Go Big

When You Stop Chasing Opinions You Attract The Wise

Opinion Vs. Laws

 

In this day and age in training, nutrition and business everyone has their opinion of what will work and what wont. Social media is a festering living organism that gives everyone a voice on topics they have no idea about. It makes it worse when we have social media “celebrities “ that have quite following pushing products, opinions and philosophies.

 

Here is some advice for anyone wanting to learn more about any topic on planet earth, if someone is trying to explain to you a concept, model or framework and he or she use end reference e.g. “This is the only way it can work” or “ if you apply it in this way it will never work”. Tread carefully if you’re taking it on board.

 

If this doesn’t land with you it’s ok, just recognize that the outcome you want to achieve has 294874 (literally that many) ways to get there, some roads may be tougher than others but you will arrive if you utilise a few LAWS along the way.

 

The Law of hourly rate.

 

This can be called a law because its always happening whether you like it or not, the question is whether you are taking advantage of it. You seem to like electricity although you have no idea how it actually works. Think about this, if you were your own boss and you were being paid for every hour in the day would you still have a job? To put it bluntly what are you doing every single hour of every single day taking tiny steps toward your ultimate outcome?

 

Now this has been said over and over but here is something that will make it hit home. What if a professional bodybuilder just an hour a day gave him/herself a “break” from his/her personal legend where they sat on the couch watching TV eating ice cream? Here’s the worst part of this situation, the sitting and eating can be rectified but now this person has lost an hour where he/she was not thinking about and feeling what standing on stage in first place is like. This cannot be regained. It sounds ridiculous for a bodybuilder to do that so why are you doing it? Maybe you don’t know your ultimate outcome? Here’s a start, what is that one thing you do that all of life’s stressors and worries go out the window? Start there.

For those chasing an outcome or a result you may be waiting on others or most definitely navigating some challengers, your going through hell your on the perfect path if you give up your back at square 1 with nothing. When your stuck on the waiting game and you feel you are doing everything you can. Turn to yourself and learn more about you, see yourself achieving whatever it is you want, learn to ask beautiful questions, act as if you have already achieved it, and pull others along with you.

 

The Law of Gratitude

 

When was the last time you sat and focused on everything you have, everything you have created and everything you have achieved? All of the best leaders and athletes in the world do not operate for self-satisfaction. Ask any of the top athletes what it meant for them to win. “ I had to win this one for my team mate, for the coach, for my family” how many times have you seen an athlete win the whole way through a tournament only to fall in the final bout? It’s a pattern and it goes like this. Lets take a tennis player for example

“ I have an opportunity to share my talents and show my team what it means to me for them helping me out this whole preparation” this psychology = smart decision-making, smart strategies and patience. When the player gets to the final match

“ What could I do with all the winnings, people will see me as a champion, I will be respected in the sport” this psychology is extremely internal and selfish, this = rushed decisions, short-term gains, anxiety.

The player loses the match.

 

It doesn’t make sense on any level to receive more of what you do not express gratitude towards. If you are wanting/needing more clients be there 100% and give everything you can to the clients you have currently, they are putting food in your mouth. Feel grateful for every dollar you have, every chance you get to train.

 

Try this.

If you wanted to be grateful for 20 things what would they be? Write them down and notice how much good you have. Spend 5 minutes expressing gratitude before your next meal and see how good the food tastes even if it is chicken and broccoli.

 

It’s so easy to sit back and find things we are not happy with I challenge you to challenge yourself and see how much good you can find, that’s the magic.

more fun things.

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/05/a-good-sign-youre-just-about-to-break-through-is-when-it-seems-nothing-is-happening.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/05/why-you-may-be-suffering-at-workchoosing-rewards-over-environment.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/04/spirituality-for-performacne-tactical-breathing.html

 

Nat

 

 

 

A Good Sign You're Just About To Break Through Is When It Seems Nothing Is Happening

The life cycle of Exponential Tech, Tech is something i MUST get better at so here is something very relevant and history has a funny way of repeating itself

1. Digitalisation- once something becomes zeros and ones the growth curve is exponential 
2. Deception - there will always be s slow growth period where people will dismiss it and the concept deceives people.
3.Disruption- people who are resistant to change will have their feathers ruffled
4.Demonetisaition- making money in tech will be what can you give for free that others pay for?
5.Dematerialisation- take away the expenses of materials for the digital world
6.Democritisation- Complete accessibility.

