Please Note: The above is a reprint of a post used by Don Miller on his website .  He credits it to Eric Aronson

Jill Hutchison
~Challenge What’s Possible~

Jill Hutchison is the “Tap Your Next Power” Mentor taking successful, driven professionals into their next stage of growth and advancement, the one they have been struggling to see and tap, the one that will throw open the doors to their next opportunity.

Jill connects you to your most powerful self, shifting attitudes, beliefs and actions to spark achievement rapidly by going straight to the issue.  She draws out your creativity to craft a goal larger than perhaps imagined.

Now your eyes are open, and the path is clear and straight-forward.  Now you tap the full power in you to achieve what’s next for you.


Am I crazy?

Am I crazy to agree to a new puppy in the house? We haven’t had a dog since we moved to Australia.Pepper

Her name is Pepper Hutchison.  See how ultra-cute she is?

I’ve discovered through this process that puppy training is not what it used to be.

The old fashioned way was to use rolled up newspaper and reprimand it when it did something wrong.

The new way that I’ve learnt is to teach it words. So when it’s sitting, you say “sit”.
When it’s lying down we say “down”.

Each time she does the right action, we say the corresponding name. We don’t ask her to sit or anything else until she actually understands what the word is.
The theory is that in a few months, she should sit when asked, and lie down when we say down (I’ll let you know how that goes!)
When you give it a treat, move the treat from it’s nose over the back of it’s head, till it sits. then give it the treat and it learns to sit for treats.
The positive reinforcement is very important, and that is how they learn.
Now perhaps you knew all this long before I did.

I wasn’t really much of a dog person (preferring cats) so although I’ve been around dogs my entire life, I’ve never been the one to do the training.
My point is this: if positive reinforcement works so well with dogs, isn’t also logical that is works well with people too?
“Yes”, I hear you say, “Duh, obviously”

We all know this, and yet, how often do we use positive reinforcement to create the behaviours we wish to see in our own life from ourselves and from those around us?

How many times do we say ‘thank you’ when someone is doing what they are supposed to do? Do we take them for granted?
In business particularly, when things get a bit rushed, it’s easier to only comment when the wrong actions are being taken, rather than to notice the 90% of the time when the right actions are taken.

 

My challenge to you today:

1. Congratulate yourself for everything you do right today.

2. Notice and congratulate those around you when they do something right.

3. If you notice someone with an awesome attitude, comment on it with the #awesomeattitude tag on social media!

4. Let me know how you go. Add your comments below.

Have a great Chooseday,
Kind regards
Jill

PS: we still have a few places available at the next Think and Grow Rich mastermind starting in January.

 

Am I crazy?

Am I crazy?

 

Who, Me? Attitude?

Thank you to Bev Letton for inviting me to speak to the business owners of the Wanneroo Business Association. It was a real pleasure sharing my story of why I believe attitude is so vital in our success, happiness and especially business.

Nothing on earth can stop you from succeeding in business if you have the right attitude. No-one can help you if you have a negative attitude, unless you decide to change it.

I would love to speak at your next conference or management meeting.

To subscribe to more inspiring messages from me, please share your contact details in the box to the right of this page. Each Tuesday I send out a Chooseday message with uplifting, funny, insightful messages. Sometimes they will be on video, others simply a quote or a comment.

As Zig Ziglar said “Motivation doesn’t last, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily”.
Feed your mind positive information if you want to stay positive. We can’t eat a huge dinner on Sunday and expect to stay fed till Friday if we don’t eat during the week. Inspiration really comes from within, when you are on a positive mind-food diet.

Have you run out of goals (Part 2)

There was such a great response to the first video about Running out of your goals, that I have done Part 2 for you!

I certainly don’t have the same goals now as what I had 20 years ago. Don’t be tempted to simply keep the same goals for years – re-examine them to see if they still excite you.
If you’ve run out of energy to work on the goals on your list, they are probably not the right goals for you. They might have been the right goals a few years ago, but you’ve shifted. You’ve grown and evolved. Your drivers have changed. Your goals need to change and grow with you.

We need to relook at our goals at every phase of our lives.

In this video share some tips to help you with that.

What are your goals?
What would you like me to talk about in future Chooseday videos?

With love and gratitude
Jill

PS: If you missed last week’s video of Part 1 of Running out of Goals, here’s the link to it.

