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.
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.
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
Vasbyt. Suck it up Princess….
I see many South Africans (and Zimbo’s) come to Australia and think they have to start from scratch. They try and shrink into a position that doesn’t fit them, and then they wonder why nothing is working!
They’ve heard that you have to do your own housework and you can’t have domestic help, so they set about learning how to do their own mopping and ironing and mowing the lawn.
I returned a call from a CEO one Saturday morning – to find he was cleaning the toilet as he does with his family every Saturday “Housework” morning. This is how some families work, the jury is still out as to which is the most efficient way to keep our place clean…. Is this the life you imagined?
You go from having a maid who does everything, a gardener that also washes your car every week, and a team of staff in your business, to thinking that you need to start from the bottom. Vasbyt. Grin and bear it. Suck it up princess!
Why? Why should you start at the bottom when you’ve been at the top in another country? Who said that these are the rules? Is it what you’ve heard?
We all know that things are different in Australia – but who dictates what changes and what stays the same?
If you really want to enjoy living here, and thrive like you have (in another life), it’s time to decide what you really want. Ja, sure you think you know what you want – but do you really know, mate?
You wanted to move to Australia, and then after the major upheaval you wonder if it’s really what you wanted!
You could just hug Precious if you ever saw her again….
Then you look at the beliefs you have – about living here, about working here, about re-establishing yourself in a world where no-one cares what school or university you went to, or where you grew up, or who you know in the echelons of Joburg society nor that you lived in the northern suburbs or have a beach house.
It’s important to go through a process that has worked for so many others in your situation. Here are the four steps that I have tried and tested with clients and through research on successful people:
- Decide
Clear your head and tap into what you really, really want. Decide what you REALLY, reallly want. What YOU want, not what others want nor what you think others would be impressed with. Yes I know you’ve always had a good idea – and you’ve acted on them. Simply getting here is evidence that you can set goals and achieve them. Take it one step further and see what happens when you go into this in-depth. Every single person that I have a conversation with tells me that they get clarity that moves them into action. - Shift your Beliefs
You grew up in another country, a couple of years ago (let’s not say how many). You didn’t even have TV till you were 6, you remember Haas Daas when it wasn’t the SABC test pattern. Now you talk to your family on Skype and you can see them on your screen – how things have changed. The world has changed, but have your beliefs changed? Beliefs determine our thoughts and actions. Shifting those beliefs to ones that really serve you now, that will get the results you want. What you thought was right may need to be shifted slightly. - Get Connected
Get Connected to yourself first. You move with yourself – so if you weren’t happy in another country, you’re unlikely to be happy now. If you can’t live with yourself, then let me tell you how difficult you are to live with! Connect to the true you – the you that’s inside there. Listen to yourself, take your own advice, walk your talk. Are you clear on who you should be connecting to? You’ve left your entire network behind, or so you think. I see too many hi-flyers come here and think they need to connect to the bottom of the barrel (or try to prove that they are somebodies and failing dismally!). Then they wonder why the connections aren’t going anywhere. You are still somebody important, It’s just that things are a bit different in Oz. Do you have someone that sees your potential when you aren’t? Are you surrounded by big-picture thinkers who encourage you to keep going when you feel like giving up?
Getting connected to others starts with getting connected to yourself and your family.
Looking outside of you for resources and progress isn’t going to do it.
It’s time to look inside, acknowledge who you are and what you’re really good at. So you can stop doing the things that aren’t your core strength and stick to what you’re good at. What? You’re not sure if you actually were an expert in anything? You and I have lots of work to do!
I know that you are an expert in something. It may be in another field, in another country – but what’s in your head travels with you. - Getting connected to Spirit – whatever that means to you. I call it God, but others may refer to it as the Universe, Energy, Universal intelligence – it doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s how you relate to it. You know that there is an intangible something that is bigger than you. It’s also inside of you. You may even need to reset and re-examine your beliefs to see what serves you now. Tap into the quiet voice inside of you – the gut feel, the intuition or divine guidance that keeps you on track.