From Steven Kotler,

I sit here and use a free app with free wifi, free audio, free conversation platform, free marketing delivering content and hopefully something that you can take a think about. Maybe save you some money/ time or give you a clearer direction. All extremely valuable.

 

we are all suckers of instant gratification whats it costing you?

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/05/why-you-may-be-suffering-at-workchoosing-rewards-over-environment.html

Chase exposure and trial by fire

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/04/a-deeper-observation-of-high-performers-what-are-you-missing-out-on.html

 

 

3 Door Ways Where The Honey Moon Never Ends

What happens after the honeymoon period?

 

Like every single lust filled relationship a business or start up goes through the same process. You have this team of inspired creative individuals chewing off their own arm in anticipation to get started. This initial sex drive creates genius in the workplace imagination and creative is flowing to the point where the leader will have to say no to brilliant ideas to service the phenomenal ideas. We all know what it feels like to wake up next a person and the only circulating thought is going full caveman and having your way. There is a level of vigor that exists to the same extent when operating and entertaining an idea to life.

 

Your sitting at your breakfast table slamming a tasteless but practical breakfast in anticipation to get out and show the world your art, you roll into the building or office and your team are hard it, serving clients going above and beyond, coming up with questions and answering them before you have chance to process what the fuck they are talking about. Clearly you have a culture going on. This process continues for 3-6 months, the profits are rolling in and your growing, you start to recognise yourself as a deserving successful leader.then it happens

 

Your eating the same tasteless breakfast and you recognise how terrible it tastes, your team are quiet, late but fulfilling there duties, you feel you need to come down on them hard to fight for there positions but they are still ticking boxes and crossing tasks of lists, the profits are still there but it doesn’t feel the same. You hear the odd sound of people clinking coffee cups and the monotonous tapping of the soft and smooth Mac keys. It’s eerie and dead because in this moment you have joined the other 90% of lifeless office spaces watching the clock tick.

 

The Honeymoon period is long gone

 

What every leader/ manager needs to recognise is that whatever they are feeling in their 3 brains (head, heart and stomach) so is your team and clients. If you the leader are having a human moment getting caught up in the day to day, the grind, the cycle of day and night SO ARE YOUR TEAM!!! It appears that the most successful individuals looking back and right now have developed strategies and rituals to move through these periods and maintain the rage on having an effect on the world. Here are some tactical approaches for yourself and team to keep growing and progressing.

 

1. Publicly elevate and champion key members, organize a catch up outside of the workplace for the sole reason of having fun, leave the business talk behind. If the conversation swings around back to the workplace then let it be, this is great indicator that your team are still adding value and reflecting on their work looking at ways to make it better. During this time call someone out for his or her achievements because something magical happens. Both party’s giver and receiver receive a hit of a very important chemical…serotonin. Unlike dopamine and inherently selfish chemical, serotonin serves the person receiving the award and the person giving the award. By Osmosis the team will strive to have that shared feeling of significance. By making this a standard it can add to continuation of the culture and the team working as a unit. A very influential person in my life shared this “ If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go with many”. I must add going fast does not mean far. I will give some clarity and content around how neurochemicals work in the workplace in a later article.
   
2. As the leader it is imperative to know your team on a very deep level, If you cannot uncover in them what really makes them get up in the morning and what is the most important values and beliefs they navigate life with then you will need to take a very surface approach to drive behavior e.g. incentive schemes or the manipulate the 2 most valued commodities, time and money. This approach is expensive, tactical and very short term. It will only last so long until you run out of ideas reinventing the wheel. Helping your team uncover, desires, goals and unique purposes to them will build honor trust and insane work ethic. As long as you’re providing a platform of skills and capabilities to see them follow through and progress to this goal the rage will be maintained. Notice my continual use of this phrase J. If you cannot do this within yourself do not expect anything you say to land with your team, “if you want your reality to change you have to first change within”
3. “In the pause of reflection comes insight”

We are thrown into an education system that teaches us how to prepare. We prepare for grade school in Pre School; we prepare for high school during grade school, all the way into years of preparation for retirement ……then guess what we prepare for? That’s right, death. How do we know where the hell we are if we can only see a future that never actuals comes? Insert carrot and stick analogy

If you desire a team of high operators then it appears that a skillset and mindset of owning the moment and celebrating the wins are a ritual that needs to be practiced. All we ever have is unfolding moments of now and the debate on past and future is very long winded and cannot be proven wrong or right. “Who you are right now is only who you chose to be moment ago”.

