A few weeks ago I was able to head up to the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii to see some of the biggest waves on the planet. In the winter months the north shore of Oahu sees monsters that draw surfers from around the world. Recently “The Eddie Contest” which sported waves up to 40 feet, was held, which drew thousands and caused massive traffic jams on the whole north side of the island. Mention the word Waimea Bay to any surfer and you’ll create drool from their mouths as if they were Pavlov’s dog.

I hadn’t been to the north shore before, as I recently moved to Hawaii via a one way, but was pleasantly surprised by its sleepy town feel and delightful sense of community. Families were barbecuing in parks along the beach and everyone seemed content. My friends and I made our way to the bay and grabbed our body boards as we stepped out of the car and ventured towards the crowded beach.

I’d never body boarded before, but there was a buzz of excitement and I was ready to go. The water was surprisingly cold and the rushing water began to engulf me and make me it’s puppet. The sleepy town feel was soon forgotten as I began a battle with the waves of massive intensity.

As the waves broke they exerted a surprising amount of force on me; Wave after wave it was relentless. With so much force built up and a momentum that could only be described as ruthless, these waves constantly rejected me from getting past the break point.

I struggled as I attempted to run, then walk, then swim past the never ending force. Giving it my all I pushed forward harder and harder. Suddenly, as if by magic, I had reached past the breaking point and the waves were no long crashing upon me.

As I sat there on my body board past the break point I began to realize that life is much the same, constantly beating us back mercilessly, until as if by a miracle we’ve suddenly made it. Many of the most successful people I’ve met in my life have battled with the waves of life for years or even decades before reaching past the break point. To many they look like overnight success stories, but they’re the product of their previous battles with the waves. We have to learn to overcome these waves by being even more resilient and more relentless then they are.

Life has many lessons to teach us if we’re observant, but these are the 3 lessons the waves taught me while body boarding on the north shore of Hawaii.

1. Waves Will Always be Headed Towards the Shore
Waves will always be coming in. They may change in intensity but, like clockwork, they’ll continue to break at the shore. Much like the waves I experienced when body boarding you’ll experience negativity in your life and forces that will want to hold you back. These waves of negativity are relentless and will never stop. You need to come to terms with this and act accordingly. Just like the waves kept knocking me back on my way to get past the break point, the waves of negativity and self doubt will keep knocking you back as well. That is, unless you’re more persistent.

2. Persistence Always Wins
In my continuous battle with the waves it was two steps forward, one step back. Then two steps forward and one step back; This happened over and over. With each two steps I took, I gained a little more distance and got closer to the break point. Through persistence I eventually beat the waves. Persistence is one of the most valuable attributes you can gain in body boarding and life, which was illustrated brilliantly by American President Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

You may be the most talented body boarder in the world, or even the most educated person who can explain how body boarding works down to a science, but unless you persist each day against the waves, you’ll never truly know what body boarding is.

3. The Rewards of Persistence are Priceless
Once you pass the point where the waves are crashing you’ll be in calmer water where you can look back and see everyone else trying to get past the break. Sitting upon my board without resistance I was living the high life, but it got better! I had my pick of which wave I wanted to catch to ride in. What was once my enemy now became my ally as I harnessed the power of the wave and let it propel me forward with such force that it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. What a rush!

When overcoming your waves through resistance the fruits of your labor will be priceless and just as rewarding as catching a wave in Hawaii. The amount of persistence it takes is directly related to the reward, so the bigger the waves I overcame the bigger waves I got to ride down after I reached the break point. It’s a long journey to the break water, but catching your wave is oh so sweet.

Next time you’re struggling and fighting towards your goals think of the waves of Hawaii. See your battle as something that is necessary, but also think of the adrenaline rush of the results of your persistence. For me that reward was catching a huge wave and feeling as though I was flying through the air, what will your rush be?

For anybody who doesn’t know what bodyboarding is here is a short video:

Images from Maccanti and Smichael

Following the lead from many from Problogger.net post about the best in your niche, I have gathered a list of 52 bloggers who I think will make it big in 2010 with their personal development blogs.

Watch out for:

1. Jonathan Wells – AdvancedLifeSkills.com

Blog: AdvancedLifeSkills.com

Jonathan has been a great source of inspiration over the last year.  His wisdom, knowledge and support to everyone is great to watch.  His blog is an extension of his book 7 Simple Steps is perhaps one of the best personal development books I have read.

Posts by Jonathan:

personal excellence with advanced life skills/

time to focus on abundance instead of scarcity/

optimism and the spirit of renewal/

2. Dragos Roua – DragosRoua.com

Blog: DragosRoua.com

Dragos is flying at the moment and with good reason.  He is a passionate blogger who I have come to known over the last year and he has been a good friend with some great advice and support. He is dedicated to his craft and I predict big things this year for him.

Posts by Dragos:

33 Ways To Start Your Day

100 Ways To Love A Better Life

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

3. Robin Easton – NakedInEden.com

Blog: NakedInEden.com

Robin ‘Angel of the internet’ Easton is a beautiful soul with a beautiful heart.  her comments are famous in the personal development field, if you’ve ever had a comment from her you’ll know what I mean.  Her blog is just amazing and her posts ooze wisdom, higher self thinking,  and personality.

Posts by Robin:

When You Know You’re Alive

What Are You Waiting For…Perfection?

Share Your Legacy?

4. David Peralty – LifeSnips.com

Blog: LifeSnips.com

David is an entrepreneur who has recently started Lifesnips.com with high hopes and big plans for it.  I have written several posts for him and his enthusiasm and business skills lead me to believe his plans for LifeSnips being the next DumbLittleMan will be realised this year.

Posts by David

How Being a Geek Made Me More Productive

Best Password Practices Guide

101 Ways To Boost Your Energy Levels

5. Stephen Mills – TheRatRace.com

Blog: RatRaceTrap.com

Stephen Mills is another blogger who writes with passion, knowledge and wisdom.  His posts are always from the heart and often based on his personal life with a message for everyone.

Posts by Stephen:

Are We Disconnecting From Real Life?

The Investment Banker and The Mexican Fisherman

A Values-Based Approach to Goals

6. VinMiller – NaturalBias.com

Blog: NaturalBias.com

Vin Miller is a great blogger blogging about health related issues.  He is not afraid to speak his mind and has a great sense of humour in his writing as well.  His blog is growing in stature and I think Vin will double his readership this year.

Posts by Vin:

KFC Grilled Chicken: Unthink Your Health!

13 Ridiculous Food Labels that Might Be Fooling You

7 Ways We’ve Failed Miserably at Trying to Outsmart Nature

7. Armen Shirvanian – TimelessInformation.com

Blog: TimelessInformation.com

Armen is relatively new on the Personal Development scene, started in May 2008, but he is starting to make an impact.  He has been a guest poster here several times and each time his posts have been well received.  He has recently started experimenting with videos which has showed his real personality and he is actually quite funny.  I definitely think he is one to watch.

Posts by Armen:

The secret to getting better and better

100 Ways to show your boldness

Instant vs delayed gratification

8. Douglas Cartwright – LivingWords.net

Blog: LivingWords.net

Douglas is another blogger who has just come onto the scene and writing a lot of guest posts.  His writing is top class and is thought provoking.  He is a life coach who I think will do great things this year.  I believe with a revamp

Posts by Doug:

Psychological Knots

Can feel it

9. Zeenat Merchant Syal – ZeenatSyal.wordpress.com

Blog: ZeenatSyal.Wordpress.com

Another angel of the internet.  Zeenat has a unique style to her blog in that she writes from the heart and is not afraid to put up quotes, videos, anything to get the message of living positively across.

Posts by Zeenat:

Recurring patterns

Smiles and laughter

RAOKA: My pursuit of happiness

10. Lisis and Alison – QuestForBalance.com

Blog: QuestForBalance.com

The writer is Lisis and the technical and social media person is Alison.  Together they make up a great team in promoting a great blog with loads of interesting and thought provoking articles.  Lisis and I had an unplanned cross/blog conversation which was fantastic and opened my eyes to the power of blogs and the people who run them.

