Your Body Is The Healer

Ok, hold tight. I’m about to say something heretical…

Medicine cannot cure you, and a doctor cannot heal you.

Let me repeat: Medicine cannot cure you, and a doctor cannot heal you.

Only your body can heal you.

 At best, your doctor can give advice or prescribe a product, and his medicine may suppress your symptoms (usually how conventional medicine works) or kick-start your body’s own healing reactions (often how naturopathic medicines work), but at the end of the day, your body has to do the work.

If you have a broken bone, the doctor or surgeon might put it back into place, but only your body can knit the bone back together again. If you have a wound, the nurse might dress it to stop infection, but it's your body that grows new skin and closes over the wound. Your body is the true healer.

If you take the latest, greatest vitamin formula and all your aches and pains disappear, does that mean it has cured you? No. It means your body finally has what it needs to heal itself and function properly.

If you undergo chemotherapy and it shrinks your tumor, does that mean it has healed you? No. It means the chemotherapy has suppressed (one of) your symptoms. Cancer is one symptom of a toxic, acidic system. Chemotherapy, radiation and surgery might take out or reduce your cancer, but it cannot heal your toxic, acidic system. Your body can, though, if you give it the right diet and support.

I'm not saying doctors and medicine and herbal remedies don't have their place. Unfortunately, they have become all too necessary! But the real aim of a healthcare system shouldn't necessarily be to supply more doctors or better medicine, it should be to create a society that needs less doctors and less medicine! Anything else is just a band-aid solution...However, the economic reality is that band-aid solutions keep people in jobs and in business, so we are stuck with them (Pardon the pun).

I believe that if people really understood how awesomely their bodies were designed and what they are capable of, they would treat them a whole lot better.

When you get a “cold”, the runny nose, the sore throat and the cough are not symptoms of  an illness. They are symptoms of your body fighting off the illness. When your body is alerted to a foreign invader (such as a nasty germ), it immediately sets off a chain reaction of defenses. It starts sending in its troops, like white blood cells, but you probably just know them as “snot”, “mucus” or “gunk”.

Your body raises its temperature to try and kill off the invading pathogen – so you get a fever. 

Your body attempts to prevent the pathogen from penetrating further than the throat, which causes localized inflammation and heat in the throat, hence you get a “sore throat”. 

Your body is doing exactly what it’s meant to do! It’s protecting you…and what do you do in return? You pop some cold and flu pills to avoid feeling the sore throat and the sniffles. That’s right, you block the body from doing its work. 

Just because something makes us feel better, doesn’t mean it has healed us. In fact, with many modern medications, it has succeeded only in tampering with the bodies natural processes. If you take a painkiller because you have a headache, the painkiller doesn’t take your pain away, it simply turns off your pain sensors so your brain can’t register the sensation anymore.

Doesn't it make more sense to find out what your body is trying to tell you? In the case of a headache, it's probably trying to tell you to drink more water, or get away from your computer, or that you're lacking magnesium, or eating/using something that irritates the body. Listen! Your body is always talking to you!

And while we’re here, let’s have a little conversation about germs. All through the winter months, people cough and sniffle and blame their problems on “germs”. Unfortunately, germs are everywhere and life on earth is not possible without them. Germs are not the problem. Your immune system is the problem! 

Most likely, the immune system has become bogged down due to stress, nutritional deficiency, toxic overload, lack of exercise/fresh air/sunlight and can no longer cope.

The answer is not to try and control germs (you can’t), the answer is to build up an immune system that does what it’s meant to do – resist anything that’s potentially harmful to the body.

I haven’t been sick in years, and it’s certainly NOT because I’m paranoid about germs (I don’t even own a disinfectant, unless you mean vinegar). 

It’s certainly NOT because I wash my hands fifty times a day with antibacterial stuff (I wash my hands at the appropriate places with good old-fashioned soap and water). 

It’s definitely NOT because I vaccinate (Sorry to be heretical yet again, but I do not see the sense in becoming immune to certain strains of one virus, while at the same time being injected with the likes of aluminium, monosodium glutamate, and polysorbate 80, which just adds to my toxic load and makes it harder for my body to fight off other strains of other viruses. I'd much prefer a strong, healthy immune system that can resist any strain of any virus. But that's just me...)

