When was the last time you did something for the first time ? As one gets older this question is not something you think of or like to be reminded of. We live our lives comfortably in our comfort zones. Change is not something most persons like. The change cycle is worse than mount Everest for most of us.
I drove behind a car this morning with the sticker : In Pretoria praat ons Afrikaans. The Gauteng coat of arms on his number plate was covered over by the old Transvaal flag. Everyone of course is entitled to his own opinion, but this told me something. A lot of people got stuck somewhere in the past and somehow cannot move forward. This is not a political argument and I respect this guy for his opinion.
I also speak Afrikaans. I also live in Pretoria (Not Tshwane, as it is officially still Pretoria where I live)
I also respect the old Boer republics and their flags. But that is history and part of our heritage, but that is all it is. The reality is that we need to move on as time moves on. One can only live towards the future and unless you help create that future you are going to have this problem with the change cycle. While most other persons have moved on and faced new challenges and are doing new things for the first time some got stuck in the perceived mud and do not even know that it has stopped raining and that all there is is dust. And the "stuck" is now only in their minds as the imaginary chain is around the circus elephants leg.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Enjoying life irrespective
Irrespective of what ? I am using the word in the broadest possible meaing. Irrespective of anything !
So is this possible ?
Lets look at a few scenarios
In the first instance you need to change the way you look at things; Turn as many of the words in your vocabulary from the negative to the positive. It still has basically the same meaning but the attitude in the meaning has changed.
Now lets take the word : Problem
Definition :
A problem is an obstacle which makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal, objective or purpose. It refers to a situation, condition, or issue that is yet unresolved. In a broad sense, a problem exists when an individual becomes aware of a significant difference between what actually is and what is desired between one or more individual.
Now we change that word to "challenge"
A test of one's abilities or resources in a demanding but stimulating undertaking. A call to engage in a contest, fight, or competition:
The basic difference in the words are that a problem is stating a situation, an obstacle that exist preventing you from something. All definitions of challenge are action orientated. It implies you to do something !
If we now look at a "situation" where the word problem is used : I have a problem with my boss. This implies that the "problem" exist but I cannot do anything about it. When the sentence is changed to "challenge" it implies that I now have a call to engage the situation.
If this is applied every time you encounter a "Problem" you will suddenly find that it becomes that much easier if you engage the situation. Just remember when you do other smaller "problems" will suddenly appear and you must just do the same with these.
Now getting back to my "Enjoy life irrespective" If you go and look why you are not enjoying life you will find it has its roots in "problems" of some sort. Now haven't I given you a simple tool ?
Capice ?
So is this possible ?
Lets look at a few scenarios
In the first instance you need to change the way you look at things; Turn as many of the words in your vocabulary from the negative to the positive. It still has basically the same meaning but the attitude in the meaning has changed.
Now lets take the word : Problem
Definition :
A problem is an obstacle which makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal, objective or purpose. It refers to a situation, condition, or issue that is yet unresolved. In a broad sense, a problem exists when an individual becomes aware of a significant difference between what actually is and what is desired between one or more individual.
Now we change that word to "challenge"
A test of one's abilities or resources in a demanding but stimulating undertaking. A call to engage in a contest, fight, or competition:
The basic difference in the words are that a problem is stating a situation, an obstacle that exist preventing you from something. All definitions of challenge are action orientated. It implies you to do something !
If we now look at a "situation" where the word problem is used : I have a problem with my boss. This implies that the "problem" exist but I cannot do anything about it. When the sentence is changed to "challenge" it implies that I now have a call to engage the situation.
If this is applied every time you encounter a "Problem" you will suddenly find that it becomes that much easier if you engage the situation. Just remember when you do other smaller "problems" will suddenly appear and you must just do the same with these.
Now getting back to my "Enjoy life irrespective" If you go and look why you are not enjoying life you will find it has its roots in "problems" of some sort. Now haven't I given you a simple tool ?
Capice ?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Funny people and vegetarians
It always amuses me when people that live alternative lifestyles find it necessary to make excuses for their preferences. Like Vegetarians and people that do not drink alcohol. Maybe it is a natural defense mechanism, like in attack before you get attacked.
In most of these cases you will also find that these persons will attack lifestyles that differ from theirs
(that is once they are comfortable with the fact that they have the upper hand by their initial excuses for not conforming. Whoever told them they have to explain their preferences? I do not explain mine.
I have a saying that annoys some of these friends of mine : "I did not get to the top of the food chain by eating grass!"
Please note that I am calling them friends because I have never found it necessary in commenting on their preference of veggies and fruit - hell I even eat some of the stuff myself ! ( sometimes anyway when I run low on the meaty stuff. )
Why am I writing this / I beg of you to leave my milk, eggs and meat alone - I do not believe the world is going to end because of this ( I do think there is more chemicals and pesticides in veggies than what you will find in good red meat anyway)
Now we can get into the arguments if you wish. I am going to state some beliefs that I will defend to the ends of the earth and because of this stop trying to get me to belief otherwise !