Posts by Lisis

Book Review: Female Brain Gone Insane

Goal-Setting, and the Key to a Peaceful Household

The Star Trek Guide to Enlightenment

11. Patrick Stoeckmann – UnwrapYourMind.com

Blog: UnwrapYourMind.com

Patrick was someone I met at the A-List blogging bootcamp run by Leo Babauta and he has turned out to be a fantastic find.  His writing is fantastic.  His posts are long, always stimulating and he is going to be huge in 2010.

Posts by Patrick:

Kill Your To Do List Before It Kills You.

No Fu – The Warriors Way to Say No

Release Your Fear of Scarcity

12. Ian Peatey – QuantumLearning.pl

Blog: QuantumLearning.pl

Ian Peatey is someone I came across toward the end of last year and I am grateful I did.  He is someone who delves into the hearts of readers and leaves you wanting more.  His comments are always spot on and his blog hits you where it needs to.

Posts by Ian:

10 Books That Shook My World

Do My Words Improve Silence?

Curse Of The Lightning Brain

13. Mike King . LearnThis.ca

Blog: LearnThis.ca

Mike was the one who started the ‘Mega list’ which snowballed and ended up with my current line of books 100 Ways To________ so I have to thank Mike for that. His blog has some fantastic writing on leadership and personal development in general.

Posts by Mike:

How to Free Yourself From Gossip

The Problem with Leadership

Thinking about Personal Development

14. Lana Kravtsova - DreamFollowers.com

Blog: DreamFollowers.com

Lana first came to my attention as she was such a prolific commentor on other personal development blogs and she has been supporting me for a long time. Her blog is coming along brilliantly and she has stepped up her writing and is producing some wonderful stuff.

Posts by Lana:

The Ultimate Guide to Creative Visualization

How To Spend Time With Yourself and Why.

You are NOT responsible for anything and how it can help you reach any of your goals.

15. Celestine Chua – CelestineChua.com

Blog: CelestineChua.com

Celestine’s style of writing grabbed my attention last year and I think she is going to be a tower in 2010.Her blog is about Personal Excellence and she is a life coach who is actually helping people to live their dream life.

Posts by Celes:

Passion or Money?

Discover Your Real Purpose (7-part series)

Are You Sleepwalking Your Life Away?

16. Tim Brownson – ADaringAdventure.com

Blog: ADaringAdventure.com

I have known Tim for a few years now and you won’t find a more dedicated person to blogging, living and helping others live their life for the better. Authro, life coach, British and living in America he personifies what personal development blogs should be about. He has a unique style of writing, not afraid to speak his mind and writes what he wants to write.

Posts by Tim:

The Ultimate Goal Setting Post

Call That A Goal? THIS is a Goal!

The Real Purpose of News

17. Mary Jaksch – GoodLifeZen.com

Blog: GoodLifeZen.com

Mary is another blogger I met at the A-List blogging bootcamp as she was helping Leo to run it. I hadn’t heard of her before but she was already running a very successful blog of her own at the time. Mary’s posts are often long but never boring and I have often bookmarked them to go back and read.

Posts by Mary:

How to Develop Intelligence at Any Age

How to Start Meditating

How to Make a True Friend

18. John Anyasor – HiLife2B.com

Blog: HiLife2B.com

John wrote a post for me back in August of this year and I was extremely impressed with the way he was going about his blogging career. He seemed to be everywhere and reminded me of Leo Babauta. His writing always hits the mark and if he sticks with it will be huge in 2010.

Blog Update: The Road Ahead

Hatred Only Serves to Hurt, Not to Help

How to Get Your Groove Back: Writing, Dancing, Singing, Etc.

19. Gail Brenner – AFlourishingLife.com

Blog: AFlourishingLife.com

Gail Brenner came onto my radar at the latter half of last year and recently wrote a great post on CYT. Her writing seems to grab the reader and suck them in from the very first sentence. I think she could be another ‘Angel of the net’ and one to watch in 2010.

Posts by Gail:

Is It Time to Forgive?

The Wisdom of Restraining Yourself

How (and Why) to Make Fear Your Friend

20. Steve – MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

Blog: MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

I have known Steve for some time now as well and whilst his blog is not strictly personal development it has helped me a lot over the last year. His blog looks at his and his wife’s online store and how they went from $0 to $100,000 per year with their online linen store. It is inspiring and fantastic to read.

Posts by Steve:

How We Stopped Short Of Becoming Lazy Pieces Of Crap

Pricing: Psychological Mind Games That Stores Play

Starting Your Own Business: Do You Have To Risk Your Life Savings?

21. Nadia – HappyLotus.com

Blog: HappyLotus.com

Nadia is another recent blog I came across due to her writing comments on other blogs as well as mine. I love her spiritual writing and quest for enlightenment. her blog is like visiting a Zen garden, I am always at peace when I leave there.

Posts by Nadia

Deja Vu All Over Again: Personal Journey 2.0, My Poetry Book & A Very Important Question For You

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

The Power of Re-Invention

22. David Cain – Raptitude.com

Blog: Raptitude.com

David only started his blog 1 year ago and it is a rising star in the personal development world. I came across him via Twitter and read a few of his posts and immediately signed up to his posts via Google reader.

Posts by David:

88 Important Truths I’ve Learned About Life

Six Amazing Songs That Illustrate What it Means to Be Human

Why Happiness is Such a Struggle

23. Lance – JungleOfLife.com

Blog: JungleOfLife.com

Lance is one of the most down to earth but enlightened bloggers I have read. His conversational style is engaging and yet always teaching. I think he will be bigger and better this year.

Posts by Lance:

Weeds…In Your Life

Clarity = Direction

Shhh….

24. Lori Franklin – JaneBeNimble.com

Blog: JaneBeNimble.com

Lori is another find of late last year and some I signed up to straight away when I read her about me page. NIMBLE is an acronym and you’ll have to visit the blog to0 find out what she called it JaneBeNimble. her writing is funny, enlightening and quirky.

Posts by Lori:

My Writing Life: An Answered Question

Front Porch: Cardboard Sleds, Machu Picchu, and Sami May

Random Acts of Kick Arse: Wacky

25. Jeffrey Tang – ArtOfGreatThings.com

Blog: ArtOfGreatThings.com

Jeffrey’s blog is simplicity in itself. A great design coupled with fantastic writing and topics and you have the makings of a great blogger. I met jeffery at the A-List Blogging bootcamp and he has gone from strength to strength.

Posts by Jeffrey:

A Guide to Self-Reliance Minimalism

Why I’m Cutting Back on Multi-Tasking (And You Should Too)

The Number One Question Entrepreneurs Forget to Ask

26. Dani – PositivelyPresent.com

Blog: PositivelyPresent.com

Dani’s posts are always interesting and quirky and is a mixture of life lessons. poetry, life affirming readings etc. I came across her with her prolific commenting policy on other blogs which seems to have paid off.

Posts by Dani:

A positive present for you

How to be beautiful from the outside in

The difference between happy and not unhappy

27. Arvind Devalia – ArvindDevalia.com

Blog: ArvindDevalia.com

Arvind has had an amazingly busy year this year with lots of projects under his belt. he is a natural leader and writes about peace, love and everything personal development. I think he will go on to be a star on the blogging world.

Posts by Arvind:

6 Key Lessons in Life from a 140 year Old Man

Make It Happen in 30 Days – Just Go On An Adventure!

Blue Moon means its Time for New Beginnings!

28. Friar – DeepFriar.com

Blog: DeepFriar.Wordpress.com

Friar has to be the funniest personal development blogger I have read. His posts are always worth visiting and you will never be disappointed when you read his posts.

