Wednesday 15 December 2010

Life Is Not About Where You Are Now

Recently I spent the weekend listening to Wayne Dwyer’s CD called ‘The Shift’.  As I listened to the whole programme, the quote that most stood out for me was “life is not about where you are now, it’s where you are going that counts.”

A calling is that which you feel deep inside of you and it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else. I encourage you to do what you do in life because it’s your calling.  Don’t let your doing-ness get in the way of your being.

Every day that you awake to a new day, you can choose to live in higher awareness and be steadfast in your thoughts and actions. Explore your patterns of behaviour and as you walk into the future, leave behind those patterns that no longer serve you.

As you change direction, be mindful of how things will unfold, as Wayne said, "very often the truths that you adopted and made your own in the morning of your life won't matter in the afternoon".

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Random Acts of Kindness

If you want to see more kindness in the world, give it out…

I was recently on my way home after speaking at a conference and drove through the village where I live. I went into the corner shop to pick up some bread and milk and there was a boy of about five or six years old in front of me in the queue. He had a bottle of pop in his hand and the lady who was serving frowned and told him in a loud shout to put the pop back as he was 5p short. I watched the child’s physiology crumble in embarrassment as he went to put the pop back on the shelf and behind me the queue was growing with very impatient people.
Then it was my turn to pay for the milk and bread; I asked the woman to take an extra 5p from my change and pay towards the little boy’s pop.

As I walked out of the shop I could see the little boy’s eyes fill with delight when the woman shouted to him to go back and bring the bottle of pop back to the counter.

Where in life can you pay forward for someone else and make their day?

Random acts of kindness can change a life…

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Do the Difficult Things First

Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘do the difficult things first’?

What if for the next thirty days you started the day with what you found difficult in life.  I tried the experiment in September.  I got up every morning and started with what I had most resisted in my life… EXERCISE!

I had resisted exercise so much so that at first I felt allergic to it.
The excuses I used were:

• I hate gyms.
• I am far too busy.
• I don’t want to have a bad hair day.
• I will start tomorrow.

Well tomorrow never came until the 1st September, 2010, when I got out of bed at my usual 5:05am, took the jogging pants out of the wardrobe and met my new personal trainer.

Looking back I could barely walk after the first few sessions. However after about four weeks something began to shift in me. All my excuses began to fall away and I didn’t see exercise as difficult any more.

What’s difficult right now in your life?

Tips on How to Overcome It

• Make a decision to do the things you have been most resisting.
• Run towards the fear of what has been stopping you and leave your comfort zone.
• Every morning that you awake, start with what’s most challenging.

It is now nine weeks since I started exercising and here are the results:

• My BMI has dropped 9 points.
• I have now to date lost 21lbs in weight.
• As for feeling good, I have much more energy and clarity in my thinking.

I encourage you today to start doing the difficult things first in your life.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Intellectual Constipation

Life is meant to be simple.  However, in this fast changing world we sometimes complicate life and add too much fluff.  We become emotionally constipated which can lead us to feel de-motivated and often feelings of self-doubt can creep in.

I encourage you to let go and simplify work to eliminating any destructive inner conversations that you might have with yourself.

• What is it that makes you happy?
• What do you really want to do?
• Why do you do what you are currently doing?

Most people are not living the way they want to live.  Why?  Because their lives are very often about how can I get more.

What if from today you changed that mantra to how can I be more?

Be the best you that you can be…


Monday 15 November 2010

What’s All This Busyness About

As the last months of 2010 pass by, this is the time of year when I take time to reflect, press the pause button and stop.

Business wise and family wise it has been a successful year.  Why? Because I stopped being busy all the time on what didn’t matter and became busy with what’s most important in life.  For me it has been family health and developing a world class business.  The only person you impress with your busyness is yourself.  In fact, in life we can become addicted to being busy achieving nothing, yet all the time the clock ticks by.

Imagine being told you had seven days to live and you suddenly realised what you had been doing wasn’t all that important.  No one wants to get to their last days and realise they wasted their life.

Molly’s Top Tips

• Stop the clock.
• Question all your busyness.
• Let go of distractions in your life.
• Say no to others, so you can say yes to what matters.
• Start to build your legacy.

Monday 1 November 2010

The Power of Passion

Are you currently living a life where you are excited to get out of bed each day? If not, why not?

I recently saw a short video of Les Brown and he spoke about the two best days of our lives. The first being the day you were born and the second being the day you knew why you were born and what you were here to do.

Life is really about being the best that you can be and that inspires everyone else you meet to be themselves and find their passion.
  • What do you love to do?
  • What is it that makes you happy?
  • What is it that makes you shine?
I encourage you to open up to the possibilities that have yet to unfold in your life. Go out and find a mentor who can see the gifts in you that you cannot yet see in yourself.

Most people are not living the way they want to live, don’t be part of the crowd. Find your passion and create your own life.

Friday 22 October 2010

Smash the Rules That No Longer Serve You

What rules in your life hold you back? What rules no longer serve you?
To dream big and play big in life, we have to let go of what no longer serves us.