1. Butter is better than margarine.
2. Good red meat is good for you.
3. Red wine is very good for you.
4. When you eat , enjoy it , do not count the calories - It is food not maths you are having
(quote from the bible : Eat your food and drink your wine with gusto)
Oh and by the way - more than 90% of people will agree with me - how do I know ?
This week we had a business breakfast. 34 attendees. 30 chose the farmhouse breakfast - 4 chose the so called health breakfast. Farmhouse consisted of bacon, eggs, and boerewors. Health consisted of some fruit and Yogurt (by the way not vegetarian yogurt)
Let us leave the arguments and enjoy what you enjoy and leave the arguments to the scientists who think they know more.
In most of these cases you will also find that these persons will attack lifestyles that differ from theirs
(that is once they are comfortable with the fact that they have the upper hand by their initial excuses for not conforming. Whoever told them they have to explain their preferences? I do not explain mine.
I have a saying that annoys some of these friends of mine : "I did not get to the top of the food chain by eating grass!"
Please note that I am calling them friends because I have never found it necessary in commenting on their preference of veggies and fruit - hell I even eat some of the stuff myself ! ( sometimes anyway when I run low on the meaty stuff. )
Why am I writing this / I beg of you to leave my milk, eggs and meat alone - I do not believe the world is going to end because of this ( I do think there is more chemicals and pesticides in veggies than what you will find in good red meat anyway)
Now we can get into the arguments if you wish. I am going to state some beliefs that I will defend to the ends of the earth and because of this stop trying to get me to belief otherwise !
1. Butter is better than margarine.
2. Good red meat is good for you.
3. Red wine is very good for you.
4. When you eat , enjoy it , do not count the calories - It is food not maths you are having
(quote from the bible : Eat your food and drink your wine with gusto)
Oh and by the way - more than 90% of people will agree with me - how do I know ?
This week we had a business breakfast. 34 attendees. 30 chose the farmhouse breakfast - 4 chose the so called health breakfast. Farmhouse consisted of bacon, eggs, and boerewors. Health consisted of some fruit and Yogurt (by the way not vegetarian yogurt)
Let us leave the arguments and enjoy what you enjoy and leave the arguments to the scientists who think they know more.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Mind block
I am not a Pshycologist or any other shrink. I am just your average thinking human being,
But of late certain insights have hit me and as my friend Wayne would say " you can teach an old dog new tricks" Actually you cannot. But he can learn it if he wants to.
What is the key here ? Choices - I can make the choice to learn new tricks - you can try as hard as you want to but if I am not interested you will get nowhere !
Ok, so what? Any good shrink will tell you that more than 80% of your beliefs are governed by you subconscious mind. So if I decide to try something new and there are hidden beliefs that prevents me from having faith in the venture I am lost. Now this is in all probability the reason why so many ventures fail. It is because of these beliefs in our subconsious mind that prevents us from achieving success.
Simple isn't it ? Your shrink would have charged you around a thousand bucks to come to this point.
Ok but now I have stated the (shrinkwise) obvious. How do we change the scenario?
I am again stating this in laymans terms. I know I am going to get some smart replies, that is ok if it helps someone to understand this better. See ? I have made a statement that only Yesterday would not have been made as I believed that I am right and I really don't care what you think and I would have told you so ! What changed? I will tell you and this is the key to the whole thing: I made a concerted effort to not see all critisism as destructive which is in my nature. Now this is going to need effort. Whatever I decide my subconsious mind is going to block me if it does not fit into my belief system. This is a universal law.
Again to get to this point a shrink would have cost a you a few bucks. Belief me.
Right , now we(I) found out what the problem is and where it is. Now I have to do something about it.
I have been given a little gift yesterday by a gentleman called Conray Labuschagne and I am going to try the
remedy for a month or so. Some of you might have heard of it , some not. It is an elastic band.
It works something like this : You put it on your wrist and everytime you conciously know or find out that your idea is being blocked by your subconsious mind you pull this out as far as you can and let go.
"bloody hell, that was sore" Your subconscious mind will start associating that blocking or negative thought with pain and it will eventually stop its nonsense. Does it work ? I don't know, I am going to try it "Eina dammit, that was sore !) See the unconsious mind does not even like you messing with it. It is all in your beliefs.
Another few bucks to the Shrink. To be continued......................
But of late certain insights have hit me and as my friend Wayne would say " you can teach an old dog new tricks" Actually you cannot. But he can learn it if he wants to.
