Is there a Lunatic inside your Head?

Album cover (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a post I wrote near on 2 years ago … I believe that it is still relevant today.

“I’ve gone a little crazy for this post. It”s a somewhat different take on things, a different angle or perspective if you like……..

#What’s that you say?…..I thought I heard a voice. # Nah, can’t be?

You know, that nagging “voice” which is trying to interrupt your concentration. You are  focussing but there is something else lurking in your subconscious, trying to get to the surface………it appears some lunatic is attempting to sabotage your thoughts OR is that same “lunatic” just trying to get your attention?

Which “lunatic” is it…..Good Lunatic or Bad Lunatic?

The Good Lunatic may at first seem a little crazy, a little different, make a lot of noise but hey, isn’t that the world that we live in? full of noise, distraction. Maybe that’s why he/she is making so much noise……to get your attention in the first instance.

Unnecessary distraction & noise take us away from our Main Game. There are (numerous) times when I have  needed a “good lunatic” to get me back on track. A Voice prepared to give me a good “kicking” when required. A Voice to rise above the noise of everyday Life and at the same time, respect my need for quietness when the time to pause for some deep thought & introspection is required

However, there is also the “bad lunatic” voice, which can be much more subtle(at first). Quietly whispering in your ear. The soothing sounds of self destruction. He/she sneeks up on you, becomes your “friend”, gently offering support & encouragement……..only to eventually get you derailed!

Then the  “bad” becomes “real bad”. He/she ups the volume. The gentle soothing whispers become noisier, more persistent. You have difficulty hearing anything else, this “lunatic” is gaining control & is blocking out the voice of reason, commonsense, practicality and the quiet of deep personal thought.

Which “lunatic” do you want or have inside your head?

Sadly, many are unaware of the voice within - the inner guiding light, intuition, cosmic power source, universal thought line or whatever tag you would like to apply. So for many, there is a lunatic running loose in the asylum. A distracting noise aimed at your self destruction.

The Key, I believe is knowing your inner voice, it’s vulnerabilities and it’s power (when it’s good & when it’s bad). Knowing your inner voice & it’s behaviour, will give you more self control and the ability to be your true self, rather than have a “lunatic” in charge of your life.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts …..

Be good to yourselves

David

Life Coach. Listener. Life Lover.

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“What if”…..the biggest question of them all

This is a great question. However it can be a two edged sword. When used as a rut busting question, this question can open up new thought processes.

When used as a statement of fact, it can reinforce the rut that you are already in.

What do You choose?…..

Here are just a few examples. Will these move you forward or leave you as you are?

What if… I knew all the answers

What if… I could make decisions that would always be right

What if… I had enough money to buy what I wanted

What if… I was fit and healthy

What if… My Life was better

What if… all my dreams would come true

What if… I was Loved more

What if… I had more time

What if… I was famous

What if… I could imagine myself as a success

What if… I had goals for my Life

What if… I was motivated and inspired

What if… I didn’t have to do all this other “stuff”

What if… I could escape from all of this

Will you choose “What if” to open up new opportunities… Now, this moment?

Be good to yourselves

David

Life Coach. Listener. Life Lover.

# In 2013 I will also be at my new site. So please join me for coffee, fresh writings, fresh thoughts and ideas at : www.davidstevenslifecoach.com.au/blog

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Related articles

• 3 reasons to get your day kickstarted the right way (personalpower4me.wordpress.com)
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Living Life Today – Are You living in the Shadows?

Shadows in the late afternoon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The Living Life Today series provides a platform to think about your Life as it is Now, enjoy what you have, review and create an even better future for tomorrow“….. Short, sharp & easily digestible.

So many people spend their lives with their talents hidden from view.

I call this “living in the shadows”. Talents hidden from view. A place of doubt, indecision & fear.

We are here to shine and by shining, we are helping others… as well as ourselves.

Our choices determine the lives we lead.

You are where you currently are ….by choice.  If you are currently ‘in the shadows’, you can choose to come out and live a life of brightness and vitality. You may need help to do this. Help is always close at hand, just ask.

Choose to live a Life where you can be seen and be heard. A life where you can share yourself with others and where you can grow.

A life where you can learn from others. A life where you can inspire, motivate and care…..and be inspired, motivated and cared about.

