barriers

December 6, 2018

Make Space

Motivation, Productivity, self growth, Success barriers, chaser, Dare, development, Different, direction, dream, goal, grow, growth, inspiration, motivation, personal growth, self acceptance 0

“I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact” – Elon Musk

So we have just 26 days left until 2019 who out there is super excited as me? I have been having interesting conversations lately and today I found myself talking about how I “calculate” my life too much. Honestly, for a lot of people it seems unspontaneous or systematic like I am a robot but my reasoning is this, I would rather think of future generations than just think of the rest of the day. And this conversation is what inspired me to write this today.

I just read that only 5% of the world’s population is living at their fullest potential, this means 95% of the world is consuming what the 5% is creating. This got me thinking that we all have the same 24 hours, so what is stopping us from walking in our purpose? A lot of people are always saying we don’t have enough time to accomplish what we want and let me say this is one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves.

You ABSOLUTELY have time to create the life you want, but the clock is ticking so it will take sacrifice. To be in the 5% it is not about time but about priorities, and I promise you on my life that your leisure time will be all the more sweeter when you know you have put a priority on tapping into your purpose. Warren Buffet said, ” write down 25 most important things in your life, now delete the bottom 20 and focus on the 5 because those are the core of your life”.

If you are going to truly harness your purpose in 2019 there are 3 things I need you to focus on.

ONE

Learn to say NO – I am guilty of this one too, thinking I am Superman and I can do EVERYTHING, but the truth is saying No to a lot of unnecessary things opens up time for you to prioritise what is right in line with your purpose. You need to be able to say no to things that are good so that you make room for things that are best. So you can start by saying no to spending and yes to saving, no to perfection and yes to progress, no to trivial attractions and yes to purpose-driven goals. It could mean taking a social media sabbatical, maybe you need to go out a little less and work on your future a little more.

TWO

Make room for interruptions – A lot of people’s lives are so jampacked that if something unplanned happens their whole life is disturbed. You need to stop, and proactively map out your way through life and consider things that could go wrong. I am not saying be pessimistic that things will go wrong but plan for them so that if they do happen you are ready. Consider sickness, death, inflation, delays, denials, rejections and see how you will work around them rather than be stopped by them. Do not jam-pack your life, a busy life is not always a sign that you are organised, sometimes it is the total opposite. Plan for failure, even up to plan Z.

THREE

Plan for rest – Do not burn out. Let me say this again, do not burn out or be a slave in the name of grind. Plan to rest, literally, plan to do nothing related to your purpose. Switch off your mobile, kick off your shoes and just chill. Truth is we are all slaves to our purpose, careers, jobs, school and all but you need to rest and have faith that even if you take some downtime, everything will be alright. And do not take holidays when your tank is already on empty, but rather do so when you are still half full so that you regenerate faster and efficiently. Plan to rest even daily, set aside an hour or 2 just to reset. You could also incorporate your hobbies, hit the gym, read a book, listen to your favourite podcast, paint, draw, cook, whatever it is that gets you to revitalise. Do it.

You need to start 2019 refreshed and not maxed out, create space right now for the coming year. You have 26 days to come up and start a schedule that will allow you to breathe. So make space in your finances, your health, your relationships, your purpose. Stop running so fast that you are about to reach your limit, I need you to create space between your limit and your current pace.

Let us know in the comments section how you are getting ready for the year coming, we would love to hear your plan.

August 9, 2018

Would The Future You Want To Meet You?

Habits, Leadership, self growth, Spiritual, Success barriers, bold, chaser, Dare, development, Different, growth, inspiration, life, self acceptance 0

“Do something today that your future self will thank you for” – Anonymous

Many people have immersed themselves in a professional development process with the goal to discover a whole new level of skills in personal transformation, and how to help others make significant changes. This opens up a way to make personal growth a disciplined part of how one manages their life. In short, this process changes people forever.

In my own experiences, the doorway of personal transformation was opened wide by one question that I asked myself. It was one of the better personal development questions I have learnt over the years and one that continues to help me make the most of any year.

The question was: If I met my future self, what would they thank me for?

What a great question right?

Personal development is all about who you want to become. Your doing flows from your being, or let me say if you know the WHY then the HOW becomes clearer. This principle works across many aspects of life professionally, personally, spiritually and relationally. Deciding who you want to become is the precursor to action. Alice in Wonderland didn’t really know where she wanted to end up and was reliably informed that it didn’t, therefore matter which way she went. When you don’t know who you want to be it doesn’t much matter, the pathway you take. When you do the level of focus, intentionality and drive go up immeasurably.

This question can help you plan your next year in three major ways.