Begin at once (don’t wait for everything to be perfect!)

Don’t wait for circumstances to be right.

You wouldn’t wait for all the traffic lights to be green before leaving home would you?

Create a definite plan for carrying out your goal, then begin at once. If you are willing and able to do the first steps along the journey of reaching for your goals, then start. If it’s the right goal for you then it could be a scary and exciting one, and you may have no idea how you are going to reach the end goal. That’s ok, as long as you know the first few steps, the rest will follow.

ACTION is key.

This is the fourth in the video series on Napoleon Hill’s 6 definite practical actions to turn your desire into achieving your goals.

If you would like to join the next Think and Grow Rich Mastermind series online or in Perth, more information is available on www.evolvedynamic.com.

Achieving goals, what I learnt from walking 100km last year and why I’m doing it again this year!

In October I will be walking 100km in the Oxfam Trailwalker event in Perth. Yes I did this last year – so why am I doing it again?

Well, I honestly enjoyed training for last years walk and I actually enjoyed the walk itself! I enjoyed how healthy I felt with all the walking training, fresh air and inspiring conversations.
Not only that, but the walk itself reinforced to me the value of setting big goals and having small realistic incremental goals to strive for.

So here are my lessons!

1. Set big goals even if you think you can’t achieve them!

When I set the goal to walk 100km I didn’t know if I could do it because I’d never done it before! I had severe knee problems during training so even 3 weeks beforehand I didn’t know if I could do the 100km. Medical experts recommended that I didn’t do it because of my knees.  But with training and small achievable goals in between, and lots of help from family, friends and a medical team, we did it!

2. Set little incremental steps – both in training and during the actual event.

During the event I simply focused on the next checkpoint. They were roughly 10km apart.  It’s so much easier to focus on the next 10km.  Try focusing on how you’re going to do the next 95km when you’re only 5km into the walk! There were honestly some times where I really couldn’t even contemplate the 100km, so I put that out my mind and simply counted my steps till the next checkpoint.

Life’s a bit like that – there are times where we can’t even visualise achieving our big goal but we can focus on small daily tasks that will get us one step closer. AS LONG AS WE ARE CLEAR ON WHAT WE WANT!

3. Make space in your diary to achieve your goal.

I cleared appointments and networking events out of my diary so that I could meet weekly with others who were doing walking training. If you’re too busy in life, you might be too busy to achieve your goals. Goals do need ‘training’ in various forms. Just like our walking training wasn’t only about physical fitness, it was mostly about the mental training. We also had to figure out what shoes worked best.  Which socks worked. Now that took some time – to figure out the sock-thing! Seems such a small thing but it was really important as blisters are the number one reason why people don’t finish the Oxfam 100km event.  Sometimes it’s the small things that are seemingly unimportant that can either help or hinder us achieving our goal.

4. Connect with the right people who are heading in the same direction (with similar expectations)

This is critical. It comes in two parts: for the training it’s much easier to get into a routine with others who are training and wanting to wear out their treads in achieving their goals. It can be so much fun – our training walks certainly were and continue to be!
For the team you do the event with: choose people who have similar goals and abilities to you. Unfortunately I was the slowest walker in my 2013 team and this caused much frustration for the others. I would have been frustrated too, if I’d had to walk with someone much slower than my natural walking pace. But the rules of the game are that you only walk as fast as the slowest walker. Being honest about this upfront can save unnecessary angst during the event. This year I’m walking with the team that I have done lots of walking with, so we know our paces fairly well.

It makes life much easier if you have a mentor or coach who can guide you along your journey.

5. Training is key

We all know the obvious element of training to get fitness up. Some people think they can get fitness up in other things like running, playing squash or doing other activities. For an endurance walk such as the 100km Oxfam, walking training is really important. The way our bodies move while walking is different to the way we move in other activities.

While other activities can bring fitness up, it cannot prepare us mentally for what we go through while trudging for miles and miles. Footwear is key, as is the right backpack, the right food and water, the right clothing to keep you comfortable at all times. When you do 10km walks weekly and the odd 30-50km on various weekends, you figure out what works best for your body.
The biggest challenge of the Oxfam (apart from blisters) is the mental challenge. Working with the team when everyone is tired, wondering if you’ll make it, can create tension and upset. It’s better to get these issues resolved during training rather than when you’re walking the 100km Oxfam Perth event in October!

