Stop Press: A Genius Guarantee For You

“Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.” ~ Richard Buckminster Fuller

My apologies I should have posted this sooner.  You may have plans already for this weekend and you may not be in London but if you are inclined to invest in yourself at all please read on.  I asked myself at 3am this morning why I didnt think to write a blog post about William’s Whitecloud’s Meet Your Genius weekend sooner, after all I am on the event team.  I can tell you I have learned my lesson.

You may not have heard of William Whitecloud but he is the author of the best selling book The Magician’s Way and a presenter and teacher of the premises of Natural Success.  Another personal development model I hear you say well not so fast.  I came across William’s work about 5 years ago and spent a number of year’s studying with a protege of his learning that The Magician’s Way is not just an entertaining story but it contains real practical tools for powerful creating and changing our realities.   I have moved into a life where my love to work, travel and write are becoming beautifully intertwined.  A big change from intense periods of long hours and hard living in the world of ‘business transformation’ interspered with flaccid, aimless wanderings as an increasingly aged back packer, in the penduleum swing of money but time and time but no money.   In the past 12 months that William has been coming to the UK.  I have studied with him and his wife, Christian, is my coach.  You may ask is my learning not over?  And I am pleased to report no it is not!  This is like peeling away the layers of the onion.  Each time I attend a workshop I get a new level of learning and that is manifest as a higher level of mastery and creativity in my life with tangible end results.

I woke up on fire with enthusiasm at 3am because I met William yesterday.  He is in the UK to run a two day workshop in London this weekend and a more advanced training later on next week.  He continues to create magic in his own life and is currently writing the screen play for his book The Magician’s Way.  Despite being jet lagged he was alive with the excitement of this next level of creation in his life; up for being a beginner in the area of screen writing because it will transforms a great book into a multi-dimensional story that will has the power to show everyone how to wield magic in their lives.  I had a visceral experience of how William embodies the work he teaches, how he walks the talk.  And that is what compelled me to create this ‘johnny-come-lately’ blog.

So there is still time to buy tickets to Meet YOUR Genius –  regular tickets are £97, a VIP package which includes 2 tickests is £147 – so £73.50 each plus the Kindle version of both of William’s  books.  I want to throw something else into the mix.  If you are reading this and you have not heard about William you only have my recommendation to go on and you may not know me either!  So I am offering anyone who signs up from this post a FREE 1 hour coaching session with me over Skype at a time that is convenient to you.  If you dont register on the link but turn up tomorrow morning at 8.30am to register please introduce yourself to me, as I am on the team for the event, and we can take it from there.

After 30 years in the world of Information Technology I like to think I have evolved into being an an Imagination Technologist using the tools of intuition to live my life and support others discover their intuitive genius to enrich their realities and blending the past with the present to create tools like my app toolbox SatNav4TheSoul.

For more information on the work that I do check out Working Together.  If you cant come along to the weekend but you are curious please drop me a line.

“I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth I will apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.” ~ Og Mandino 1923-1996, Author

View from Stoos, Schwyz, Switzerland

Reecently I was asked to make a promise, a commitment, to 3 of the most important people in my life about the vision of the life I would love to create, the why that drives me and the key goal I am actioning to to make that real. The idea is to create accountability.

Over the past few years I have come on a journey which has pushed me to drop away from needing the support and opinions of other people – and in fact have just unravalled yet another thread of that and I am sure there are more – to get to a place where I am first and foremost accountable to me and my heart.

In the space after I was asked to make that promise I observed the arousal of a bevy of voices. The first argued for the safety of keeping my visions under wraps until goals are successfully achieved before announcing them with fanfare. An option that also allows for goals that falter to be swept neatly under the carpet of failed achievements, keeping life nice and orderly.

Then there was the voice that honed in on the definition of ‘important people’ now who might they be? I don’t have a partner or children, all of my family live in another country and friends well yes I do have some of those but how would I work out who the most important three would be? Obviously this is a dead end street that takes me way off track, a muddy road with spinning wheels.

And then there is the voice that cuts through that smoke screen but posits why would I bother anyone on a busy weekday morning to wax lyrically about some vague vision, a grandiose why and a goal that I have been struggling consciously to achieve for over 5 years?

