Now much as we often feel that our performance depends upon our mood, how we feel, whether we got out of bed on the right side today… our performance is also influenced by our environment.

Two recently published research papers have shed important light on the matter.

Apparently whether we think big or focus is directly influenced by the height of our ceiling and by the colour of visual clues in our environment.

As you might guess, higher ceilings, more space, encourages us to think big, outside the box, be creative.

Also intuitively, the colour blue will stimulate our creative juices, blue sky thinking and all of that.

In contrast, being in a small space will cramp our creative style and limit our access to a free-thinking state while environemental flashes of the colour red will, with it’s subliminal danger signals, cause us to pay attention, take care and focus on the detail.

On the one hand this seems to be a case of publishing the blindingly obvious.

On the other hand, these people now have measurable evidence to support what we might have guessed.

What it does mean is that we now have a number of tools we can use to modify our environment depending upon whether we need to be detail or big picture focussed.

Even something as small as changing the colour scheme on your computer desktop, choosing a different wallpaper or turning your chair to look at a different coloured poster on the wall could have significant effects on your performance.

If you’re not lucky enough to have a home or work environment where the ceilings are more than 3m high, maybe it is worth spending an hour in a lofty-ceilinged coffee shop to give your thoughts the encouragement to expand.

But don’t forget to take a blue notebook with you!

This can happen in any just about arena. When discussing wealth creation, personal development or a presentation skills training session…

You share something and you see, in the other, a light-bulb explodes!

Have you ever had that experience?

Whether as teacher or student, the effect is electric – that biggest ah-ha moment to enjoy, as if something that you’ve always known has taken form and found expression.

It’s not possible to plan such moments as they arise in the moment, the chemistry – it’s as if two souls have touched and sparked.

It’s a real privilege to share such growth…

Do something to feed your soul today!

The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is.

We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market.

We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more.

We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated.

The girls, we say, do not have to earn; so why should they be educated?

As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education.
(M. K. Gandhi. True Education on the NCTE site)

Speaking as an Academic, what can I add??? Hear, hear!!

gandhi

There’s a story about a young reporter who was trying to get an interview with Mahatma Gandhi…

He followed him for days, from venue to event to… the train station, without managing to speak in person.

As the train pulled out he saw Gandhi at an open window and shouted to him “Please, do you have a message for my readers?”

To which the Mahatma replied “My life is my message.”

And your life… observed from the outside… what is your message?

Did you know?

This video is viral. It explains why we so need to prepare ourselves for a future that is very different to today.

Change is happening and it is happening fast!

As you watch the video, notice your reactions to the information you are learning… excited, scared, sceptical?

So what does it mean?

Like most things, the meaning is the meaning you give to it yourself.

For me it emphasises:  if you stand still, you will be left behind!

Watch – and then let me know what you think!

Yes, it is about making money but even more it’s about the personal transformation that needs to occur to make wealth and abundance part of our lives. We’ve all heard stories of lottery winners who get rich very quickly – and who lose everything within a matter of years – the inside and the outside don’t match and can’t be sustained.

To attract money we need to become wealthy and abundant first.

In honesty we know that we’re not chasing the money, the dollars, the physical cash (although gold and diamonds do look very good!!); what we’re really chasing is the happiness and the freedom that we believe money will bring to us.

In her book Sandy talks abut the importance of being in the right state, the mindset to attract abundance and prosperity. She makes it clear that wealth is an inside game before it becomes externalised.

And she doesn’t stop there. To really create the wealth that will support the lifestyle she insists that action is an essential part of attrACTION.

She provides a helpful 39 point checklist at the back of her book and refers to a list of affirmations to use to help create that inner attitude that we need to learn. For my friends I’m happy to share some free resources that Sandy prepared -

Sandy Forster: wildly-wealthy-affirmations. Right click the link and “Save target as…” or “Save link as…”

If you want the 39 step checklist, you really need to buy the book. It’s worth the investment!wildly-wealthy-affirmations

How the line ends depends on the situation…
“… when the move is over and done with and we’re settled again.”
“… when the inspection is finished and we can all get back to normal.”
“… if only they’d just stop fighting for a moment.”
“… they’re old enough to go to school and I can just get back to work.”
“… this job is done and we can start looking for something new.”
“… we’ve found the house/car/holiday that suits and just get on with it.”
“… next year comes and I can retire and have done with them!”

