Wings of Change – Change Your Life Articles

The ultimate in online coaching is live. Jim’s Network has launched and open its doors. Jim’s Network offers the complete online coaching experience. Meet with other like minded people in the social network including coaches. Join in the discussion. Ask questions for free and get to know your coaches. Join with a coach and enjoy learning from the comfort of your own home. The learning center includes web-conferencing with video. Enjoy learning from the growing number of coaches and courses. Choose self paced courses or join a group for that personal touch or go all the way and sign up for one-to-one personal coaching.

Whatever you need, a change in direction, help with decisions, finances, health and even business, Jim’s Network can help. Come and sign up – membership is free! Meet new friends, meet a coach. Jim’s Network brings the connectivity of social networking and the convenience of online learning together into one unique web presence.

Come and say hello. Why wait?

http://www.jimsnetwork.com

Have you ever felt like you don’t belong, you don’t fit in? Does your life constantly bang against the wall of conformity and crash against the common perception of life? This is what the authors of Wings of Change, Jim and Katharina Murdoch, were facing when their lives were turned upside down by unexpected events. How could life be any worse? Religion wasn’t meeting their needs, jobs weren’t meeting their needs, and to top it all along came a force which threatened to tear their family apart.

But they survived, not what could be said about their belief systems. “Our beliefs took a knock, a big knock,” says Jim. “One day we thought all our beliefs about God, life and the world were in order, then they were all turned on their head. Nothing has been the same since.” This was the turning point in their lives as they began to pursue the answers which had been avoiding them until now. And thus began a journey of discovery.

Their discoveries, uncovered independently as they each walked distinct paths, were complimentary and served to bind them together against all odds in spite of the forces threatening to pull them apart. Amazingly, their separate paths were uncovering the same truths and they found themselves agreeing more and more as they learned about God, the universe and consciousness.

The lessons they learned on their journey serve as an inspiration to the reader. You will read how they grew in awareness of who and what they are, how they learned to let go of old ways and paradigms and how to listen to their inner voice for guidance. The reader will benefit from their lessons of overcoming obstacles, daring to experiment with new ideas, realizing their purpose and acting on their new found truth to live the life they desire.

To help tell their story, Jim & Katharina have been inspired to adapt a parable to highlight each chapter. Using a family of geese they intriguingly blend in their life’s experiences into the geese’s life and their pursuit of happiness in learning the V formation and daring to fly south.

Katharina sums it up, “The readers will have fun. It’s inspiring and they will learn something for life. There is hope for anyone. No matter how bad a situation may be there is wonderful hope.”

Wings of Change – Discover a New Formation to Success will inspire you to take a new look at life and dare to be different.

Everyone wants freedom. You want freedom, I want freedom. But very few of us actually have freedom and very few of us can actually define freedom. What I am talking about here is personal freedom, your ability to make the choices you want and which benefit you. The problem is you don’t have personal freedom and there are four good reasons why you don’t.

In fact it all boils down to only one big reason. Here are the four reasons why you don’t have personal freedom:

1. You do not choose how healthy you are. You are allowing the doctors, the nutrition experts, the common fads to make your choices for you. How often do you choose what foods to eat, what supplements to take, what exercises to do. It’s difficult isn’t it? There are so many opinions and differing diets and fitness theories that in the end most people resort back to another form of allowing others to choose, doing what everyone else does. But what are your choices? What do you want?
2. Do you go to religious meetings? Why? Because you woke up one day and decided to go? Not likely. You go because you have been given a set of beliefs which you accept. Did you ever think where those came from? Have you ever thought why you do certain things in certain ways? Like get education, get a job and have a pension plan. Have you ever thought if thee was another way, another path, and path which would actually be beneficial and lead you to your dreams? Perhaps there is. He who seeks will find!
3. What have you done this week which was your choice and your time? Not much, eh! Apart from working for an employer to earn your money, how much time have you spent doing stuff for others? Have you taken time for yourself lately? I am not saying you should neglect others and especially loved ones, but it is important to get a balance and to reserve time for you and your desires.
4. And what about that money you work so hard to get? Are you in control of that? Are you making your own choices when it comes to spending that money, or are you subject to the advertisements and fancy store displays and what your friends say you must have? Or how much food do you throw away simply because you run for the sales and specials and end up with much too much? Do you choose how to spend your money on the things you want? I don’t recommend spending less as much as spending wisely.

