Happy Holidays

This time of year is a time of reflection. It’s a good time to review what’s been happening in our lives over the last twelve months and to notice with gratitude all the things we have and normally take for granted.

It’s been so great to hear from friends and relatives, business associates, business networks, coaches, mastermind groups and other support networks, via email, ecards, instant messaging, newsletters, ezines, social networking sites and so on, over the last few days and weeks. The world is so small now with the modern technology available to us, and it moves so fast…

The holiday is nearly upon us. The children are so excited, and many of the adults too! Whatever and however you celebrate this time of year, it seems you can not fail to be swept up in the excitement of it all, and yet, there are so many people who dread this festive season. People who have no home, people who have no food, people who have lost loved ones this year, people who have loved ones working away from home, people who are sick and people who are simply afraid.

I am reminded of practising the “attitude of gratitude” (see previous article on my blog) and in particular being grateful for having the ability to create happiness for those who are important to us, just by being in touch with them. We should also be aware and thankful I feel, to all those people who spend their time during this festive season, volunteering or working, providing help where they can to those in need at this time.

So, as we embark on another holiday season and into yet another “best year yet” as we might be hoping for, take a moment to be thankful for what you do have, and be grateful to those who give so selflessly at this time to others.

I want to thank you all for the part you have played in my life this year, whether it be as a friend or family member, a client or supplier, a coach or mentor, a teacher or student, a business competitor or associate, an enquirer or subscriber, a role model or masterminder. It has been another year of learning, of fun, discovery and expanded boundaries. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting lots of wonderful and truly inspiring people from all over the world again, as well as catching up with old friends from time to time. Combined with having such a supportive family, what else could one ask for…thank you.

I wish you, and all those important in your life, a very Happy Holiday and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year.

With warmth and appreciation,

Simon.

The power of a Driving Question

At a recent training event we were asked “what’s your driving question?” This took a significant amount of soul searching and once I got it I realised it wasn’t driving at all and needed changing if I wanted to achieve everything I’ve set out to do. Changing it is a relatively simple process and it can be fully integrated at an unconscious level using NLP.

It all started after I had got even more clarity on my vision and mission and understanding my true purpose.

My purpose is “to be inspired and be inspiring”.

So, my vision is to “contribute massively to the eradication of poverty and child abuse across the planet through education and business activities” and I make no apology for the fact that this is similar to one of my teachers who inspired me in the first place with his own vision “to eradicate poverty through education and entrepreneurial means”.

My mission is to achieve this vision “by teaching, coaching and mentoring people wherever I can, using a variety of educational resources and processes including finding and developing new and innovative accelerated learning tools through research”.

So what about the driving question?

Well, it used to be a number of different questions along the lines of “how did I create that”, “what am I missing” and “why can’t get I beyond this” but ultimately it was simply “what am I doing wrong?” This, of course, did not drive me at all, it simply had me look for the feedback so that I could correct it.

Now, it is absolutely right that we should look for the feedback in all situations and then use that information to improve what we do, in the spirit of “constant and never ending improvement”, however this question as a driving question was not serving me. In fact, it had the opposite effect because I was creating situations to go in a different way than I had planned so that I could gather the feedback.

When I considered my purpose, vision and mission, I realised that a more useful driving question would be:

“How can I create even more love, contribution, inspiration and wealth in my life right now?”
So how does this work on a practical level?

Well, every morning and occasionally throughout the day, I will ask myself this question. At first I hadn’t noticed any immediate difference in the way I behaved until this morning when the light bulb came on…and it’s so simple.

It’s a wet and windy, typical winter’s morning. Still dark and the alarm went off. Kim got up and I turned over thinking I’ll just have another 10 minutes, which normally would have resulted in another 45-60 minutes. Today however, I asked myself “how can I create even more love, contribution, inspiration and wealth in my life right now?” and I answered it with “well, you could get out of bed to begin with”. Duh!!

You see, it doesn’t need to be complicated, it simply needs to work. In this case, the answer was obvious. I can not possibly be serving my purpose or working towards my vision if I’m still in bed. So, get yourself motivated, shift butt and get up!

Needless to say, I was straight up and writing an article, which I trust will inspire at least someone to find their own new driving question. Do let me know if that’s you…


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Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Terri Khonsari, speaker and author of the book “Raising a Superstar – Simple Strategies to Bring Out the BRILLIANCE in your child”.