The Power of Choice

Whether or not something is inherent in your belief systems, you may be in a phase whereby you choose to adopt a new belief, but you find yourself experiencing some inner conflict. The reason for this is because we naturally go through a phase, of rejection, of new beliefs, especially if they are replacing old redundant one that has been heavily ingrained within our being. During this time it’s easy to feel like you’re artificially speaking or doing the new belief. You might feel like there’s a lack of sincerity when telling people about this new belief. This is because we may have yet to see any results of our new belief systems. Once the result has been seen, even if only in tiny proportions, those beliefs will end the phase of becoming ingrained. The sincerity will come through the results.

One thing you must have, with regards to your beliefs, is flexibility. If you become obsessed with any one particular belief system, it is likely that and transition phase will be that much harder and “bruise” your ego. Hard and fast beliefs serve you in no way other than to limit your vision of the world. So, just as an experiment, make them flexible, but choose with sincerity and see what changes you find in your life from those new added dimensions.

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Related Posts:

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Elsewhere on the Blogosphere,

I was just over at Secretoflife and Secret Simon put up a post about Positive thinking for beginners that sort of ties in with what I was talking about with regards to belief and results. Click here for the article.

I am also in the process of writing a post called: The paradigm of wanting Vs appreciation which also ties in. Watch out for that one soon!

I was also on Living Stress Free, Naturally and Michelle wrote this post about dealing with children’s stress. I particularly found it handy as I work with children often and so you may find some information relevant to your situation and relationship with children. The article can be found here.

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Other stuff

Things are very busy for me at the moment, work is incredibly busy and I’m spending much of my time playing catchup right now. I think I could use a few tips from Jim Estill on time leadership but by next week I should be back to full blogging once again.

This weekend I’m off to Riga in Latvia for a Stag party. The last time I went on one was rowdy to put it mildly but I’ve changed immensely as a person since then and so this one is going to be an interesting challenge! I don’t drink alcohol and I know that all the other 17 guys around me will be drinking heavily but we’ll be doing lots of fun things like paint balling and go-karting so it should be a fun weekend none the less!

Wish me luck!

Be happy!

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In the spirit of this special day, I just wanted to wish my readers loads and loads of love on this day saved for giving extra special lovers and partners that that little bit more than the average day!!

While I was driving along the motorway this morning a particular song came on that sums up for me the meaning of what this day means to me. Enjoy!

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Hey folks,

I just want to send out my apologies to for the lack of responses to your comments and for my slow blogging this week. I’m on a training course for the whole week and won’t have as much time to create posts.

I will be back soon to full blogging and I would, with your help, like to create a more network orientated blog, I’ll explain further when I get back but with a bit of luck it will be of benefit to both myself and to all of you also.

Have a great week and I will catch up with you all soon!

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We live in a world where we’re surrounded by masses of technology, so much is expected of us, we have more responsibility than ever before, our time is precious and not only is more expected of us, we’re expecting more of ourselves. With all of this in mind, it’s no surprise that illness, both physical and mental, is prolific throughout society!

There is so much for us to juggle that often we just become bogged down and find that joy eludes us because all we can do is think about the next thing that we have to doing or the next event we have to be at. I’ve noticed though that many people use the term: “I’m busy” not because they have too much on their plate, but because the things that they do choose to undertake are badly managed and that is what causes the “BB syndrome” as I call it. (BB= Busy Bee) I’m completely guilty of it too! It almost became an excuse so that I could get out of doing things or seeing people just because I wanted a bit of time to myself.

When we get to that stage where we begin feeling overwhelmed, we try and find solutions, but because we’re used to living in a complex world with complex systems, we think that the solution must also be complex. And then what happens? Because the solution you’ve formulated is so complex, you end up giving up and going back to suffering from the BB syndrome. It’s easier that finding great management strategies, but if no action is taken, all your time and energy is gobbled up by churning over all the things that you have to attend to, rather than taking action.