And it’s definitely NOT because I take loads of multi-vitamins (I don’t take any).

I have, however, discovered (through research/trial and error/experimentation), how to support my immune system to do its job properly - that is, protect me from illness and disease. If you want to know more about the 7 habits I follow for excellent health, you can find them in my e-book “100% Alive”, available on Amazon.

The human body is beautifully, exquisitely designed to heal itself, renew itself, cleanse itself and regulate itself. If we nurture it properly, that is exactly what it does! But when we don’t? It doesn’t repair itself, it degenerates and ages, it fills up with toxins and gunk and fails to regulate itself properly. Sadly, you don’t have to look very far to find living (just!), breathing evidence in our families and communities and workplaces.

There is actually no physiological reason why the body should “age”! The body is constantly renewing itself, shedding old cells and replacing with new ones. The reason that people get old and stiff and arthritic is not due to the passage of time. It’s because: 

1. Their body is not getting enough nutrients to do its work properly. You need plenty fruit (preferably raw), plenty vegetables (preferably raw) and lots of leafy greens (preferably raw, again) if you want any hope of supplying your body with what it needs nutritionally. If the majority of your diet is cooked or processed foods, your body is going to wear out prematurely. Just saying..

2. They are overloading their bodies with toxins (chemicals on their food, in their personal care products, in the air they breathe, in their water) at a rate faster than the body can excrete them. Eventually, the body begins to clog up with toxic waste, the joints grow stiff and everything begins to slow down. 

3. Lack of use! People sit at their desk all day, drive the car home, sit in front of the TV, and then lay down to sleep…and wonder why their beautiful bodies, which were designed to dance, and run and jump, start to seize up from lack of use.

4. People accept aging as inevitable. After I turned 30, I began to notice more and more people my own age imply they were “getting old”. In their early 30’s, for goodness sake! All around us, people are perpetuating the belief that after the age of 30 - 40, our physical health starts to go downhill. People just love to talk about their ailments and what bothers them! Take notice, and you’ll realize you’re constantly being reminded that after a certain age, your body gets fatter, it slows down, it starts to ache, your memory and eyesight start to fade. 

Well, I say bollocks!!

What you believe is what you receive. If you expect to get old, crotchety and wrinkly, that’s likely what you’ll get. But I say no thanks. I say that my body is the earthly temple of my soul, I respect it and nurture it, and it returns the favor a hundred-fold. 

You see, I have this stubborn streak, and I don't necessarily accept that if someone else experienced it (or even if lots of other people experienced it), then it's inevitably going to be my experience too. We create our own experiences and outcomes, based on what we put in...

For example, when I had my first son, people said I couldn’t expect to go back to the same size as before. After a while, the weight came off and I went back to wearing my pre-pregnancy clothes. Then, they said, it won’t be that easy after the second one. But a few months after the birth of my second son, I was right back into all my old clothes. Then the next lot of well-meaning advice, was that after turning 30, I’d have to work harder to stay slim. 

Meanwhile, I just smiled politely, and ignored their "advice".

In fact, I can state with absolute certainty that I am more energetic, more flexible, more toned, healthier and fitter than I was a decade ago. And I fully expect to be even more so, in another decade. 

You get to choose how you age, by choosing what you put in your mouth, what you put on your skin, what you allow in your mind, and embracing love in all it’s forms. These daily little choices have an accumulative effect over the years.

The most youthful-looking people I know are not the ones who buy expensive anti-aging creams or employ personal trainers. They are the ones who have lived simply and honestly, loved wholeheartedly, gave generously, appreciated nature, and nurtured their bodies with wholesome foods.

Your body is just exquisite. Every process, every system, every cell, every action and reaction, is perfectly designed to keep you healthy and in a state of homeostasis (balance). Nurture it, love it, support it...it's the true healer. 

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How To Be A Woman: 5 Ways To Nurture & Celebrate Our Femininity

I was 30 years old, and a mother of 3, before I began to question what it meant to be a woman. Up until that point, I had referred to myself as a “girl”. 

