Stones, Belt Buckles and Gold

"When you're betting for stones in an archery contest, you shoot with skill. When you're shooting for fancy belt buckles, you worry about your aim. And when you're betting for real gold, you're a nervous wreck. Your skill is the same in all three cases - but because one prize means more to you than another, you let outside concerns weigh heavily on your mind. He who looks too hard at the outside gets clumsy on the inside."

Chuang Tzu

Whatever the goal, the stakes, the result you want for - play the mental game INSIDE where you're simply... shooting for pebbles and stones.  

Because in that way... you come to the table and shoot with ALL your skills, with ALL your attention on ALL of the game!

Who Are You Serving?

If you're a coach, consultant or anyone exchanging high value services for money, this will be a rather important message for you.

In fact, if you’re experiencing any sort of lack or frustration in ANY area of life, this will still be rather important for you.

I know many authors, consultants, coaches, public speakers, healers, therapists and professionals of all kinds... who are barely making enough to get by.

Why is that?

Isn't having an armful of qualifications and certificates, enough for people to find us and demand us to take their money?

Well, quite frankly, those who think that way are literally BROKE.

That's because no matter WHAT it is we do as a profession, someone still has to be SERVED.

And that's an important word - served.

So, if you're struggling or if you know someone who is really struggling with their profession, career or business, ask them this question --
WHO ARE YOU SERVING?

Quite frankly, the only thing that counts is helping and serving others.

So, those professionals who sign up for a thousand and one social networking sites and who are intent in building their 'web of influence'... are spending enormous amounts of time, energy and mental capital on their efforts.

But I bet if you ask them 'who are you serving... where is the value that's been transmitted here?'... you'll get that blank, far away look backed up by a stunned silence that they can't quite wrap their heads around.

Because really - that's the only question you need to ask (again and again) - who are you serving - if you ever find that... you're not making the money you want, don't have the clients you want, don't have the life you want.

And the thing about this question is that it cuts through all the self chatter and the inner mumbo jumbo and the pathetic excuses we throw at ourselves.

Because let's face it; we love to defend ourselves, to rationalise, to give justifications to ourselves when things look like they'll hit the fan, the wardrobe and any other item in the house.

Yes. The question really is an EXCUSE BUSTER. And, it's a powerful RECESSION BUSTING tool, also.

And so let's take a short look at our relationships and see how this all fits together.

Ask a friend you meet occassionally, how their relationships are doing, how are they working out?

Well, for most, their relationships are pretty ho-hum.

Nothing new. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing exciting on a day to day basis.

In fact for many, there's a kind of slow, creeping separateness that gets wider and wider and wider.

So, when you find yourself of someone you know in a crapped out relationship, just notice where the focus of attention is.

Is it on the person themselves or, on the other party in the relationship?

Quite honestly, when you really serve others, when you take the concern and the drama off of you, and you focus on helping others, you can't have a relationship that doesn't work!

It's just not possible.

That's because your attention isn't on you, you're not focussing everything on you - instead, you're serving others, you're helping others, you're looking out for their best interests.

So, if you're feeling frustrated, angry, unhappy, unproductive, lethargic, miserable, depressed... simply turn things around and ask...

WHO am I serving here?

And notice this; when you serve others, you become a true hero to those very people you help and serve.

Now tell me that there's a better way to be than that!

Raja Hireker
www.CoachingByWriting.com

The Awesome Power of Focus!!

Here's the best example of focus, I've possibly seen.

So, I've dropped my children to school and I'm now in my car, waiting for the traffic lights to turn from red, to green. I'm adjusting the volume on the CD player and somehow, from the corner of my eye, I could sense this frantic movement and activity on the pavement, some twenty to thirty yards ahead of me.

And, I couldn't quite figure what I was concentrating on because there was a mass of people on the pavement, all going about their day during the hustle and bustle of the morning.

And then, somehow, I lost all that movement. It all seemed to have blended into that multi-coloured, swaying sea of humanity.

But, just like a rabbit throwing the fox off the trail, the chase starts again. And this time, I could see exactly what was going on.

A woman was on the run. All the while, she had a little baby, tucked under her right arm like a rugby ball or an American football.

And, with her left arm, she was steering and pushing... an empty pram!

Boy could this woman run!

This was now becoming must viewing.

I tracked her through the crowd, seeing her zip and engineer her way through the denseness like an Olympic runner. Quite frankly, I'd never seen anything like it.

I was thinking to myself that what on earth was going on here. Had she robbed a bank and the pram was her getaway vehicle. And if it was, why was it empty and what was the baby doing at the bank?

Or, had she snatched the child and then found out she'd been rumbled. So, before thinking about giving it all up, she decided to leg it, scarper for her life!

Oh, the drama we can all create!

Well, after those fleeting thoughts evaporated, I let my eyes travel a little further to the direction where the woman was heading.

And then it struck me; this lady, with small baby under her arm, running like a demon, fanatically gripping one of the pram handles... what she was doing was running to catch the bus!

Yes; this lady who was just unbelievable in her commitment and focus, was running to get on a then, stationary bus.

WOW!!... I thought; now that's what I call focus!

There was nothing else on her mind than to get that bus.

There's no gossip going on. There's no debating about things. She's not travelling in two directions at the same time.

One goal. One mission. One game plan.

And, did she get the bus?

Well, I can only speculate and say that if her intensity and her commitment of purpose and if her focus was anything to go by, then yes, I'd say she would've got that bus.

As timing would have it, my 'lights' turned green.

I was on the move.

I tried arching my neck behind whilst driving so I didn't quite see the end result.

However, the important thing was the total focus and the absolute dedication to... go for it.

How many women (or men) would've tucked their little child under their arm like that, run like that, steer a pram like that?

Not many.

It's amazing what we can accomplish when we focus!