In my humble opinion there are only two lessons in life we as a species need to master. As far as I’m concerned all else is an illusion. I too get caught up in the illusions frequently which is not a bad thing.

When I get caught up in the illusion, and I awaken to the fact that I’m getting caught in it, I am then able to then go back and focus on the two master lessons. It’s like practising in real life.

The first master lesson: Power of Choice or Decision.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl.

Learning this lesson has so far been the greatest lesson of all for me. There is no greater power in life than understanding that I have the power to choose how I respond to everything that comes along in my life. At times it might seem like reaction is the stronger of the two forces and that you don’t actually have a choice. Reaction is conditioning and when you acknowledge that it is you can begin to change it if you choose to do so. I wish I could say I was an A* student at it but it’s a subject that I love studying and so I’m hoping that one day I attain my masters degree in it!

The second master lesson: Being Present in this Moment

“Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be” – Eckhart Tolle

How often have you let your past or future dominate the person you are? You are not your past and you are not what happens to you in the future. You are on the outside who you choose to be in this moment but you are, ultimately, this moment. If you don’t learn to live in the present you’ll constantly find yourself at battle with your memories and future hopes/dreams/fears.

The experience of being in this present moment is one that we’ve all had and you’ll know when you’ve had it because time flew by quicker than normal. Being in this moment alters our perception of time. When you are focussed on now and understand that it is all that really matters suddenly your experience of life totally changes. If you can be doing any task and be totally present with it you’ll feel a true sense of fulfilment and enjoyment.

If anyone out there can tell me a better way to live my life then I’m more than happy to listen! As it stands I haven’t found a better way then putting these two master lessons to good use in everything I do.

Recognise when you’re giving up, because that thought alone, may be enough to inspire you into action.

This thought occured to me last week. I got to a point where I was ready to quit. It’s when I realised and awoke to the fact that I was quitting a task that I suddenly had a new found energy to complete it. I thought “I’m no quitter” and suddenly it dawned on me that I didn’t want to be a quitter. I want to be a winner.

This week on The Backchat Show we’ll be interviewing James Cleverly who’s been appointed directly by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to be the Ambassador for young people.

He’ll be working alongside many organisations to provide opportunities and hope for young people in the capital who otherwise may be drawn to crime, alcohol, drugs and gangs.

Backchat is aired in West London on 89.6FM at 6pm every Sunday. If you cannot pick up a signal you can listen to the show from anywhere in the world by going to the website: http://www.westsideradio.co.uk

We should be interviewing James at 6pm so please do listen in and feel free to pose any questions by texting in on 60300 and put the word ‘westside’ before your message. Also you can add the team on msn by adding the address: backchat@westsideradio.co.uk

“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”

- Dr. Joyce Brothers

Have you made up your mind about what you believe about the human mind?

The human mind is a powerhouse of magnificence and potentiality. Information permeates the mind in different ways. Some believe that you can train the mind just like a muscle. Some people believe that the mind has it’s limits and others believe that you shouldn’t mess with the mind.

I found an article online that I was reading yesterday that branded the entire self-help industry a sham! I’m not really into generalisations. I know that there are people out there only doing things for personal and financial gain without the genuine desire to contribute and help others. Saying the whole industry is a sham though is a form of extremeism. I could quite easily say that all politicians tell the truth all the time and always create policies that are in our best interests. Does that make it true? No of course not! There are some genuine politicians out there who doing a great service and representing the people well. (Often they’re the ones who you don’t see in the mass media.) And then you get those who might make false promises just in order to get votes. They play to your needs and then use them to get what they want. How you define that?

Some might say that the pharmaceutical industry does everything it does with our best interests at heart! If they did, they wouldn’t tell you to spend your money on pointless pain killers, for minor ailments. They would tell you that very often headaches are caused by dehydration. If they persist then see your doctor but don’t mask them with pain killers.

Does it make any of this true? My perception is being edited by all the information I’ve processed and through that I’m filtering and offering my opinion of what that it all means. You’re doing the exactly the same thing. You may have a belief about something which, without even realising, is something you’ve acquired just because you’ve been told to. Imagine if you chose to believe something different and explored the possibility that you can do anything? How would that make your life different to what it is now?

