Words have huge power. Every word you use has an emotional connotation or connection for you. For example the word ‘Love’ brings up very different feelings to the word ‘Hate’. When we use negative words we tend to become more negative and disconnected. When we use words that we feel are positive we become positive and open minded. Given the times we live in, it is more important, now than ever to feed our positivity. Affirmations are sentences, mantras or phrases that we can use to lift ourselves. Using positive mantras or affirmations we bring out positive emotions and these allow us to access the well of positivity that is inside us all. Have a look at this short video to understand more and then why not try to create your own affirmation. Enjoy and have a great day! Brendan (P.S. please share!)
Optimism is the brother of positivity. Whether your needs be in the area of business, relationships, health or any aspect of your life, optimism will fuel you to create solutions and move forward in a positive manner. No matter how bleak or dire a situation is optimism, positivity and hope will always make it better. Sometimes it might seem that there is no hope or optimism and it is at these very times that you have to stand back from it all and reflect that no matter what has happened in your life or business, you survived and more you probably grew for the better based on what you had experienced. You will always come through, you will always succeed, maybe not in the manner you envisaged, but succeed you will. The key to all is an attitude of optimism. Enjoy the short video! Please share…
Meditation has been around for thousands of years because it works. Harvard Medical School and many other notable research institutions have also endorsed the medical, emotional, physical, spiritual and mental benefits of meditation. It a great way to create ‘inner bliss’. A feeling inside that is peaceful and uplifting and that acts a reservoir of positive energy. There is no right or wrong way to meditate and each and every meditation you do will be unique. Try this short 5 minute Inner Bliss meditation and if you like it you can build it into a daily routine to create happiness and positivity in you life.
It’s the simplest tool and techniques that I know for positivity – be in the now. Learn how and why from this, the third part in our 10 part series about creating positivity in your life. As always if it works for you it will work for somebody else please share – have a great day! Brendan.
In response to the negativity we see all around us we must have defenses and mechanisms in order to create positivity inside ourselves. I encounter the problem of people being overwhelmed by negativity in my business and life coaching, in training and with friends and family in my personal life. In the past I have been lucky enough to have encountered some great tools to help bring out the positivity within you, which I will share with you.
Here is the first of 10 X 3 minute video clips that will help you to feel positive and most importantly this positivity will then help you to create meaningful success in your life and business.
If you like it share it as this could make a real difference to somebody who needs it today. Also go to www.facebook.com/brendanfoley.net to get updates about new content. Thanks and have a great day!
The American motivational speaker Tony Robbins talks about WAGs and BAGs in terms of goals setting, namely being Wildly Audacious Goals or Big Audacious Goals. In my experience people have no problem in setting WAGs or BAGs rather most people struggle on how to chunk, phase or break down their goal into a path that can lead to the BAG or WAG being successfully achieved.
Recently I coached a well-known TV celebrity that on the surface looked very successful and certainly had no shortage of work. He was happy, good at what he does but for all that he was not earning or bringing home enough to stop himself regularly ending up in his over-draft and yet was not a big spender.
My client is a great goal setter, in fact he is too good as he has too many goals and therefore is distracted from the most important goals! The first challenge for him is to priortise his goals. I use a simple 3 step formula to do this;
1. Do I/will I enjoy reaching this goal?
2. Do I/will I get a reward (money, love, health…) from this goal?
3. What cost if any will pursuing this goals have on my life?
The next challenge for him is that he does not chunk his goals into manageable pieces. To use the well worn cliche “how do you eat an elephant?”, “with a spoon”! Which is a nice way of saying you have to start by turning your goal into small pieces. I like to ‘chunk’ goals by what I can achieve in 1 day and then make a list of these chunks. In this manner it becomes easy as your daily goal becomes very achievable and effortlessly moves you closer and closer to your BAG or WAG.
So ask yourself today;
1. What would I like to achieve?
2. Ask the enjoy, reward, cost question of it?
3. Then break it out into daily chunks
Have a great day. PLEASE share this because every time you share one of these stories YOU could be helping someone to create “meaningful’ success in their life! So please FaceBook share and Twitter.
If love be the sustenance of the heart, creativity the sustenance of the mind and food the sustenance of the body then meditation is the sustenance of the spirit. – Brendan Foley
When conducting a coaching session I often ask people to score their lives on 4 scales. A quick ready reckoner if you like to assess where an individual is creating meaningful success. I ask people to score from 0-10 how good they feel about; their mind (education, stimulation, creativity), their emotions (relationships, communication, friendships), their body (health, sleep, diet) and their spirit (essence, higher-self, connection). Most answer the first 3 categories; mind, body and emotion easily enough and almost all people stumble when asked to evaluate their spiritual health.
This failure to be able to assess or dialogue with their spirit is quite disconcerting for the individual involved. We all struggle a little to put words on what we mean by our spirit. Many of us confuse spirit with religion (another days post!) when actually pretty much everyone can tell you a balanced and happy person has success in mind body and spirit. Yet why is it so difficult to be articulate about our own spirit?
I believe that most of us have never been thought how to have that conversation with ourselves and fewer of us still make the time to have the silence to allow this real inner dialogue to happen. The good news is that this dialogue is easy and in my view meditation is one of the best ways to facilitate this conversation with the self. You do not need to know what your spirit is to start the conversation, but start it you do need to do. When you start this communication your true wisdom flows and happiness becomes easily accessible! Being in a state of Spirit is one of the 5 States of meaningful success.
Why not check out the meditation in the RESOURCES section. I would also highly recommend the free 21 day mediation programme from the Chopra centre which can be accessed online at http://www.chopracentermeditation.com/
Please share FB and retweet and together we can make today a great day!
