Just get rid of it!

I’ve been dealing with the clutter in my life. It is amazing how much clutter we have. It is incredible what we collect over the years. Ticket stubs, birthday cards, clothes we think we will use again, dishes we can’t seem to throw out, books that collect dust in bookcases, and then fill boxes because there are no more bookcases. My garage is so full I can only put one car in it. It’s a two car garage. It amazes me that the stuff in my garage seems more important to protect than that expensive vehicle that sits in the driveway.

Then there’s the attic. I don’t even know what’s up there. And of course, the basement. Yes there’s stuff down there too. And finally, there’s the junk room. How many of you have a junk room?

I’ve been reading about Feng Shui. Feng Shui is all about creating a living space that allows positive energy to flow freely. Practitioners of Fung Shui believe that what you see on the outside, in your homes and in your offices is in fact a reflection of what is on the inside. And if you want to blame all this stuff that clogs up your home on other people, remember that you attract those people into in your life so take responsibility. It’s yours.

Donald Trump believes so strongly with Feng Shui that he used it for his living quarters and offices when he started back after losing his first billion dollars. And of course we know the result of this.

Even if you don’t believe in Feng Shui, clutter has a huge impact on your life. It drains your energy. Effects your ability to be organized and more efficient. And I have to believe if you take a % of your house that is devoted to things that you don’t use anymore, you probably would be pretty surprised just how much space it takes.

I met a wonderful woman recently who told me she sold everything she owned, bought a small home and now is mortgage free, debt free and feels like a huge weight has been taken off her shoulders. The freedom she feels from shedding all these things has transformed her. She can now do whatever she wants, when she wants how she wants and no matter what difficulties come her way, she can easily handle them. Doesn’t that sound liberating.

Her goal now is to enjoy life and bring on new experiences. It is nothing to do with collecting stuff, getting a bigger car, and so on. She is free. She is happy. She is open to whatever opportunity presents itself and she can easily accomplish it.
And just think about your stuff for a minute and how useful it would be if you gave it to other people to use...or donated all your old books to a library, or gave your old magazines to a long term care home.
Let’s get unstuck.

Life is a wave of transformations. It’s about clearing out so we can have room for more. More growth, more experiences, more abundance and more happiness.
It’s about taking risks and letting go what we think is our security and understanding that happiness comes from freeing ourselves of the things that block our energy, about holding onto too much of the stuff that represents our past, our not-so-good memories. That’s not to say we shouldn’t have some memories, but maybe we hold onto too much.

Free yourself. Find the energy. It’s in us but for some it is buried beneath stuff, both physical and emotional stuff. Do the physical and you will be surprised the amount of emotional bloodletting that happens.
Begin today and free yourself from physical, mental, emotional and spiritual clutter.

On a different note, there are many sources that promote formulas. Formulas for success. Formulas for wealth. Formulas for happiness. The list goes on. Here are three gents from Australia with a humorous formula for creating a hit song. Enjoy.

Have a great uncluttered day.
Ken

The Power of One

Picture for one moment, sitting in a stadium with 100,000 people. There’s a black-out and the entire city is thrust into complete darkness. Everyone in the stadium has a candle but no light, except for one person. One person has a lit candle. Everyone else is sitting in the dark. He or she can withhold the light. He or she might do this because they are afraid of losing their light. Or through an act of giving they can choose to share the light by lighting other candles and as other people share the light they receive, the stadium begins to light up and before you know it everyone’s candle is lit.

Everyone can see and the light from the original candle has not been diminished in any way.

In fact the person who gave the original light is now benefiting hundreds fold or even thousands fold because they can see so much better and so much further and all they gave was their original light.

This demonstrates the power one individual can have on our world. This demonstrates the law of giving. Religions often talk about the law of tithing, and even the Bible points out that the return from tithing, of giving 10%, is at least ten-fold, and even greater.

Giving comes in many different forms. Giving of your time, sharing a smile, making someone feel good about themselves, giving guidance to help someone accomplish something, giving a listening ear to a person with a problem, giving time and effort on a project that will be good for the team and the company, giving expertise or time or effort to make a difference, giving of your time and effort to change something that needs changing in your company and how people perceive it because it is the right thing to do. Giving comes in so many different ways.

Whenever you give, you feel good. But it is the hardest ‘giving’ that gives you the greatest rewards. When it is the hardest because maybe you don’t have the time, or don’t have the heart or don’t have the money, or whatever it is that makes giving truly difficult, that is the giving that will give you the greatest rewards, the greatest personal growth and provide the greatest benefit.

If everyone did one act of giving today, think of how many people you would touch and think of how they might respond to other people and make their day a little brighter. As with the candle, giving does not diminish your light. In fact it makes it brighter.

I think it is an old Chinese proverb that says if every person went outside and cleaned the front of their house everyday and the street in front of their house every day, we would live in a completely pristine world and all of this would be accomplished by one little unselfish act at a time. Collectively the power of one would have the capacity to transform our world.

I hope you go out and do one act of giving today. The Power of One can accomplish so much when the power is focused on making a contribution without any strings attached or any need for recognition, just an act of unselfish giving to make a difference.