Posts by Friar:

An Open Letter to Lucky Charms

Corporate Buzzwords

French Candian Expressions

29. Anastasiya Goers – BalanceInMe.com

Blog: BalanceInMe.com

Anastasiya is another wonderful soul writing on the internet. I met her at the A-List Blogging bootcamp (so many great bloggers came from there) and she has gone on to be a great blogger and great support over the last 6 months.

Posts by Anastasiya:

The Myth of Personal Independence. Are You Falling for It?

Balance Your Life in Two Days

A Simple Guide to Frugal Organic Eating

30. Lodewijk van den Broek – BeAnOriginal.net

Blog: BeAnOriginal.net

Lodewijk has been around for a number of years but has recently re-invented himself and his blog. he has always been a great support and always written some great posts in the past. I am hopeful for him in 2010 on his new domain and am looking forward to his writing again.

Posts by Lodewijk

On Being original

New Beginning

31. Amit Sodha – UnlimitedChoice.org

Blog: UnlimitedChoice.org

Amit has been a very recent find for me and he is a great poster for how blog commenting can be useful to get your name and face known to other bloggers. I seem to see him everywhere, so much so I had to check his blog out and what a great blog it is. Definitely one to watch for 2010.

Posts by Amit:

Perception Vs Reality

Going It Alone

Anchoring

32. Carolyn Rubenstein – CarolynRubenstein.com

Blog: CarolynRubenstein.com

Carolyn is a rare soul who goes out of her way to help others in life. She has worked with children with cancer and is an author, frequent television guest and blogger on huffinton post and Psychology Today and when you read her writing you immediately get the reason why she is so sought after.

Posts by Carolyn:

50 Ways to Add Joy to Your Day

You Don’t Have To Know

Are the odds in your favor?

33. Rosie Jones – LoveLifeGodSexMoney.com

Blog: LoveLifeGodSexMoney.com

Rosie is a baulchy, outspoken, but an extremely talented individual. She is a songwriter, singer, producer, writer, and coach . her writing will grab you where it hurts but it always delivers the message.

Posts by Rosie:

Attitude of gratitude

The power of ‘Just get on with it’

Letter to Jennifer Ellison

34. Ayo Olaniyan – DiscoveringPurpose.co.uk

Blog: DiscoveringPurpose.co.uk

Ayo has been fantastic over the last year and I am so glad I met him. He was the brains behind ‘Meet The Coach’ series which went down well with readers and he also guest posted a few times. His blog is also a fantastic read.

Posts by Ayo:

Tips To Become Hot!!!!!!!

20 Ways To Build Resilience

My Final Word: THANK YOU!!!

35. Nik Karlil – PersonalDevelopmentPro.com

Blog: PersonalDevelopmentPro.com

Nik Karlil was a member of the A-List blogging Bootcamp and has gone on to good things over the last year. A regular commenter and guest author on CYT, I have grown to really like him and his blog and wish him big things in 2010.

Posts by Nik:

How To Be Interesting

15 Ways To Get Smarter (and wiser)

Houdini, Blank State and Calmness

36. Eduard Ezeanu – IdeasWithAKick.com

Blog: IdeasWithAKick.com

Eduard burst onto the scene about 4 months ago and really got himself known with his guest posting and commenting policy. His writing is refreshing and his blog equally so. He is going to be big if he continues doing what he’s doing.

Posts by Eduard:

Effective personal development starts here

Positive thinking won’t help you now

Smile! Real, fake, people can’t really tell

37. Jonathan Beebe – DevelopMinds.com

Blog: DevelopMinds.com

Jonathan has only been blogging for about 1 year but is doing great and making big strides on the blog front. He is interested in the same kind of mind tools which is why he stood out for me and he subsequently guest posted on CYT. I think he has a great future ahead of him.

Posts by Jonathan:

Feed Your Mind – Part One

Stress and Your Mind

Best of Develop Minds Blog 2009

38. Mr Self Development – MrSelfDevelopment.com

Blog: MrSelfDevelopment.com

A no nonsense blogger who I admire a lot for his tenacity and view of life, you can’t help but love his writing and I think he will make it big time in 2010.

Posts by MrSelfDevelopment:

5 Steps to a Six Pack

Sex Contracts

How to Discover Your Life’s Purpose in the Next 10 Minutes

39. Tess Marshall – TheBoldLife.com

Blog: The BoldLife.com

Tess is another blogger who regularly comments on other blogs. She has recently written a great post on CYT and I have checked out her blog on and off over the last few months and I’ve never been disappointed when I visited her blog.

Posts by Tess:

Local Grocery Store’s Happiest Employee

60 Ways To Become The Person You Love

Love Yourself: Be The Underdog

40. Sherri – SereneJourney.com

Blog: SereneJourney.com

Sherri is yet another blogger from the A-List Bloogging Bootcamp. Sherri has a great blog here and has also started one at ZenFamilyHabits.net which is an offshoot of the famous Zen-Habits.net blog by Leo Babauta.

Posts by Sherri:

Quick Clean Your Home In Under 20 Minutes

Secrets of the Perpetually Unhappy

Purge Just 7 Things – A Weekend Challenge

41. Belinda Munoz – TheHalfWayPoint.net

Blog: TheHalfWayPoint.net

Belinda has a blog which has a simple, clean design which is like her writing. She has been another great support to CYT over the last year. I think this is the year her blog will take off.

Posts by Belinda:

Philanthropy 101: Learning to Give

50 Simple Ways to Pay It Forward

5 Critical Skills We Must Never Lose in the Information Age

42. Dayne – TheHappySelf.com

Blog: TheHappySelf.com

Dayne is someone I met through twitter and have followed his blog posts with interest. He has a great design on his blog and I like his writing style and overall feel of his writing and think he will make 2010 his own.

Posts by dayne:

Living Naked: Personal Transformation Through Bare Simplicity

Two Magic Words To Eliminate Anxiety and Panic

Zen and The Awakened Soul

43. Eren McKay – EmbracingHome.com

Blog: EmbracingHome.com

Eren has a great blog but when I first visited it I thought it was a girlie girlie blog, but then I read her writing and quickly changed my mind. She is a christian blogger who doesn’t mind hearing other peoples opinions. It is a family oriented blog with a christian outlook and even though I am not a believer of God I respect her writing.

Posts by Eren:

How to organize important office files organizing papers – end clutter today

Weight Loss Motivation Tips and Encouragement

Goal Based Ethics — Why is Setting Goals Important?

44. Justin Dixon – ALittleBetter.net

Blog: ALittleBetter.net

Justin is a blogger who doesn’t mind speaking his mind and I have spoken with him on several conference calls from the bootcamp. His writing is top notch, and is a frequent guest blogger. I haven’t seen him around for a few weeks so hopefully, he’s only having a little break.

Posts by Justin:

How to Prepare Yourself For a Marriage That Lasts

13 Profound Statements Via Twitter

How to Choose and Attract Friends Wisely

45. Walter Adena – LionSlinger.com

Blog: LionSlinger.com

Walter has a great blog which is well design and easy to navigate. I recently discovered his blog through his commenting and found it to be a great place for personal development. He has already made strides with his blog and I believe he will do even better this year.

Posts by Walter

Nobody wants to listen

Why are we having problems with problem?

Pitfalls of instant gratification

46. Mark Foo – TheBigDreamer.com

Blog: TheBigDreamer.com

Mark is a very recent find for me and I have only read his posts through email and other bloggers blogs due to a problem with his site. I think he will be one to watch this year.

Posts by Mark:

Positive Thinking – Why You Need It To Succeed

25 Ways To Influence Others

How To Raise Your Self-Esteem By Acknowledging And Accepting Yourself

47. Brett – DareToExpress.com

Blog: DareToExpress.com

Brett is young blogger in every sense and I love his style of writing and the way he is not afraid to use new media to get through to his audience. A lot of people will now brett through his comments and his blog, only a few months old, will be huge in 2010.