There are the friends who love me, who would tolerate this and would murmur silky words of encouragement. There are the friends who would humour me but chuckle at my quirkiness and want to get a date in the diary for the next hooley, my Mother who thinks I am wonderful as long as I am happy and eating, my ever pragmatic sister-in-law who just might use the f-word and there are members of my long puzzling family whose response would range from stoic silence to enraged pronouncements of my ever growing list of failures.

My choices to go for succour and sustenance or hell fire and brimstone. In that space the voice of caution and safety in the house carpeted over the underlay of dead dreams is winning out. My head space is choca block with playing out potential, possible and certain scenarios while my vision, my goal and my action plan go on the back burner. Yes I have been down both roads before and neither appeal so rather than stand stuck at this crossroads my choice is a middle way.  I am blogging my deepest internal machinations; my fear of rejection, the incontrovertible evidence of my past that demonstrates my incapability, my lack of will, backbone, consistency, energy, my ever sparky heart that clings to the fantasy because I know from experience that my thoughts and feelings are not a true reflection of reality.  I fervently believe that the most important person to be accountable to is ME and I know that I am fessing up to that more and more but I also choose to be seen out in the world so despite the voices I hereby share with you the vision for my life, my big why and what I am focusing on to make that happen.

My vision is to be fully alive IN life; to create a beautiful home base with space in nature, to actualise an intimate relationship with a partner and my family. To work on projects that serve me and others to be fully alive IN life, to do what brings me joy; travelling, writing, sharing my experiences, peeling away the layers of the onion of life for myself and with others. To create a solid tangible sense of who I am in the world, product perhaps like my apps, or books or both! To take responsibility for whatever I create and to engage my will to take wise action to keep me on track to my TRUE end results. To continually step into the void to find out more about the REAL me, to know that journey is never ending, it is all about fine tuning.

My why is to play full out; to wring out every bit of my talent and essence without worrying about what the crowd has to say, without concern about being logical or rational, without fearing the consequences.

The goal I commit to is to increase my wealth by claiming and activating my talents. It calls me to own what gives me joy and to trust that joy is all I need.

This post was inspired by Ann Wilson, The Wealth Chef’s 30 Day Money Makeover Challenge which I love because of the internal dialogue that it brings up and this is where I am getting my learnings and my insights.

Being creative, acting creative, believing I am creative is right where I am at the moment so it was a delight when this blog was gracefully frisbe-ed into my consciousness by a friend. How clever messages can be getting weadling their way to us.

Over the past two years travel has become a more integral part of my life and slowly but surely I am getting smarter about it.  There is a top ten tips blog bubbling about in my consciousness but in the meantime while that percolates and comes to fruition I am inspired to share this informative blog from the very sensible Martin Lewis – A Peek Inside My Overseas Wallet.

To receive unbiased money savings tips from Martin sign up to his Money Savings Expert newsletter – he is my go-to money man.

Photograph: Courtesy of www.moneysavingexpert.com

Last Sunday the 9th February 2014 I was in Los Angeles completing the third day of William Whitecloud’s inaugural Million $ Book Club Congress. William is the best selling author of The Magician’s Way and The Last Shaman. William’s books are engaging stories wrapped around fundamental truths and premises that have the power to change lives. William by his own admission felt ill prepared to be a writer but he had a calling to share his wisdom. He did not write his books by following formulae or 10 step programmes but rather he used his intuition and imagination to connect with his genius and manifest high level creative function; creating unique stories that made connections that hadn’t been made before. And who wouldnt want some of that.

William’s weekend is not so much a course as a journey, one which 23 brave souls were up for. The consolation was company but the rewards proved to be individual, unique and beyond expectation. The bar was set high right from the start, William asserts that to operate at High Level Creative Function we have to understand consciousness and that starts with knowing ourselves. I was brought up close and personal with my deluded relationship with writing which swings between pointless futility and the arrogance of platitudes from some self-important sense of purpose. A place devoid of joy, frustrating as fuck and makes writing feel like extracting blood from a stone. The tension I experience is painful but revealing the truth of my egoic agenda takes the power out of it and truth, to quote William is the ‘fuel of a powerful creator’.