The very words betray the truth. I’ll be happy when…

We are delaying our happiness until some point in the future.

At first glance it might seem that the future event will be the cause or trigger of our happiness, but is that true? Does someone or something else really hold that power over our emotions?

What if we could be happy now, in the present, in the middle of whatever situation we find ourselves in?

Sure we might still look forward to the future while allowing ourselves to enjoy the present… but is that what “I’ll be happy when…” is about?

Are we denying ourselves the experience of happiness in this moment? Do we need to give ourselves permission to feel happy right now?

Now maybe you’re saying to yourself “But that’s ridiculous. How could I possibly be happy right now, I’ve just lost my job/received notification of a school inspection/got another totally unreasonable deadline to work to?”…

Now I can’t deny the reality of your current situation but, whatever or wherever you find yourself, how does being unhappy help you?

I’m not suggesting you should feel hysterically ecstatic but, can you be open to the possiblity of accepting whatever the moment has brought you? And what if I were to wave a magic wand and make you feel happy right now without changing anything else… how would that feel? (Relax! I don’t actually have a magic wand!!)

So how does being unhappy help?

Perhaps being unhappy gives you permission to act stressed and let off steam, to stomp about so that other people will notice they’ve upset you or to be the martyr that everybody will admire in adversity. Maybe being unhappy is your way of publicly expressing your grief or your feelings, a signal to others to give you some space or provide some support?

So could you do this more effectively if you chose not to be unhappy, if you allowed yourself to feel and to show contentment, acceptance and then take the actions you need to bring about change.

So if you’re doing what you’re doing right now in order to be happy when… give yourself a break and choose to be happy now. You’ll find that whatever you’re trying to achieve becomes much more attainable or maybe much less important.

The “reason” for my visit on this occasion was to celebrate a birthday but I take whatever opportunities I can to enjoy this – and this weekend we had sun, sea and sand in abundance.

When life is busy I take every opportunity to remind myself of reasons to celebrate simply being alive – and Oxwich beach makes my heart sing.

At low tide there are large areas of rocks exposed to the side of the beach, and rock pools abound. What makes rock pools so attractive? Whatever your age these still seem to hold hours of fascination and entertainment. And so we stooped and slipped into the water and turned over rocks (I replaced them carefully afterwards!) and admired the life within.

I saw fish and shrimps and seaweed. There were crabs and many things that scuttled and darted.

I had heard a programme on Radio 4 that described starfish on the Gower coast… but this weekend I searched in vain for starfish…

common starfish

Which means I need to make that return visit sometime soon!!!

This one fact might mark out the occasion as being a special event.

A slightly more unusal reason to celebrate his achievement might be that, at the time of the vote, Mr Stonebreaker had been dead for several weeks!

I do wish his family and community every blessing in the times that come, but it did make me wonder how a dead man is voted into office?

Apparently this is not without precedent – both Patsy Mink and Mel Carnahan were also on the ballot papaers for election after their death.

The reasons given are varied – that the official deadline for replacing a candidate has passed – but surely such dealdines can be renegotiated in the exceptional event of a candidates death? Maybe the candidate is kept there as a sign of respect to their memory or because the party to which they belong can’t actually nominate a replacement before the election is held…

And what do you do when the dead candidate actually wins?

Well, in Winsfield, they’ve scheduled another election – next year.

What do you think would happen here in the UK?

We planned to sell 200 tickets for the event last Saturday, raising £4,500.

So how did we do????

Well, all 200 tickets were sold. We knew that some people bought tickets as donations in the full knowledge that they wouldn’t be able to attend the event so when we had a queue of people who showed up on the day without tickets – we collected even more donations and put more bums on seats!!!

It was a full house, the speakers were fantastic, the audience was inspired, the Money Gym team were exhausted and exhilarated in equal measure.

And The Big Issue – well exact figures are still coming in but it looks like they will be over £6,000 pounds better off as a result of this day.

Can you think of a better example of socially aware capitalism in action?