Make reflection a part of your processes and watch the gold arise.

 

More on teamwork and leadership in

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/05/why-you-may-be-suffering-at-workchoosing-rewards-over-environment.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/04/a-deeper-observation-of-high-performers-what-are-you-missing-out-on.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/03/4-reasons-why-your-goals-left-you-empty.html

 

 

4 Key Elements When Starting a Training Facility

 

 

I keep hearing all these gym start stories about people who sound like they were living in a third world country when they opened their gym. Here are some of the classic lines

 

“I had to sleep in my gym for the first 3 months”

 

“We never put the lights on”

 

“ I was eating tuna and rice for weeks and weeks”

 

“ I nearly lost the gym because of un paid bills”

 

“I had to remortgage the house”

 

What the actual f%^& where you doing then? Clearly these people put themselves in un reasonably risky position. Do not get me wrong when you take a risk there is no better way to get you up early and going hard but what’s the point of these stories? Because its wrapped as “inspiration” are we supposed to think “oh my god, that sounds terrible but look at you now making SOME money and your lights are on “ ….do these stories make people excited? Ummm No!

 

Its so ridiculous and amusing, some gym owners might get a bit out of joint and say “well you don’t know what its like!” and they would be right I don’t know what its like because my gym turned a profit the first week it was open. Since day 1 we were having so much fun and create so much energy around the gym that it was infectious. I would go home at a reasonable hour and have time to play with my dogs, cook dinner and get in some down time either reflecting, writing or thinking and not in the noble pretentious way in my personalized library where I have many leather bound books [Ferrell] but in a mans way on the toilet. A quote from my business partner and me “ A man does his best thinking on the toilet, between clients “

 

So why do people feel the need to share such stories?

 

Because it fulfills a human need inside them! The story is not for the audience. It’s a selfish way of gaining some significance. “Look how hard I had it but look at me now”

 

Currently I’m sitting at a market and its early, people are slowly wandering in with bed hair and both hands double-parked with Coffee. I can hear a fresh juice maker ticking over as it crushes oranges and the crackle of a barbeque browning chicken skewers. There is a tall guy with a well-groomed beard, very stylish slick hair and a tight Hawaiian shirt selling “raw treats” he looks miserable. Next to him is a greased up hot plate with fat German sausages trying not to explode and a vender with a cheeky smile on his face. I’m over looking this interesting mess en scene actively trying not to laugh at the image of a gym owner cross-legged between the squat rack, in the dark, eating tuna in spring water because the flavored ones are too expensive but fuck it because he’ll die by the iron and he has 22inch arms. The German sausage guy is in his element.

 

I digress,

 

Here’s some real inspiration for people in limbo trying to decide whether to open a gym or not.

1. If you’re already in the industry put all your efforts into gaining a reputation for getting a result number one. Another way to get people to listen to you is do not put other gyms or professionals down, do not gossip or talk shit, do not complain or make excuses.

2. Calibrate yourself honestly with this tool

How do you see yourself? How do others see you? And do they match? If not get that aligned

       3.   Peel back the layers of the reasoning why you want to open a gym and find the core, if    your thinking goes straight to money, say goodbye to every cent you have. If your thinking is “I just want to help people” again say goodbye to all your money not because its false but because it lacks detail. The real reason is emotional it should either bring tears or give you Goosebumps and the only way to feel this is if the reason you started is because of something bigger then just yourself.

4. Keep your structure and services simple with 3 options; less is more in this case. It appears that having multiple payment and service options confuses and makes people question what your about when just because someone comes into the gym in the middle of the day they pay less? (Off peak & peak times)

 

Hodges

 

 

 

Why You May Be Suffering At Work.....choosing rewards over environment.

Aesop, sixth century B.C

 

A lone lion wanders into a field of four oxen. Many times he has found his way to this particular group of oxen but has never come away with the spoils of meat for the pride. These Oxen have formed a bond that is hinged on survival and the groundwork for this survival is in the Oxen’s biology.

 

When the Lion would approach all the Oxen had to do was make sure each of their tails where in contact. In this formation the lion would be met with horns from any angle. The oxen knew that survival depended on the group as a unit.

 

On the occasion that the Oxen where separated in 4 corners of the field the Lion took them down 1 by 1 and t thus the demise of the Oxen.