Posts by Brett:

How To Disarm Fear

Presence Makes Everything You Do A Celebration of Your Life

Memento and The Dark Side of Personal Development

48. Robin Dickinson – RadSmarts.com

Blog: RadSmarts.com

Robin has been a great help to CYT over the last year and I only recently visited his blog and discovered how great it was. His writing is a mix of business and personal development and written with a very intelligent, and clear voice. I hope Robin makes it as big as he deserves.

Posts by Robin:

How leading bloggers write highly effect…

A perfect tweet

An incredibly effective writing formula

49. Nea – Blog.SelfImprovementSaga.com

Blog: SelfImprovementSaga.com

nea’s blog is about the law of attraction but definitely falls into the category of personal development. She has been seen a lot around CYT and I think her blog is a great place to spend some time and read her writing.

Posts by Nea:

Law of Attraction Bible Debate: Is It Against Your Religion?

Self Improvement Journey from Zero Talent to Extraordinary Success

Inspirational Story – Blind Mountain Hikers

50. Evelyn Lim – AbundanceTapestry.com

Blog: AbundanceTapestry.com

The lovely Evelyn Lim has embraced the internet in all it’s glory and uses it for her business, her life coaching and her writing. Her writing is focused on the law of attraction and there are some great articles over there.

Posts by Evelyn:

How To Love Yourself In 17 Ways

A Random Act of Kindness: 15 Ideas To Kickstart Your Intention

Reduce Junk Food Cravings in Only 9 Minutes

51. Alex Fayle – SomedaySyndrome.com

Blog: SomedaySyndrome.com

Alex is another blogger who I found out about through twitter and I am so glad I did. His posts are infrequent but they are worth reading when they come out. If he is still into blogging and posts regularly he has a hit on his hands.

Posts by Alex:

Resolving to Be Happier: The Happiness Project

Dealing with Detours & Limited Visibility: Planning vs Living

Course Changes on the Someday Journey: Reorienting Goals

52. Timothy Enalls – InspirationPro.net

Blog: InspirationPro.net

Timothy has been supporting CYT for a few months now and with his comments I have followed his blog and I think he will make it big and be one to watch for 2010.

posts by Timothy:

12 Fundamentals of Instant Charisma

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Greatest Message to the World

9 Powerful Techniques for Persuading People

I’ll bet that many of us are starting the New Year with plans and a new sense of purpose for 2010. That’s great, and the New-year, New-start philosophy can provide a welcome breath of fresh air, especially if 2009 has been a bit of a slog.

If you compare Jan 1st 2010 to booting up your computer, wouldn’t it be great to have some new powerful programs to run on start-up? I’m sure you’ve already made some personal development purchases or are planning too.

But if setting new intentions is like the beginning of an installation process you’ll ALSO need to install the new internal resources to support the programs. Otherwise you might be working with an operating system that needs a processor/version upgrade in order to run your new program properly.  (If you like new PC games and you have an older computer – you’ll know what I mean!)

Upgrades Needed

Well, I know some of you reading will already be planning to install some new beliefs if you need them. And that may well be enough. You can find plenty of NLP installation techniques around the net or in NLP books.

However, for some of us, even when we do install new beliefs this doesn’t mean the .exe (execute file) gets loaded along with them. What do I mean?

Learned Tendency

Well, each person has a learned tendency (on a continuum) towards action or inaction when they receive new information. In Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) these processing tendencies are metaphorically referred to as meta-programs and this one listed as Somatic Response in Figuring out People refers to how excited the motor-cortex gets and how much that excitement gets you to DO.

Basically, at one end of the scale you have extreme pro-activity, represented by the person that would decide to RUN to Macdonald’s if they suddenly felt the urge or would want to start exercising RIGHT NOW if they got inspired to get fit.

At the other end you have the inactive meta-program represented by the coach potato, the person who finds it difficult to get excited about anything nor act upon it.

The difference may well lie in the person’s reaction to incoming information and our expectations of what information is for.

Memory Knowledge

To me, part of the problem is that we live in an age when you can be (on the surface of it) be considered to ‘know’ something if you can recite facts and information. There is a certain value in ‘being an intellectual’.

However, this type of ‘knowing’ falls apart when you start to apply it to practical things. For any budding guitarist who has ever muttered “I can play it better than that” and then been asked to prove it, the doing soon shows how much you ‘know’.  You can either play that riff or you can’t…!

So the .exe file referred to above is your tendency to ‘execute’ or act upon the things you need to do. And some of us have corrupted .exe files where we know a heck of a lot but we don’t DO much. So we get frustrated. And read some more.

Training Our Minds

The good news is that we can force and train our minds to re-open the route between our mind and our bodies. We can repave the road to from idea to implementation.

After all, you mentally conceived of how to ride a bike before you could actually peddle down the street, right? Every time you fell off you still knew how it ‘should’ on that wonderful day when you could ride and stay on!

I’ll bet your fingers know how to type but how many of you actually can recite the entire QWERTY keyboard? It’s like your mind has passed into your muscles (fingertips).

Imagine a time when you highest values showed up in your eyes, your movements, your breathing. When just the thought of doing something towards your future made your physical body tingle and your soul ring with joy!

How Does The process Take Place

Think about what happens when you jump away from an oncoming car: your mind creates a representation so powerful that it translates it into energy and instructions to your body – and you react. At that time the feelings are so strong that you could not stay there and ponder your next action even if you wanted too!

As you were learning to cycle you felt the motivation of ‘wanting’ to ride, and you sent instructions to your body to do the movements. Then with each attempt you calibrated what worked, and didn’t work, and did it again. It took time but with repetition and feedback, you mastered it.

Whether you realised it or not, you asked yourself:

• What do I understand? What are the principles of riding? (Balance, direction, observation, pedal)
• What do I believe? (That you could ride).
• What do I decide? (That you were going to do what it took to learn to ride.)
• What emotions do I feel? (Excitement, anticipation etc)
• What is one action I could take to put this understanding, belief, decision and emotions into practice? (balance, push off, steer)

And you did all of this with the energy and enthusiasm necessary to push the idea into the very fibre of your muscles, mind and being. The process was extended over time (maybe months) but you did it. Imagine if that process could be compacted into a few minutes.

Above are the essential steps of the process that can be used to turn ANY great idea or principle into a felt conviction. As the full version is longer, you can get the basic outline plus notes for free by signing up to my mailing list at www.overcomingprocrastination.co.uk

The process clears out blockages between thinking and doing and creates a streamlined process for becoming a powerful implementer. I won’t lie to you, it does take perseverance to get it working and Hall says it can take a few minutes to an hour for a person to ‘get it’ the first time but after that it begins to become a habit. And the road becomes an implementation super highway!

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that our personal development books are fantastic and full of excellent principles – which we often don’t ‘feel’ strongly motivated to implement.

But the more deeply you install an idea the more likely it is to stay with you in the times you need it. There is a difference between a passing thought and a felt conviction. We encourage each other to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ but we also need to ‘feel the principle and do it anyway’.

When a valued idea like “wealth is built by saving 10% of my income” becomes a felt conviction in your gut, you’ll more easily act upon it. Someone once said “people cannot but move in the direction of their values.”

Once you get the habit of installing great ideas you can start doing what I call “ a rolling map update” whereby you are doing what Tony Robbins calls CANI – constant and never-ending improvement.

And that can’t be bad for a great 2010.

Last year, 2009, I failed spectacularly at making a lot of money with all my internet ventures and little schemes and tricks to make money.  At least, it sometimes felt like failing as I didn’t achieve what I set out to achieve.  The truth is I didn’t fail at it, I just paid a lot of money for some more education.  I now know, without doubt, that the best way to make money is to help other people achieve their goals in life.  The best way for me to help people do this is to write, and produce products such as books, cds, and videos and possibly do seminars.  The best way to be good at this is to care about people and write and produce really useful content.

