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  • “Waking up to who you actually are (Self Concept) requires you to begin letting go of whoever it is that you imagine yourself to be (Self Esteem).”I’ve heard the statement “just be yourself” so many times throughout my life. It sounds like such an amazingly simple thing to do, but in all honestly, it's taken me YEARS to be able to fully understand what this means.In my quest for answers I’ve found that it is very much possible to just be yourself. The person who is a jerk to others and the person who is afraid of social situations are, in actuality, not being themselves. Their real self is just being covered up with their pre-conditioned and fear-based thinking - of not being good enough at simply being themselves.Our true self is who we really are when we let go of all of the stories, labels, and judgments that we have placed upon ourselves. It is who we naturally are without the masks and pretentiousness.It is who we really are when we let fall to the floor the cloak of other people’s stuff that we have taken on.Everything else that we claim to be when we say, “This is who I am!” is only a story.What you've experienced throughout this course and what I'll also share in this video, are the steps, stories and lessons I've learned that have allowed me to uncover my real nature and authentic self, which was in no way what so ever, even mildly resembled the opinions I developed about myself over the duration and the extent of my lifetime so far .....I close this course with one final story, I hope you find this insightful ;-)


  • How often do you not say or do something because you're worried about how it'll be perceived? For most of us, myself included, this happens more often then we'd like to admit.We live in a culture that is starving for authenticity. We want our leaders, our co-workers, our family members, our friends, and everyone else we interact with to tell us the truth and to be themselves. Most important, we want to have the personal freedom and confidence to say, do, and be who we really are, without worrying so much about how we appear to others and what they might think or say about us.Sadly, however, even though we may say we want to live in a way that is true to our deepest passions, beliefs, and desires; most of us don't and it's not that easy. We've been taught by our parents, teachers, spouses, friends, co-workers, politicians, the media, and others, that it's more important to be liked and to fit in than it is to be who we truly are. In addition, many of us assume that who we are is not good enough and therefore we're constantly trying to fix ourselves, or to act like others who we think are better than us.However, as the famous 19th century poet Oscar Wilde suggested, "Just Be yourself, as everyone else is already taken!"I know that this video will inspire you ...

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  • If you don’t believe it yourself, don’t ask anyone else to do so!It is virtually impossible not to transmit your doubts and insecurities to others through body language, tone of voice, inflection, word choice, and other subtle characteristics.When you show by your actions that you lack self-confidence, other people also begin to doubt your ability to perform even the most insignificant of tasks. To gain the respect and confidence of others, begin by making a list of all the attributes that make you who you are, followed by the areas you could do with some work in! Make a conscious effort to build upon your positive strengths and simply improve on your weaknesses (if they're even important).It may not be easy, but if you assess yourself objectively and persevere in your efforts, you will eventually prevail .... like my wife Karen, If in this video you think that she looks confident - I can guarantee you that she wasn't, but simply done what she had to do anyway.Feal the fear and do it anyway!


  • Don’t look to the stars for the cause of your misfortunes: look to yourself to get better results.There are many things you cannot control, but you can control the only things that really matter: your mind and your attitude. External forces have very little to do with success.Those who program themselves for success find a way to succeed even in the most difficult of circumstances. Solutions to most problems come from one source and one source alone: yourself. Living life to the fullest is a lot like shooting the rapids in a rubber raft.Once you’ve made the commitment, it’s difficult to change your mind, turn around, and paddle upstream to placid waters. But it’s the excitement and adventure that make it all worthwhile. If you never make the attempt, you may never know the depths of despair, but neither will you experience the exhilaration of success.


  • Human beings possess the unique ability to engage in emotional time travel, mentally fast forwarding through time to envision how they will feel in future situations.Emotional time travel is not without its pitfalls. At the most obvious level, people may make inaccurate predictions about how they will feel in a situation because the situation unfolds differently than they expect. Yet, even if the situation people experience objectively matches the situation they imagined, people face a fundamentally different psychological situation when they experience an event than when they imagine it. The failure to recognise this can lead onto a wide variety and array of unwise and ill informed decisions.People's predictions about how they will feel in the future shape many of their decisions, though under certain conditions people place surprisingly little weight on their affective forecasts in decision-making. Supporting the validity of decisions that are based on affective forecasts, most studies suggest that forecasts do reliably predict experiences. I hope that you find this video enlightening!


  • For many people, emotions can be an inconsistent daily NIGHTMARE that we often just don’t know what to do with or how to handle.So we turn to the only strategies we do know. If you’re a man, you might distract yourself by playing video games, building something new or even by going to the pub or the gym, and if you’re a woman, you might head to the shops or eat a whole load of chocolate!Turning to these things occasionally is OK, but making them part of your regular coping repertoire might not be overly effective for you.Emotions are valuable, and offer a number of benefits (even the bad ones). Once we’re able to process and cope with them effectively, we can learn a lot about our needs and ourselves. Emotions send us important messages and help us connect with others and also keep us on the ‘right track’ throughout life.Using unhealthy strategies can sabotage our relationships, our careers and even our health, in fact, it’s been scientifically suggested that people who handle stress effectively even have far healthier immune systems!All emotions fall into one of 4 categories: anxiety, sadness, anger and happiness. With anxiety, your mind lights up all the with “What if’s?” What if I lose my job? What if I don’t meet someone? What if I fail my test?Anxiety comes from the thoughts you have about the future where in turn you choose to base your emotions upon something that hasn’t even happened yet.With sadness, you will be focusing on negative memories and thoughts about the past.With anger, your thoughts are focused on how you or your values have been attacked, and with happiness, your thoughts are focused on what you’ve either gained or already achieved.In the following two video’s, I’m hoping to be able to enhance your understanding of exactly how your emotions work, where they come from, and in turn how you can manage them more effectively.I've also made them available in MP3 format for you download and listen to again as often as you need to.


  • Your self concept (or self image) is the sum total of all the knowledge and information that you currently have about yourself - it's the person you know you can be, could be, ought to be and want to be.It includes things like your gender, name, personality, physical appearance, race, likes and dislikes, beliefs, values, social history, nationality, schooling, family, career, accomplishments, failures, skills and talents.Your self-concept also includes who you think you might become and what you believe you were like in the past. It is an idea or image of yourself that comes from what you know about yourself and what you believe others think about you.Your Self Concept answers the all important question: Who am I?Your self concept includes the information about yourself that only you know, such as your motives, your agenda's, your achievements and your failures. Your Self Concept incorporates your values and plays a fundamental role in determining how you really feel about something (in spite of what you do or say) and what your intentions are when doing or saying something. No-one else could ever possibly know these things but you.Your self esteem is whether you believe that all these things add up to something good, bad, worthy or unworthy. It's how you rate what you know about yourself.It is sometimes called your self-evaluation and will always determine how it is that you feel about yourself and whether you believe that you are OK or not.Your Self Esteem answers the question: Am I good enough?When you know that who you are is bigger than just the set of ideas you hold about yourself you begin to see that you can change these ideas.You can change ideas (and actions) that result in poor self esteem, to ideas (and actions) that strengthen self esteem. When you bring your actions, thoughts and emotions into alignment your self esteem grows still further.Your current self image is just a collection of ideas and thoughts that you've had over the years that have led you to a conclusion about whether you are good enough or otherwise. How you rate these ideas (self esteem) is entirely up to you.In this video, you'll learn the difference between self esteem and self concept and also, how in turn you can use this information to make progress in your life, for the rest of your life.


