Sunil Bali | Adventures in Awesome Living

Shall We Do Lunch

admin — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:05:28 +0000

Are you one of these people that says “We must do lunch”, but then never makes the call to arrange it. Or, when you bump into someone who you haven’t met for a while says “We must get together soon”, knowing full well that you won’t do anything about it? I was speaking at a Business Forum last week and realised that I’d left my business cards in the car. After I had spoken, several people gave me their business card and asked for mine in return. I told them that I would send them an e-mail, but was interested to note the doubting looks that I received. If you think that there is mutual benefit in meeting someone, be it for social and/or business reasons then why pay lip service? Part of your personal brand depends on whether you develop a reputation for saying what you mean and meaning what you say. It will also influence the quality of your relationships. As Philip McGraw said, “We teach people how to treat us”. Sunil Bali, Speaker, Author and Mind Coach

How Much More……..?

admin — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:07:43 +0000

As many of you know, my wife is a GP. Coping with death is part of her job description. She came home after work recently and completely out of the blue asked me, “How much more do you think we could do with our lives?” It transpired that one of her patients, who had just turned 50, had died after a long illness. My wife told me that this chap had packed an enormous amount into the last three years of his life, after he had been diagnosed. His only regret was that he hadn’t started living every day of his life sooner. The reason I’m sharing this is - how many times have you watched a television show, read an article or had a conversation with a friend and thought to yourself, “I would love to do that,” and put it off or never done anything about it? I don’t live my life thinking “What If?” And encourage my kids to do the same. Don't die with your music still inside of you. There are just over 100 days left this year, what success will you be celebrating this New Years Eve? Sunil Bali Author, Speaker and Peak Performance Coach

Welcome

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:05:11 +0000

Hello and a very warm welcome to my website.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with individuals from all over the world and from all walks of life, including children and the leaders of great organisations. My mission is to passionately inspire individuals to create their own future, by helping them to unleash their innate talents and aligning them with their purpose. Each of us possesses the resources needed to realise our desires, but sometimes we’re not in the optimum state of mind to access these resources. Through my inspirational speaking, writing, coaching and seminars, I help people to turn their desires into reality. Whilst at the top of the corporate ladder, as Director of Talent Management & Resourcing on behalf of Vodafone and then Santander, I was coaching and mentoring more and more business executives who were finding that they were not fulfilled in their work. This was manifesting itself in a number of ways from being simply unhappy and stressed, through to serious illness and disease. My wife is a GP and her surgery is frequented by a growing number of patients whose dis-ease is attributable to key areas of unhappiness and discontent rather than a medical illness. This is why I decided to dedicate myself to helping individuals seeking to make a change towards living very happy, fulfilled and meaningful lives. It’s my experience that people who lead wonderful lives have a hugely positive impact on those around them. They radiate energy and abundance and inspire others to do just the same. People choose to work with me because I consistently deliver outcomes which change people’s lives.

"Your thoughts are a preview of life’s coming attractions” Einstein

My first blog post

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:24:00 +0000

more info coming soon...

Get out of your own way...!

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:58:00 +0000

I remember the biology class at college when I studied one of the most basic living organisms on the planet – a single celled animal called an amoeba.

If you prod or poke an amoeba you’ll see it move in the opposite direction. If you shine a light on an amoeba, it will move away from the light source. So despite being such a primitive life form, without a brain or nerves, the amoeba will change its behaviour when it doesn’t get what it wants.

It’s remarkable then that as human beings, at the very top of the evolutionary tree, we keep doing the same thing when we don’t get the results that we want.

And if this keeps happening, many of us then go and find someone else to blame!

Why do you think that is?

What makes you change your response to the events that occur in your life? Do you have any inspirational stories to tell about how you’ve turned failure into success?

Reconnect to your passion

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Reconnect to your passion

“If you can’t do it with feeling, don’t.”

Patsy Cline

Success doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a process which starts by listening to your heart, then using your head. It doesn’t work the other way around, because the head is conditioned to “do the right thing” and conform to the conventions of society. This makes your ego feel good. The heart on the other hand, will always reconnect you to your passion.

It’s only by expressing your true nature, your authentic self, that you can be both happy and successful.

By successful, I mean being free to do what you want and leading a happy and fulfilled life. Notice that there is no mention of money in my definition of success. This is because happiness is the key to success. Success is not the key to happiness. When you’re happy and doing what you love, the money will flow to you.

In short, the more you do who you are, the better you’ll do.

When you’re passionate about what you do, your overwhelming energy will break through any barriers and obstacles that appear in your way, and you’ll attract everything you need to be successful.

When you’re happy and bursting with energy, you’ll leverage the world around you by resonating with everyone and everything in it. By spending time “in the zone”, as sportsmen call it, you’ll be in flow with everyone and everything around you and so deliver results in all areas of your life without struggle.

It’s when you’re able to control your energy that you can control where your life is heading.

How to love Mondays

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:51:00 +0000

How to love Mondays Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies. Albert Camus Do you enjoy your work, or is it a struggle? How do you feel when Monday morning comes around and it’s time to go back to work? The potential in people is enormous but usually remains dormant because their work doesn’t reconcile with who they are and their innate purpose. Everyone was put on this planet for a purpose. We all have a unique role to play. Each of us must find our own path and celebrate our unique gifts and abilities. Once we’ve found what we love to do and give ourselves to it wholeheartedly, happiness and abundance will inevitably follow. When you’re inspired and driven by purpose, your mind will break all boundaries and your consciousness will expand. Your creativity and talent will flow and you’ll discover that you’re a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be. You need to put to one side the ‘should’s and the ‘could’s and listen to your heart. Listen to your intuition and do what you were born to do. If you listen to and trust your heart you’ll not go far wrong in life. Imagine that you’ve been given £20m by your fairy godmother, but only on condition that you can’t give any away to family or friends. Before vanishing, your fairy godmother tells you that she has also granted you eternal life. What would you do with your life? The answer to this question may well be your legacy in real life. Ask yourself whether you are on the right path to achieve it. Whatever your life’s purpose, it will ultimately include being creative in some way, because to grow is to create. Our innermost desires are to learn, grow and be happy. For a moment cast aside the baggage of conditioning. Ask yourself, what would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail and would be paid what you wanted? You can do whatever you want. The choice is yours. It always has been. © Content drawn from 'Mind Set and Match' on sale now at www.sunilbali.com.

‘Questions are the Answer’

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:56:00 +0000

People are not lazy.
They simply have impotent goals.
Anthony Robbins

As a psychotherapist, perhaps the single most powerful technique that I have come across is reframing. Reframing helps you to see the positive in the negative, and the good motive in the bad behaviour. One of the most effective ways of reframing is to ask the right question.

During my clinical training I regularly encountered statements such as “I never feel happy” and “Bad things always happen to me.” My response is to reframe these statements by asking questions such as “Can you remember a time that you felt happy?” or “So you’ve never ever smiled?” or “Starting from the day you were born, give me one example of when you were happy and smiled.”

By asking empowering questions of ourselves and others we change the quality of our lives. Questions enable you to change or keep your focus where it is needed, to achieve the results that you want.

For example, if you see a wonderful property which looks like your dream house, rather than say to yourself, “I’ll never be able to afford that,” ask yourself: “What do I need to do to be able to afford a house like that?”

When I start coaching people, in the first session I ask them: “What action have you taken to get to where you are today?” Then I ask: “What do you think you need to do differently to achieve the success that you want?” I do this to check if they have asked themselves the right questions, because it’s not only the questions that you ask, but also the ones you don’t ask, which shape your destiny.

Successful people ask great questions of themselves and others. As a result they get great answers.

Even when faced with failure and rejection, winners ask themselves: “What can I learn from this situation so that I get it right next time?”

If you don’t know the answer to your question you can bet that someone else does.

'Blue Trees'

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:10:00 +0000

Trust yourself, you know far more than
you think you do.
Dr. Benjamin Spock

Frame your thinking about what your heart desires in positive, not negative, terms. For example, “I want to be healthy” rather than “I don’t want to be fat”, or “I want to be financially secure” rather than “I don’t want to be poor”.

If your thinking is “away from” as opposed to “towards”, you will be reactive as opposed to proactive. You will think about (not) being fat and (not) being poor, and inevitably images of fatness and poverty will shape your thoughts – the very images you need to avoid.

If I say to you, “Don’t think of a blue tree”, you will have to picture a blue tree in order to know what to avoid!

And given that you get what you think about, you really don’t want to be holding negative images of being poor or being fat. Moreover, these images don’t energise you, they won’t fill you with positive expectation, or nourish the belief that’s required for you to manifest your desires.

A Winning Hand

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:53:00 +0000

‘A Winning Hand’

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll
get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers

Both in my corporate career and also in my coaching practice, I often ask people if they think that life is fair. I rarely get a straight “yes” or “no” answer, but it quickly becomes clear that many of them feel that life has dealt them a losing hand, so life is unfair to them.

I then surprise them by agreeing that life isn’t fair, and demonstrating that the cards are stacked heavily in their favour. Life has dealt you a winning hand. The reason that most people are unsuccessful is that they simply don’t play their hand. They keep it to themselves and still expect to win.

If you express who you really are and do the work that you were born to do, there can only be one result: you will be successful and happy.

People Buy Passion

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:45:00 +0000

To build the life you want,
create the work you love.
Marsha Sinetar

There is one thing in the world that you’re definitely the best at. Not one person on the planet is better at this than you.

You’re the very best at being yourself.

In a society where most things are in over-supply, the one thing that’s extremely scarce is you.

In business, people are ultimately buying your passion for the product or service that you have to offer. That’s why it’s so much easier to sell something that you wholeheartedly believe in. Put yourself in everything that you do and in so doing you personalise your output – people will buy in to your uniqueness.

More than anything else, it’s your passions that empower you to create and live the life of your dreams. The fire of creative passion burns brightly in every child, but as we get older many people find that they have forgotten to feed the fire and the flame has dimmed. What you need to do is stoke up that flame again and get the passion burning brightly. You fuel your passion by paying attention to what makes you feel alive and energised, to what interests and excites you.

Passion is more important than knowledge and effort. Only those who keep the fire of passion burning brightly have a chance of knowing what a truly wonderful thing it is to be alive. If you’re going to live your passion, you must believe that something inside of you is stronger than any outside circumstance.

Authentic people are like magnets and attract the people that they need. We crave authenticity. It’s why so many people are hooked on reality TV. Whether they are house-mates or castaways, people being filmed 24 hours a day can’t pretend forever. Sooner or later they show their true colours. The more real and honest they are, the more we warm to them.

People will buy into you when you’re just being who you are. When you’re expressing your true self you’ll be speaking directly to people’s hearts and not just their heads.

This is when the real magic starts.

‘The World’s Biggest Club’

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:11:00 +0000

This time like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear is our greatest enemy. Nothing of any note can be achieved without confronting and mastering fear.

Negative emotions, including anger, sadness and guilt, are born of fear and/or attachment. By letting go of fear and becoming detached, we need suffer no longer. It’s when we’re not crippled by fear that we can play the game of life, rather than letting life play with us.

Any fear that we have has been learned from our environment. We weren’t born with fear. The good news is that we can unlearn this fear.

Dr Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, a leading expert in the field of positive psychology, has
concluded following extensive research that as much as 80% of the adult population has a feeling of learned helplessness. Once you realise that your mind is unlimited and that everything is possible, you lose the fear that cripples you.

I’ve coached many people who have been on the path to success and then suddenly self-sabotage. They do this because they are afraid of failure.

If your vision is precious to you, but ultimately you don’t try to manifest it, you can always seek comfort in the knowledge that you didn’t fail. A phrase that I nearly always hear these self-sabotagers say is “I would have – if only…”

There is absolutely no merit or reward in joining the world’s biggest club:

The “If Only” club.

Now and Zen DRAFT

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:27:00 +0000

He who knows others is wise, he who
knows himself is enlightened.
Lao-Tzu

There was once a seeker of enlightenment who was desperate to reach his goal. He travelled far to find a Zen master who had a reputation for guiding people quickly to their highest potential.

After a long journey the seeker arrived at the monastery. After three days of waiting, he was finally granted an audience with the master. He explained the intensity of his desire and asked how long it would take him to succeed. The master looked deeply into the seeker’s eyes and said, “Twenty years.” The seeker was horrified.

“What if I really apply myself? I will readily work twice as hard as any student in your monastery.” The Zen master looked amused. “Ah! Forgive me – I didn’t realise the ferocity of your commitment. It will take you at least thirty years to succeed.”

The seeker was confused. “You don’t understand, oh Great One,” he cried, “I am willing to push myself to the limits, to go the extra mile, to give one hundred and ten percent in order to achieve my goal: I crave enlightenment!”

“I see” replied the master, “In that case it will take no less than forty years to find what you are seeking.”

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admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:13:00 +0000

‘The Secret’

Normal is not something to aspire to,
it’s something to get away from.
Jodie Foster

The facts are that 96% of the money in the world is owned by 1% of the population, and one in four of us will suffer some form of mental illness at some point in our lives. Why does such a small proportion of the planet achieve success whilst the vast majority seem to wallow in mediocrity? What is the secret to success?

Well, the great secret is that there are no secrets to success.

Over 2,300 years ago, Aristotle concluded that more than anything, men and women seek happiness in all areas of their lives. The things that we value most like health, relationships and money are only valued because we think that they will make us happy. While the world has changed a lot since the time of Aristotle, our deep-rooted desire for success and happiness remains undiminished.

Research by an army of psychologists from all over the world clearly shows that life’s true achievers, from Buddha to Bill Gates and Lance Armstrong to Leonardo da Vinci, have all had one thing in common – the quality of their thinking. True achievers have beliefs which empower them. These beliefs lead them to think the right thoughts, which result in the right actions which, in turn, produce the right results.

If you want to achieve more, then you need to challenge your current beliefs and thinking. Unfortunately, millions of people don’t fulfill their desires because they believe that there’s nothing they can do to change their lot. This simply isn’t true. As Napoleon Hill said in his book Think and GrowRich, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

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Opportunityisnowhere

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:46:00 +0000

“Life expands or diminishes in
proportion to one’s courage.”
Anais Nin

Every year I speak in schools to groups of 10-year-olds who are about to go to secondary school, and to groups of 16-year olds who are about to choose subjects for their A-level exams.
I love doing this as it’s hugely rewarding to work with young people and to be able to inspire and motivate them. Before I explain why and how they can be, do or have anything they want, I like to gauge the mindset of my audience. One of the ways I do this is by putting up the following words:

opportunityisnowhere

It’s revealing that in the 10-year-old group, typically over 80% of the students say they see:

opportunity is now here

However, in what is a sad indictment of our society today, in the group of 16-year-old students, typically over 60% say that they see:

opportunity is nowhere

A 300% increase in negative mindsets in only six years!

I should also point out that there are always a few children in both groups who see:

opportunity i snow here !

Research tells us that children up to pre-school age laugh about 300 times a day. 300 times! It’s because to them life is one big happy event. They have what they need and aren’t concerned in the least about what they don’t have. Children are experts in the art of happiness. They’re happy to see mum and dad, so they smile and laugh. They’re happy to see their lunch, so they smile and laugh. They’re happy to play with a ball, so they smile and laugh. They’re happy!

As adults, we laugh about 15 times a day. So where does it go wrong?

To be continued…

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‘Opportunityisnowhere’ continued

admin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0000

“Life expands or diminishes in
proportion to one’s courage.”
Anais Nin

It has been estimated that by the time we are 18 years old we will have been praised, supported and encouraged about 2,500 times – and 50% of these occasions will have been before the age of three! By the time we reach 18 we will also have been criticised, scolded, belittled, or told we’re stupid around 22,500 times – a ratio of 9:1. No wonder we grow up with a negative mindset and low self-esteem that hampers us for the rest of our lives.

From the very earliest days of man, philosophers, mystics and prophets have unequivocally said that a blissful state of being is our natural birthright. We don’t actually need to do anything to rediscover our true joyous nature – except to become aware of how we’re blocking it.

When we were babies and very young children we knew what we wanted. We may have smiled, chuckled or waved our arms and legs to show this, or cried, bawled and stamped our feet. As we grow older we forget what we want and start to fulfil the expectations of others. It could be parents who want usto become a professional, maybe a doctor, accountant or lawyer as these tend to be secure, well paid and well regarded
individuals.

We respond to our conditioning and adopt a persona to please others. We try to win the approval of those above us. At work we try not to upset the boss and feel driven to conform to company ideals. We are, however, not our conditioning. If we are to be whole and happy we need to reconnect.

We waste so much time and energy trying to be someone else just to please others. These behaviours are at odds with our true self and how we really want to be. As a result we start to feel frustration, anger and resentment. The longer we repress our true nature, the more discontented we become and the more susceptible we are to ill health.

The ancient people of Hawaii had a philosophy of living called Huna. Within this system of teaching is the concept that we keep ‘black bags’ in our bodies. In the black bag are the unresolved emotions from previous unhappy experiences. Occasionally, our subconscious mind will bring the black bag to the surface and try and to open it, so that we can resolve this unhappiness at the conscious level.

If we don’t address the issues that cause our unhappiness, if we repress the innate urge to seek happiness, then Huna teaches that disease will manifest itself.

Research into the effects of stress shows that prolonged stress has a severely debilitating effect on the body and is the root cause of much of the prevailing illnesses in the 21st century.

Genuine success is the kind of success where you get what you want, without damage to your health or emotional wellbeing. When you get really clear and honest about what you want, it’s quite amazing how everything in the world conspires to help you get it.

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'86,400 Seconds'

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:37:00 +0000

It only takes one person to change your life – you.
Ruth Casey

Successful people live life to the maximum and maintain high levels of energy. They find time to work and play hard while achieving an excellent work life balance. They achieve this by not wasting their time.

Successful people maintain a keen level of awareness of what they’re doing at any given point, and how this is going to benefit them. Such a person may spend an hour or two watching a film or game of football, but realises that relaxation is necessary to recharge the batteries.

However, they will not spend a whole day in front of the television working their way through a mountain of fast food. This is not only a waste of time but it also drains you of energy. If they do get around to doing something constructive, they have insufficient energy to complete it.

Make the best use of your time. Spend as much time as possible on activities which will help you achieve the results you desire.

Are you spending time on what you really want to do? If you’re doing stuff that you don’t want to do, there must be a way round. Perhaps you can get someone else to help. It’s never too early to delegate.

