I’ve been playing safe. It really is easy to do to be honest. After all I got over my fears, I don’t limit myself too much anyone – why should I ask anymore of myself. And yet I do.

Today I realised I need a HUGE vision, one that I might not even succeed to complete in my lifetime. One that is so big that I wake up in a cold sweat just thinking about it.  One that gets me so excited that I can’t sleep from working on it.

This time there is going to be no planning, I won’t have a clue how I will do it or even whether I will. None of that is my business when you are living the fearless life. You just set your vision and see what happens.

We all have a path to follow but knowing whether we are following our path or not is always the problem. I know if I continue to listen to my soul and talk to God it will be made clear to me.

So what’s my vision? What is it that is so huge for me right now I can’t even see how it will be achieved?

I want to impact the lives of 5 million people – I want to help 5 million people overcome fear and procrastination so they can live life on their terms.

That doesn’t mean they all have to save the world and build multinational companies – in fact I hope I never help anyone achieve anything that will take them away from truly living and enjoying life.

I want to help the mother who has always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, or the teacher who has always wanted to sing live on stage, or the social worker who really wants to be in Shakespear play. They all believe they are not good enough. They allow their fear to dominate their dreams. I want to help them through that so they can look back and say “I did it!”

Ordinary folks like me, who secretly harbour the desire to do something that will never make the news or change the world – except their own.

I can’t discover my greatness by playing it safe and neither can you – but I want to lead by example! Maybe  I will only impact 5 lives, maybe 500 or 5,000 – who knows. What I do know is that I have the desire to make a BIG impact and for now that is good enough for me.

How will I do it, well that is none of my business. I hand that over to something greater than I am. My belief is if the desire to make this happen came from my soul it will happen – how isn’t something I need to worry about and if it is my ego taking another trip then like this blog post it will eventually fade away and never be mentioned again.

Several years ago I came to the conclusion that

• I don’t need the big house
• I don’t need the fancy car

In order to feel fulfilled, complete and at peace. Because I don’t NEED them, I can enjoy having them without the need to hold on to them.

Then in 2008 I came to the realization that I don’t NEED money….. again this took me to the same place. Now I know I can have money and as much of it as I like because whether I have it or not I can still feel fulfilled, complete and at peace (trust me I have experienced both ; having and not having.)

It is 2010 and what NEED am I giving up? Well, I have found another thing I don’t NEED and that is a man! I was always in a conversation that “I need a man” but now I realise I don’t NEED a man to feel fulfilled, complete and at peace and because I don’t NEED a man then I can enjoy being in relationship with one without needing him to “do stuff” for me.

When we stop needing stuff that is when we can truly enjoy having it in our life – without worrying about it disappearing and without being fearful of what will happen if we lose it.

So where does this feeling of being fulfilled, complete and peaceful come from – from myself – a deep connection to my soul! From an understanding that everything I need has already been provided and there is actually nothing I need. Plus if I do feel a need for it I know I can connect to my soul as the source.

Having this connection will stop you from feeling as if you really NEED to eat the whole packet of chocolate biscuits to feel better. Or that you really NEED to ring your ex boyfriend and invite him over for the night. It stops you from doing things that provide short term pleasure while denying you long term happines.

If you want to start your own journey of giving up the need for things and working towards a deeper connection to yourself and your soul (spirit, energy) Guy Finley has a great  free personal development starter kit

When life isn’t going the way that you want to  it can be easy to want to give up, to believe that you are failure and to use even the possibility that you might fail to stop you from even getting started and trying. The thing is if you focus on the basics of what it takes to be successful you can get there.

If one person can be successful then we all have the potential to get there – the only thing that makes a successful person different from an unsuccessful one is the successful person kept growing and learning, they kept believing in their ability to become successful. They had a dream they wanted to fulfill and theyhey held the seed of their dream becoming successful and nurtured it towards growth and success.

You don’t have to want to run a million dollar corporation – maybe you want to learn how to play the guitar, or to save so you can travel the world for 6 months. Whatever you want for yourself going for it makes you a success. The key is to know what YOU want for YOU and to understand WHY you want it.

Why Is WHY Important?

It is so easy to work towards something and keep working towards it then get there and still feel unsatisfied. This happened to me quite a bit in the past. I kept working towards things because I read this is what successful people do.

