The Clouds

Posted on 5 September, 2011 by Anthony
Share

The Clouds

Sometimes it is hard to remember that things are not all bad. You know how it is, it seems that all is gloomy, the light in your life is dim and it is hard to see where you are going. When it gets like that, it is very hard to stay motivated, hard to keep your mind on the jobs that need to be done. When that happens to me I try to keep my mind on what I am trying to achieve, and use that to keep myself going, but in the gloom it get hard to see where I am going.

Have you ever been in a plane on a gloomy or rainy day? If you have, you will remember that very quickly after you leave the ground you fly through the clouds and pretty soon you break out into brilliant sunshine in the clear air above. When you see that you realise that the sun is ALWAYS shining above the clouds no matter how dim things are on the ground.

So when the gloom gets to you, and it seems dull and grey everywhere you look, just remember, above the clouds, not so far away, the sun is shining bright! The tops of those clouds that seem so solid, dark and gloomy are light and fluffy, the sky above is bright blue. When I remember that, when I can turn my mind’s eye to bright blue sky and sunshine above, I find that I can again see where I am going, the gloom lifts a little and I can get on my way.

Posted in Stuckness | Leave a comment

The Belief

Posted on 18 August, 2011 by Anthony
Share

Sometimes, if you really want something, and you don’t even consider the possibility of failure, success comes easily!

A long time ago, when I was about 12 years old, I could not ride a bicycle. All my friends had bikes and they would all ride wherever they went, I would have to walk, or ride my tricycle (which as a12 year old was never going to happen!). So my world was as big as I could walk.

I really wanted to ride. There was an obvious problem, without a bike of my own, it was not likely to happen. But I really, really wanted to ride. What was odd, is that I have no recollection of ever considering that I would not be able to master the bicycle.

So, one obstacle at a time I set out to learn. First I had to find a bike. I asked a friend if I could use his bicycle. He was OK with that, but it had to be at his house, two streets away, and when he was not using it. OK then, I would use it while everyone else was watching the cartoons on TV after school.

The first few times I set off around the yard I fell immediately. After a few tries I could get the length of the yard. I never considered the falls as final or as a sign that I would not be able to ride, it just didn’t occur to me.

So each afternoon for a few days I kept trying. I got better. Eventually I could ride around the yard without falling, then up the street. I had mastered the bicycle! Now I could explore my world faster and farther than I had ever been able to before.

Think about what you really want. How badly do you want it? What are you willing to give up? If you couldn’t fail what would you set out to be?

Remember, others can give you advice, but YOU have to create you and live your your life. So, its about YOUR belief! If you want it badly enough and if you don’t believe you can fail, imagine how big your world could be!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Pretence

Posted on 10 August, 2011 by Anthony
Share

not JUST pretending!

In the last post I talked about improving your fun by changing your belief. But as we all know it is hard to changing yourself, changing your beliefs.

Whether it is getting rid of bad habits, starting new ones or doing new “scary” things, it takes a lot of work.

How would you go about doing that, changing your belief, or your habits?  Well, one way to start would be to pretend. Just pretend that you are the sort of person you want to be. Say you are terrified of public speaking, pick someone who is accomplished at that and imagine you are them. Imagine “What would ____ do?”, or “how would ____ feel?”.

If you do that, you will find that your mind will change a little bit. You will still be anxious, but when you work at playing your role, you will find that the way you think changes and work of playing the role helps you through. It does this because you are not “you”, you are your role model and you know that they are good at this.

Now this is going to take work. You need to stay in the persona of the role.  You need to be focussed. You will slip back. But if you really want it you will keep at it. After a while you will find that you are not trying so hard to “play” the role, it comes a bit more naturally.

If you want to start a new habit, say to exercise every day, pick a person who demonstrates a daily exercise habit, and tell yourself that you are a daily exercise type like them. Do the things that your role model would do, think like your role model would think. Keep playing at being that sort of person.  We know it is pretence, but after a while you don’t have to pretend so hard, the habits you are pretending become a bit more natural to you.

Eventually you will find that you ARE the sort of person that you started out pretending to be. You will have turned yourself into your own superhero! How cool is that!

Posted in Progress | 3 Comments

The Fun

Posted on 2 August, 2011 by Anthony
Share

I was talking recently with a friend about some of the things that I have done which I thought were scary.  And we were wondering why it is that people put themselves in a position to be frightened, and in particular why some people take what appears to others to be huge risks of leaping off mountains while others struggle with standing on the kitchen chair.  And this is not a uniform characteristic. The person who throws themself off a mountain may find new social situations or public speaking totally threatening, while the person who struggles to stand on the kitchen chair is happy to start a new business or address an audience of thousands.

As we talked we were discussing just what is it that makes the approach to risk taking for different things so different to different people? Then out of my mouth popped “the fun is in the risk”.  It was one of those answers just arrived by itself, one of those realisations, a light bulb moment.

When we take risks, it is a bit frightening. But that is exactly why it’s fun. In fact if it is not scary, if it does not have that edge, then the fun factor goes away.

But some risks we are willing to take and others are unacceptable.  What is the difference? The difference is belief. If you believe that you will manage whatever or overcome the problem, then the risk is fun. If you do not believe that you can manage, the risk is not enjoyment, it is torment.

The people who throw themselves off mountains believe that their equipment and their skills will see them safely through. For the people who cannot bring themselves to use a bungee jump, it is because they cannot bring themselves to believe that they will not come to some sort of harm.

So, if you are facing something that looks too scary, it may be easy to resolve … change your belief.

If you have the confidence that your skills, capabilities and other resources will enable you to successfully complete a task, then it may be scary but fun. So if you want to be more capable – and have more fun – the most important thing you can do is work on your belief.  Build your belief that you CAN, belief that you will not come to harm.

You will find that the more you believe in yourself, the more things that you CAN do, and the more fun you will have. So build your belief!

Have a look at clearwater coffee to see how we are building our belief.

Posted in Progress, Stuckness | Leave a comment

The Brick

Posted on 18 July, 2011 by Anthony
Share
You know how it is, you have to to something. But it’s big, very big. The problem is not that you don’t know what to do, but that the scale of what must be done is so big that it’s overwhelming. Where to start? 

When I am stuck like this I am reminded of a story I read a long time ago. It was in Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirzig. The author was relating how a student was stuck about how to start and assignment, which was to write a piece about a small town, but the job was too big and the student didn’t know where to start.

To help, the teacher told the student to just write about one building, but the job was still too big, then the student was told to pick one brick in one building and start there. The result was a flood of storytelling. Just from narrowing his view to that one brick.

Sometimes I find when that when I get stuck getting started, when I find the prospect of what needs to be done is just overwhelming, I have to narrow my focus down to just one small task… that brick. Once I get started, the job tells me what needs to be done next, but it takes the focus on that brick to let me get started.

So if you are stuck and don’t know where to start, don’t worry, just find your brick. The rest of the job will find its way to you.

You can have a look at our brick at clearwater coffee.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Crazy Ones

Posted on 8 July, 2011 by Anthony
Share

As I was reading my  (snail) mail yesterday, my attention was drawn to a quote on a newsletter. The quote was about the crazy ones, often attributed to Steve Jobs or Apple.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

That quote resonated with me. We all know about the famous people who that may apply to. But, what about all the other people, who in their own quiet way are making a difference in their world.

I don’t know about you, but I would like to think that paragraph could be applied to me. Not in a big way maybe, but at least the bit around me. So, let’s all be crazy ones, in our own small ways, and if we all change even a small part of our world, imagine the difference we could make!

See how we are making our difference at www.clearwatercoffee.com.au

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment