Happy New Year!

What a year 2015 has been! I remember three years ago I spent a weekend away by myself and I let my thoughts drift away and imagined all the things that I would like to do before I die. This is better known as a ‘Bucket List’ and as the weekend progressed I wrote down more and more things. I wrote down where I wanted to visit, who I wanted to meet, what I wanted to own, who I wanted to help and things I wanted to learn to do.

When the weekend was over I went back home and looked at the list and started to cross things off and to fine tune the list until I was happy with the things left on it. These things all excited me and were things that were not easy to achieve. In fact at the time of putting the list together I was working as a painter and decorator to pay the bills as I grew my business.

Maintain a positive outlook

The difficult situation I was in didn’t help but I believed that the circumstances I was in could be changed if I maintained a positive outlook and focussed on what was possible not on the current situation. In reality I was working hard painting and decorating but inside my head I was running workshops, coaching executives, speaking on stage and writing a book.

If I focussed on where I was then I didn’t have anything positive to think about, but if I focussed on the list of things I wanted to achieve I would soon be energised and raring to go. To make the visualisation even more powerful I took each of the things I wanted to achieve and found an image for each one which represented the achievement. Once I had found images for all the things I wanted to achieve I copy and pasted the images onto an A4 sheet of paper.

Morning routine

Then each morning I would spend a few minutes looking at one picture and I would imagine myself having achieved that thing. I would use all my senses of taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing to make the experience as vivid as possible. I would also experience the feelings I felt inside once I had achieved one of these dreams. Some people call this a Vision board but I call it my Dream Board.

So over the past 3 years I have been visualising achieving the things on my board every morning almost without fail. I have established a routine where I read motivation books, reflect and visualise some of my dreams every morning. By doing this, things start to appear in your life – coincidences start to happen and before you know it one of the things on your Dream Board comes to pass.

Big Dreams fulfilled

Last year I had a couple of major Dreams come true – I got married and I wrote a book both of which are major events. I have the car I dreamt of and I have spoken on a Cruise Liner. There are 24 things on my current Dream Board which I have just updated with some new Dreams. I am excited for 2016 and I am already visualising more things from the Dream Board being achieved.

This Christmas I have caught up on sleep and have rested well. I worked hard last year perhaps a little too hard and that is one lesson I am taking into 2016 – take time to sharpen the axe. Taking time to look after the mind and body is vitally important if I want to be on stage at the age of 80 still speaking and inspiring people.

Maintain a healthy lifestyle

I caught 3 colds during the past 3 months and that is not good. My lack of sleep and the extra hours I worked took its toll on my immune system and it cracked under the pressure. I am back in my routine of taking my vitamins and I am aiming for 8 hours sleep a night this year.

None of us are superhuman so a sensible sustainable lifestyle is something I have developed over this Christmas period which I aim to maintain during this coming year. It may seem like I am not working as hard but I will be working smarter rather than harder with rest and recovery built in.

Thoughts for 2016

1. How are you doing health wise?
2. If you aren’t in top condition then look at ways to improve
3. Try to get between 7-9 hours sleep if possible
4. Reduce sugar and carbs in your diet
5. Eat plenty of veg, protein, fruit and some carbs
6. Exercise a little each day – a brisk walk will do
7. Do you have any goals written down?
8. If you don’t then go away for a day and write some down
9. Find images which represent these goals/dreams
10. Put these onto an A4 piece of paper
11. Look at one of these a day and imagine yourself having achieved this
12. Feel the feelings that you would experience when you have achieved the dream
13. Develop a routine in the morning where you can be still to read motivation materials and to visualise your dreams being achieved
14. Take massive action during the day but remember to rest and recover

Well that’s it for the first blog of 2016 and what a year it is going to be! Remember what you See and what you Say is what you Get! So speak positively, think positively and see what comes into your life this year.

Happy New Year!

Warm regards

John