habit or a belief system that is not working for you simply take a minute and say something like this to yourself: “Thank you for supporting me with having this belief and it no longer serves me anymore and I am now choosing to move on and live my life without it.” Simple as that.

So i have changed that belief system and have decided that this will be the last time i do any physical work on a renovation. From now on i will be leveraging that portion of the project to one of my team so that i can focus on the things i am good at.

Try it out on some of your old belief systems that you have been carrying around all your life that no longer serve you.

Here is another example: Say you drink too much coffee and you know it is bad to drink more than a few cups a day. Your belief system probably sounds like this, “I cant do anything productive until i have my cup of coffee”.

So if that doesn’t serve you or your body, then change the belief to “I love to drink coffee on occasion and my motivation and enthusiasm comes from my healthy diet and drinking plenty of water”

Coupling a change in belief with a bit of leverage will  really change your life  – and all it took was a slight twist in your thinking. I would love to hear from you so let me know something that is not serving you anymore and what you can do to replace that belief

Cheers,

Matt

I know we all have the best intentions to be grateful, be positive and make the most of every minute we have  here on planet Earth. Life often serves up some curve balls though and i know as well as you that its not always easy to be happy with everything in our lives….. and that’s ok.

We are only human and being human is a fascinating experience and more of often than not, its a challenge. The best way i have seen it described is by Scott Brandon Hoffman in his website www.livinginahumansuit.com This guy is a classic! Often referred to as the mad spiritual guy, his take on life is beautiful and full of comedy.

Anyway, as humans we often allow small disappointments to go unchecked and often that can turn into a bad mood. I will be the first one to admit that there are times where i am not always the happiest person to be around.

The cool thing is we have the power to change the way we are feeling simply by becoming aware of it. This takes practice but the more we live in the present, the more we become in touch with who we are and why we react in certain ways.

If you find yourself disappointed or upset, its important to become aware of it quickly before it spirals into a vicious cycle of despair, sadness and sometimes anger.

Here are a few ways you can shift your mood from down to up:

•    Move – literally. Moving physically helps us shift psychologically. Get up and get out – go for a walk, play with the dog, dance ridiculously to a silly song or even just stand up, shake it all out and do some star jumps.
•    Clean up your head – make a conscious decision to stop thinking negatively. Avoid words like should, try and but – they make room for the negative to creep in. Focus on viewing everything in a positive light – find the silver lining.
•    Watch how you carry yourself. Happy people stand taller, take bigger steps and walk faster. Put your shoulders back, hold your head high and smile.
•    Focus on what you DO want – not what you don’t. Whether you believe in the law of attraction or not, there is no need to allow for a negative outcome. Let the universe know what you do want.
•    Avoid people who sap your energy. We all know someone like this – time with them leaves us depleted. Surround yourself with people who leave you refreshed and revitalised.

Next time you are feeling a little overwhelmed, have a go at the techniques above; it will  help you nip a bad mood in the bud – leaving you free to enjoy your day the way you intended it!

Cheers,

Matt

I was down the beach having a swim yesterday morning. It was a glorious day with the sun rising over the water and kissing my skin with warmth; the water was a pleasant 23 degrees Celsius and i was drifting over the glassy swell and body surfing the waves to the shore.

While i was waiting for the next set to arrive, i stood there alone in the water looking out to the horizon and felt the undertow subtly dragging me out. It was an eerie feeling and i was careful to not let it take me away.

Then and stopped and became aware of my thought patterns. Why was i  determined not to let the current pull me out? Why was i digging my heels into the sand and resisting its natural flow? The sea was very calm at that time and there was no reason to fear the power of its pull. I was in no danger as I knew my surroundings and the ocean was in perfect harmony with my body.

I related it to how we sometimes react in life. We tend to think we have some ability to control what is happening around us and in essence we really don’t. We can set goals, make appointments , beat dead lines till the cows come home but in the end we don’t control anything.

That’s why it is so important to go with the flow. Now I’m not talking about kicking back on the couch all day watching sport – that’s not going with the flow, that’s giving up on the flow.

You still need to put in the effort to achieve your goals but once you have done all you can do, let it go. Its called the set it and forget it method. Put the goal, dream or intention out there, strive to achieve it but know when to stop and just have the belief that everything will work out as it needs to.

So as i thought through this concept while waiting for the next wave to come through i released my contorted toes from their grip on the sand beneath me; i took a deep breath and let the power of the water take me. The ocean gently picked me up and moved me to the trough of the next breaking wave where i was able to effortlessly climb aboard and surf it to the shore – brilliant!

I picked myself up off the sand, turned and thanked the ocean for its lesson on life and went back to my car and drove home with a smile on my face

When you travel on your path to greatness, always respect the power of the ocean and always respect the flow of the universe. Trust in its intention and go with the flow.

You made it!

This is the final installment of the 5 part series on realising your goals. If you want to refresh your memory before we go into the final stage just click on one of these links: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

I know you have all been hanging out for the final installment so lets get into it

Part 5:  Its all about the Growth

Before i start i want to tell you a little story about the bee. You see, the bee has been scientifically proven to be unable to fly given the ratio between its weight and its wing size. How can this bee I here you ask?  I don’t know and that’s not the point.

The point is the bee gets up every morning and doesn’t let the fact that it is physically impossible for him to fly, she just gets up and does her thing; flying from flower to flower spreading pollen so that we continue to have healthy plant life that provides us humans with vegetable crops to eat… and honey of course

So how does all this relate? Well when you set a goal you are setting up something to aim for like the bee does with the flower. You do everything in your power to achieve that goal ignoring the opinions of others as the bee does with our scientific findings.

Along the way you discover other interests that may take you from the path of your original goal and that’s ok because you would never have found that path unless you set the original goal in the first place.

Confused? Ok all i am saying is don’t make your goals the be all and end all. Yes it is critically important to set goals, dreams and milestones but realise it is not about the goal, its all about the growth. The growth that you achieve while striving for that goal is what is important.

What you think you want to achieve right now may not be the truth but its all you have got to work with so….. work with it! Strive for that goal but realise it may lead you down another path and that other path usually turns out to be the real path; the path you were born to take.

So don’t beat yourself up if you don’t achieve your goal on the exact date you set, congratulate yourself for the growth you have achieved and the lessons you have learned so far because its those experiences that will take you down your true path. Its important to trust that wherever you are right now is exactly where you are supposed to be.

If you are confused, depressed, unmotivated or procrastinating; stop for a minute and become aware of your state of mind and realise that you need to be on this path to get to the next one. Confusion is a good place to be because that is the first phase to clarity.

My final point is to understand where you are now so that you can understand where you need to go. Set the goals, strive to achieve them and make sure you take stock of where you are heading. If you get off course, don’t panic. Realise you are where you need to be and replot your course.

The exciting thing is you really don’t know where you will end up but just trust that you are already on the right path and if you are not you soon will be as long as you continue to set goals and take consistent action to achieve them.

Good luck and feel free to comment about the goals you are striving for. Putting them out to the world brings a stronger accountability for you to achieve them.

Cheers,

Matt