Thursday, May 23, 2013

There Is No Such Thing As Ordinary

Finally, I have a (semi) reliable internet connection, and logged into this blog after 5 months, and was pleasantly surprised to see the page-views are steadily ticking over nicely, with no effort on my behalf. Which is kind of nice..

I love having a blog, but I was leaning in the direction of starting a new one which would more accurately reflect who I am now, my philosophy, etc. But seems rather a waste, after the amount of effort I put into this one. All those "Follow Me Back Fridays" when I desperately scraped and scrounged for more followers as though my entire self-worth depended on it... I hardly recognise that person now.

How hard I worked for that $8.73 in Google Adsense revenue, before I came to my senses and realised that writing for anything other than the sheer joy of it was a waste of my precious time...

How do I tell you how my life has changed? Or is it I who changed?

I know now, without a shadow of a doubt, that there is no such thing as "ordinary". NO. SUCH. THING!! Everybody has the seeds of greatness within them. Whatever we conceive and believe, we can achieve. There are no limits, except those that we place upon ourselves. I know this. I have proved it.

I have done things I would have once considered impossible. Some of our well-meaning friends came right out and said it couldn't be done. But my intuition told me I could do it....and I listened.

Last month we opened up Tonga's first ever health food shop. This in itself is an achievement that I am proud of, but this is just the beginning. I opened this shop as the first step towards a vision of a holistic health movement in Tonga. With 92% of the population classified as overweight (and 68% classified as "obese), and 99% of the population classified as moderate-high risk for non-communicable diseases....Tonga needs this desperately.


We are waiting for a piece of land to become available, and then we will build a house. All our supplies are here waiting. Our house will be built for under $30,000AUD. (Yes, people told us that's not possible either, but we refused to listen - stubborn souls we are!!).

We spent the summer in Australia, sourcing our building supplies from auction houses, warehouses, manufacturers for a grand total of $17,500, for a three-bedroom home. For two months we scoured the internet and traipsed all across Sydney getting supplies. Then we packed it all into a shipping container (which required a couple of all-night efforts, with our 1 year old asleep in the car beside the shipping container) and sent it across the ocean. In the heat of Summer, with 3 little kids in tow, this was a massive undertaking (we had no idea just how much work it would turn out to be - we've never built a house before)...but we did it!!

What did I learn from this herculean effort? 

That we are capable of anything - anything! - we set our minds to.

 If there is one thing that someone else can take from this blog post, let this be the lesson. You can do anything!! If you first believe you can, the how-to-do-it will begin to reveal itself. Perhaps a little bit of info here, a new contact there, a ligh-tbulb moment at 2am in the morning there, a bit of advice there...little by little it comes together. What was once a dream, becomes reality. 

I have learnt to not be afraid of telling others about your dreams. 9 out of 10 people may laugh it off, but that 10th person will "get it" and will support you in any way they can. 

Sometimes the greatest of opportunities are right there in front of you, and all you have to do is ask - yet so many of us don't, because we are held back by our own insecurities and the "not good enough" complex! 

For example, I have the most amazing mentor in America. This woman has challenged me to become more than I ever thought I could, and really break through so many mental barriers. And what hoops did I have to jump through, to get her to be my mentor (for FREE, I might add...). The answer: none. I just had to ask. (If you're on twitter, look her up @SoledadFrancis)

I got my weekly newspaper column by simply sending an email to the editor and asking if he wanted someone to write a weekly health column. So simple! Yet I could have easily put it off, saying to myself "Well, he probably won't be interested in little old me!!" or "Surely, there are other people more qualified than I?"

These are the fables that we tell ourselves, and in a perverse way, it comforts us, knowing that we can stay in our comfortable little zone and never take the risk that we'll make a fool of ourselves. But deep down, we know...we know that we are capable of so much more


We look up to great heroes like Nelson Mandela, and admire them from our worn-out spot on the couch. THINK!! We too, have everything we need to effect great change, and what we don't have can be learnt. There is only one thing that separates the great heroes from everybody else. That one thing is....the CHOICE to develop the greatness that is already within us. That's it!!

We are all capable of achieving great things...but the vast majority of us choose not to. 


We are born free and sovereign, yet so many of us spend our lives chained and enslaved. To external pressures, such as what other people think of us, or money, or (the illusion of) power...

Yet more than that, we spend our lives chained and enslaved and limited by our own mind

In school, we are never taught how to master our minds, or that we can choose our attitude, yet this would have to be one of the most valuable lessons that we could teach our young. We always have a choice.

The human mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master...

Do not allow the direction of your life to be steered by the wanderings and ruminations of an undisciplined mind!

Let me give an example of how choosing a different attitude has literally changed my life. I once was like 99% per cent of the population. I got upset when things didn't go my way, I railed against the unfairness of things. My good mood could be destroyed if my plans fell through. I didn't know it then, but I was so imprisoned! Imagine being reliant upon everything going your way, in order to be happy!! It sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn't it, yet so many of us spend our entire lives in this way!

Then I made the choice to see that things happen FOR me, not to me. There are no problems, only opportunities. I may not know WHY things happen, or sometimes it is not revealed until much later, but trusting that everything is for my benefit, and necessary for my ultimate growth, then I no longer need to get upset over things that don't follow my plans or expectations.

The other day I was sitting in my shop, and it was really quiet. I mean, really quiet. I'd only sold $6 worth of products all morning. Immediately, my mind leapt to work, wondering: "Have I done something wrong?" "Are the customers not happy?" "Am I not selling the right products?". Lucky, I am no longer a slave to my mind!!

I changed my perspective. This is not a problem, this is an opportunity!! I get to spend the morning writing and researching on my computer. You know what? Within 15 minutes of changing my attitude, and getting to work on my e-book (another project of mine), the customers started coming through the door! Either way, I choose to be grateful. If it's busy, I'm thankful that customers are buying my healthy food, and if it's quiet, I'll be thankful for the opportunity to work on my other projects or look for ways to improve my business...

See the difference that a little change of attitude can bring? We are all free to choose our attitude. No government, no prison, no job, no controlling spouse, no power on earth can take that choice away from us. That is true freedom!


What is the thing that really makes Nelson Mandela a hero? Was it his efforts for political and social justice (inspirational as they are) OR was it the attitude in which he did it? 

It all begins with the attitude. We don't develop a great attitude because we've done great things. No, no, no!! We are able to do great things because we chose to have a great attitude. The attitude comes first. Always. 

We assume that our emotions create our thoughts, yet it is the thought that creates the emotion. A crappy thought on repeat will lead to "feeling" crappy. Same applies to positive thoughts. If you no longer wish to be a slave to your fickle emotions, you must learn to control your thoughts.

Hear Mandela's words: "“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.” Our own minds can imprison us far more effectively than any man-made chains...if we let it.

I love the saying: You were born free, and you'll die free... but will you live free?

We are free, you and me.

As free as we choose to be...






1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love the quotes you've used with this post!