  • Every day of our lives, we are being constantly programmed (taught, influenced, impacted and conditioned) by the world alongside everyone and everything that lives in it.Our beliefs are always being moulded and manipulated (for better or for worse) by other people in their attempts to have us ‘join their team’ without us even being aware of it. Most of our beliefs are formed over many years, which is why they can become such a firmly entrenched and non-negotiable part of our mental and emotional DNA. And a lifetime of being taught a certain message or philosophy can makes it extremely difficult for us to consider any other degree of reality other than the one we have already accepted to be true.When considering to believe anything else other than what we already do, (another version of truth, an alternative option, a new way of living, thinking, seeing or believing) we’ll often need to question what it is that we’ve believed for however long we’ve been believing it - and this can really take us out of our comfort zones!As a therapist and counsellor I’ve worked with people who can become very angry when I question or challenge whatever it is that they believe. I’m not suggesting for a moment here that I’d ever criticise their beliefs; however I do ask very practical, logical, thought provoking and intelligent questions that require some serious reflection time. For someone to even contemplate that the beliefs they’ve held onto for years may be inaccurate, is to completely rattle this person’s entire state of personal existence. And this will often hurt. And this will always invoke some form of reaction (usually anger).I'll be talking about how we understand our emotions more effectively in a later video though!


  • Would you like to experience a deeper clarity of who you are and peace and freedom for within, even in the midst of what may be highly challenging circumstances?The Inside Out Revolution offers an understanding of how life works in a way that turns more traditional forms of psychology on its head. This revolutionary approach explains where our feelings come from (whether good or bad), and how our experience of life can change for the better within only a few moments.Understanding these principles allows you to tap into the deeper intelligence behind life, access your natural wisdom and guidance, and unleash your limitless creative power. You'll be able to live with less stress, greater ease and a sense of connection to the larger unfolding of life.The content of these three video’s have been adapted from the books; The Inside Out Revolution by Michael Neill, and The OZ Principles, by Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman.Are you ready to begin part 2?


  • Is there anyone occupying a space in your head that they haven’t paid any rent for? If your peace of mind and your achievements in life are dependent upon someone else’s actions, that person is in complete control of you and you have freely given them your power.The same principle applies to our expectations of money, materialistic possessions and promotions at work, status, rank or our achievements and failures. How many environmental circumstances and situations play a frequent role in determining your emotional wellbeing?Because we’ve been conditioned from birth to believe in the myth of an outside-in world, we assume the path back to well-being and joy and peace of mind must be through getting a better job or a better partner or working on becoming a better person.The irony is that the harder we work on changing ourselves in order to change the way we feel, the more distant we become from our true self, and the more important it seems to work on all those things on the outside of ourselves. As a result, the more lost and insecure we become.So, regardless of what ‘problem’ we think we have, our only real problem is feeling cut off from the truth about ‘who we ACTUALLY are’. And the moment we reconnect to that fundamental truth, our problems stop being so problematic and we become able to move forward in life on a whole new level.The formula is simple: your thoughts lead to your feelings, your feelings lead to your actions and your actions produce your results.The content of these three video’s have been adapted from the books; The Inside Out Revolution by Michael Neill, and The OZ Principles, by Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman.