When you know what your number one goal is, then it’s easy to know what training to do for it. If you don’t know what your goal is, it’s hard to know what training to do. This is when people get BUSY, rather than being productive and getting results. Speak to Jill about getting clear on your goals.

6. Attitude is everything!

I found it useful to set my intention for the walk from very early on. Here was my intention statement written down in the future, but in present tense. I set it for 5 days after the event because it was really important to me that I could still walk (after all my knee issues) after the event! If your goal is to cross the finish line and you don’t care about the next day, you can push yourself a bit harder and pick up the pieces later!
“I am so happy and grateful that I have finished the Oxfam 100km walk. I really enjoyed it, connected with others along the way AND it’s great to walk with ease right now!”
This intention sets the tone for your training and for your main event. I have a business and a husband and three kids to take care of, I can’t afford time on my back at that time of the year!!

My intention was to be able to walk with ease in the days immediately afterwards. I adjusted my pace so that my body was comfortable. I also ensured that I did my stretches and fed myself proper nutrition during the walk.

Attitude is a topic that I cover in my talks – how to change your attitude, how to know which attitude is the best to have. Of course, the Attitude of Gratitude is one that makes a big difference.

7. Pacing will make or break you.

In an endurance race, it’s about finishing, not about winning. Some teams raced through and others ambled. Provided your entire team feels the same about this as you do, then that pace is right for you, no matter what it is. However, we did hear stories of fit military folk who pulled out at the 70km mark because they didn’t think they could finish. They’d pushed themselves so hard that they had nothing left in the tank. They would easily have finished even if they had laid down for a nap for half the day and walked the rest of the way, but they were already beaten mentally.
During our training it became obvious to me that when I pushed my body past the 5km per hour mark for longer than 20km, my knees got really sore and in some case were injured. (Patella femoral maltracking with bursitis on both knees was the issue if you really want to know: the knee cap was being pulled outward and the knee joint was rubbing in all the wrong places underneath the patella, which became worse as I speeded up.)
By pacing myself at under 5km per hour on the flat and under 4km per hour on the rougher bits, sometimes 2.5km per hour, I knew my knees would hold up AND be able to function the following day. Ambling along would get me there. Also known as ‘slowing down to speed up!’

This was a major learning curve for me. I learnt patience and pacing. I learnt to appreciate my body and listen to what was actually going on, rather than allowing adrenalin to pull me through. Short events can be done using adrenalin, but long endurance events need to have a different strategy. It’s the same with BIG goals. They need a different strategy to those quick little goals.

8. Fill up your tank

For a short event, we have enough reserves to cope. For a 100km walk over two long days – or 34 hours of walking – our body needs sustained nutrition. There is lots written about what that nutrition is, so I won’t go into it here.
Filling up your mental tank is not spoken about quite as much. This is an area that I’m passionate about. Filling your mind with positive, inspirational stories helps you to pull through the tough spots. Filling one’s mind with negative self-defeating stories makes us want to give up.
This ties into who you need to connect with. Surrounding yourself with positive people who will encourage you on your journey makes a huge difference. While I was walking, it was really encouraging thinking of those who had sponsored our team financially and emotionally. Knowing that I had friends thinking of us and tracking our progress kept me taking one more step closer towards my goal.

 

9. Share your success with those you love!

Be an inspiration to your family. When we were walking towards the finish line, seeing our husbands and children waiting for us was an incredible feeling. In some small way I hope it has encouraged them to work towards goals that they are passionate about. They saw when times were getting tough, and they saw the victory at the end. It is quite a nice balanced view of life I think – to know that we can work through the tough times and will have success along the way too!

Thank you to all our sponsors, supporters and friends. You make the world of difference to us and to Oxfam and to those that Oxfam supports.
We have been really impressed with what Oxfam does and with their organisation. This event is incredibly well run – and if this is how they do other things, then I know our money is going towards a very worthwhile cause.

 

What are your big goals?

