I run for fun. I haven't in a while so when the universe and I got together we found a nice 16km run brought to me by a friend. It was out in the vineyards in Noordhoek and up onto Chapmans Peak and on Noordhoek beach. Lovely scenic run...wait it wasn't so much a run as it was hiking at pace.
I explained to my wife that there are tough parts that you have to talk yourself through, be your own coach. She asked me what I said and it was the first time I had shared with anyone what I say to myself when I have to push myself through a tough part of a run.I realised that some of these pep talks can be used when I have to push myself through anything.
Here are a few:
- Is that all you've got to throw at me? Come on, I know you are tougher than that (usually used when running against wind) -I also tend to open up my arms and visualise myself gliding.
- Let's open this baby up and see what he's really capable of (yes, I really say that)
- I am an eagle flying above all of this
- I am a flow of energy; I am a point of light
- I also try to smile through the toughest part - what I think of as my "Mona Lisa's Smile", a secret only I know.
We all need reminding and pushing because often the loudest voice is what Srikumar Rao calls the VOJ or the Voice Of Judgment. We need words of encouragement and not words of damnation. Which do you use more often with yourself, your kids, your partner or your staff?
Talk yourself and others up and we will push through. Take the age old saying...if you don't have anything good to say....say nothing.
Try it - open your baby up and see what you really can do!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Inner Light
I was told today that I got my walk back.
I've been going through a growing experience where I had started doubting who I was and my ability - and I took some steps to get me back.
The game of aligning your spirit and your daily actions is not about either a physical change or a mental one - but rather about both.
I read somewhere that it is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting. But that is about force of will - I am not refering to a force of will.I am not talking about mind over matter.
I am talking about being spirit-led. I am talking about you feeling your inner light and letting that shine through in your smile, your walk, your talk and your eyes.
All light ahead comes from the light within.
Once I let my inner light shine - I got my walk back.
I've been going through a growing experience where I had started doubting who I was and my ability - and I took some steps to get me back.
The game of aligning your spirit and your daily actions is not about either a physical change or a mental one - but rather about both.
I read somewhere that it is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting. But that is about force of will - I am not refering to a force of will.I am not talking about mind over matter.
I am talking about being spirit-led. I am talking about you feeling your inner light and letting that shine through in your smile, your walk, your talk and your eyes.
All light ahead comes from the light within.
Once I let my inner light shine - I got my walk back.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Da Vinci Code
I am reading a book about Leonardo Da Vinci and how simple his genius was.
All that he did was dedicate his time to the search.
He was always searching and curious. But his curiosity was never just for information - but for discovery and experience - to apply the knowledge of what he learnt. This learning gave him a clear skill - observation. But not like we observe - he observed beyond what can be seen with the eyes.
We often struggle to use our other senses to see. We don't really see people, or nature and how it works together. We often don't even see ourselves - or who we do see is a distorted view of us. When we get a touch of our other senses we dismiss it.
In the book it teaches that Da Vinci was both an artist and a scientist - both hard and soft - the balance of masculine and feminine. His ability to see both sides - and how they are 2 sides of the same thing allowed him to see things more wholly.
We often feel the need to see one side over the other. Why?
We have been trained that there is a right way and a wrong way - and the right way is the perfect way and the wrong way is the way where mistakes are made. Da Vinci taught that you have to give up the idea of perfection and value the experience rather than whether the outcome was perfect or not.
Considered one of the greatest minds of our time - a genius in many disciplines - a visionary who before flight was invented thought about a parachute.....he saw beyond impossible. He suffered hardships because of his free thinking approach - but he never sought consensus because what he saw was not everyone agreeing with him - he saw that because everyone was agreeing with each other no-one was seeing what was really going on. Too busy protecting their point of view.
Alice in Wonderland - think of 6 impossible things everyday. If they were possible how different would your life be?
What do you see?
All that he did was dedicate his time to the search.
He was always searching and curious. But his curiosity was never just for information - but for discovery and experience - to apply the knowledge of what he learnt. This learning gave him a clear skill - observation. But not like we observe - he observed beyond what can be seen with the eyes.
