Today I am showing my colleague Vaughan how to add a post to our Life Coach Auckland website. Vaughan has a very insightful way of writing that is quite different from my style. And our plan is to post blog entries individually which I believe will add to the ‘flavour’ of that site.

And as I teach I learn, which is  very good for my personal development.

Now all is this might sound a bit simple, you can read all the books in the world, attend all the courses in the world but unless you take action much of your study will not be particularly effective. It is what coaching is about; encouraging you our client to do something that takes you closer to realising your goals.

So why not do something for your own self development today and decide to take some meaningful action that is in alignment with what you want.

I may have referred to the ‘phenomenon’ of the ‘why the secret doesn’t work’ or ‘the secret behind the secret‘ industry that has blossomed since the launch of the very successful DVD ‘The Secret’.

One reason for the success of ‘The Secret’ is that it has been presented in modern day language and formats that people relate to more easily than many of the earlier writings such as Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ or Wallace Wattles’ ‘The Sceince of Getting Rich’ along with many others.

One of the original ‘teachers’ pulled out of ‘The Secret’ but who has a huge following is Esther Hicks along with her husband Jerry.

Esther channels an entity called ‘Abraham’ who imparts much wisdom.

For your own personal development I highly recommend Esther and Jerry’s writings.

Their latest creation ‘The Vortex’ has just been released. I have a you tube extract for you to watch.

Pay attention as in the dialogue are clues as to how to apply the Law of Attraction to your self.

Many of the principals of the Law of Attraction are reinforced by my coaching programmes.

Engaging the services of a coach will keep you focussed where you need to be.

The ideas in ‘The Vortex’ will help as well.

As my mentor tells it, one can take a very long time getting what you want or you can speed it up by having someone like a coach to keep you on the path.

Enjoy the clip!

On Saturday night David The Tuamaninator Tua beat Shane The Mountain Man Cameron a few seconds into the second round of an eagerly awaited heavy weight boxing match. Some will say the job was done before the end of the first round!

We witnessed a brief glimpse of incredible punching power and domination[from Tua] over his opponent. This surprised me as I reckon Cameron is a much better fighter than he was allowed to show on the night.

Both boxers had trained very hard to be in excellent condition for this fight.

‘If I lose because I didn’t give it my best………’ David Tua

What was the difference.? Why was one fighter so dominant. I am no boxing expert, but I am sure this was not a mismatch, not a fight just for ’show’.  The difference might come down to belief. Both contenders of course talked up their chances, both told us they would be the winner. Given that both fighters were in very very good condition and both had developed strategies to offset the other’s strengths and weaknesses, how is it that on the night the winner seemed to make victory look almost too easy?

I am sure you have seen this at other sporting events. Often the superior team somehow lets the other seemingly weaker team beat them. This has happened with the All Blacks and the Silver Ferns this year.

Both teams have played well below their potential game after game  only to rise like a Phoenix from the ashes and put on a display that is truly inspiring and won convincingly.

It is like they have woken up from a state of hibernation, too late for the series win though!

Life is like this too!

Deep down you know you have the talent and the ability to excel to achieve outstanding results but you don’t. Why is that?

Maybe you do not believe.

Maybe you have lost focus.

A useful tool that helps is to ‘remember a time when……..‘ you did succeed, you felt great, anything was possible. Getting in touch with your feelings, how you felt at that time is a great way to get back on the horse and ride to success. This is one of the self development secrets to getting what you want. To becoming all that you can be.

Just like the super sports stars and teams your chances of success are as much a mental exercise as anything else [assuming of course you have done the physical preparation!].

Being a member of a top sports team is as much an exercise in personal development as an individual who aspires to be, do, and have more success and happiness in his or her life.

Shane Cameron has said he will be back. He is disappointed, who wouldn’t be?

Next time Shane will do whatever it takes to ensure that he does not lose.

So will you.

Remember the Zen saying: ‘Knock down seven times, get up eight!

P.S. The annual Bathurst 1000 motor race is on this weekend. There will be approximately 29 teams attempting to redress their bitter disappointments from last year! They will be prepared. What will be the difference between the winning team and the rest?

Luck?

Unlikely.

Our bodies change very second. Our cells are constantly renewing themselves; our organs [given a chance though healthy diet and exercise] can also renew themselves.

Our brains do not need to lose function. In fact we can improve our brains by being challenged and stretched!

So you are not the same we were a few moments ago, a few days ago or even last year or the year before that! You are always in a sate of change. So is the world. The only constant is change.

If you look back on your childhood to where you are now, what has changed? The way we do business, banking, how we connect [e.g. Web 2.0], even what we eat.

When I was a kid, shops closed Fridays [except the corner dairy and some gas stations], and reopened Monday. Same at Christmas – you would need to buy supplies to last pretty much from 24th December [Christmas eve] thru to after New Year!

We did not have refrigerators, or TV, a transistor radio was a thing of great marvel. When Fax machines arrived we could not believe how we ever did business without one! We travelled in airplanes with propellers.

Now we have TV on our computers we have friends we have never met all around the world, we can communicate from one hemisphere to another and get a reply in minutes, send movies on our mobile phones and have access to as much information as we could possibly ask for on any given topic.

Experienced online marketers can write and promote a book to bestseller status inside a week!

And then we had 9/11.

What a significant event and how quickly the world changed in response! Terrorism took on a whole new meaning. The world is no longer the same as it was.

Now we have the financial markets meltdown. And again the world is radically changing. It is fair to say that the old model/s to a greater or lesser extent, and this will depend on how you might be affected by it all, won’t work quite the same way. Business will change or perhaps the rate of change will indeed accelerate.