While speaking to a great friend and business associate Louise from Minneapolis recently, we were talking about the baggage of life. She had been to a seminar where she heard a great saying…
'That as human beings, we often carry baggage and cargo.'

Baggage is all to do with our own experiences and limiting beliefs in life. However, cargo is very often the stuff people carry that is not even their own. Imagine for a moment, how much more clarity and focus would be in your life if you let go of any old rules that no longer serve you and stopped carrying any cargo that is not your own.

Smash the rules, life is too short to do guilt.

Friday 15 October 2010

Watchfulness

Have you even thought about watching yourself? It is all about observing and getting yourself involved in the right thinking.

I first learned about watchfulness when I lived in the west of Ireland. One of my greatest mentors in life was a priest called Fr. Jimmey O’Connell who taught me the gift of observing and being silent to your own presence.

I encourage you to spend one day…
  • Watching your thoughts.
  • Watching and being awake to what you do in the world.
  • Watch what and who you are listening to.
  • Watch who you spend time with in the day.
  • Watch what you read.
Then sit and write what you have learned about yourself.

Too often in life when we are not watching, our mind becomes wide open to suggestions from outside sources. Only get involved with the right thinking.

Thursday 7 October 2010

The Greatest Disease in the 21st Century

The greatest disease in the 21st Century is lack of self-esteem.  Most people don’t know what they have going for them. The time has come to encourage each other to get out of our head and step into our greatness.

In order to become who and what you are meant to be, sometimes part of you might have to die.  If you have found your inner glow, I encourage you to go out and help another find theirs.

Very often in life it’s when we are at our greatest low, we find our inner glow. It’s up to you to build yourself. Every one of us has a distinct purpose, find it and live it.

If fear is what stops you from being you, here is what you do:
  • Write down all your fears
  • Then ask yourself, what’s the worst thing that could happen to you?
  • Find the courage inside of yourself to say no more to fear.
  • Know that every day is a new day to re-invent yourself.
  • Work on small things, one step at a time.
  • Wake up, re-think and put all those hidden dreams into action.
The only person who will ever truly hold you back in life is you. Build a bridge and get over yourself.

I encourage you to take the next step… stop settling for less and watch the impossible become possible in your life.

Friday 1 October 2010

Why Business Fails

October 1993, I set up my first business and over the years I have had some great successes and also some great failures.

I have come to realise that an entrepreneur is someone who solves problems at a profit and one of the most important business questions today is ‘Who is your target market?’

It might shock you to know that the vast majority of people out there today will not be your target market.

Hot Question
Look back over the last five years of your business, who have your customers been?
  • Stop trying to please everyone and focus on the 1% that is truly your target market.
  • Stop wasting time marketing and cold calling people who will never buy from you.
  • Spend all your time giving massive value to the customers who currently buy from you.


Friday 24 September 2010

Why Most People Are Not Successful

My grandmother taught me to use elbow grease when I was a little girl and it’s something I still use today in my life. Elbow grease is about hard work and commitment, a willingness sometimes to do what others don’t want to do.
 
What does the word success mean to you?
 
The word success will mean different things to various people and the number one reason why people are not successful is we are sometimes not willing to do what it takes. The second reason is very often we are too lazy and make excuses like: 
  • I have not got enough time.
  • The economy.
  • Not enough money.
All of the above are excuses not reasons why…

I learned many years ago that knowledge is not power. It is the implementation of knowledge that is power. In simpler terms, it’s not what we know that matters; it’s what we do with what we know that makes the difference.

You have created everything that has happened in your life both the good and the bad. Every day that you live, what you think about, talk about is what comes about in your life.

Three Tips on How to Be Successful:
  1. Know what you want.
  2. Take action towards your goals each day.
  3. Be and feel successful now.

 

 

 

Saturday 18 September 2010

The Old Model Of Leadership Is Dead

With the world going through some of the deepest changes in history, its great that at last, everyone from CEOs to MPs and World Leaders are saying it’s time to take responsibility.

I love Robin Sharma’s new book ‘The Leader Who Had No Title’. He challenges each and every one of us to lead without a title.

Go out and create your own economy.

Six Steps on How to Become a Social Artist of the Future:

  1. Look at the current rituals you live by each day.
  2. When you change your inner world, your outer world will change.
  3. Write down a one page vision of what you will look like when you are playing your leadership best.
  4. Do one thing within the next 24 hours that will take you to the next level of being a great social artist.
  5. Leave your ego at the door.
  6. Learn to say what you mean and mean what you say.
It’s an extraordinary time to be alive, make a commitment to yourself to take responsibility and be the best that only you can be… and never forget that on the other side of fear lives possibility.

It’s time for the social artist to emerge fully in the world and teach people how to move from victimhood to leadership.

I encourage you to look for opportunities in what others call problems. Look at your daily rituals and question yourself.  Is what you are doing in your life working? If not, change it!

Stop being a victim of circumstances, it’s time to lead.

Saturday 11 September 2010

Make a Difference or Get Out of My Way

I recently heard a quote that came from Bono. 
“If you are not going to make a difference, get out of my way.”