- Take Action
Thinking without action is about as effective as acting without thinking. It’s more about what you can stop doing, and how to clear out the noise that is stopping you from thinking clearly and getting the results you really want.
Having a clear way forward ensures that you get what you really, really want.
Moving countries is a great achievement. You have done well.
“I feel like I’ve taken 10 steps backwards financially” is a cry that I hear often. What you’ve really done is taken a giant step across the ocean. Now is your opportunity to capitalize on everything you’ve done and make it worth your while.
Start the process that will make a big difference to you!
If you’re looking for growth and advancement, start by shifting your attitudes, beliefs and actions.
Jill Hutchison
(Due to spam, I’ve had to change the way I display my email address on my websites. You can still contact me (if you can think through the way I’m telling you my email address!) – my address is jill at evolvedynamic.com.)
Jill Hutchison
0419194323
The Connection Coach – realigning you to your goals with purpose and passion.
For further information, please place your details in this box and I will contact you
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.
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
Simply Get Started
He said he was paralyzed and couldn’t do any of the things he wanted to do. Of course, I immediately thought, don’t believe everything you think! Isn’t procrastination really just an illusion? You can stop putting pressure on yourself.
You don’t have to do any of those things you’re worried about. The evidence is that you haven’t done them and you’re still here, aren’t you? If you really wanted to do something, wouldn’t you simply do it? Procrastination is one of those excuses, born of fear, that we use to keep ourselves stuck.
Let’s say that you now want to push past the illusion and get started. First, forgive yourself for doubting that you can achieve whatever you set out to accomplish.
Give thanks for the wonderful gifts you are now ready to share with the world.
According to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, acknowledged as one of the true giants of creativity, the way to get something done is to start it. The act of beginning an enterprise, no matter how small a beginning it is, ignites power. We’ve all had a brush or two with procrastination, but the story doesn’t end there.
I have used such helpful tactics as putting a date on the calendar when my task will be completed, “assigning” myself to sit at my desk until the job is done, even checking myself into a hotel room and not allowing myself to leave until I’ve made the progress I need to make. Just getting started generates an energy and excitement that helps push you forward.
It also helps to surround yourself with people who are doers. Being around people who are active and engaged and willing to boldly begin generates energy, too.
Stop the excuses you have come to rely on to explain why you don’t get the really important things accomplished in your life. The main reason you haven’t completed what you say you would like to is that you have refused to begin.
All the excuses are just that, excuses. In your heart you know this is true.
I greet every new day with the words, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
That’s the state of mind that directs me, fulfills me, and sends me out into the world with a gift to share.
It’s a blessing that I have learned over a lifetime—to experience the presence of Spirit in most of my waking moments. It’s a feeling of contentment and satisfaction, of peace and love.
—Wayne Dyer
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With thanks to Wayne Dyer for this article. www.waynedyer.com
I find Wayne Dyer’s words to be constantly motivating and he has a great sense of humour. One of my favourite CD series is “There is a spiritual solution to every problem” by Wayne Dyer. The wisdom in there is just incredible – I can listen to it several times and still get new aha moments every time I listen!
by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer from his blog www.waynedyer.com
Jill Hutchison
Challenge What is Possible!
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Jill Hutchison runs regular programs focused on clarity, mindset, business success and goal setting.
She has studied with thought leaders around the world and brings their expertise to locals. On Thursday 13th September 2012, Mrs Hutchison will be hosting Dr Phil’s Millionaire Maker and The Secret Star, Ms Loral Langemeier in Perth at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel. The event is open to the public and is free. It starts at 6:30pm. Booking is essential. Click here to book.
Jill Hutchison’s Programs include: It’s My Time, Men’s Mindset workshop, Goal Achiever, Kickstart Coaching and the Dynamic Mastermind Alliance.
More information is available on www.evolvedynamic.net
Jill Hutchison has 20 years experience in international business, having the conversations that bring out the best in each person. With an economics degree from University of Cape Town, and numerous certification including Neurolinguistic programming and neurological repatterning.