I am being totally honest when I say I have followed over 100 ideas to make money on the net in the last 3 years.  I didn’t follow through on all of them as I got bored or excited by something else that took my interest, but there were a few that stuck, including writing.

The failing doesn’t bother me. I am an extremely, internally, competitive person: I am my best competition, so it’s the fact that I didn’t give it my best shot that bothers me.  Obviously with 100 ideas you can only follow through on so many of them and some of them will fall by the wayside or just fail altogether.

Think about this for a moment: If I didn’t have 100 ideas and wasn’t willing to take action on them would I have found out what I am really good at – Absolutely not! My ideas would have been just that, something that floated around the ether of my mind.  Taking action on the ideas is what makes us feel useful, and makes us feel as if we are contributing to the world, at least it does for me.

So for 2010 how many ideas are you going to follow up on, how many ideas are you going to have? Start cultivating the idea field in your mind, the more you have the better, the more you follow up on the more you will fail, but the more successes you will have as well.  I would rather have 100 ideas that I take action on, fail at 99 of them, succeed with one of them than have no ideas at all, for fear of failing on all of them.

2010 is going to be a great year for a lot of people and I raise my glass to you and your ideas.

Have a fantastic New Year and I hope I will speak to you in 2010 brimming with new ideas

A lot of people want to become charismatic. It’s a sexy trait and a sexy word, even if most of us couldn’t define its meaning exactly if our lives depended on it. Yet we want it, because we associate it with things like power, fame, influence and appreciation. Within this phenomenon lie a problem, and the key.

The word “charisma” is popular in the whole personal development niche: in articles, books, trainings and seminars. I use it myself, partially because I know how attractive it is. But once I get people listening, I hit them with one key idea they usually don’t see coming. Now, I’m going to hit you with it (with a positive intent, of course).

Think of people you see as charismatic. Alive or dead, public figures or just people you know. Now answer yourself this question: how many of these people spend their time thinking how to become more charismatic and trying to become more charismatic? If your answer is “none, or close to none”, I believe you are spot on.

And it’s not because they have it naturally. A lot of them have developed their charisma with time and effort. But usually, they did not do this by focusing on developing their charisma.

Charisma is the ultimate likeable trait.

Because of this, wanting to become charismatic is basically a form of approval seeking. When I do programs which focus on charisma as the main result, I notice that a lot of the people who attend them have this deep hunger to be liked and approved by others. And think they will solve it by becoming charismatic.

Unfortunately, needing the approval of others is a very uncharismatic trait. When a person senses you are trying hard to win her approval, you come off as needy and insecure, which is just about the opposite of charismatic. This is the paradox: the key to become charismatic is not wanting it.

For this reason, when I work with people who want to become charismatic, I generally start by addressing their approval seeking, and then move on. To what? People who truly develop their charisma don’t focus on becoming charismatic, but instead focus on learning to:

As they focus on this, they develop a way of being, communicating and interacting socially which comes off as charismatic.

Now, you may be wondering if you have a need for approval which sabotages you. My answer is: if you’re reading this, you probably do. A certain dose of wanting the approval of others is natural and positive. But you can easily go overboard with this one, and a lot of us actually do.

Instead of focusing on ways to become charismatic, start by finding out what you understand by charisma, why do you want it and by getting rid of any unhealthy motivations like strong approval seeking. Then, focus on the same things people who become charismatic do and you’re on your way to being one of them.

As it’s coming toward the end of the year I thought I would give a quick update on stats and what’s in store for 2010.

First of all I would like to thank every single one of you for being great readers and great members of the CYT community. I really do appreciate your feedback, your support, your comments, your suggestions and mostly for being you and being honest.

Highlights

The highlight has to be the change of design and cutting out of adwords and annoying adverts.  The new design has made a huge difference and there are more reders, more authors, more comments, more interactivity, more all round.  My determination and productivity levels rose dramatically in August as well after attending Leo Babauta’s A-list Bootcamp Course.  I met some fantastic people on that course and some great new writers in the personal development field.

Statistics for 2009

2009 has been a great year for CYT in terms of change and growth.  Here are some figures:

Subscribers grew from 2500, at the start of the year to 6300 (most of this growth occured from August when I made my mind up to get 10,000 subscribers by the end of this year, it jumped from 3,200 in August to 6,300 to date, I didn’t reach my target but I tried my best )

Page Views: 663,978 up from 590,000 last year (12% growth)
Unique Visits: 442,496 up from 397,000 last year (11% growth)
Clicks out: 109,184 up from 78,000 last year (40% growth)

Online Earnings For 2009

Advertising on the site:
TextLinkAds – $826.15
Linkworth – $1,913

Affiliate marketing:
My own product at www.binaural-mind.com – $5,326
Promoting affiliate products from clickbank – $8,283

Freelance writing:
from August – date: $2,350
EBooks – $650

Total online earnings = $19,348
Total direct costs (adwords etc) – $8,800

Earnings – cost = $10,548

Average extra monthly income – $879

The online earnings model I have been using is to promote affiliate products using adwords, and I am getting a good rate of return however it’s not enough to realise my goal of being a pro blogger.  A better business model looks to be from writing, not necessarily for others but from creating my own products such as ebooks, books etc.  So that is the way I am going to go next year and see where that leads me.

New authors on CYT

2009 saw a lot of new authors and I would like to thank all of them here:

Armen Shirvanian – See All Armen’s CYT Posts Here

Ayo Olaniyan – See All Ayo’s CYT Posts Here

Brian Walsh – See All Brian’s CYT Posts Here

Celetine Chua – See All Celestine’s CYT Posts Here

Douglas Cartwright – See all Douglas’ CYT Posts Here

Dragos Roua – See All Dragos’ CYT Posts Here

Francesca Kotomski – Read All Francesca’s posts Here

John Anyasor – Read All John’s Posts Here

Jonathan Beebe – Read All Jonathan’s Posts Here

Jonathan Wells – Read All Jonathan’s Posts Here

Mary Jaksch – Read All Mary’s Posts Here

Mr Self Development – Read All Mr Self Development’s Posts Here

Nik Karlil – Read All Nik’s Posts Here

Noah St john – Read All Noah’s Posts Here

Patrick Stoeckmann – Read All Patrick’s Posts Here

Tara Miller – Read All Tara’s Posts Here

Zeenat Syal – Read All Zeenat’s Posts Here

I loved having the guest authors on CYT as it broadens the readership and the message I am trying to create here.  There are so many fantastic writers out there and I am glad some of them spent time to write for CYT.

Top 10 Articles according to Pageviews:

1. 5 Eye Exercises To Improve Your Vision -   45,776
2. 6 Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Eye Contact Skills – 35,332
3. 22 Of The Best Motivational Videos Online – 34,241
4. 8 Destructive Thinking Patterns And How To Change Them – 27,370
5. Top 5 Gym Free Exercises – 23,318
6. 7 Irrational Thoughts That Disrupt Your Life – 18,743
7. 100 Ways To Develop Your Mind – 16,018
8. How To Change Your Life In 60 Seconds – 13,688
9. 50 Of The Best Personal Development Blogs – 10,139
10. Life is Shit – 9,720

Looking Ahead To 2010

Two Books

I have just finished one book and am working on another one, in fact I am working on a few.

The first one is called 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind and is an extension of the post 100 Ways To Develop Your mind I wrote a few months ago.  Instead of this being available in eBook format I have put it into print using a service called Createspace and it will be available on Amazon in a few weeks time.  I will be sending copies out via pdf to a few people in the next week for review.

The second book will be ready by the end of February 2010 and it’s an ebook, with videos, audios and PDF files, it’s going to be a major one for me, more about that next year.

Services

I am offering more services such as:

Freelance writing
Life coaching
Blog coaching

As a direct result of the success of CYT I have managed to land 3 regular freelance jobs writing for Lifesnips.com, Dumblittleman.com and Eclecticmagazine.com and have written for another 3 people on an ad-hoc basis.  I am loving the writing just now and my productivity levels have risen so much this year, it’s hard to believe.