  • One way to grasp an understanding of how we are made is to be able to recognise that there are three parts of us, which are all perfectly interconnected. Firstly, we have a material part, which prevents our blood, bones and organs from simply becoming a pile of ‘mush’ on the floor, we call this our Body.However we also have two immaterial parts, which we’d call our soul (where the thoughts come in) and our spirit (which gives us our conscience). The following is my best possible effort at explaining our design and how the Spirit, Soul and Body are all interconnected.Indeed, we are a race of cleverly constructed and highly complex beings!Our BodyIt’s by our Body that we function. It’s made up of organs and cells, which consist of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Our body contains our nervous system with nerves and the brain. It’s through our bodies that we connect to the physical world with our five senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling).The science is clear. Stress, especially that which stems from feeling of low confidence and low self esteem, is not good for your body. Most people have no idea how adversely stress affects us physically. The American Psychological Association estimates that 75 – 90% of visits to doctor’s offices are related to issues of psychological stress and insecurity.Behavioural Symptoms of StressMany people turn to food as a way to cope with stress. Others turn to the use of drugs. Some turn to alcohol. Still others light up a cigarette. Some burn the midnight oil surfing the Internet and pay for it the next day because they have had inadequate sleep. These are various coping mechanisms that people often turn to in an effort to cope with the stress or challenges in their lives. Independent of our behaviour stress can affect our body physically and cognitively.Our SoulOur Soul is what gives us our personality and it’s also through the Soul that we learn to interpret the world and our experiences. Our soul has three major components to it; our mind, our will and our emotions. Our mind has a conscious part and a subconscious part. The conscious mind is where we do our thinking and reasoning. The sub-conscious mind is where we hold our deep beliefs and our attitudes. It’s also where we have feelings (our emotions) and retain our memories.Our will (free will) is what gives us the ability to make choices and either react or respond to the circumstances and situations that we find ourselves in. Through a very complex way which scientist have attempted to understand for centuries, our mind, our will and our emotions ARE connected to the body through our endocrine, nervous and immune systems, however they are still trying to understand HOW! “The mind and body communicate constantly. What the mind thinks, perceives, and experiences is sent from our brain to the rest of the body.” Herbert Benson, M.D Institute for the Mind & BodyOur SpiritIt’s in our spirit that we find the meaning and the purpose for our life. At the deepest level our spirit gives us meaning and purpose and our spirit enables us to love one another connect with other human beings (the Spirit is where attraction and intimacy comes from). Our spirit gives us intuition between right and wrong (our conscience).Our spiritual health (demonstrated through confidence, self esteem and pride in self) will have a significant impact on our emotional health, which will in turn have a major influence on our physical health. The inter-connection between the spirit, the soul and the body is certainly a complex connection; nevertheless, the connection is very real.The Interaction Between Spirit, Soul and BodyMany of us will be influenced by how we handle the stresses that life brings us. If chronic stress is left unchecked, over a period of time our bodies will bare this toll. A strong faith (in God, The Universe or anything/ anyone greater than ourselves) enables us to be able to cope with the challenges that we experience throughout life and enables the impact of these stresses to be of a lesser significance.Without a strong personal faith (in someone or something) we must resort to our own personal resources in order to be able to cope with our current life difficulties. Often we attempt to cope with this stress through addictions and other methods of escape. This behaviour can further exacerbate the effect of stress on our physical health. A strong personal faith can be a resource that helps to manage stress, low confidence and even low self-esteem.Our beliefs and attitudes towards other people and life in general will be determined in a large degree by the extent of our faith; it also plays a major role in our thinking patterns.As I will discuss further in the video’s that follow (The Inside Out Revolution: Parts 1, 2 & 3) our thinking will 100% determine our emotional wellbeing, and our emotional wellbeing has a major impact on our actions and behaviours.It is ultimately our actions and behaviours that determine our life’s outcomes and results – whether good or bad! So in this regard, our thought patterns play a significant role in our emotional and physical health.In this video, I’ll attempt to show you how all of this works ... hopefully!


  • The Internal Vs. External Locus Of ControlPeople who base their success in life upon their own efforts and believe that they are in complete control of their life outcomes have what we would call an internal locus of control. You might be able to recognize someone with an internal locus of control through his or her relentlessly stubborn and highly driven nature (of which I can often be found guilty).In contrast to this, people who will assign their successes and failures in life to other people, or factors and influences outside of themselves have what we’d call an external locus of control. You’d likely be able to recognize someone with an external locus of control through highly visible insecurity, low confidence and low self-esteem (I lived in this camp for a while but got very bored of it).Let’s say for example that you're the kind of person who has an internal locus of control and you get a promotion at work or achieve some other type of success. You’d most likely assign your achievement to the hard work and efforts you put in. In other words, your success and achievements came as a direct result of your efforts and hard work.If, on the other hand, you had an external locus of control, you might be more inclined to attribute your promotion or achievement to external or environmental factors, such as luck, fate, timing, other people or some type of divine intervention (religious people can be good at this).Let's use the same example and say that you were denied a promotion that you’d worked long hours and very hard for. If your locus of control were internal, you’d be likely to somehow find a way to blame yourself and beat yourself up for this perceived failure. If however, your locus of control were external, you’d find very easy to blame peers, the boss for being and idiot, or any other outside source that was completely beyond your control.Here demonstrates the Victim Mentality!In the story you'll hear in this video - there are sometimes situations which you can find yourself which only 'God Alone' can get you out of! Having a stubborn Internal Locus of Control at times such as these can cause you NO END of internal dialogue and trauma!


