I have had so many events over the last week that continues to remind me that everybody is my teacher. I think at some level often we look for someone who has had the results or an expert to tell us what to do next or where to go, but that is closing ourselves off to learning from anywhere.

If we really want to aspire to great things we can look around and learn everything we need as part of who we are is in everything we see. When someone annoys us it is best to ask what it is in me that I am being annoyed at, is there a part of me with that behavior. That way someone who annoys you has become your teacher.

I like to walk around with my ears open. We have two ears and one mouth. If you are truly curious about people the next lesson you need to learn in life is right in front of you.

I have enjoyed living by the concept so much of late and my rate of learning and growth has escalated. Give it a go and let me know what you find.

I have been completing an exercise recently about change. The idea was to monitor how I am with change. A note about this is that I actually avoided doing this exercise for months because I thought I already know I am not great with change, I like security and stability. At least that is what I thought anyway, I did not want to do the exercise to prove to myself I was terrible at change, why would I want to give myself reasons to not feel good.

What I learnt over time is that the things I want to avoid are often the very things I need to do, to move forward in life and get the lessons I need for the time.

So I started to monitor how I am when a change occurs in my life. I noticed that change I choose, woo hoo I am great with it. Unexpected change that I did not know was going to happen or choose, not so good.

The interesting thing for me was that although I would often get frustrated, get over whelmed or annoyed with what was happening, I could still see the light to move forward. I suddenly moved through the change so much easier.

What I have learned is if we live and participate in life there will be expected and unexpected change, the more we live the more we experience this. This is a constant. We have a choice to react or respond to the change. Sometimes when we feel that we are threatened or our outcome or goals may not be achieved due to this change we can react. That is ok, the choice there after is where to from there. Do you sit in the problem throwing your toys enrolling others into the problem or do you look for a way out and a way forward, take responsibility. Most often the change is for a perfect reason, because what you learn from that change is exactly what you need to learn in your life in that moment.

Thank you change.

I had the absolute pleasure of attending one of the most powerful personal development conferences in the weekend I have ever been to. Now just so you know I have been to more than one conference and heard some amazing speakers, this time it was different and I was different.

One of our speakers Patrick Combs spoke about seeds and the power of the seed and this topic resonated with me. I wanted to share what he said and what I got from the topic.

• Did you know that a seed can grow even if it is broken?
• Did you realize that the result of the seed is not dependent on its size or shape?
• Were you aware that by looking at the seed you cannot determine its outcome, you would never know what it is going to grow into even if you looked at it under a microscope?

Seeds can grow even after being dormant for 1000 years.

For a seed to grow it will need to overcome some adversity to become the amazing plant that lives inside. For a start it will need to break out of the husk, and then it will need to grow against gravity. And this is to just name two simple triumphs the simple seed will have made just to get out of the ground. A seed is no different to us, to our dreams and our bliss.

We have dreams and goals that lay dormant within us, not acted on or planted in the ground yet for many different reasons. We sometimes can feel broken or defeated as a result of past experiences; however our past experiences do not determine the result of this seeds outcome. The only thing that will determine the outcome is if we are willing to give the seed the opportunity to grow.

What is your seed? Are you willing to plant it and let it grow?

Be patient with your seeds, they take time to grow. If you go and dig it up every day and check on it, this will not make it grow any faster.

So what motivates someone, and how do we actually get motivated. We can all get excited by something, but that does not always last. Motivation needs to be sustainable, so what is motivation and how do we get it?

The basic definition of motivation is “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something”. This is a great basic definition that tells us that motivation is about being in motion, taking action and having a motive or purpose.

So some of the fundamental parts are to know what you actually want and also how to get it. As individuals we tend to be more motivated to take the action steps required for success if we know how to obtain success. If we actually have the rules of life or an organization it is easier to follow a system to success. We then also have a measure for our success. If we are unclear in what we want and are also unclear in how to get it, we often just get lack of clarity and lack of results.

If we think about it in simple terms, a child that has no boundaries or routine can often have problems with self esteem and confidence as they are unclear on how to succeed in their world.

Another aspect of motivation is a person’s ability to actually experience and face life or a situation. If a person feels they are unable to deal with problems or a task they can often end up procrastinating or avoiding it all together. That problem does not go away and often becomes more of a problem to be dealt with later. If we can skill ourselves and be willing to learn how to deal with situation and tasks in the moment our feeling of accomplishment and empowerment increase. As a result our motivation increases.

These are just a few basic components that influence motivation. So if you are looking to be more motivated or have sustained motivation you will need to face life and it’s issues and overcome them. Also understand what you want, why you want it and have a plan or system in place for how to achieve it so you can actually measure your success.

So often now I have heard from people and including myself at one stage in my life say, I do not need that personal development stuff as there is nothing wrong with me. And guess what, you are right.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You are perfect, whole and complete. We are born into this world as wise people, over time we can get conditioned into certain ways of thinking that do not serve us. This thinking can come from all sorts of different influences, for example: parents, teachers, workmates, and school friends; really the list goes on.

We can be influenced and conditioned by what we want to achieve, what we listen to and what we choose to do with our lives.

Some of this conditioned thinking may not serve us to get to where we really want to go, and sometimes we may not be fully aware that the thinking is there, all we may be aware of is the lack of results.

For me I used to think Personal Development was about changing who I was into someone else who was different to me, more successful, more likeable, more learned in the world, just more really.

After working on myself for a number of years, I woke up one morning and realised, STOP this is not about changing you into someone else, this is all about becoming more of who you really are. Letting go of past thinking, conditioning and negative influencers in your world. It is all about looking at what is working and doing more of that, it is about fully accepting yourself and living as bigger life you can possibly live.

Live out loud in the world. Not hiding, not riding, being all of you. Achieve the success you deserve.

We are all truly perfect it is just that sometimes we forget. Personal Development has assisted me to become even more successful and ultimately the happiest I have ever been. Be bold and join the journey.

I have found that in the past I used to spend a lot of time trying and striving to reach my goals. I would put in all the effort required, take all the action required and still not be getting the results. This became a very demoralising process and often resulted in me changing paths or losing self belief.

It has only been since I have started my journey of success education and personal development that I was missing one key component to success. That component was gratitude. I was spending more time focussing on what I did not want or did not have that focussing on what I had to be grateful for. When I started to look for everything I was grateful for in my life and my world, life began to change.

It was like all of the hard and struggle had gone. I went from loathing getting up in the morning to enjoying my day. This was a remarkable process. The most interesting thing was that what I saw happen from there is all of a sudden I was achieving the results I previously was trying so hard to get to and never making.

The Oxford dictionary defines gratitude as: “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness”.

To give thanks for your life, invites more thanks into your life. When you are not in gratitude your focus is most often on what is going wrong with a situation or thing. In gratitude you find the learning in any situation and freely move on. Words such as grudge and resentment pass from you, words like love, appreciate and fun enter into your life.

Gratitude can give you a true sense of freedom to create the life you desire. Are you willing to be grateful today for what you have right now and all that is coming your way?