Well knowing WHY you are working towards it will help you understand whether it is even worth doing in the first place. If you are working towards something based on your ego; for example

• you want to prove people wrong
• you want to show someone you are better than they are
• you want people to keep telling you how great you are

Then you are doing it for the wrong reasons. Achieving your goal will bring no real happiness.

It is important you WHY focuses on what your goal will give to you, how you will develop as a result of achieving it, what difference it will make to those around you and to others you may not know. Achieving a goal from a place of wanting to do something you have a passion for AND impact others is what helps you work towards greatness – because when times get tough you will be able to dig into your resources and keep going. Remembering WHY you are doing what you are doing will keep you going.

Once You Have Your WHY Dreaming Becomes Possible

People lose their ability to dream when their dreams don’t work out. When they believe “it has always been this way and it will always be this way”

When we don’t know where to start, how to start, or what it takes to get started we are limited from starting and believe our dreams are impossible to achieve.

If you have lost your ability to dream it is possible to reconnect to it. The thing to remember is if one person can do it then so can you. Once you can tell yourself that the first step is to get help. Whether you get that from a book, by attending a seminar, through a life coach – it doesn’t matter what you use as long as you use something!

This is the true nature of self help! It is about helping yourself to grow and develop. No one can do it for you.

Make Sure You Take Time To Connect & Celebrate

Working towards a dream with share willpower makes the whole journey very difficult and by the time you get to the end you are too tired to enjoy your success or you are so results driven that you move on to the next dream without even reflecting on enjoying your accomplishments.

So take time to connect to your life force as you work towards achieving any goal. Listen to your hunches because they can support you in making achieving your dream so much easier.  When you consistently connect to your life force doors open, people appear when you need them, phones are answered and magic happens!

Also make sure that when you achieve even the smallest step you take time to congratulate yourself and enjoy the moment. Enjoy every step and the final accomplishment of your dream.

If you think you have lost the ability to dream I want to tell you that you really haven’t. All that has happened is you have lost the ability to see the possibility of your dream happening. You can begin to believe in the possibility when you seek out help and begin to take steps towards making it happen. No matter how small your dream if it is important to YOU then it is IMPORTANT so go for it.

What dream have you had that you have given up on lately?

“I know that no matter where you are in life, you want more! No matter how well you’re already doing or how challenged you now may be, deep inside you there lies a belief that your experience of life can and will be much greater than it already is. You are destined for your own unique form of greatness…” –Anthony Robbins

What is greatness? For me greatness is…..

A connection to God and the feeling of  joy, comfort and peace that comes from this connection to life the source of life

What If I Don’t Believe In God?

Then you need to define what the words “life force” mean to you. Here are a few I have heard used and used myself in the past

• Inner strength
• Inner power
• Divine
• Spirit
• Soul
• Angels
• Higher power
• Higher self
• Energy

Whatever word that takes you to a place where you connect with something higher than yourself.

Why Bother Connecting?

Because when you connect to life source your ability to remain in the moment becomes easier, your capacity for dealing with “problems” becomes stronger. Your whole life transforms, giving you an opportunity to remain open to any solution that presents itself. This is particularly helpful during turbulent times when you can not find a solution to your problem  – opening to God (your life force) provides you with the energy you need to overcome any obstacle.

When things are going great this connection allows you live a life of pure bliss and joy! The ultimate situation to transform your life is where whether things are “going great” or “going badly” your life becomes a constant connection to pure bliss and joy through your connection to you life force.

When you are connected to the Source of all life you can work towards freeing yourself of the illusions of limitation, fear and control.

Fear and guilt can not live when greatness is present.  Scarcity and doubt stand no chance when you are connected to how great you truly are.  You become vibrant and your natural energy attracts people and things into my life like bees to a flower in bloom. I know this from my own personal experience.

And the important thing to remember are the words ‘when you are connected‘ because when you turn away from Source life just isn’t as joy filled as it usually is when greatness is present.

Worry becomes the ruler of your life, and fear about how things will turn out takes over.  With worry and fear around situations in your life alter and all of a sudden life stops working out as well as it once was. Projects fall apart, money stops coming in and worry and fear begin to increase, which in turn brings more of the same.

The good news is that no matter where your life is right now, no matter how bad things have become, at any moment you can choose to turn it around with one simple thought “I can choose to be happy despite my current circumstances”

Are you aware of the living dead? Maybe you are one of them.