Print media are reformulating their online plans and strategies as traditional revenues dry up. Many traditional news businesses have already succumbed.

Blogs are proliferating at a phenomenal rate. Many of you will follow a blog or several at the expense of newspapers.

Barack Obama used modern technology to mobilize support in ways never done before.The world is not the same any more.

Have I experienced change? You bet!  Have I changed as a result? Yes, you bet! How did I go about it? I asked questions, I observed and I started reading books on personal development.

Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, John Kehoe and others became my role models. I accidentally embraced self – development. I attended courses on personal development. 

• I trained as a Life Coach.
• I learned NLP to Master Practitioner level. I am a Reiki Master.
• I practice EFT and dabble in Numerology.

I guarantee you I shall continue to learn and grow and change.
My world – view is now completely different. In many ways it is quite different from that of my parents [our generation tended to mirror our parents], but my values are still intact!

And it won’t ever be the same – it never was. Get used to this key idea.
As Ghandi said all those years ago: ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world’.

How can I do that you ask, as the pace of change seems to accelerate? How can I influence change?

What’s the use? Things and events will happen with or without me. Yes they will.

Have you noticed how powerful personalities or entrepreneurs get to the top, and seem to be influential?

What is about them? What makes them different? Maybe the question you ought to ask yourself is ‘How?’

How can I be like them? How can I influence people and events? The answer is always the same: Through personal development or self – development.
Firstly, there was a dream or a vision and then a desire and then some form of action was taken.

A goal was set.

There is no ’secret’ to success. History is littered with role models of success. There is no limit to how many of you can be successful. It’s never crowded at the top. It sure as heck is crowded at the bottom.

Phil Linklater

Since the release of the hit DVD ‘The Secret’ and its exposure on the Oprah TV show there has been an inundation of Law of Attraction Teachers promoting their own books, Cd’s, courses, teleseminars and so on. Its launch was prefaced by some very good marketing – and I for one could not wait to get my hands on the DVD!

One can even become a Law of Attraction Coach. You can even do this [become a LOA Coach], online using mp3 and teleseminars as the principal training method!

What fascinates me is the growth in products offering programmes to help you understand ‘The Secret behind The Secret’.

This has been spawned by the unprecedented global popularity of The Secret pretty much from day one of its release.

It clearly shows there here are a huge number of people looking for self development information; some way to improve their lives, whatever that means for them. It also demonstrates that, for many people, implementing the principles of the Law of Attraction has not worked.

Many popular books have been around for a long time now that espouse the principals of the Law of Attraction: The all time classic Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” , lesser known is Wallace Wattles’ ” The Science of Getting Rich“, Charles F. Haanel’s “The Master Key System” or more recently, John Kehoe’s “Mind Power” and many others.

Clearly, there’s no ‘Secret’ as such, but there are a set of principles that, if applied diligently, can really help you make a positive difference in your life. It is possible to re create your circumstances, after all you [probably unconsciously], created the circumstances you currently experience [attracted].

Here’s the real secret – you need to work in a focussed way before these principles will work for you.

It’s what I do as a Life Coach.

First – you must get clear as to what you really want and get clear as to why.

Second – be in alignment with your values.

And then you can begin to get into it – but there are plenty of little ‘traps’ along the path to success, which I won’t discuss in this post.

Remember my ‘mantra’ on the Home Page?

Through clarity comes change.

If you would like a free initial consultation as to how I can help you or would like a free digital copy of Think and Grow Rich or The Science of Getting Rich fill in the form on this site and I will get in touch.

You may have noticed on my home page the tag line ‘Through Clarity Comes Change’. You might well ask ‘What does this mean?’

Simply put, it means getting clear as to what you want from life, the more clarity you are able to establish, the easier it is for you to make the necessary changes to get what you want.

What prompted me to write about ‘change’ was a very recent article in a newspaper [I cannot find - apologies to the writer], which stated that ‘change’ is a big word. People are afraid of change etc etc.

As a Coach I am in the business of change – but not just for the sake of it.

I f you want to make progress in any endeavour action of some sort must be taken. As the old saw says: ‘If you keep doing the same things and expect to get different results, you are mistaken’.

This applies equally to individuals and businesses.

On a global scale right now, many of you are being forced to change, maybe you have lost your job [ or your household income has income has been reduced], the cost of living has increased, or perhaps you are considering spending less, paying more than the minimum off your credit card, whatever.

The reality is, for many of you, you are beginning to do things differently through circumstances – reacting to a certain set of conditions.

Going outside your comfort zone.

Why wait until you are ‘forced’ to make changes?

This is what Life Coaching [and Business Coaching for that matter], is about. Looking forward, and creating a set of strategies that match your aspirations. It is critical to ensure that these are in alignment with your values and that your plans benefit those with whom you come into contact with daily, your family, friends, colleagues, business partners.

This will require some change – doing things differently from what you normally do in order to get to where you would like to be: more money, better job, better relationships and so on.

A great way to minimise the fear and uncertainty around change is to take a little time out to realise where you are now and to at least have an idea of where you like to be.

The difference is the gap – it might be a big gap, or it might be not so big.

As your coach I help you take the necessary steps [one at a time], on your journey toward closing that gap.

And this where change occurs.

To recap: Change is not so scary if you approach life in a considered way and really decide to do something about making positive changes.

As Stephen R. Covey of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People fame says: ‘Begin with the end in mind’.

In order to know what the end is you need to get clarity around what is you want.

Our initial [free] consultation will guide you and offer insights into how you can go about this.

Here’s a great question to ask yourself of where you are in life now: ‘Is this as good as it gets?’

And another great question: ‘Could it be better?’ You bet it could – every single time!