Life's Coincidences or Are They?

Life's Co-incidences

Have you ever thought to yourself, if I wouldn't have done that I wouldn't be here today or doing what I'm doing?

Four years ago, when Queen Elizabeth II was visiting Singapore, I was invited to join the Welsh Society's table because I was a Past President of the Society. For some reason, there wasn't room for me at the Welsh Society's table (most probably because I was 'past'), so my husband and I ended up sitting at the British school teachers' table, which also happened to be where our daughters attended school. I looked at the list of teachers who would be sitting at the same table as us and remember saying to my husband 'Oh no, I hope I don't end up sitting next to the Headmaster, I won't have anything to say to him.' The only observations I had of the Headmaster was that he was a quiet, reserved and private person, so very different to me! I didn't think we would have anything in common to talk about. Although, I did admire him for his hard work, drive and passion for education.

Who should sit next to me?  It was the Headmaster, Ronald Stones, OBE. I had my husband sitting next to me on the other side, so I had no choice but to strike up a conversation with the Headmaster. We had an amazing conversation, so much so that we ignored everybody else at the table. We suddenly discovered that we had a lot in common. After 12 years dedication and commitment to building an incredible British school in Singapore, the Headmaster was moving on.  He wanted to re-invent his career after having spent all of his professional life building British schools in Asia. I too was re-inventing my career, by setting up my own personal and professional development company in Asia. We also discovered that we both had a passion for Bali. We were both inspired by Bali's unique culture, its beauty and creative, artistic abilities. We talked so much, the Headmaster only managed to have the first course, a bowl of soup, for his lunch! Finally, the Headmaster had to excuse himself, as he had a personal appointment to meet the Queen. Understanding that he was obliged to meet the Queen, rather than continue talking with me, we exchanged business cards and kept in touch via email.

Two and a half years later, Ronald Stones made it possible for us to experience living in Bali.  He became the Director of the Green School. I was lucky enough to be invited to Ron's Symposium on Leadership at his own villa in the beautiful, green countryside of Ubud (an incredible villa that he has personally designed and built over the years). As I was visiting Ron in Bali, I asked him if I could see the school. Ron arranged for me to have my personal tour of the school. I was immediately hooked on the idea of sending our three daughters to this 'once in a lifetime' school.

Our three daughters have now completed their first year at the Green School and it's the first time I've heard them complain that the school weeks have gone too fast! They were enjoying school so much, they didn't want their first year to end!

Was it a coincidence that we ended up living in Bali or was the seed already sown?  As a family we had been going on holiday to Bali for ten years, since we first moved to Hong Kong. As the saying goes 'As you sow, so shall you reap.' Just make sure that what you sow is in line with what you want.

What thoughts or intentions can you sow that work to your advantage? Once you know what you want, you will find that good 'coincidences' happen, which will bring you closer to your goals, dreams and wants.

"There is no such thing as chance, and what seems to us mere accident springs from the deepest source of destiny."

Friedrich Schiller, German poet, philosopher, historian and playwright

Enjoy life's coincidences and let them work to your advantage.

Janet

No Limits

NoLimits

My feet are starting to land back on the ground again after having run an intensive 7 day NLP leadership programme at the Oberoi Hotel in Bali. For many years, I dreamed of running leadership development retreats in Bali and this dream became possible, which demonstrates the power of 'no limits' thinking. Where there is a will, there's definitely a way.




What stops us from being or doing what we want to be or do?  It usually has something to do with the limits we impose upon ourselves. We use excuses such as 'I can't; it's not possible; I'm too busy; I'm no good at.......; I will never make it; I don't have it in me; I'm too .......; one day when ......' These excuses become our limiting beliefs and we start to believe in them as if they are true. The more we think 'I can't', the more we become entrenched in our thinking and if something happens to us that validates our belief that we can't, we will use this as evidence to justify why it's not possible. What we are doing is shutting off ourselves from possibilities and our thinking becomes closed.