She is certified by Bob Proctor, from The Secret, to teach and train mindset strategies with professionals and business owners.
News Flash: There’s No Escape
by: Bill Harris
Stop for a moment and think of all the people you know-friends, relatives, people you work with, people you play with, and people you see from time to time as you go about your business, but don’t know well.
Also think for a moment about all the people you know about, but don’t know personally-politicians, celebrities, leaders, and so on.
All these people have one important thing in common: they’re all doing their best to make sense of what it means to be a human being.
Think about it. Here we are, on this spinning rock ball, in the middle of endlessly vast space, in a thin and fragile protected environment absolutely necessary to us if we’re to stay alive. We come into the world, and then, after an undetermined amount of time, we’re gone. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
(Actually, if you think about it, it would be more accurate to say that we come OUT of the world, like an apple comes out of an apple tree, but that’s another story, for another day.)
When you think about it, doesn’t it strike you that this whole business of being a person is quite weird? I mean, what’s it all about? Why is it happening? Is there any purpose to it? If so, what is it?
One of the reasons we wonder so deeply and so universally about these questions is, I believe, that as it’s all going on, we suffer. Our tender bodies allow us to connect and interact with the world, but this same sensitivity also makes us vulnerable to pain. Then there’s the fact that we want things, but sometimes we don’t get them. When that happens, we also suffer. Then there are the times where we get what we don’t want, and we suffer when that happens, too.
As if that weren’t enough, we’re each part of a gigantic web of cause and effect over which we have minimal control. Numberless ongoing physical events throughout the universe affect our galaxy, our solar system, our planet, and, ultimately, our lives. There’s nothing we can do about cosmic rays, gravity, weather patterns, the tides, sunspots, the seasons, the Earth’s magnetic field, the tectonic movements of the continents, earthquakes, the volcanic stirrings beneath the Earth’s crust, the makeup of the atmosphere-and an infinite number of other things totally beyond our control.
What’s more, billions of people, including you, are acting to get what they want in each moment. Some of these actions affect you directly (positively or negatively), while others affect you in a less direct way. Even far-removed events still have an effect on you, though it may be less apparent.
And though your own actions give you some small degree of control over what happens, ultimately you’re at the mercy of forces vastly beyond your control. There’s no getting around it: there is no escape from cause and effect.
As if this wasn’t enough, there’s another big reason why we suffer. Despite our puny influence on cause and effect, we still manage to get what we want some of the time. But even when this happens, whatever it is eventually passes away or falls apart. Everything is impermanent.
We probably suffer about this more than anything else. Nothing lasts. The people and things we love won’t last, and neither will we. Because of this, even though we can enjoy things while they exist, and can enjoy life while it lasts, human existence is imbued with a certain underlying regret or melancholy-an underlying awareness of the transience of things, and a bittersweet sadness at their passing.
You might not have thought of it this way, but much of life, and much of our effort to make sense of it, consists of an attempt to come to terms with these two things: that we’re caught in a web of cause and effect over which we have very limited control, and that all things are impermanent, including ourselves.
Humans have come up with endless strategies to try to deal with this. Some just don’t want to think about it. They stay busy, distracting themselves with activity, drugs, striving, or something else. Some create an after-life or rebirth, or a higher power that they hope does have control, and who might hopefully have a larger plan we’re unaware of, that hopefully will cause everything to turn out alright.
Some decide to make hay while the sun shines. They strive to accumulate wealth, or power, hoping to gain more of a fighting chance in the struggle against cause and effect. Others do what they can to fend off the inevitability of impermanence with modern medicine, exercise, and healthy living. Some find comfort in leaving good works or some sort of legacy that will remain after they’re gone.
Some people just try to stay high all the time. Others become interested in philosophy, hoping to find an explanation. Others become deeply angry and lose control. Still others hope that controlling their mind will provide an answer.
