Find your Master Key.

   Another post and another chapter from Steve Chandlers book "100 Ways to Motivate Yourself". I've heard and read about books that people find inspirational and have led to change in their lives. Books have that ability don't they and this one is becoming my inspirational book.
   I can dip in and out. The chapters and their message are short and to the point. The thing I like the best is how the writer isn't preaching or talking down. He appears to fall over the ideas by accident, which of course he hasn't but it keeps the book fresh and easy to read.
   Back to "Find your master key" or what fires you up. Instead of my usual, in a nutshell summing up of the chapter I'm just going to quote a quote from it. "The great master key to riches is nothing more or less than the self-discipline necessary to help you take full and complete possession of your own mind. Remember, it is profoundly significant that the only thing over which you have complete control is your own mental attitude." So said Napoleon Hill.  It doesn't immediately fire you up, does it? However it does state the obvious and the obvious, when you're not yourself, is often overlooked . I've spent an age thinking about why I can't get infused about one thing when I can lose myself happily for hours in something far less important. It's time to step back and think maybe it's not "the thing" I have a problem with but my attitude, or some aspect of it?
   In other news ...... which in a way isn't, as it ties in with the above, I was asked to do a bit of work for an old customer. I did some work for their daughter at the beginning of the year. Which went terrible slowly, I was a little surprised they asked but it was a chance to repair my reputation. So off back down to London where I was given a list of smallish jobs, which I calculated would take a couple of days. As they were away for the weekend and speed being a vital part of getting into their good books I offered to do the job then. I arrived and started, crossing the jobs off as I did them. I even had time to visit there son and repair his kitchen tap on Sunday morning. In the evening I sent a text with a list of what had been done. They're very happy and now I have another list of things they want done. Then it dawned on me, that I like being thought of as "reliable" something I haven't been for a while. Yes I'm kind, polite, funny, caring but not reliable and it's reliability I crave. Why? well it would fill a void within me. Depended on and trusted. Would signal a change. Even more importantly I would like to trust and rely on me. To do whatever needs to be done. No more, putting things off.
   Strictly speaking this isn't totally new to me. I think I've been here before but my nerve failed me. Like the time as a kid I first jumped off the high board at the pool. It took a few walks to the edge before I had enough courage to jump. It's important to remember, that I wouldn't of  jumped had it not been for those first abortive walks to the edge. So I've done the walks over the last years and months now it's time. Focus on the attitude and the rest will follow.

Onwards and upwards in the pursuit of fulfillment :-)))
 
             

Being Creative.