My friends, fellow Life Lovers…..Dream big, aim high, develop your Big Picture, embrace your Life, choose well… and shine.

Be good to yourselves

David

P.S New website and blog coming soon!

# I help men & women aged 40 & over, make their goals, dreams & longer term Visions for their Life, come true. I want You to be excited about your Life.

and YES, I coach in Australia & around the world via Skype…Contact me Today for your FREE introductory coaching session.… david@davidstevenslifecoach.com.au

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Living Life Today – how “old” are your thoughts?…are they as old as you?

“The Living Life Today series provides a platform to think about your Life as it is Now, enjoy what you have, review and create an even better future for tomorrow“….. Short, sharp & easily digestible.

As we get older, it seems that many of our thoughts age at the same rate. At least that’s my observation of others, from my years on this planet.

Many simply accept that they must think in a certain way “because that’s the way that it is”…..”that’s the way we are supposed to think (because we are older)”. They carry the same thoughts that they carried in their earlier years…they cling on to them. My goodness, it’s hard to let go.

Here’s some different thinking…..

Young thoughts lead to ongoing enthusiasm & age-long vitality. Young thoughts are fresh…..and that’s the key here. I am using the term “young”. My point here is freshness.

Stale thoughts, old thoughts, worn out thoughts, out of date thoughts…..these don’t serve you. Using these types of thoughts will have you in the same old, same old vacuum.

Fresh, young thoughts will give you the opportunity to explore outside your current limits. Fresh thinking seeks out opportunities that aren’t available to ‘stale’ thinkers. The opportunities to achieve much more than you may be achieving right now.

If this is you then Freshen up, for your own sake. You are getting older, however you have the choice to keep your thoughts “young” & vibrant.

be good to yourselves

David

# I help men & women aged 40 & over, make their goals, dreams & longer term Visions for their Life, come true. I want You to be excited about your Life.

and YES, I coach in Australia & around the world via Skype…Contact me Today for your FREE introductory coaching session.… david@davidstevenslifecoach.com.au

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Opportunities and Excuses…Friends or enemies?

I have missed many opportunities during my Life.

Largely because I have offered myself to many “get outs” or let’s call them for what they are…Excuses.

The funny (or not) thing about this is that I didn’t consider them to be excuses…..but they were.

Subtle, little self talk. Friendly enough. However not the type of friend that makes for a lasting relationship.

When an opportunity comes your way it isn’t always obvious. It may be a “dare”. It may be something “different”. It may be hidden and only revealed once you commit to taking that extra step.

When an obvious opportunity comes your way, you have a choice…either to accept or decline. Now there may well be excellent reasons to do either.

However has excuse played a part in this choice…with or without you knowing?

Excuses make choice easy. You just bail out, fade away from making a more valuable decision…it’s an easy way out. That’s the problem, we like things to be easy.

Opportunities are often ‘hard won’. As I said earlier, they are not always obvious. A great opportunity may unveil itself after a long journey of trial, repetition, trial again, persistence, doubt, perserverance…..

then hey presto! opportunity knocks, it’s staring you in the face.

An obvious opportunity, one that simply presents itself to you & has apparent benefits,  should provide a straightforward response. When it doesn’t, there’s a problem.

When your default response is “No”…excuses may be at play.

Excuses can come from doubt, fear, lack of confidence and people constantly telling you that you can’t do stuff…and you believe it. This then becomes part of your makeup without you being consciously aware.

So when opportunity comes a knockin’, You will find ways to excuse.

A Solution that I will offer is this. Catch yourself/be aware when you are saying “No”, thoughtwise or out loud. Question yourself as to the reason. Is it realistic to be saying “No”?, is it practical?

If it is then fine. If you can’t find a realistic or practical reason then you need to dig deeper. There may be some programming issues/excuses at play…..then get someone to help you with this. I’d hate to see you missing opportunities.

be good to yourselves

David

# I help men & women aged 40 & over, make their goals, dreams & longer term Visions for their Life, come true. Contact me Today for your FREE introductory coaching session.

and YES, I coach in Australia & around the world via Skype…contact me for more details… david@davidstevenslifecoach.com.au

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12 Choices that I have made this week… some new, some habitual

This week, I have chosen to…..