 

Similar in concept is a different animal, Humans. Sparta was like no other force in ancient Greece as its entire focus was military training and excellence. Its inhabitants included Spartiates (born and raised in Sparta) and Mothakes (non Spartan free men raised as Spartans). Spartan women enjoyed status, power and respect that were unknown to the rest of the world. If it wasn’t for the freedom and power the Spartan women had, Sparta would have fell to the Persians but a coded messaged was deciphered by the Queen of Sparta allowing enough time for their forces to get in position.

 

The Spartan army was the most successful for one reason and one reason only. Your only goal as a Spartan warrior was to protect the person to your left. Thus the force was impenetrable. No one on the Spartan army fought for them, they fought for there brothers and every Spartan would die for the person on their left. Leonidas the most notable of the Spartan leaders was highly respected and had many men willing to die for him, why? Because he lead from the front! He was the first into battle but the last to eat. Every Spartan knew that they were as important as the next warrior and where being led by a figure fighting for more than man.

 

Are you following a leader by choice or by rank? The person you answer to, is it because you have to or because you want to?

 

In your team, organization or business do you feel that you have freedom to be creative? Or if you go outside of the system/rules management will punish you? These are some fundamental questions that you need to ask yourself to assess if your in a position to do your best or are you limited by micromanagers and stringent systems?

 

Your in a world where no matter what business or trade you are in there are other business that would be happy to see you close or to take your clients/customers. Its nothing in particular about you, its just the way it is.

When you have so much danger outside of the business or team the others ready to pounce when you make one mistake.

 

Here is a strategy you need to employ if you want to thrive in any external environment. As the leader you need to eliminate all dangers within the organization so everyone inside your circle can operate at full capacity without feeling like they are being scrutinized. This requires the leader to show the team he is willing to sacrifice whatever he/she needs to for the team and to lead on the front lines, not from the back away from danger much like Leonidas and the team of Spartans. Once you have TRUST throughout your business/team will thrive. They will give feedback, ideas, work harder, have more fun, arrive early, leave late and the best part is they will look out for the person next to them because your all in it together.

 

Perspective

The primary reasons the majority of commercial gym personal trainers pull the pin on their business is because they don’t feel protected from management. They are locked into a rental system and thrown in the deep end. Approaching another trainer’s client is classified, as high treason and the punishment will be a public hanging. The only time you will see someone being mentored is when he or she is taking 50% of a young trainers income.

What if there was no rental system and you only pay 10$ per hour you use the gym, when you go on holidays you don’t pay anything but your clients can be covered by someone else awaiting your return? You will be held accountable for teaching something new to everyone every week to help yourself and team develop together. You will be allocated a primary role in the business that is completely yours to develop with 100% trust. Imagine the amount of trainers applying; imagine the atmosphere in the gym…sounds to good to be true right?

 

Skills and capabilities or tools of the trade may be part of the job and the more you can develop these the better but they are not what makes a trainer effective. Although you will need those skills they are not required to create an internal environment with so much force that everyone who walks the door has no option but to succeed. The ability of people to do remarkable things rests on the ability of people to pull together, look after each other and walk together.

 

More strong chat in Business 5x5 such as

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/05/4-key-elements-when-starting-a-training-facilility-.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/04/a-deeper-observation-of-high-performers-what-are-you-missing-out-on.html

 

 

Nat

Spirituality For Performance & Tactical Breathing

Spirituality for performance and tactical breathing.

 

Only only a few things will determine the constructs of your reality or “the” reality depending on your beliefs. One will be your intention, what do you intend on doing or being or feeling or having?? The second will be what you focus on, is it one thing or multiple things? There have been numerous accounts in which peoples contribution to the world have been overlooked because they have had more then ONE focus and their name in the history books has fallen by the way side. If your mind is giant cloud of seemingly endless “stuff” how many things are you trying to focus on? Using lasers as a metaphor…all its power concentrated on 1 point will cut through anything in due time.if the forces of the laser was hitting separate components then there would NEVER be a breakthrough.

 

It’s only in the down time that you can really grasp anything remotely spiritual. When everything is traveling exactly how you want it then please continue doing that and being happyJ there will always be troughs and unpleasant surprises. In these times is when we can discover our true impermanent s and irrelevance that we are here for the merest moment. It is only when we can wake up to the reality that there will be billions of people after us and before us that we know nothing and that “self” goes out the window. …This is when you can leave your blueprint on this world to experience all the joys and wonder this existence has to offer.