Some hope that individual action will save them. Others seek the security of their group, their tribe, their religion. “If I follow the rules, everything will be fine.” Some divide the world into good and bad, appropriate and inappropriate, and fight against the bad and run after the good. Others hope their adherence to certain guiding principles and ideas will help. Others hope that going beyond principles and ideas, into a state of “no mind,” will provide a solution.
Though it’s not hard to find people who swear by the effectiveness of each of these methods, so far no one has found a way to escape from cause and effect, and no one has found a way to escape from the underlying impermanence of all things. We don’t like to hear this, though. It gives us an uneasy feeling. “There’s no escape? There’s nothing I can do?” So, many people hold out hope that there will turn out to be an afterlife, or that reincarnation will bring them back again (interestingly, Buddhists and Hindus are hoping to step out of that cycle, not perpetuate it).
You may have tried many, or even most of, these methods. You may have tried them all. I’ve tried most of them myself. In the short run, all of them work, or at least seem to work while you’re involved in them. In the long run, none of them work.
As infants we hope that if we cry loudly enough someone will take away our suffering. That’s the only method we have access to. As small children we imagine magical powers that will give us control over what happens (we also keep the crying option open). As we get older, we stop thinking that we have magical powers, but instead attribute them to a parade of powerful others: parents, authority figures, worldly (or spiritual) leaders, a romantic partner, or some higher power.
None of these methods, though, allows us to escape from cause and effect, or from impermanence, because there is no escape. Maybe that’s why we feel so profoundly disappointed (and sometimes angry) when it becomes apparent that one of these “powerful others” isn’t going to provide the answer, the salvation, the solace, or the solution.
No one escapes from these two cornerstones of the human condition. Some people, though, do come to terms with them. Except in rare cases, though, this doesn’t happen until every possible means of escape has been tried.
Human development (which I’ve written about extensively on this blog-see the first dozen or so posts) can be seen as a series of increasingly sophisticated approaches for dealing with impermanence and cause and effect, along with an increasingly broader perspective about such things. Magical thinking (I have magic powers that allow me to control the universe) and mythic thinking (placing the magical power in a powerful other rather than in the self) are examples of this, but there are many other ways human beings attempt to defeat or forestall the effects of cause and effect and impermanence.
You’re probably thinking that I’m about to suggest a solution to all of this. I’m not. I don’t have a solution. There isn’t one. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but there really IS no escape.
But what if we took the fact that there’s no escape as a starting point, instead of fighting it or ignoring it? What if we could somehow come to terms with death and other forms of impermanence, and with cause and effect? Wouldn’t that at least be more realistic? Perhaps surrendering to “what is” would do something that would make life worthwhile, despite the realities-in the same way that someone who has finally accepted their terminal illness exudes a transcendental radiance and inner peace, creating a sense of awe (and a contact high) in everyone around them.
Buddhists call the unwillingness to accept impermanence and cause and effect delusion, ignorance-in other words, an ignoring of the most basic facts of life. But, you say, accepting all of this seems to be such a profoundly negative outlook. Ironically, though, this embracing of “what is” turns out to be incredibly freeing.
I mentioned earlier that you probably won’t give up your struggle against these two until you’ve tried everything. Just being told that there’s no escape doesn’t work. Reading this post isn’t going to change anything for you. Even if you agree on an intellectual level that there’s no escape, you’ll still keep trying to escape-until and unless you run out of options.
There are some people running around who still believe the Earth is flat. No amount of arguing will change the minds of such people. To change the mind of such a person, you’ll have to show them, experientially. How would you do that? You might say to them, “Well of course the Earth is flat. Wouldn’t it be fun to go look over the edge?”
And, then to make sure you didn’t wander around in circles, and not find the edge just because you were sloppy about your search, you’d program your GPS and head due east, for instance, on a certain line of latitude. In other words, you’d head for the edge you’re hoping to find, in a disciplined way. Then, when the two of you finally returned to the place where you’d started, the flat-Earth person would have to at least admit that the Earth is a cylinder.