You’re given 86,400 seconds a day, and once they’re gone you won’t get them back.

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The Roaring Lion

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:59:00 +0000

'The Roaring Lion'

"Genius is nothing more or less than childhood recovered at will - a childhood now equipped for self-expression with an adult's capacities."
Charles Baudelaire

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche described a three-stage process in the life of a human and the development of consciousness:

1 - Camel. In the first stage we are like a camel, where those around us force us to our knees so that they can pile upon us the burden of social conditioning, habit and convention.

2 - Lion. We reach a point in our lives where our innate desire to be free surfaces and we roar like a lion against the "shalls, musts, and shoulds" of society. Only after we have shown the courage to express our authentic selves and find our own path in life can we reach the third stage.

3 - Child. We are born free. As young children, we are carefree and unencumbered by social conditioning. We respond to the world spontaneously, intuitively and competently.

The critical stage in this process is that of the lion, where we challenge convention and break free from conditioning. Only then can we rediscover the child within. It's when we live with the heart of a child, but equipped with the capabilities of an adult, that we find true happiness and success.

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The Hidden Hand

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:37:00 +0000

'The Hidden Hand'

Your thoughts are a preview of life’s
coming attractions.
Albert Einstein

Let me ask you to consider the following question: Does grass try to grow?

I’m not trying to be deliberately obtuse, but merely want you to consider how, without the intervention of man, this happens.

I was doing some training at a seminar once, but kept getting interrupted by a chap in the audience when I talked about the need to have faith or trust. “Look,” he said, “I’m really inspired by what you’ve said but I have a real problem with all this talk about faith and trust in something greater than ourselves.”

Now I wasn’t specifically talking about God, but rather the fact that there seems to be a hidden hand behind some of the magic that occurs in the universe. And if you do take the right action and allow this benevolent universe or God or whatever you want to call it to help you, then it finds ways to do exactly that. The number of positive synchronistic events seems to increase markedly and you attract the people, resources and answers to help you to achieve your aims.

It was nearly the coffee break but I could hear this chap muttering under his breath. Clearly he was not happy.

There was a bunch of flowers on the table which included a beautiful red rose. I went over to the vase, picked out the rose and presented it to my critic. As I gave it to him I said, “Could you please make me one of those?”

He looked at me a little puzzled for a few seconds. Then a smile slowly appeared on his face and he said: “I know what you mean now.”

So as well as having faith in yourself, try to have faith and trust in the universe and see what happens.

A very pleasant surprise awaits you.

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The Top 5%

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:11:00 +0000

'The Top 5%'

There is no security in life,
only opportunity.
Mark Twain

At Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, the toilets are kept scrupulously clean. So it is surprising to find an insect in the bowl of the men’s urinal. Even more surprising is the fact that every bowl has a fly in it. Closer inspection reveals that the ‘fly’ is a picture that has been etched into the porcelain. Why? It improves the aim. If a man sees a fly he aims at it. Insect-in-urinal research has found that fly etchings reduce spillage by over 80%. It gives a guy something to think about. The same is true of goals. If you set yourself goals you dissipate far less energy, since you’ve got something to aim for.

Most people don’t have any clear goals or vision and are then surprised that they don’t get what they want. But how can you hit a target that you can’t see? More than 95% of adults don’t have any written goals. The simple act of writing out your goals will put you in the top 5% of the population. The number one fear for most people is the fear of rejection. Why is this? It’s because we measure of our efforts in terms of whether the world accepts us or rejects us. This is the reason why many people don’t set goals. If you don’t have a goal, you can’t fail.

Success is not an accident. Research clearly shows that successful people plan for and expect success. They have clear goals and are totally focussed and committed. Non-achievers either have no goals, or have goals which aren’t congruent. Typically, they are trying to achieve something that someone else wants, or seeking another’s approval. If you don’t create a plan for your own life, the chances are that you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not as much as you want. Other people may be happy to place their future in someone else’s hands. Don’t let it be you.

The most difficult problem can be solved if it is broken down into smaller chunks – after all, you can only take one step at a time. Break down your big life goals into bite-size tasks. Big problems don’t seem so daunting once they’re broken down,and as you deal with each chunk your confidence will grow. As your confidence grows, the bigger the chunks you can tackle. Write down what you want in detail so that it becomes clear in your mind. For anything to happen in the real world, it must first be created in the imagination.

Prioritise your goals and decide which one will have the most positive effect on your life. This primary goal will be congruent with your purpose in life. Focusing on your primary goal will make for better decisions and choices. To do this, write out your goals as a personal statement. Write it in the present tense. For example, if you wish to earn £100k a year write: “I earn £100k per year.” If your goal is to write a best-selling book, write: “My book is a bestseller.”

Carry these cards with you and read them every morning and every night before you go to bed, or before you meditate, so that they are firmly installed in your subconscious. When you read your affirmations do so with intense emotion - the emotion that you’ll have when you do earn £100k per year or when you see your book on the bestsellers shelf. Visualise these events as if they’re happening now. Experience the emotion: it could be joy, freedom, a sense of achievement. Go one step further: visualise what you’re doing with your new-found wealth. The greater your emotion, the quicker the subconscious mind will influence the universe to make your thoughts a reality. Repeat this visualisation process every day, in the same way that an athlete visualises winning a race. You can use this process to achieve whatever you want in your life whether it’s a new career, a new relationship, more wealth – anything.

Now consider what actions you can take quickly to meet your goals, particularly your primary goal. Again, write down your action plan. Developing an action plan will give you greater clarity and confidence. It will also make you more aware of the opportunities, people and resources that can help you. Assign timescales and deadlines. Write down how you’ll measure your progress, and how you’ll know that you have achieved your goals. This is very important. When you can show yourself that you’re making progress towards your goals, you stay motivated.

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Keep it Real

admin — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:57:38 +0000

This week marks the beginning of the conference season for each of the three main political parties in the UK. The pre Conference polemic has kicked off in earnest and politicians are all over our television screens. Why is it that members of parliament feel that they need to talk like overly zealous robots once they are put before a camera? When not in front of the camera, I’m sure most of these MP’s speak like the rest of us. We all crave authenticity, whether this is from our politicians, celebrities or colleagues. The clues are there: we’re born unique, with a unique personality, unique fingerprints, unique eye patterns and unique DNA, yet so many of us seem determined to conceal our true talents and calling in order to conform to the conventions of society. The most successful people are those who express their true personality and don’t hide behind a persona. Authentic people are like magnets that attract all the people and resources they need to be successful. Always choose authenticity over the approval of others because people are far more likely to connect with the real you, enabling you to establish the relationships which you need to be successful. In the words of that famous philosopher from Staines, Mr. Ali G. "Keep it real".

The fashion designer, Sir Paul Smith said....

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:00:42 +0000

I'm back in the gym after having finally recovered from a shoulder operation (I had a fight with a very heavy dumbbell - my shoulder lost). 30 minutes into a spinning (exercise bike, for the uninitiated) class, after a very hard sprint, with a puddle of sweat surrounding my bike, I heard my trainer shout “I’m here, where are you?” My mind was not on the job in hand and a strong performance for the last 10 minutes. I was daydreaming, as I tried to suck in as much air as quickly as possible. Extensive research has shown that successful people, whether they are in business, sport, the arts or any other walk of life, share one common trait: they don’t worry about what they haven’t got, or what they can't to do, they focus on what they can do with what they've got. Successful entrepreneurs don’t spend lots of time deciding on how they are going to be successful. They’re very good at living in the present moment and taking action. One of my favourite fashion designers is Sir Paul Smith, the owner of a retail business worth nearly half a billion dollars. He was asked by a journalist what advice he would give individuals seeking to follow in his footsteps and replicate his success. He replied, “Life isn’t about working shorter or longer hours. It’s about every hour. It’s about every minute and every second. Learn to live in the moment.” The best way to predict the future is to create it and you create your future by what you do in each moment. Sunil Bali Author, Speaker and Peak Performance Coach www.sunilbali.com Skype: sbali01

A Two Minute Management Course

admin — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 07:15:55 +0000

Lesson 1: A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you £800 to drop that towel.' After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her £800 and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?' 'It was Bob the next door neighbour she replies. 'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the £800 he owes me?' Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure. Lesson 2: A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?' The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?' The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.' Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.' Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity. Lesson 3: A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.' 'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.' Puff! She's gone. 'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.' Puff! He's gone. 'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.' Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say. Lesson 4 A turkey was chatting with a bull. 'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.' 'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients.' The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree. Moral of the story: Bull shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there. Lesson 5 A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him. Moral of the story: When you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut! Have a great week Love Sunil Sunil Bali Peak Performance Coach www.sunilbali.com – sign up to my FREE weekly newsletter "Food for Thinkers" Liberating Talent +44 (0) 7917 007571 Sunil Bali

Built for Greatness

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:12:51 +0000

My kids Yasmin (9) and Aran (7) were both awarded prizes for academic achievement. My wife and I made a big fuss and took them out for dinner to celebrate. During the dinner, Yasmin said “I don’t why you’re making such a big deal about it. You know I’m clever because you’re always telling me that I’m clever.” Aran then chimed in with, “Yes dad, you’ve always said that I’m great at reading, so that means that I am.” In one of my speeches I show the following words: opportunityisnowhere When I show this to 11 year old kids over 80% will say that they see opportunity is now here When I show this to a group of 30 year olds, typically 60% will say they see opportunity is nowhere Research has shown that as much as 95% of the fear and negativity that we have as adults is not something that we’ve been born with, it’s what we’ve learned from other people as we’re growing up. We’re only actually born with two fears: 1) The fear of loud noises and 2) The fear of falling. You have to remember that you’re not your conditioning. You’re much greater than that. You were born free and born for greatness. Sunil Bali Your Mentor, Author and Speaker Sign up for my FREE weekly column: "Food for Thinkers" at www.sunilbali.com Liberating Talent Mobile: +44 7917 007571 Skype: sbali01

What’s your Fingerprint?

admin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:25:10 +0000

After what seems like an eternity, the road and building works near the motorway where I live have finally disappeared, to reveal a gleaming new bus station fit for the 21st Century……or so they say. As I was driving past the minimalist structure, without the usual traffic and delay, I noticed two vans parked outside the entrance. One had “Bus Shelter Cleaning” written on it and the other had “Street Furniture Maintenance” written on it. I wondered whether the people who did the cleaning and maintenance had a preference for driving the more contemporarily named van. Whilst an enhanced job title might inflate the ego, what matters is the difference we make to the world around us. We all leave a mark wherever we go. It’s unique to us, just like our fingerprints. What mark are you leaving on the lives of your friends, family and colleagues? Thanks very much Sunil Bali Speaker, Coach and Author of 'Mind, Set & Match' (Download the first chapter FREE) Sign up for my FREE weekly column: "Food for Thinkers" at www.sunilbali.com Liberating Talent Mobile: +44 7917 007571 Skype: sbali01

We teach people how to treat us...

admin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 07:23:20 +0000

Are you one of these people that says “We must do lunch”, but then never makes the call to arrange it. Or, when you bump into someone who you haven’t met for a while says “We must get together soon”, knowing full well that you won’t do anything about it? I was speaking at a Business Forum this week and realised that I’d left my business cards in the car. After I had spoken, several people gave me their business card and asked for mine in return. I told them that I would send them an e-mail, but was interested to note the doubting looks that I received. If you think that there is mutual benefit in meeting someone, be it for social and/or business reasons then why pay lip service? Part of your personal brand depends on whether you develop a reputation for saying what you mean and meaning what you say. It will also influence the quality of your relationships. As Dr. Philip McGraw said, “We teach people how to treat us”

Have a Sense-ational Strategy because …..

admin — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:47:50 +0000

Having been Head of Talent on behalf of Vodafone Group and Cable & Wireless Europe, I’ve clocked my fair share of air miles. Whilst I still enjoy travelling, these days I do it at my own pace and try and intersperse the travel with some local gigs. This week, I spoke to a group of local business people who run their own small to medium size businesses. I spoke of the need to create sense–ational strategies for their business. We live in an age of excess supply where we’re all competing for a slice of attention. Whatever you want to buy, the chances are that there are a large number of organisations that will provide you with what you want. In such an economy, we need to lower our aim from the head to the heart and attract the emotional consumer and not just the rational one. The best advertising appeals to peoples senses, as it creates a more personal and ‘sticky’ relationship with the customer with high emotional switching costs. The more emotional we become, the more the limbic system in our brain takes over and the more our rational brain shuts down. This is hard wired into us and is commonly known as the “fight or flight” response. BMW’s latest advert has the strap line “We bring you joy”. The fact that their cars are superbly built is taken as a given. It appeals to people’s senses. I recently received a bar of quality chocolate from my mobile provider. The message was only one word and read “because……” In the words of Prof. Kets De Vries of INSEAD, “you need to know what makes your customers mad, sad and glad”. Sunil Bali Speaker, Author and Peak Performance Coach

Are you Doing the Work that you were Born to Do?

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:48:19 +0000

If you won several million pounds on the lottery tomorrow what would you do? I would carry on doing the work that I’m doing right now. Sure I’d have a bigger team supporting me, a swankier office, a much larger marketing budget but in essence I would carry on doing exactly what I’m doing now. I love speaking, writing and training. It’s what I was born to do. When I’m in alignment with my purpose, which is to inspire and empower people to live their best lives, my life works and the universe seems to conspire to help me. I’d like you think about what brings you joy, and then ask yourself how much time you spend doing it. As Marsha Sinetar says "To build the life you want, create the work you love." Are you creating your best work? If not, find another canvas. Sunil Bali Speaker, Writer and Peak Performance Coach

Bring Who you are to What you Do

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:49:31 +0000

This week I stumbled across a very old recording of one of my first ever speeches. I cringed when I watched it. Why? In terms of content and delivery it wasn’t actually too bad. The problem was that I was trying to be someone who I thought the audience wanted me to be and wasn’t being authentic. My coach reminded me that who I am is good enough and who I am is what makes me special. I took on board this advice and have subsequently gone on to win numerous accolades and plaudits by simply being authentic. Successful people are what they do and do what they are. The more you do who you are, the more successful you’ll be. Sunil Bali

When you get your team together, you get your dream together

admin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:38:21 +0000

This week the British golfer Lee Westwood became the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world. On the surface, golf is a solitary sport, but Westwood was effusive in his praise of his support team, saying that without them he would never have fulfilled his childhood dream and been crowned World No. 1. He thanked his family, manager, sports psychologist, conditioning coach, swing coach, putting coach, and PA to name but a few. Andre Agassi, one of very few tennis players to ever have won all four Grand Slam Events, said that it was only "by standing on the shoulders of giants" that he managed to fulfil his dreams. Who is helping you to be all that you can be? You have to do it on your own, but you can't do it alone. Sunil Bali Speaker, Author and Peak Performance Coach

Fifteen Things Your Maker Won’t Ask

admin — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:51:14 +0000

When you’re time comes to meet you’re maker……

He won’t ask what kind of car you drove, but will ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.

He won’t ask the square footage of your house, but will ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

He won’t ask about the fancy clothes you had in your closet, but will ask how many of those clothes helped the needy.

He won’t ask about your social status, but will ask what kind of class you displayed.

He won’t ask how many material possessions you had, but will ask if they dictated your life.

He won’t ask what your highest salary was, but will ask if you compromised your character to obtain that salary.

He won’t ask how much overtime you worked, but will ask if you worked overtime for your family and loved ones.

He won’t ask how many promotions you received, but will ask how you promoted others.

He won’t ask what your job title was, but will ask if you reformed your job to the best of your ability.

He won’t ask what you did to help yourself, but will ask what you did to help others.

He won’t ask how many friends you had, but will ask how many people to whom you were a true friend.

He won’t ask what you did to protect your rights, but will ask what you did to protect the rights of others.

He won’t ask in what neighbourhood you lived, but will ask how you treated your neighbours.

He won’t ask about the colour of your skin, but will ask about the content of your character.

He won’t ask how many times your deeds matched your words, but will ask how many times they didn’t.

Try wearing your watch on the other wrist

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:19:26 +0000

Do you wear your watch on your left or right wrist? Whichever wrist it is, take your watch off and try wearing it on the other hand. How does it feel? It feels a little uncomfortable doesn’t it? Not the end of the world, but a tad uncomfortable. Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people find uncomfortable and don’t do. We need to get comfortable at being a little uncomfortable, if we’re to grow and show the world our excellence. I did this exercise with a senior management team a few weeks ago and asked them to wear their watches on the ‘wrong’ wrist for a period of 21 days. Each time they felt that their watch was on the wrong hand – and it will happen several times each day – I asked them to think about what they could do differently to achieve the results that they want in their life and then take that action; and also to serve as a reminder to keep taking the right action. This week I received feedback from the M.D. of the organisation. The results were quite dramatic ranging from a 6kg weight loss to a business unit smashing their profit target……….and all by making a few small changes in thinking and therefore behaviour. This is an inspiring video. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOlTdkYXuzE

When Inspiration Strikes

admin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:29:00 +0000

I received a glowing testimonial for my book this week via e-mail. Normally I would simply send back a thank you e-mail, but at the end of her e-mail the lady in question made it clear that she had a great book inside of her and hoped the day would arrive when she could write it. So I decided to give this lady a call, to thank her in person and also find out what was stopping her from writing the book. It transpired that although she had the time, she didn’t know where to start and didn’t have enough inspiration to write it. Somerset Maugham once said, “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes promptly at 9 o’ clock every morning” Whatever you want to achieve, don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Take action and inspiration will come and find you.

Money is the Silent Applause

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:02:52 +0000

Good Morning This week I was asked by a company to present at their mid year conference, as one of their senior managers had seen me present at a leadership conference earlier in the year. Once we agreed the content of my talk, the subject of fees came up. The HR Directors response upon being told what my fee rate was: "I understand that you're an excellent speaker, but you'll only be speaking for 45 minutes." My response was to tell the HR Director the following story, One day a woman spotted Pablo Picasso in the market and pulled out a piece of paper. "Mr. Picasso," she said excitedly, "I'm a big fan. Please, could you do a little drawing for me?" Picasso happily complied and quickly drew a sketch for her on the paper. As he handed it back, he smiled and told her to "take care of it. That will be worth millions one day." The woman looked flustered and said, "But it only took you thirty seconds to do it." Picasso laughed, "But it has taken me thirty years to be able to do it in thirty seconds." ...and the deal was done.