More Writing

I belive the quality of writing has gobe up since last year and I want to keep all the readers interested in coming back so I will be writing the same type of content for 2010 and adding more exciting bloggers to CYT.

I am still toying with the idea of video which I tired briefly, but I need it a little more professional before I attempt it again.

Thank You

There are a few people I would like to thank personally for their support and encouragement and belief in me:

Robin Easton - Has always been supportive of my work and she really is an inspiration to a lot of people including myself.  thank you Robin, you’re the ‘Angel of the internet’

Jonathan Wells – Another good friend and someone who has listened to my half cocked ideas and still had my back, thank you Jonathan.

Dragos Roua - Dragos has been great this year with his writing and is some I admire and someone who has been behind me in everything I have done.

Ayo Olaniyan – He took on the role of coach in the ‘Ask The Coach series and is a great professional

Leo Babauta – Without his course A-List Blogging Club course I wouldn’t have rediscovered my passion for writing.

David Peralty – For hiring me and beliving in my writing enough to give me a writers spot at LifeSnips.com

Jay White – For giving me a little leeway with my writing subjects on DumbLittleMan

The readers of CYT have all been great this year and they have made all the authors feel welcome and encouraged them to speak their minds.  Thank you, thanks you, thank you everyone I hope next year will be just as good.

Your Thoughts

I am always interested in your thoughts for 2010 and would ask what you would like to see on the blog or what would you take away.  Anything at all would be helpful to keep driving the blog forward.

I am writing this article, in response to great article written by Lisis over at Quest For Balance

To give my summary of the article by Lisis:  she was saying that too many people are advocating that we should follow our passion and the money will follow.  Lisis’ analogy of the people who write about giving up the day job to pursue our passion is: ‘Snake oil salesmen.’

She made some great points about how making money from our passion is hard work and that we still need business acumen to make it a business and make money from it.  Lisis goes on to explain that being deeply passionate about something doesn’t equate to it being a viable income source and that these ’snake oil salesmen’ can be dangerous leading us to believe that it’s not okay to have a traditional job and we should go out and leave our jobs and work the 4 hour week.

This is a great article and I can totally see Lisis’ point of view.  I have my own thoughts on what the ’snake oil salesman’ is really saying:

‘If you’re unhappy with your job there is another way to make money’.

They are speaking to one type of person.

Two types of people

(S)He is speaking to a few people, not everyone, just a comparative few who think ‘I don’t like following the rest of the crowd.  I want to make it on my own, I want to set my own hours, I want to make my work contribution count, I want to say ‘I made a difference in the world.’  Yes you can make a difference in the world working a 9-5 job, but the people who don’t want the 9-5 job feel they are not making a difference which is part of the reason they want to follow their passion and their dream of going it alone.

Now, there are very few people in the world like this, most people are happy with their jobs and that’s great.  The world needs the two types of people: the person who likes making a difference in the world and getting paid by an employer at the end of each month, and also the person who says ‘No! I don’t want to be part of the machine, I want to build my own machine.’ The likes of: Bill Gates, Seth Godin, Richard Branson, Eben Pagan, Michael Dell, Leo Babauta, Darren Rowse etc

It’s not being unrealistic to have a goal like this, however, what is being unrealistic is to think that it can happen overnight and that it’s easy.  The ones who give up their day jobs in pursuit of the dream without having tested their theories are the ones who will fail miserably and they are also the ones who were laughed at when they bought the snake oil to cure their baldness or make them more attractive to women.

The ones who have a day job and transition over to making their passion their main income are the ones who know there is a market for their work, they have a bit of money to fall back onto should it not work out, they have more income from their passion than they do their day job, they have a business plan, they have the business sense to make it work.  They will also, more than likely, have someone behind them, their partner, who is bringing in money to support the transition.

The School Funneling System

Quitting the rat race is a phrase I hear a lot and it’s about empowering oneself, saying to everybody I don’t have to have a traditional job to make a contribution to the world, and I don’t want to be a sheep.

The reason traditional jobs, in the western society,  are so popular is because we are funneled into them and slotted into jobs like a jigsaw piece, according to our grades at school and how much money our parents had.    The schooling system breeds little cogs that will fit nicely into society and that can do jobs according to abilities and grades at school.

The problem with this is that the school system teaches us to be cogs, they don’t teach us to be free thinkers and think about the alternatives in life, it’s all about ‘Get good grades, you’ll get a good job’.  They don’t teach us entrepreneurship, business skills, writing a business plan and all the other skills we need to make a business of our own.  They also emphasis left brain thinking and leave right brain thinking to a few token classes like art, philosophy, drama studies, and even these classes are left brain structured.

Now I can hear you say that a lot of schools are teaching business skills and how to run a business and all the skills needed, yes you are right but how many of these schools are privately funded?

Conclusion

To end this little rant, I would like to say that making money from your passion, and the people who advocate this way of living, is an alternative.  It’s an attractive alternative to a lot of people but you definitely need more than having a passion to make it, you need marketing skills, business skills, accounting skills, networking skills etc. Is it a viable alternative? without a doubt yes.  Is it okay to have a traditional job and be happy? without a doubt yes.

When you are in the mindset that you want to work for yourself and follow your dream I don’t think it is feasible to say ‘Love what you do’, there needs to come a point when you have everything you need behind you, all the skills, the money pot etc and just go for it, if it fails, at least you can say I went for it.

I would like to thank Lisis and Alison for the inspiration for this rant   check out their blog Quest For Balance for more thought provoking articles.

I bet everyone of you dreams (at least sometimes) about having more money, love, joy, energy or health in your life? Right? And I also bet, that everyone of you has already done a zillion attempts to achieve just that. And though you had successes in some areas, I bet there are some areas, where you just couldn’t make it happen, no matter what? You try, you push, you change approaches, but you’ll always yield the same results. Why?

Because there is a subconscious mechanism within you, that won’t allow you to succeed in those areas. It is sabotaging your own efforts, to make sure you won’t leave your “Comfort Zone.”

Although you might have heard of your “Comfort Zone” before, you might have never heard about a way to alter your Comfort Zone, so that it allows your dreams to become true.

Would you like to learn such a system? I bet you do, so let’s go.

The Concept of Your Comfort Zone

You’ve heard the term “Comfort Zone” several times already. But although this concept is a true and useful one, it needs to be specified even more to become useful in tackling with your problems.

Your Comfort Zone has 3 key points:

1. Your Unconscious Upper Limit (UUL) – The Stall Mechanism
2. Your Unconscious Lower Limit (ULL) – The Kickstart Mechanism
3. The Neutral State (NS)

We should get to know these 3 key points of your comfort zone a little bit more in detail.

Your Unconscious Upper Limit (UUL) – The Stall Mechanism

This subconscious limit will stop you from rising above a certain level of success, money, love or happiness. This is the internal barrier that you have built up in your head, that won’t allow you to ever experience more joy, love, happiness, success or money, than you feel you are worth. It is like a plane going too high that will stall and fall down to a level, where the pilot is again able to catch the fall in a zone accustomed for the type of plane. If you compare it to a thermostat, this would be the temperature when it get’s too hot and the air conditioner kicks in. And that is how your subconscious feels. It’s getting too hot in here, so let’s cool it down. This limit is tightly connected with the concept of self-worth.

No matter how much you believe in yourself as a limitless, spiritual being, we all have these limits in our minds.

Even the most successful people have them. They have just learned to raise them, so they won’t stop them from achieving what they want.

It is not about whether you have an upper limit, it is about whether that one causes you trouble, frustrates you and hinders you from growing further at this time.

The Auto-Mechanism of Your Subconscious Mind

It is as if your subconscious had a built-in auto-mechanism driving you directly to the events that will guarantee the (maybe not so desired) outcome for you.