The people who walk about life in a trance. Unhappy but not unhappy enough to do anything about it – only moan and groan. They hate their life but they also hate the thought of doing anything about their life. Maybe it is easier to just stay put. They are the living dead and they waste their life because they live under the assumption that they “have time!”

• Are you waiting for things to get better before you start living?
• Are you waiting for the kids to grow up before you start living?
• Are you waiting to have more money before you start living?

Your greatness is already within you. Your ability to connect with a Source that can support you in enjoying life – not just going for more “stuff” but being happy with who you are and where you are in life right now.

This Source will open doors, connect you to people and generally make life more open and flowing. You get to spend less energy on making things happen yourself. On DOING and instead you allow this energy to work with you.

With your permission and through the medium of this blog (and my newsletter if you choose to sign up) I would like to plant a seed. The seed of greatness.

Are you ready to believe that perhaps there really is more to life than just living it unhappily?

There is an energy that surrounds us, not just us as humans but plant life, animals and now scientist have proven even objects (yes, your chair has an energy field!)

For us humans we have created many names to describe this energy but the one thing we all agree on is that a connection to it sustains us and without it we live a life full of pain, suffering and fear (all of which are actually optional!)

There are people who believe there is only ONE name for this energy and that name depends on their religious beliefs

There are those of us who are spiritual and open to universal source, divine energy and other names

Then there are those who have no connection to anything they would want to call spiritual but are open to the possibility that something bigger than themselves exists. They may refer to it as a higher self, super-ego etc

Then if you want to go a stage further than that there are those who make up a name for whatever this “thing” is because they are not ready to call it anything already mentioned.

What you decide to call this energy is up to you – the way to connect to it is to at least start by being open to it’s existence. You don’t need belief in it right now you just need to suspend disbelief. Once you have gone through this stage you move along until you are ready to call it something much higher.

Names For Our Life Force (if you know of any more feel free to leave a comment)

• Life Force
• God
• Angels
• Higher  Self
• Energy
• Ying & Yang
• Super ego
• Super Conscious
• Consciousness
• Divine energy
• Divinity
• Oneness
• Source
• Formless Substance
• Spirit
• Soul
• Chi
• Universal Source

“Let no one enter your inner kingdom unless they come with love” is a quote from Wayne Dyer’s book Your Sacred Self.  I love that book and am re-reading it right now.  It is real easy to allow someone to affect your mood, the teen who is constantly moody, the person at work who is always negative, your friend who is always complaining.  You allow their mood to control how you feel and may even begin to mirror their state and begin to feel exactly the same way – but it doesn’t have to be like that.

When you refuse to allow the negative emotions of others entry you will soon find yourself unaffected by anything a person says/does – you will let them continue with their current mood/attitude, you may even make an attempt to pick them up but when they walk away you will be left feeling as happy as you were before they arrived.

How do you make that happen for yourself? Well, as Dr Dyer said, you just don’t let them in!

It’s not me…. It’s Them!

It is easy to live in a world where you believe your feelings are controlled by some one else.

“Peter makes me so mad”

“Donna always embarrasses me”

“Mark annoys me because he won’t do as I say”

What you have to remember in every instance is that no one has the power to do anything TO you but YOU can allow them to affect your mood. When you really understand that you will have a major shift in the way that you think and behave because suddenly you will have complete awareness to the fact that you are in charge of you!

The way that you view how people affect you will change to….

“I allow what Peter does to make me so mad”

“I allow what Donna says to embarrass me”

“I let the fact that Mark won’t do as I say annoy me”

Taking Responsibility For Your Own Moods!

When you move responsibility onto yourself you will gain a sense of personal power because you now accept that if you allow it to happen then you can choose to not allow it to happen and with choice comes power!

Are you going to allow what Peter does to make you mad? The choice is yours, you can still get mad at whatever it is he is doing but you are now aware of the fact that you are choosing to get mad and stay mad. That anger is all your choice.

Now let’s tackle Donna. What has she said this time? Why are her words embarrassing you? You can look at what it is that Donna says and what it triggers inside you. When you find the trigger the words have less effect. Even if you never find the trigger all you really need to do is tell yourself that if you are embarrassed then it’s down to you – because you are choosing to be that way. What would happen if you choose to make what Donna says make you laugh instead?

Even the mild annoyance you feel when Mark won’t do as he is told is NOT down to Mark, he is just busy doing whatever it is he is doing (or not doing in this case) and that annoys you.

