What A Dodo

OK, so yesterday, I didn’t exactly show my best side…

The reason? Well, I spent five hours on the phone to my Internet provider trying to resolve a connection issue. Namely, I didn’t have one. To fill you in: I’d just signed up for a new Wi-Fi contract but for some reason the modem wouldn’t connect.

I pretty much lost it.

Before I start this blog, I’m going to begin by giving myself a massive break here. I’m going to presume that spending five hours on the phone to anyone, let alone to a phone or Internet provider, (with most of it being on hold and forced to listen to elevator music), isn’t going to be on most people’s list of Top 10 Most Fun Things To Do. So, permission granted for me to be a bit pissy. But it’s fair to say I went a bit over the top and used up a few more stress tickets than were necessary.

Yes, my new Internet modem wasn’t connecting, but did I really need to act like a spoilt teenager when the very helpful tech support guy told me I would have to test the modem at another location? Um, no. Instead of being grateful that that Mr Tech was troubleshooting my problem, I reacted as though he’d told me I had to run a three-legged race to Perth while carrying four small children on my back and get there under an hour, with nothing more than a Mars bar to keep me going. And I had to do it today.

If I didn’t? Well, then my Internet connection would remain as it was: idle.

Hmpf.

I felt outraged that I – the paying customer – after already spending hours inputting ISP numbers and passwords into my Mac, was now being asked to call a bunch of friends and potentially log them offline (during the work day) while I plugged my modem into their computer, insert more passwords and see if it was the modem that was the issue, or whether it was my connection at home.

I’m sure the neighbours heard my internal barometer screech its way up to What A Load Of Tommy Rot!

Adding to my huffing and moaning, I was then told that if it was the connection that was faulty then I’d need to pay $120 to have it fixed.

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

Why should I have to pay extra money to get the stupid thing working? I’m already paying (for nothing, so far) and have spent all day on the phone as well as been running around town with a modem on my back seat and now you wanna charge me extra? Wow, I didn’t realise I’d signed up for the F.U. package.

Love. This. Life.?

Not. So. Much.

It’s now 24 hours later and as I steal a peek at my modem to check if the little red light has turned green (which would indicate that I am connected), I’m actually feeling surprisingly calm, despite the light still being red.

How the turnaround?

Well, I realised – after I did test the modem at a friend’s house (wafting in and out in a ball of huff), that the only thing the internet company had done wrong was, well, nothing.

Yup. Nothing.

I realised that the only thing that really created such a day of frustration and stress was Me. That’s right – Me.

I’m actually not bemoaning my Internet provider (who if you’re interested is dodo.com.au). Everyone I spoke to at Dodo (and there were a few), remained calm and patient and were extremely supportive. They were the epitome of support and professionalism. The real issue was my reaction to Something Not Going My Way.

Before retiring for bed last night I reflected on my heightened stress response and asked myself why I reacted that way. I figured out that at the seed of my little hissy fit was the fear that I was going to have to pay more money to get my Internet connected. Money that I would rather spend on something more exciting than getting my wires fixed.

But then I considered that troubleshooting is part of everyday life, and if I had chosen to collaborate with the Dodo team instead of choosing to believe they were rubbish and not fulfilling their side of the contract, I would have probably been able to remain much calmer and had an altogether more enjoyable day. Granted, it wouldn’t have made it onto my Top 10 Most Amazing Days Ever, but I would most certainly have enjoyed feeling more Zen.

And so, having come to peace with the fact that Dodo actually were giving great service, I called them this morning to follow up.

I opened the conversation by apologising for getting stressed during the many conversations (all recorded due to monitoring purposes), and explained that the tech team had been fantastically helpful throughout. The guy on the phone thanked me for the positive feedback. What a nice man.

And the $120 fee? Well, would you believe, that got waived. So not only was my gratitude warmly received, but they even went so far as to offer a financial exception – because they value me as a customer. Amazing!

Which I guess brings me to the moral of this story and one that I am very happy to share, even though it involved almost a whole day on the phone listening to insipid on-hold music. And that is, that no matter what situation I find myself in, I have been reminded that it's up to me to take 100% responsibility for whatever is going on for me at any moment in time.

If I’m feeling stressed then it’s because I’m feeling stressed. If I’m losing my sh*t, that’s because I’ve lost control of my emotions, and the only way I will ever regain composure is by calling myself on it and pressing the reset button.