Written by Jill Hutchison

John Maxwell shares his thoughts on Evolve


Thanks to John Maxwell for his words of wisdom. John Maxwell is a bestselling author with over 20 million books sold. These books include the 360degree leader, Developing the Leader within you and Winning with People.
Expanding out of your comfort zone, growing (hence the Evolve Dynamic company name!). Particularly relevant is the message about staying out of your comfort zone but not out of your gift zone.
One of the key parts of the Evolve Dynamic process is clarifying what your gifts really are, so that you can capitalize on them.
When you’re operating in your gift zone, or in line with your talents and abilities, you do what you love to do, and you’re ‘in flow’.
Sure, there are still things that you have to do that you don’t necessarily like to do.
If you’re spending 80% of your day in your gift zone, doing what you love to do, it makes the 20% that much more enjoyable!

I would love you to join me for a Think and Grow Rich Mastermind. Book online at www.evolvedynamic.com.

Have a great day,
Kind regards
Jill

Jill Hutchison
www.evolvedynamic.net

Citizenship Ceremony, or just play netball?

Today, the Hutchison’s reach a HUGE milestone!!  I’m so excited, I’m like a kid at Christmas!

 

Tonight, after a 20-year-long goal, we are finally becoming Australian citizens.

 

This morning my daughter said, “Why can’t I just go to my netball game, why do I have to come to the ceremony with you?”

 

You see, this has been a 20-year-long goal – to finally have another passport!

 

In 1993, I went to the UK for a few months. We weren’t allowed to work professionally because we were on South African passports.  People from other countries could work, but because of South African politics, we weren’t.

 

I had friends that worked but lied about their passport. Some were even deported because they were working illegally. The right to work legitimately was not open to us.

 

I’ve never wanted ANYTHING as much as I wanted a foreign passport to allow me to have the freedom of working or living wherever I choose.

 

People who haven’t experienced being in a country, and not allowed to work or remain there, can’t ever really know or feel the significance and emotion associated with this ceremony (even my daughter)!

 

Living in Australia since 2007, I do still love South Africa and I consider both countries ‘home’.  This evening we do our Australian citizenship ceremony, and soon we will have our Australian passports.

 

What is the point of this story?

 

1.    Goals can take time:


If you want something badly enough, it will happen – eventually! I’d almost forgotten that goal, once Nelson Mandela was made president and South Africa became popular in the world – and we got a visa to live and work in Australia. 

 

We are so used to a ‘microwave’ mentality where everything is ready NOW – instant messaging, microwave food, fast food – it’s quite hard to get our head around something that could take 20 years to manifest!

Something that I’ve realised is: TIME and PATIENCE is KEY for goals. God can often have a very different time frame in mind, and that is the PERFECT timeframe.

2.    Many things may need to happen (over time) to get your goal:

Even though it seemed impossible to get another passport back in 1993, it’s been a relatively easy journey – if you’re patient!

 

In this case there are many factors at play to allow us to get Australian Passports, including a great mining industry here and a demand for the skills we have in our family. 

(I could never have predicted everything that needed to fall into place.)

3.    Know EXACTLY what you want:

This is a key component of achieving goals, and something I spend a lot of time working on with clients.

We know what we DON’T want – but do we know exactly what we DO want?

Decide what you DO want, and you get it.

4.    “Create the Space” to set your goals:

Don’t be too busy to think about what you want and what you’re prepared to do to achieve them. When you set goals in the daily routine of life, then it’s tempting to feel stressed about new goals. New bigger goals FEEL like you have to work harder or longer.


REAL goals that fit you and your unique personality assist you to see clearly what things need to be moved, to free up some time, to achieve your goals.  Real goals are exciting and scary! Goals that we are keen to achieve take less discipline than those we set out of obligation – it’s easier to take the action.

***Keep in mind: Your REAL goals don’t have to take 20 years!

However, “Creating the Space” to set those goals and be clearer on exactly what they look like, go a LONG way in manifesting them in even better ways than you could have EVER imagined!!

(“Creating the Space” is a prominent component of my African Soul Retreat in December – to cut away the noise of everyday life and be in the right environment to get CLEAR. It’s PERFECT timing for those attending to be “Creating the Space” for their short and long term goals going into 2014…)

 

So wherever you are, and whatever your intention for the new year:

 

GET CLEAR on what you want. And if there is something you want to develop in yourself, do it NOW. Don’t wait to change your outside circumstances, hoping it will ‘fix’ your situation. Goal Setting is an internal process.