Firstly, it helps define who you want to BE at the end. When you have a clear destination, you can begin to move with intentionality towards it. When you can ‘look out the window’ and define the future, you are creating a blueprint, for your future. Stephen Covey talks about ‘all things being created twice’ THIS IS THE FIRST CREATION. The mental image of who you want to be; the creation of what could be. The privilege of dreaming and planning about who you could be becomes the plan you follow from now until then. All purposeful journeys have clear destinations.

Secondly, it creates a clear framework for the allocation of resources. Go back to the question. What do you need to do for the future you to say thank you, I’m pleased to meet you? When you know who you want to be, you can decide how much time needs to be allocated to this endeavour. This could range from a number of objectives such as to develop a significant relationship with a significant person in your life, a bodyweight goal, an investment. Knowing that, makes it clearer for you to know what your next week needs to look like to be consistently engaged with your objective. Because you know, you want that to be true of yourself; you begin to make the time to make it real. You allocate the resources to your stated priority.

Consider your health; your learning; a specific skill set. A goal you’d like to reach. When you know the destination, and have a clear mental creation, you are empowered to work backwards from that chance meeting on the street, and spend the time, the money and the energy to become that person.

Lastly, it helps you say NO to good things with confidence. I truly believe that great success comes more from what we say no to, rather than what we say yes to. Yes is easy. Yes adds to the activity but may not be fulfilling or even purposeful. Every leader I know is aware of the feeling immediately following saying yes to the wrong priority or even the wrong appointment. Say no more often and yes more slowly in the coming months. The impact on your focus, productivity and mental clutter will blow your mind. Knowing who you want to ‘bump into’ at the end of next year is the north star of prioritisation.

Ruthlessly hold that picture of the future up high and evaluate every activity, every decision, every expense and every commitment in before it. Don’t be afraid to say no because you’ve already said yes. Remember, you want to meet the you, who is delighted to meet you. No, will get you there. Unless you have a clear destination for the you, you want to be, any which way will get you there.

QUESTION: How do you most effectively work out who you want to BECOME? We’d love you to share your thoughts in the comments section, please.

July 26, 2018

7 Benefits Of Taking A Break

Habits, Leadership, Lifestyle, Productivity, self growth, Spiritual barriers, chaser, Dare, development, Different, entrepreneur, growth 0

“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”- Sydney J Harris

Last week I have shared with you why it’s my belief that taking a break from your routine will be the smartest personal and professional investment you can make in your busy life. This time around I will show you what to expect from a time away. Why? The time to refresh, reflect and reconnect with the exciting future you can share is by far the highlight, it provides uninterrupted time to carefully reflect on whom you need to become and your contribution moving forward. What are the main learnings and benefits from this time?

1. DISTANCE– To create a healthy disconnect with the past.

Transitioning and re-engineering anything takes time and effort. It also takes wisdom, courage, grace, humility, perseverance and flexibility from everyone included in the process. This isn’t just a leader-centric experience; the whole team experiences it. This could be at work, home or in business. That said, there is a unique role for a leader to take a specific position to hold to, based on the discernment and convictions that they hold. In doing so, a leader experiences the highs and lows of change. A break allows you the time to freely process the positives, the negatives and everything in between. Having that time and space has allowed one of the most helpful experiences any leaders can have, PERSPECTIVE. To enjoy a healthy distance from the recent past so you can lead to a healthy, positive, bright future is a critical lesson from a break.

2. PERSPECTIVE– To reflect more deeply for on what matters most.

As previously noted perspective is a vital leadership currency. Executing a game plan is more challenging in the trenches than it is in the “war room.” Time away from the day-to-day demands of leadership. One of my favourite cities in the world is New York City. Don’t ask me to explain why I have loved that city for years. Life on the street is very different to life on top of the Rockefeller Centre and it’s different again from a helicopter up and down the west side of Manhattan or from the ferry back from Lady Liberty. The difference is PERSPECTIVE. When you can see clearly, you can see further. When you can see further what is in front of you makes more sense. Perspective serves the future because it puts it in context, gives it meaning and invites the energy to make it happen.

3. TRANSFORMATION- To have resource and energy to focus on personal development.

This lesson is a two-sided coin. One of my highest value lessons at this moment is personal responsibility. I am learning that you and I are ultimately responsible for the outcomes we have. Whether we like them or not and a time away allows the two dimensions of leadership to play out. The role of SELF-leadership and the reason WHY you’re leading. As any type of leader, this is a delicate paradox. Too much focus on self is unhelpful and difficult to justify when the ones that follow you do not see the benefit in doing so. And, if you and I aren’t in a healthy place as a leader we cannot carry the responsibilities we have forward as well as we hope. A break serves this process because it allows you to focus on yourself for a purpose. Similarly to a car, you focus on its health and longevity because of what you intend it to do. The better you look after it the more it can produce. To reflect, pray, consider, think, decide and act are all healthy parts of self-leadership. To do these things with a clear answer to the questions “For what purpose?” is even better.