The number of moments that take our breath away

admin — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 07:41:59 +0000

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Bollywood Charity Night"][/caption] As many of you know, my wife is a GP. Coping with death is part of her job description. Last weekend we attended a dinner & dance fundraiser for our local hospice, which she had organised. The evening was a great success (picture to prove!), with all the tickets sold and thousands of pounds being raised. I asked her why she had organised the event. It transpired that one of her patients, who was less than 40 years old, had recently died of cancer. My wife told me that this lady had packed an enormous amount into the last year of his life, after she had been diagnosed. Her only regret was that she hadn’t started living every day of her life sooner. The reason I’m sharing this is - how many times have you watched a t.v. show, read an article or had a conversation with a friend and thought to yourself, “I would love to do that,” and put it off or never done anything about it? I don’t live my life thinking “What If?” and encourage my kids to do the same. Don't die with your music still inside of you. What do you want to do before it’s too late? 80% of the year has gone. What can you do in the last 20% that is left to ensure you’ll be celebrating a successful 2010 this New Years Eve? As George Carlin famously said, “Life should not be measured by the number of breaths we take, but the number of moments that take our breath away”.

Your Economy vs. The Economy

admin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:40:17 +0000

Following the announcement of very large cuts in public spending in the UK, the debate rages on about how the economy will be affected. Political leaders and a large variety of interest groups have been airing their views, which have been laden with messages of impending doom. But the primary impact on you is likely to be not what happens to the economy but what happens to your economy. If you’re adding real value to your customers, meeting their changing needs and leaving them smiling, then the chances are that your economy will be just fine.

Resources vs Resourcefulness

Sunil Bali — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 04:41:54 +0000

After I spoke at a business show this week, one of the attendees came up to me after my talk and was particularly effusive in his praise. When I asked him what he did, he proceeded to give a lengthy monologue as to what he wanted to achieve in life and why he hadn't achieved it.

This included "I don't have enough time, money, support"...the list went on.

There may well be some truth in what this chap said, but if you examine the traits of successful people there is one thing that they have in common.

They don't worry about what they haven' got, or what they can't do, they focus on what they can do with what they've got.

When it comes to achieving success, being resourceful is more important than having all the right resources.

If you would like to take your performance and results to a new level, by having a coach/mentor by your side, let me know as I have three places available for 2011. This will be challenging for some, but rest assured amazing results will follow.

Quotes An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered - Gilbert K. Chesterton

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal - Henry Ford

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds - Albert Einstein

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers - Woodrow Wilson

Humour

Tech Support

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as:

* Romance 9.5 and * Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as * Soccer 5.1 *Curry 5.0, * Rugby 3.2 and * Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Anti-Virus Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate

Response from Tech Support

Dear Desperate,

First, keep in mind,

* Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while

* Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

* If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

* Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend

* Cooking 3.0 and * Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck!

Tech Support

Have a great week.

Love

Sunil

What’s your ESP?

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 10:38:39 +0000

Andrex has been the Number One best selling toilet tissue all over the world for 37 years, often selling for four times the average price of other brands – all because of a puppy!

What emotions do you and your business trigger?

Instead of a USP define your ESP (Emotional Selling Point).

Caterpallor: the colour you turn after...

admin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:00:55 +0000

This week the comedian Billy Connolly celebrated his 68th birthday.

When Connolly was asked what his wish was for the coming years, he replied, "I just want to be the best that I can be at doing the things I love to do."

Now one might think that this is a tad selfish, as there is no mention of his family, or world peace or an end to poverty.

However, it's by being selfish that we get to give away so much more.

When you get better at what you do, you'll smile more, have more energy, become inspirational company and help to liberate others from their fears.

Quotes

People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care - John Maxwell

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from - Jodie Foster

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth - John F. Kennedy

Caring is the ultimate competitive advantage - Ron Kendrick

Humour

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are some of the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus (n.): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer,right?

12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

Have a great week.

Love

Sunil

Childish vs. Childlike

admin — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:00:41 +0000

Childlike follows the heart first then the head. Childish is annoying. Childlike makes a great inventor. Childish produces tantrums. Childlike brings fresh eyes to new opportunities. Childish rarely delivers. Childlike is fearless and willing to fail.

Only dead fish swim with...

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:11:08 +0000

I spoke at an end of year awards ceremony this week for one of my clients, a large multinational.

It was interesting to see the people in the audience who forced a false smile and clapped limply when they realised that they hadn't won.

Life isn't, of course, about the amount of awards that you've won, but those who win at the game of life are those who are completely focussed on what they want to achieve and take enough of the right action.

The Latin word satis means enough. When you take enough of the right action you get satisfaction.

Something that this gazelle didn't do! (click here to watch the 22 second video).

Quotes

I always wanted to be someone, but I should have been more specific - Jane Wagner

Only dead fish swim with the stream all the time - Linda Ellerbee

The object of education isn't knowledge; it's action - Thomas Kempis

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action - James Lowell

Humour

Thanks to my father-in-law for sending me this!

It all began with an iPhone...

March was when my son celebrated his 15th birthday, and I got him an iPhone.

He just loved it.

Who would't?

I celebrated my birthday in July, and my wife made me very happy when she bought me an iPad.

My daughter's birthday was in August so I got her an iPod Touch.

September came by so for her birthday I got my wife an iRon.

It was around then that the fight started...

What the wife failed to recognize is that the iRon can be integrated into the home network with the iWash, iCook and iClean.

This inevitably activates the iNag reminder service

Don’t join the BMW Club

admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:00:45 +0000

Whatever your circumstances, Bitching, Moaning and Whining don’t achieve anything, are a waste of time and alienate you from others. The more you moan, the harder you’ll try to find evidence to support your moaning. The more optimistic you are, the more you’ll try and find evidence to support your optimism.

Develop a fetish for PVC

admin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:21:39 +0000

I’m often asked to summarise what I think are the secrets of success. Firstly, there are no secrets to success. If you’re completely Passionate about what you do and add value to the lives of others, have a clear Vision with clearly defined goals, and are totally Committed to consistently taking the right action, then success has no choice but to beat a path to your door.

Voodoo? We do. You do?...

admin — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 07:20:55 +0000

This is my last column for this year.

Thank you so much for letting me share my musings with you this year and for your feedback and contributions. I really am very grateful.

In 2011, may I suggest that you develop a fetish for PVC, as it will serve you well.

If you're completely Passionate about what you do and add value to the lives of others, have a clear Vision and set clearly defined goals, are totally Committed to consistently taking the right action, then success has no choice but to beat a path to your door.

Festive Food

1. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

2. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

3. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

4. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

5. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

6. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

7. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

8. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

9. Take a deep breath and be still. It calms the mind.

10. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

11. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

12. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

13. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

14. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

15. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

16. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear the colours of the rainbow.

17. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

18. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

19. What other people think of you is none of your business.

20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. Give it time.

21. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

22. Believe in miracles.

23. Do what you love and play with whoever turns up.

24. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

25. Your children get only one childhood.

26. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

27. Get outside and keep showing up every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

28. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

29. The best is yet to come.

30. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Quotes

Individuality is the beginning and the end of all art ~ Goethe

Eighty per cent of life is showing up ~ Woody Allen

Instead of seeking new landscapes, develop new eyes ~ Thomas Kempis

We should learn from the mistakes of others. We don't have time to make them all ourselves ~ Groucho Marx

Humour

Feedback clearly indicates that a large number of you have found the following exchanges to be the funniest items that I've included in the Humour section this year. So here they are one more time. If you don't at least smile by the time you've got to the bottom, I suspect you don't have a pulse.These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

WITNESS: No .

ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?

WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?

WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law

____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?

WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"

ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?

WITNESS: My name is Susan!

____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?

WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?

WITNESS: Yes.

ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?

WITNESS: I forget.

ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?

___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?

WITNESS: We both do.

ATTORNEY: Voodoo?

WITNESS: We do.

ATTORNEY: You do?

WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.

____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?

WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?

WITNESS: He's twenty, much like your IQ.

___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?

WITNESS: Are you kidding me?

_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?

WITNESS: Yes.

ATTORNEY: How many were boys?

WITNESS: None.

ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?

WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney.

Can I get a new attorney?

____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?

WITNESS: By death.

ATTORNey: And by whose death was it terminated?

WITNESS: Take a guess.

____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?

WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.

ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?

WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.

_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?

WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.

______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?

WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.

_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?

WITNESS: Oral.

_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?

WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.

ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?

WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.

____________________________________________

Have a wonderful Xmas and New Year.

Love Sunil

Show up vulnerable

admin — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:34:37 +0000

Over the years I’ve coached many executives of leading multinational companies.

It can be lonely at the top.

But we all want the same thing. We want to connect with people and feel that they get who we really are. It’s OK to show up and be vulnerable. None of us has all the answers and is always learning.

Who you are is good enough.

It’s amazing how receptive people can become when they feel it’s safe to let their guard down.

Starve the monkey

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:30:47 +0000

Despite being the greatest piece of software ever invented, the human brain can’t think two thoughts at the same time.

Negative thoughts and limiting beliefs wither away when they receive no attention as a result of you focusing on realizing your desires. So starve the monkey on your back of attention and it will wither away and die.

….its like taking poison and hoping that the other person dies

admin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:47:32 +0000

Holding on to anger and resentment serves no purpose. It’s like taking poison and hoping that the other person dies. As Lewis Smedes said, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and realize that prisoner was you.”

Shelf development vs. Self development

admin — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 09:00:52 +0000

Research shows that the sales of self help and personal development books, reaches a peak at Xmas time.

So one would expect to see a lot more successful people in the New Year, but this isn’t the case.

The problem is that most people are practising shelf development rather self development. Typically, they’ll pick up a book. Read it. They might actually be inspired by it, but crucially, they’ll put it back on the shelf to gather dust and do nothing different.

Food for Thinkers – Can you give me the number for Jack?

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:01:25 +0000

At the end of 2011: - some people will have made things happen and got the results they wanted - some people will have watched things happen and - some people will ask, "What the hell happened?" Which camp will you be in? The choice is yours. It always has been. Do enjoy this short video: Just half a percent more, one extra degree If you want someone to help you and to hold you accountable for achieving more success, more easily, with less stress then contact me. Quotes

To be beautiful means to be your self. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself - Thich Nhat Hanh

It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult - Seneca

The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them - Anon

Some pursue happiness, others create it - Anon

Humour The following are actual call centre conversations: Travel Agent Customer: 'I've been ringing 0800 2100 for two days and can't get through to enquiries, can you help?' Operator: 'Where did you get that number from, sir?'. Customer: 'It was on the door to the Travel Centre'. Operator: 'Sir, they are our opening hours'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Samsung Electronics Caller: 'Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?' Operator: 'I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand who you are talking about'. Caller: 'On page 1, section 5, of the user guide it clearly states that I need to unplug the fax machine from the AC wall socket and telephone Jack before cleaning. Now, can you give me the number for Jack?' Operator: 'I think you mean the telephone point on the wall'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Directory Enquiries Caller: 'I'd like the number of the argoed Fish Bar in Cardiff please'. Operator: 'I'm sorry, there's no listing. Is the spelling correct?' Caller: 'Well, it used to be called the Bargoed Fish Bar but the 'B' fell off'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Then there was the caller who asked for a knitwear company in Woven. Operator: 'Woven? Are you sure?' Caller: 'Yes. That's what it says on the label; Woven in Scotland'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On another occasion, a man making heavy breathing sounds from a phone box told a worried operator: 'I haven't got a pen, so I'm steaming up the window to write the number on'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Support Tech Support: 'I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop'. Customer: 'OK'. Tech Support: 'Did you get a pop-up menu?'. Customer: 'No'. Tech Support: 'OK. Right-Click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?' Customer: 'No'. Tech Support: 'OK, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?'. Customer: 'Sure. You told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click''. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a true story from the Word Perfect Helpline, which was transcribed from a recording monitoring the customer care department. Needless to say the Help Desk employee was fired; however, he/she is currently suing the Word Perfect organization for 'Termination without Cause'. Operator: 'Ridge Hall, computer assistance; may I help you?' Caller: 'Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect.' Operator: 'What sort of trouble??' Caller: 'Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away.' Operator: 'Went away?' Caller: 'They disappeared.' Operator: 'Hmmm. So what does your screen look like now?' Caller: 'Nothing.' Operator: 'Nothing??' Caller: 'It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type.' Operator: 'Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out??' Caller: 'How do I tell?' Operator: 'Can you see the C: prompt on the screen??' Caller: 'What's a sea-prompt?' Operator: 'Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?' Caller: 'There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type.' Operator: 'Does your monitor have a power indicator??' Caller: 'What's a monitor?' Operator: 'It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on??' Caller: 'I don't know.' Operator: 'Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that??' Caller: 'Yes, I think so.' Operator: 'Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall. Caller: 'Yes, it is.' Operator: 'When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one??' Caller: 'No.' Operator: 'Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable.' Caller: 'Okay, here it is.' Operator: 'Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer.' Caller: 'I can't reach.' Operator: 'Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is??' Caller: 'No.' Operator: 'Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over??' Caller: 'Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle - it's because it's dark.' Operator: 'Dark??' Caller: 'Yes - the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window. Operator: 'Well, turn on the office light then.' Caller: 'I can't.' Operator: Why not?' Caller: 'Because there's a power failure.' Operator: 'A power......... A power failure? Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in??' Caller: 'Well, yes, I keep them in the closet.' Operator: 'Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from.' Caller: 'Really? Is it that bad?' Operator: 'Yes, I'm afraid it is.' Caller: 'Well all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them??' Operator: 'Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer!!! To your success Sunil

Instant Zen

admin — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:56:52 +0000

Take any item that you can catch, be it a bunch of keys, piece of fruit, whatever and go outside.

Now relax, throw the item in the air to at least your eye line or higher and catch it. Once you’ve caught it ask yourself what you were thinking when the item was in the air.

It wasn’t anything to do with work, it wasn’t what you shouldn’t have eaten, it wasn’t who you need to call, was it?

At the moment the object was in the air you were in a state of pure awareness, in the present moment, focussed on the object……..Instant Zen.

May your life be filled with such moments.

Emotional Fuel Gauge

admin — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:04:24 +0000

When your fuel gauge on you car is running a little low, you take note of what the indicator is telling you and you fill up with fuel. What if your emotional fuel gauge is running a little low? This indicates that you’re not in flow with everything and everyone around you and are using energy to hold on to a negative thought pattern. By choosing positive thoughts which support what you want to achieve, you begin to replenish your fuel tank and re-establish your connection with the universe.

Your Choice

admin — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:29:37 +0000

At the beginning of a New Year, many of us have set ourselves new goals or made resolutions, all of which have one aim: to make us happier.

The primary cause of happiness is not the situations we find ourselves in, but rather our thoughts about the situation.

You never need to be the victim of circumstances as you always have the power to choose how you respond to a situation.

Karma Economics

admin — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:34:08 +0000

The maths is simple and we all know it: you reap what you sow. The more you give the more your get. The question is what seeds are you planting? If you’re looking forward to your harvest, then great. If not, then what should you be doing that you’re not currently doing? Plant the seeds. Now

Food for Thinkers - It will take time to restore chaos and order

admin — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:50:45 +0000

Whether you go through the self-help section of your local book shop, or the business psychology section, you can be sure that the word focus will be included many times in most of the books. I recently heard a very successful Venture Capitalist tell our audience that: successful entrepreneurs are doers who can keep their focus, whilst unsuccessful entrepreneurs are dreamers who can't. So... F ollow O ne C ourse U ntil S uccessful Quotes

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much - Walter Lippman

Follow an expert - Virgil

You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing - Dale Carnegie

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances - Thomas Jefferson

Motivation is always in direct proportion to the level of expectation - Denis Waitley

Humour Good or bad, most people's emotions are stirred when they hear what George Dubya and Prince Philip have to say: George W Bush: - It will take time to restore chaos and order - We cannot let terrorist and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile - Walter Mondale said George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologise. To which George Dubya replied, Well on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his anytime - John McCain can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road. - Its no exaggeration to say that the undecided could go one way or another Prince Philip - Deaf? If you were near there, no wonder you're deaf. Prince Philip, to deaf people near a steel band Prince Philip, to deaf people near a steel band - "If it has got four legs and isn't a chair, if its got two wings and isn't a plane, and if it swims and isn't a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." Prince Philip - If a cricketer suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats? Prince Philip, reacting to proposals to ban firearms - Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed. Prince Philip, during the 1981 recession To your success Sunil

Carpe Punctum

admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:22:56 +0000

I suspect that you’ll have heard the phrase, Carpe Diem, which means “seize the day”. Whilst this is a useful reminder to live each day fully, it’s not very practical since you can’t actually seize the day. What you can seize, however, is the moment. Life is a series of moments and it’s the quality of each moment which determines the quality of your life. So Carpe Punctum, seize the moment…….once it’s gone, it won’t come your way again.

A one way ticket to World Class

admin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:09:11 +0000

Most of us start the day with some sort of a To Do List. But do we always make the best use of our time? Do we focus on taking only those actions that will bring us the results that we want, or are we distracted by e-mail, telephone calls and lesser tasks? Research shows that if you focus on the most important thing you can do to achieve your primary goal, to the exclusion of absolutely everything else, and do this throughout the day, then you’ve pretty much booked your self a ticket to becoming world class.

The easiest way to predict the future is to…...

admin — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:00:19 +0000

Those of you in the UK may well have had to revise your schedules as a result of the snow.

I certainly had to. It did, however, give me the opportunity to catch up with some of the neighbours. As we were shovelling snow, one of my neighbours asked me, “If you were to only give one piece of advice what would it be?”

“Live in the present moment,” was my reply.

The easiest way to predict the future is to create it, and we create our future by what we do in each moment. The present moment represents our point of power.

If you’re hanging on to the past, deal with it and let it go. There is absolutely no benefit in hanging on to the past. The past should be a place of reference not a place of residency.

As for worrying about the future, most of what we worry about doesn’t happen anyway. It’s like paying interest on debts that you don’t have.

The only way that we can focus 100% on each moment is not to think about the past or future but be totally present and immersed in the moment.

When we achieve this state of mind we’re engaged in the moment, but detached from the past and the outcome of our actions, thereby maximising the energy available to create our future.

As any good sports psychologist will tell you, the mindset of detached engagement is the optimum mindset to achieve peak performance.