So are you free? Who is making your choices? Why are you doing the things you do? Why do you believe the things you believe? Why do you buy the things you buy? Why do you eat and exercise the way you do? We all have a built in sensory system to help us make better choices. It is called intuition. Learn to listen to the gut feeling and you will begin to make better choices and move into your own personal freedom.

There are three things you need to know in order to be successful. Without these three things you will never know what success is. The three things you need to know are:

1. What you want
2. What’s stopping you from getting what you want
3. And how to get what you want.

If you know these three things you will be well on your way to fulfilling your dreams. Allow me to take a few minutes to explain each of these. You will finish reading armed with knowledge and inspired by new ideas which you know will be your own expression of life.

1. The first thing you need to know is what you want. That might sound simple enough but how many really know what they want? What is your goal in life? To work hard and retire at 65 and then enjoy life? Maybe you never thought of it that way, but that is exactly how many live their lives. They think that by working hard and paying into a pension fund and maybe retiring a few years early is living a life. I say, get a life! And I mean that literally. Get your own life! Decide what you want to have, do or be. Many people know what they would like, but never believe they could actually have it. They lack the faith in life itself to deliver their dream.

I want to let you know that “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Walt Disney said that and he is right. You can have whatever you want, you can do whatever you want, and you can be whatever you want.

• The first step towards achieving that is to write it down. Get a piece of paper and write it down. Write as if it already is now, give it colour, give it sound, give it lots of detail. What is it like to have what you want now, how does it feel, what does it look like, what people do you have around you? Get as much detail into your description as you can imagine.
• Once you have your written dream now spend time living it. Experience the feelings in having your dream. Get in the vibration of having it now – and hold onto that feeling and hold onto your vision. Doing this will begin to attract it to you. Believe me. Things will begin to happen and ideas will begin to flow. Pay attention to these, these are the answers to your unspoken question: “How am I going to get there?”

2. The next thing you need to know to be successful and achieve your dreams is what is stopping you. What is holding you back? Why haven’t you got there already? Even if you have a written description what is it which is blocking you from moving forward and achieving that which you desire? I am going to suggest two things which are most likely responsible for stopping you getting what you want:

• The first is Mind Sets – Paradigms. Mind sets such as “I am going to work hard and retire at 65 and live a good life.” I say this with a robot voice because this is nothing other than a programmed thought in your sub-conscious mind. You have many such mind sets, like “I can never do that”, “I can never be successful”, “I can never achieve greatness”, “Such things are only for the elite and privileged and multi-talented.” Dear friend, may I divulge a secret? You are multi-talented and you are among the privileged and you can achieve whatever you dream of.
• The second thing stopping you from achieving your dreams is FEAR. Fear is actually another mind set, but I mention it because this is perhaps the single most restricting mind-set of all. Fear stops more people from being successful than any other thing. This can be fear of people, fear of failure – that’s a big one, fear of change. So much fear stops people even wanting to be successful so they never dare to even dream. One should be content they say. Not everyone can be successful they say. But deep down it is fear which holds them back.

If you have identified fear as that which is stopping you from doing what you want then pay attention to the third thing you should know to be successful.

3. The third thing to know to be successful is how to get what you want. OK, you have described your goal, and you identified the blockages. What now? How do you move forward to get what you want?

• The first step you already know – Visualize it. This is very important in order to get into the feeling of success, and visualization should be ongoing and never stop.
• After this, you need to determine the first three things you need to do to get you closer to your goal. Write down these three activities and decide when you are going to do them, and then put them into your calendar. The next step is of course to take action and carry out those three activities. Then when those three are completed write down the next three actions which will take you closer yet to your goal.