In much the same way, a good spiritual teacher will send you off in a disciplined search for a solution to the problems of impermanence and cause and effect-not to find a solution (though that’s what you think is going on), but rather to get you to try every way out, until you have no choice but to come to the inevitable conclusion, from personal experience, that there really is no escape.
I’ve discussed Zen master Genpo Roshi’s innovative Big Mind process many times in this blog. In this approach, you’re asked to speak from various “voices” or aspects of the self (as well as those of the transcendent “no-self”). One of the most potent of these voices is the voice of Great Doubt. This voice represents the part of you that really, truly doubts everything, including that there’s any possible escape, solution, or salvation.
Amazingly, when you really get into the voice of Great Doubt, instead of the darkness and gloom you might expect, you find ultimate freedom. This gives us a second way to drop your impossible quest for a way to escape: you could try every possible way out, until you exhaust every possibility, or you could go right to Great Doubt-be Great Doubt.
Great Doubt is, in fact, the road to Great Enlightenment. Few, however, want to go there. After all, it seems so negative. Great Doubt involves doubting that ANYTHING will save you: your ideas, your knowledge, your skills and expertise, your health, your accomplishments, the power you’ve accumulated, your religion, your physical prowess, your money, your possessions, your fame, your self-esteem, the respect you’ve earned, the therapy you’ve gone through, your love relationship, your children, your friends, your healthy diet, your doctors, your philosophy, yoga, meditation-or anything else.
Let me be clear that I’m not against any of these things. All of the above are part of what makes life juicy, interesting, and worth living. However, if you’re doing them under the illusion that they’ll save you from cause and effect or impermanence, you’ll always end up disappointed.
When you doubt-and therefore see through-all of these things, when you’ve doubted it all (that is, doubted that any of it will ultimately save you from cause and effect and impermanence), there’s nothing left to hang onto. In a spiritual and psychic sense, you’re naked. This seems like it would be very negative, doesn’t it? But once Great Doubt brings you to the place where you have nothing to hang onto, something remarkable happens and YOU’RE FREE.
There’s a koan in Buddhism: How do you take the first step off a 100 foot pole? It seems that taking that step would lead to death, annihilation-a splat on the pavement. Unless you actually take that step, though, you never discover that when you hit bottom, you bounce.
I once heard Alan Watts tell a story about a play he saw when he was a little boy. The curtain opens to a man sleeping in a fancy Victorian-era room crammed with fringed lamps, extravagant Victorian furniture, and all kinds of ornamental gewgaws and bric-a-brac. The alarm clock rings, which enrages the man so much that he grabs his shoe and begins smashing the alarm clock until it’s a flattened pile of metal and gears.
He then jumps out of bed and in his rage begins tearing the sheets off the bed and ripping them to shreds. He then smashes the crockery and the mirror and the furniture, and everything else, until the room is a scene of total demolition. The last thing standing is a tall floor lamp with a fringed lampshade. In a final act of anger, he picks up the lamp and throws it across the room…and it bounces. The surprise is that it’s made of rubber.
Though the actual contents of the story have nothing to do with what I’m talking about (other than the idea that, in the end, you “bounce”), it created such a vivid image that I’ve never forgotten it. Watts told this story to illustrate what I’m saying here: when you take that step off the 100 foot pole-when you really and truly give up all hope that anything can save you from cause and effect, or impermanence-you bounce. When you step into the abyss-or what looks to be the abyss-the dreadful consequence you were so afraid of doesn’t happen.
Instead, you discover that you are free. You discover that you are the transcendent, the unborn/undying pure awareness, the Christ, the Buddha, the One. This realization is freedom. Then, for a while, you float along in this transcendent state, where there are no problems and no one to have them, because you’re the infinite Oneness that was never born and will never die.
Later, you might come to see that even though that’s who you are, the organism through which you’re experiencing who you are is still subject to impermanence and cause and effect.
Until you decide to actually take that leap, though, what else can you do? Let’s start, then, from the assumption that there really is no escape-even if you’re the Buddha-and that you can choose to surrender to impermanence or fight it, but either way, it will win. True wisdom is seeing things as they really are.