William unwraps his intuitive tools, shares how to use them and guides us to purposefully use our imaginations to see the potential of our genius offering; I experience expansiveness, gentleness, simplicity and vulnerability. A place where writing is a joyful unfolding, a mystery to be followed, a way of being infinitely curious. I am free to see who I truly can be as a writer and now ready to experience tension as the engine room of my genius and creativity. We learn that tension is the writer’s friend and it is our ability to master tension that determines the quality of the end results that we create.

On day three with the tension resolution system in place we are all poised to dive into the specifics of what we would love to write be it a book, a play, a movie script or poetry. All options are possible. The framework that William uses for writing; Theme, Premise, Qualities and Emotion is arrived intuitively and it ensures ample space for genius to emerge as an unadulterated offering from our Muse. I saw the book I want to write; simpler, more beautiful, compelling and revelationary. No longer is it The Quest rather it is A Journey, no longer is it about certainty and knowledge, it is about awareness and vulnerability about the revelation of a deeply imaginative sexuality – in the words of my Muse.

Returning from America, a week has passed, in the spaces between the jetlag I spy the divil of resistance. Under the covers of catching up and reconnecting I see the pariah of distraction. My personal saboteurs lurking at the wings but I know about them now, I see them, I can choose not to give them the power but to be professional to turn up as a writer regardless of the conditions and circumstances and choose to meet my Muse and write from my genius. It is a choice.

Follow the links to find out more about William Whitecloud and the Million $ Book Club

Photograph: On the Camino 2012 courtesy of Tobias Schade

Unicorn in Inverness

Faith is a deeply mystical word, associated with religion and divinity.   The dictionary definition of faith is a strong or unshakeable belief in something, especially without proof or evidence. I am respectfully in awe of those who stand stoic and strong in the face of life’s turbulence anchored by something unseeable beyond reason.  I have pondered faith for myself and as a lapsed Irish Catholic have a niggling sense that perhaps I have mislaid my token to pass through the gates of Heaven.  I am a doubter and a questioner, I like to grapple with concepts and ideas, turn them over and upside down, try them on for size.  I love the metaphor of the Bible, the hero’s journey of Jesus, the symbolism for my life but the one size Catholic hat doesnt work for me.  I like to bring my own style to bear.

I was triggered today to rethink my position on faith when I read the commentary of  Judge Thomas J. Troward on Romans 14:23 in his gem of a treatise on The Spirit Of Opulence. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” – he expands on faith as “not in accordance with our honest belief” and I have long been curious about the words “sin” and “evil” being Aramaic archery terms; sin meaning off the mark and evil being where that off target arrow falls [1].

Now my understanding of a belief is as a thought that through repeated thinking has worn a groove in the sub conscious mind over time.  The creation of beliefs is innately human, formed from childhood, they become deeply buried driving us to live unconscious lives playing out patterns to prove and further anchor our beliefs.

So if we all already believe then we already have faith! Perhaps the question becomes one of what we believe in versus what we want or believe we should believe in.  If the archer does not receive and act on the feedback from his sin to adjust his aim he will continue to be off the mark amplifying the tension of that sin and the angst of doubt.  If we do not see the truth of what we honestly believe in they there will always be dissonance between what we want to have in our lives and what we actually create in our lives.  So the journey seems to me not to be the one of finding faith outside ourselves, working out how others get their faith or why they believe in what they do but about seeing the faith we already have that is flawlessly creating the reality we experience.  When we uncover these beliefs then we can see how they serve us and where they dont we can consciously choose to take the power out of them and reframe our faith to hit the target of what we truly love and create the impossible, the magical.

Anne K. Scott uses intuitive coaching tools & the technology of imagination as an integral part of her work to reveal underlying beliefs that get in the way of the faith we seek to create the lives we would love.

Larry Ellison’s little tender Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles*

I feel ill, sick, unwell.  In the space of moments I have established a scenario that reveals a flash of anger and destruction on someone else’s parade.  It comes at me left of field, the situation is innocuous, an inoffensive Facebook photograph, a caption and then an unexpected thought, one that at any other time would have slide down the inner sewage groove and never have been revealed. This time however I am curious about it, as a child would be curious about a worm or a wood lice, a snake or a scorpion. Where did that come from, what does it mean, what does it do?  Can I play with it? The enter button is pressed and there it is out in the world for all to see.