I was in a situation quite recently where I wasn’t enjoying my job. It was really frustrating me as I love working in I.T. in general, but after I got promoted just over a year ago, things went downhill and I really started to feel quite depressed when I was at work. Ironically, I was finding that everyone else around me was busy and I had nothing to do which really frustrated me! Even though it gave me time to blog and do various other things it was still a bit soul destroying being in place where I earn my livelihood and finding no fulfillment in what I was doing.

I’d had enough! I was so frustrated and I just could handle it anymore. I was on the verge of quitting but first I asked myself, what can I do to turn this around? I tried a few things like getting more involved with some of the other teams, but that didn’t help. I tried making work for myself but that didn’t help. I tried all sorts of things but nothing was getting results. But then I came up with a relatively simple plan, I had no idea if it was going to work or not, but it was so simple that I new that trying it would be easy and hassle free. Deep down I knew I’d found the answer to turn my situation around, but I put that feeling aside and just tried it out.

I formulated a simple strategy for gaining greater fulfillment at work. It wasn’t a supremely complex 50 point plan or didn’t involve taking drastic or massive action, all it took was a simple goal, a very simple strategy that turned things around.

My strategy was simply this:

TO LEARN ONE NEW THING EVERY DAY! Would I be able to manage it?

To clarify; it didn’t have to be anything technical, I didn’t have to learn the complete working of a particular piece of hardware, nope, nothing like that, I just wanted to learn the simple stuff every day. Recently we installed a brand new VOIP (Voice over I.P.) system and that was a huge project, of which, I only had a small part. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get my hands dirty in all area’s of the project, so I decided that whatever I do get involved in, I will make sure that I learn something new from it everyday.

One day, I had a real headache of a problem, A Cisco network switch kept crashing when we switched it on. At first, I thought it was faulty cable, so I changed all the cabling. That didn’t work! Then I thought it might be a faulty GBIC card (A fibre optic component of the network switch). I changed it, but that didn’t work. Then I thought that port itself was faulty so I plugged the GBIC into a different port, that also didn’t work! Then I thought the fibre uplink going in the port of the PASSPORT (A giant core network switch) was faulty so I plugged it into a different port, that still didn’t work!! I then thought: “There’s only one thing left that it can be!” That was that the Cisco switch itself must be faulty. I swapped that too and guess what? It still kept crashing!!! This whole process of elimination took me two days in total, by which time 90% of my hair had turned Grey, but I was not licked yet! I thought: “Let me plug each network cable into the switch one by one and see what happens?” I did that and found that one particular cable caused the switch to crash! BINGO! At least now I knew that it was something plugged into the switch that was causing the problem! (Something that I thought initially but dismissed!) It turned out that someone had double plugged one of the VOIP phone into the wall ports and that was causing a loop which shutting down the port on the PASSPORT! (I promise no more techical jargon from this point onwards! :lol:)

So, I learned something new, actually I learned two things: 1) To trust my gut, and 2) That if that happens to a network switch in the future to try that avenue first!

Even though it was a stressful couple of days, that simple strategy made me feel more relaxed less stressed and also gave me greater confidence for the future. It took my focus away from the stress of the problem and put it onto what was good about the problem.

So in a nutshell, my simple strategy became applied in two ways. At the beginning of my working day I ask myself: What new thing can I learn today? At the end of the day I ask myself: What did I learn today? This extremely simple strategy turned around my entire feeling with regards to my job to the point where I now actually look forward to getting to work everyday. I’m now enjoying my job much more, I feel much lighter at work and even though it’s much busier, I’m not feeling the stress of it.

There we have it, the greatest transformation can come from the most simple strategies. It doesn’t take a major change or a huge 50 point plan or jumping off a cliff to find a solution. All it takes is one SOS and you’ll find the world around you transform in your favour. So let me ask you, what area of your life are you struggling with and what is the most SOS that you can think of to turn your situation around?

Happy hunting!

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I just wanted to share a quick story with you from when it snowed a couple of years ago.