   Chapter 10 of SC's book on motivation "Welcome the unexpected" deals with being creative. He says most of us don't see ourselves as creative. Because we mix it up with being original. Which in reality has nothing to do with being creative. It's more about being and doing the unexpected. A great piece of music or art or film or meal or outfit isn't original. As it uses what's available to create a great piece of etc etc. It's the way you choose to put those bits together. Now suspend your belief that you are not creative for a moment and accept that the seeds of creativity do actually exist within you. Slowly you can start to come up with all kinds of different solutions to the challenges life puts before you.
   It's probably the shortest chapter in the book and I believe it to be the most potent. The answers to your biggest questions lay within you. When you go to your Doctor and explain your symptom(s) he's going to have to take an educated guess as to what the problem is, because it's difficult to put into words how a pain or an ache feels and we hardly ever add any background info. "I have a terrible pain in my lower back" and stop there, leaving out " I spent the weekend digging the garden, something I haven't done in 20 years." If we are confused about why we have a problem with something, then the person we turn to for help will need to be a genius. Which we believe they are, because we want them to be but genius's get things wrong just like we do. Get creative and find what lays beneath a problem.
   In other news........ Things have been very up and down recently. I am back to hiding away. Not depressed or down. Just hiding and avoiding things. As I've written before, it's funny how answers seem to spring from the strangest places when I'm dealing with a difficult situation.
  A friend has been playing with the idea of furthering her work skills. She's been interested in Dyslexia for a while now and I have been her guinea pig. She made some inquires about doing a course a year ago but it involved a chunk of money she didn't have. Recently her boss told a group of them results were not good and if they couldn't find ways of improving profits they may need to slim the workforce. She told her boss about the course and how it could have an impact, hey-ho the boss said "sign up I'll pay." So the first part of the course arrived in the post and she took herself off to the library and picked up a few books. A few days later when we met up to visit an antiques fair, over coffee she told me I was a genius. She had come to this conclusion after reading through her coursework. Oh how I laughed (on the outside, whilst thinking, could that be true, on the inside). While I accept that I have developed paths to get over my Dyslexia, it's no more than we all develop ways and strategies to overcome obstacles. Still it was meant as a compliment and I received it as such. It did set me thinking though. An ant looking up at a rock thinks "how will I get passed that" whilst an Elephant wouldn't give the rock a moments notice. Except maybe to think "why is that ant looking at that rock?" In future I should view my problems from up high. As a Genius and not from below as a Dunce.
   So something read from a book and a compliment from a friend arrive just as things are dipping down to somewhere I'd rather not go. When this has happened before, I rightly or wrongly assumed I was depressed and treated it as such. What if it isn't. What if my engine doesn't fire that well on petrol? my sails don't fill with the wind because my rigging isn't set that way? I have always thought of myself as creative but I'm not using that creativity as well as I could to find a solution as to what bugs me most. Well that's not entirely true. I have recognized that I'm not feeling down or upset just confused and I have mixed those feelings up in the past. I am also very aware that the gap between solutions and excuses is a very faint and thin line. One I've crossed several time before. So from now it's not a step back but a step up.
   When I'm coming home from London I pass a farm that's no longer a farm. It's a pub, restaurant, collection of small craft style shops and it's fields no longer grow hops and barley but play host to car boot sales and meet-ups for owners of exotic cars and the like. Yesterday I was earlier than normal so thought I'd have a look round. The little shabby-chic shop was full of brand near old stuff and signs to hang in your kitchen "Laugh, smile, dream big and do your own washing up" stuff that doesn't inspire me that much. The owner, sitting at her desk smiled and said there was more upstairs and I smiled back and took to the stairs not wanting to upset her and feigning delight at the prospect of more new old stuff and "life could be worse," signage. Upstairs however was sign free and full of old old stuff and for the next fifteen minutes I was like a pig in poo. In a dusty corner I found an Art Deco chrome floor lamp, with it's price tag discretely tucked away. I reached for it, expecting three numbers after the £ sign but nooooooo £28. Thats 35 Euro's or $45 to most of you. I pushed my glasses from their perch on the top of my head to the top of my nose and checked again. Still £28 no faint marks or bad penmanship that could be anything else than £28. Although being the only customer in the shop I dragged the lamp everywhere I went. Like a dog with a bone. Finally ending up at the desk and the owner. I smiled while inside my head the "disappointment department" was gearing up for "No, I'm sorry that's a mistake" instead "That's £28 please." I gave her one more chance to shatter my dreams "£28?" "Yes, it's probably worth more but I need to clear some stock." No doubt there was a container already despatched from China. Stuffed full of new old stuff and a sign for every kitchen in Kent, heading right for us at that very moment. To aid her in her quest to make space, I removed the cash from my wallet as fast as a drunk trying to put a key in a door. The "disappointment department" was screaming "calm down you fool." Minutes later I found myself in the car park. Pushing five foot of 1930's chrome lighting into my car and leaping across the bonnet like Starsky, or was it Hutch. In an effort to put as much distance between "Shabby Chic heaven" and me and my new lamp as possible. As I sit here alternating between typing and polishing the faded chrome I should add that the £28 was part of the cash I got out to pay a parking fine with. Welcome to my World.

Onwards and upwards in pursuit of fulfillment :-)))