  • Whether you believe that your self confidence and trust is broken by a loved one having an affair, a destructive addiction, or the departure of someone’s interest in you, it requires a radical shift in your worldview to get things back on track.Emotionally adjusting takes time and energy, but is worth it as it builds maturity and a commitment to being responsible for you.If you have ever truly trusted someone and went on to learn that they weren’t deserving of it, you might be likely to swing to the opposite side of the pendulum and feel wary of everyone. If you have a deep rooted belief that it would be hard to ever trust anyone else 100% again, you’re actually not too far from the truth because you cant. The real task is learning to trust you.Everyone has their own notion of what trust feels like. On some level, trust is having faith in someone else’s ability to truly know and support you. This may mean nurturing, protecting, listening, contributing financially, knowing what you are thinking without you having to say it, anticipating your desires, etc.As you can see, this is a pretty tall order to place on anyone – I mean, would anyone else in this world ever be totally wise to place 100% of their trust in you?Trusting yourself is much harder than handing yourself over to someone else. After all, you came into the world as a helpless infant who needed adult care and attention, so on some very deep level, it’s tempting to want to feel fully nurtured by someone.Since everyone in this world has some degree of abandonment issues, this desire is heightened by the fear that those we love the most will eventually leave. The good news is until you drop the body (as they say in India), you can always count on yourself.It may take a lot of practice to prove to yourself you are truly capable of simply being yourself – especially if you’ve been hurt or rejected by other in the past, but you are! Keep at it and the emotional rewards will accrue, until the day comes where you no longer place your trust and faith in things or people external to you, but base your confidence upon whom you actually are.YOU become the most the most consistent and reliable person that you know, even is no one else in the world were ever wiling to match you!


  • Many people in the world today live out their lives making their daily decisions based upon the decisions they made about themselves years ago.We develop core unconscious beliefs about ourselves as children; it’s in our childhood we determine our self-worth and value, our beliefs about who we are and what defines us – ‘the Glass Ceiling’ as it were, which often, we will often ‘unknowingly’ allow to cap our potential. These beliefs mould us as humans, and give us the rules we live by.Some might say our core education comes from the classroom - but I’m going to suggest that it doesn’t! We receive our primary education from our family experience when we are children – unintentionally we become conditioned to be who we believe ourselves to be, when we don’t conform to our beliefs, we’re out the comfort zone - and this can often be a scary place to be!I can remember getting taken to the circus with my sister when I was small. I hated the clowns with a vengeance; however the animals always fascinated me – particularly the elephants!Elephants are the largest living land animal in the world and can weigh up to 27,000 lbs.! Yet, a single stake and small chain tied around one foot can hold a circus elephant in place.Q) Why?A) When circus elephants are young, the stake and the chain are strong enough to keep them from escaping.Circus elephants are conditioned to believe that they can’t escape - even when they are fully grown adult elephants. When a baby elephant that doesn’t have much strength is tied to a huge metal peg that’s been driven into the ground, he’ll fight it and fight it and fight it until he accepts he isn’t strong enough to pull it out. Eventually he gives up, believing that that he’ll never be strong enough to break free, so he ends up stuck there - stuck in his childhood belief that it doesn’t matter how hard he fights, he’ll never be able to break free from that peg!Well like elephants, WE are conditioned to believe certain ideas, concepts or the virtues of others and then unknowingly, we can allow them to hold us in place!If you can see how this could happen, could it be possibly be a difference between what we believe to be true, and what IS true! That’s all elephant syndrome is just, simply believing something to be true based upon a misconception rather than truth. Are human beings the same? – You bet we are! From a young age we get pegged down and get so used to believing that this is just the way things are, I’ll never be strong enough to break free and be the kind of person I really want to be – WE THEREFORE LIVE A SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY BY BECOMING WHOEVER WE BELIEVE THAT WE ARE.The identity we attached ourselves to becomes the ball and chain around our necks that prevents us from ever becoming the kind of people that we truly want to be – OTHERWISE KNOWN AS A SLAVE or a VICTIM MENTALITY!Although you might not see any limitations you have AS limitations at the moment, you may just have accepted some things to be true about yourself which may not necessarily ever have been true in the first place. Often in life we can become a certain way of being, or act in a certain way so that other people accept us or validate us however the person that we've become may not necessarily be WHO WE ACTUALLY ARE!... but unfortunately, this is how we learn!