Complaining is a cultural norm. We find it in every society and business but does it help us? In my book it is a categoric NO! Here are four reasons not to complain; mental well being, emotional well being, physical well being and spiritual well being.
Mental Well Being
When we criticise others we bring our attention what is wrong with the world. In doing this we often miss what is right in the world and as the law of attraction states what we bring our awareness to is what we attract into our lives. So are you bringing your awareness to success or failure in the world?
Emotional Well Being
When we complain about others our emotional state mirrors the state or the energy of the situation we are criticising. So if we are complaining about a negative we become negative and this leads to dejection and eventually apathy. So nothing is actually achieved by being in this state. Our view of the world when we feel negative creates closed and conservative thinking, not the type of thinking that fixes situations.
Physical Well Being
When you feel negative your physiological state becomes tense and tight. Your breathing becomes shallow, your eyes narrow, you hunch and you become still. The net effect of this is that you take in less oxygen so the blood stream is not carrying enough oxygen to your brain to think clearly. Less light comes into your senses and you feel down, lack of movement creates stagnancy of thought. If the effect of complaining is to raise your heart rate then you could suffer hypertension (high blood pressure) Again none of these things help fix the situation.
Spiritual Well Being
When we complain we judge others. This puts us in place where we feel superior to others and judge people when we do not have a true understanding of why they did what they did. To say bankers are greedy is perhaps to overlook how emotionally damaged many of them were as they had to keep creating wealth and power due to their lack of self esteem and insecurity in the world. Judging separates us from others and causes separation and lack of empathy, which again in turn stops us creating solutions.
So if creating meaningful success is important to you then quit complaining and get about creating solutions! Have a great day – Brendan.
Please retweet and FB share or email if you think that this information could help others…. Thanks.
The title of this post taken from the famous Gil Scott-Heron song of the same name, nicely captures the essence of a really fascinating conversation I had recently with a group of like minded coaches and business people. We were all reflecting on how a large number of people that we interact with were feeling very negative due to the state of the economy. It quickly transpired that most of these people were basing their emotional state on factors outside of themselves. This is perhaps the most risky and reckless strategy you can employ if you want happiness and meaningful success in your life.
Happiness is not created by external forces; be that money, sex, food, perceived success, share prices and so on. Real happiness comes from inside and is a CHOICE. When someone chooses to be truly happy they let go of their attachment to outside forces and embrace change and flux. That is to say that chaos becomes seen as synchronicity and rather than fighting the tide you learn to swim with it to get where you want to go. I know plenty of businesses and people who are embracing this fact and thriving in the so called recession.
Interestingly this same concept or approach to life creates a silent revolution. If I choose not to react to the negativity around me and concentrate on feeling happy and positive then I affect others in a very positive way. I am conscious that as I write this Ireland has broken all records to date with the size of the national debt. Criticising the banks, the Government or others won’t change a thing and all I will do is feel negative. This will affect my ability to do good business today and to be positive company for my family and others. If we all got on with our real job; being happy, then the mess will sort itself out. So start the revolution today CHOOSE happiness and fly in the face of those who will try to drag you down. Inspire them. Lift them and in doing so we will start a revolution that will not be televised but will lead us all to meaningful success.
Please retweet, Facebook or email link to others and help start the revolution! Thanks and have a brilliant day, Brendan.
You could be forgiven for thinking that we live in a world of negativity and disasters, if you regularly consume media then you do live in that world. Our perception is our reality or another way to put it is ‘as within so without’. What we think and feel about the world tends to be what our attention is brought to. If we are looking for negativity then we will find it and conversely look for positivity and we find it too.
My reality is that there are amazing people doing amazing things in my life and the world. While there may be a global financial crisis I meet people and businesses everyday who are thriving, growing and most importantly loving what they do. I know many people who will have 2010 as their most successful year yet. Did you know that there were more millionaires made per head of population in America during the dust-bowl depression of the 1920′s than at any other time!
My question to you is to ask yourself what is wonderful in your life? Who is wonderful in your life? (right now, draw up a quick list of what is brilliant in your life)
What you will find is the more you bring your awareness to what is great the more you will see these things in the world and other people. When you do this you will feel more positive and by feeling positive you will be infectious and others will reflect your positivity.
If you want to prove this theory it’s simple – just do one thing for one day;
Smile at everyone you meet today!
You will be amazed at how good you feel and the impact it makes on those around you. This will also bring you into a state of connection; one of the 5 states of success.
If you liked this please share it on twitter, facebook or email the link – let’s make good news spread. Thanks, have a great day! Brendan PS check out this brilliant video about smiling on youtube (thanks Dave@DAK photography)
Jan Calzon the former CEO of SAS Scandinavian Airlines popularised the concept of the ‘moment of truth’. He postulated that each and every interaction with a brand or company presented the opportunity for the customer to experience a ‘moment of truth’. This same concept can apply to us as individuals as well as to businesses and organisations.
On Friday evening I went to our local Indian take-away Bombay Pantry, one that produced great brochures and menus to appetise. When I went along to collect our meal I was amazed and experienced a moment of truth with the brand. Through the clear windows into the kitchen I saw 8-10 people busying in the kitchen. But something seemed out of order? Everyone in the kitchen was smiling and joking while working! Whether I am simply conditioned from seeing Gordon Ramsey screaming and shouting abuse in a kitchen or just have not seen other examples of positive energy in catering, I was amazed.
When the meal was brought out of the kitchen by a young Indian man he greeted the girl on the cash register with a genuine smile – a Bombay smile. I left not just with nutritional sustenance but also emotional sustenance from being in the positivity atmosphere of people who were choosing to be in a great state of positivity. This is a brilliant example of the state of connection which will be discussed in future posts.
So when people encounter you, your brand or your company what moment of truth do they experience?