I vowed I would always be a girl at heart.

The truth is, while-ever I was a “girl”, I could expect less of myself. It was my way of staying small and unnoticeable, my way of denying that I was more powerful than first thought, because that was too...confronting, too challenging. That realization would require too much of me.

But as I began to make tentative steps to embrace womanhood, I began to see and understand things that I had never really thought about before. 

Namely, the current imbalance between the feminine and masculine energies in our world, and what this means, not just for ourselves but for all humanity.

We live in a society that organizes and governs itself according to masculine concepts of competition, hierarchy, status, logic and rank.

Masculine energy is practical, focused, determined, proactive, goal-oriented. The female energy is spiritual, fluid, adaptable, accepting, process-oriented.

The masculine energy aims and achieves, while the feminine energy attracts and receives

The masculine energy thrives on competition, while the feminine energy thrives on co-operation. We don’t need to look very far to see the competitive masculine energy at work – our education system grades and ranks students (competition), governments are elected via a poll (competition) while experts remind us that “competition is good for the economy.”

The masculine energy “hunts” – goes after or pursues what it wants – while the feminine energy “gathers” – attracts or manifests what it wants.

For the male energy, the outcome is important, but to the feminine, the journey is what matters. During times of crisis or challenge, the masculine tendency is to “fix things”, while the feminine energy seeks to “understand things”.

Both energies are equally important and necessary – one to envision and understand, the other to implement. Neither is better or worse. They are just different. They are two halves of the whole.

In an ideal world, the two energies would balance and complement each other. Like the yin and the yang. In harmony, they allow us to experience life in it’s richest, fullest expression.

Each one of us – no matter what our physical sex is – harbors these energies, yet for many of us, the feminine is suppressed in order to survive in a society that organizes itself according to masculine concepts and priorities. The feminine principles of nurturing and co-operation simply get pushed into the background and ignored.

One (unintended, I believe) result of the feminist movement was the further imbalance of the two energies – rather than encouraging both sexes to honor the feminine and creating a society that embraced all parts of ourselves, it simply gave women permission to compete and achieve (be more masculine.)

As a society, we pursue (masculine way of doing things, again!) a politically-correct version of “equality”, which has nothing to do with balance, and everything to do with trying to conform women into roles and positions and policies which are entirely foreign and unnatural to our feminine spirit. A band-aid solution, at best...

It is time for us to embrace our femininity in an authentic and loving way. This is not about getting a Brazilian wax, and fluttering my eyelashes at the opposite sex, in order to get what I want, but rather embracing all that I am – a whole, other, neglected part of myself.

I’m talking about finding a balance – between achievement and process, between planning for the future and enjoying this moment, between aiming for what could be and accepting what is, between pursuing what I want and simply allowing what I need...

Trying to embrace my own femininity has been a learning experience. Ironically, it has made me stronger yet more humble, focused but more adaptable. I have come to believe there are some core aspects that are unique to being a woman, in tune with our feminine energy. 

These are gifts that we can offer ourselves and others, and the world with love...

Surrender

The masculine energy is all about persistence. The female energy surrenders. I am not talking about allowing ourselves to be abused or mistreated - I am talking about surrendering to life itself, to the experience, to the moment, to God...

On the rare occasions I have surrendered 100%, letting go of all my own wants and plans and expectations, I have experienced the most wonderful state of bliss. (I wrote about it here: 5 Things I Learnt in Heaven.)

We have been conditioned to think that surrender is a sign of weakness. I believe the very opposite is true. Surrender – giving up the need to be in control – takes incredible courage. Sometimes it is the hardest thing in the world! It is an act of the deepest faith. 

We may reach this point only after we have thoroughly exhausted ourselves by trying to keep all the balls in the air, organize everyone and oversee every aspect of our life. It can be a surprising discovery that the world doesn't actually fall apart if we step back and simply allow some things to "be", rather than trying to force our own will all the time. 

Even consider for a moment the female sexual organs, they are the epitome of surrender - dark and soft and yielding. “Soft” and “yielding” does not imply weakness, in fact, it is these same qualities that enable the birth canal to expand and unfold, and safely deliver a new life into the world.