 

And of course, I’m here to help, if you’re ready to do that. J

 

Have a lovely week,

 

Jill

P.S There are still spots available for my African Soul Retreat for this year (December 10th), and I’m also taking bookings for next year – if you’re curious to talk to me more about it and/or receive some more detail, just reply to this email, and let me know what you need.

PPS: Yes, this day is a little bitter sweet – but more on that another time. J

Who do you most want to meet?

I have a great inspiring Chooseday story for you today – I love hearing how people have achieved what they really desire.

Wayne Dyer, Jill Hutchison and the Sri Lankan Doctor in Melbourne!

Dr Wayne Dyer, Jill Hutchison and the Sri Lankan Doctor in Melbourne!

This weekend I was in Melbourne to attend the Hay House “I Can Do It” conference. The speakers included Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Doreen Virtue and  Sonja Choquette.

I particularly enjoy best-selling author, Wayne Dyer, and have listened to him for many hours in my car.  One of my favourite audio’s of his is “There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem”.

 

He has a way of delivering his message that is easy to listen to but still hits you straight between the eyes when necessary.
Wayne was opening the conference on Saturday morning at 9am. He started talking but was clearly in a lot of pain in his back and neck. The week before he’d been taken to hospital in the USA and told not to get in a plane to fly to Australia! He told them he was coming anyway.
He had to leave the stage after about half an hour as he was in such pain. This is the first time in 40 years he’s had to walk off before he’s finished talking.  Every time he looked down he simply couldn’t continue. He commented that it’s clearly an indication that he must only look up in life!
A while later, he came back on and spoke for around an hour. I could see his face was getting more red and it was obvious that he was still in pain.

In the audience was a Doctor.   He came forward as Wayne went backstage and made sure he was seen by the best specialists in a Melbourne Hospital.

This is where the story gets really fun – I only heard the full story this morning when Leon Nacson, Managing Director of Hay House Australia shared it with us. This is what I heard:

The doctor that came forward had grown up in Sri Lanka. At the age of 17 he had read one of Wayne Dyer’s books and believed that he could do anything he wanted and be anything, no matter what his circumstances.

He believed he could be a doctor so went about achieving this. He qualified as a Doctor and now lives in Melbourne. He has dreamt of meeting Wayne Dyer ever since that first book. Apparently he was asked who he would most like to meet in the world – and his answer was Wayne Dyer.

When he saw Wayne was in distress, he went forward to help him.
He called his sister saying “Can you bring the car round to the front, I have Wayne Dyer with me…. no, really, I actually do…”
His family knew how much he wanted to meet Wayne, and thought he was joking!

I love inspiring stories like this. Someone makes a big impact on your life, alters the course of your entire life – and then you get to meet them and help them later on in time.

As my mother says, life is like a tapestry, with people weaving in and out, then coming back into your life several years later, making a wonderful pattern.

Yesterday, I was leaving the Melbourne Convention Centre and standing waiting for my ride to the airport. Who should come out of the hotel, but Wayne Dyer and this doctor (whose name I heard, but couldn’t spell for you – I’m hoping he will read this blog and let us have his name because I think its such a wonderful story. ) I’m sure there is more to it and would love to hear all about it.
This picture was taken as they were about to go and have dinner with the Doctors family.

Isn’t that an inspiring story?
A great reminder of synchronicity and things happening that you have no control over, but end up being a great result for those involved. I was also very glad to see that Wayne was looking very relaxed and well, and up and about!

What did I get out of this weekend?

    • If there is something you really want to be or do, hold onto that and pursue it, no matter what your circumstances. Take the action you need to take, even if you don’t have any guarantee of achieving the big goal, move towards it anyway.

 

    • If there is someone you want to meet, go to where they are speaking or hanging out – and who knows what might happen to get you together with them!

 

    • Life is a tapestry.  We  never know what will transpire and come together in a beautiful pattern. Even if we can’t see the pattern right now, it’s being made while we enjoy our journey. When you look back you will see the pattern and it will be more beautiful and bigger than you imagined possible.

 

    • Don’t ever give up. Ever. Never ever.

WHO WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO MEET? If you could meet anyone alive, anywhere in the world, who would that be? Please post your comments below!

Enjoy the rest of your Chooseday!

Jill Hutchison
The Connection Coach
Assisting Successful People to Realign their Goals with Passion and Purpose

www.evolvedynamic.net
www.jillhutchison.com

 

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