4. CLARITY- To decide what goes on the “not to do” list.

Made famous by Jim Collins the “not to do list” is a list that lives in many organisations that declare our intentions to stay focused and disciplined in the pursuit of our preferred future. That’s really hard work in my experience. And I think I’m average at best when it comes to a, not to do list. I see opportunity everywhere, I make decisions based on possibility, not resources, I think through events and environments based on what COULD be not what is. That makes a not to do list hard. And they are still critical. A break provides the room to really, really, really consider what is mission critical. It creates the distance between activity and revelation. A break stokes the fire of courage to make the necessary changes when you return. As I experience it, a team does this better than one leader. You need a team around you with opinions and insights and convictions that help shape that list then hold you accountable to it. Jim Rohn got it right when he said: “each of us needs all of us.”

5. VISION- To think harder about what to be and do in the future.

Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion. Think of it this way. Activity – Action = Assessment Having time away from activity and action allows time for assessment. How are things really? How are our families? Our teams? Our staff? What is the quality of the most important relationships in your life? In addition to those questions, you get to reflect and do some work on the following insights. What specifically is God calling us to be? Who am I called to be? Where are our brightest opportunities? What are our biggest obstacles? How do we develop people to serve and influence in ALL spheres of life? What’s preventing us from growing? If we made only THREE changes in the next season what would they be? A break creates the space to think about your “being” and not just your “doing.” It invites you to make the meaningful important again and assess how everything lines up with what your convictions are and what your direction is.

6. PREPARATION- To take the time to articulate the next best steps.

The purpose of unplugging for a period of time is actually, to plug back in. To return with a clear sense of what to do next is essential for any leader. In my earlier post 6 Reasons To Have A Break I talk about the danger of overload on return. Now that you have returned it should be an exercise in sharing what the experience has made clear and then submitting it to our core leadership team to be rigorous around what happens when. Lean into your team, your board, your management team, whoever is your key decision makers to discern and decide what happens when to who and how it gets communicated. Be clear, be courageous. Your next steps are important ones.

7. FAMILY- To invest significant amounts of time into the most important relationships.

Of all the roles a leader has. Of all the roles I have, the role of husband and father tops the list. A break provides the time and space to employ the “be with” factor. You get time to go to sleep and wake up every day as a family unit. You get to share memories, friendships and sights together. You learn new words and phrases. You see a big world. You laugh, you cry, you have all the important little moments between the big activities. You have unhurried conversations with your spouse. You are fully present (I hope) to them and as attentive as possible to what was happening to them, not just with them.

There are many ways to make a break work in your world. When you do I trust you experience some of these things and they serve you as you serve others. If you have any amazing sabbatical stories please share them with us in the comments section.

July 12, 2018

What Does Your Squad Bring To The Table?

Motivation, self growth accountability, barriers, dream, family, friends, goals, growth, inspiration, life, self acceptance, squad, squad goals 0

“He who walks with wisemen will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm”

– Proverbs 13:20

Dear young people, you don’t have time to settle for anything in life! That’s with relationships, friendships, finances, spirituality, emotions, what colour shirt you should wear with those new shoes or a laundry list of other things! NEVER settle for anything less than what you deserve!

One thing that I’ve learned from my circle of friends is the saying:

“you become like the five people you spend the most time with”

Believe it or not, this statement is so true! Do you feel complacent when you are surrounded by people who aren’t constantly striving to be better? Or when you surround yourself with people who aren’t pushing you closer to your purpose and holding you accountable? There are four mutual things you and your squad should be doing:

1. Holding each other accountable to the goals that you each have set.

It can get very stressful when you have a list of goals that you want to accomplish and you don’t have anyone around to hold you accountable or push you to keep going. Your friends should be the wall that holds you up when you feel like giving up. One thing you and your friends should do is to keep a written record of what’s on your list to accomplish and check in periodically to see if everything is being done. If it’s not, trust you should be giving each other a kick in the butt!

2.Pushing each other spiritually.

If your squad isn’t pushing and motivating you to level up spiritually you may need to reevaluate your circle. You should always be able to call your friends when something is going wrong to pray and also when things are going great to give thanks to God. A few tips could be having a weekly bible study where you talk about a number of important topics, including; your week, things you are grateful for, worship together, and then study the word. This is a great way to stay spiritually connected with your squad.

3. Supporting each other in your new and existing ventures.

I know it’s impossible to support every single person, but you should be supporting your circle when they have new exciting things happening. It’s often said that strangers are more likely to support you than your own friends. Let’s try our hardest to support the people who have always supported us. I know I’m guilty of this sometimes. Being so busy and consumed by my own dreams that I don’t genuinely support my squad and they’re ALWAYS there for me! So you need to make sure that at least one person is there rooting them on when they have new ventures or new pursuits.