This third point may also seem very simple and commonsensical, but it’s exactly here where many people fail. They fail to take action. Dreams come and go but only those taking action actually fulfill their dreams.

This is where coaches come in. A coach can help you in all three of these areas, helping you identify and describe your deepest desire and life goals, uncover and eliminate those mind sets and fears which are holding you back, and motivate and monitor you as you determine your action steps and put them into practice.

You know what it is that you want. You may know what is holding you back, and you may even know what to do to get there, but you lack the motivation and knowledge to move into the realm of the successful achievers. Get a coach to guide you towards your dreams and celebrate your successes with you.

Effective communication is one of the keys to success, and when you’re good at it, people notice.

Most people think that strengthening communication skills involves developing persuasive speech and conversational skills, but what you may not realize is just how important effective listening can be.

Without an effective listener, none of your conversational skills would matter. This is because your points – no matter how clear – still wouldn’t be heard or understood.

Remember that listening is a full 50% of the communication effort so it’s worth your time to develop this precious skill, too.

Here are some techniques you can use to build your listening skills:

1. Fight the urge to speak. Sometimes when you’re engaged in a heated conversation, you start to concentrate on what you’re going to say next. You may even be tempted to open your mouth before the other person is finished. Make the extra effort to keep your lips sealed until they’re through talking.
   • While they’re speaking, don’t worry about what you’re going to say or how you’re going to say it. Instead, focus on the words and body language of the other person.
     
2. Look interested. Your nonverbal communication skills are important while you’re listening. If you’re looking disinterested and uncaring, the person trying to communicate with you will likely pick up on these subtle hints. They may be flustered or less likely to share their thoughts. Makes sense, right?
   • Engage with the person talking. Make eye contact and nod your head or smile. Let your conversation partner know that their points are coming across to you.
3. Repeat the highlights. One way to literally tell your conversation partner that they’re effectively communicating is to simply restate their points. You can repeat key phrases in an affirming tone. You can even give them a quick summary of what they just said in your own words.
   • Avoid sharing your opinions when repeating their concepts or ideas. At this point, you simply want to communicate that you’ve completely understood their meaning.
4. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask your conversation partner to elaborate on what they’re saying. If you need further information, then ask for it. The important thing is that you understand what they’re trying to get across.
5. Be patient. It’s also important to maintain patience, especially when working with people who may be shy or may not have the ability to communicate very well. If you’re not patient, you may end the conversation prematurely or scare off your conversation partner.
6. Follow your partner’s lead. Being an effective listener doesn’t mean that your only job is to listen. You can certainly add to the conversation, too. At the same time, you don’t want to overpower the conversation. Add your input when they ask for it or when they’ve finished their point.

Remember that practice makes perfect. After you’ve had an important conversation, ask yourself what you remember from the conversation. Write down the details if necessary. Did you allow the other person to do most of the talking?

When you fight the urge to dominate conversations, you’ll be able to truly hear what people have to say!

Your attitude about life is one of the most important factors for success. A bad attitude gets you nowhere, while a good one can provide you with enough motivation to succeed beyond your dreams.

You may think that you already have a success-mindset, and perhaps you do. However, you can always benefit from strengthening that attitude and therefore increasing your chances for the success you deserve.

