Inspired Thoughts

About Extraordinary You

You could be forgiven for looking at this book, reading the blurb and thinkin, ‘Oh, here we go; another self help book.’ However, get into it and what you will actually find are eleven sets of honest, personal accounts of real people’s varied life experiences (from cancer, to divorce, to life changing accidents) and how they resulted in these people re-assessing what they wanted from their lives, and, in turn, how to find it. The authors then use these experiences to help us to find a way to enrich our lives.
A current buzz word, certainly in UK business and education is ‘Mindfulness.’ Immediately it struck me that without using the word, several of these authors have learned, and are encouraging us, to discover mindfulness; living in the moment and appreciating the present, rather than constantly thinking about tomorrow and next week and drowning under ever expanding to do lists, goals, deadlines, daily stresses and the need to succeed. We are people and as such we need more than that; we need to nurture ourselves and promote spiritual as well as professional growth.

NEVER SELL AGAIN!

So you have just completed your trade expo, and you had your raffle box - they gave you their name and email address in exchange for the chance to win a prize. This is the key to being successful at an expo because you now have a list of clients who were interested enough in you to give you their details. Now you have their details it is essential to use them successfully. Step one enter them into your Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) system. This system should allow you to send out automated emails (autoresponders) and there are many on the market. Step 2. Set up a series of emails to send to your list that you have just built. Make it conversational and friendly and don't go for the hard sell. Clients go through a cycle starting with

not knowing they have a problem - teach them about their problem
realising they have a problem but not knowing what to do about it or not being ready to do anything about it - teach them what they can do about it
when they are ready to do something about it they will turn to you because you have already positioned yourself as the Guru who knew they had a problem and knew the answer to their problem
NOW YOUR MARKET IS COMING TO YOU

This is called the Education Spectrum and your client list can be anywhere along the spectrum when they meet you, so position yourself to be ready to help them from their starting point. Some will be ready to use your services today and others may be ready in the future. Have a conversation regularly with your client list via your autoresponder system and they will come to you when they are ready - why would they go anywhere else when you have already given them so much content and knowledge about their problem for free!

What Members Are Saying About The 'Time For You' Audio Series

This is such a well written workbook and insightful audio, you interweave life lessons so effectively that it is a lesson but also a compelling story, and then show us how to achieve the same results. It's very empowering to know that by changing the things I believe will also change my life. Thank you for your inspirational audio's and workbook.

Lorna McKenzie
Marriage Celebrant Offbeat Ceremonies

Thank you for the Audio Series they are amazing. Being a sceptic about these things and too busy to take time out for self, I was interested to try them out. I've found them to be a refreshingly genuine and non-intrusive approach to 'taking time out'. They don't follow a 'common-mainstream' format, giving them a unique and very personal insight into my own ability to focus on where I need to be. Thanking you so much you have changed my life around.

Brad Bridger

Sue, I wanted to share that I really loved the first audio on releasing fears. It was so gentle and relaxing that it really did feel like I was
giving myself a gift of peace and calm. I didn't know what to expect afterwards but I really have noticed a difference - I feel lighter and more relaxed and confident, and I'm noticing that where I previously would have felt some anxiety or tension regarding things that would have put me off balance or concerned me, I feel only a sense of calm. It's wonderful! I look forward to seeing the effects of a month of regular listening... - Amber Kay 21/2/2011

Guess I'll get my own comments down first! Yes I do use my own Audios and yes they have changed my life. I just don't feel overwhelmed any more, and that was the biggie for me. I used to get the knot of worry in the pitt of my stomach about how I was going to do.... whatever it was. Those things just wash over me now, it's not that I don't still have to deal with them, I do - now I just deal wih them - and there seems to be more choices and options on how to deal with them and I feel calm and relaxed about it all! So, do I want everyone to get those benefits? Yes I do - Cheers Sue - 12 Feb 2011

What is the unconscious mind?

There are various models to describe the levels of the mind from Freud’s Conscious preconscious and unconscious, to Jung’s collective conscious. One simple way that I like to understand the mind is conscious and unconscious. The conscious mind is everything you are currently focused on and the unconscious is everything else stored in your mind – short and long term memories, ideas, learning’s, instincts etc. All these things are accessible to the conscious mind when you require them. Like the saying it’s on the tip of my tongue – you know you know it; you’re just having trouble accessing it at that moment.

Every sensory input we have is stored somewhere in the neural makeup of the brain and some suggest that emotional memories are also stored in the body as well (like a physical reaction at the memory of a particularly emotional event like your heart pounding). The more we access a neural pathway, the stronger that pathway gets, to the point where the brain creates a myelin sheath around the neural pathway to strengthen it and speed it up. Stop using a particular pathway and, like sought after real estate, other neurons will take over.

What does this all mean for you?

I'll Be Happy When......

27 August 2010

Do you say to yourself I’ll be happy when…..? My ex-husband was one of these people. He said ‘I’ll be happy when we have our own home’, so we worked towards getting our own home. And when we got there he said ‘I’ll be happy when we have some more income’ so we worked towards getting better paying jobs. And when we got there he said I’m still not happy ‘I need to have …’; you can see the pattern. He was searching for happiness to come from an external factor and laying the blame/responsibility outside of himself.

Why is it that we look to buy things to make us happy? How often do we think 'I really need that plasma TV, or handbag, or dress'? Then we stress over finding the money or go into debt, thinking that it will make us happy! Problem is, we then feel the same sense of emptiness shortly after......

This is placing the responsibility of happiness on outside sources. However, if you place this responsibility internally you would remove much of this angst (not to mention the savings to be made). Gratitude for what we do have is a key player in changing this perspective. Every morning when I get out of bed I ask myself 'what I am grateful for today' . I dare you to try it for a week and see how differently you feel at the end.

In reality, happiness is a state that we choose from moment to moment, just like any other state – fear, anger, sadness, joy etc. While it is great to recognise what emotions we are feeling it is also great to recognise that we can choose to stay in that state, or move to another one. Think about a time when you were feeling down and a friend said something to make you laugh. In an instant you changed your state.

“This too shall pass”

It is unrealistic to think that once you have found happiness, you will stay in that state eternally. We need to feel our emotions and we need to learn when to move past them onto something else. I don’t believe you have to be happy all the time, nor do I believe it is healthy. Grieving for a loved one is the perfect example of needing to allow yourself to feel the emotion. Bottling away the grief will only lead to much larger problems down the track.