4. Getting each other ALL THE WAY together if you see each other slipping in any area of your lives or not representing your personal brands appropriately.

As a squad, you need to be able to put each other in check when any of you is not being the person they said they wanted to be or they are not doing the things they said they wanted to do. It’s important that you become hard on each other because it will do nothing but help you in the long run. The success of anyone one of you is the success of the whole squad, and failure too.

Make sure you are putting yourself around powerful people who are pushing you into your purpose! And be grateful every day for the people that have been placed in your life that will pull a quick…” Mate, you better level up on me! I challenge you to write down a list of your closest friends and next to each name put what value they add to your life and what value you add to theirs. If it does not balance out then you need to have some conversations and start adjusting. You can’t afford to have parasitic or neutral relationships. They need to be mutual and intentional, now go out there and be great.

May 10, 2018

5 Barriers To Success

Buisness, Habits, Motivation, Productivity, self growth, Success, Work barriers, chaser, development, Different, dream, goal, goals, growth, life, motivation, persist, personal growth, Real, self acceptance, true 0

” The cemetery is full of unfulfilled dreams…” Unknown

A lot of people are dying with unrealised potential, but that isn’t the worst of this, because there are people still living that are also failing to live their purpose.
I am often asked this question, “How do I know my purpose and how do I make it happen?” And my response is your purpose or gift is anything that comes naturally to you that everyone else struggles with or finds challenging.
I know this seems open-ended but if you take time to pay attention to yourself as you go through your likes, hobbies and strengths, you will surely find that one thing that you are so passionate about.
Though finding a purpose to me seems fairly easy, the most difficult part of this journey is getting to your promised land. There 2 critical things you need to know here, A) It’s never too late to chase a dream, and, B) There will be obstacles that stand in the way of your dream
Once you work on those critical aspects you will notice that it becomes easier to follow and fulfil your dream. So I have taken time to look at some of the major dream killers that I find very common in a lot of people and these are:

1. Laziness – I just thought we should get this one out of the way first, a lot of people will not admit to this automatically but let me show you something. If you neglect yourself, your career, family and home you run the risk of losing your security and support structure. This is a result of living in a false luxury, a world that has no form of hardworking in it and this has negative consequences in the long run. So I’d say begin by making a list of all the things that you value and are dear to you, and next to them write at least one thing you need to do daily to protect them.

2. Procrastinating – This will kill many dreams than failure ever will. Ask yourself if you are that person who has a million ideas but not one has seen the light of day, or that person with great advice that you never take yourself? Progress is not about words but about actions, no matter how good you articulate a plan, you are remembered for what you did and not what you said. There is a need for discipline to start and see things through to completion. Remember, no one will do the work for you, so it’s time to get going. Do not be all talk and no action, be a doer.

3. Feeling Overwhelmed – Life has a way of stopping people from doing exactly what they set out to do, and you know what that is very true. Things get so difficult that your only option is to STOP! This is generally because the way we plan is not adequate, and I mean we do plan but our plan is not enough. For any project or goal to be achieved you need to break it down into smaller manageable tasks, think of working on a jigsaw puzzle. It looks so big as a whole but if you break down the pieces and start working on smaller sections at a time you will realise that a thousand pieces aren’t that many.

4. Lack of Commitment – The dictionary defines the word commitment as “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause…”, meaning there is a high level of dedication required for a dream to be achieved. This means there will be a lot of sacrifices, a lot of uncomfortable situations, there will be the risk of being misunderstood or even being alienated because of the relentless pursuit of your dream. Now I need you to take time to answer these few questions about your commitment and see how you score, Do you have a plan to help you achieve your dream? Are you willing to put in work to learn more about your dream? Are you willing to try it even if you don’t see success at first? Do you have anyone you are accountable to with your dream? Do you have anyone mentoring you or teaching you? How bad do you really want to succeed in your dream?

5. Lack of Confidence – Failure is part of the process, and if you FEAR failure you will never start anything because in your mind you are already defeated. Understand this, every dream starts as a mental construct and it is then fleshed out from there, so the mind is a very powerful tool for seeing fulfilment.
Past failures, insecurities, deep hurt and trauma can cause you to look down upon yourself or feel inadequate. I am here to tell you that you control your confidence and do not allow anything negative to immobilise your action. There are many success stories that have come out of the most adverse situations all because those people chose not to give up.
Find a mentor or person that has succeeded in the area that you wish to pursue, take time and learn from them, even by observation, gain knowledge and believe in your God-given ability to see your dream through.

No matter where you are in life today, it’s not too late to become who you are destined to be. Your current situation might not reflect it but you born to be great and you will be great if you apply yourself and overcome the barriers ahead of you. If you want to learn more about how to overcome yourself, follow this link and get a copy of World War You and begin your journey to greatness.