And that is exactly what happens. You have an internal feeling of comfort within a certain range. Let’s go with a money example now. Let’s assume you are making 60,000$ per year. And you did so for maybe 3 years now in a row. If I would ask you how sure you are that you would make 60,000$ next year, you might be pretty sure that you can make it again. What if I challenged you to make 70,000$? Well, you might feel a little bit uncomfortable about it, but not that much. You might have some ideas on how to get it. How about 80,000$, 90,000$ or even 100,000$. Now that uncomfortable feeling might be getting worser. Maybe you could imagine yourself making 80,000$ putting in a lot more effort, but I might have lost you with 90,000 or 100,000$. Then you might realize, that 80,000$ is your upper limit.

What Is the Psychological Reason for the Unconscious Upper Limit (UUL)

You subconscious is not your enemy. It is your friend. And it’s only reason to install limits within you is to protect you.

It wants to protect you from harm and from being dissatisfied. There is safety in shooting low. Missing a goal you were really going for, could be a devastating experience for the self worth (as long as you identify your self worth with attaining that goal, but that is another point). And your subconscious doesn’t want you to experience this pain. So going for less, for the safe side or the easy, achievable goal is a self-protecting mechanism.

Your Unconscious Lower Limit (ULL) – The Kickstart Mechanism

On the other side is another mechanism working. This limit is the lower threshold. This is how low you allow yourself to go, before all your instincts, all energy and focus is brought into play to get you back up. It is the level, where your subconscious associates a threat for your survival with the current situation. Again, comparing it to a thermostate, this is the point where it is getting too cold, so the heater kicks in. And so your subconscious gets you to move things and kicks in your efforts to get back into the comfort zone again.

Let’s assume now, again you are making 60,000$ (and you did so for 3 straight years). How would you feel, if next year, you would only make 50,000$. Well you might feel uncomfortable again, but you might come up with some things you could cut your expenses on. Let’s go even deeper – 40,000$ or 30,000$. I bet you won’t feel so comfortable then. How about 20,000$ or even 10,000$. There is again a level, where your subconscious would scream “NO WAY – I won’t allow this to happen. This is dangerous for my survival”.

Well, even if it won’t be threatening your physical survival (there are a lot of people surviving with less than 10,000$ or even less) there is a level where your subconscious associates massive pain with making only that much money. Again, you should find out that level for you.

The Neutral State (NS)

This is the state where you are okay with a situation. Not great, not bad, but okay. In the above mentioned example that might be making 60,000$ – or maybe not, depending on the feeling a person associates with this amount.

Establishing Your Comfort Scales

You need to establish your comfort scale, so you can exactly pinpoint how much comfort or discomfort you associate with anything. The key to this is focusing on your body feelings. Your body feelings will tell you much more precisely how comfortable you are with a situation, then your intellect.

Comfort is associated with body feelings.

Let’s establish a scale from 1 to 10.

• 1 being so much discomfort and pain, that there is no way to tolerate it. This is the ultimate life threat.
• 10 meaning the most enjoyable state you could think of.
• 5 would be neutral, so this would be the Neutral State (NS), where you are okay with a situation. It isn’t great and it isn’t bad, just okay. Although this sounds boring it is essential to know where this level is for you.

Now let’s fill this theoretical scale with life. For this money is a great tool, because for most of us, money is an essential ingredient of life and therefore, a good measurement for our comfort level.

So remember the Comfort Scale:

1 (Ultimate Discomfort or Pain) … 5 (Neutral, okay) … 10 (Ultimate Comfort or Joy)

Establish your Comfort Scale for HAVING THE MONEY

1. Consider you current annual income. Where on this scale are you with making that much money? Make a note, and experience how you feel in your body. Do you feel any signs of comfort or discomfort, when thinking about it? Look out for any change in your body: tightness, relaxation, warmth, cold, tingling, pain, sourness, nervousness, salivation just to name a few. This is your baseline point. It could be 5 or a bit below or above. Note that the baseline couldn’t be 1, since 1 is so much pain, that you would find a way to change it, no matter what. Even if you are not satisfied on a conscious level with your income, there is a part within you, who feels comfortable enough with it not to change the situation.
2. Think about how comfortable you would feel if you HAD 10%, 20%, 30% and more money per year. Go up as high as you like. Note for every amount, how comfortable you feel inside thinking about having it. Note for every new level the change in your body feelings.
3. Then think about making 10% less per year or 20% or 30%. Note how your Comfort Level changes and how your body reacts to this.

What you should have at the end are the body signs, that signal you the different comfort levels of your scale. You should be aware how your body feels when confronted with the different levels of discomfort and comfort.

Establishing this scale once is a very important step of the procedure.

Now let’s go one step further. This time don’t think about having the money, think about MAKING it.

Establish your Comfort Scale for MAKING THE MONEY:

• Start with your annual income. How comfortable are you with making it again next year?
• Then go up 10%, 20%, 30% and higher. How comfortable are you with making that much more money next year?
• Then go down 10%, 20%, 30% and lower. How comfortable are you with making only so little money?

Now compare those 2 scales, and you might be surprised.

You might find, that if you go lower than your actual income, that the pain of only making less money than you have is growing stronger but the trust in yourself that you can make it is also getting stronger. If you are currently making 60,000$, you will feel quite a discomfort about making only 40,000$ (maybe that is level 3), but you are quite sure, that you could make it (or better) next year (maybe Level 8,9 or 10).

Conversely, if you increase your annual income, you will find, that you would be quite comfortable with having it but the higher you go, the less you are sure, that you will make it. So if you currently are making 60,000$ making $90,000 would surely feel good (maybe level 6, 7, 8 or higher) but you are not so comfortable with your ability to make it (maybe 4 or even 3).

Remember – these levels are actual body feelings. This is key for the next step.

Raising Your Comfort Zone

Now you have 2 Comfort Levels for each $-amount. A Comfort Level for “Having the Money” and one for “Making the Money”. Remember money is here just an example. I could also say you have 2 Comfort Levels for “Wanting it” and “Trusting in Yourself that you can make it happen”.

The key to raising your Comfort Zone is by associating the feelings of comfort with the image of making a certain level happen.

Here is how to do it. The whole process consists of 2 Steps.

Step 1 – Dialogue With Your Fear

1. Ask your subconscious, why there are feelings of discomfort associated with you making more money.
2. Write down in your journey what comes to your mind. What negative consequences might be associated. Write them down.
3. Consider if these are actual, real problems, that could occur. Then thank your subconscious for bringing them up and consider them in the future.

Step 2 – Associating Comfort With the Steps Beyond Your Current Comfort Zone

1. Remember the good feelings of comfort in your body (choose intuitively from Level 6-10)
2. Imagine doing the thing (e.g. imagine making 90,000$ – not having, but actually earning them)
3. Now listen to your body. Once you really think about it, those old feelings of doubt, worry and discomfort will come back.
4. If so, drop the picture and try to remember the feelings of comfort again in your body
5. Bring back the pictures of you making it happen (e.g. making 90,000$)
6. If your feeling of comfort vanishes, drop the picture again, bring back the good feelings and then bring in the pictures again.
7. Continue to do so, until you are able to see yourself doing the things necessary to make it happen while at the same time feeling in your body feelings of comfort and trust.
8. Repeat this process for at least a week, better 30 days. Do it at least early in the morning and before going to sleep. You can do it more often if you like. Once you’ve done it 3-4 times, you will get it much faster.

Once your subconscious has build a neuro-connection for this new couple (picture of future success and feelings of comfort), you will no longer need to push towards making things happen. You will feel yourself drawn towards them. This will be one of the most interesting and releasing experiences you will ever have.

How to Use This Process to Change Anything in Your Life

This process is not only able to change your comfort zone towards money. Money was just picked for demonstration purpose. You can use this process for anything you can quantify and rate on a scale from 1 to 10.