Here you are, then, in a universe over which you have little control, and where everything eventually falls apart, including you. You realize, though, that who you really are is beyond the separate me in a bag of skin you thought you were. Still though, here you are, living (for now) in the relative world, a world of cause and effect and impermanence.
I’ve often said that awareness provides the solution to all problems. Let me explain how that’s the case even in this situation. I’ve also said that awareness gives you choice. So look at it this way. If you are caught in cause and effect (which you are), and you’re unaware, you’ll be likely to unknowingly place yourself in situations where the consequences-the effect-involve getting something you don’t want. You’ll find yourself with outcomes you don’t want, with people you don’t want, in situations you don’t want to be in.
If you have enough awareness, though, you can see that web of cause and effect before you act. You can see the inevitable karma (to use the Eastern philosophy word) you create whenever you think a certain thought, make a certain picture in your head, make a certain decision, or take a certain action. With enough awareness, no matter how complex the situation, you’ll see the potential consequences, and act accordingly. You’ll enter into life choosing the consequences you experience.
To the degree that you’re unaware, you’re quite likely to step into one situation after another, think one thought after another, make one decision after another, which leads to suffering, both for you and for others.
So while you can’t do anything about the fact that as a human being you’re subject to cause and effect, you can choose-if you’re aware-what consequences you create, what situations you enter into, what thoughts you think, what decisions you make and which actions you take. Though consequences are inevitable, you do have a choice about which consequences you generate.
The gift of awareness is choice. Remain unaware, though, and you have little or no choice. When you’re unaware, life seems to “just happen,” and some of what happens is unnecessarily painful. Suffering is built into life, due to cause and effect and the impermanence of all things. From these two there is no escape. None. The super-aware human being surrenders to impermanence, because all other choices involve delusion-the delusion that you can do something about it.
The super-aware human being also sees how cause and effect works and, in that awareness, CHOOSES how he becomes involved in it. Knowing that all thoughts and all actions have consequences, he chooses the thoughts and actions whose consequences he’s willing to experience. I choose, for instance, to be emotionally involved with Centerpointe. Because Centerpointe, like everything else, is impermanent, I know it will change and eventually fall apart. I also choose to be attached to my wife, Denise; to my daughter, Brisa, and to my son, Evan.
To be unattached to these things would make life, well, lifeless. I also know that this attachment generates consequences, but being aware, I can see them. I also know that everything I’m attached to is a choice I’ve made, with full knowledge of what I’m getting myself into. Without awareness, though, these things are not a choice.
The only thing that really gives you a leg-up in this world is awareness. Ironically, you are that awareness. That’s the only thing that was never born and never dies. That Pure Awareness, the real you, is beyond impermanence, and beyond cause and effect. The body you’re in, however, and the concepts and ideas that make up who you think you are-what I’ve called your Map of Reality, or what could be called “the separate self”-are all impermanent, and are all subject to cause and effect.
This is why Holosync is so important. Holosync creates awareness in a way I’ve never seen anything else do. As you become more aware, you start to see how you’ve been unknowingly creating the karma, the consequences, that you’ve been experiencing. The more aware you become, the more clearly you see this. And the more you see it, the more you automatically know the most resourceful thing to do in each moment.
Zen master Genpo Roshi makes a distinction between the human part of you, the part that is subject to impermanence and cause and effect, and the being part of you, the pure awareness that is beyond these. Ultimately, while you’re here, in a body, as a living thing (a “sentient being,” as they say in Buddhism), you are both human and being. The idea, then, is to integrate your humanness with your beingness, to transcend, and at the same time include, both. Genpo calls the result of this integration “the one who consciously chooses to be a human being.”
I’m not going to tell you to surrender to impermanence, because you won’t do it until you’re truly convinced that there’s no other choice. No one takes that first step off the 100 foot pole until they have no choice, though sometimes you fall without intending to. I am going to tell you, however, to do everything you can to become more aware. In my opinion, that means meditating with Holosync every day.
