Let me tell you a story about a little girl who made a request for Christmas, she asked for a typewriter.  Her parents were surprised and they loved her very much so they went out into town on a cold December weekend and eventually found a nice typewriter.  They carried it home, not an easy job because it was very heavy and wrapped it in pretty Christmas paper.  Christmas morning came and the excited little girl charged down the stairs and admired her presents with glee.  The huge box caught her attention particularly.... Her typewriter!!!!! 

Eventually her mum and dad came down and they were all able to rip open their presents, the little girl saved the big box for last, she knew what it was and was building up to opening it.  Finally, the time came, she took off the paper and inside was a box, and inside the box, was a typewriter.  The little girl's heart sank, her shoulders drooped and she murmured a polite thank you.  She duly removed it from the box, fed through a piece of paper and clunked down on the heavy keys one by one, later the typewriter went into her wardrobe where it stayed until it was eventually (and regrettably) lost in a housemove. 

You see, the thing is, the little girl actually wanted a computer like the ones they had at school, that was all sleek and electronic, the keys worked with a light touch and the paper came out of a printer.  The problem was she didn't really know that a computer wasn't a typewriter and a typewriter wasn't a computer. 

So, next time somebody asks you what it is that you want before you answer make sure of the following;

• You know exactly what it is that you want.  If you don't know for sure then how can your requests be followed through.
• You communicate your needs and wants precisely and clearly.

Your Inner Saboteur

You may recall that back in January I spoke to you about my friend Fear and her sister Excitement.  I was encouraging you to embrace Fear because actually she isn’t as bad as she at first seems.  Well today I’m going to talk to you about another woman, she doesn’t deserve a name so we’ll just call her your inner saboteur. 

She’s the one who plonks herself on your shoulder and whispers sour nothings in your ear.  For example, you have a fabulous business idea, you know you can do it because you’ve got the skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities to pull it off but something is holding you back.  The movie you’re creating in your mind is one of great stuff, you’re happy and you’re dead excited about it but then you hear yourself say ‘nah, nobody’ll pay for that’ or ‘why would they come to me when her over there is already established in that area’ STOP RIGHT THERE.  That actually isn’t your voice you can hear it’s the cunning voice of your inner saboteur.   If your inner saboteur was a walking talking living breathing woman she would be an incredibly successful impersonator.  She isn’t you, she just sounds like you

Your inner saboteur is nothing but a compound of all things that you have told yourself to be true, all the things you are scared of and all the things you wish were true so you can remain in a state of comfort and security.  She at best keeps you inert at worst pulls you back, like the cliché bitter best friend who isn’t happy so stops you from being happy only she’s so damn good at it you don’t even notice.

I have only one piece of advice, ditch her, listen out for her empty promises of failure and laugh in her face.  Hopefully she’ll be so humiliated at being discovered that she’ll go hang out with some other poor sod.

Finding Your Purpose – Action

You can have all the big ideas and dreams in the world but unless you take action that’s all they’ll ever be.  People can be hesitant when it comes to taking action to move themselves forward in either career or personal life, life as it is right now can suddenly appear really cozy, that’s your inner saboteur talking, I’ll introduce you to her properly later.  Today I want to talk to you about getting the wheels of change in motion.

There’s a mnemonic I learnt not long ago and it’s a real sticker; POOR

Pass

Over

Opportunities

Regularly

People who are rich in knowledge, skills, experience, wealth, well being, love and joy take up opportunities as they present themselves, even better they go out into the world and create opportunities.  This is simple to do, go out and meet people, build your network, start to do some research into the first steps you need to take to turn your ideas into reality, even doing the research is taking action and will help to build the internal desire needed to steer yourself towards the horizon.