They would be better off eating beans...

admin — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:01:23 +0000

I asked an audience this week how many of them had a life insurance policy or long term savings plans to cater for their nearest and dearest in the event of their death. Just about everyone raised their hand. I then asked the audience how many of them had goals which they had actually written down. Less than 5% raised their hands. It's amazing that so many of us plan for dying but not living. Quotes

Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men - Benjamin Disraeli

There's always one moment in life when the door opens and lets the future in - Graham Greene

Put your future in good hands - your own - Mark Victor Hansen

Change is not merely necessary to life; it is life - Alvin Toffler

Humour A group of young children were asked to write about the sea. Here is some of their work: 1. This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly age 6) 2. Oysters' balls are called pearls. (James age 6) 3. If you are surrounded by the sea you are an Island. If you don't have sea all round you, you are incontinent. (Wayne age 7) 4. Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson. She's not my friend no more. (Kylie age 6) 5. A dolphin breathes through an arsehole on the top of its head. (Billy age 8 ) 6. My dad goes out in his boat, and comes back with crabs. (Emily age 5) 7. When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes, when the wind didn't blow, the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would be better off eating beans. (William age 7) 8. I like mermaids. They are beautiful, and I like their shiny tails. How do mermaids get pregnant? (Helen age 6) 9. I'm not going to write about the sea. My baby brother is always screaming and being sick, my Dad keeps shouting at my Mum, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can't think what to write. (Amy age 6) 10. Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves into chargers. (Christopher age 7)

Swiss Army Wife

admin — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:00:05 +0000

When she’s at home, my wife claims to be able to juggle a hundred things at once. At work, however, she always focuses on her patients (she’s a doctor), one patient at a time. Multi-tasking is a myth. If you try and do more than one thing at once, you can’t possibly do it as well as if you’re totally focussed on the task in hand to the exclusion of everything else.

The most supportive person in your life

admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 07:10:12 +0000

Who is the most supportive person in your life? Is it a spouse or a partner? Or perhaps your best friend? The most supportive person in your life has to be you, if you’re to achieve the results that you want. You’re always there by your side and the way you think has the greatest influence on the action that you take. So, if you’re not in love with your self then its time to sit in your favourite chair, or go on your favourite walk and remind your self why you are so great.

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The fashion designer, Sir Paul Smith said.... I'm back in the gym after having finally recovered from a shoulder operation (I had a fight with a very heavy dumbbell - my shoulder lost). 30 minutes into a spinning (exercise bike, for the uninitiated) class, after a very hard sprint, with a puddle of sweat surrounding my bike, I heard my trainer shout “I’m here, where are you?” My mind was not on the job in hand and a strong performance for the last 10 minutes. I was daydreaming, as I tried to suck in as much air as quickly as possible. Extensive research has shown that successful people, whether they are in business, sport, the arts or any other walk of life, share one common trait: they don’t worry about what they haven’t got, or what they can't to do, they focus on what they can do with what they've got. Successful entrepreneurs don’t spend lots of time deciding on how they are going to be successful. They’re very good at living in the present moment and taking action. One of my favourite fashion designers is Sir Paul Smith, the owner of a retail business worth nearly half a billion dollars. He was asked by a journalist what advice he would give individuals seeking to follow in his footsteps and replicate his success. He replied, “Life isn’t about working shorter or longer hours. It’s about every hour. It’s about every minute and every second. Learn to live in the moment.” The best way to predict the future is to create it and you create your future by what you do in each moment. Sunil Bali, Writer, Speaker and Mind Coach www.sunilbali.com

Food for Thinkers - 17 Steps to Happiness

admin — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:20:41 +0000

Whatever goals and outcomes we want to achieve this year, just like everyone else in the human race, we're all striving for the same thing to be happy. Here are a few tips to help you along the way in 2011:

Have one hour of totally uninterrupted conversation with your partner or a friend every week. Give yourself permission to be warmer - people love it and no one will think you're weird or intense.
Spend some time every week doing a hobby or activity which completely absorbs you and time seems to stand still.
Don't be a party wallflower. Self-absorption undermines happiness because it stops you from being brilliant at developing close relationships.
Have a good laugh at least once a day. On a bad day, give yourself a break. Listen to a comedy station, CD of stand-up comedy or read the humour section of this column.
Take half an hour of exercise three times a week and your general feeling of happiness will improve by 10-20 per cent. It doesn't need to be anything too masochistic: anything that gets you moving. A walk will do.
Smile. People think you look more sincere, sociable - and attractive. And, yes, faking it can work as smiling actually releases feel-good chemicals (endorphins).
Be your own best friend. Check your internal dialogue. The way we talk to ourselves is often worse than the way we talk to those we dislike.
Do a good turn for someone. It may sound worthy, but scientists have proved that altruism gives longer-lasting pleasure than a bar of chocolate or buying a new outfit.
Don't live in the past - unless you like guilt
Don't live in the future - unless you like fear
Live in the present and have happiness in the palm of your hand
Don't look up role models - look into them
Don't get even - get better
Don't take no for an answer - accept it as a situation
Don't learn the tricks of the trade - learn the trade
Don't wait for your boat to come in - swim out to it
Don't live your life - live your dreams.

Quotes

Most people are as happy as they make their minds up to be. - Abraham Lincoln

There is only one happiness in life. To love and be loved. - George Sand

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves. - James Barrie

Whoever is happy will make others happy, too. - Mark Twain

Humour Apparently, the following anecdote has been doing the rounds in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain: In the year 2010 the Lord came unto Noah and said: "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans." He gave Noah the CAD drawings, saying: "You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights." Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard, but no Ark. "Noah!" He roared, "I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?" "Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, but things have changed. I needed Building Regulations Approval and I've been arguing with the Fire Brigade about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbours claim that I should have obtained planning permission for building the Ark in my garden because it is development of the site, even though in my view it is a temporary structure. We had to then go to an Appeal Hearing for a decision. Then the Department of Transport demanded a bondbe posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions to clear the passage for the Ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it. Getting the wood was another problem. All the decent trees have Tree Preservation Orders on them and we live in a Site of Special Scientific interest set up in order to protect the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls - but no go! When I started gathering the animals, the RSPCA sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodation was too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space. Then the County Council, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Rivers Authority ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they had conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood. I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission on how many disabled carpenters I'm supposed to hire for my building team. The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only accredited workers with Ark-building experience. To make matters worse, Customs and Excise seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species. So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark. Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean you're not going to destroy the world?" "No," said the Lord. "..........the Government beat me to it!" To your success Sunil

Whatever good things we build, end up building us

admin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:47:28 +0000

"If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us." – Jim Rohn

Food for Thinkers - Velcro vs. Teflon

admin — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:44:23 +0000

The psychologist and Dr. Rick Hanson has extensively researched how people deal with negative experiences. He found that the happiest and most successful people are like Teflon. Negatives experiences tend not to stick to them. However, when it comes to positive experiences they are like Velcro and the positive energy not only sticks to them, but they harness it to take action which perpetuates their happiness. Unhappy people, on the other hand, behave like Velcro when confronted with negative experiences and like Teflon when faced with positive experiences. What sticks to you? Quotes

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt

We teach people how to treat us - Dr. Philip McGraw

Your thoughts are a preview of life's forthcoming attractions - Einstein

Out your future in good hands, your own - Mark Hansen

Humour The following gems have been found on school and college examination papers: 1. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. 2. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-ft clipper. 3. Marriage to one wife is called monotony. 4. The police surrounded the building and threw an accordion around the block. 5. He worked in the government as a Civil Serpent. 6. Charles Darwin wrote "The Organ of the Species". 7. The climate of the Sarah Desert is so hot that certain areas are cultivated by irritation. 8. Flying saucers are just an optical conclusion. 9. The flood damage was so bad that they had to evaporate the city. 10. King Alfred conquered the Dames. 11. The store was closed for altercations. 12. The people that followed Jesus were called the Twelve Opossums. 13. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. 14. The first book in the Bible is the book of Guinnesses. 15. Let dead dogs sleep. 16. Let sleeping ducks lie. 17. People who live in Moscow are called Mosquitoes. 18. Never look a gift horse in the mouse. 19. I'm not the kind of person who wears his heart up his sleeve. 20. Henry V111 found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. As well as my weekly column, I write a blog during the week which you can sign up to on Facebook or my blog page my clicking the button below. To your success Sunil

Can’t dance, no good at sport, can’t strum a guitar, …..

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:04:26 +0000

“I can't throw a ball to save my life. I have two left feet on the dance floor. My sense of humour is practically laughable. I'm a hair stylist's worst nightmare. And I can barely strum a guitar.” This is what Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men, said about him self during a recent interview. You, just like everyone else, have many things that you’re not particularly good at. Ignore them. Focus on what you can do, rather than what you can’t do. Look where it got Bill Gates.

From thought to finish

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:07:16 +0000

So you’ve had a great idea, you’re excited, you’ve made a plan, you’re bursting with energy and even taken action to manifest your desire. But did you finish what you started? The winners of races always do one thing. They cross the finishing line.

Food for Thinkers - Watson you Idiot!!

admin — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:46:39 +0000

When he was 24 years old, doctors told Stefaan Engels he would never be able to do any strenuous exercise because of his asthma.

Engels decided to do some gentle running to help his asthma and set himself a goal of running just a little bit further and a little bit faster each week.

Last week, 25 years later, Engels entered the Guinness Book of World Records, by running 365 marathons in 365 days, shattering the previous mark of 52 straight races set by 65-year-old Japanese runner Akinori Kusuda, just one year before Engels set out on his unbelievable quest.

If Engels had used Kusuda's record as a benchmark and been more "realistic", he reckons that he would have run maybe 60 or even 70 marathons.

To achieve incredible things, you need to have incredible dreams and set incredible goals. The next time someone tells you to be more "realistic" consign their advice to the rubbish bin.

As Engels said after completing his 365th marathon, "If you decide to do the things that are easy, life becomes difficult. If you decide to things that seem difficult, life becomes easy."

Quotes

The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark - Michelangelo

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. - Steve Jobs

If you only do what you know you can do, you never do very much - Tom Krause

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do - Benjamin Spock

Humour

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend.
"Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" replies Watson.
"And what do you deduce from that?"

Watson ponders for a minute. "Well,

Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.
Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe.

But what does it tell you, Holmes?"

Holmes is silent for a moment.

"Watson, you idiot!" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!"

My late Grandfather

I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

To your success

Sunil

Food for Thinkers - Do you remember your first date......

admin — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:21:11 +0000

Can you remember your first date with your spouse or a long term partner?

Butterflies in the stomach, walking on air for the next few weeks and perhaps an overwhelming desire to please your partner?

In the vast majority of cases the ardour fades a little, as does the desire to please.

It's often the same with business relationships. After the deal has been done do you still, several months on, or a year or two down the line, provide the same level of service? Are you still as proactive to add value to your client?

This week one of my coaching clients, who runs a multi-million business changed his accountants. They had done nothing wrong other than make him feel unloved and uncared for.

Time for some loving maybe?

Quotes

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony - Mahatma Gandhi

We learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown - Claude Bernard

First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it - David Ogilvy

There is only one success - to be able to spend life in your own way - Christopher Morley

Humour

That's it

A general noticed one of his soldiers behaving oddly. The soldier would pick up any piece of paper he found, frown and say: "That's not it" and put it down again. This went on for some time, until the general arranged to have the soldier psychologically tested. The psychologist concluded that the soldier was deranged, and wrote out his discharge from the army.

The soldier picked it up, smiled and said: That's it."

The Turtle and the Snails

A turtle was walking down an alley in New York when he was mugged by a gang of snails. A police detective came to investigate and asked the turtle if he could explain what happened.

The turtle looked at the detective with a confused look on his face and replied "I don't know, it all happened so fast."

Woof!

An Alsatian went to a telegram office, took out a blank form and wrote, "Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof."

The clerk examined the paper and politely told the dog: ere are only nine words here. You could send another 'Woof' for the same price."

"But," the dog replied, that would make no sense at all."

The Scientist & The Philospoher

A scientist and a philosopher were being chased by a hungry lion. The scientist made some quick calculations, he said "it's no good trying to outrun it, its catching up".

The philosopher kept a little ahead and replied "I'm not trying to outrun the lion, I'm trying to outrun you!"

To your success

Sunil

Food for Thinkers - Time for the mind gym.....

admin — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:19:57 +0000

Whilst in the gym, I couldn't help but notice a chap in a skimpy vest whose torso was akin to Linford Christie in his prime.

"Someone's been working out......how's it going?" I asked. Only to be greeted by a long monologue of mishaps, bad luck and my glass is half empty stories.

This chap clearly needed to take his mind to the gym not his body.

A weak mind leads to weak actions.

If you keep having the same negative thoughts again and again, then you need to take your mind to the gym.

Check in with yourself a few times a day to identify your internal dialogue.

Isolate any negative thoughts and examine the underlying beliefs that produce these negative thoughts. Beliefs which don't support what you want to achieve.

This daily practice will improve the quality of your thinking, actions and ultimately results.

Quotes

No man is free who is not master of himself - Epictetus

Good people strengthen themselves endlessly - Confucious

More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm - Buddha

Fatigue dominates the minds of those who are living without direction and dreams - Robin Sharma

Humour

Mother of Six

A man had six children and was very proud of his achievement.

He was so proud of himself that he started calling his wife, 'Mother of Six', in spite of her objections.

One night they went to a party. He decided that it was time to go home, and wanted to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well.

He shouted at the top of his voice, "Shall we go home, Mother of Six?"

His wife, irritated by her husband's lack of discretion shouted back, "Anytime you're ready, Father of Four!"

Beat Me

A man goes hiking. He gets tired after a while and finds a cave to rest in. He sees a shining light at the end of the tunnel, it's a magic lamp. He rubs it and a genie pops out.

The genie says, "I will give you three wishes but there's a catch, everything you wish for your wife gets double."

So the man says okay.

First he wishes for a convertible, the genie says, "OK your wife gets double."

Then he wishes for a million dollars, the genie says, "OK your wife gets double."

Then his last wish is, "Beat me half to death."

Tolio, Kneesles and.....

A man went with his wife on honeymoon and they were getting undressed together for the first time (it was an arranged Indian marriage!).

The man took off his shoes and socks. His toes were all twisted and discoloured.

"What happened to your feet?" his wife asked.

"I had a childhood disease called Tolio."

"Don't you mean polio?"

"No, tolio, it only affects the toes."

The man then removed his pants and revealed an awful looking pair of knees.

"What happened to your knees?" she asked.

"Well, I also had Kneesles."

"Don't you mean measles?"

"No, kneesles, it only affects the knees."

When he removed his shorts, his wife gasped and said, "Don't tell me, you also had Smallcox!"

To your success

Sunil

Food for Achievers - How to become a magnet

admin — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:56:58 +0000

Whilst staying at a hotel this week, I had the misfortune to watch a group of politicians extol the virtues of their party and how if they were in power, all of the world's ills would be solved..

Why is it that members of parliament feel that they need to talk like overly zealous robots once they are put before a camera? When not in front of the camera, I'm sure most of these MP's speak like the rest of us.

We all crave authenticity, whether this is from our politicians, celebrities or colleagues.

The clues are there: we're born unique, with a unique personality, unique fingerprints, unique eye patterns and DNA.

There is one thing that you're a world champion at. You're the very best at being you. Nobody does you, better than you do. Your USP or Unique Selling Point is you. Yet so many of us seem determined to conceal our true talents behind a persona rather than express our true personality.

The most successful people are those who express their true personality and don't hide behind a persona. 'Real', authentic people are like magnets who attract all the people and resources that they need to be successful.

Live your DNA, because the more you do who you are, the better you'll do.

Quotes

We are all born originals - why is it that so many of us die copies? - Edward Young

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. - John F. Kennedy

Remember that you are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost - Martha Graham

Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself - Andre Gide

Humour

Some of the best quips and sly comments have been made about the qualities and peccadilloes of our colleagues and peers.

Part 1 (Part 2 next week)

"A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults." - Louis Nizer (1902 -1994)

"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston Churchill

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway

"He has sat on the fence so long that the iron has entered his soul." - David Lloyd George

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

To your success

Sunil

Shift Happens second

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:53:07 +0000

No matter who we are and whatever resources we have, life will at some point bring you us what we don’t want. It’s part of the human condition. By learning from each such event and treating it as an opportunity to grow rather than a problem, we shift our level of awareness, so that if the situation reoccurs, we know what to do in order to shift quickly towards the outcome that we desire.

Breakfast of Champions

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:22:47 +0000

If you look at the typical day of champion, they virtually always start with a healthy breakfast. But I’m not talking about anything they eat, but rather what they feed their mind. Research clearly shows that Champions start the day by feeding their mind with positive thoughts, a clear plan of action and the determination to succeed, all of which gives them the mental energy to create the outcomes that they desire. So be sure to breakfast like a champion.

The Problem with being SMART

admin — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:58:12 +0000

Many of you will have set goals that you want to achieve this year and may have ensured that they are SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Timebound. The problem with SMART goals is the Wow factor. There isn’t one. Being realistic gives you an excuse to sell your self short and not fulfil your potential. If you want to live an incredible life, you need to have an incredible dream and set incredible goals. The reason most people wallow in mediocrity is not because they are lazy, but because they set impotent goals. So when you set your goals, be as unrealistic as you want.

Food for Thinkers - Reassuringly expensive...

admin — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:45:34 +0000

I met with an HR Director this week who was sorting out a large pile of brochures when I entered her office

It transpired that they were brochures from recruitment agencies all proclaiming that they were the best at finding the talent she needed. As an ex Head of Talent for three UK plc's I was all too familiar with this scenario.

We quickly flicked through the first dozen or so brochures and agreed that they would make a good cure for insomnia, given that the predictable blandness and banalities were soporific.

A new study shows, that on average, everyone is bombarded by the equivalent of 174 newspapers of data a day. So it's no surprise that people's attention is scarce.

In such an environment we need to take a risk and do something different if our offering is to be noticed.

This starts with how we try and get our foot in the door with prospective customers. Including how we look, sound and behave and what messages we convey.