Follow these strategies for improving your attitude for success:

1. Find your inspiration. Discover what inspires you the most and use it to jumpstart your motivation whenever you go. Feeling inspired enables you to maintain the drive necessary to find success. Do anything you can within your power to find inspiration.
   • Make a list of your ultimate dreams, and then ask yourself if you’re on the right path. If you are, you’ll know that everything you’re doing will be rewarded.
   • If you don’t feel like you’re on the right path, perhaps it’s time for a change. Maybe there’s a deeper reason why you’ve felt a lack of motivation. Reflect on what this reason might be, and then decide on how you can renew your drive. When you’re on the right journey, you’ll feel inspired!
2. Surround yourself with positive people. When you’re around positive and inspiring people, you’re more likely to adopt those traits into your own personality and go for your goals with enthusiasm. Negative people, on the other hand, tend to make you negative also.
   • If you must be around people that continually bring you down, do your best to avoid taking what they say to heart. You know that they don’t speak the truth. Keep the peace as best as you can to get through these situations and then move on.
3. Take a leap. The best way to improve your attitude might be to just jump right into life. Don’t be afraid to take initiative and plunge forward towards your goals. People who take action find success. If you take action and start to see the results of your efforts, your attitude will only improve.
   • The increased drive and motivation you get from your actions can be the difference between success and failure.
4. Strengthen your focus. Your focus can also play a role in your attitude. When you maintain driven toward success, it’s easier to have an optimistic attitude. If you have a lack of focus and don’t know where you’re going, it leads to being unmotivated and uncaring.
5. Allow for mistakes. You’re only human and you will make mistakes from time to time. Be careful to avoid judging yourself harshly when this happens, as it negatively affects your self-confidence. If you work on more of a “go with the flow” attitude, you’ll find that you’re able to pick yourself back up and continue moving forward when you do make a mistake.

The main things to keep in mind are that the combo of inspiration, positive thoughts, and proper motivation can lead you to a healthy and positive attitude. Follow these strategies daily and you’ll notice a boost in your spirits!

You’ll find success as soon as you learn to be more flexible! Flexibility in all areas of life can help you achieve success and help you inspire others to find their own version of success, too. But what exactly does it mean and how can you get there?

What Is Flexibility?

Of course you know what flexibility is. It’s the opposite of rigid, the opposite of being set in your ways. When you’re flexible, you’re open. You’ll easily be able to roll with the punches.

When a non-flexible person is thrown a curve ball, they’ll fluster, complain, or even give up. But that doesn’t have to describe you anymore!

Why Is Flexibility A Key To Success?

Flexibility is a key to success for several reasons. Perhaps most importantly, flexibility helps you overcome challenges. It can open up your world to opportunities that you never thought you’d experience. Flexibility can be the key to helping you enjoy the true spices of life.

It’s important to remain flexible in the workplace. When you’re flexible, your co-workers and boss will like you. Why? Because they know that they can count on you during times of uncertainty or change in the workplace. You’ll also notice that this added flexibility gives your days a variety that helps you get out of bed in the morning.

Flexibility also helps your home life. When you’re flexible, there will be less conflict and more understanding between family members. In turn, you’ll enjoy easier and more fulfilling relationships with your family. Flexibility helps you re-organize your schedule when something unexpected happens without having to fret over the details. This could be as simple as coming up with a quick alternative dinner plan in case someone burns dinner.

How Can You Become More Flexible?

So now you know why it’s important to be flexible, but how can you get there?

Try these strategies to enjoy more flexibility in your life:

1. Work on self-awareness. Part of being adaptable is being aware of your immediate reactions. They may not be very appropriate, so you can consider keeping them to yourself. An example would be to complain because someone is bringing home a dinner guest at the last minute. This wasn’t something you planned for! Remember the big picture and set a new place at dinner. Later you can remind your family to give notice next time.
2. Step out of your comfort zone. In order to become more flexible, you’ll need to get used to regularly stepping out of your comfort zone. It may help to start with small things because it won’t be as much of a shock if you’re a really routine person.
   • While it may take a bit of a personality change, stepping out of your comfort zone can prove to be exhilarating because you never know what you might learn.
3. Speak up. Some people may be unaware that you’re inherently flexible. Make yourself heard by those around you. Suggest alternatives to solve problems at home or work. When you do, people will remember that you helped out.

