Almost everyday I meet people who say – “my career is going nowhere” or “I am not where I want to be in my job” and many look to me for answers. The only answer to these questions is;
1. Where do you want to be?
2. What is stopping you getting there?
3. Will that make you happy if you get there?
Check out this video to see more…
Is your career a stagnant pond or a flowing river? from Brendan Foley on Vimeo.
Today I was asked by three different clients “what should I read, to help my self development/business?”.
So in response I have created what I’m calling my top 10 ‘must haves’ as part of any self development collection. All these books are available on Amazon or in most book stores.
In no particular order;
1. Synchrodestiny by Deepak Chopra
2. The Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (two separate books)
3. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L Hay
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
5. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers
6. My Stroke of Insight by Dr Gill Bolte Taylor (also check her out on TED tv)
7. SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
8. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
9. The Monk who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Scharma
10. Born To Win by John Bertrand
I won’t be as vain as to include The Yin Yang Complex and The 5 States of Success by Brendan Foley but you might consider them for your library!! 
Have you got a book that you feel should be on the top 10 ‘Must Haves’ for success and personal development? If so please leave a comment on this post so that others can benefit from your knowledge.
As always please share this post – it’s passing positive karma forward !!! Have great day, Brendan.
What is meaningful success and how do you create it in you life, career and business. Here are the answers.
What is meaningful success? from Brendan Foley on Vimeo.
PLEASE SHARE! THIS CLIP CAN REALLY HELP YOU BUT MAY HELP SOMEONE YOU KNOW EVEN MORE. IT’S JUST 1 CLICK! Thanks I really appreciate and am grateful for your support.
How to deal with highly assertive people – with Brendan Foley from Brendan Foley on Vimeo.
Please share this video and make sure to come back soon we’ll be posting loads more useful content. Please click the facebook LIKE button on the top right to be informed when new content is added. Thanks and have a great day!
It is estimated that homo sapiens is about 200,000 years old. When you read that statement it is interesting but not really relevant to most of us. That is until you realize that YOU are homo sapiens!
And why is this of interest to us?
Anytime you doubt yourself, any time you believe that you are not good enough, not capable, that you can’t make it, remember that your genes are the product of 200,000 years of success. That success is embedded in you. For your ancestors to pass on their genes to you they will have overcome; famine, war, disease, political upheaval, natural disasters, wild animals, droughts and many more disasters of epic proportions.
So next time you have a bad day at the office, put it into perspective and think of the 200,000 years of success gone into making you great!
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The recent leaders debate on RTE television was laughable not just for the twitterisation of complex arguments condensed into 30 second soundbites, but for the uniform way the candidates were dressed!
Each man with the exception of green party leader John Gormley wore a red tie. The reason for this is that people like myself have been saying for years that red is a colour that inspires confidence, success and is competitive. A colour you would think that would perfect for a candidates debate. Unfortunately all were reading the same book and what happened was that the ‘red ties’ all appeared as contriving to create an air of confidence.
The edge had turned into uniformity. Maybe it’s time that we all looked at ourselves and wore and spoke as a reflection of how we genuinely feel rather than putting a spin on ourselves. People buy packaging but stay loyal to a brand down to the product itself.
So ask yourself are you more packaging than product?
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Dublin Book Festival
Friday 4th March 2010 – 11.15: “Up for Discussion”
Main Stage, City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin
Your Career and Personal Finances: Getting Back on Track Colm Rapple, Brendan Foley, Jane Downes
Come and join us!
Biographies;
COLM RAPPLE’S personal finance guide Family Finance has been an annual best seller since first published in 1977. He is a journalist by profession having been at various times in his career business editor of The Irish Independent, The Sunday Independent and The Irish Press Group. He writes on economic and personal finance topics in The Irish Mail on Sunday, The Irish Daily Mail and The Irish Examiner.
BRENDAN FOLEY is a life and business coach who, through his company Seachange Training, has worked with 1,000’s of people and 100’s of companies in Ireland and the UK to help them create meaningful success. He is the author of the Yin Yang Complex (Mercier Press) and his forthcoming book, The 5 States of Success; Tools for Meaningful Success in your Career, Business and Life launches in July 2011 (Mercier Press).
JANE DOWNES is one of Irelands best known Career Coaches and author of, The Career Book– Help for the Restless Realist. She owns Clearview Coaching Group, a Career Coaching and Training business, which she established in 2004 following an extensive career working in the area of recruitment and HR consulting. In addition, Jane regularly writes for the national press and is invited to speak on national radio. Jane held the position of weekly Career Expert in 2010 on TV3’s The Morning Show.
For more see
Simon O’Connor (www.simplesimon.ie) my wonderfully talented designer and I would like your help. Please have a look at the 2 rough images below and please post whether you would be more inclined to buy A or B? This will help us with the creative direction on my new book The 5 States of Success.
Cover ‘A’
Cover ‘B’
Thanks, your comments and help are really appreciated.
If life was an experiment there would be no success and no failure, just learnings. When an experiment is conducted, is there a right or wrong outcome? Of course not. There simply is the outcome. And from this outcome we learn. Do you beat yourself up over the things you perceive you fail at? Do you go on ego trips when you create what you see as success? If so you are like most people and that’s not a bad thing because it is what it is. But what might happen if you could let go of the concept of success and failure and instead learn from each experience in life?