Here are some examples of organisations which have succeeded in getting noticed by the strap lines that they use:

"We're No. 2, but we try harder. (When you're not No. 1, you have to)" - Avis
"Are you alarmed? You should be" - Moss Security
"Reassuringly expensive" - Stella Artois
"Listerine: the taste you hate three times a day" - Listerine

Quotes

Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci

To become the spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life - Oscar Wilde

For fast-acting relief try slowing down - Lily Tomlin

Humour

Just a brief proclaimer before you read the following funnies: "The humour in this column isn't always 100% politically correct and is wholly reflective of the editor, i.e, me."

The Funeral

A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer.

His friend says: "Wow! that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man."

The man then replies: "Yeah, well we were married 35 years."

The Monkey

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!"

The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off - go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."

To your success

Sunil

Food for Thinkers - What would you give up for.....

admin — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 10:47:17 +0000

One of the easiest ways to determine a person's commitment level is by seeing what they are willing to forfeit or give up for it.

You may:

have a goal to get fit, but are you willing to say no to the dessert offered at a formal dinner?
be determined to write the next great novel, but are you willing to forgo that last 30 minutes of early morning sleep?
have the perfect idea for a new product or service, but are you going to shut off the TV or walk away from Facebook or internet to work an extra hour?
have the answer to a problem facing your company or community, but are you willing to say no to your current comfort zone of anonymity and stand up and speak out on an unpopular issue

Most people live far below the level of success and achievement they should be enjoying. Lack of total commitment causes people to become less than who they truly are. And while you may not actually have to die for your dream, if you aren't willing to give up portions of your life for it, it will most likely stay a dream forever.

Life often steals our dreams a few minutes and a few commitments at a time. What you say no to is often just as important as what you say yes to. The more you define and clarify your goals and dreams the easier it becomes to say both yes and no to the appropriate activities.

Quotes

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live - Martin Luther King Jr

Inspiration does exist, but it has to find you working - Pablo Picasso

The thing that cowardice most fears is a decision - Soren Kierkergaard

Opportunities come to those that dare. As we risk taking the next right step, the universe surprises us with its support - Julia Cameron

Humour

I want a Wabbit!

A precious little girl walks into a Pets Mart Shop and asks, in the sweetest little lisp, between two missing teeth, "Excuthe me, mithter, do you keep widdle wabbits?"

As the shopkeeper's heart melts, he gets down on his knees so that he's on her level and asks, "Do you want a widdle white wabbit, or a thoft and fuwwy, bwack wabbit, or maybe one like that cute widdle bwown wabbit over there?"

She, in turn, blushes, rocks on her heels, puts her hands on her knees, leans forward and says, in a tiny quiet voice, "I don't think my python weally gives a thit !!"

You're not really....

A young brunette goes into the doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.

"Impossible," says the doctor. "Show me."

She takes her finger and pushes her elbow and screams in agony. She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams and so on it goes.

The doctor says, "You're not really a brunette are you?"

She says, "No, I'm really a blonde."

"I thought so," he says. "Your finger is broken."

To your success

Sunil

Food for Thinkers – Does size matter.....

admin — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:23:08 +0000

If you've got a big problem in your life at the moment, it probably means that you're acting small.

Let me explain.

If you've got a problem that's a 5 out 10 problem and you're ability to deal with it is 5 out of 10, then sure, it's a pretty big problem.

If however you're an 8 out 10 character, then the 5 out 10 problem doesn't seem so big does it?

What if you worked on your self and developed a 10 out of 10 character?

Then it becomes a case of, "What problem?"

As you grow your problems will get smaller. It really is that simple.

So you see, size really does matter.

Quotes

Only the mediocre are always at their best - Jean Giradoux

The mediocre are addicted to comfort. The exceptional are addicted to learning - Sunil Bali

The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare - Juma Ikangaa, New York Marathon Winner

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist - Oscar Wilde

Humour

MBA Students

One night four MBA students were boozing till late night and didn't study for the test which was scheduled for the next day. In the morning they thought of a plan.

They made themselves look as dirty and weird as they could with grease and dirt. Then they went up to the Dean and said that they had gone to a wedding last night and on their return the tyre of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way back and that they were in no condition to appear for the test.

The Dean was a fair person, so he said that you can have a retest after three days. After 3 days they said they were ready. On the third day they appeared before the Dean. The Dean said that as this was a special condition all four were required to be in separate rooms for the test. They all agreed as they had prepared well in last three days.

The test consisted of two questions with total marks of 100.

Q1. Write down your Names. (2 marks)

Q2. Which tyre burst? (98 marks)

Blood Circulation

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face."

"Yes," the class said.

"Then why is it that while I am standing upright the blood doesn't run into my feet?"

A young boy shouted, "Because your feet aren't empty."

Group Photo

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic junior school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples.

The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching."

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

To your success

Sunil

Food for Achievers - Warren Buffet's one piece of advice......

admin — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:50:47 +0000

Last week, Warren Buffet, the world's third richest man celebrated his 80th birthday.

Buffet was asked to give just one piece of advice to those aspiring to achieve wealth and happiness.

His reply was, "The one piece of advice I can give you is, do what turns you on. Do something that if you had all the money in the world, you'd still be doing it. You've got to have a reason to jump out of bed in the morning."

If you bleed passion and sweat enthusiasm, the only tears you will be crying will be tears of joy.

Quotes

The real trouble with the world is that too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old - Walt Disney

A musician must make his music, an artist must paint , a poet must write if he is ultimately to be at peace with himself - Abraham Maslow

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation - Aristotle

Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls - Joseph Campbell

Humour

Some of the best quips and sly comments have been made about the qualities and peccadilloes of our colleagues and peers.

Part 2

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"She is a peacock in everything but beauty." - Oscar Wilde

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." - Jack E. Leonard

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - Abraham Lincoln

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." - Robert Redford

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed

"He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them." - James Reston (about Richard Nixon)

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Talleyrand

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...for support, rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

To your success

Sunil

Food for Achievers - Where are your stretch marks....

admin — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 12:32:25 +0000

Research by the Harvard psychologist Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar shows that we enjoy activities the most when we're stretched a little.

If you're playing tennis or a computer game against someone who is much better than you, then you'll feel frustrated and become disillusioned.

If you're playing against someone who is much worse than you, it will be too easy and you'll get bored.

Or to put it another way:

Too much stress = Panic Zone

Too little stress = Comfort Zone

Just the right amount of stress = Stretch Zone

So, if you haven't got any stretch marks, then maybe its time to get some?

Quotes

To know, but not to do, is not yet to know - Eastern proverb

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it! - Goethe

Amateurs compete; masters collaborate - Eastern proverb

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place - George Bernard Shaw

Humour

Anti Bird Poop Device on Car

To your success

Sunil

Has it gone off......

admin — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:54:30 +0000

What do you do when inspiration strikes?

Do you write your idea on a piece of paper, keep a mental note in your head, or seize the inspiration and take action?

Just like a bottle of milk or a piece of fruit, inspiration has an expiry date.

With the passage of time, your inspiration will diminish and eventually fade away.

Inspiration is the flame which helps to bring our ideas to life.

So when inspiration strikes, grab it with both hands, take action and enjoy the ride.

Quotes

Try and fail, but don't fail to try - Stephen Kaggwa

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character - Einstein

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out - Walter Winchell

And in the end it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years - Abraham Lincoln

Humour

Revised Hits of the 60's for ageing baby boomers:

The Temptations - Papa's Got a Kidney Stone.

Roberta Flack - The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face.

Johnny Nash - I Can't See Clearly Now.

Paul Simon - Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver

The Commodores - Once, Twice, Three Times to the Bathroom.

Procol Harem - A Whiter Shade of Hair.

Leo Sayer - You Make Me Feel Like Napping.

Abba - Denture Queen.

Tony Orlando - Knock 3 Times On The Ceiling If You Hear Me Fall.

Leslie Gore - It's My Procedure, and I'll Cry If I Want To.

The Bee Gees - How Can You Mend a Broken Hip.

To your success

Sunil

There is no word in Tibetan for.....

admin — Sat, 07 May 2011 16:58:43 +0000

The phrase "love thy neighbor, as thy self" is flawed given how badly most of us talk to ourselves and give ourselves a hard time.

Its one of the greatest weaknesses of humans, that we allow ourselves to be so negatively influenced by others and then feel guilty that we haven’t lived up to these misplaced expectations.

There is no word in Tibetan for "guilty". The closest translation is "intelligent regret that decides to do things differently".

The Dalai Lama says that the busier his day is going to be, the more time he sets aside to meditate in order to make sure he is in the right frame of mind.

So how about cutting your self a little slack this week?

Quotes

The one thing you need to know about sustained individual success: Discover what you don’t like doing and stop doing it - Marcus Buckingham

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe - Winston Churchill

Most people are reasonable, that’s why they only do reasonably well - Paul Arden

A year from now you may have wished that you had started today - Karen Lamb

Humour

Thanks to Richard for the following

Universal Laws

Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.
Law of Gravity - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
Law of Probability -The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
Law of Random Numbers - If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.
Law of the Alibi - If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tyre, the very next morning you will have a flat tyre.
Variation Law - If you change queues or traffic lanes, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.
Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
Law of Close Encounters -The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
Law of bio mechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
Law of the Concert, Theatre & Sports Arena - At any event, the people whose seats are farthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies, and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.
The Coffee Law - As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jam sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.
Law of Logical Argument - Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.
Oliver's Law of Public Speaking - A closed mouth gathers no feet.
Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy -As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
Doctors' Law - If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better. But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick.

To your success

Sunil

They never fade BUT.....

admin — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:51:49 +0000

After delivering a talk, I sometimes get asked to give advice on how to improve public speaking skills.

On such occasions I refer to the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi.

The principle of wabi-sabi values uniqueness over attempts at perfection.

It teaches that when something becomes too polished it loses its soul and comes across as artificial and not genuine.

That's why we prefer real flowers which wilt and die, to plastic flowers which never fade.

Too often, we worry about how we're supposed to sound or how we're supposed to act.

Don't worry about how you're supposed to sound or how you're supposed to act, show the world what you're really like, warts and all.

You may not come across as perfect but you will come across as authentic.

Quotes

We are all born originals - why is it that so many of us die copies? - Edward Young

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth - John F. Kennedy

Remember that you are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost - Martha Graham

Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself - Andre Gide

Humour

A letter of resignation:

Dear Mr. XXXXXX,

As a graduate of an institution of higher education, I have a few very basic expectations. Chief among these is that my direct superiors have an intellect that ranges above the common ground squirrel.

I was hired because I know how to network computer systems, and you were apparently hired to provide amusement to myself and other employees, who watch you vainly attempt to understand the concept of "cut and paste" for the hundredth time.

You will never understand computers. Something as incredibly simple as binary still gives you too many options. You will also never understand why people hate you, but I am going to try and explain it to you, even though I am sure this will be just as effective as telling you what an IP is. Your shiny new iMac has more personality than you ever will.

In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Since this situation is unlikely to change without you getting a full frontal lobotomy reversal, I am forced to tender my resignation, however I have a few parting thoughts.

1. I have all the passwords to every account on the system, and I know every password you have used for the last five years. If you decide to get cute, I am going to publish your "favourites list", which I conveniently saved when you made me "back up" your useless files. I do believe that terms like "Lolita" are not usually viewed favourably by the administration.

2. When you borrowed the digital camera to "take pictures of your Mother's birthday," you neglected to mention that you were going to take pictures of yourself in the mirror nude. Then you forgot to erase them like the techno-moron you really are. Suffice it to say I have never seen such odd acts with a sauce bottle, but I assure you that those have been copied and kept in safe places pending the authoring of a glowing letter of recommendation. (Try to use a spell check please; I hate having to correct your mistakes.)

Thank you for your time, and I expect the letter of recommendation on my desk by 8:00 am tomorrow. One word of this to anybody, and all of your little twisted repugnant obsessions will be open to the public. Never f*** with your systems administrator. Why? Because they know what you do with all that free time!

Wishing you a grand and glorious day,

Mr. xxxxxx

To your success

Sunil

Can’t vs. Haven’t……

admin — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:07:02 +0000

My 7 year old son Aran was through on goal yesterday with only the goalkeeper to beat, but he scuffed his shot and the ball went well wide.

"You should have used your left foot, it would have been easier", I shouted. "But I haven't learned how to kick with my left foot yet", came back the reply."

When you think you can't do something, perhaps it's just that you haven't learned how to do it yet?

Quotes

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever - Mahatma Gandhi

People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline, it is devotion. There is a great difference - Luciano Pavarotti

The biggest curse on the world is your unlived life - Carl Jung

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself - Joseph Campbell

Humour

Thanks to David for sharing an absolute gem.

This is a genuine reply from the Inland Revenue which was published in The Guardian newspaper.

Dear Mr Addison,

I am writing to you to express our thanks for your more than prompt reply to our latest communication, and also to answer some of the points you raise. I will address them, as ever, in order.

Firstly, I must take issue with your description of our last as a "begging letter". It might perhaps more properly be referred to as a "tax demand". This is how we at the Inland Revenue have always, for reasons of accuracy, traditionally referred to such documents.

Secondly, your frustration at our adding to the "endless stream of crapulent whining and panhandling vomited daily through the letterbox on to the doormat" has been noted. However, whilst I have naturally not seen the other letters to which you refer I would cautiously suggest that their being from "pauper councils, Lombardy pirate banking houses and pissant gas-mongerers" might indicate that your decision to "file them next to the toilet in case of emergencies" is at best a little ill-advised. In common with my own organisation, it is unlikely that the senders of these letters do see you as a "lackwit bumpkin" or, come to that, a "sodding charity". More likely they see you as a citizen of Great Britain, with a responsibility to contribute to the upkeep of the nation as a whole.

Which brings me to my next point. Whilst there may be some spirit of truth in your assertion that the taxes you pay "go to shore up the canker-blighted, toppling folly that is the Public Services", a moment's rudimentary calculation ought to disabuse you of the notion that the government in any way expects you to "stump up for the whole damned party" yourself. The estimates you provide for the Chancellor's disbursement of the funds levied by taxation, whilst colourful, are, in fairness, a little off the mark. Less than you seem to imagine is spent on "junkets for Bunterish lickspittles" and "dancing whores" whilst far more than you have accounted for is allocated to, for example, "that box-ticking facade of a university system."

A couple of technical points arising from direct queries:

1. The reason we don't simply write "Muggins" on the envelope has to do with the vagaries of the postal system;

2. You can rest assured that "sucking the very marrow of those with nothing else to give" has never been considered as a practice because even if the Personal Allowance didn't render it irrelevant, the sheer medical logistics involved would make it financially unviable.

I trust this has helped. In the meantime, whilst I would not in any way wish to influence your decision one way or the other, I ought to point out that even if you did choose to "give the whole foul jamboree up and go and live in India" you would still owe us the money.

Please send it to us by Friday.

Yours sincerely,

H J Lee
Customer Relations
Inland Revenue

To your success

Sunil

Don't join the BMW Club because......

admin — Sun, 29 May 2011 09:39:16 +0000

I had the misfortune to bump into a distant relative at a petrol station of all places. I hadn't seen this chap for over six years and his attitude hadn't changed a bit.

Within seconds of exchanging salutations he launched into a self pitying, blame everyone monologue: 100% high octane verbal diarrhoea.

He epitomised the colloidal carbuncle that manifests on the backside of humanity.....a complete pain in the arse. I'm sure you know one or two yourself?

Every syllable that fell out of his mouth was sucking the very lifeblood out of me......a psychic vampire if ever I saw one.

Whilst I still had the will to live I made my excuses and beat a hasty retreat.

We all have reason to complain from time to time and shit happens in everyone's life, but joining the BMW Club* helps no one.

If you've got a psychic vampire in your life then do yourself a big favour and exorcise them from your life, or stay away from them as much as possible, because they'll drain you of the vital energy that you need to succeed.

You might be driving down the highway of life in a Ferrari, but if your fuel tank has a leak in it, you're not going to get very far.

* bitching, moaning, whining

Quotes

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: you have no one else to blame - Erica Jong

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed - Carl Jung

True life is lived when tiny changes occur - Leo Tolstoy

There is the risk you cannot afford to take, and there is the risk you cannot afford not to take - Peter Drucker

Humour

Please make sure you watch the short video at the end. The man's laughter is infectious. It had me in tears.

Thanks to Tosh for sharing the following:

A Woman's Place

When Barbara Walters was on ABC News, she did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before the Afghan conflict.

She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. Despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem happy to maintain the old custom.

Ms Walters approached one of the Afghan women and asked 'Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?'

The woman looked Ms Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation said "Landmines."

Host can't stop laughing at man's voice

To your success

Sunil

I love my mother-in-law BUT.....

admin — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 09:37:17 +0000

I get on really well with my mother-in-law, but last week she caught me off guard and I uttered the fateful words, "What's new?"

It's lucky I wasn't in a confined space because the air would have run out within minutes. You see, my mother-in-law is the master of using sixty four thousand words when one will do.

She can quite effortlessly transform any one liner into War and Peace.

My mother-in-law has never come across the bestselling crime novelist Elmore Leonard, who once said "I try to leave out the parts people skip".

The problem is, whilst my wife can faithfully listen to each and every superfluous detail, I come from the "just tell me what I need to know" school of communication.

If you want to get your message across more effectively, it isn't just about improving your preferred style of communication, it's about identifying and communicating better in other peoples preferred style of communication.

For example, if you send me an e-mail with a 27 page attachment, if it hasn't got a summary, I won't read it. I don't do detail.

My accountant friends on the other hand are in heaven when they have to wade through pages of spreadsheets, balanced scorecards and KPI's.

So when you want to get your message across, be conscious of the best way to communicate with individuals. The words we use and the way we use them can be very powerful.

As the following 90 second video so beautifully demonstrates, "Change your words; change your world." (Thanks to Sid for the video)

Change your words, change your world

The following 2 minute video from the inimitable Paul Whitehouse demonstrates the importance of being able to communicate in other people's languages, albeit in a somewhat more irreverent manner!

Better communication by Paul Whitehouse

Quotes

A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive a car - Kenneth Tynan

People will always try to stop you from doing the right thing if it is unconventional - Warren Buffet

The dumbest people I know are those who know it all - Malcolm Forbes

The price of greatness is responsibility - Winston Churchill

Humour

1) Behind every great man....

One night President Obama and his wife Michelle decided to do something out of the norm and go for a casual dinner at a restaurant that wasn't too luxurious.