When me and my partner were still together, we woke up one morning and to our complete surprise it had snowed quite a bit through the night. We were both excited and just couldn’t wait to get out and have a snow fight. When we got outside we had a bit of a snow fight and then we decided we wanted to build a snowman. There wasn’t that much snow around but we grabbed what we could, and since most of the snow was on the car anyway, we built him on top of the car! It wasn’t too big but once we’d finished we realised we were both very late for work and then we thought about what we were going to do to the snowman? Neither of us had the heart to take him off the car in case he fell apart. So we thought why not just leave him on top of the car?!

So there we were driving along with this snowman on top of the car, every passing car was staring at us and laughing! We couldn’t stop laughing on seeing their faces, it was making us happy to know that everyone else was enjoying it too!. As we continued driving, I had to brake suddently and poor Mr snowman went flying off the roof of my car into the car in front! As much as were were upset we just couldn’t stop laughing as it was just so odd to see a flying snowman! Anyway, below is a picture of the snowman on my car!

(Whatever you do today…make sure you go out and enjoy the snow!!!)

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Today I woke up to the fabulous site of deep snow and a blanket of white as far as the eye could see! I woke at at 5.30 and I gazed out the window and saw one of my favorite sites in the whole world; fresh untouched snow! I quickly got ready and dashed outside to place those first footprints in the snow and hear that lovely scrunchy sound of crushing fresh powder with my feet! I truly am a big kid at heart and I was so excited although a little disheartened that I had no one around at that time to have a snow fight with.

I went on my walk as usual, but as I was so excited about the snow, I couldn’t focus my thoughts as I usually do so I decided to try something different. Firstly I imagined that I was in Narnia and that I was on my way to see Aslan to receive my all important mission to conquer the evil Queen! I remember as a young kid watching the cartoon version of the lion, the witch and the wardrobe and whenever I used to see the snow all I could think about was being out in the snow and playing!

Then, once that fantasy was over, I pretended to be Rocky in the fourth installment where he trains, in the snow, for the big fight in Russia against Ivan Drago! ((*Does the Rocky Celebration*))

When I got back close to my house, I decided that wanted to build a snowman! My first attempt wasn’t that successful but the second attempt was a little better but the only thing I didn’t have was pebbles for the eyes and nose, and a pipe to boot! He looked a bit evil but he was my snowman none the less and I loved him just the same!

Even though there was no one to have fun with, I had fun on my own building my snowman and creating imaginary worlds in my head. It’s so important to keep that child in your alive through your imagination. It keeps you from feeling lonely and allows you to feel happy even when thing seem like they are not going so well! As Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is everything, it is the preview of lifes coming attractions.” What better way to get imaginative than in the same way as a child; free, wild, and without limits!

(Later on that morning, I went to check if the snowman was still there and to my horror I saw one of kids from my street running away with the head and another running away with the body! My poor poor snowman!) :(

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Minute meditations are a method through which you can empower yourself in many different way throughout the day. No matter how busy you are, no matter how much you have on your plate, you can always spare yourself a minute or two, 3 or 4 times a day to recharge your spirit. Remember, this is for your well being and so you will give as time and commitment to this in proportion to how important you feel your well being is to you. This is your life and your time, make it important to feel refreshed and to find time for yourself because before you know it, this thing called life, will seem way way distant in the rear view mirror.

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For much of my day I sit at an office desk in front of a computer. Working in I.T. there isn’t anywhere else I have to be unless I have to fix some hardware or attend meetings. What I find is that after even just an hour or two of sitting in the same position, when it comes to getting up and moving around, I feel very stiff and brittle throughout my whole body. It takes me at least a few minutes to regain my full flexibility.

For reasons of health and safety, our HR department recommends that we have a change of activity every 30 - 45 minutes to make sure we are getting plenty of movement and not doing to much damage to the body through sitting still for so long. In front of a computer, you eyes can strain, you can get headaches, your joints can get stiff, you can get dehydrated but most importantly you can become very dull from the lack of movement.