The feminine energy knows that there are mysterious, unseen, powerful forces at work in the universe. The feminine energy is open and intuitive to these, and willing to be guided by these forces that others might call “fate” or even “coincidence”.

Faith

This is a quiet assurance of our ability to manifest the very experience and result that we need. (Not always what we want, mind you!! But always what we need...). And when that experience comes our way, we will not only meet it, we will rise up to embrace the challenge.

This is a deep inner knowing that WE WILL BE OKAY - whether in a relationship or alone, with children or without, with a career or without...we already possess everything we need to flourish and grow.

Marianne Williamson once wrote: “Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.” That quote is so often attributed to Nelson Mandela, but it came from the heart of a woman...

Love Fully

Only in the past 2 years, I started to become aware that I withhold love from others, for fear of being taken advantage of.

The truth is, it’s not that I'm afraid of being taken advantage of per se, I was afraid that if I did get taken advantage of, I wouldn't have the confidence to speak up and deal with it assertively. It really stemmed from a lack of faith in myself – to set boundaries, to say no, to speak up when it was awkward or uncomfortable.

To love fully is an act of courage. It puts us in a position of vulnerability – which is why it takes a strong person to go there. We are stating that we will give of ourselves, regardless of the eventual outcome.

Mass media bombards us with songs like we “can’t live without him” and “I’ll be your slave”. This diminishes our true power. We will be just fine “without him”, and deep down, we know that.

Acknowledging this allows us to love deeply and fearlessly, to give ourselves completely to the joy of this moment, this embrace, this connection... and not be distracted by what may, or may not, be tomorrow.

Honor Our Role As Mothers and Nurturers.

Our bodies bring forth new life.

The feminine energy tends toward caring and nurturing and making a home, whether we have actually birthed a baby or not. We listen to our friends problems and console and sympathize, we delight in decorating or arranging our own homes.

Despite the natural desire to nurture others, this can sometimes deplete our energies to such an extent that we find ourselves unable to nurture ourselves.

I believe it is vital that we nurture ourselves , for two reasons. One being that giving and giving (without putting back in) eventually results in depletion. At this point, we are empty, and resentment is bound to set in.

The other reason is that being happy and fulfilled (filled full) is possibly the most loving gift we can give to our children, our family, and our selves.When we are exhausted and running on empty, we have nothing to give others - we simply can't give away what we don't have.

Nurturing ourselves also includes nourishing our body with pure, living foods, nourishing our spirit by doing what we love, that which lights us up, and nourishing our mind by choosing energizing and uplifting thoughts.

It's okay to ask for help. The feminine spirit thrives on co-operation, not on some misguided competition to see who can be the strongest and most stoic and "go it alone".  By the same token, it's time to stop viewing other females as "competition" and instead support and co-operate with each other as sisters.

Self-aware

For too long, we have been lulled into believing that others know best for us. There is nothing more dis-empowering, than the belief that we cannot trust ourselves!

So many people believe that a doctor knows their body better than they do. Just because someone has studied the textbooks and knows the scientific names for the anatomy and physiology of the human body...does not make him more of an expert than the person who has actually inhabited that body since before birth! No certificate or textbook or qualification knows your body more intimately than you know your body.

For several decades now, we’ve listened while experts argued and changed their minds over how we should discipline our children, whether eggs are good or bad, whether margarine is healthier than butter, whether women can “have it all”...and on and on it goes. Instead of empowering us, the barrage of information has just confused us, and made us more reliant on the supposed expertise of others.

(What does it take to be an “expert” anyway?! Is there a special course? Must one reach a certain level of qualification or experience? Or if they talk about a subject long enough and eloquently enough, others will inevitably bestow them the title of expert?)

Deep down, we know what is right. We’ve always known! But we tend to get confused by all the conflicting information and voices, and we begin have doubts that we may not actually know what’s best for us! Every question can be answered in the body - just visit a trained kinesiologist if you have any doubts. Kinesiologists are not trained to know what's "best" for your body, they're simply trained to "hear" what your own body is saying. 