When they were seated, the owner of the restaurant asked the President's secret service if he could please speak to the First Lady in private. They obliged and Michelle had a conversation with the owner.

Following this conversation President Obama asked Michelle, why was he so interested in talking to you. She mentioned that in her teenage years, he had been madly in love with her.

President Obama then said, "Oh, so if you had married him, you'd now be the owner of this lovely restaurant...!"

To which the First Lady responded, "No, if I'd married him, he would now be the President of the United States..."

2) The laughing interviewer

I included this short video last week but given the amazing feedback I've received, I've included it again just in case you missed it. The interviewer's laughter is infectious. It had me in tears.

Host can't stop laughing at man's voice

Thanks to all of you who send me e-mails with your feedback and also your words of wisdom. I really appreciate it.

If you were to use the comments section below it would be even better, because then all of us could benefit from your thoughts. Thanks again.

To your success

Sunil

What's on your Stop Doing List.....

admin — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:41:35 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 12-06-11

Did you know that,

20% of the roads carry 80% of the traffic
20% of drinkers consume 80% of the alcohol
20% of the strikers score 80% of the goals

You probably know this as being the 80/20 rule or the Pareto Principle.

The same is true of your To Do list.

On average, 20% of your activity will tend to produce 80% of the results.

So it must be worth doing an audit of your activity and creating a Stop Doing List.

I did this at the beginning of the year and it's had a remarkable impact on both my productivity and energy levels.

Some of the things I've stopped doing include:

- spending time with negative people
- trying to be perfect
- planning too much, (procrastination in disguise)
- moving paper around rather than touch it once and deal with it
- buying stuff I really didn't need, which I then had to look after
- eating too many crisps (my poison)
- going to bed late and not getting enough sleep

It's so easy to get caught up in "busyness" as opposed to real business and not focus on those things which make us really happy and which are the most productive.

As Goethe famously said, "Things that matter most must not be at the mercy of things that matter least"

Please do watch this inspirational and life affirming video. It had me in tears.....

A Homeless Boy's Passion

Quotes

Joy is not in things, it is in us - Charles Wagner

Conform and be dull - James Frank Dobie

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art - Leonardo da Vinci

The way to be happy is to make others so - Robert Ingersoll

Humour

Thanks to Richard for these gems. The first joke has been nominated for Short Joke of the Year and is my favourite:

A three-year-old boy was examining his testicles while taking a bath.

"Mum" he asked, "are these my brains?"

"Not yet," she replied.

~~~~~~~~~~

Man comes home, finds his wife in bed with his friend.

He shoots his friend and kills him.

Wife says "If you keep behaving like this, you will lose ALL your friends!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Teacher: Do you know the importance of a period?

Kid: No, but they must be important. Once my sister said she had missed one, my mom fainted, my Dad got a heart attack & our driver ran away.

~~~~~~~~~~

A woman asks a man who is travelling with six children, "Are all these kids yours?"

The man replies, "No, I work in a condom factory and these are customer complaints".

~~~~~~~~~~

A young boy asks his Dad, "What is the difference between confident and confidential?"

Dad says, "You are my son, I'm confident about that. Your friend over there is also my son; that's confidential."

~~~~~~~~~~

My wife and I had words,

But I didn't get to use mine.

~~~~~~~~~~

Frustration is trying to find your glasses without your glasses.

~~~~~~~~~~

The irony of life is that, by the time you're old enough to know your way around,

You're not going anywhere.

~~~~~~~~~~

God made man before woman so as to give him time to think of an answer for her first question.

~~~~~~~~~~

What's the difference between stress, tension and panic?