 

We all will encounter very large and very small challenges during our time here but the solution to all existing challenges does not live in the same atmosphere. We are conditioned to experience reality through the extremely limited 5 senses. Touch, taste, smell, sight, sound. What would your experience be if you maintained the 5 senses but removed all notions of thought? …. Weird? Wonderful? Liberating? I don’t know. Keeping in mind that we are creatures living on this planet with a s%^& load of other creatures that have insane abilities like sonar, light recognition, frequency and vibration recognition ….so what information, data and other forces are we potentially missing out on that could be the answer to that irritability you have been feeling? This is my version of spirituality.

 

I don’t choose to believe in God because it places a symbol on something that means a million different things to different people. I do believe we are connected to all living things, pretty hard to deny when we are literally made of the same 4 key components J so why can we not have access to all phenomena? Truth is we can but we are taught to be obedient, compliant, and play by the rules…. we get rewarded for the above which is a nice way of saying THNK YOU FOR FOLLOWING THE MASSES AND CONTINUING THE MARCH OF MEDOCRITY. Anything described by science has to travel through the 5 senses to be understood by our very limited version of reality and not to mention the bias and opinions of the scientist conducting the research (YouTube Neil Degrasse Tyson BRILLIANT). On the thinking of NDT he notes something very thought provoking. We are only 1% different to common apes and it seems as though we are worlds and worlds ahead. What if there existed another consciousness that was 1% higher than us?? Do you think they would want to be involved with us? With no trust in the political parties with any TRUE leaders, no trust in what we get fed with on television and a constant state of “threat” with the economy and “terrorism” hahahaha nope because it’s a train wreck

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/02/10-overlooked-components-of-powerlifitng-preparation.html

 

A Deeper Observation Of High Performers ...what are you missing out on?

Exposure µ Performance

For years I thought the more I locked myself away, worked on myself and ensured I wasn’t influenced by people who would bring me down, I thought I would surpass everyone else.

When my youngest brother made the biggest move of his life to chase his dream in futsal and relocate to Brazil practically broke, amongst all the fear he encompassed he shared probably one of the greatest gifts. He told me, if you were to graph performance, it would be linearly proportionate to exposure. He went on to explain that, “the more one decides to expose himself/herself to life’s experiences, the higher they will perform indefinitely.” Figure 1 below illustrates the relationship.  

Figure 1. Performance vs. Exposure

 

 

When this image was placed in front of me, it made me think of the greats. Robert Kiyosaki served the military and became one of the greatest educators of all time; Donald Trump served the military and eventually became one of the greatest property developers ever; Bill Gates dropped out of college and opened his own business that eventually served to be one of the greatest computer company’s ever; Arnold Schwarzenegger served the military and moved to America where opportunities flourished in front of his eyes before he could even imagine them, and the list goes on.

In order for a powerlifter to maximise their strength capacity, deadlifts, squats and bench press cannot be the only exercises performed on a training basis – it simply pays no benefit. There is no coincidence a powerlifter undertakes pendlay rows, chin ups, box squats, paused squats, cleans, glute hamstring raises and all the other accessory exercises you can perform. The fact is, powerlifters require exposure. The more you expose the athlete to exercises that they have not yet experienced, the higher their performance increases. The same phenomenon applies to all activities, and in general, life.

For years I practiced the general hypertrophy training recommended by most training institutions, ‘8-12 reps x 3 sets.’ I saw minimal change, and whatever change I did experience was within the first month; from there the change was just maintained as my body became accustomed to the habitual routine. Once I experimented and went against the current norms with things like low rep squats for multiple sets and sets of 50 curls.

My performance as an individual started to match those who I struggled to challenge, and in most cases, I excelled past them. What was learnt from being an athlete was soon applied to the idea of living, and with that barriers were torn down faster than I could keep up. Opportunities were being thrown at my face and all I could do was take; there was no room to think, just act. It was the fact I chose to expose myself, accept that there was no perfect, just experience.

We think that the most important thing is to serve others, be selfless and be a contributor. The fact is, we have to be selfish. We can work as a team for so long but at the end of the day, if we do not have a sense of ourselves, we will become lost in a world that is infinitely growing. At the end of the day, what is important is what we think of ourselves. If we cannot wake up early in the morning smiling with ourselves, there is no point to continue doing what we do. It is happiness that defines where we are as people, without happiness we all may as well die.

Before you go on to believe that performance is the result of hiding yourself away from the crowds, remember that with exposure comes performance.