This month’s video is a short conversation with Dr. Michael Beckwith on what we can do, in fact how, even in a small way; we can contribute to our world. Enjoy.

Have a great, fulfilling, giving and miraculous day.

Ken

Are you living in a toxic environment?

Lately, I have been working in a toxic environment. Almost everyone hates their job. They hate the hours they work. They hate the conditions they work in. They don’t like the equipment they use, the offices they work in or the feeling of the place. They don’t like the way they are treated. They don’t like the people that run the company. They don’t like how they are paid. They don’t like…they don’t like….they don’t like…you get the point. And it just keeps spiraling downward.

This is an environment doomed to fail. Work doesn’t get done right because nobody cares. No-one does anything more than they have to. They complain to anyone that will listen. That includes each other, their friends and families, vendors, suppliers, and most troubling, their customers. The energy is toxic. Negative energy is low energy. It has an edge to it that feels bad and it brings everyone down that comes into contact with it. It creates confrontation, indifference, back biting, destructive activities, and breaks the company apart. It impacts productivity, cooperation, sharing, respect, harmony, growth, profitability, success, and even people’s health. People become defensive, distrustful and build barriers to protect themselves to the detriment of everyone else, the company and their contribution to the company.

Is there anything positive about it? Yes. If you work in an environment like this it has huge benefits for you. We are here on this planet to grow, to improve, and to make a difference. The more difficult the environment, the greater the opportunity along with challenge, to find the positive, and the greater the opportunity to grow and evolve. If you are in an environment that even remotely resembles this, take the initiative, create a difference and bring positivity into the organization, positivity in a way that is not judgmental, not accusatory and not confrontational. That is the trick. And difficult though it may be, the greatest gains are made in difficult situations.

You can’t change people that do not want to change. But you can start by being the change – as Mahatma Gandi said. It starts with you, your attitude, your behavior and your thoughts. Guard your words, see the good in where you are, the good in the people you are dealing with and find the higher purpose in what you do. Begin to demonstrate passion toward everything and everyone in your day. And little by little you will change and you will see them change. As the soothsayers and Kabbalists say, ‘bring the light into the world’ and in the process you will have a positive impact on everything and everyone in your day. Your positive energy will be far reaching. YOU WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE. YOU WILL CHANGE EVERYONE THAT COMES INTO YOUR SPHERE OF BEING and all will appreciate your contribution. And eventually, you may see change in people around you, or an opportunity may present itself for something better.

I would love to see someone take the challenge and begin to turn a negative organization into a culture that promotes cooperation, sharing, respect and harmony. I would be the first in line to help and together we would make a difference.

Have a great day.

Ken

The Power of your Beliefs.

What are your beliefs? How do you see yourself? Do you ever wonder why some people always have bad things happen to them while others seem to lead a life as if there is a silver spoon in their mouth? Why is it that Donald Trump can become a billionaire, lose it all, and then become a billionaire again?

Here is a great interview with Dr. Bruce Lipton, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Lipton is a distinguished Professor of Medicine and cell-biologist whose research has opened new doors and started to change our thinking on the power of belief and how it impacts everything. Everything we are, everything we do including our health. Give it a watch. It may change how you see yourself.



As Bruce pointed out, this is more than the power of positive thinking. This is profound change at the core of who you are. This is change at a level where our energy, or as quantum physicists would say, our frequency of vibration, resonates at a level where we can change our lives, our relationships, how teams work together, the environment at our places of work, and the degree of success that we enjoy.

There are techniques that can help people get there. EFT is one technique that is connected to this interview – there are many more. The first step is to take ownership of your personal development. Take the time to begin to change and I guarantee if you take that step, you will begin to see and feel a change in you and as you transform you will begin a path of Mastery that will make your life even better than it is now and give you a sense of who you are, what you want out of life and how to get it.

I wish you a glorious day and until next month, take care.

Ken

The Olympics, then...now...and the Edge.

Thousands of years ago, armies put down their weapons, battles and wars were put on hold, so everyone could attend the Olympics in Greece. It was a celebration of athletic excellence and greatness that we still honour today. Athletes have always been searching for an edge that will help them be triumphant. In Greece, one such athlete lost his garment in a race and won. All the athletes thought he had an advantage over the rest of them, so they took off their clothes and competed naked. From that point on all athletes competed naked at the games. I can’t imagine competing in the nude and the thought of being in the audience – well, not something I can imagine either.

Today’s athletes use all the tools from science, diet, how they train, and their equipment to maximize their performance in their sport. “Own the Podium,” a program the Canadian Olympic team implemented for this Olympics has been a huge success and included the use of sports psychology for all the athletes.

You may have noticed skiers performing their visualization of the course and their run just before their actual run.

The Americans first started using this in the 80s. NASA had been using a technique for years called Visual Motor Rehearsal. The U.S. Olympic team hired Dr. Denis Waitley to teach athletes the power of Visual Motor Rehearsal. Here are the observations from Dr. Waitley. “Using this program, Olympic athletes ran their event –but only in their mind. They visualized how they looked and felt when they were actually participating in their event.