Our bodies are always talking to us...if only we cared to listen, or seek to understand. Our body constantly gives us feedback about what we ate, whether we're getting enough sleep or nutrients, whether we're happy and fulfilled. When we don't listen, the symptoms become more pronounced until finally, illness or disease manifests. Sometimes sickness is the only way our body can make itself heard...

Listening to our intuition, our “gut feeling”, our inner voice is like any habit – it gets easier with practice.

Sometimes I imagine what our world might look like, if the masculine and feminine energies were both honored, both respected and both utilized – neither one dominating or “in control”, but both complementing the other and working together for the benefit of all.

Would there be domestic violence? Would there be wars? As the bringers of new life into the world, I believe we are intensely aware of the fragility and the preciousness of life. 

We women have so much to offer the world - not by contorting ourselves into unnatural (and unfulfilled) versions of whatever the status quo demands - but by giving ourselves permission to embrace and nurture our forgotten, feminine self. Nobody else is going to give us permission!

Every woman who does this makes it a little easier, a little more acceptable, for their fellow women to do the same...

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Your Word Is Your Wand

Have you ever listened, really listened, to the words you speak - not just aloud, but the internal dialogue playing inside your head? 

A few years ago, I wanted to change the way I felt about myself. I knew that I was low in self-confidence and often felt small and worthless. The first thing I did was started taking notice of the way I was talking to myself in my own head.

 I'm generally a "nice" person. I speak politely and use good manners, but when I started paying attention to my inner chatter, I quickly realized I was anything but nice to myself. I was saying things like "You idiot! What did you do that for?" and "Stupid woman. It's all your fault." 

I don't say those things to others, so why was it okay to say it to myself?

So many of us spend our lives with the same belittling remarks and thoughts going round and round in our heads, like a worn-out tape recording. We're listening to it, but we're not aware that we're listening to it.

I began to change the way I spoke about myself - I made it a rule that I would no longer say anything nasty or rude about myself, either out loud or internally, in the presence of others or alone (Yes, I talk to myself regularly. Some of my best conversations happen with myself!)

When I caught myself saying something nasty, like "You stupid wom..." I would pull myself up, and I would change it to something like "Ok. You messed that one up. But you'll know better next time..."

At first it was hard and I was constantly having to stop and correct myself, but over time it became easier, until it just became a habit to speak kindly to myself, and about myself. I began to feel differently about myself, I began to see my own value, to realize that I was just as important as the next person. 

When I walked into a room full of people, instead of feeling small and inferior (as I had in the past, and likely telling myself that I would rather be at home with a good book), I simply reminded myself that I was just as interesting and like-able as any other person in that room. I began to blossom into the person I've always been on the inside but couldn't quite express properly, due to lack of confidence: warm and affectionate and genuinely interested in others.

Our words create our worlds. Even our thoughts are formulated and given meaning via words. If we can't organize our thoughts into words, they remain just beyond our reach, vague and tantalizing.

Masuru Emoto, a Japanese scientist, developed a way to photograph frozen water crystals, and he discovered something incredibly amazing. Words change the structure of water. Peaceful, loving words created beautiful crystals but hurtful, hateful words caused fragmented, shattered shapes.

The words didn't even have to be spoken aloud. The written word taped onto a water bottle was enough to affect the structure of the water. Incredible!

Remember that our bodies are some 70% water? Your body is listening, literally listening, and responding to your words. Can you imagine how 70% of my body was reacting to my thoughts of "You idiot! What did you do that for?"

I realize everyone has their own beliefs, but for me personally, I choose to believe that I was created in the "image of God". I am a spark of the divine, if you will. If I think of myself as an "idiot" or a "loser", then what must I think of God?

I used to think I had to belittle myself and denigrate myself in the presence of others, in order to be seen as "non-threatening" and harmless. But as Marianne Williamson so eloquently put it: "There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. Your were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us all." 

I'm learning to see myself as a child of the Most High. The amazing, mysterious power that created vast universes and solar systems and seeds that miraculously sprout new life...is the same amazing, mysterious power that created me and created you. How dare we mope through this life feeling worthless and useless and calling ourselves (and others, for that matter!) nasty names?