Am I selling something? Yes! I’m selling the idea that you can be so much more than you are right now if you choose to be! If you happy exactly as you are, great! If you’re not then know that you have a tool, the value of which is immeasurable, at your disposal to harness at any time for any purpose.

Watch the following video and follow the instructions carefully.

Isn’t it amazing what the power of focus can do?

You were given a task which you focussed on and saw though. I believe this is what they call, in psychology, a ‘scotoma’. Something so simple gave you enough desire to be so focussed that you missed something that glaringly obvious.

Last night I was speaking with a friend. We were talking about how we both had neither seen nor heard from a mutual friend. I casually joked that it was because she was spending so much time with her boyfriend and no longer had time for us. I also said that it wouldn’t surprise me if marriage was on the cards for her soon. The truth is I had no idea about any of this and everything I said was all in jest. I knew that she had a boyfriend and that was about it. Literally, less than 3 minutes later, I got a text message from that friend saying that her boyfriend had proposed to her on Sunday and she said yes! (If you’re reading this; you go girl!)

People are out there trying to convince me that we don’t have deeper connections and that psychic energy is not prooven. HELLO?! I’m sure millions of us have had similar experiences. What more proof do you need?

I don’t need to tell you what all those successful people have achieved just by believing in something. Go and have a look at all the amazing information out there that demontrates that kind of power you have at your will. With all of this kind of information to hand what do you choose to believe? If you choose to believe the mind is nothing special and just runs on auto pilot; then that’s exactly what it will be to you. If you believe it is much more to you and has a power that puts nothing out of your reach; then likewise that is exactly what it will be to you!

I just wanted to tell you about my new slot on the radio which I’ll be doing in addition to the Backchat Show. I’ll be doing a music show called ‘Inspirational Soul’ and I’ll be playing the most uplifting soul, rnb, hip hop music anywhere on the planet! It’s aired on Saturdays and Sundays from 6 – 8am UK time and the great news is that you can listen from anywhere in the world via the website which is: http://www.westsideradio.co.uk

Check out my lil promo vid I made myself while still a bit sleepy from waking up so early!

Hi Everyone! I only just yesterday actually realised that today is the 3rd birthday of UnlimitedChoice! So 3 years and 428 articles later I’m still here, still going strong and I still feel like I’ve got many years of blogging still in me!

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those of you who’ve left me comments, sent me messages and feedback and to all those I’ve connected with through this blog!

I also just wanted to add that I’ve just upgraded my WordPress to 2.7 and it works great!! If you haven’t tried it yet I highly recommend that you get yourself upgraded!

Here’s to the next 3 years of blogging!

Today is day five of my trial and being completely honest I haven’t noticed any benefits so far of doing the deep breathing. It’s still early days yet and a long way to go so who knows that might change as time passes but still nothing major to report back. I’m wondering if it also has anything to do with the fact that because I already exercise regularly and vigourously that this, additional breathing regime, may not make any difference.

At the moment I’m playing badminton four times a week and for usually for about three hours at a time. I used to only play doubles but now I’ve taken up singles as well which is much more intense and tiring. I always find that with singles I naturally breathe much more heavily and deeply because I take every single shot myself and you don’t have a partner to rely on to cover me.

When I made the jump from doing no exercise to when I started exercising regularly I experienced a surge of energy and so I’m wondering if I’ve reached the peak of what you can gain from deep breathing. Again only time will tell and I’ll know for sure over the coming weeks.

Generally speaking if I don’t see the benefits of doing something very quickly I get bored and lose interest very quickly. Because of that I’m finding it difficult to remain disciplined in carrying out my 3 sets each day, and as each day passes, its getting harder and harder to stick to.

Day 3 of my deep breathing trial and nothing major to report so far except a continuation of what I mentioned yesterday that doing the breathing gives me a feeling of warming up inside almost in the same way as if I was doing gentle exercise. In many ways it does feel like I’m doing a mini work out each time I do one of my repetition sets.

The other big discipline coming out of this is slowing down and simply doing nothing. I am so used to rushing around from one thing/event/sport/activity to the next that I rarely ever take a minute just to be. That moment of just being is so powerful. Not focussing on the past or the future, only on now! If you’ve never tried that before I highly recommend it. In this day and age we’re all so used to being constantly on the go doing various things and our thoughts flailing around on just about anything else other than the thing that is most important; this moment!