What is the key here ? Choices - I can make the choice to learn new tricks - you can try as hard as you want to but if I am not interested you will get nowhere !
Ok, so what? Any good shrink will tell you that more than 80% of your beliefs are governed by you subconscious mind. So if I decide to try something new and there are hidden beliefs that prevents me from having faith in the venture I am lost. Now this is in all probability the reason why so many ventures fail. It is because of these beliefs in our subconsious mind that prevents us from achieving success.
Simple isn't it ? Your shrink would have charged you around a thousand bucks to come to this point.
Ok but now I have stated the (shrinkwise) obvious. How do we change the scenario?
I am again stating this in laymans terms. I know I am going to get some smart replies, that is ok if it helps someone to understand this better. See ? I have made a statement that only Yesterday would not have been made as I believed that I am right and I really don't care what you think and I would have told you so ! What changed? I will tell you and this is the key to the whole thing: I made a concerted effort to not see all critisism as destructive which is in my nature. Now this is going to need effort. Whatever I decide my subconsious mind is going to block me if it does not fit into my belief system. This is a universal law.
Again to get to this point a shrink would have cost a you a few bucks. Belief me.
Right , now we(I) found out what the problem is and where it is. Now I have to do something about it.
I have been given a little gift yesterday by a gentleman called Conray Labuschagne and I am going to try the
remedy for a month or so. Some of you might have heard of it , some not. It is an elastic band.
It works something like this : You put it on your wrist and everytime you conciously know or find out that your idea is being blocked by your subconsious mind you pull this out as far as you can and let go.
"bloody hell, that was sore" Your subconscious mind will start associating that blocking or negative thought with pain and it will eventually stop its nonsense. Does it work ? I don't know, I am going to try it "Eina dammit, that was sore !) See the unconsious mind does not even like you messing with it. It is all in your beliefs.
Another few bucks to the Shrink. To be continued......................
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Personal targets
This tedious task of setting targets has always been a difficult one for me. Let me explain. I do my planning in my head - most of the time. I do not like to make notes and when I do I very rarely read it again. I think it is this bigger picture thing - totally right brainer thing. Because of this I do not have any written goals or targets and I know it should be there. Now I have come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe I should start looking at this thing. If I could be as successful as I have been for the past few years without doing any real physical planning, just imagine what I could do if I did start drafting a proper plan.
Now this piece of wisdom above relates to business. I am now on about personal targets. We (my wife and I) have had such a personal target about 4 years ago when we decided we are going to Scotland for my 60th birthday. Where were we on the 27th of October 2008 ? My sixtieth birthday ? We landed at Edinburgh airport in Sotland that morning !
So ? I know it can be done and that is exactly what I will be doing again - not Scotland - THE BIG PLAN
The biggest problem here is : Starting with the bloody thing............Tomorrow! Ok definitely next week.
Now this piece of wisdom above relates to business. I am now on about personal targets. We (my wife and I) have had such a personal target about 4 years ago when we decided we are going to Scotland for my 60th birthday. Where were we on the 27th of October 2008 ? My sixtieth birthday ? We landed at Edinburgh airport in Sotland that morning !
So ? I know it can be done and that is exactly what I will be doing again - not Scotland - THE BIG PLAN
The biggest problem here is : Starting with the bloody thing............Tomorrow! Ok definitely next week.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The love of money................
............is the root of all evil.
No matter how you argue the point everything revolves around Money. All sorts of alternative
economic systems have been investigated and implemented. All of them have the exact same
problems that money creates: One person's perception of value differs from the next. The bank charges you
15% interest on your loan. They think it is fair, you don't.
The supermarket offers you a bargain at a bargain price . Both of you think it is fair until you see the same
product somewhere else at a lesser price. Those bastards ! They wanted to screw me!
In Scotland there is a little town called "Aberfeldy" Scotlands first fair trade village , I think it said.
I will be doing a bit of research on this and write about it in a new post.
Why I quoted this is that this is exactly what we should be looking for in any trade-off: Fairness for all involved. This is a human thing - Governments and institutions will never get this right for the simple reason that there will always be money involved, and money breeds greed!
Unfortunately for now MONEY RULES (OK?)
There is one reason and one reason only why businesses fail :
They run out of money.
There is one reason and one reason only why good business plans do not get implemented:
The lack of money
There is one reason and one reason only why individuals are liquidated / loose their possessions /……………?
They ran out of money.
There is one reason and one reason only why there is greed in this world
Money
As an Entrepreneurial trainer one of the things I advocate is that your vision must be bigger than yourself and it also must not be Money. But going from zero to one unfortunately requires money. If you take money out of any commercial (or charity) equation it will fail. This is (unfortunately) the ultimate fact of life.