Everything that everyone does and your reaction to it is a choice made by you

You take back your power when you learn to rid yourself of the belief that other people have any control over your emotions. In fact if anyone ever asks you “what’s the matter, am I annoying you?” you can let them know that nothing they do can annoy you without your permission.

No one has power over your emotions unless you choose to let them in!

A strong position to be in is the ability to decide what you let in and what you keep out. When someone approaches you and they are happy, uplifted, expressing love, then of course you want to choose to let that in and allow their mood to affect you! There is nothing more wonderful than sharing energy with someone who is happy because when both of you are happy you are able to lift each other and anyone around you.

Your inner self can never be destroyed unless you let it. This is how people survived slavery and concentration camps, because they realised that they had complete control over the way they thought and reacted to their cirumstances, they understood that no one could take over their mind no matter how much control they had over their body.

What you need to make this work for you is awareness, acceptance and choice. All of these things are available to you right now in this moment, you do not need to go off and read a book, listen to an audio or attend a seminar, you just need to be aware how the actions of a certain person makes you feel, you accept that this negative feeling is something you are choosing to feel and you make a choice to not let it in. If you do let it in then you accept that this was your choice.

“Let no one enter your inner kingdom unless they come with love”

Make that your choice from today

If you haven’t signed up to receive our free newsletter “Discovering Greatness Experiencing Joy” I would like to encourage you to do so and enjoy the weekly lessons that are included. You get to work on discovering your greatness in the comfort and secrecy of your own room! No one needs to know

What do I cover every week?

• The benefits that come from connecting to Source – using case studies and examples
• How to overcome fear, doubt, worry and pain by reconnecting to a higher source
• What to do when life feels full of unwanted emotions and experiences

and much more….

There are also some great exercises you can do to support you on your journey.

The sign up box is on the right (if you are on the blog) and if you are reading this via email you can visit this page

http://www.inspirationalguidance.com/discoveringgreatness/

Sign up now and get ready to plant a seed that I intend to transform your life.

When you embark on the journey towards discovering your greatness it is important to give yourself permission to succeed not only through words but also subconsciously.

Your subconscious mind is a powerful tool for allowing or not allowing the very thing you desire and you know whether yours is working towards helping you experience what you want (or don’t want) based on your results.

If you do not have what you want in life I would avoid thinking your subconcious mind is “against” you because what bad experiences work towards doing is teaching you a lesson of some kind. Always remember that in order to know and experience what you do want you have to understand what you don’t want too. In order to know who you truly are it helps to have some experience of who you are not!

If life is less than happy right now acknowledge and thank it as a lesson of what you don’t want and start turning that around by looking at what you do want. It really is that simple!

Self-Sabotage

I thought I had cleared out everything I needed to in order to succeed and experience wealth yet my results were still very poor. I had put myself in debt and I was looking at having to sell everything I owned to clear it off.  Then I had a powerful realization that I had put myself in that position so I could get myself out of it and that is when things changed.  I also believe it is why I am so passionate about teaching it too because I can only teach what I have experienced (or I make a better teacher if I do that) and sharing what I know works towards helping others.

“Focus on what you want not on what you don’t want” became my mantra and I invite you to do the same no matter where you find yourself right now.

If you are saying affirmations (which do work by the way), meditating, praying and nothing is happening take a look at how you might be unconcisouly sabotaging your own success.

Find Your Team Supporters

Another thing that really helped was having “team supporters” a group of people who could all see how great I am. They all saw something in me that I was having trouble seeing in myself.  I am blessed to have family members and a number of friends who believe in my ability to succeed

We dont always see how great we are but other people do and it will help you to discover your greatness if you focus on how people see you, especially when the image of how you see yourself isn’t great.

Who are your team supporters? Who believes in your ability to succeed? Can you spend some time looking at you from their eyes so you can see what they see which is just how great you truly are?

Why we need team supporters

How long will a football team last without supporters? If the team is losing a game and the supporters are shouting encouraging words in unison willing them to win it makes a huge difference to their morale.  Similarly, if the supporters are frustrated by the fact that the team are losing and begin to shout negative comments and profanity the team find it difficult if not impossible to improve the way they are playing.

What we hear about ourselves is just as powerful as what we think about ourselves so while you are working on improving your thoughts add some extra “juice” to the whole thing by finding people who believe in you.  Spend time around people who can already see your greatness.