Alan Watts used to say that from the moment of your birth, you’re in free-fall. Clutching at the other things falling alongside you isn’t going to help. While there might not be any escape from impermanence and cause and effect, there is a way to enjoy the ride, and to be much more in charge of what happens during your plunge to the bottom. Awareness is the key.
Keep watching, and be well.
Are you clear?
Getting clear is one of the most important aspects of getting what you want. If you’re not crystal clear, you’re going to get something that you didn’t necessarily want!
Is it a case of getting clarity, and then you stay clear for the rest of your life? No, certainly not! In fact, I would say that if you have done this several years ago, and you feel you’re still absolutely clear, I think you’re fooling yourself!
What do I mean by this? Imagine that there are several levels or playing fields – each one higher than the next. Almost like steps in a ladder. When you’re on the first rung of the ladder, you can see pretty much the same sort of things you see when you’re on the ground. The view available to you is very close to what you’ve known your entire life. If there was a buffet of food available at this level, it’s pretty similar to what’s always been available to you.
As you climb the ladder, you can see further afield – and you see things from a new perspective! You start to become aware that more things are possible – that perhaps there are doors open to you that previously you thought were only open to other people. The higher you climb, the more the view changes and the more you can see – the more possibilities you see. What previously was a fantasty, becomes reality. The buffet suddenly changes – and delicious food in so many varieties you didn’t even know about is everywhere you look!
When I first read “The Secret” in 2007, and decided to study with Bob Proctor and then Loral Langemeier – it was like a pipe dream. It was pure fantasy. I thought that it would take more time and money than I had available to me at the time. In my mind I anticipated it might take 10 years or more to realise this dream.
Why did I want to meet them, study with them, get to know them and learn from them? What was it about the Law of Attraction that attracted me? I really don’t know, it was simply something I really wanted to do. Some of my friends thought I was crazy and couldn’t understand why I would want to do this! Here is the key: it was something I really wanted to do – it was a desire within me – it wasn’t what anyone else around me wanted to do.
The idea of spending time with them, having conversations with them – learning from their wisdom and expertise was firmly planted in my mind. The idea of being able to share what Bob Proctor was teaching inspired me even more.
Only 15 months after setting this goal, I stood with Bob Proctor in Florida – and for the first time in my life I suddenly didn’t know what I wanted. Yes I knew what I wanted in the regular playing field I’d been in – and I could tell anyone that. But this was entering a new realm, a much bigger playing field – a more exotic food buffet!
When I looked at how quickly my goal happened, and what other possibilities were opening up for me – I realised that there was so much more that was possible.
In this “new playing field” – because it was new, I was at a loss for what I really wanted there! Does this make sense to you?
Since then, I’ve spent more time with Bob, and with Loral. We brought Loral to Perth last year and have many more exciting things planned for the future. The possibilities are getting bigger and bigger – and more and more fun at the same time!
I would like to invite you to relook at what you want. If you’re feeling like your career energy has hit a plateau, or leveled out? If you’re starting to play safe – you have a choice to stay in that place, or to create some exciting goals in your life that keep you energized.
If you’re in Perth, I’m inviting you to attend the It’s My Time workshop on Thursday 23rd August 2012 at 9am. click here
If you’re not in Perth, you will soon be able to do this workshop in the comfort of your own home with my new home-study program we recorded last week – but that’s still a little while away from being released.
There is simply no substitute for working with someone who will challenge you to think about what is possible.
Who will challenge you to shift into a higher gear, to craft bigger goals than you may have imagined?
When you’re in the frame, you can’t see the picture ! There are certain things you can do for yourself, but sometimes you need someone who will open your mind to possibilities that you can’t see right now.
To book for the Perth It’s My Time workshop, click here (or paste this in your browser: http://itsmytime.eventbrite.com).
In the meantime, start making a list of what you would really love to be, do or have. What if money or time were no object at all? What is it that you would really like to spend your time doing?
It isn’t always about the materialistic things – once you’ve got everything money can buy you’ll start wanting things that money can’t buy – what are those things? What are those experiences? What about the relationships in your life? What about health? What about your loved ones?