So now, with another 24 hours until a technician calls round to solve the problem once and for all, I kinda feel like I was the dodo. But with this new insight (and a bit more practice over time), I also feel confident that I will be able to extinguish any future exaggerated stress responses until I can look back and see that they are a thing of the past.

As from now, I deem the time for any unnecessary stress to be 100% extinct.

Money, Money, Money…

OK, that’s enough now. This whole money thing – it’s boring me. It’s time to blast old limiting beliefs and wipe the money slate clean.

Jacqueline Harrison (who’s writing How To Create A Business From Nothing and the reason I’m writing this blog) is on holiday, so I haven’t received any chapters from her in a few weeks. However, the break has given me time to consider some of the comments that I’ve read in her book so far.

Tucked away in one chapter is the idea to start noticing subtle thoughts and behaviours and write them down. In the past few weeks (especially over Christmas) I’ve been doing quite a lot of this. And I’m amazed at what I’ve noticed. It turns out I have quite a lot of fleeting negative thoughts that I was previously unaware of. And a lot of them stem around a fear of and/or negative ideas about money.

Hmm…

What’s incredible is that these thoughts are so fleeting and subtle that if I blinked I could easily miss them. Which I guess is what I’ve been doing for the past 41 or so years. But now that I’ve tuned into this pirate radio frequency, I can definitely hear an army of fuzzy, crackly and parasitic thoughts that appear to have one thing in mind: Sabotage!

Aarrgghhhh! Batten down the hatches!

Little did I know that alongside my dream of running a successful business (or four) and living in a gorgeous 4-bedroom house in Queensland with a husband and two dogs, is a dirty great ship of treacherous thoughts. I honestly hadn’t previously taken any notice of these mixed messages that were residing in my mind. I guess I must have heard them, but I hadn’t consciously listened.

Here’s an example of the negative spin I tuned into:

1. Hearing about a friend who was trying on wedding dresses in the range of $6,000 my pirate station reported how that was a lot of money (too much) to spend on a dress that will only be worn for a day. The headline read something like: What A Waste! But who says? If money is just energy then why not enjoy wearing a beautiful dress that costs $6k? I bet she looked a million dollars – which if you look at it that way, means only paying six grand is cheap!

2. When I got cut up in traffic by a BMW 4-wheel drive, the subtle reaction I had was that BMW drivers (i.e. rich people) have no respect for others. Blimey! Talk about a sweeping generalisation! After meditating on that one I tuned into messages I'd heard as a child that people who drive expensive cars (or who happen to be rich) are "posh", unlikeable or stupid. That wording may not be exactly what I heard, but the essence is very real.

3. I passed a teenager driving a Lexus, still on his red P-plates. A bit like the above reaction, I had a thought that these kids don’t know how lucky they are, and why have their parents bought them a fancy car when they are still learning to drive. Good lord, why do I think that? Why not learn to drive in a nice car? Why should teenagers start their driving career in a rusty old banger just because I did?

4. When I imagined earning lots of money from my four business streams I noticed that I felt a bit stressed. Again, after a meditation I realised that I have a belief that in order to earn millions I must have to be stressed.

Right, well, I reckon that all needs to be bagged up and thrown overboard.

There have been numerous other instances that I can’t recall right now, but daily (very, very subtle) attacks occur when I’m paying for groceries or I know a bill is due. On the surface, I’m cool; I know I’ve had a bad year financially and that things will pick up. But, faintly detectable is a fear that This Is It. That I’m living hand to mouth and it won’t really ever pick up. Or if it does that it will be temporary and I’ll once again find myself in financial ruin, albeit having enjoyed spells of reasonable wealth.

I’ve noticed that a disbelief of lasting wealth (for me) is my story. But since I’ve recognised these subtle influences it’s time to start writing a new script.

And so it got me thinking. A bit like living next to neighbours who have late night parties on a weekday and never take out the trash, if I want to live in peace and harmony and enjoy financial freedom then it’s not going to happen while I’m harbouring Captain Blackbeard and his parrot-like thoughts now is it?

I don’t know for sure, but tuning in to the subtle frequency of those limiting beliefs must be a key to buying my way off the ship of financial doom. If I keep my future vision of living in a gorgeous house on the Sunshine Coast in mind, and make it my duty to begin each day stepping into that “space” and meditating on how it feels to have achieved all my goals, then surely that will help. As Mike Dooley (and numerous other geniuses including Einstein) say or have said: Thoughts Become Things. So if I can just notice these sneaky old beliefs when they pop up, I can swashbuckle them with my vision and feelings of a new and much more lucrative existence. And if I continue doing this on a daily basis, eventually those fuzzy old beliefs will atrophy and die.