A taste of my own medicine

 

How good is the feeling when an authority over you has to get a good serve of his own medicine? It’s even better when the authoritarian figure is a bit of a dick and gets drunk on his own perceived power. One of two things normally happen, his ego gets in the way and out of pride he does not take his own advice on how to fix said mess, therefore he doesn’t believe in the values or standards he runs his team with (I’m using “him” as a male figure as it represents real events). The other option is he takes it on the chin and goes to work on limiting damage, correcting mistakes and taking ownership and responsibility moving forward.

 

If you’re in an environment where the boss sees themselves as part of the team and is just as human as everyone else then great work will be done. On the other hand if the leader believes his in a position of power over people and exercises that power with punishment and ridiculous delegation then great work will be hard to come by, efficient work maybe but certainly not art.

 

I spend a good amount of time working with other micro business and small business people on how to navigate challenges and not just get through them but how to gain inside challenges. Talib Nasim coined the term Antifragile, in the English language there is no opposing word for fragile. Fragility in business doesn’t last long because the first hurdle or speed bump derails the leader and the team is only as good as the leader. Robust is the closest word we have opposing fragile but it still doesn’t directly oppose it as robust means unaffected by challenges. Enter Antifragility a term used to describe a type of individual or object that grows stronger and benefits from chaos, randomness and challenges. We as human beings are the only entity that has the capability of getting stronger during the toughest times we face and the beauty about that is that every single person on this earth will experience trauma and grief at some stage. Anecdotally I have seen peers around my age go through grief and loss quite early to be the ones with the most drive, that help the most people and to always strive for a better awareness of themselves. Why? Because when you are forced to feel, forced to question everything, you find answers to questions you didn’t even know existed. Scientists and pseudo scientists who abide by the rules and believe there is no such thing as chaos place young grieving people into categories and predict possible challenges they will have later in life.

 

Lets take another look at it, lets say a teenager experiences a high level of grief and trauma from losing a loved one. This teenager has at best 6-8 years of conscious memories and maps of the world around them that they live their life by. Be aware that all your memories are made up stories; just because you remember them that way doesn’t mean the events took place exactly how you remember them and I can guarantee you are forgetting vital pieces of that memory. Anyway, in the event of someone experiencing grief early you cannot place them categorically under headings or columns nor can you say when they will “move on” but the astonishing thing with the majority of people I have had the pleasure of talking with is that even under so much psychological stress and so many years of meds, psychs and therapy’s they did their best work when the let the grief and trauma guide them.

It’s a classic case of Antifragility, success has so many symbols and meanings for different people but the repeating theme with highly aware and insanely motivating people is that they thrive off the trauma and they don’t run away from it, they accept the challenge and keep it very real and vivid. All of them will talk openly about their experience in such a way that is at first confronting but when you feel the energy and certainty these people converse with, you walk away hearing a very traumatic story but somehow inspired by tragedy. These people are game changers. Unfortunately there are always two sides to every experience and we all know some people who never actually come out of that state and who struggle most of their lives. When this group of people have that moment of “enough is enough, i'm taking back control back” they will find an answer after taking some big action but, the people in this group who desire change but do not take action will end up worse! The key is in taking ACTION any ACTION.

 

Giving some context to the heading of this article, I recently lost my best friend. I found my little blue staff that was only 10 months passed away in the backyard from unknown reasons. I cradled him for an hour screaming and willing him to come back but I knew he was gone. I love my dogs because they are on this earth purely to give love without expecting anything in return and if people could see that if they lived that way they would be genuinely fulfilled and happy. It’s a heavy feeling in my heart and a tragedy in my world. I now have to reflect and give myself a big dose of what I preach to people. Here is how I approached losing my best mate.

 

D=S-M, despair equals suffering minus meaning (Viktor Frankl)

 

 

First thing I did was attach a meaning to this, for me this event reminded me that the things money cannot buy are the most precious and it wouldn’t matter if I lost all my “things” because the people around me family or not are the most important

 

For 24hours I felt every bit of it I accepted every bit of heartache and loss, I welcomed it because I am human and we are meant to feel these emotions. The deeper you can hurt and not run from it the more joy and love you can feel.

 

The journey of every hero and every inspiring person we look up to is a direct representation of the challenges they face. This challenge further installed my belief that whenever I have the chance to help another I will regardless of my state.

 

The loss of my little man is a test to see if I have genuinely learnt the lessons I teach and to action them.

 

So far so good