• Enjoy my day regardless of what other “issues” come into play
• allow my thoughts to come to me… rather than force the issue
• release any negatives that may be playing on my mind
• consider different options than I have been used to
• start an exciting project
• forget past unfortunate decisions
• forgive myself for not delivering on what I have previously demanded of myself
• follow my own path
• trust my Intuition
• not to follow convention but to throw out the ‘rule book’
• to break my routine by doing 30 minutes of work in my backyard
• to forgo the ‘detail’ and map out a bold plan anyway

Now, these are choices that I made. They are not necessarily mind boggling however I made them…..and that’s the point here.

You always have the power of choice. Some may initially appear limited to you… however there is choice.

The beauty that I have found about “choice” is that the more that I exercise it, the more “choices” come into my Life…weird eh?

Not really. It’s about removing the veil, unmasking the mystery. It’s really about opening your mind to it all. Earlier I mentioned that your choices may appear limited. It’s more about the limitations that you are placing on your thinking rather than the choices at your disposal.

Some of the “choices” that I made are habitual hence the post heading. These are choices that I exercise regularly. These are choices that serve me.

Some of my choices are new. I like to keep my mind open to ‘newness’ and replace stale, worn out choices that no longer serve my purposes.I could easily choose an alternative…  do nothing at all & give away my power.

However, I choose to make a ‘definitive positive’ action that serves me well. Choice is power in your hands and…..in your mind.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, please feel free to comment.

be good to yourselves

David

# I help men & women aged 40 & over, make their goals, dreams & longer term Visions for their Life, come true. Contact me Today for your FREE introductory coaching session.

and YES, I coach in Australia & around the world via Skype…contact me for more details  david@davidstevenslifecoach.com.au

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Living Life Today – Are you shackled or are you free?

The Living Life Today series provides a platform to think about your Life as it is Now, enjoy what you have, review and create an even better future for tomorrow”….. Short, sharp & easily digestible.

Walking around with the weight of the world on your shoulders is not exactly a great place to be.

We want to be FREE…ideally.

However, are we always Free?

No, not all the time. Some never are. We have issues to deal with.

Now the difference between being ‘shackled’ and being ‘Free’ is the ability to acknowledge that there will be stuff to deal with and people to deal with, that will make us “constrained” & somewhat burdened at times.

However also knowing that this is not how your Life will always be if you choose otherwise. That is, choosing a Life of freedom.

Those who do not choose freedom will be forever constrained. They will be weighed down by others’ concerns, expectations & demands…..and unable to see the light of day.

I suggest that to be Free, you need to acknowledge & deal with these “constraints”. And after each time you do so, flick the switch into ‘freedom’ mode.

Freedom being…doing whatever it is, work play or otherwise that gives you….. ‘room to move’, gives you creative muscle, gives you satisfaction, excites you and helps others.

If you can’t “flick the switch” then your constraints will likely tie you to a place that you’d rather not be. And you don’t want that, do you?

I’d love to hear your comments below…do you feel free or is there someone/thing tying you down?

be good to yourselves

David

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• Photo Credit Cristina Bernhardsen …Free Stock photo

“Expectations”…Realistic or Unrealistic ?…Good or Bad?

“Expectation” is a word that can fill you with joy

and also fill you with dread.

The expectation that you put on yourself can be spine tingling or nerve numbing.

The expectations that others place upon you can have the same effect however tend to weigh much more heavily because…..they aren’t YOUR expectations.

…which would you rather have?

Personal expectations…the ones that come from us… are largely “drivers”. They get us going, reaching out, pushing us along. They come from within and contain a ‘knowing’ that we can do more.

We set goals, have aspirations, dreams and expect that good things will come of our efforts.

‘External expectations’ come from a variety of sources. Your coach, your mentor, family, team members, friends and of course the big daddy (or momma) of them all…..the expectations of your nation (the Olympics are a current great example of this).

Now largely, these external expectations are borne from your own ‘performance’ in Life. People can see that you are doing great & want (expect)  that to continue OR you are not doing so great & want (expect) you to improve. This can be said of both sport and Life in general.

It’s something that ‘comes with the territory’ however really nothing that we can control to any great extent because they aren’t your expectations.

Personal expectation is the one that we have greater control over.

We can either expect very little or a great deal. We can be realistic about this by viewing our past & present ‘performance’ & making valued judgements about what we expect by way of improvement. We can also be “realistic” and do absolutely nothing…commonly called ‘low expectation’.