Stress is when your wife is pregnant,

Tension is when your girlfriend is pregnant,

And Panic is when both are pregnant.

~~~~~~~~~~

To your success

Sunil

When Harry met Salad......

admin — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:34:49 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 19-06-11

The newspapers in the last couple of weeks have been awash with diets, from the Cavemen Diet to the Champagne Diet. Apparently it's still not too late to get in shape for the summer holiday.

But long term, diets don't work. The clue is in the word: DIEt.

Whilst I've never had a problem doing regular exercise, I have been known to consume one or two calories more than I need - I'm prone to portion distortion! When it comes to the thorny subject of nutrition, there's no doubt that a little less actually gives you a whole lot more.

For the last couple of months, I've reduced my intake of meat (if it moves, I'll eat it) and carbs and consumed a lot more salad. And boy do I feel better for it.

Research at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that eating salad (no lard arse dressings allowed!) before a meal means that you'll tend to consume about 100 calories less than you would without the salad. Then there are the numerous health benefits.

How a salad a day keeps the doctor away

It's simple: high performance individuals need high octane fuel.

Quotes

Any fool can criticise, condemn and complain - and most fools do - Dale Carnegie

The way we communicate with others and ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives - Tony Robbins

There is but one cause of human behaviour and that is man's lack of faith in his true Self - William James

Great things are done by a series of small things put together - Vincent van Gogh

Humour

Food for thought:

1. Politicians and nappies have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.

2. I saw a woman wearing a sweat shirt with "Guess" on it...so I said "Implants?"

3. I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.

4. The shinbone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

5. If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.

6. Did you know that dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish?

7. I don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.

8. Hospitality: making your guests feel like they're at home, even if you wish they were.

9. Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.

10. A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don't need it.

11. Just remember...if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.

12. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.

13. Whoever coined the phrase "Quiet as a mouse" has never stepped on one.

And finally....

To your success

Sunil

Dolly Parton on helium

admin — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 09:10:06 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 26-06-11

This story has been popping up on twitter this week and has gone viral on the internet. It's an endearing example of how a company as big as Sainsbury's can still be personal with their customer service.

By going that extra mile for a customer Chris King from Sainsbury's has become a bit of a legend, generated thousands of pounds worth of PR for Sainsbury's and most importantly made one little girl very happy......

"Dear Saaiiiinnnnssssbbburyys. Why is tiger bread c/alled tiger bread? It should be c/alled giraffe bread.

Love from Lily Robinson age 3 & 1/2"

and gets this response...

"Thank you so much for your letter. I think renaming the tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea - it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn't it?

It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly.

I really liked reading your letter so I thought I would send you a little present. I've put a £3 gift card in with this letter, if you ask your mum or dad to take you to Sainsbury's you could use it to buy some of your own tiger bread (and maybe if mum and dad say it's OK you can get some sweeties too!) Please tell an adult to wait 48 hours before using this card.

I'm glad you wrote in to us and hope you like spending your gift card. See you in store soon!

Yours sincerely

Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)
Customer Manager"

Do enjoy this absolutely delightful and life affirming video (thanks for sharing Alastair), which might just tug a few heart strings?

If you listen really close in the audio, you can hear the woman who is recording this trying to keep her kids quiet in the background, so as not to frighten the moose away:

Twin baby Moose in sprinkler

Quotes

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile - Roger Staubach

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit - Nelson Henderson

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends - Walt Disney

Great leaders must first become great servants - Robert Greenleaf

Humour

Love or loathe him, Simon Cowell's put downs have made people laugh and cry:

What was that song? Darling, it's not just that you have a bad voice... you were singing notes that have never been invented."
"It was more like Swan Pond than Swan Lake. I mean, it's just terrible."
"You sounded like Dolly Parton on helium."
"You look good but can't sing. It's like having a bun with no burger inside."
"I was going to say that was unique. But I heard a similar sound come from a chihuahua when someone trod on it."
"People who've won a rosette at a donkey derby don't go on to win the Grand National. Your daughter cannot sing."
"Can I ask you a question? Do you and your girlfriend sing together at home? Have the police ever called?"
Simon: "What normally happens when you sing in public, Deborah?" Deborah: "I've had a few people cry." Simon: "I can believe that."
"If you had lived 2,000 years ago and sung like that, I think they would have stoned you."
Contestant: "I always thought you were such a wonderful man. But you're not. We're good. All we need is some direction."
Simon: "The direction is over there. Go towards the door marked Exit..."
"No. No, no, no. I could sell you as a sleeping aid. I've never heard anything more boring in my life."
Simon: "I've got to stop this. It is so way, way off Mariah Carey. "
Jay: "My voice is strong Simon. I need help." Simon: "Yes. You do, you need a helpline."

To your success

Sunil

Five is the magic number.....

admin — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:16:06 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 03-07-11

After bringing a couple in to his "Love Lab", at the University of Washington, Professor of Psychology Dr John Gottman can predict within a few minutes of watching them interact, with 90% + accuracy whether they'll stay together or whether they'll divorce.

How does he do it?

He measures the ratio of positive to negative interactions between the couple e.g., do they criticise one another or say something kind? Move away from one another or stay close....

Gottman found that couples who thrive have at least 5 positive interactions to every 1 negative interaction.

A little appreciation clearly goes a long way, whether it's with your kids, partner, work colleague or even a stranger.

Gottman's research shows that when you appreciate someone their value appreciates.

The "appreciation effect" is particularly pronounced in kids. Saying a few positive things to a child when putting the child to sleep has been found to turbo-charge the child's self esteem, confidence and performance at school.

On another note, the first half of the year has gone. How's it been for you? Have you achieved what you wanted?

I've achieved a lot, but some of it wasn't what I really wanted because at times, my ladder was up against the wrong wall! I've moved my ladder and am flying now and on course to finish writing two more books by the end of this year.....watch this space.

Here's a 75 second video to get you in the mood for the second half of 2011.

If you've never failed....

Quotes

If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes. Only sooner - Tallulah Bankhead

If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves - Maria Edgeworth

The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to your surroundings - Okakura Kakuzo

Television - a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well done - Ernie Kovacs

Humour

It's that time of year for school exams and school reports.

Part 1 (Part 2 next week)

Father, to son, "Let me see your report card."
Son, "You can't. My friend just borrowed it. He wants to scare his parents."

----------

Teacher: "Who can tell me where Hadrian's Wall is?"
Pupil:"I expect it's around Hadrian's garden!"

----------

Biology teacher: "What happens when the human body is immersed in water?"
Student: "The telephone rings"

----------

Teacher: "What does the 1286BC inscription on the mummy's tomb indicate?"
Pupil: "Is it the registration number of the car that ran over him?"

----------

Teacher: "Where's the English Channel?"
Pupil: "I don't know. My TV doesn't pick it up."

----------

Angry father: "Just look at this report card! Your friend John doesn't come home with C's and D's on his report card!"
Son: "No. But he's different. He's got really smart parents"

----------

Son: "I failed every subject except for algebra"
Father: "How did you manage not to fail that?"
Son: "I didn't take algebra."

----------

Teacher: "Johnny, I believe you copied off Jimmy in the exams."
Johnny: "How can you tell?"
Teacher: 'Wherever Jimmy's written "I don't know", next to a question, you've put "Neither do I" '.

----------

"I was thrown out of university in my first year. I cheated in the metaphysics exam. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me." - Woody Allen.

----------

Exam question: "Use the word diploma in a sentence".
Pupil: "Our pipes were leaking, so my dad called diploma."

----------

To your success,

Sunil

So you want to be a Rock Star.....

admin — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:47:32 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 10-07-11

I've got two options for you:

Option 1 - I'll give you £2.5 million today or,

Option2 - I'll give you a penny today and double that penny every day for a month (31 days).

Which option would you take?

On Day 28 that magical doubling penny is worth £1,342,177.28.

On Day 31 it's worth £10,737,418.24.

It's amazing what those last few days do for us, isn't it?

If you go about producing your art each day in a professional and disciplined manner, then over the long run, you'll be way ahead of those that try and become rock stars overnight. Playing the pubs and clubs gives you the best odds if you want to be a rock star.

If you want to show us your genius, be that rock star, business tycoon, or anything else for that matter, then may I suggest you read the brilliant The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Quotes

Sticking to it is the genius - Thomas Edison

Start a crusade in your life, to dare to be your best - William Danforth

Success is nothing more than a few disciplines practised every day - Jim Rohn

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity - Leo Tolstoy

Humour

Answers on school exams.

Part 2 (Part 1 was last week)

Before that, here is a very talented and amusing puppeteer. It's worth watching the video to the end (thanks to Victoria for sending it to me)

Little Richard - Lucille

Now those inimitable answers to exam questions:

Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

----------

Q: Why does history keep repeating itself?
A: Because we weren't listening the first time.

----------

Q: What does varicose mean?
A: Nearby.

----------

Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

----------

Q: What is a terminal illness?
A: When you are sick at the airport.

----------

Q: What is the meaning of the term "Caesarion Section?"
A: The Caesarian Section is a district in Rome

----------

Q: Who invented King Arthur's Round Table?
A : Sir Cumference.

----------

Q: Who succeeded the first President of the U.S.A.
A: The second one.

----------

Q: Use the word fascinate in a sentence.
A: I have a coat with nine buttons but I can only fascinate.

----------

Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.

----------

Q: What is a turbine?
A: Something an Arab wears on his head.

----------

Q: What is a Hindu?
A: It lays eggs.

----------

Q: What is a seizure?
A: A Roman Emperor.

----------

Q: Use the word "judicious" in a sentence.
A: Hands that do dishes can be as soft as your face.

----------

Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places so look like umbrellas.

----------

To your success,

Sunil

Even Superman has to take his cape to the cleaners.....

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:00:37 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 17-07-11

I was at a dinner party with some medics yesterday, when the conversation turned to stress in the work place.

It transpires that the waiting rooms of doctor's surgeries are overflowing with stressed out managers and executives who complain of too much work and too little time.

Whether you're Superman or Wonder Woman, there comes a time when you have to take your cape to the cleaners and slow down before putting it back on.

Quotes

I do nothing and then I do something. But it's taken years of investigating idleness in all its forms to be able to achieve this. My discipline is borne out of concerted study of idleness - Will Self

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet - Franz Kafka

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world - Oscar Wilde

An idle mind is a questioning, skeptical mind. Hence it is a mind not too bound up with ephemeral things, as the minds of workers are. The idler, then, is somebody who separates himself from his occupation: there are many people scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation - Robert Louis Stevenson

Humour

Thanks to Victoria for these gems:

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion
When you've seen one shopping centre, you've seen a mall
When she saw her first strands of grey hair, she thought she'd dye
When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds
Santa's little helpers are subordinate clauses
You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it
He broke into song because he couldn't find the key
A calendar's days are numbered
A boiled egg is hard to beat
He had a photographic memory which never developed
The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large
Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end
If you jump off a bridge in Paris, you are in Seine
Acupuncture is a jab well done
The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered

To your success,

Sunil

Do you know where to tap.....

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 09:28:35 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 24-07-11

Just as the giant cruise ship was about to depart, fully laden with passengers, the engine failed.

Panic quickly ensued as various teams of engineers failed to restart the engine and the passengers became ever more irate.

A retired ship engineer who lived locally was summoned.

He embarked with his small bag of tools and inspected the engine very carefully. Having completed his inspection he reached into his bag and pulled out a hammer and gently tapped something.

Instantly, the engine lurched into life. It was fixed.

A week later the owners received a bill from the old man of $10000.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything." The owners wrote to the old man and asked him to submit an itemized invoice which he duly did:

The invoice read:

Tapping with a hammer........ $2.00

Knowing where to tap.......... $9998.00

This wonderful 2 minute video brought tears to my eyes:

Christian the Lion

Quotes

Don't confuse efforts with results - Robert Nitsche

Anyone who stops learning is old. Anyone who keeps learning is young - Henry Ford

Trouble brings experience and experience brings wisdom - Aeschylus

I'd rather regret the things I've done, rather than the things I haven't done - Lucille Ball

Humour

The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Circumference, who acquired his size from too much pi.
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
I wondered why the football kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
Don't join dangerous cults: practice safe sects.
A will is a dead giveaway.
A backward poet writes inverse.
She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
Two silk-worms had a race; the result was a tie.
A sign on the lawn at a drug rehabilitation centre said "Keep off the Grass".
Old soldiers who survived mustard gas and pepper spray are now seasoned veterans.
A bicycle can't stand alone; it's two tired.

To your success,

Sunil

Time for a Mental Floss.....

admin — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 10:00:34 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 31-07-11

When I go away on holiday, I like to be away and not worry about anything or anyone back in blighty.

In order to be away when I'm away, I conduct a mental floss before getting on the plane.

Despite good mental hygiene, I normally find that there are one or two mental plaques that need to be removed before I go on holiday. This time, I've decided to remove two negative and rather draining people from my network as well as increase my focus on the project that matters most to me i.e., finish writing 2 books by the end of this year.

I've also expressed my gratitude to some people who continue to inspire and energise me and who help me to shine. When I return from vacation I'll increase the time that I spend with these wonderful, authentic and passionate people.

When it comes to inspiration and gratitude, it doesn't get much better than the tribute given by Andre Agassi to his wife Steffi Graf when she was inducted to the tennis hall of fame: A Champion on and Off the Court

Tony Schwartz, one of the world's leading performance psychologists and Chief Energy Officer's, has extensively researched why personal energy management is infinitely more powerful than time management as a tool to achieve happiness and fulfilment.

You can read an excellent summary of the core principles of personal energy management in his article for Harvard Business Review: Manage your Energy, Not your Time

Quotes

You have to do it by yourself, and you can't do it alone- Martin Rutte

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish - Jean De La Fontaine

In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer - Albert Camus

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants - Isaac Newton

Humour

This is 70 seconds of pure genius and is absolutely hilarious:

The Ultimate Tease

Last and by no means least, a very big thank you to you, for taking the time to read my musings and your ongoing support.

I really do appreciate it.

Sunil

Ps. My next blog will be on 17th August. Until then..... be well.

Do you feel over-appreciated.....

admin — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 09:28:21 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 21-08-11

When I speak to a group, I often ask how many of them feel over-appreciated.

Despite putting the question to thousands of people over the years, I've yet to see a single person raise their hand.

Just before we went on holiday, my wife and I had a garden party. The subsequent texts, e-mails and phone calls - all of which were gratefully received - showed that a great time was had by all. In fact, most attendees used the phrase "great party". However, one couple's feedback was conspicuous by its absence.

When we arrived back last week there was a hand delivered, hand written note from the couple lying on the doormat which simply said, "Thank you for being such magnificent hosts."

Great appreciators personalise their appreciation and focus on the person rather than the situation.

One of my coaching clients, a senior manager, recently wanted to reward one of his temporary administrators, Rachel, for working past midnight. At the end of the evening he thanked Rachel for going the extra mile and discovered that she had forfeited the opportunity to go to the cinema with her friends.

As they walked out of the building that night, he also discovered that Rachel was studying Journalism and Film Studies and her dream job was to become a film critic for a leading newspaper.

So rather than buy Rachel a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates, he bought her a 3 month unlimited pass to her local cinema which cost the same, but was received with a shriek of delight and the very broadest of smiles.

Quotes

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated - William James

People may take a job for more money, but they often leave it for more recognition - Bob Nelson

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom - Theodore Rubin

Don't worry when you are not recognised, but strive to be worthy of recognition - Abraham Lincoln

Humour

New Words

Intunition - Mentally hearing a song begin seconds before it plays on the album.

Indigestures - The half-hearted protestations you feel required to make when someone else offers to pay for the bill.

Accidue - The small pile of broken glass, metal and other debris that remains at the scene several months after a road accident.

Aquadextrous - Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub tap on and off with your toes.

Frust - The small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug.

Comeondowns - Depression resulting from knowing all the answers to a big prize game show while confined in your living room.

Alfred Hitchcook - To stab continuously at a block of frozen vegetables to make them cook faster.

Carperpetuation - The act, when vacuuming, of running over a string or a piece of thread at least a dozen times, reaching over and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to give the vacuum one more chance.

To your success,

Sunil

Steve Jobs: How to Live before you Die

admin — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 05:12:11 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 28-08-11

Upon hearing that Steve Jobs had stepped down as CEO of Apple this week, Stephen Fry commented,

"I don't think there is a human being on the planet who has been as influential in the last 30 years in the way culture developed and has proved quite so conclusively that passion and taste and belief are more important than a hard business head."

Whatever your thoughts about Jobs, the facts are unambiguous. Jobs has led the field in three separate industries:

Music- the iPod has revolutionized the way music is delivered;

Movies- Pixar is one of the world's most successful animation studios (they made "Toy Story");

Computing- the Mac and the iPad lead the way when it comes to design, functionality and ease of use.

Jobs leaves his CEO role just as Apple becomes the most valuable company in the world with a market capitalisation of nearly $340bn.

I admire Jobs not because of his financial success, but because he lives with passion and this passion is reflected in his products. Jobs has never sought to create products which people like. He has sought to create products and a support service which people LOVE and are passionate about.

When he was asked what made the Mac OS X operating system so good he replied, "When we designed the buttons on the screen, we made them look so delicious that you want to lick them". Not a word about gigabytes, megahertz or any technical.

When Jobs tried to lure John Sculley from Pepsi he said, "Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?" Sculley promptly joined Apple and helped to change the world.

Jobs has often said that he doesn't seek to compete, because he knows that in an age of excess supply, true competition comes from actually not competing but being different and running your own race. As Jobs says in the inspirational video below "Our time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice."

Every time he is faced with a big choice, Jobs asks himself, "What would I do if this was the last night of my life?" He met his wife, Laurene like that.

He was giving a university address and Laurene was sitting in the audience. He fell for her and approached her after the event. Laurene gave him her number. He wanted to take Laurene out for dinner that very night but had an important business meeting. On his way back to his car, he asked himself "What would I do if this was the last night of my life?" He ran back to the auditorium, found Laurene and took her out to dinner.

They've been together ever since.

Steve Jobs: How to Live before you Die

Quotes

I don't think much of a man who is not wiser than he was yesterday - Abraham Lincoln

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance - Benjamin Franklin

Stay hungry and foolish - Steve Jobs

Always be in the state of becoming - Walt Disney

Humour

Insults, Put Downs & Come backs

- Which do you think is my best side?
- My dear, you're sitting on it.

Mary Anderson, actress & Alfred Hitchcock

- Is Ringo Starr the best drummer in the world?
- He's not even the best drummer in The Beatles.

Reporter & John Lennon

- Winston, you're drunk.
- Bessie, you're ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober.

Bessie Braddock & Winston Churchill

- You're hit writers; one letter short, but still.

Clive Anderson to The Bee Gees

- Two tickets reserved for you for the first night of my new play. Bring a friend. If you have one.
- Cannot make first night. Will come second night. If you have one.

George Bernard Shaw & Winston Churchill

- If I were you were wife, I'd put poison in your coffee.
- If I were your husband, I'd drink it.

Nancy Astor & Winston Churchill

- Could you tell me the way to the House of Commons loo?
- First left, go along the corridor. You'll see a door marked Gentlemen, but don't let that deter you.

J.H. Thomas, M.P. & F.E. Smith, M.P.

To your success,

Sunil

Would you pick more daisies.....

admin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:34:45 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 04-09-11

I recently met an oncologist who specialises in the provision of palliative care.

I remarked that dealing with dying people must be very draining. To my surprise he replied, "Dealing with the dying is wonderfully life affirming, most of them live life to the absolute maximum and have more fun in their last few months then they have done in all their previous years put together. It constantly reminds me to try new things and take a few more risks."

In the experience of his team of doctors and nurses the Top 4 regrets of the dying are:

1) I could have achieved more

2) I should have taken more risks

3) I should have spent more time with the people I love

4) I didn't do work that I really wanted to do

My exchange with the oncologist sparked a lively debate later that evening with some friends, when I asked the following question: "If you could go back in time to visit your younger self what advice would you give?"

Here is a list of 11 things that we came up with:

1) Life is so much easier when you stop trying to be cool and impress others and simply do more of who you really are - in my case a Kevin Keegan perm in the 70's and wearing Farah slacks which were so tight that self-castration was a distinct possibility every time I tried to sit down. What? You mean I'm not alone? You've had such wardrobe malfunctions too?

2) Trying to be something you're not is not sexy. Be you. That's when you're beautiful.

3) You don't need a certain number of friends just a number of friends that you can be certain of.

4) Spend more time with people who increase your energy and make you smile and stay away from people that drain you of energy and make your heart sink.

5) It doesn't matter how badly your heart has been broken, the world will not wait for you to wallow in grief and self-pity and the sun will not stop from shining - 15 years ago I was dumped 2 weeks before I was due to get married and thought I was going to die, only to get married 4 years later and have 11 great years of marriage - and counting - with 2 wonderful kids.

6) One of the best feelings in the world is to make a difference by doing the work that you love.

7) If you want something you've never had, you have to get out your comfort zones and do something you've never done.

8) If you want love, give love. If you want money, give value. It's really that simple.

9) Acquiring knowledge doesn't necessarily mean that you're growing and developing. Personal growth happens when you apply what you know and it changes your life.

10) You're never too old to follow your dreams, whatever they may be. I didn't become a professional speaker and author until the age of 43.

11) There is only one way to learn, and that's through taking action. Trying to learn without doing is like trying to lose weight by watching someone else exercise. It's just not going to work.

Nadine Stair has beautifully captured her feelings on this subject in a poem:

I'd Pick More Daisies

If I had my life to live over,
I'd try to make more mistakes next time.
I would relax. I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have on this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances,
I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers,
and watch more sunsets.
I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I'm one of those people who lives
sensibly and sanely,
hour after hour, day after day.

Oh, I've have had my moments
And if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them.
In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.
Just moments, one after another,
Instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
I've been one of those people who never goes anywhere
without a thermometer, a hot water bottle and a
raincoat.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot
earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances.
I would ride more merry-go-rounds and
I would pick more daisies.

Written by Nadine Stair, aged 85

.....What advice would you give to your younger self? I'd love to know.

Quotes

We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing - George Bernard Shaw

Life expands or diminishes in proportion to ones courage - Anais Nin

We're here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here? - Steve Jobs

You can have everything in life if you can just help others to get what they want - Zig Ziglar

Humour

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer. She says she's going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.

The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, she has the title and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.

The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for using a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.

Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, "Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is why would you bother to borrow $5,000?"

The blonde replies, "Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"

......And now you know a 'smart blonde' joke.

To your success,

Sunil

A Lesson from Hugh Laurie.....

admin — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:01:24 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 11-09-11

In the medical drama "House" - the world's most watched TV show in 2008 and now in its 8th season - Dr. House treats only those who come to him as a last resort. These are the patients with seemingly unsolvable illnesses.

Invariably, House quickly assimilates the information available, makes a diagnosis and prescribes treatment. Often he's wrong, but the patient's response to the treatment gives him more information into what's wrong.

Or, to put it another way, his action enhances clarity.

Planning, planning and more planning doesn't always make for the best decisions.

Research increasingly shows that we think better on our feet when we make a quick, but not necessarily exhaustive review of the information available and go with our gut. This is well documented in psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's classic book Flow and more recently in Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

When Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, bought Skype for $2.6Bn, she was asked what her future plans were for eBay. Her reply was, "Forget about 5 year plans, we're working on 5 day plans here."

I'm sure Whitman had looked 5 years into the future, but given that product and business life cycles are so short, Whitman and her team had to work out much of the plan as they went.

Based on a large body of evidence, Gladwell argues that "decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately."

He quotes a study undertaken in 2006 which showed that people can accurately predict the result of political elections after seeing just 10 seconds of footage of the candidates.

At some point you have to stop thinking, stop planning, stop procrastinating and do something.....anything!

So what decision have you been putting off? Trust your instincts, make a decision (TODAY!) and run with it.

Quotes

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security - John Allen Paulos.

Happiness is like a butterfly.
The more you chase it, the more it eludes you.
But if you turn your attention to other things,
it comes and sits softly on your shoulder.
- Henry David Thoreau

People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason the world is in chaos, is because things are being loved, and people are being used - Unknown

Humour

One Liners

1. You offer someone a sincere compliment on their moustache and suddenly she's not your friend any more.

2. This one goes out to all the amnesiacs out there, and don't think you know who you are.

3. The neighbour just asked if I was stealing his wi-fi, it felt like such an invasion of my piracy.

4. Baby with a bib that said, "This dumbass put my cape on backwards."

5. Exorcism is nothing but the removal of a beast implant.

6. All knight diners were big during the Renaissance period.

7. It takes a long time for a giraffe to swallow his pride.

8. I wonder how things worked out for the guy that grabbed the bull by the horns.

9. When we got married she treated me like a God. A few years later and the letters have been reversed.

10. I hate it when you're making your way home drunk, minding your own business, and someone steps on your fingers.

To your success,

Sunil

The Monkey Bar kid lets go.....

admin — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:17:03 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 18-09-11

Do you remember swinging on the monkey bars in the playground when you were a kid?

In order to move forward and reach the other end you have to let go of the bar.

Sometimes in life we have to let go of something that has served us well in the past and this can be really tough.

We're conditioned by our physical environment, by what our parents and others tell us, by events that impact us emotionally, and by the social structures that surround us. As adults we quickly become comfortable inside our individual box and continue to live on 'autopilot'.

Many of us who are in large corporations know first hand, that the hardest task is often to get the corporate mind to start to unlearn some of the gospels that have made them successful in the past and that will no longer work in the future.

Just as we can't plant new crops without first uprooting the old roots and giving the new seeds a chance, we need to unlearn before we can learn anew.

Last Monday, Novak Djokovic the World No. 1, beat Rafael Nadal to win the US Open. His record in 2011 is outstanding: Played 66, Won 64, with 10 tournament titles, including 3 Grand Slams.

But it wasn't always so. After winning the Australian Open in 2008, Djokovic got "stuck" at World No. 3. Many of us would be happy with World No. 3, but Djokovic's childhood dream was to win Wimbledon and be World No. 1.

So last year Djokovic decided to go back to the drawing board and analyse every aspect of his game. His key findings were that he needed to hit his ground strokes both deeper and harder. This was easier said than done as he had essentially been playing the same way, day in day out, since he turned professional eight years ago.