Trying to change the way the world thinks is in my opinion a total waste of time. Trying to change peoples views are easy : You do it exactly as you would trying to eat an elephant : Small piece by small piece. One person at a time. . And you must have a very good workable system to replace any existing (not so effective )principle.
People tend to follow a strong leader. Even those with stupid ideas. Hitler and Malema are good examples. So did the British with Winston Churchill who was a charismatic and stunning leader. So where does this leave us ? Work on your ideas and get it practically implementable. Draw charismatic leaders to yourself.
Sell your idea and get them to sell it. And you will find that in your immediate vicinity things might just start changing.
This brings me to the parable of the 12 apostles?
They took the Masters message and multiplied it and no one can challenge the outcome 2000 years later.
No matter how you argue the point everything revolves around Money. All sorts of alternative
economic systems have been investigated and implemented. All of them have the exact same
problems that money creates: One person's perception of value differs from the next. The bank charges you
15% interest on your loan. They think it is fair, you don't.
The supermarket offers you a bargain at a bargain price . Both of you think it is fair until you see the same
product somewhere else at a lesser price. Those bastards ! They wanted to screw me!
In Scotland there is a little town called "Aberfeldy" Scotlands first fair trade village , I think it said.
I will be doing a bit of research on this and write about it in a new post.
Why I quoted this is that this is exactly what we should be looking for in any trade-off: Fairness for all involved. This is a human thing - Governments and institutions will never get this right for the simple reason that there will always be money involved, and money breeds greed!
Unfortunately for now MONEY RULES (OK?)
There is one reason and one reason only why businesses fail :
They run out of money.
There is one reason and one reason only why good business plans do not get implemented:
The lack of money
There is one reason and one reason only why individuals are liquidated / loose their possessions /……………?
They ran out of money.
There is one reason and one reason only why there is greed in this world
Money
As an Entrepreneurial trainer one of the things I advocate is that your vision must be bigger than yourself and it also must not be Money. But going from zero to one unfortunately requires money. If you take money out of any commercial (or charity) equation it will fail. This is (unfortunately) the ultimate fact of life.
Trying to change the way the world thinks is in my opinion a total waste of time. Trying to change peoples views are easy : You do it exactly as you would trying to eat an elephant : Small piece by small piece. One person at a time. . And you must have a very good workable system to replace any existing (not so effective )principle.
People tend to follow a strong leader. Even those with stupid ideas. Hitler and Malema are good examples. So did the British with Winston Churchill who was a charismatic and stunning leader. So where does this leave us ? Work on your ideas and get it practically implementable. Draw charismatic leaders to yourself.
Sell your idea and get them to sell it. And you will find that in your immediate vicinity things might just start changing.
This brings me to the parable of the 12 apostles?
They took the Masters message and multiplied it and no one can challenge the outcome 2000 years later.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Recognition of Prior Learning
These new buzz words : Recognition of prior learning might just be the key to your future success !
In the South African environment a lot has happened in the past 16 years since the new government came to power. A lot of it positive and a lot negative. This is not the forum to dwell on that.
What is important is that a lot of knowledge has gone down the drain. People that have been trained
in-house by big corporates or have studied somewhere and did not finish those studies are receiving no recognition for their knowledge and skills.
You might be an industry or subject specialist that can make money from that skill or knowledge.
If only you could get recognition for the skill or knowledge.
Now you can !
Through a process called recognition for prior learning you can now get INTERNATIONAL recognition.
Through our affiliation with SBM international you can undergo such a program and get international
credits and recognition for your knowledge. The system looks at every single piece of knowledge you acquired and you might even qualify for a degree.
You might be a subject specialist on something but no-one is interested as there is no official qualification or recognition ?
Send us an email to be invited to a Free presentation- It could change your life forever!
The email address is rpl@brandow.co.za
You might even be invited to be a facilitator on some of our courses - we have major opportunities in the training market !
In the South African environment a lot has happened in the past 16 years since the new government came to power. A lot of it positive and a lot negative. This is not the forum to dwell on that.
What is important is that a lot of knowledge has gone down the drain. People that have been trained
in-house by big corporates or have studied somewhere and did not finish those studies are receiving no recognition for their knowledge and skills.
You might be an industry or subject specialist that can make money from that skill or knowledge.
If only you could get recognition for the skill or knowledge.
Now you can !
Through a process called recognition for prior learning you can now get INTERNATIONAL recognition.
Through our affiliation with SBM international you can undergo such a program and get international
credits and recognition for your knowledge. The system looks at every single piece of knowledge you acquired and you might even qualify for a degree.
You might be a subject specialist on something but no-one is interested as there is no official qualification or recognition ?
Send us an email to be invited to a Free presentation- It could change your life forever!
The email address is rpl@brandow.co.za
You might even be invited to be a facilitator on some of our courses - we have major opportunities in the training market !
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