I’m very curious to see ultimately what the effect of this trial will be. I’m hoping that it will boost my energy levels, make me more emotionally stable and give me greater stamina and fitness. Who knows, one, all or none of those things might happen, it could even be a completely different set of results and produce outcomes that I didn’t even foresee.

Kelly over at Massage Therapy Careers has posted up a list of 100 blogs that will inspire you to become a better person. They’re categorised aswell so check it out as there is something for everyone!

Have you ever seen these movies? If not I recommend you watch them. I’ve watched them both and I’ll be writing up my thoughts on them very soon. They’re both about 2 hours long so I recommend you go grab your cup of tea and sit back and pay full attention to these videos.

Zeitgeist – The Movie

Zeitgeist 2 – Addendum

Bonjour! I just got back yesterday after having a lovely short break in Paris with a dear friend of mine. We had a bundles of fun, the weather was gorgeous, and we managed to see all the amazing sites that Paris has to offer! We also managed to meet up with another close friend that lives in Paris and she took us on a tour of the more cultural and authentic parts of the city. We went by Eurostar train and as It usally takes about 2.5 hours each way so I wanted to use that opportunity to catch up on my reading.

Hay House publishing kindly sent me a copy of Steve Pavlina’s new book ‘Personal Development for Smart People’, and since I was going to have plenty of time during the journey, I thought I would take it with me to read on the train. There’s something I find really relaxing and soothing about long train journey’s and so reading for me, on a train, is the ideal activity!

As a fellow blogger and an avid personal development book reader I naturally have my own flavour of what I like to see in the personal development books that I read so without further ado…lets jump right in!

Firstly I wanted to talk about the asthetics of the book. It’s not normally something that matters to me but one of my friends mentioned to me she’s very cautious about which books she reads on the tube or train; the reason being because she works for a big firm in the city and worries about the type of the image it gives off. Well, according to my friends criteria, Steve’s book scores highly in the asthetics area. There are no pictures on the cover, only wording, and of the title the words ‘Smart People’ are in larger writing than the rest. I asked my friend if she would be comfortable reading this on the tube and the woman from they city…she say yes!

This is Steve’s first book and is just over 250 pages long. One of the core themes in the book is his personal philosophy of self experimentation. Sounds more painful than it is! Rather than just listening to what you’ve been told about a particular subject or about particular lifestyle choices, Steve recommends that you try for yourself and judge by your own results. He suggests doing 30 day trials. From his own experience two 30 day trials he has done are switching to a vegan diet and polyphasic sleep. He goes into some detail about the results of those experiments in the book and you can also find out more information on his blog.

I can speed read up to 1500 words and minute which can vary greatly depending on the book I’m reading. If the book is well written and is easy to follow then the faster I can read it. If it is not then the harder it is to read at spead. I found this book exceptionally easy to speed read and even on a moving train. There is something I love about his style of writing which has a natural flow and an almost hypnotic and trance enducing feel. Once I got going I couldn’t put the book down. His message was unconsciously persuasive and I found myself putting into practise some things from the book while I was in Paris without even thinking about it.

The book itself is divided up into two parts: 1) Fundamental Principles and 2) Practical application. Steve has come up with 7 fundamental principles of personal growth with the 3 core principles being truth, love and power. The second part of the book is all about applying those principles to the areas of life that we can all relate to such as health, relationships and money. The principles are universal to all the areas of life that you may consider important and he has created and included some very simple methods and strategies of incorporating them as part of your life including a list of 66 productive habits! Steve also touches on familiar subjects like the law of attraction and also gives his veiw on how to apply them properley rather than just waiting for things to happen.

For anyone who’s not familiar with Steve’s blog and his style of writing he has a very, no nonsense, honest and to the point style of writing and he has maintained this approach for the book. His ethos is a common sense approach to living a life with purpose and doing it consciously. Throughout the book, a strong point that comes across, which is also in line with the message that I put out through this blog, and that is you have the power of choice. It is up to you to build your own awareness that at each moment you have a choice as to what step you take next and how you take it.