We were created for a divine purpose. There's a reason we're here in this place, at this point in history. We matter, every one of us. So be kind, to yourself and to each other. 

Our words are our wand. Every word is either lifting us up, or pulling us down. Promoting health or disease, war or peace, victory or failure. Let's be mindful of what we're creating...

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The Secret Of Real Financial Freedom

I know "financial freedom" is one of the latest buzzwords. People are working on building income streams and businesses on the side.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that's great! I believe in being proactive. I believe in working towards the life you want!

   

But I think freedom is a state of mind, and not the state of our bank account.

If our freedom is dependent upon having “enough” money/income (whatever that mysterious figure might be), then we are not free at all. In fact, we are the opposite of free. We are enslaved.

I contend that true financial freedom is knowing that you’ll be just fine, whether you have a lot of money or a little money. Because you already know that you have the drive, the creativity, the confidence to create opportunities, no matter what you’re circumstances are, or what the economy/your employer/the government does.

Too many people spend their lives in unfulfilling, soul-destroying jobs, so they can have money, so they can have options. Why not use your beautiful mind and create options now...and save yourself all that drudgery?

Let go of the limiting mindset that we must have money in order to have “freedom”, or options, or to live the life we want. Money doesn’t create options, YOU create options!! The truth is that most people don't really want more money, they want the lifestyle they assume can only be bought with money...

My husband and I wanted to be out of debt and have lots of time to spend with our children. We tried working harder, longer hours, saving more...all the usual things. But we seemed to be constantly going around in circles, never really getting anywhere. Because we assumed that the only way to be out of debt and spend lots of time with our children was to have more money. 

Then we started to think outside the box. We sold our house (sure that was a hard decision, but life is more important than a house), sold most of our stuff and moved overseas, where we live with extended family while we wait to build our own house. We have very little money...but we also have no debt and lots of time to spend with our children. 

Let’s say you want to travel, but you don’t have much money. Is the dream out of reach? Is it impossible? Of course not! You could:

House-swap 

Work overseas

House-sit

Exchange Program

Boat-sit

Back-pack

Couch-surf

Start a crowd-funding campaign 

Find a host family and stay with them, then return the favor when they come to visit you

Be a travel companion for someone who might be unable to travel alone

Freelance write or teach English
Get a job on a cruise-ship

Do something bold, like approaching a company and telling them you’ll proudly fly their company flag while standing on Mount Everest/Running with the Bulls/whatever adventure you’ve got planned...as long as they pay for your ticket. Who knows, the worst they can do is say no, right?! (People and businesses can be surprisingly agreeable, if there’s something in it for them.)

The options are limited only by your imagination. 

There are people who travel the world full-time, yet they are not wealthy!! They swap, negotiate, work their way around the world, and they do it far cheaper than it costs to live in any of the major cities of the world...

To think that you MUST have money in order to have options is slave thinking.  Free minds know that there are options everywhere. What’s more, free minds create them!!

There was a Canadian guy called Kyle MacDonald. A few years ago, he was unemployed and broke, but he wanted to buy a house. Conventional thinking says it would be “impossible”. (Conventional thinking also keeps most of us in 9-5 jobs that slowly snuff out our inner fire, and then we retire and then we die. Who wants conventional thinking?)

On his desk was a red paper clip. It gave him an idea. He went on Craigslist, and asked to swap. He found someone who wanted the red paperclip, and swapped it for a fish-shaped pen. Then he swapped that pen for a door-knob.  And so on, and so on, until he was swapping a jetski and a motorbike, and eventually...a house. Read his fascinating blog here.

The moral of the story is: there are opportunities everywhere. Most people don’t see them, because they have never been taught to see them. (The other lesson is that we usually have something that somebody else wants, and vice versa....so learn to barter!)

It’s a ridiculous notion when you think about it. We collect some little pieces of paper in our wallet, and suddenly we have options? No, friend, we always had options!

You know the saying: “Many people spend their health trying to gain wealth, and then have to spend their wealth trying to re-gain their health?" You don’t need to spend the best years of your life and health in order to have financial freedom. You can have financial freedom today, if you just realize this...