We can also follow the same line of thought and be completely unrealistic. We can expect way beyond our capabilities based on comparison with others. If we are not comparing within reason, then the pressure to reach the unrealistic will be unbearable.

Which will set you up for Failure.

So the way I see expectation, is simply to expect to do your best. Expect to dream your best dream, kick your best goal and live your best Life.

No more, no less.

And they have to be your dreams, your goals and….. you must be living your Life.

Do you have expectations that are unrealistic place upon you? or are your own expectations unrealistic? Please share your expectations in the comments below.

be good to yourselves

David

# I help men & women aged 40 & over, make their goals, dreams & longer term Visions for their Life, come true. Contact me Today for your FREE introductory coaching session.

and YES, I coach in Australia & around the world via Skype…contact me for more details… david@davidstevenslifecoach.com.au

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Related articles

• Living Life Today – Don’t sit back, just make a Start (personalpower4me.wordpress.com)
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A Path well travelled…and many worn out shoes

English: Path junction in Pheasant Copse At this point the footpath which has travelled for about 3Km SE from Ragham Lodge turns left towards Limbo Lodge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am stepping thru Life, mostly forward.

However there are times when my steps become heavy. Like walking thru thick thigh deep mud. It’s an effort to raise my legs for another step.

Must rest.

Effort it seems, does not always bring “reward”.

Does this sound familiar to you? The steps you take appear to be getting you nowhere?

Do you then Stop and go no further, give up?

I had an illumination a while back and realised… that the Reward is really in the Effort.

Now when I rest, it is to review the path and see how far I have come. All those ‘efforts’, those steps…I have come a fair way indeed.

And when I see that, I reward myself. A self congratulatory ‘pat on the back’, some positive silent self talk, the occasional yell of delight.

When you rest, try spending a few minutes checking your path well worn. How far have you come? Is your path straight and narrow, winding, full of detours, U-turns or are you back to where you started?

My shoes are well worn now. Though I can always get another pair.

This is the effort. My shoes are a metaphor for all those efforts that I have put in. When my efforts seem exhausted, I can dig deep for some more (get another pair of shoes).

And I can say that my path has had it’s fair share of detours, U-turns and winds. However I believe I have come far…and that pleases me. I realise also that I have far to go.

There is a ‘destination’. I can make it out in the distance, beyond the hills and valleys but I can see it. This pleases me.

This is the choice that you have and have always had. Keep wearing the same pair of shoes, keep them nice & clean, wear them only on certain days of the week and stay where you are in Life OR

wear them out with effort…moving yourself forward…step by step and getting somewhere with your Life.

Keep stepping Life Lovers.

If this post pleases you and/or the questions raised have some relevance for you, then please comment below and share this post with your Universe.

be good to yourselves

David

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Living Life Today – The “What If” perplexity…

“The Living Life Today series provides a platform to think about your Life as it is Now, enjoy what you have, review and create an even better future for tomorrow”….. Short, sharp & easily digestible.

“What if”…….two words often thought in abstract moments and sometimes uttered in moments of despair and angst.

These two words are also conjured up in moments of exhilaration, imagination and breakthrough...

So uttering or thinking “what if” can be looked at from two different angles.

The positive “what if” when normal convention is thrust aside and a challenge is issued, for example…”what if I did it this way…”  ”What if we thru the rule book out and…”  ”What if I ignore the nay sayers and went ahead regardless”

The negative “what if”, for example…”what if I had only done it this way, what if I had only listened, what if I hadn’t gotten lazy, what if I had said yes instead of not deciding at all”

These latter ”what if’s” are of opportunities missed.

The positive “what if’s” are of opportunities to be explored and to be conquered.

Don’t just accept what is, consider what if and open up the possibilities…..just Imagine that

The following are simple everyday situations when “what if” can make all the difference. I challenge you to add as many as you can to your list.

What if…I chose to say “yes” instead of “No”

What if I decided to say “Hi” to my neighbour across the road instead of ignoring him/her

What if I took a different route to work today

What if I tried it this way instead of the normal way

What if I did more exercise and started to get healthy

So, do you want to open up the possibilities? Explore the “what if’s” in your Life. Challenge the situations you face and maybe are in right now…It can be as simple as asking “what if”

Be good to yourselves

David

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Related articles

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