One thing in particular I like about this book is that Steve is very honest about his past failures. Sometimes when you read personal development books the author can often over look the process of how they got to where they are now. When reading other books in the past, I’ve felt like that the author didn’t go through the same struggles as I was having, they made it sound easy which in turn led me to feel bad about myself. That’s something that Steve does differently. He is very open about his past and his failures and he puts and entertaining spin on them which helped me and it’s something I feel will help most readers to feel a deeper connection with Steve and in turn you also won’t feel badly about your failures.

There are some great quotes throughout the book; some familiar, for example, there were quotes from ‘The Prophet’ by Khalil Gibran and some quotes which I have never heard before. There was a poem that Steve included in the book which I had never come across but I can understand why it was one of his favorites from when he was younger!

Another thing you might find with some personal development books is that they can sometimes be a bit fluffy in nature and so, unless you’re a bit of a spiritual, mantra chanting nut, it won’t necessarily always appeal to everyone. This book may finally crack that and bridge the gap between those who are self help junkies and those people who would normally never pick up a book of this genre.

There was very little that I can say as a downside to the book although being completely honest I could tell that that this was a first book. From a personal development stand point there was nothing new to me in this book but there were different ways of applying what I already know. While reading I found it hard to put the book down and I did very much enjoy the heart warming stories stories that he shares from applying one of his principles of oneness especially when it comes to relationships. Anyone who has struggled with relationships in the past, in whatever capacity, will definitely benefit from this book.

Verdict:

The book gets my double thumbs up. I can relate to Steve a lot as I feel our journey has been very similiar in many ways and I feel we share a very similar view of life and how to live. I think you will relate to Steve’s journey and message especially if you have dismissed your dreams because a lack of self worth or lack of qualifications. If you have then this book will be definitely be inspiring to you! I’m sure once you’ve read the book you’ll also agree with me about Steve’s brutal beautiful honesty and his passion for what he does will most certainly bring that out in you too.

For more information about Steve Pavlina and the book visit http://www.stevepavlina.com

The book is availabe to buy from Amazon now!

The Now Watch

He decided to get in touch with me after seeing my WFP1 blog post which spoke about nowness and being in the moment. When he showed it to me I thought it was such a simple idea and yet such a powerful one to. It’s a watch like any other but on the face, it has in big letters, the word ‘NOW’. It’s serves a reminder that there is only now. There is no tomorrow. The most powerful time to do something is always now!

Pop over to his website and take a look for yourself!

Your life will be worth what you value yourself at.

I recently got my free Blackberry Bold mobile phone upgrade to replace the Nokia N95 8GB that I was using. (Although I will still be using and keeping my N95 for my other contract but primarily for the camera!) It was a difficult choice but in the end I wanted to get a device that had a full qwerty keyboard that wasn’t a PDA style slide-out keyboard and the Bold was the only one that fit the bill. The Nokia E71 was an option but the keyboard seemed less usable to me. (Especially taking into account my giant sized hands)

I am still a strong fan of the Nokia’s and in my mind the Nokia N95 8GB is by far the best phone ever made so far. It doesn’t look amazing but it has every feature you would would want your gadget to have with the exception of Digital Radio.

I had the opportunity of using the new Nokia Push email service which was, I have to say, excellent and I would go so far to say that it is better than the Blackberry Internet Service. The great thing about the Nokia push email was that it would mark emails as read once you opened them but the Blackberry services does not do that.

I wanted the full qwerty keyboard so that I could blog on the move because I am always out and about. The easiest way of doing that without going to the browser on my Blackberry is to use the wordpress email blogging facility. The problem is that I cannot get it to work! I’ve posted a help message on the wordpress forums but I have yet to receive a response. If anyone would be willing to help me get it working I would greatly appreciate it!

Flexibility

In times of change, it is the learners who will inherit the earth, while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists.

– Al Rogers

I love the above quote and I only just remembered to include it while writing this post. This post was sparked by the news today of the collapse of the giant US investment bank Lehman Brothers. Even though the media will always put the most disastrous spin on any event, todays news does give an insight of how things are in terms of the global economy.

No matter what happens, those who are flexible will be the ones who will be able to excel, nomatter what conditions transpire whether that be due to the economy or any other event that causes a global shift. Find a way of embracing change learn to nurture with yourself the key skill of flexibility. If your first reaction is one of fear or doubt change it by instead asking yourself: “How can I make the event at hand work for me?