Just as an athlete can educate his body to become faster by training regularly and staying focused on his goal, the same law must apply to thoughts and beliefs. All I need to do is be my own coach and notice when I’m slacking off or falling prey to old habits, then swiftly and easily shift my thinking, and if necessary, give myself a bit of a pep talk.

So, as I took my morning walk around Bellevue Hill this morning, I opened my eyes to the wonderful wealth that surrounds me – that I am already part of! I thanked my fellow Bellevue residents for being able to accept and receive wealth and to live in three storey mansions with tennis courts and swimming pools. I admired the streamlined Mercedes’ that line the streets and took a picture with my iPhone of the very cute BMW Mini that is on my wish list. Thank you very much!

As I said good morning to passing neighbours I thought about how great it is to live in such a nice area with such lovely people, and I tuned in to the frequency of wealth and abundance. I kept my mind on the luxurious life I am working towards and pictured bundles of $5000 dollar bills strapped to the fences on either side of me (I know they don’t really exist, but I’m allowed creative licence, this is my dream after all). I imagined collecting some of the cash until I had so much I had to imagine myself wheeling a trolley behind me so I could carry it all home. I made sure my mind stayed on the joy of having this cash and sent any guilty feelings off to walk the plank.

With these thoughts in mind I conjured up the following mantras that are based on what I’ve read in Louise L. Hay’s book How To Heal Your Life. They go like this:

I am willing to release my need to believe that I have to be stressed to earn lots of money. I choose to earn millions easily and effortlessly now.
I am willing to release my need to struggle with money. The Universe is overflowing with abundance and I am open and willing to receive it now.
I am willing to release my need to believe I can’t have everything I want. The Universe is abundant with gifts and I am open and ready to receive them now.

Whether any of this works for me is yet to be proven and until such time, I’ll keep blogging about it. 

In the meantime, I’ve given strict orders to tie up Captain Blackbeard and stick a reel of masking tape over his mouth. I’m the Captain of this ship and nothing, especially not an old limiting belief is going to stop me from landing this vessel on Treasure Island and digging up that chest of gold.

X marks the million dollar spot and I am determined to stay right on course until I get there.


Just you wait and see.

Tweet Tweet

I’m new to this whole social media thing but can I just take a minute here to tell you how much I love Twitter. I had no idea this place was like the city I always wanted to live in. It’s brimming with soulful and consciously-minded people who are doing their utmost to spread love and joy throughout the world. It's amazing!

And I thought Bondi was good…

Jacqueline Harrison, author of the soon to be released book How To Create A Business From Nothing suggested to me before Christmas that I join the Twitter community in order to grow my professional network. As per my blog Becoming A Millionaire Step 2, I have been working backwards from a wish list by putting pen to paper, doing my research and learning as I go. Twitter is one such example.

Before joining the Twitter community I knew nothing about it other than people projected their thoughts into the world via short messages, and that there seemed to be a lot of hash tags involved – #noideawhatforthough. Far from being a tech wizard I was possibly one of the last people to get an iPhone, rarely use my laptop for anything other than work, and still write my weekly appointments in a diary. I’m what Gen Y might call Old Skool.

Twitter, however has welcomed me like an old friend. I love it! I thought it was going to be tricky to get my non-tech head around and that I’d end up not getting it and feeling like I’d smoked an ounce of hash tags even though #Ihaven’tdonedrugsforyears.

Recognising the benefit of Twitter actually came very fast and very naturally – even to me ­– a Gen X chick who is proud of the fact she still has pubic hair – albeit a nicely trimmed retro triangle. I know – #toomuchinformation. Yes, Twitter is the new black (and the new Facebook as far as I’m concerned). It’s so easy to connect with likeminded people and you don’t need to know them to become friends. Just a simple click on someone who’s written a message you like and voila – you’re linked and sharing airtime. It’s marvellous.

I’m definitely a convert and there have been immediate benefits to my business. As well as connecting with some amazing people who live in far flung corners of the globe, and who I would otherwise not have been lucky enough to come across, I’ve inadvertently increased the audience for my blog! Since joining Twitter about 10 days ago I already have 92 followers (and counting) and I haven’t even done anything – other than choose to hear from people whose message I already like.