At first I was shocked and thought the quote was a bit harsh, then after contemplating on it, I grew to like the quote more and more. It got me thinking about the word responsibility.

We live in a world today where there is a denial of self-responsibility.  We blame everyone and everything except ourselves.  Yet if we look at some of the greatest leaders alive today, they take responsibility and make higher choices each day.

When we take responsibility for who and what we are, we realise that little things do matter and that as you live your days so you craft your life.

Six rules on how to make a difference:
  1. Believe in yourself when no one else believes in you.
  2. Know and understand that not everyone is going to like what you do.
  3. Take responsibility to be the best that you can be.
  4. Know that the more you make a difference, the more you will be tested.
  5. Surround yourself with people who really make a difference.
  6. Making a difference is about taking massive action and going down the road less travelled.
When you commit your life to making a difference, you will live from that vibration and all else will fall away…

Saturday 4 September 2010

Distractions

It’s a true saying, if you want to lose two hours, go on the internet for five minutes.
I have been pondering on the word distractions.
Why? Because it was the end of August 2010 and I had set myself the task of having two new mini books written.
Did I succeed? No!
Why? Because I caught the procrastinator’s virus and I used the excuse of tomorrow I will start… Well, tomorrow came and went.
Have you ever been there, where you are really cross with yourself and you just say enough, no more?
That’s what happened to me and here’s what I did and it worked.
  1. Before you fall asleep, let your thoughts be of writing, see yourself writing.
  2. Make a decision to get up early, 5am if possible.
  3. When you awake, let your mind wander to the day ahead and feel excited about what you are about to do.
  4. Go downstairs, make yourself an early morning drink, grab a pen and paper, find a place to sit and start writing.
  5. Set the discipline of writing for at least 60 minutes before rewarding yourself with a mini-break.
  6. Don’t turn on your computer (distraction).
  7. Don’t grab the morning paper or turn on the news (distraction).
Since putting the above disciplines in my life, I have now completed the next two mini books.
Embrace your procrastinator, shut out distractions and take action one minute at a time.


Tuesday 2 February 2010

Take the Weather with You

Have you ever gone to meet someone and as they walk to greet you, you just know that they are having a bad day?

I recently went to see a new client and as I waited in the reception area, they walked down the stairs to meet me. I could see from the energy of their body language that they were harassed, stressed and not having a good day.

I had brought the weather of sunshine with me as I had a lovely drive to the organisation and I had been listening to Og Mandino as I drove. I realised upon meeting the client, that each day we awake to a new day and we get a choice as to what weather we are going to project that day. As I walked with the client up to her office, I made a decision to stay in the sunshine.

Steps on How to Take the Weather with You
  • When you meet someone who is complaining, listen, hear and look for the positive.
  • Life is a cycle of moods, we can never be responsible for other people’s moods, yet we can be responsible for our own.
  • Never judge a man or woman by one meeting or interaction, remember we all have bad days.
  • Never react, only pause and respond.
  • Watch the magic happen when you bring sunshine to your customers and everyone you meet. That is what you will get back.
As Og Mandino once said
  • ‘If you feel depressed, remember to sing.’
  • ‘If you feel sad, remember to laugh,’
  • ‘If you feel fear, remember to plunge ahead.’
  • ‘If you feel insignificant, remember your goals.’
And most of all…  Remember you have the choice to master your emotions and bring the weather with you wherever you go.

Monday 11 January 2010

The Snow Brought Focus...

Have you ever suffered from the tomorrow syndrome?
It’s where you wake up each day and say, tomorrow I will call that person or tomorrow I will write the first chapter of my book. You get caught up in a negative loop of self talk.

In the first week of January 2010, the snow brought focus into my life.  I woke up last week to open the curtains and see a winter wonderland outside in our front garden. As I looked out through the window I could see the car was full of snow and ice. In that moment I made a decision to start writing my next e-book... which I had been thinking of writing throughout the whole of 2009. Thinking without action is useless.

For the next three days I hardly left my desk except to eat and sleep...... I had at last got a grip and just sat down and wrote, no more excuses. I will now share with you the 7 steps that moved me from thinking to action.

SET AN OUTCOME
I sat down at my desk and mapped out the book, e.g. how many chapters would the book have and what would be the title of each chapter.

SET YOURSELF A TIME LIMIT
I put a clock on my desk and set myself a timescale of how long I would write before having a break.

ENJOY WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN PUTTING ON HOLD
After about an hour of writing, I began to enjoy it so much that I didn't want to stop for a break.

ENERGY FOLLOWS THOUGHT
When you get into the rhythm of focus, creativity and ideas flow.

CELEBRATE
I stopped for a break along the way and celebrated with a cup of coffee and Kit Kat.

CHANGE YOUR FOCUS, CHANGE YOUR RESULT
The gift of the snow showed me that when I changed my mindset, I changed my result.

IT’S ALL IN THE ACTION
In life it’s not what we talk about that makes the difference it’s the action that creates the result.