So what can you do during those few minutes free? Well for me, during those times where I change my activity, I have a number of minute meditations that I use to take my focus away from work for just a moment, and move it towards the bigger picture of human existence, as a whole, and the purpose of being. I try not to challenge myself with questions or bog myself down with proving what I feel to be true, I just allow myself to sink into the experience of being and enjoy the feelings of relaxed awareness and blissful communion with my innermost core.

I offer to you some suggestions and some of the momentary thoughts I use to regain alignment and enhance congruency with my being.

Thought 1 - As I sit here, I am aware that within this universe I am interconnected with every atom. I am a vibrational being and every atom of this body vibrates at a unique frequency just like each and every cell phone has a unique frequency. I know that my state of being will attract vibrational matches and so I, being the powerful creator that I am with unlimited choices, offer vibrations of love, happiness, peace, joy, caring, compassion to everything around me so that others around me feel the vibrations emanating from me. This in turn assists them in attracting vibrational matches.

Thought 2 - I am a 3 part being, a mind, a body and spirit. The body and mind are my tools for experiencing in this realm of the physical. I, the spirit, originated from a non physical plain and chose to inherit a body to come and experience the beauty of contrast within the physical dimension. This universe of relativity exists so that I experientially partake in that which I know of but have little experience in. I cannot know darkness without light; I cannot know happiness without sorrow. So I am grateful at all times to know the purpose of this physical see-saw.

Thought 3 - Every human spirit I encounter is a reflection of me just as I am a reflection of them. As I see each soul, I remember that we are ultimately one universal family. Skin colour, religion, nationality, languages, are all constructs of this social society but it is not the baseline of existence. These are just frames of reference and identity but ultimately we all originated with one purpose, with one desire, that is; to know ourselves through physical experience.

Thought 4 - At every single step I have a choice. I choose what to feel from what moment to the next. I choose how to perceive the world. Nothing shapes my perceptions other that those things that I have chosen to believe. I choose how I react to people, events and circumstances. No one is responsible for the way I feel except me. I have the power of choice. It is my greatest gift and is the most powerful force in the universe. No matter the outcome of my choices, I will remain empowered to know that I can choose something different the next time according to the purpose I’ve chosen for myself.

Thought 5 - I am extremely grateful to be here today. I am grateful for the joy of this experience. I am grateful for all the wonderful things in my life which I get to be a part of everyday. I take nothing for granted and appreciate everything. I am thankful that I chose this particular journey. I thank my creator and maker for offering me the freedom of choice whether to be here or not and I’m glad I made the decision that I did.

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These are just a few of the ones that I use on a regular basis and I encourage you to make up your own as you see fit. Make them light but profoundly impactful to you. Think of new ones on a regular basis or just make them up as you go along. There are no hard and fast rules about how you can do this. Just a minute or two a couple of times a day to go deeper within yourself and you will feel more powerful that you have ever felt before and you will find yourself naturally more grateful for all your experiences. Have fun and make it a habit!

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I just felt like writing whatever came into my head so here goes….

- I’m excited about the weekend. I’m going to buy a present, for my best friend silver butterfly, for his birthday on Monday.

- Even though my knee and shoulder are in a bit of pain I’m determined to push through and keep up my training.

- I want to learn how to feel rejuvenated from just a few hours sleep every night.

- How can I effect serious change on a global scale in a positive way?

- How can I become more humorous?

- Wouldn’t it be great to be able to do a LoA (Law of Attraction) experiment on a global scale.

- Shake your booty

- Lets make love, lots of it.

- Go give a stranger a hug! (If they hit you, give them another hug!)

- This weekend go do something mad that you’ve never ever done before! (I certainly intend too!)

- Go give your car a wash, mine was dirty but I gave it a wash and it looks brand new again!

- How can I bring life coaching to the education system?

- Smile

- Jump

- Go Bananas and eat one too!

- What is fly fishing?

- I have had some absolutely stunning views of the Moon this week.

- Time for me to go home, have a great weekend everybody!

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walking the same route for 20 years and and still seeing something new everyday. It’s not like you need to look for something new, you just keep your eyes open!

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