We often struggle to use our other senses to see. We don't really see people, or nature and how it works together. We often don't even see ourselves - or who we do see is a distorted view of us. When we get a touch of our other senses we dismiss it.
In the book it teaches that Da Vinci was both an artist and a scientist - both hard and soft - the balance of masculine and feminine. His ability to see both sides - and how they are 2 sides of the same thing allowed him to see things more wholly.
We often feel the need to see one side over the other. Why?
We have been trained that there is a right way and a wrong way - and the right way is the perfect way and the wrong way is the way where mistakes are made. Da Vinci taught that you have to give up the idea of perfection and value the experience rather than whether the outcome was perfect or not.
Considered one of the greatest minds of our time - a genius in many disciplines - a visionary who before flight was invented thought about a parachute.....he saw beyond impossible. He suffered hardships because of his free thinking approach - but he never sought consensus because what he saw was not everyone agreeing with him - he saw that because everyone was agreeing with each other no-one was seeing what was really going on. Too busy protecting their point of view.
Alice in Wonderland - think of 6 impossible things everyday. If they were possible how different would your life be?
What do you see?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
High on Life
Have you ever thought about addictions? Have you thought about having an addictive personality?
I think we all have an addiction to something. Not the overt substance abuse - but there is something of substance that we abuse.
Are you addicted to being liked?
Are you addicted to pleasing others?
Are you addicted to doing the right thing?
When you are addicted to something you get a benefit from using - the hit brings a result. The result brings a feeling that you get accustomed to - so you build a dependancy.
Once you have a dependancy all your being strives for the next hit - you orchestrate events that will bring about that next hit.
Sometimes your hit or result can be destructive - but still gives you something you build a dependancy on.
Are you addicted to drama?
Are you addicted to being a victim?
Are you addicted to never being right?
Your addiction is there under the surface - sometimes so far beneath that you don't recognise it as an addiction. But it is.
And because some are not socially frowned upon (like success at any cost) - they become acceptable personality traits. So they become part of who you are. And it becomes you. There - you are addicted!
So become addicted to something that brings about good. Choose a good addiction. It's just an extreme habit - and you don't just get rid of a habit - you replace it. Same with an addiction - you don't just stop drinking - you replace drinking with the lifelong addiction of stopping yourself from drinking. It is still an addiction.
What are you addicted to? Is it good or bad? Does it hurt or help? Does it bring out the best or the worst in you.
The fact that you have an addiction isn't bad - it's what you are addicted to that could be.
Become addcited to living a good life. Become obsessed with it.
Get your fix everyday!
I think we all have an addiction to something. Not the overt substance abuse - but there is something of substance that we abuse.
Are you addicted to being liked?
Are you addicted to pleasing others?
Are you addicted to doing the right thing?
When you are addicted to something you get a benefit from using - the hit brings a result. The result brings a feeling that you get accustomed to - so you build a dependancy.
Once you have a dependancy all your being strives for the next hit - you orchestrate events that will bring about that next hit.
Sometimes your hit or result can be destructive - but still gives you something you build a dependancy on.
Are you addicted to drama?
Are you addicted to being a victim?
Are you addicted to never being right?
Your addiction is there under the surface - sometimes so far beneath that you don't recognise it as an addiction. But it is.
And because some are not socially frowned upon (like success at any cost) - they become acceptable personality traits. So they become part of who you are. And it becomes you. There - you are addicted!
So become addicted to something that brings about good. Choose a good addiction. It's just an extreme habit - and you don't just get rid of a habit - you replace it. Same with an addiction - you don't just stop drinking - you replace drinking with the lifelong addiction of stopping yourself from drinking. It is still an addiction.
What are you addicted to? Is it good or bad? Does it hurt or help? Does it bring out the best or the worst in you.
The fact that you have an addiction isn't bad - it's what you are addicted to that could be.
Become addcited to living a good life. Become obsessed with it.
Get your fix everyday!
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