Last week, as I looked out to the turquoise blue sea from the Oberoi Hotel and heard the waves gently lapping up against the beach, I couldn't help but wonder in disbelief how I had got there. One of the programme themes I ran was 'We have all the resources we need.' It took me over 10 years to pluck up the courage to set up a leadership development company. My limits had been stopping me from achieving my dream.  I used all sorts of excuses such as 'It's only me' to 'One day when I have enough experience, qualifications and the children are older etc.'  I used to say to myself  'I've done good to get where I am', as though I couldn't expect myself to go any further!

I deliberately called our company 'NoLimits' as it's only our limits that hold us back and there are no limits to what we can achieve. All that is required is for us to focus our mind on what we want, take action and trust that we can always find a way, if we have a will to make it work.

As one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century said: 

"If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits.  There are only plateaus and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."

Bruce Lee (1940-1973)

Take away the limits that you impose upon yourself and discover a whole new world of possibilities.

To find out more about our training on overcoming limits and achieving what you want, contact Sandra Lai at our NoLimits Head Office sandralai@nolimitsasia.com or call +65 6232 2466
 
Overcome your limits now and reach your full potential.

Janet

Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing

Following on from the last couple of blogs and the theme of the power of our words and thoughts, how do we get beyond positive thinking to even more powerful and better results?  We all know how easy it is to get drawn back into unresourceful thinking, even if we have told ourselves to think more positively. What makes a difference is the way in which we use our visual representations in our mind to see our outcome with more clarity.

Let me share an example with you to explain what I mean. Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to get whisked away on the back of a motorbike by a former trainee on one of my NLP programmes and who has now become my good Hungarian friend.

My friend lives in Ubud, a major arts and cultural town in the central hills of Bali and nestled in the middle of the lush, tropical countryside. We were two women on a shopping mission heading towards the Tegallalang Road. This road is adorned with one shop after the other, offering a magical, artistic array of colours and textures, from wood, glass, mirror, tiles, beads, house decorations to beautiful pieces of furniture and ironwork. It's a complete cornucopia of hand made artefacts and an Aladdin's cave of treasures. When you think the road must surely come to an end, it carries on gently twisting and turning for at least two miles. As my friend sped past these endless shops, my head swivelled round and round like an owl on the alert for prey. I was tempted to shout 'stop' at every place. There was so much to see on either side of the road, I couldn't take it all in. When we did stop we walked into what seemed like a small wood carving shop on the outside. On the inside it was a completely different story where it became an overwhelming vision of every conceivable wooden animal, god, box, tray, trinket, picture frame and object. I put on a positive face for my friend, but underneath I was totally overwhelmed.

Just as we can look positive on the outside, we can become overwhelmed by our thoughts on the inside. In order to respond to my friend's question 'what would you like to buy?', I had to focus beyond the sheer volume and dust and dirt on all these objects. I had to focus clearly on what I wanted. To do this properly, I had to visualise what these objects would look like when they were clean, shiny and polished. We have to do this with our thoughts too. Beyond the dust and dirt lies a gem and this gem can be illuminated through our mind's eye. The reason why seeing what we want is more important than just positive thinking, is that our mind naturally works in pictures. The more we see exactly what we want and make it more vivid in our mind, the more real it will appear to us and the more likely we will get to our desired outcome.

We can use the power of visualisation i.e. seeing what we want with anything that we are thinking about and is on our mind. Whether it's health, wealth, happiness, relationships, careers, business, self esteem, you name it.

What's on your mind right now? What specific outcome do you want to see beyond positive thinking? Picture in your mind your vision. Imagine what it could look like. You can use your mind to see beyond what you can see already.

As the conductor says in the Polar Express film:

"Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see." 


I will be looking at the power of how our visual senses in our mind can be leveraged for powerful and resourceful thinking in our next NLP programme. Please click on the NoLimits NLP link on this blog page. Alternatively, NoLimits can provide bespoke leadership development programmes for corporate organisations. Please click on the NoLimits Asia link on this blog page.

Keep on visualising successful outcomes!

Janet