At the beginning of 2014 I consciously chose to change my reality. After 5 decades I am over struggling for survival, being alone and sabotaging my creations. I can feel the hairs lift on the back of my neck as the reality I am creating on Facebook unfolds and I consider that if you cant make an omelette without cracking an egg then perhaps this choice to create a new reality requires me to face up to and own deep seated unconscious patterns that have been keeping my old reality locked in.

Step back with me a moment to 5 years ago.  I had been working for over 30 years in the business of information technology running the gamut of jobs and roles.  I had created the freedom of being a contractor with big bucks, low responsibility, home working.  I sat on the fence of committment; basking in the illusion of my own authority but actually beholden to the behemoths of industry for my survival.  Swinging from intense periods of focused work and filthy lucre to extended fuges of amorphous travel and well heeled shoe string living.  Every now and then I would think there has to be more to life than this. By my mid 40s the soothing murmer was morphing into a demanding thunder and as I am discovering the journey of change pivots on critical moments.  In this case a simple email invitation to come learn about my intuition.

5 years on I have learned that intuition serves the agenda of the heart, a broader and more multi-dimensional agenda than that of the ego and our need for survival.  I have revelled in learning this new language and the paradox of it that no matter how long you have been on the journey, there is always the joy of deeper heart connections married with the anticipation of new learning.

I dont know what I know, but I know what I know is made up and what I make up serves to create the reality I experience.  Now that the anger is no longer hidden and I choose to be curious about it I see I have been avoiding shame, embarrassment, rejection. I see my covert reaction to masculine authority, I see the destruction of my temper, the rage of my powerlessness and my anger at and judgement of my father, the foil against which I made up all that I believe to be true about men and me in relationship to men.  I want to hide, I want to cry to turn back the clock and pretend that it never happened.  I want to smooth over the earth, to hide all of those ugly worms under a nice smooth slab of concrete adding to the paving stones that have smothered this fecund, fertile garden.  I want to put my flowers in neat pots to smile and say that it is all good.  And that is what I do on Facebook as I fiddle with comments but still my focus goes back to the key scratch until I cannot ignore that putting my focus on what I believe it bad and wrong about me and what I do only creates a reality that perpetuates that.

I am caught on the ledge of a slippery slope, a moment to breathe, to acknowledge the pain of this reality that I have created for myself and ask my heart what would it love.  In that space there is no question – I want to reclaim my garden, to grow creations that nourish my heart, body and soul.  I want to step back and allow in the natural forces that rise to support me; to honour the powerhouse composters that enrich and condition the soil as they eat their way through it, marvel at nature’s pollinators as rediscover and seed the richness of my creations.  What is obvious is to allow the worms to wriggle, to be with the discombobulation of bringing this garden back to its natural state and to focus on the work to do that. In this moment I am flooded with gratitude for the strong powerful men who have revealed to me the groove of that old story I have about the masculine; my father and the love he had to bring me into being, Larry Ellison for creating a company that taught me much of what I know about information technology, to Mark Zuckerberg for creating the platform to play this out this scenario, to Darren Eden, an intuitive master who is committed to transforming hearts through the creation of shamanic realms of learning and to William Whitecloud, who posted the picture that drew me into the ring of a psychic master whose wise foil refused to collude with the old me.  It doesnt make sense to my rational mind but intuitively it is obvious that this story keeps me separate from the love and intimacy of a man in my life.

*  Photograph with kind permission of William Whitecloud

** Darren Eden’s Your Call To Greatness workshop, Central London www.academyofgreatness.co.uk

In 2008 I had been working for over 30 years in the business of information. I had created the freedom of being a contractor with big bucks, low responsibility, home working, swinging from intense periods of focused work and stashing money to extended adventures across the world  of amorphous travel and spending money.  Every now and then I would think there has to be more to life than this. By my mid 40s the soothing murmer was morphing into a demanding thunder and as I am discovering the journey of change pivots on critical moments; in this case a simple email invitation to come learn about my intuition.