The result of Djokovic unlearning and then learning a new style of play was that this year he fulfilled his childhood ambition of being World No. 1 and winning Wimbledon.

So don't just learn to learn..... learn to unlearn and ask yourself:

"What is not serving me that I need to unlearn?"

As the following 60 second video demonstrates, let go of any mental baggage that is holding you back so that you can

Live life beyond the lid

Quotes

In a time of drastic change, it is the unlearners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists - Eric Hoffer

The most important lessons lay not in what I needed to learn, but in what I first needed to unlearn - Jim Collins (author "Good to great")

The difficulty lies, not in new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of have been, into the corners of our minds - John Maynard Keynes

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of choice - John F. Kennedy

Humour

One Liners

1. We'll be attending the National Schizophrenic's Convention. Anybody who's everybody will be there.

2. She quit speaking to me when I wouldn't open the car door for her. It's not my fault. I just panicked and swam to the surface.

3. Yawning is the body's way of saying "Low Battery".

4. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

5. Calories make the world go round.

6. Sign in restaurant window: "Eat now - pay Waiter".

7. Procrastinators of the world unite.....tomorrow.

8. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

To your success,

Sunil

The Postman knocks 50 times.....

admin — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 02:53:58 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 25-09-11

There's a wonderful story about a man who travels from London to a business conference in California.

On the last day of the conference, in the last seminar, the man sits next to a woman who has come from New York. The pair of them get on fabulously well. It transpires that they are both freelance journalists, authors and single.

They share a cab back to the airport, exchange contact details and agree to keep in contact.

The man walks away completely besotted.

Every week for the next 50 weeks the man writes a letter to the woman in New York.

The week before the first anniversary of their meeting, the woman writes to the man and tells him that she's married the postman.

Please don't confuse efforts with results.

There are just under 100 days until the end of the year. Are you focussed on doing the right things?

It doesn't matter how you started this year, what matters is how you finish.....

Are you going to finish strong? (160 second video)

Quotes

What luck for rulers that men do not think - Adolf Hitler

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day - Robert Frost

Diplomacy is the art of letting someone have your way - Daniele Vare

People don't want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith - faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell. The missing ingredient in most failed communication is humanity - Annette Simmons, author of Whoever tells the best Story wins

Humour

The things they say.....

I'm a marvellous housekeeper.
Every time I leave a man, I keep his house
- Zsa Zsa Gabor

I'm not going to vacuum until Hoover make one I can ride on
- Roseanne Barr

Once during prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water - W.C. Fields

I've exercised with women so thin that buzzards followed them to the car - Joan Rivers

Last night I dreamed I ate a 10 pound marshmallow. When I woke up my pillow was gone - Tommy Cooper

My grandmother is over 80 years old and still doesn't need glasses.....she drinks straight from the bottle - Henny Youngman

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days - Benjamin Franklin

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours
- Jerome K. Jerome

Insanity doesn't run in my family, it gallops - Cary Grant

My grandmother was a very tough woman. She buried three husbands and two of them were just napping - Rita Rudner

Inside me there's a thin person struggling to get out, but I can usually sedate her with four or five cupcakes - Oprah Winfrey

To your success,

Sunil

Once upon a time....

admin — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 09:17:16 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 02-10-11

I spoke at an Entrepreneurs Conference this week. There was no shortage of energy, enthusiasm and good intentions, but most of the sales pitches I heard from the budding entrepreneurs were rather disappointing.

Any sense of intrigue was quickly lost after being subjected to a bland monologue of facts, figures and soporific data.

Research clearly shows that people love buying but they hate being sold to.

We want to be captivated by compelling stories and salient facts that help us to make a good decision, quickly. This is what the best advertisers do.

Take the following examples:

Toyota:      "This Toyota will last for many years"
                                           Vs.
                  "My father drove this Toyota for 100,000 miles without any problems"

iPod:          "It has 16Mb of storage capacity"
                                           Vs.
                  "It can store over 3000 songs"

UNICEF:     "£10 will make a real difference"
                                           Vs.
                  "£10 will feed a family for 10 days"

As the man who brought us the Post-it Note, 3M's Art Fry says, "It's one thing to have an idea, but if you can't communicate it to others, you're dead in the water."

The best communication is short, emotional and adds value, like the Conservatives game changing poster in the 1979 UK election:

By crafting your own personal experiences into stories and revealing that which is common to us all: our humanity, you enable people to connect with you.

In a world of excess information, overflowing with choices, the great communicators inspire, motivate and influence others by infusing a human element into their communication through the simple telling of stories.

So if you want your colleagues, friends and family to buy into you and what you say, it's time to become your own CSO: Chief Storytelling Officer

Everyone has some great stories to tell. What are yours?

Quotes

Tell me a fact and I'll learn.
Tell me the truth and I'll believe.
But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever. - Indian Proverb

Self expression must pass into communication for its fulfilment - Pearl Buck

It isn't that they can't see the solution, it is that they cannot see the problem - G.K. Chesterton

You can and you must tell a story if you expect to succeed - Seth Godin , bestselling author

Humour

Kids on Love and Marriage.....

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
- Ricky, age 10

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?

You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
- Alan, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person forever by then.
- Camille, age 10

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
- Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOUR MUM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

Both don't want any more kids.
- Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
- Lynnette, age 8

On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
- Martin, age 10

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

When they're rich.
- Pam, age 7

The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
- Curt, age 7

The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
- Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
- Anita, age 9

To your success,

Sunil

The promise of a happy ending.....

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:37:27 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 09-10-11

Last week was my birthday. My mailbox was full of 50th minus 1 messages - thanks! My wife gave me a typically irreverent and humorous card, but inside she had written the words "you are my happy ending".

What I like about our relationship is that it's uncomplicated.

Maybe that's because I'm simple. I love simplicity and abhor clutter and complexity, because it drains me of energy.

Sure we have our moments, but there is lots of:

- Laughter
- Listening
- Learning
- Loyalty &
- Love

Our relationship is simple. I've found that when you have this sort of simplicity in your life it centres and energises you.

As design guru Professor John Maedam says, "Simplicity is about extracting the obvious and adding the meaningful. Once you do that, life becomes simple."

And no one individual has ever done this better, than the genius we so sadly lost this week, Steve Jobs: How to live before you die .

Given my previous failed marriage, my mother viewed my wife with considerable suspicion, when first they met. Was this over qualified GP really marriage material? Could this woman create a happy home for her son?

Well this is the woman, who on the day of our engagement, made many promises, and has kept every one.

Quotes

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak - Hans Hofman

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci

Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated - Confucius

Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means - Dr. Koichi Kawana

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful - William Morris

Humour

The Sunday Times recently described him as "side splittingly funny".

Here is a hilarious 2 minute video of Micky Flanagan on restaurants .

To your success,

Sunil

Workafrolics vs. Workaholics.....

admin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 09:35:59 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 16-10-11

After having delivered a seminar this week, I enjoyed a couple of beers with my client and caught the 8:30pm train back home from London.

Within 5 minutes of the train setting off, over a third of the almost full carriage had their eyes closed and were asleep.

Although I've never heard of a person on their death bed wishing that they had spent more time at work, many people still see it as a badge of honour to work late every night.

Workaholism is unnecessary, short-sighted and creates more problems than it solves, specifically:

1. It's not sustainable over time and is extremely detrimental to physical health.

2. Throwing hours at a problem rarely solves the problem and is intellectually lazy.

3. Working more and more hours is rarely productive.

4. No one makes great decisions when they're tired.

5. Workaholics encourage a culture of "presenteeism" where people feel guilty and obliged to stay late, even if they aren't going to be productive.

As Fried and Hansson say in their excellent book Rework,

"Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured a faster way to get things done."

Over the longer term, it's the Workafrolics - the people who work hard and play hard - who are truly successful.

Quotes

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but instead, someone - Coco Chanel

Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash - Harriet Rubin

It takes time to build a corporate work of art. It takes time to build a life. And it takes time to develop and grow. So give yourself, your enterprise, and your family the time they deserve and the time they require - Jim Rohn

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle - Albert Einstein

Humour

One minute you're riding your bike, focussed on winning the race, then next the minute.....KER-POW !! (39 second video)

One Liners

If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

I think, therefore we have nothing in common.

The difference between a baby and a boyfriend is that you can leave a baby alone with a babysitter.

Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.

Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

To your success,

Sunil

Don't water the concrete.....

admin — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:32:53 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 23-10-11

Research by the National Science Foundation and other leading research institutions show that we have as many as 50000 thoughts per day.

We might have a thousand things on our mind but we clearly can't succeed at a thousand things.

Whether you're producing pizza or software products, the fact remains the same: successful people and successful companies have a single-minded focus.

This laser like focus channels their energy into the achievement of their goal and ensures that their energy isn't wasted. After all, what's the point in watering the concrete?

Warren Buffett (best advice he ever received - 2 min video) became the world's most successful investor by focussing. When asked about his power of focus, he replied, "I can't be involved in 50 or 75 things. That's a Noah's Ark way of investing - you end up with a zoo that way. I like to put meaningful amounts of money in a few things."

Successful people don't dabble and are quite often only great at one thing.

When you focus the sun's ray through a magnifying glass, the concentration of energy can start a fire. Focusing your energy on one thing will help you to fire your own success.

Quotes

The key to our success is a fanatical focus on doing one thing well - Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza

If you want to be a great software company, you have to be only a great software company - you can't dabble in other things - Bill Gates

Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life - John D. Rockefeller Jr., philanthropist

To do a good job of something you've got to concentrate in one area, not be a jack of all trades - Ted Turner, founder of CNN

Humour

Pure, comedy genius in the shape of the inimitable,

Dave Allen: would you Adam and Eve it (5 min video) .....enjoy.

To your success,

Sunil

Nothing tastes as good as fit feels.....

admin — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 06:50:55 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 30-10-11

All of us reach a point in our life where something has got to change. It could be eating healthy, doing exercise, or maybe doing more of what we love.

But even when the need for change is shouting loudly and clearly at us, and our resolve is strong, we often fall short. Consider the following:

- 95% of those who lose weight on a diet regain it.

- Even after a heart attack, only 1 in 7 make a sustainable change to eating more healthy and taking regular exercise.

- The average person makes the same New Year's resolution 10 separate times without success.

- 70% of organisational change initiatives ultimately fail.

In his superb book "The way we're working isn't working", performance psychologist Tony Schwartz details why we need to install new habits at the unconscious level. It's only when they become "automatic", when we don't think them, that new habits are likely to succeed and stand the test of time.

Research by Schwartz and Professor Roy Baumeister of Florida State University, cites 6 keys to creating a new habit:

1. Only bite off what you can chew - don't try and change too many things at once. Stick to only one or two things.

2. Be precise and specific - write down your goals and then break these down into daily, or even hourly, micro-goals. It's about moving forward one small step at a time, rather than trying to jump the Grand Canyon in one go.

3. The new habit should be a positive, affirmative act rather than a negative act trying to resist something - trying to resist eating chocolate and cookies all day rapidly depletes our willpower. Having healthy snacks close to hand in the office and at home avoids hunger which can trigger the old habit. It's easier and more effective to avoid temptation than to resist it. Planning and scheduling are major contributors towards staying on the path to success.

4. We derive a sense of safety from doing what we've always done, even if it will damage us in the long run. So we need to recognise how we might unconsciously sabotage our need for change to maintain the status quo. For example, after a long hard day at work, a bottle of wine with a take away curry, will numb the fatigue and boost the blood sugar levels, whereas a salad with a mineral water probably won't be quite as comforting. Recognising the downsides and focussing on the positive i.e., "nothing tastes as good as fit feels" will enhance the chance of success.

5. Enlist the support of others. When you make a commitment to someone else to change a behaviour, it creates a higher level of accountability. A coach or a group of 3 or 4 people is ideal. Check in with your new habit partner(s) once a week.

6. Ask the person in the mirror "How am I doing?" Because our appetite for instant gratification and our capacity to kid ourselves will never disappear, we need to look in the mirror from time to time. Honest self-observation is the antidote to unwitting self-deception. At the end of the day, we can't change what we don't see.

If I can help you with creating a new habit, then do let me know.

Quotes

Every time you're tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future - Deepak Chopra

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice - you can't dabble in other things - Wayne Dyer

A man who wants something will find a way; a man who doesn't will find an excuse - Stephen Dolley Jr.

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Humour

If you're having a Halloween party, then do be careful.....

Happy Halloween!

To your success,

Sunil

He can't dance, he can't catch, he's not funny.....

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:34:10 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 06-11-11

"I can't catch a ball to save my life. I have two left feet on the dance floor. My sense of humour is practically laughable. I'm a hairstylist's worst nightmare. And I can barely strum a guitar."

This is what Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men, said about himself during a recent interview.

You, just like everyone else, have many things that you're not particularly good at.

Ignore them, because if you focus on your weaknesses, all you'll end up with are strong weaknesses.

Focus on what you can do, rather than what you can't do.

Look where it got Bill Gates (please download images):

Quotes

The price of anything is the amount of life that you exchange for it - Henry David Thoreau

The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them - Anon

Remember that you are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost - Martha Graham

The object of education isn't knowledge; it's action - Thomas Kempis

Humour

Thanks to Brian for these gems (please download images),

Why boys need parents.....

To your success,

Sunil

Now and Zen.....

admin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:04:32 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 13-11-11

Take any item that you can catch, be it a bunch of keys, a piece of fruit, a coin, or anything small.

Now relax, throw the item in the air to at least your eye line or higher, and catch it.

Do this now, before you read the rest of this column. It will only take a few seconds.

After you've caught the item, ask yourself what you were thinking when the item was in the air.

It wasn't anything to do with work was it?

It wasn't worrying about money?

It wasn't worrying about what you should have eaten?

It wasn't worrying about what you need to do?

At the moment the object was in the air you were in a state of pure awareness; you were in the present moment, completely focussed on the object.....a moment of instant Zen.

May your life be filled with such moments.

Quotes

Your authentic self is who you are when you have no fear of judgment - Dr Philip McGraw

If you decide to do the things that are easy, life becomes difficult.
If you decide to things that seem difficult, life becomes easy - Stefaan Engels (Engels ran 365 marathons in 365 days after being diagnosed with severe asthma: a world record)

The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: you have no one else to blame - Erica Jong

Humour

There were three Indian squaws.

One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin.

All three became pregnant.

The first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys.

This just goes to prove that... the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.

Just in case you need a little help......Pythagoras? Albeit with a little poetic licence.

To your success,

Sunil

Don't Carpe Diem.....

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:07:43 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 20-11-11

I suspect that you'll have heard the phrase, Carpe Diem, which means "seize the day".

Whilst this is a useful reminder to live each day fully, it's not very practical since you can't actually seize the day.

What you can seize, however, is the moment.

Life is a series of moments and it's the quality of each moment which determines the quality of your life.

The revered psychologist Abraham Maslow said that each moment presents an opportunity, where we can either step forward into growth, or step back into safety.

Whatever we decide to do with each moment, once it's gone, it's gone forever.

If we want to close the gap between the results that we're capable of achieving and what we're actually achieving, then we need to seize the moment or in Latin, Carpe Punctum.

So in the words of St. Nike, go for it and Carpe Punctum!

Quotes

leave out the parts people skip - Elmore Leonard (best-selling author)

I not only use all the brain I have, I use all the brains I can borrow - Calvin Coolidge

There is one thing that is stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come - Victor Hugo

The harder I practice, the luckier I get - Gary Player (golfer and winner of 9 Major championships)

To your success,

Sunil

Shift Happens.....

admin — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:02:53 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 27-11-11

I suspect that you may not have heard of George Buckley and probably don't recognise him, but have used his products:

Born into abject poverty in Yorkshire in 1947, Buckley had a very tough childhood.

His parents abandoned him at 4 months old, and then his grandmother gave him to neighbours. He ended up at a school for the handicapped, crippled with anaemia and a limp, where he was easy prey to a paedophile and was raped.

Buckley left school at 15 with no qualifications but with a determination not to let his past steal his future.

He got a job as an electrician's apprentice, took night classes at the local college and after many years studying, eventually gained a PhD.

In 1978, Buckley took a risk by going to live in America, saying he couldn't stay in England because "I was born to the wrong parents, went to the wrong schools, attended the wrong university and have the wrong accent. So I'm going somewhere it doesn't matter."

The risk paid off.

Today, Sir George Buckley is the Chairman and CEO of 3M (Post It Notes & Sellotape) - a $27bn operation - and is in charge of 80000 employees across more than 65 countries.

In a recent interview Buckley said, "I discovered in life you can choose to be a victim or a victor. I chose to be a victor".

Shift happens.

Quotes

Not until the pain of the same is greater than the pain of change will you embrace change - Dave Ramsey

The great use of life is to spend it doing something that will outlast it - William James

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining - John F. Kennedy

Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere - Einstein

To your success,

Sunil

Worrier or Warrior.....

admin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:09:01 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 04-12-11

Research reveals that many successful people have an interesting strategy when it comes to dealing with rejection. Rather than worry about being rejected, they adopt a warrior like mentality and wear their scars of battle proudly.

They treat their rejections like badges of honour, to remind them of what they've been through and to keep persisting.

Author of 49 novels, Stephen King used this strategy when he first started writing. As a child, King was repeatedly rejected by publishers, but instead of throwing the rejection slips away, he hammered a nail into the wall above his bed and put all his rejections slips on it.

King said, "By the time I was fourteen, the nail in the wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled on it. So I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing." To date, Stephen King has sold over 350 million books.

Most writers can tell you how many rejections they've had. Marketing guru and author of 15 best sellers Seth Godin says, "I had 950 rejection letters before I sold my first book."

The crime writer Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter) sold over 100 million books before he died, but he too was no overnight sensation. McBain received enough rejections to paper the walls of his bathroom so that he could then laugh at all the people who said that his writing was crap!

When the inevitable happens and one of your labours of love is rejected, what's it to be: worrier or warrior?

Quotes

Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow - Norman Vincent Peale

Courage is the price life exacts for granting peace - Amelia Earhart

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Art is the proper task of life - Friedrich Nietzsche

Humour

These photographs are more aaahh than ha ha, but are so wonderful that I wanted to share them with you.....a mother's brilliant imagination:

To your success,

Sunil

More Vuja de, less Deja Vu.....

admin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:06:05 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 11-12-11

One of the most troubling features of these troubled times is that so many capable people look so lost and ineffective.

The most successful people demonstrate a capacity for vuja dé. We've all experienced déjà vu - looking at an unfamiliar situation and feeling like you've seen it before. Vuja dé is the flip side of that - looking at a familiar situation as if you've never seen it before.

As you try to create special, exciting and important work, you can look to other people in unrelated fields to see what works for them - and how you can apply their ideas to your problems.

London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, renowned for its cardiac care, struggled with poorly designed "handoffs" that resulted in errors, complications, even deaths. So Dr. Martin Elliot, Head of Cardiac Surgery, and Dr. Allan Goldman, Head of Paediatric Intensive Care, studied high-powered professionals who were better than anyone at organizing handoffs - the pit crew of Ferrari's Formula One racing team.

The doctors and the pit crew worked together at the team's home base in Modena, Italy, in the pits of the British Grand Prix, and in the Great Ormond Street operating room and intensive-care ward. Members of the pit crew were struck by how clumsy the hospital's handoff process was - not to mention the fact that it often lacked a clear leader. In Formula One races, a so-called "lollipop man" wields an easy-to-see paddle and calls the shots.

Moreover, they noted how noisy the process was. Ferrari pit crews operate largely in silence, despite (or because of) the roar of engines around them. As a result of one of the more unlikely collaborations in modern medicine, the hospital redesigned its handoff procedures and sharply reduced medical errors.

The key message, which is highlighted in former Intel strategist Cynthia Barton Rabe's book, The Innovation Killer is this:

Don't let what you know limit what you can imagine.

Quotes

Reality is whatever refuses to go away when I stop believing in it - Philip Dick

If everyone was satisfied with themselves there would be no heroes - Mark Twain

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live - J.K. Rowling

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving - Albert Einstein

Humour

Hilarious howlers from the Classroom:

"You are under a rest and we will hold you in custard for the night" said the policeman.
The judge condomned the prisoner to death.
Lowry's pictures are mostly about the different prats of Manchester.
I love drawing and painting so my favourite subject is ars.
The pilot was bound to crash the plane. The moment he saw his wig come loose and fall to the ground he knew there was no chance of survival.
"And now" said Mr. Brooks "I shall read your fathers last will and testacle."
.....and at the end of our christmas play we all sang away in a manager.

To your success,

Sunil

Voodoo, we do, you do!.....

admin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 06:00:36 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, Chief Energy Officer, 18-12-11

A fabulous story; both thought provoking and moving:

In Washington DC at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.

During that time:

Approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.

He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar.

A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes - a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes...

A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time.

This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent; without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes - the musician played continuously.

Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.

About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.

The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour...

He finished playing and silence took over.

No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story.

Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The experiment raised a number of questions most notably:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made...

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Enjoy life NOW..... it has an Expiry Date!

Ps. Here's a video of Joshua Bell in action:

Joshua Bell - The Four Seasons "Summer" III. Presto

Quotes

When I was 5 years old, my mum told me that happiness was the key to life.
When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down "happy".
They told me I didn't understand the assignment.
I told them they didn't understand life. - John Lennon

The opposite of play isn't work. It's depression - Brian Sutton-Smith Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania

I've suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened - Will Rogers

Smile. It makes you more interesting. People wonder what you've been up to - Sunil Bali

Humour

This is my last article this year - I'll be back on 8th Jan. - so I've decided to share two gems which, judging from feedback, have caused the greatest hilarity this year:

This interviewer's laughter is infectious. It had me, and I know many of you, in tears.

Host can't stop laughing at man's voice

Voodoo?

These are absolutely hilarious.

They are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?

WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?

WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?

WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"

ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?

WITNESS: My name is Susan!

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?

WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?

WITNESS: Yes.

ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?

WITNESS: I forget.

ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?

WITNESS: We both do.

ATTORNEY: Voodoo?

WITNESS: We do.

ATTORNEY: You do?

WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?

WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?

WITNESS: He's twenty, much like your IQ.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?

WITNESS: Are you kidding me?

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?

WITNESS: Yes.

ATTORNEY: How many were boys?

WITNESS: None.

ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?

WITNESS: Your Honour, I think I need a different attorney.

Can I get a new attorney?

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?

WITNESS: By death.

ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?

WITNESS: Take a guess.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?

WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.

ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?

WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?

WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?

WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK?

What school did you go to?

WITNESS: Oral.

---------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?

WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.

ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?

WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.

---------------------------------------------

A heartfelt thank you for all your messages and contributions this year - I appreciate each and every one - and for allowing me to share my musings with you.

Have a wonderful Xmas and New Year.

Ps. 2 books based on my "Adventures in Awesome Living" column will be published early in the New Year. They're entitled "The Art of Awesome Living" and "The Book of Awesome Humour". If you enjoy this column then I'm sure you'll enjoy the books. If you want to know when they're published then ping me an e-mail: sunil@sunilbali.com .

To your success,

Sunil

Alligator taming.....

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:09:19 +0000

Adventures in Awesome Living

by Sunil Bali, 08-01-12

Over the festive period I caught up with some old episodes of my favourite radio programme, BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

One of the guests was the adventurer and England's favourite doer of ridiculously dangerous things, Bear Grylls

Grylls was asked whether he felt fear when he undertook his adventures. He sounded surprised at the question, laughed, and said of course he felt scared every day.

So why, asked the presenter, didn't he do what many of us would do and run away.

Running away, said Grylls, is often the most risky and worst choice that we can make. It's something we do when we lose control of a situation.

The same is true in business and everyday life.

When we run away - by procrastinating, avoiding the task in question, or outright quitting, we expose ourselves to failure and hardship.

Bear Grylls sees fear as a useful emotion that helps us to function better. It heightens awareness, sharpens our responses, and enables us to perform more quickly and effectively.

When we immerse ourselves completely in the task, we make contact with opportunity, develop leads and produce results. We might get a few bumps and bruises along the way, but the end result is success.

Alligator tamed. Summit peaked. Ocean crossed.

Fear is your body's way of priming you to perform at your optimal level.

It's up to you to decide what to do with it.

Fight or flight?

Quotes

It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult - Seneca

Energy and persistence conquer all things - Benjamin Franklin

In the depths of winter, I learned that in me was an invincible summer - Albert Camus

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace - Amelia Earhart

Humour

More howlers from the classroom, complete with spelling mistakes:

1. One of the most important forces in nature is the force which pulls things to the ground. This force is called gravy.

2. In Africa wild breasts roam the plains.

3. In the forests of Scotland you can see wild dears and slags.

4. The Danish people come from Denmark, the Norwejuns come from Norway and the Lapdancers come from Lapland.

5. In Africa children are staring to death. They only get a little groin to eat. I would not like to eat groin.

6. Today we learned about the Hardon Collider. When the Hardon Collider is turned on it could cause a big bang.

7. In the news today they said they have found the remains of a Roman fart.

To your success in 2012,

Sunil