  • Here's a modern adaptation of a very old story ....And so, a conversation between two of the worlds greatest philosophers, Socrates and Glaucon went something like this ....Socrates: "Why do people think that Personal Development is meaningless? Let me put it this way - imagine you're in a cave, all chained up so you can't turn your body at all, and all you get to look at is this one wall. Some assholes behind you are making shadow puppets using the light from a fire and making echo noises and that's all you or anyone else chained up has seen or heard all your life.""Sounds terrible, right? Except it's all you've ever known, shadows and echoes, and that's your whole world - there's no way you could know that, really, you're watching a slightly-improved M. Night Shyamalan film.""In fact, you get pretty good at understanding how the patterns in the show work, and everyone else chained up is like, 'Holy Cow man, how did you know that that tree was going to fall on that guy?' and you'd say something like, 'It's because I bloomin' well pay attention and I'm pretty darned smart!' You're the smartest of the chained, and they all revere you."Glaucon: "But Socrates, a tree didn't really hit a guy. It's all shadows!"Socrates: "You're absolutely right Glaucon, but you wouldn't know that. You'd think that the shadows are real things. Everyone does. Now shut up and let me finish!""So eventually, someone comes and unchains you and drags you out of the cave. At first you'd say, 'Seriously, what's going on here?!' Well, actually, at first you'd say, 'HOLY COW, MY EYES' and you'd want to go back to the safe, familiar shadows. But even once your eyes worked you wouldn't believe them, because everything you ever thought was real is gone. You'd look at a tree, and say 'That's not a tree. I know trees. And you, sir, are no tree. THAT DOWN THERE is a tree.' But you're wrong. Down there is a shadow of a tree."Slowly, as your eyes got better, you'd see more and more real stuff. Eventually, you'd see the sun, and realize that it's the source of all light. You can't see nothing without the sun. And eventually, you'd figure it out. Something would click in your brain: 'Holy Pyjama's, that IS a tree. Well, Blow me over with a bag of potato's! So... nothing in the cave was real? I feel like such an asshole.'But it's not your fault, so don't be so hard on yourself!"Finally you'd want to go down and tell everyone about everything you've discovered. Except, and here's the hilarious part, they think you've gone absolutely crazy. You'd say, 'Guys, real trees on the outside of this cave are green!' and they'd say, 'What's green you CRAZYMAN? THAT's a tree over there on the cave wall!' And you'd squint and look at the wall, but you know you're unable to see properly now that you're back in the cave because you've seen real sunlight, and now you can't see anything. So they'd laugh at you, and agree that wherever it was that you went, no one should go there because it turns people into CRAZIES!Personal Development is kind of the same thing, and in order to grow and develop your confidence, you need to grow and develop as a person. As we grow and develop our understanding of who we truly are and the true nature of everything, we eventually grasp the Idea that Truth gives light to everything else and exposes what's real from what's not.If the person who's ben developing them-self has to go back to the cave and attempt to explain what they have seen to people who don't even know what Green is, they might end up feeling like they don't have as much in common with those people as what perhaps they once did. It wasn't the guy who went outside of the cave who invented the Truth though, it was always there, and the only way to really make sense of it is to uncover it for yourself.You can't force knowledge into a fool any more than you can force sight into a blind man."So if you want to learn, be prepared for a difficult journey, and be prepared to make some mistakes. That's okay, it's all part of the process. True knowledge must be obtained the hard way, and some people just don't want to see the light."This isn't a new story by the way - it's been about for centuries!


