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How to do 2015

January 1, 2015 by Rosemary 1 Comment

Happy New Year!

crystal clear beach day

This is not a roundup, best-of, lessons-learned post.

This is not about setting goals, making resolutions, or dieting.

This is just a simple reminder that there’s nothing magic about January 1.

So yes, come out of the gates today full of hope and energy, full of plans and fresh ideas.

And on March 13 or so, or when that starts to flag, remind yourself that any old day can be January 1. Get back up on the horse, go back and re-read your goals, dream board, marketing plan, business strategy, all the things you wrote on January 1.

Heck, it could even be next Wednesday.

The most successful people are the ones who can create their own January 1 whenever they need it.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Motivation Tagged With: bc, goals, inspiration, Motivation

Beach Notes: Holding Out Against The Odds

November 28, 2014 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Walking onto the beach this morning we saw this sand castle and Des said: “It’s holding out against all odds,” as the waves crashed in.

The next moment the top was gone yet the base remained.

Sandcastle on beach

Sand castle partially destroyed

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Filed Under: Motivation Tagged With: bc, Beach Notes, inspiration

How to Release Your Inner Bruce Lee

June 26, 2014 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Guest Columnist Martin Stellar

The young monk was sweating profusely. He was hurting and out of breath. He was spent.
In front of him stood a barrel full of kidney beans.

Beyond that was the cliff, and in the distance the rice paddies.
His master sat a little ways away to his side, meditating in the shade of a bamboo cove.

He could hear the shouts of “Katsu!” drift up across the rice fields. And the cracking sounds too, each time one of the older and more advanced monks broke bamboo in two with their fists or their shins.

He looked at the beans and he loathed them.

rice paddy

For the last three hours, he’d been jabbing his outstretched hands into them, as hard and as fast as he could.

A bucket full, 50 liters of dry kidney beans.

In. Out. Down. Up. Left. Right. Left. Right.

At first it’s not so bad: The beans are smooth and slide to make space.

But after ten minutes it starts to hurt.

After 30 minutes, you want to stop.
After 45 minutes, you want to cry.

After an hour, your hand feels like a building fell on it, and everything from your fingertips to your neck feels like Dr. Frankenstein just stitched it together last night.

He looked at the beans, then at the fields. He looked at his master, placidly meditating, his eyes closed.

He hurt. He wanted to cry, to topple the barrel and throw it off the cliff. In fact, he wanted to go home, or jump off the cliff, or perhaps throw his master off instead. He wanted to quit, any which way he could.

“Katsu!” it sounded across the valley. “Crack!”

He looked at the beans again, and breathed slow deep breaths. He still hurt, but not as much, not if he concentrated on his breath.

He raised his hand, paused, and jammed his fingers into the beans again. Left. Right. Left. Right.

His master opened an eye, and quietly smiled to himself.
This kiddo was going to turn out very strong indeed.

I always wondered how people manage to get so strong that they can break stone or wood with their hands. You see the videos of Shao-lin monks, and you wonder if that stuff is real.

Kick a thin tree in two with your shin? How…

Turns out, each time they ram their hand into the beans, or practice-kick against a sapling, they create micro-fractures, hairline splits, in the bone.

When that heals, just like any scar tissue, the new bone material is stronger than the actual bone.

Do that for a decade, and your bones do indeed become as hard as rock. It’s simple biology.

Now, I don’t expect you’re on the path to becoming a Kung-fu master.

But if you’re in business in any way – if you’re in life, actually – you are only ever going to get results, of any kind, if you can muster the guts just like the monk in my story did.

Saying ‘a quitter never wins’ is a nice quip, but it’s not very useful.

It’s not about quitting – you can’t quit. There’s no quitting life.

You can quit one activity, get rid of one burden, or avoid one challenge – but the moment you turn your back, life will present you with exactly the same challenge you avoided, just in a different way.

Life’s a bitch in that sense. Or, you could say life is a blessing, in that it never fails to show you what you need to learn or overcome next.

“Does this hurt, is it difficult, does it make you want to scream? Ah… That means, my friend, that you can push through, find the key, and make that difficult thing a stepping stone, something you can use to grow and get stronger.”

And then life simply asks you to choose: Slam the beans again – or walk away?

I’ve never trained for Kung-fu. My bones aren’t rock-hard. My best punch involves fruit, wine and liquor.

But I’ve had my own path, training, setbacks and hard knocks.

And over the years, I’ve learned that ‘giving up’ isn’t an issue.

It’s not about quitting or giving up: it’s to do with the battles you choose.

And sometimes, it’s good practice to step back – not to quit, but to say “I’m not fighting this battle today – I’m going to train first and get stronger first. THEN I’ll show you”.

Just like that little monk, who realised that the real battle wasn’t against the beans, but against his own mind.

You have more strength in you than you can possibly imagine.

The only reason you’re not living your strength fully, bringing it all out onto the playing field, is that it takes time and persistence to get strong.

Breathe. Relax. Life is very, VERY playful – naughty and a bit mean too, sometimes. But life is always there to help you, to show you ways to grow and get stronger.

Life and the world aren’t out to hurt you – it’s only there to teach you.

Punch the beans.
If it starts to hurt too much: put ice on it.

There’s no shame in losing a battle so you can regroup and recover your strength.

The beans will be there waiting for you tomorrow.

If you keep it up long enough, you’ll be stronger than beans, bamboo, wood, stone.

If you allow life to teach you, you’ll become stronger than life.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some of my own bean-punching to do.