I have learned that intuition serves the agenda of the heart, a broader and more multi-dimensional agenda than that of the ego and our need for survival.  I have revelled in learning this new language and the paradox of it that no matter how long you have been on the journey, there is always the joy of deeper heart connections married with the anticipation of new learning.

5 and a half years on from Darren Eden‘s first 3 day event in Central London and the roller coaster ride of screaming lows and gasping highs I have just been full circle at the latest incarnation of this workshop a sleek, mean love hugging machine. Superbly engineered, deftly managed and subtly delivered material. It may look like the same workshop but I am in a different place in time and space & I think I have just switched into warp speed, bitten into the next layer of the this fruit cake and ratcheted up the roller coaster ride.  Watch this space!

* Darren Eden is the founder of The Academy Of Greatness in the UK and author of the book Discover Your Greatness. His two day weekend Your Call To Greatness is an introduction to intuitive mastery and his 8 month training The Transformation gives you the structure to be an intuitive master in your own life.

I love the intuitive coaching work that I do, it is never a chore, rather always a pleasure to take a purposeful ride on my magic carpet.  Part of my learning has been to hold the tension of giving away sessions and casting my pearls before swine.  It is not that everyone hasnt got a heart and isnt at their core deeply imaginative and creative but unless they are open to a guide in that moment the seed may find itself in barren soil.  When I realised this my ego went into overdrive to try and work out ‘how’ it would be possible to discern the worthy from the unworthy, the open from the closed, those who would take action from those who wouldnt.  What a muddle.  I know I am always ready to take that ride so the key is to see who is willing to cross that threshold to meet me.  People’s willingness to pay is one way to judge that but it is not the only way.  I choose to listen to a deeper beat and know that money is not the only gold that is there for me on this journey.

This past week has revealed two beautiful testimonials from clients who didnt cross the threshold in the traditional way.  Lauren, whose journey and testimonal I shared in my last blog, won a session in my monthly FindYourMojo competition and Ronan, a chance meeting while on holidays in Ireland in 2012 just asked straight up for a session.  Ronan is Ronan Stone (dont you love the play on words!) a singer, song writer, writer, lover of words who has struggled with his place in the world.  He didnt have any money to offer but his request was so direct and true that there was nothing to do but grab a coffee at T Bay Surf Cafe and unhitch that carpet.

Within a couple of days of our session he wrote to thank me and say he had been racking his brains to find something to ‘pay’ me for it.  Really all he had to offer was a song.  I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to receive a song as a testimonial, I wont deny I dont get excited when I receive money, but Ronan’s song was a gift of gold straight from the soil of his heart.  That would have been enough but yesterday he sent me a full recording which I attach here.  I feel like the leprechaun at the end of the rainbow.

So it is a big thank you to Ronan Stone for the smile he puts on my heart when he sings this song.

The Way That I Choose.

I travelled far and wide looking for the muse
looking through this big bad world for significant clues
everytime i find an answer its steeped in the blues
now i see so clearly thats the way that i choose

so what next now that i see my way through
i think i have the answers but i feel like some kind of fool
these opposed perspectives they break each other’s rules
one way or the other its up to me to choose

from where I’m standing from my point of view
its all so clear now where before it was confused
i’m not saying that this way is for you
I’m just saying its the way that I choose

*** SPECIAL OFFER ***

Although I have discontinued my monthly FindYourMojo competition Ronan’s experience has inspired me to offer a big reduction for one off FindYourMojo coaching sessions to kick start the year.  Normally £150 I am offering sessions for £50 if booked before 31 January 2014.  You will need access to an iPhone or iPad to download the FindYourMojo app from iTunes, following the instructions to find your two word MOJO and then email it to me below.

I am proud to present Lauren Ackermans first blog. Lauren found my FindYourMojo iphone app, discovered that her mojo is Laughing Life and by posting this on my Facebook page won a free coaching session to dive more deeply into what this could mean for her and how she could make it real in her life. So across the miles we unwrapped this beautiful package to discover the simplicity and joy of play and her gift to live this in her life showing others how to live it too. As we talked it became obvious to Lauren to give herself the gift of creative writing and from that action she has created her blog HopScotch Through Life and has signed up for a blog challenge to keep her on track. Knowing your mojo is one thing, bringing it to life is quite another. It takes will and action. Congratulations Lauren on a great start!