  • FACTS, FAITH or FEELINGS ... What are the foundations of YOUR life?These three things are absolutely vital in determining the quality of our lives. It’s hugely important that we know something about each of them, but it is even more important that we get them in the right order and keep them there.Most people will generally put their feelings first and in turn make the quality of their feelings provide a basis for the quality of their life, but that's like trying to build the roof of a house before laying the foundation. It just won't work that way!The right order is facts, faith and then feelings. Facts form the foundation on which you build your life; your faith rests upon these facts; and your feelings will come last and come as a result of getting the first two in order.Let's look at these, one at a time.First, facts. What is a fact? A fact is something that is true. For example, two plus two equals four. This is a simple mathematical fact. It is true in the United States, in Russia, or anywhere else in the world. It was true thousands of years ago, and it will still be true thousands of years from now. Your believing it does not make it true. It is true even if no one in the world believes it. A fact is true in and out of itself, regardless of faith or feelings. If it is not true, it is not a fact!Now let's think about faith.Whether you have any religious beliefs or whether you don’t, everyone has a certain degree of faith for something in life.But what is faith? Faith is a belief in something. Notice that faith must have an object. In one respect, faith is like eyesight - it must have an object, which can be somehow seen. The way you know you have eyesight is that you see something. True value depends upon its object, not upon itself. It is not the amount of faith that is important but the worthiness of the object.Suppose you are walking through the woods, and you come to a stream. A single plank spans the stream. As you look at the plank, you must decide if you will risk walking across it. You notice that apparently others have crossed safely, so you decide to trust it. The moment you step out on the plank, you are exercising faith. This is fine, but whether you get across safely or not now depends upon the plank. You may have a lot of faith, but if the plank is rotten, you will land in the water! On the other hand, your faith may not be so great, but if you have a good plank under you, you will get across safely. From this, we see that the real value of faith depends upon its object. This is why faith must rest on facts.What about feelings?Where do they come into the picture? Feelings are emotions inside us. Unlike facts, feelings can be very changeable. We may feel good one day and be downcast the next. But regardless of how fickle our feelings are, they do not change facts.For example, suppose you receive a letter from a reputable law firm informing you that your uncle Joe has died and left you two hundred thousand dollars. You might say, "But I don't feel like I have all that money." Perhaps you don't, but, nevertheless, you do have it. It is a fact that the money was left to you, and it is yours regardless of how you feel.Perhaps you go a doctor for an examination, and he tells you that you have cancer. You may say, "But I don't feel like I have cancer."Nevertheless, you do have it. Facts are facts, regardless of how you feel.Now, let's see how facts, faith, and feelings relate to your day-to-day life.


  • “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” - Abraham LincolnThe lumberjack story is has been made popular by a reference to it in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits due to the messages it carries with it. ‹Like many stories this story has a specific meaning, the version I tell in this video carries a key message about the value of continuous personal development and the importance of using our brains sometimes ... opposed to our brawn!


  • If you were to begin to define yourself differently, in a way that’s more empowering and accurate for who you are today, how would you describe who you’ve become?If you're unsure of how to even begin answering this question, the video should be able to offer you a few suggestions as to how you can begin doing this today!