The athletes were then hooked up to a sophisticated biofeedback machine, and its results told the real story about the value of visualization. The neural transmitters that fired were the same that actually fired the muscles in the same sequence as when they were actually running on the track!

This proved that the mind can’t tell the difference between whether you’re really doing something or whether it’s just a visual practice. Dr. Waitley says, “If you’ve been there in the mind you’ll go there in the body.'

Visualization is a powerful tool that most people accept as part of an ongoing athletic conditioning program. Most professional athletes use it on a daily basis. Most sports psychologists teach their clients the value of creative visualization. Most Olympians, golfers, football players, soccer players, even hockey players us it before major contests. Why? Because it works – proven over and over to have significant impact on an athlete’s performance.

I ask you then, if it is such a powerful tool for athletes, why don’t we use it and benefit from it in conditioning our minds for success.

Here is what science has shown us. Visualization, or imagery or feelization strengthens the neural pathways (ie psycho-neuromuscular explanation). When you imagine performing a particular sport, your muscles fire in the same sequence as if you were actually performing the skill. Second, imagery may function as a coding system in the brain to help form a plan or mental blueprint; imagery strengthens the mental blueprint, enabling the actions/ movements to become more familiar or even automatic.

Recent research (Taylor 1995) has focused on the effectiveness of imagery as an important self-regulating skill – ie the ability to set goals, plan and solve problems, regulate arousal and anxiety, manage emotions effectively.) The key is to program your mind and emotions for success, and to make your imagery as vivid, realistic and detailed as possible. When you vividly imagine yourself accomplishing a plan your central nervous system becomes programmed for success. It’s as if the activity you have visualized has already happened.

Imagery can also be used for relaxation or to improve interpersonal communication skills – visualize yourself asking someone a difficult question, asserting needs to a boss, or when recovering from an injury – direct healing thoughts to an injured part of the body – and there is enough anecdotal evidence to show that actual healing results. Chronic patients use it for pain management.

What we have discovered is that the imagery must get as close to real as possible in terms of thoughts, emotions, the feelings, senses and actions. You must feel yourself moving, hear the sounds, smell the smells and create the feeling in your visualizations. It may seem foreign at first, because this part of our brain has atrophied. But with practice your visualizations will become more powerful.

You can use visualization for just about any change you want to make in your life. It is more than just positive thinking or using positive affirmations. It is one of the tools you posses to create the world you want to live in.

So the next time you want an edge, think of using visualization.

Until next time, enjoy the celebration of the moment, enjoy this short video on visualization and have a great day.

Ken

Why must we do the dishes?

Procrastination is like doing the dishes. The longer you take to wash the dishes, the harder it is to get the food off?

Most of us at one time or another have procrastinated. And like washing the dishes, the more we procrastinate on things, the more the sink fills, the larger the pile, the greater the stress and the harder it takes to tackle all the work.

Take a look at your in-basket. Is it full? Are there items that have been there for too long? Have you put some piles aside to get to later and later never comes? Does the pile keep getting bigger and bigger?

Time management consultants will tell you the best system of handling your in-basket is to only touch things once. They will tell you there are only 1 of 3 ways everything should be handled.

1.) Act on it immediately.

2.) Put in a file to be read later. (plan on reading this pile daily)

3.) Throw it in the garbage.

I guess you could handle your inbox in your email, in the same way. A study done by Queen’s University in Canada, a few years back discovered that the average business executive spends one day a week (8 hours) handling emails and mail in their in-basket, most of which is non-actionable. That’s 20% of your time in a week, and it may be even worse thanks to today's Blackberry and iPhones.

And procrastination only makes matters worse. I am finding that people are taking much longer to get back to me, or to make decisions, or to move some of their projects forward. They tell me they are so swamped, there are not enough hours, they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the pendulum of balance has shifted so far to work, that entertaining personal hobbies or quality family time is just out of the question. And they seem to be so buried in paper, systems, procedures, and detail that does little to make a significant contribution.

PLUS - Procrastination can keep us from our greatness. As the saying goes – and I don’t know who to attribute the credit to it, “Boldness has genius power and magic in it.” We all have gifts to share in this world. We all have something to contribute. We often are holding back the success of something that could make a difference in our lives, in other people’s lives and even our world, but we are reluctant for a myriad of reasons, and so we procrastinate, even to the point that the “window of opportunity” closes, or someone else finally does it. We are reluctant to follow our intuition. We are afraid of being bold and taking action. I love one of Albert Einstein’s quotes – and it seems even more relevant today than when he wrote it many years ago.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift

and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honors

the servant and has forgotten the gift.

— Albert Einstein

So the next time you are thinking of procrastinating on something, remember there is a good reason to wash the dishes immediately.

Have a great, stress-releasing, mind changing, transformational day.

And before I forget, I usually like to end with a video of some sort. Here is an amazing 3 minutes by the BBC that makes you realize how incredible our universe is and the wonder and miraculous joy there is everywhere. As usual, sit back, turn on your speakers and enjoy.

Ken