Have fun thinking about all of this, and feel free to leave some feedback below. I’ll happily answer any of your questions you have around this process.
Until next time, have fun!
Kind regards
Jill
Jill Hutchison
Tap Your Next Power Mentor
~Challenge What’s Possible!~
For further information, please place your details in this box and I will contact you
When is a good time to set new goals?
When is now a great time to set new goals?
I love looking back and reflecting on what has happened in the months before. Let me share some questions with you that you could ask yourself because the quality of your questions determine the quality of your life.
You can either ask questions like “where did I go wrong?” or “why have I failed?” or you can ask yourself “what do I really want?” or “what went right?”
Like going out into the darkness – you can shine your torch on anything you choose – and whatever you illuminate with the beam of your torch will determine what you see. Funny that!
So here are some great questions that you can use to create the life you really desire. Most of these have been influenced by the books I’ve read. “Best Year Yet”, by Jinny Ditzler is one of my favourites for this time of the year. Or if you’d like to have a very quick goal setting workbook, then visit www.goalachieverworkshop.com and download my free ebook: The path to Achieving (unbelievable) goals.
Ask yourself:
What have I done particularly well in the last 12 months?
Which goals have come about?
What interesting curve-balls came along?
What have I learnt?
Where do I want to be this time next year? (both physically and emotionally?)
What parts of my life am I happy with, and which parts would I like to change?
What do I really, really want?
Once again I am reminded how important it is to set goals that you’re passionate about. My mentor Bob Proctor talks about getting emotional about your goals – and if a goal is “scary and exciting” then it’s a good one for you! If you’re not excited about a goal that you set, then it’s probably a great goal for someone else, but might not be a good goal for you.
One of my favourite “Scary and exciting” goals of 2011 was to get 4-time bestselling author, the Millionaire maker: Loral Langemeier to Perth. Setting the goal early in August and getting her here in front of a room full of people in mid-September did cause some anxious moments, but it was a lot of fun and very successful. More importantly I have seen how it has already benefitted the businesses of several people who attended. Watch this space to see our next event together in September 2012!
Another goal was to connect driven, successful individuals to others in the Dynamic Mastermind Alliance.
After numerous requests from clients to be introduced to other successful people in the area, the Dynamic Mastermind Alliance is the ideal forum to talk about your business.
Who are the members of the Dynamic Mastermind Alliance? Business owners who are keen to connect with each other, make a difference by sharing their expertise – and discover the quantum leaps that come from masterminding with others – each leaders in their own areas. The Dynamic Mastermind Alliance will be opening up a new international group that will meet on skype monthly. If you would like to know more, please email me on jill(at)evolvedynamic.net.
Jill Hutchison
The “Tap Your Next Power” Mentor
~Challenge What’s Possible~
www.evolvedynamic.net
Perth, Western Australia.
Who is Jill Hutchison?
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.
How are your resolutions coming along?
Resolutions rarely stick (sorry to disappoint you) – so don’t wonder why your good intentions on Jan 1 have dissipated – no matter how disciplined you are.
Resolutions are very often what you think others think you should be doing – or trying to change who you are into a different person.
You may achieve them, but it will most likely be at the expense of something important to you. Setting goals that you actually intend to achieve – now those are the ones that do work.
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last.
Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
You eat food daily, you drink water daily, you wash daily (or that’s what I thought – and if you don’t, I’d rather be none the wiser about your daily ablutions!)
Just as our body needs nourishment, so too does our mind. If we want to achieve great goals – ones that scare and excite us, we need to feed our mind with good strong positive thoughts – every single day.
Jill Hutchison
The “Tap Your Next Power” Mentor
~Challenge What’s Possible!~
Evolve Dynamic Pty Ltd
www.evolvedynamic.net
www.jillhutchison.lifesuccessconsultants.com
Mobile: +61 419194323
Skype contact: jilhutch
Duncraig, Perth, Western Australia
For further information, please place your details in this box and I will contact you
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