  • TRUISM: Its tough to enjoy life when you’re not particularly confident in who it is that you are!People who haven't learned to accept and get along with themselves tend to have more difficulty accepting and getting along with others. I personally spent years having a hard time getting along with people, until I eventually grew to realize how the difficulties I had with other people were actually "rooted" in the difficulties I had in accepting myself.A wise man once suggested that “a good tree will bear good fruit, and a rotten tree will bear rotten fruit”. Likewise, the "fruit" of our lives comes from the "root" within us. If you're rooted in shame, guilt, inferiority, rejection, lack of love and acceptance, etc., the fruit of your relationships will suffer.However, once you have a deep revelation of who you actually are (which I’m hoping this course will help you to achieve) and begin to accept yourself and others, eventually these new roots will produce good fruit, and your relationships will begin to thrive (if they aren’t already doing so).Here are a few tips I believe will help you succeed at being yourself.1. Never say or think negative things about yourself, such as, "I never do anything right." "I'll never change." "I'm ugly." "I look terrible." "I'm dumb." "Who could ever love me?" In other words, the way we talk and think about ourselves reveals how we feel about and view upon ourselves.3. Never compare yourself with other people. You'll never succeed at being yourself if you're trying to be like someone else. Other people can be a good example to you, but duplicating even their good traits will manifest differently through your own unique and individual personality.4. Focus on your potential instead of your limitations. Actress Helen Hayes was told early in her career that if she were four inches taller she'd be the greatest actress of her time. Her coaches tried various methods of stretching her, but nothing increased her height. She refused to concentrate on the supposed limitation of being five feet tall and decided to concentrate on her potential. As a result, she was eventually cast as Mary, Queen of Scotland—one of the tallest queens who ever lived.5. Find something you like to do that you do well, and do it over and over. If you spend your time doing things you're not good at, it'll frustrate you and cause you to feel defeated and unsuccessful.6. Have the courage to be different and deal with criticism well. If you dare to be different, you'll have to expect some criticism. Going along with the crowd when you know you’re meant to be going a different way is one reason people don't succeed at being themselves. You won't like yourself very much if you go against your own convictions.7. Don't let the way another person treats you determine your value.8. Keep your flaws in perspective. People with a high level of confidence have just as many weaknesses as people without confidence, but they concentrate on their strengths - not their flaws or weaknesses!To become more confident in who you are and ultimately become more successful at simply being yourself, unfortunately I have both some good news and some bad news to share with you: I’ll give you the bad news first.To be successful, you will need to work harder than most others. You’ll need to be disciplined enough at times to say “no” to good things so that you can say “yes” to the best.·You will need to be committed to life-long learning and will often be kept up at night as you carefully consider your options.·You’ll be forced out of your comfort zone.·You’ll need a thick skin to ignore the barbs of the cynics.·And even after you’ve done all of this, there’s no guarantee that everything will work out according to plan.But there’s good news too.·Success is not reserved for a select few people, it’s yours for the taking too!·There are opportunities in front of you that you can pursue.·The process of moving towards your goals can be as rewarding as achieving them.·You will be doing something that you love.·You will become an inspiration for others and be able to utilise your skills to make a positive difference in the world.·And you’ll find out that the bad news isn’t as dramatic as it seemed to be before you started.My question is, are you more influenced by the good news or the bad news?So. In conclusion, let me remind you of my opening statement: It's tough to enjoy life when you don't like yourself.When you learn to succeed at being yourself, you'll be well on your way to becoming more confident in who you are and also in enjoying life more fully to the max!


  • There are two sides of risks. Before Risk (where we find security and safety), and after Risk (where we find a sense of achievement, excitement and freedom).On the before side of Risk, you will experience:* fear* trepidation* hesitation* anxiety* doubt* sweaty palms* excuses* research and analysis, followed by more research and analysis (aka PROCRASTINATION)* the status quo* temporary comfort* a dead-end jobOn the after side of risks, you will find:* glory* victory* elation* the exhilaration of truly living* satisfaction* faith in the miraculous* confidence* resilience* learning* courage to do it again* the opportunity to live your purposeDid you now, we ALL have the same choices in life?We can live on the before side of risks where we never take advantage of the opportunities to do something significant, meaningful or challenging with our lives. It's in this place that we'll often find ourselves making excuses and concocting seemingly reasonable explanations for living an ordinary life.It's in this place that we paddle in the shallow water with every other person who is bound by fear.Or we can choose to push through the risk and see life on the after side. This is the side where we can utilise our talents, make a difference and reflect on a life well lived. This is also the side where every now and then we wonder what all of the fuss was about and when we realise that most of the dramatic consequences of taking risks were just figments of our imagination.The side where we understand that we don’t get the courage we need beforetaking risks, we get it after we took the risk, building our faith and preparing us for the next one.Which side are you on?Which side should you be on?What risks do you need to take in order to feel FREE?JUST DO IT ....