Author’s Bio: Martin Stellar is an email marketing specialist with a knack for building relationships. Former monk, former copywriter, once-upon-a-tailor; these days he’s on a mission to inspire and motivate. Each day he writes articles like these and sends them to his private list – and if you’d also like to receive them, please register at http://martinstellar.com.

Photo Credit: ♥siebe © via Compfight cc

Filed Under: Leadership, Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, inspiration, Motivation

Find Something to Push Against

May 15, 2014 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

Don’t ever tell me that I can’t do something.

No wait.

Please go right ahead and tell me that.

You’ve done me a favor, actually, because I use it as fuel. Like an Olympic swimmer doing an elegant flip-turn against the side of the pool to propel myself forward faster. Like a NASA rocket pushing against the earth to break free of gravity.

There are a lot of people out there who will take delight in puncturing your newly laid plans. It’s your job to analyze whether the negative reaction is something you can use, or simply something you just need to stay away from.

“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” James Baldwin

History is full of stories about people who wouldn’t have made discoveries, wouldn’t have founded great companies, and wouldn’t have achieved success without the initial force of perceived impossibility.

How about these two young women who invented an invisible bike helmet because their professor said it couldn’t be done?

The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Negativity Can Be Your Launching Pad

First, evaluate the source. Does the person know what they’re talking about? If they are pouring cold water on your idea, do they have expertise that means you need to listen to them? Are they simply being a Devil’s Advocate?

Second, examine the substance of the criticism. Is it something you already considered? Do you need to incorporate it into your plan? If the criticism is legitimate, use it to make your strategy even stronger.

If neither of these criteria are met, flick the negativity off your shoulder like dandruff.

Put this song in your earbuds: Fitz and the Tantrums “The Walker”

Get to work.

Visualize the goal ahead and leave the negativity in your rear view mirror. Propel yourself forward on the strength of your strategy, which has now been tested. You should thank your critic(s), because they have done you a valuable service. They have forced you to gut check.

Now you can fly.

Have you had an experience where you turned a “you can’t do that” into a “just watch me?”

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Leadership, Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, inspiration, Motivation

How to Use Images and Artwork for Inspiration at work

January 16, 2014 by R. Mfar Leave a Comment

Work from home jobs and home based businesses have several benefits, but there are certain disadvantages as well, for instance, the lack of motivation. Ideally, freelancers or home based businesses should be a lot more motivated as compared to someone working in a firm.

After all, you are working for yourself and it’s you who will reap all the benefits of your hard-work, but as many freelancers or home based workers find out, it can be incredibly hard to keep yourself motivated, in the absence of a manager, or fellow workers to compete with. As a freelancer, you are still answerable to your clients, but you are not as concerned about losing a client as someone might be about losing a job. You need to continuously push yourself to work harder, at least as much as you would have done in a typical job 9 to 5 jobs.

Even worse is the situation when things are just not going your way. You are putting the hard work, but it’s not paying off for one reason or another. You are not getting enough orders for your freelance job or enough sales at your online store, so you need some sort of a reminder and encouragement. In all these situations, it is important to keep your spirits high and find some reason to smile. And one of the most effective ways of doing so is to look at some memorable friends or family photographs, a painting or artwork, religious sculpture, or a simple quote that will help you get out of depressive mode and give you the strength to keep going.

But then, it’s not always possible to find a specific photograph, or remind yourself of some saying when you are in depressive mood, mainly because when you are down, it’s hard to find the strength in yourself and think clearly, let alone searching for some motivational quote to cheer you up.

Following are some ways to keep some sort of inspiring or motivational stuff in sight for immediate help when you are in need …

Get it framed:

Picture frames are mostly used to preserve and present the memorable photograph, but frames are not just meant for pictures. You can get in touch with a picture framing service and get your favorite quote, religious verses, or some inspirational painting framed, and hang it on a wall in the room where you work. Not only it will give you some much needed motivation, but looking and admiring the painting or going through the text every now and then will serve as a stress reliever because it will take your mind away from work (AKA computer screen) for some time. Good thing is, you can invest on a good quality custom frame once, and simply change the painting or quote with another one after some time.

Put it in wallet:

Doesn’t matter how depress or miserable you are, your wallet or handbag is something you will need to take out and use every once in a while. Usually all wallets have picture holders with plastic covers where you can insert a pocket size photograph of your loved ones, some inspirational saying, or an uplifting quote in these pockets and there’s every chance you will hit upon these pictures when you are feeling down.

Smart Phones:

Another thing you are bound to carry and use, irrespective of your mood and mental state, is the mobile phone or smart phone. Doesn’t matter if it’s a smartphone or a simple mobile phone, you can always set the picture or religious verses about faith or hope as the background on main screen for constant reminder.

Background & Screen Savers:

If you are working from home as a freelancer or home based business, chances are that you will be spending most of your time in front of your computer or laptop screen (which in itself can cast a negative effect on your mood). So it’s better to change your background or screen saver from the default black screen to some photograph or inspiring image/text.

Filed Under: Motivation Tagged With: bc, inspiration, Motivation, work

Beach Notes: The Pursuit of Perfection

November 30, 2013 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

sand dolphin

We watched this dolphin being modeled one Sunday afternoon at Rainbow Bay beach.

Perfection with great attention to detail and made to last. The man building the dolphin was meticulous in the finish of his dolphin, so much so that they we enjoyed it for 4 mornings afterwards before the waves finally were washing it away.

sand dolphin day 4

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Filed Under: Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, beach, inspiration, perfection

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