A word of caution

While team supporters are a great addition to your tool belt in the steps towards discovering your greatness I would caution you on only relying on other peoples opinion of you all the time!  Everything you do must work in balance.

It is good to experience and seek out people who believe you to be great but you cross the line when you become dependent on it, or it is the only way you can make yourself feel better about who you are!

What you are doing here is finding a team to support you when you don’t feel able to support yourself but ultimately the team of YOU is the best one you can have.

Activity

Spend some time thinking about and writing down who your team supporters are!

Who are the people that support you no matter what position you are in? Even if you only have one supporter that is a start.

If you don’t already spend more time with your team supporters so that you can experience the feeling of being with people who already believe you are great.

Take that feeling that being with them gives you and remember it. Use that feeling whenever you are not feeling great about yourself or you are feeling nervous about anything.

Also use it as you say affirmations about yourself. Affirmations work when you not only say the words but also use your emotions as you say the words. Take that feeling of being great and say your affirmations. You will find a huge difference to your results.
Three Instant Supporters For Your Team

If you are open to believing in something bigger than yourself then you have an instant supporter right there. Your biggest team supporter is God. No matter what you have done He will always be there with love and compassion and if you can turn to Him in times of trouble He will support you. Building my relationship with God (outside of religion – this is not about religion for me) has been one of the greatest gifts I have given myself. The sense of senerity and strength that comes from just connecting to Him is amazing.

Your second biggest team supporter really can be You and that is the journey you are on as you discover your own inner greatness. You can help by being open to supporting yourself.  Here’s an affirmation that might help

“I am willing to look towards becoming one of my biggest supports of all time”

Repeat that affirmation often because by acknowleding your willingness you are already on your way to succeeding.

Your third supporter is ME! I may not even know you but I already know you are great because I believe there is greatness within us all. The difference between you and someone who may never discover theirs is your willingness to do the work that is needed to succeed at this. In my book that already makes you great. You are not passively accepting life as it is now but you are actively looking to make it better. That too makes you great in my book and I acknowledge you for being willing to do that. So put me down as one of your greatest supporters!

Giving yourself permission to succeed is essential in the journey towards discovering your greatness. Having a loving team of supporters who already see how great you are will also help to lessen the effects of the negative things you say about yourself. Building a relationship with God will help to add to you experiencing your greatness at a level that no man can match but ultimately your own thoughts, words and actions will determine what you will experience in your life.

Life really is simple. Either we experience what we don’t want or we experience what we want. Our job is to discover how we move from one to the other.

I decided to re-read the book Life was never meant to be a struggle by Stuart Wilde (or booklet as he calls it) as a refresher to where I am right now, which I intellectually understand is as a result of my thoughts and emotions rather than on my actions.  Because I always highlight the books I read it means when I pick them up again I tend to only focus on the highlight bits which makes re-reading it faster and I take in the main points, although I sometimes wonder what I might miss out on too (that’s the control freak in me!)

Here are some great quotes:

“……… If you accept full responsibility for your life, you will accept that your destiny is created by you. And that your life is basically a symbol of your inner most thoughts and feelings – of what you believe about yourself.

He identifies a number of characters that “live” in the strugglers hall of fame:

The Hero – weakness – a lack of personal acceptance

The Terrorist – weakness – Bears a grudge on society

Professional Wimp – weakness – Does not command life

“Spiritual” Wimp – weakness – huge ego, feels like God dropped him off on earth to sit around being “special”

The Goddess – weakness – similar to spiritual wimp, may dress like a man, act tougher or with a anything you can do I can do better attitude

Wilting Wallflower – weakness – I am not capable please help me (this one was definitely be back in the day!!)

The conclusion of Life Was Never Meant to be a Struggle by Stuart Wilde:

Once you acknowledge and accept the struggles in your life (and it takes courage to identify them) then you have the power to transend.

“Once you accept you are the cause of struggle you can then affirm, with certainty, that all struggle in your life can be eliminated, given time”

Of course the important part of that whole sentence is the “given time” but because transcending what is right now into what you desire will not always happen within days or weeks, sometimes the journey is years long.

I have spent the last 18 years of my life constantly changing as I learn more about myself and sometimes I must admit to just getting plain ole tired of it all!!! Its time to stablize, normalize and just live life. If life was never meant to be a struggle then maybe I should stop attempting to end the struggle and just flow with what is.