True financial freedom is being free of the fear that you might not have “enough”. True financial freedom is being free of the limiting belief that you must have money to live the kind of life you dream of. (You don't.)

True financial freedom is knowing you have the intelligence, the creativity, the willpower to create options beyond the sphere of money. No global financial crisis, no economic downturn, no job redundancy can take those things from you!! Now isn’t that real freedom?

Everything you need for an awesome life is already inside you. What a relief! Isn’t that real freedom? It can’t be stolen, embezzled, lost, eroded by inflation, or poorly invested. 

Now isn’t that real freedom?

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How To Turn Your Big, Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 3)

Part 3 of turning your big, crazy idea into reality involves taking action. Part 1 involved thinking and deciding, then Part 2 ventured into talking…but thinking and talking alone won’t make your idea come alive. You need to actually do something. You need to make that phone-call, send that email, go to that meeting, or book that ticket..!

It really doesn’t matter if you haven’t carefully plotted and planned every step of the way. It really doesn’t matter if you can’t even see beyond the first step! 

Big ideas are not meant to be nice predictable plans that simply allow you to repeat what you already know! They’re meant to confound and baffle you. They’re meant to test you. They’re meant to grow you. That is their beauty. When you finally reach your goal, you will be a wiser, stronger, better version of the person you were to begin with...

When we decided to build a house overseas, we had no idea how to go about doing it, but after talking to people, we decided the best way to go about it would be to source most of our supplies in Australia and ship them over, and just buy bricks and cement locally since they were reasonably priced (while everything else was hideously expensive).

We had zero experience with importing/exporting, so the logical first step was to go online and start contacting shipping agencies for a quote, and find out what we had to do. They gave us the information we needed, and that information was enough for us to realize that we needed to hire storage space while we gathered our supplies together.

Finding storage space then became the logical next step, but only as a consequence of taking the first step.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “You don’t need to see the whole staircase. You just need to take the first step.” 

How many times do we procrastinate and do nothing, because we can’t fully envision the end result, or can’t figure out how to get there?

For four years – four years! – I talked about how I wanted to build a “Steve Pavlina” kind of site, with my own unique look and feel. But I kept putting it off, because I couldn’t figure out a name, and I couldn’t picture the layout or how it would look.

 I told myself, if I could just figure out what to call it – something that encompassed all that I stood for – then I could just get started. 

Last year, I had a blog designer redesign my header section. But it just wasn’t “me”, and to make matters worse, I couldn’t describe what “me” was all about, even to myself!! So, I began to design my own header. I simply began playing around with pictures that I liked, before I finally said “Yes! That’s the one!”, then I updated the fonts and headings, then moved onto re-labeling all my posts and fixing up my social icons.

At this point, I suddenly had a moment of absolute clarity where I knew what to name my site. Really! It was so simple, I was astonished that I hadn't seen it earlier…

Then, everything began to fall into place. I began to see with great certainty exactly what my site would look like, what it would offer, what my articles would be about. Actually, I began having dreams about blog post ideas, and waking up in the middle of the night with brilliant ideas for subjects I just had to write about. 

Only now could I formulate specific goals for my site, rather than some vague notion, like “Steve Pavlina-type site, but without the polyamory…”

Have you ever noticed the longer you procrastinate on making a decision, the more indecisive you become? When you finally commit to a certain course of action, and begin moving in that direction, things just seem to start falling into place?

Goals and vision-boards are great, but action really proves our commitment. 

There would be NO businesses in this world, if every new entrepreneur waited to know everything before she began. Rather, she begins and she makes mistakes, she learns from those mistakes, and she corrects course…and that is how successful businesses grow from fumbling first steps. 

Sometimes the dream takes hold within us, and it’s fuzzy around the edges, it’s vague…but it’s no less real. We wait and wait for further clarity, but it doesn’t come, and the dream remains just that - a dream. 

We don’t need to see the whole staircase we just need to take the first step. And with each step, the entire stair-case begins to take form. It’s no longer a blurry dream or a vague concept, but a very real, achievable prospect. 