What it would mean is that rather than continually judging ourselves we could move beyond success and failure and the roller coaster of highs and lows. Instead we could embrace each experience without fear, knowing that whatever happens that we will learn and grow from the outcome. This will free us to be innovative, loving, instinctive, vibrant and to live a life of continuous growth and fulfillment.
Thomas Edison the inventor of the life bulb was supposed to have ‘failed’ over 3,000 times before he got the formula right to create the light bulb. If he deemed each experiment as a failure he would surely have given up. Instead he saw each experiment as a step that took him closer to understanding what would make it work.
So the next time you find yourself thinking in terms of success or failure; reframe it. Think learning and growth and you will reap great rewards. This is the type of thinking that ultimately creates ‘meaningful’ success (success that is defined by growth and richness of experience). Try it today!
Please share it if you like it!!! Thanks Brendan.
Yesterday was a very strange day. It was a day of unusual experiences that for me showed the disconnect between small Irish businesses and the principles of success. Two main experiences summed it up for me;
1. A credit note at a hardware store
2. A protest by subcontractors
The hardware experience.
I had to return an ash can, bought the day before, that was unsuitable for our requirements to a local family run hardware store. They did not have the size that I required and the owners first reaction on presenting the item back to him was – “You know I can only give you a credit note on that!”. I was a little taken aback at his abruptness and asked “why is that?”. Amazingly (as the store owner) he said “company policy”. As if the ‘the company’ was some faceless bureaucratic management structure far removed from the store! I said that I was a good customer and was prepared to take my business to the big national hardware stores where I could get a refund on an unused item bought the day before. His reaction was “well make sure you spend your credit note before you do!”. I left feeling like I had been swindled. It was only €50.00 but the principles of the man left me sick. Was my €50.00 worth more than the previous hundreds and possibly thousands that I could leave his store in the future? Obviously not. This is a classic case of small business myopia (short sightedness) that is rampant in Ireland.
Subcontractor Protest
The second moment of truth for me was watching a Prime Time TV report on small building sub-contractors protesting outside the gates of building firms that have gone bust. Their fear and myopia was pouring all their energy into protesting and pleading for money they were owed. What good can that possibly do their business? They have little or no chance of getting their money. All they are really doing is venting their anger. While I can sympathise with how they are feeling surely pouring their energy into new business ideas and development would better serve their cause? This would ensure their future to be positive and uplifting, rather than living in the past, which will acheive nothing for their cause.
What these two stories illustrate is how short sightedness and fear based attitudes can prevent us from creating meaningful success. You can overcome fear or myopia for you or your business by asking;
What do you need to let go of today that will allow you to move forward?
What can you put your energy into that will yield a great return?
What do you need to stand back from to see the big picture?
Related posts;
The Gallery Owner and the Shelf Packer
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Around this time of year it is very common for people to set objectives, goals and targets that they would like to achieve. Businesses are doing the same as well. By the time we reach next December most of those goals will remain unachieved or achieved in varying degrees of limited success. So what separates the few that will attain their goals? Luck, preparation, perspiration or inspiration? While all these factors help they won’t alone let you achieve your goal.
What is needed is 100% focus and concentration on what you want and that starts now. Most people go 80% of the way in identifying what they want. That puts you on the road but does not get you to your destination. Imagine if you will that you are coming to visit me in my office in Blackrock in Dublin, Ireland. Perhaps you leave from Cork and travel to Blackrock, which will see you complete 80% of your goal to meet me. What happens though if you don’t know where I am located in Blackrock? You will fail to meet me and our meeting will not happen. You will have fallen at the last hurdle, the last 20%. This is where most people fail because they do not identify in minute detail what it is they want to achieve. Being on the road and not knowing your final destination is called wandering!
When an athlete visualizes winning a race they do so in minute detail bringing sounds, colours and feelings to life in a vivid description of themselves winning the race. Do you do this when loosing weight, setting a sales target or identifying a goal? If not, you should and in doing so you go from being an 80%er to a 100%er and then you have a massive chance of achieving your goal and creating meaningful success. Happy goal setting!
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In my experience coaching 100’s of people I have found that quite often clients will say “I used be so forceful and now I am so empathic, almost too much so…” or “I was very thoughtful and caring about people but now I find after coaching I am very driven and assertive”. These statements point to the phenomenon of the ‘pendulum effect’.
Quite often when people make major behavioral adjustments they over compensate for the change they are making and a dominant person can be too accepting or a social person too introverted and so on. This is not a bad thing as long as you find your way back to the centre. The centre point of the pendulum’s swing only makes sense once the extremes on both sides have been visited. Pushing your behviour on each side of the pendulum is a great thing as you create real awareness of the extremes of your behavior, in doing this it allows you to find your ‘middle ground’ and success.
Think about it like learning to drive. When you first steer a car you understeer and then oversteer, taking corners too sharply or too wide. After time you get a feel for the right line and you drive smooth and easy. The concept of Yin and Yang is the same – find balance. My new book the 5 States of Success also talks at length about achieving this balance.
So my advice is to be brave, experience the pendulum effect, understeer and oversteer and find the middle ground the centre point that works best for you.
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