Take Small Steps

A great strategy is to take small steps to get to where you need to go. Everyone comes with a different skill set. You may be a flexible person that just needs to expand, or you may need to work on gaining flexibility as a whole.  You can’t expect to be a different person overnight, but with small steps you’ll be there soon!

You can achieve great things through meditation. But what exactly are these things? The truth is that you get to create the definition. If you’re after success, meditation can help get you there.

Meditation has been around for ages and it’s a great, relaxing activity to engage in everyday. Also, it’s available to everyone in every moment. Plus, it’s completely free!

Ultimately, there are no excuses for not being able to meditate. Some will say that they simply don’t have enough time. But are you not worth a few minutes a day? Of course you are! You should be able to allot yourself at least 15 minutes per day, just to focus on your own success.

How Meditation Can Help

Meditation is an art that has many opinions associated with it and there are also many ways to meditate. A consensus remains around the fact that it’s about clearing your mind and remaining in the present moment. With regular practice you’ll gain the necessary clarity and discover truths about your life.

Meditation is a great way for you to discover something you may already know deep down. You operate on many levels and you already know how to achieve the success you desire. Problems arise when you spend too much time dealing with day-to-day activities and too little time exploring your depth.

Feel Your Emotions

Getting in touch with your emotions is an important thing. It’s not only reserved for females, nor is it something that will make you vulnerable. It’s an important step on your way to discovering success.

When you meditate and really feel your emotions on any subject, you’ll begin to tap into the truth. What is it that you’re really after? What is your true definition of success?

You’ll often hear of the actor that achieves fame but still doesn’t feel fulfilled. You may have also heard about the successful business mogul who reaches career and financial success but still feels incomplete at the end of the day. These people haven’t truly determined their own definition of success and, instead, have chased someone else’s dreams.

Enjoy the Process

You must stay present and enjoy the process. An actor will remain happy with his or her success if they truly love the art of acting. If they were only after fame and later discovered that it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, then they may have followed the wrong path and should reevaluate their path to success.

If you spent too much time on your business plans, make sure you take a step back and remember where you’re going. In this case, you can practice “walking meditation,” which is when you go through the steps of your day-to-day life completely aware of what you’re doing in each moment. This may sound easy, but it can be difficult to master!

Your Focus Can Shift

Once you’ve decided where you’d truly like your life to go, you can take the steps to get yourself there. However, remember that you can’t get back lost time. There’s always a life lesson to be learned by the path you’ve chosen.

Remember that each moment brings incredible transformations. You need to allow this to happen and resist the urge to fight change. This also means that your life goals may change, as well. And that’s okay! It helps to go with the flow and be willing to adapt as you go.

Practice Affirmations

Affirmations are excellent statements to meditate on while you’re achieving your focus. If you remind yourself that you’ve already achieved success, you’ll get there.

Really spend some time envisioning your success. Think about what it feels like to achieve. In the same way that you would picture yourself in a safe place when you’re scared, picture yourself in a successful place when you have doubts.

When you believe in the power of meditation, you believe in your true self, and then success will be yours!

Failure is simply a stepping-stone on your way to success. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s easy to deal with or something that should be taken lightly, but how you deal with failure will determine not only your future success, but also how easy it will be to achieve.

Everyone has different coping mechanisms and ways they react to failure. However, learning the ways that more often lead you to success can help you enormously!

Here are some tips on how to pick yourself up after you fail:

1. Learn from your failure. There is a lesson to be learned each time you fail. Discover what this lesson is and keep it in mind during future attempts at success. If you don’t learn from your failure, you’ll keep repeating the same mistakes.
2. Forge ahead. It’s completely normal to feel like giving up when you’re first hit by failure. The most important part of failure is what you do afterwards. So strive to have confidence in yourself. This experience may very well be your last step before you reach great success!
3. Surround yourself with good people. It’s a good idea to be surrounded by like-minded and positive people. This is especially important when you’re dealing with the negative emotions that may accompany failure.
   Positive people will inspire you to pick yourself up and go further than you thought you could go.
4. Set goals. If you’ve failed at a large task, think about setting smaller, immediate goals. If you build your way up to completing a difficult task using small steps, each step may not feel so overwhelming. When you’re finished, you’ll be amazed at what you achieved!
5. Visualize your dreams. Fight the negative thoughts that creep up after failure by visualizing yourself meeting your goal. Take the time to picture yourself successfully going through each step it will take to reach your goal.
6. Be enthusiastic. When you first set out to achieve something big, chances are you approached the task at hand with a great deal of enthusiasm. If you meet failure once or even several times, it’s important to maintain the enthusiastic force to give you the energy and drive to continue toward your goal.
7. Write it down. Keep a journal that details your personal thoughts, goals, and attempts. It will help you stay organized and focused on success. Another good exercise is to write your goal on a piece of paper and place it somewhere where you can see it several times each day to remind yourself to take action toward this desire.
8. Don’t dwell in the past. The past doesn’t have to be your present or future. Just because you had a setback, it doesn’t mean that it will continue to be the case. The only way to achieve your goals is to keep trying.
9. Think about the worst case scenario. What’s the worst thing that can happen if you fail? Some people are so concerned with success and have such a horrible fear of failure that they don’t consider whether or not the worst case scenario is all that bad!
   Realizing that failure may only mean a small delay toward your eventual success can alleviate some of your fears and give you the confidence to succeed.

Just Keep Trying

It’s likely that you can think of someone you know who set his or her mind on a goal and would stop at nothing to achieve it. It’s not just some kind of story or fantasy – this could be you, too! Adopt this drive and apply it to your situation.

When you believe in yourself and your abilities, you’ll gain the drive to keep moving forward and you’ll feel unstoppable.

People dream big all the time. But it’s the people that take action to reach their goals that truly succeed in life. It’s a huge task to take on, but when you break down your journey into simple steps, anything is achievable. Decide on your goal and follow through, it really can be as simple as that.

The Big Picture

It truly doesn’t matter what your goal is, you can achieve it by combining the will to succeed with action. There are many possible excuses and many people that will try to bring you down, it’s just the way of life. While these things may not change, your attitude can.

The first thing you need to do is create a personal definition of success. What are you trying to do? What is your ultimate goal?

Remember, the answer can be anything your heart desires. Maybe you want to start a video game development business, or maybe you want to be an Olympic swimmer. Everyone is different, but it’s important to have a well-defined goal. Don’t be afraid to be specific and to list a goal even if you’re lacking the confidence to achieve it.

The Process

After you have your definition of success, it’s time to break it down and make it happen. Success will happen just by completing one small task at a time from your plan.

Let’s say your ultimate goal is to own a video game development business. You currently work at a dead end job and you have little revenue to use towards your goal, so you assume it’ll never happen and you just go about your day. But what if you took just 20 minutes each day and worked toward your goal?

Here are some of the things you might accomplish:

1. You can research how much money it would take to start up your business.
2. You can learn the ins and outs of the industry by reviewing different courses and training programs.
3. You can make appointment to meet with banks or companies as potential investors.
4. You can contact independent game developers that may be willing to take on extra work at a reasonable cost.
5. You can research and formulate marketing tactics.
6. You can create a 5-year plan.

While the business entails a great deal more than these 6 steps, you get the idea of what it means to break down a huge task into smaller parts. If you don’t break it down, it’ll seem too overwhelming and you won’t even know where to start – so you won’t get started at all!

But when you decide to spend a little time on a small project, like researching marketing tactics and saving some web links, that’s definitely something you can accomplish in an afternoon. And it brings you one step closer to your goal.

Something Is Always Better Than Nothing

You now know that some action is always better than no action towards your goal. It may sound trite, but you’ll never get there if you don’t try. Just think of how far along you might be if you spend 20 minutes a day on your goal for a whole year. That’s a great deal of small, manageable projects!

You owe it to yourself to make your dreams come true, so go get started!