Mojo Wrecking Avalanches & Broke Down Puter Blues

Could it be called fate?

Call it be called divine intervention?

I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t really matter what you call it but there is no doubt in my mind that there are times when we are forced to go inward and deeply look at what we are doing and why we are doing it.

I’ve had two weeks like that recently.

My laptop died the morning I was due to present in Noosa but the show went on (thanks to Sandy and Curly Harris for saving the day and letting me use their laptop).

Two weeks later, a couple of expensive visits to experts and my poor hard working laptop is still trying to restore all the files I’ve dutifully backed up. As they return back onto the hard drive it looks like they probably aren’t going to give me what I expected at the end of the day.

I’m grateful I’m still healthy and I know a lot of people have a lot worse problems than a broken computer but for someone who works with the internet this is like a builder trying to build a house without their tool box and a hairdresser trying to cut hair without their scissors, chefs without knives. In fact it’s a dream stopper because without the right tools we can’t make money and pay our bills. Things can get messy really fast!

This seemingly out of my control incident, along with a few other personal things (you know how everything comes at once) that have caused a great deal of angst have caused me to re-assess where I was with the earth the world and everything.

To be honest I have been close to the brink of giving up.

I’ve taken a fair bit of flack for admitting the fact publicly that sometimes the wheels fall off my life and things are far from “perfect”. I just see it as an honest response when “shift happens”.

I find this “perfect” illusion is created from those on the bottom of the ladder of success who are looking up - not the ones on the top looking down. In fact yesterday each speaker told of their “none to perfect” life before they figured out all the knowledge they needed and then how to get that knowledge and then implement it. After many big bumps they finally got their perfect life which sees them constantly travelling the world, working their butts off in between bouts of extreme luxury. But they are away from family a lot so nothing is ever perfect even at the top of the ladder.

It has been very important for me to not appear as one of those coaches who just pretend everything is lovely and beautiful and create an unrealistic bar for others to jump over. I like to tell it like it really is so you can learn from my journey and not beat yourself up when something goes pear shaped for you.

What you can’t do is just ignore it and pretend its ok – that’s just like waxing over a dirty floor. I find the best and quickest way to get out is to stop for a while and go inward. When you are prepared to go to the honest places, those deep recesses which any wise individual would stay well away from, a message eventually appears. Mine came while channel surfing Sunday morning TV in my pajamas (standard issue uniform for anyone contemplating their naval).

I was drawn into a story of two men who got stuck in a place called Avalanche Alley in North America, known funnily enough for its regular Avalanches. Long and short of the true story saw the two friends pushed to their absolutes limits, without food for days and trying to crawl for their lives. One of them had a broken hip, the other was dragging him out inch by inch through some of the worst terrain and weather conditions imaginable.

The upshot was yet another avalanche swept them into an ice crevice where the inquired man “luckily” was dumped on an ice shelf close to the exit but his buddy landed much further down. Most at that point would have given up because they were seriously stuck.

Instead of giving up he started to shout at the Universe “I CAN TAKE MORE” and he kept manically shouting out “I CAN TAKE MORE”. When his buddy awoke, confused and unsure if he was still alive all he heard was someone shouting “I CAN TAKE MORE!” It gave him the motivation to start climbing up to him.

This extreme reaction to the drastic situation they found themselves in made me realize I too could take more – hell mine was only a broken computer. I jumped up and started to pace up and down the hall shouting I CAN TAKE MORE!

The two men eventually dragged themselves out of a situation that would have defeated many simply by putting one foot in front of the other. Finally a rescue party found them and the real men who actually survived this event were interviewed and described how the ordeal has influenced their lives. Neither has lived their life in the same way once they left hospital because they believed they experienced a miracle that day.

Every time I’ve faced off a “bad” time I’ve also found things changed radically around me and nothing was ever the same again.

As I later thought about why this bizarre response helped spur them out of a place of hopelessness I realized why it probably works.

There is a saying one of my mentors taught me

“The Universe won’t give you more
until you can handle what you already have”

So when you find yourself in a place where you think you can’t handle any more, that’s what you get – nothing more. Our intrepid heroes were only getting avalanches and exhaustion so they kept getting more of that.

But by changing that energy and stating you can take more, suddenly the perspective shifts and new possibilities kick in. Their new possibility was being rescued because they had stated they had room for more.

I’m certainly not recommending this as a long term strategy but I guess the reason I tell you is because things aren’t always easy but the landscape can change quickly once you understand your message. In the climbers case they knew they had to get closer to spirit. In mine I have to "only work with the best" and have the very best tools and people I can.

The journey from good to great can sometimes feel like an avalanche is pushing you down a mountainside but that is just part of the perfection of imperfection.

Since that shouting moment I’ve had such clarity and had the energy to go and hang out with some mad people like me who push the boundaries and hear how sometimes the boundaries have pushed back on them. I’ve gone and inspected the Mac Book Pro and learnt more about what they do. I’ve learnt a new saying from Mac owners:

“when you have a Mac you never look back”

So if you get times when things haven’t been working out or when people upset you or it just all seems way too insurmountable, please know its part of the journey that gives deep meaning to the cliché

“it’s about the journey not the destination”

My puter is now limping along without the hoots and whistles and things aren’t looking as fancy as before but I now have the ability to make the cash flow again. Luckily all my work files are backed up so I haven’t lost anything but it is taking a very long time to get it back to where it used to be and sadly it may never be the same.

So I apologise if you’ve tried to contact me or if I’ve been grumpy or silent and haven’t got back to you or I'm using a dodgy template or if their are spellos. At least I'm back in action.

Just know I strongly believe another saying another mentor taught me

“as low as you can go is as high as you can go”

You can either decide to judge me for my honesty or learn from my experience but for now I’m just excited to see what’s on the up side of the next leg of the journey :-)

Why Do Natural Therapists Get Into Business in the First Place?

As I continue to work with Natural Therapists I’ve come to notice that it is no co-incidence that people have been drawn to natural healing modalities.

The one common thing that I’ve noticed is that natural therapists are often drawn to a modality because it helped them “heal” an aspect of themselves.

Often it’s a health challenge such as cancer or depression. Sometimes it may be the self esteem they lacked after years of physical, mental or emotional abuse. Substance abuse and eating disorders also features highly, often with natural therapies being their last resort before the long arm of the law caught up with them or worse they faced personal harm or death due to their habits.

As the person was “healed”, frequently after failing within the western medicine model before finding natural therapies, they were often inspired to go and learn more about the modality that helped them so much. The more they learned the more inspired they were to help others and hence commenced training, generally in the modality that helped them.

As yet there are no clear guide lines as to what drew them to a certain form of healing but most certainly most therapists I’ve encountered have a really interesting story to tell. Sometimes it takes a little digging to find it, but once unearthed it gives a whole new dimension to who they are and who they can help. It brings clarity and a clear message to everything they do.

I’ve noticed this more as I’ve begun to teach people to speak, specifically using their story as a way to gain credibility with an audience. As I get therapists sharing their story, often the heart wrenching details leave a bread trail right to the source of the reason why they got into natural therapies in the first place.

When that happens something magical kicks in because their story becomes their glory as they realise how much their personal story will cause people to attract to them, knowing they understand.

We all have a story and often the thing that has challenged us the most in life and in time have overcome is the thing we can most help others with.

Sore to SOAR is the program I have put together to help therapists get their message out. You can find out more here: Sore to SOAR