I now have more people reading my blog and I haven’t had to beg them to follow my page or send out an email blast asking them to “like” me. I just appeared on their screen, they chose to follow me, and the rest is taking care of itself. It feels so authentic and is by far my new favourite thing. There are of course people on Twitter who simply want followers and are open about that (are they called Twits?), but for the most part, there appears to be genuine reciprocation, and from what I can see, absolutely no need to beg people to follow you. Which for me, makes it a heart warming party to be invited to.

If you already Tweet then you’ll know what I’m talking about, and if not, then I highly recommend you build yourself a nest and go and find some brothers and sisters who live in Cyberspace who will make you feel more like you belong than ever before.

#andyourbirdcansing.

Happy tweeting!

Leaps and Bounds

Today was a great day.

Today, I moved from being a freelance book editor into being a woman who runs an editing business. Actually I’d go so far as to say a publishing business!

If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know I’m working through the processes in Jacqueline Harrison’s book How To Create A Business From Nothing. You may also remember I was already working as a freelance editor but my business was slow. Well, I think it’s about to pick up, and I’m excited!

About a month ago I was sent a manuscript that is essentially a biography. Without revealing all the content, I will say it included some extremely disturbing scenes that would have been exceedingly traumatic for the author to experience, let alone write about. As a reader/editor, it left me feeling pretty traumatised which put me in an interesting position. The book was written well so I was confident the author could produce great work, but the content just didn’t sit with me.

For a week or so I meditated on the situation. I realised I had two choices:

1) Take the book on as it was, tweak the structure and chapters and agree to edit it and help to get it published. (This was appealing as I could certainly do with the income).

2) Do something radical.

I chose door number 2.

I expressed to the author that I didn’t think her book was working (as it stands) and that I intuitively felt she would benefit from writing a completely different book.

Yup, I basically told a potential client that the hours, weeks, months and years they had spent working on their manuscript was not going to cut it, and that they needed to start over again and take an entirely new angle.

You can imagine how that would have made them feel.

The author and I spoke about this new idea today and she informed me that I’d thrown her a curve ball. Her initial manuscript “was 20 years in the making” and would have taken a lot of effort to write, due to the content. I assured her that all that writing was for a reason and certainly wasn’t wasted. But I stood firm that my idea, or at the very least, a transformed book leading from my idea is where her magic lies. I even think she could produce a bestseller.

She has yet to agree.

You might at this point be wondering why on earth I am boasting about making leaps and bounds with regards to my business goals, when in reality I still don’t have a bestseller on my hands and might even have scared off a potential new author.

Well, the author’s agreement to my idea isn’t the most important part of this tale. What stands out for me is the fact that I am backing myself. Really, truly backing myself – even if it means potentially losing a sale.

My decision to break through my emotional glass ceiling (as I wrote about in my previous blog You’re On), and Become All That I Am involves Being True To Myself, and that involves following my intuition, listening to my heart and acting on what I know to be right and true. Underlying all of that is my belief that World Peace is possible and must be at the core of every decision I now make.

The book that I know this author could write could absolutely change the lives of thousands of people if it’s delivered in the right way. And I am backing my instinct 100% that I know which way that is. Helping thousands of people by producing an incredible book has more chance of bringing us closer to World Peace than publishing an average book that pays my next rent.

Before embarking on this journey to follow Jacqueline Harrison’s book advice, I would most certainly have balked at the conversation I had with that author today. I would have made a few rewrite suggestions and taken the work on and probably felt good about paying my next phone bill and earning some much needed cash. Instead, I have a potential client who I know is sitting on a personal and a global goldmine if she chooses to write the book I can see is in her. Whether she does or not, is her choice. And whether she chooses to come back to me with her business is also, her business.

But either way I am standing at the top of my own goldmine right now. Because now I feel like I’m really “getting” it. I’m behaving differently, I’m having conversations that I would have previously avoided, or at the very least, watered down. As of today I have proven to myself that I do believe in World Peace. And more importantly at this stage that I believe in my ability as a great editor and publishing director.

I have proven to myself that I Believe In Me.

Finally!