Could you rate:

• your experience of love?
• your feelings of happiness?
• your health and vitality?

Of course you could and therefore you could use that process for all these areas. Try it and watch out for enormous changes happening to you.

Break through the glass ceilings that are limiting you in every area of life. Enjoy the ride.

Here’s a thought that might spin your head.

Personal development is not personal! It’s not about you.

It IS personal in that what you ‘personally develop’ is particular to your beliefs, your skills, and your situation – but it’s not about the you who is unconditionally valuable and beyond judgement.

I said it would spin your head. But stick with me, there is good news to come.

Some words in the English language are what is called in linguistic studies – multi-ordinal. This means, in brief, that the same word means different things in different contexts. This is obvious if you consider that saying: ‘I love you’ to your fluffy cute dog or cat is not the same as saying it to your husband or wife in bed. It’s the same word, different context and hence different meanings.

So why is this good news for you and your personal development?

It’s good news if you are someone who personalises comments, who feels that you’re being talked about, that you have to have your radar always on in case someone says something bad about you.

Secondly, if you are someone who says “‘I’ failed” and feels bad about yourself (rather than just not getting the result you want), it could be because you are confusing the levels of ‘you’ involved in what actually happened.

It’s good news because you are not what you do. It’s not about you.

Despite what the people around you say.

This might help: NLP pioneer Robert Dilts created a model called the Neuro-logical levels which suggested that change could be made at the following levels:

· Mission
· Identity
· Values
· Beliefs
· Capabilities
· Behaviour
· Environment

You will notice that Identity (who you ARE) is at a different level to Capabilities and Behaviour – what you do.

As a Meta-Coach I find that the act of linking judgements of performance with personal worth often stops people from taking actions and risks they need in order to progress. They feel that the essential core of who they are is being threatened.

The you that knows itself as ‘I’ doesn’t want to change.

But who or what is ‘I’?

Try this: say to yourself: “I have feelings but I am not my feelings…my feelings change but I remain (pause)…I have beliefs but I am not my beliefs…my beliefs change but I remain (pause)…I have a body but I am not my body…my body changes but I remain.

Emphasise the ‘I’. It has a strange effect, doesn’t it?

So if ‘I’ am not any of these things…then what am I?

Many say “I think, therefore I am”.

Up front I’ll state my perspective.

I’m a Christian and I believe that God created me and put His life in me. That life is unconditionally valuable and cannot be devalued. That is what constitutes ‘I’ for me.

I also believe that He gave me the kind of consciousness that enables me to think about myself and all aspects of myself.

Thus, – you might want to read this twice – the thinker (which is me/I) is not the same as what is thought about – my thoughts.

So for me ‘I’ is a spiritual issue, and I (and its/my value) is separate from what I think. “I am – therefore I think”.

I know others will have different ideas and we each have to choose what we base our understanding of ourselves on.

What I have done, however, is develop a concept of ‘I’ that is not affected by the judgements that are made about what I do.

How would this idea work if you did it?

For one, this makes it much easier to pick up the phone and have my ideas rejected rather than my ‘self’ rejected.

And concerning ‘failure’ (which is another one of those ‘multi-ordinal words.) if you fail, what exactly failed?

Was it YOU – the entire mind body system that supposedly constitutes who you are?

Did you mind shut down?
Did your blood stop pumping?
Did your immune system shut down?
Did your muscles atrophy?
Did your throat muscles die?

Did those things ‘fail’? Because that is what you are saying if ‘I’ am my thoughts-body etc

Was it the YOU that remains even if your beliefs and values change? (I stopped believing in Santa at least two years ago…)

Or is it just that your mental blueprint for doing something was incomplete or inaccurate?

You had a missing piece of knowledge.

Something you knew was out-of-date.

Would that be so bad? After all, databases need updating, don’t they? We’ve all had letters for previous tenants or with the name misspelled.

I like to think of my thoughts as tools. Along with my understanding and application of my faith, I want my mind and body to serve me.

Distinguishing ‘I’ as director and overseer from the ‘I’ who thinks and acts may seem a little schizophrenic to some.

But if you consider that since the ‘recession’ started there have been several high profile suicides of very rich people who lost a lot of money – and who may have connected some important aspect of self with the amount of money they had – maybe separating worth and doing, worth and possessions is not such a bad idea after all.

Jesus said: “A man’s life does not consist of his possessions.”

So – do you still think that if I get something wrong the failure is about my worth?
Is personal development still personal?

Look me in the ‘I’ and say that.

This weeks Sunday Siesta is all about bloggers who have managed to quit their day job to become professional bloggers. I have been reading a lot about this lately since I will be doing it soon. I thought it might be interesting to look at a few bloggers who have turned pro and link to their stories of how they managed to quit their day jobs.

9 10 Bloggers Who Have Quit Their Day Job and Turned Pro

Jonathan Mead

IlluminatedMind.net – So I Quit My Day Job, Dear Boss: You’re Fired – I like Jonathan’s story of how he managed to go from working as a file clerk to managing an employee recognition program to finally giving up his day job, ’stop renting out his mind’ and go solo. You can download his free ebook ‘The Zero Hour Work Week’

Leo Babuata

ZenHabits.net - So I Quit My Day Job – Holy Cow! I Took the Plunge – I love Leo’s story and it really couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. He quit his day job with U.S. military veterans for the Guam Legislature in January 2008 after a meteoric rise with his blog, which has around 130,000 subscribers. He is now a published author: ‘The Power of Less’, has written a best selling ebook: ‘Zen To Done’ and has done so much more since he started blogging in 2007. His story is a fantastic one and is well worth a read.

Caroline Middlebrook

CarolineMiddlebrook.com – About Caroline Middlebrook – I remember Caroline at the very beginning of her blog and I even remember writing a piece on her called ‘The woman who quit her day job’ Caroline did it the hard way and quit her job as a software developer and started the blog from scratch. She now has over 11,000 subscribers, has written several eBooks and has become very successful in the blogging world.

Tina Su

ThinkSimpleNow.com – Dream to Reality: How I Quit My Day Job – One of my favourite personal development bloggers. Tina Su really is an inspiration to many and she has done so much in such a short space of time. She has a loyal following and is well thought of in the blogging community.

Daniel Scocco

DailyBlogTips.com – Make Money Blogging – Daniel is another blogging hero of mine. Not because he has quit his day job, but simply because he has great advice on his blog about blogging. he gave up his job at the age of 22 and has never looked back since. He is now a successful consultant and professional blogger.

Yaro Starak

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com – One Day In A Life – One of the best business bloggers on the net and one of the first blogs I sat up and paid attention to and thinking blogging was possible as a career. I love Yaro’s podcasts as they are always insightful.

J.D. Roth

GetRichSlowly.com – Quitting the Day Job: Finding the Guts to Pursue Your Dreams – I haven’t read much of the blog from JD but have read his story and read a few interviews from him. His blog is all about fiance and is geared toward the american market however there are great articles about attitude to money. JD is another inspiration to me and when you read the story you will understand why.

Steve Pavlina

StevePavlina.com – Blogging for Money – Steve’s blog was the blog that started it all for me back in August 2006. I soaked up his writing and listened to the podcasts and thought WOW! this is what I want to do. I am not so keen on Steve’s stuff now but his older material is still amazing and I often listen to his podcasts.

Darren Rowse

Problogger.net – Becoming A ProBlogger – Save the best for last Darren is perhaps one of the best known bloggers out there. The former Minister turned pro in 2005. Read his story it’s brilliant.

Celestine Chua

CelestineChua.com – Celestine Chua’s Story – I totally forgot about Celestine and she has been in my circle for some time now.  Celestine left a fortune 100 company to start a coaching business and start her blog and she has been very successful starting her School of Personal Excellence

I know I have missed a few famous bloggers out but hopefully if you are looking to becoming a blogging professional it will give you some inspiration as it has me and countless others.