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How To Turn Your Big Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 1): The Magic of Commitment

How To Turn Your Big, Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 2): Putting It Out There
How To Turn Your Big, Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 4): Then Just Keep Going

How to Turn Your Big, Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 2)

So you’ve dreamed up this big, crazy idea and now you're wondering how to make it reality? In Part 1, I wrote about figuring out if your idea is a) do-able b) desirable and c) in alignment with your life purpose, and then making a commitment.

The next step is where it starts to get a little bit scary - but a good kind of scary! We can all be awesome trail-blazers in the safety of our own heads, but getting outside your head takes courage. Here’s where you get to start practicing…

Part 2 of turning your big, crazy idea into reality is “Putting it out there”.

This is where you start sharing your idea with others. There are two good reasons for doing this, and neither of them include boasting or bragging for the sake of looking good in front of others. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

There are also two barriers that stop people from "putting it out there". Let’s get the barriers out of the way, first.

Both of them are fear-based.

Reason #1: Fear that somebody else will “steal” our idea before we get a chance to make it reality. 

Let me swiftly put that fear to rest! 99% of people do not have the vision, the passion or the get-up-and-go to take your idea and make it their own reality. 

The 1% of people who do possess those traits most likely have their own awesome ideas to work on anyway.

I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but the instances are rare (although well-publicized), and often involves more than first meets the eye (such as two business partners who have a falling out, one takes the plans/patents and uses them in his solo business). 

Reason #2: Fear of what other people will think of our idea. 

We fear that we might be met with ridicule, laughter, or criticism if we dare to divulge our dreams. Of course, that MIGHT happen. 

Based on my own experience, 9 out of 10 people won’t “get” it. More often than not, you’ll simply be met with a decided lack of enthusiasm, rather than outright derision. 

But 1 in 10 people will “get” it….and they’ll be the ones that say “That’s awesome, good for you!”

They’ll also be the ones that say “Hey, my brother-in-law works for somebody who can help you out with that” or “My wife’s cousin has been there. I’ll find out what you need to do…” or “I know a guy who might be interested in buying from you. Here’s his number…”

You need those people.

If you haven’t yet figured out the “how to do it” yet, then this is where you start getting your first glimpses of what steps you might have to take. Perhaps no-one has ever tried what you’re setting out to do, but there will be plenty of people will have some experience or skills which can transfer to your situation.

Yes, you have to face those other 9 people first, but the tenth person will make it worth your while.

Now for the benefits of telling others

Benefit #1: You expand your field of opportunity in quantum leaps.

When you begin to tell others about your plans, you not only pick up information from them, but you gain access to their circle of friends, too. Chances are that if they hear any information in their OWN circle of friends which might help you out, they’ll pass it along to you.

Don’t just stick with your immediate family and inner circle, tell your neighbor, your sporting team-mates, your mother’s group, your facebook friends. You don’t need to go into finer details or knock people over the head with it, every time you open your mouth, but a general outline of your vision should suffice. Let your enthusiasm shine through, and people will be more likely to get on board.

Your field of opportunities has just grown in quantum leaps. If you give in to the fears above and keep your ideas to yourself, you not only deny others the chance to help you, but you limit your opportunities to your own tiny little perspective of the world.

Benefit #2: It helps to keep us accountable. 

When we keep our idea to ourselves, it can be very tempting to back out, procrastinate, or quietly shove it into a drawer where it never sees the light of day again. Nobody (except us) would be any the wiser. But when others know about our plans, then we may think twice before giving up, especially if others have also invested their energy and support.

We are naturally wired to want to be liked and respected by others – it may even be one of our survival instincts. After all, in a disaster setting, the ability to get somebody to like you/help you could mean the difference between life and death. 

I'm not suggesting that we should be a slave to what other people think of us! But rather than trying to fight our natural instincts, why not use them to our advantage? Use the desire to be liked/respected by others to hold you accountable for your ideas and goals.

So tell them your plans. Knowing that they know might just be the difference between persevering and quitting, when things don't quite go to plan.

Turn Your Big Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 1): The Magic of Commitment

Turn Your Big Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 3): Just Start Somewhere
Turn Your Big Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 4): Then Keep Going

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