My gut has always had a “nose” for a great idea but too many times I’ve chosen to ignore it because I was worried about the consequences of not making enough money, of not being “right” or of not being approved of. Or, as Marianne Williamson wrote in her famous speech that was spoken by Nelson Mandela, maybe I was afraid of shining.

But not any more, because as of today I am ready and willing to shine. And I am not going to stop shining my light on the world ever again.

Today, I made an enormous leap forward and I couldn’t have done it without Jacqueline Harrison and her invaluable advice to “think and operate from the space of being a millionaire blogger”. In her book, Jacqueline insists that we think from the future space we wish to be in and work from there. That’s what I did today. I spoke from the future me that is abundantly healthy, financially free, blissfully happy, filled with self worth and positively oozing with Love.

And I cannot express to you just how fantastically freeing and wonderful it feels.

Jobsworth…

I just finished reading a book by Karen Blumenthal entitled Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different. Having used Apple products since my first foray into publishing 20 years ago, I consider myself an avid Mac fan, but until I read Blumenthal's book, I didn’t know much about the man behind the machine.

One thing that struck me about Jobs was his individuality. Apparently he was as much a tyrant as he was a charming innovator. He was often found walking (and working) barefoot and didn’t like following rules. But that didn’t stop him becoming a business icon for a generation (or three).

I like him.

I also want to be like him in that I want to operate under my own set of rules. Always have. Even Jobs himself said during his final year that he didn’t want future Apple employees to try and think what he would do, he wanted them to think for themselves. What great advice.

Another thing that struck me while reading the book was how it raised some fears about my own millionaire dreams. I don’t have a product (like the Mac) that could earn me millions – I just have Me. But that's when I realised – that's all Steve Jobs ever had. The thing that made him the success he was, was the fact that he never once gave up his dreams, his visions or his ability to know something was possible even when it didn’t exist – and even when other people said he was mad. He was a visionary. And so am I.

My vision is World Peace and Global Harmony. My dream is to live in a world where Love is the prevailing emotion and where hatred, racism and violence no longer exist. Unlike Jobs, I don’t have a friend who's a tech genius who can create my dream for me. But, like Jobs, I do have thoughts, words and actions that are within my control, and I guess they are my technology in this case.

Just like the common cold, I believe our emotional state is contagious, and I'm going to choose to be as open, honest, loving and kind as I possibly can this year and hope that it becomes an epidemic, eventually leading to World Peace. Wouldn't it be great if we all catch love and happiness off each other, rather than the flu? Apparently Jobs had a contagious “reality distortion field” that caused people to become sucked in by his passion and ideas and would end up believing everything he said… Until he left the room and their own version of reality took centre stage again. Reading about Jobs reminds me of the old saying; “Do you need to see it to believe it, or do you need to believe it before you can see it.” I would say Steve Jobs believed the latter, and so do I.

And so as I enter this brand new year, having read about an incredibly inspiring man who made great gains on an individual and a global scale, I believe in a new future that involves a contagion of Peace. I envision a world where people think for themselves like Jobs did. A place where we don’t need to be forced to follow rules because we've already learned how to communicate in such a way that “understanding” is the new technology. And it doesn’t require anything more complex than the hard drive we’re born with – namely our thoughts.

When Peace and Harmony prevail I'm pretty sure we'll also believe We Are All One. And if We Are All One then being unkind or hurtful to others is actually hurting and harming ourselves. And who'd want to do that? I know it may seem naive but I believe this dream is possible, and, based on my understanding of the world, that means it is, even if it means changing some of my old beliefs and habits.

I started blasting some very old beliefs toward the end of 2012: I broke down everything I thought I knew, including how to earn money and how to pay my way (both literally and figuratively). With that education now under my belt, I know that anything is possible. By stretching my own boundaries to the point of poverty and reaching a place where I had to ask my mum to cover my rent for a month (true story!) I broke through into a new world, and I did it by being True To Myself.

Isn't that the same method Jobs used to create the Apple phenomenon?

I could easily have avoided some of last year’s “pitfalls” by doing things the way I’d always done them: harbouring fear and keeping financial and career security uppermost in my mind. But I didn’t. I chose instead to break the mould and do things My Way: with faith in the Divine and following a gut instinct that tells me my dreams are entirely possible and everything is always going to be alright.

Amazingly, everything has turned out alright. In fact it's turned out better than I could have ever imagined.

With that thought in mind, and to quote my new latest hero, Steve Jobs (RIP);

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life… And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Hmm, World Peace it is then…