Apparently, life is stuck in a loop.

It’s a real life version of the movie, ground hog day.

But how will we recognise there is a hidden lesson in everything that happens in life?

By pressing the repeat button.

So if you’re in a place where lockdown is on repeat.

Use this time to experiment life in a totally new way.

Don’t do things the way you’ve always done.

Don’t do things the way you did last lockdown either.

Your state of being is really all you have control over.

It’s time to get connected with your state of being and get present to how you have absolute control over it.

There is nothing to fix and change about the situation or circumstance. There is nothing you need to do.

Your focus is on how to BE. Who are you being? Each moment that passes, get present. Who am I?

I’m calm and steady?

I’m stressed out and filled with anxiety?

Which is it?

Now just close your eyes and listen to just these words again: There is nothing wrong here. There is nothing wrong here. There is nothing wrong here.

Now imagine living your life from this context. Try it on for now. Then imagine every single day operating from this context.

It’s such a small distinction that makes a massive contribution to your life. You will find yourself dancing with the chaos.

And when things don’t go right or don’t go the way you expected, it won’t matter. It doesn’t matter.

You don’t need convincing or cajoling.

You will BE that there is nothing wrong here.

You’ll think differently.

Your cognitive functioning will be free to roam, be creative, be innovative, be inspired to come up with new ideas and solutions you’ve never considered before.

All because you said there is nothing wrong here.

The world needs more of this. More people demonstrating a state of being the multiplies a sense of calm and steady.

Because there is enough chaos in the world.

There is a point in your life where you meet the mountain so you speak.

Or you reach the fork in the road.

I like analogies if you haven’t already noticed. They help to frame or reframe the events in your life.

For some reason, right here, right now, in this moment I felt I have reached the turning point.

It’s not the end and it’s not the beginning but it is a turning point. You know you’re headed the right direction and you know which way to go.

See in life there are many many times where I have doubted myself. When doubt is present it’s extremely debilitating because not only are you not on the right track, you don’t even know where on the track you are.

This however, is a celebration. Of where you were and where you are about to head.

When you find something you love, you are called forth to do, it’s called finding yourself and your passion.

Helping and serving others is not only serving the people around you. You get a result too.

Little did I realise how much impact one person like me could make.

The thing is, you have to see it to believe it. Which means you have to act on your hopes, wishes, dreams.

You have to let it blossom and see it for yourself. Because you really won’t believe until you are in the moment feeling and experiencing it.

If you’re not quite there yet, that’s ok. Keep moving forward towards your goals. Keep manifesting. Keep visualising. Keep saying yes to the opportunities that lay before you.

Keep honouring yourself and your values. Keep getting closer to the things you want for yourself and your life.

Never ever give up. Keep trying. And trying. And trying.

And recognise when the doors open for you. Actually stop to smell the roses as they say. You have to acknowledge something is happening here that I just didn’t expect but it’s happening.

See if you don’t look yourself in the eye and say wow you did it, no one else is going to. No one else knows or realises just how much it took for you to finally be here.

It was a long bloody road. And the person you see in the mirror now is the real and true you. Nothing added. Nothing faked. Nothing hidden. No act.

Completely and utterly the real and true you. It feels naked, open and vulnerable but you know you have left no page unturned. You will know yourself to be you and you will be proud of exactly who and where you are - perfect or imperfect is perfect.

Here’s the other amazing thing. You have nothing to prove to anyone not even yourself. You are just being you and you realise you have so much to offer the world.

Just being you, you have value to provide. There is no needing to make it. No faking it til you make it anymore because you are authentic, calling a spade a spade. You are talking about the elephant in the room because it doesn’t serve anyone not to.

And now it’s time to recognise what is it.? What is the special quality you want to give away? You can try to give it away but you realise the right person at the right time has to be ready to receive.

I’m looking for leaders in this world. Leaders who are ready to change the world. Leaders who are ready to be coachable. Leaders who are continuously learning and transforming themselves. Leaders who turn themselves inside out every day to become the best version of themselves.

I want a team. Of people just like me who are ready to say yes to the enormity of a world that’s broken.

And it doesn’t mean the task is easy and it doesn’t mean I know where to start but this is what I want.

I’m only one person but I know you’ve been searching for more meaning in your life. It’s not about waiting anymore, it’s about creating, and it’s about saying yes.

There’s a place here where you will find yourself and in finding yourself, anything is possible.

Thwarted intention

Undelivered communication

Unfulfilled expectation.

Equals an upset.

But if you can quickly distinguish this for yourself, you’ll still have to create a space of empathy for the second party in your conversation.

I’m talking about when things go pear shaped. When things don’t go quite right. That’s because you’re dealing with an upset. Either it’s your upset or someone else's.

Here’s the thing, when you are unaffected and you are clear minded, you can listen and hear for the undelivered communication. You can actually dismantle an upset through understanding an upset is the result of a thwarted intention, unfulfilled expectation. You can actually hear the unsaid and you can call upon these special powers of listening to address what is really going on.

But if you’re both in the throes of an upset, you’ll possibly have already pushed each others buttons and set off fight and flight mode from your terrible two days. Time out in the corner for you!

But no, in all seriousness. Stop. Pause. Breathe. Take yourself away and out of the conversation. You are in fight or flight mode and there is no room to create anything in this space.

You literally go in to some kind of cave man mode. I call it the Lion or Tiger. There is no room for common sense or logic or really any communication to transpire within this “gladiator one ready gladiator two ready” attack mode.

So when you listen, what you’re really doing is validating another persons feelings and experiences. Then you can begin to come up with solutions once the upset dissipates. There is no solution making within an upset though.

That would really get my goat up when wanting to express my feelings or experience but told to get over it or a bunch of solutions thrown at me. So validating someone’s feelings and experiences is about understanding exactly where they are. Empathy.

Here’s the thing. We’re so good at deescalating a situation perhaps in our work and business environment and for our children but why do we not apply the same skills for ourselves to deescalate our own situations?

I believe it’s because we need to learn how to harness that inner lion and tiger with our lion tamer or tiger tamer present. Conjure yourself up a figment of your imagination. The Lion and Tiger are just being exactly what they need to be to survive in nature. But you and I are human beings who apparently evolved from tearing one another part with our teeth in order to get what we want.

So the job of the tamer is to connect with the inner lion and tiger and simply say you’re not required here right now or even ever. See you have this untamed lion or tiger within just waiting to brawl because of an accumulation of moments where you didn’t get your way or things didn’t work out. But if you just consider you are in charge, you have a choice, you get to choose.

The science of an upset is to understand what makes up an upset and to dismantle it. To have empathy. To recreate the moment within the moment so you can have peace from within and have it radiate right from where you are.

Recreation or imagination whatever way works for you. Visualise how you want your life to be and so it will be.


The only thing in the way of you and what you really want for yourself and your life is you.

Life has peculiar ways of communicating to and with you.

I was at Park Run and out of nowhere something said to me it’s not about the outcome, the finish line, the time.

It’s about the journey, what did you pay attention to along the way? Did you listen to yourself and trust yourself? Did you ignore your own warning system?

It’s time to listen within, to the power within. It’s time to honour yourself as your SELF.

So today I decided to listen in more and quiet my thoughts and opinions, but open up more to my intuition and inner wisdom.

I opened up my heart, connected with others and made it a choice to be in other people’s worlds, to be interested, to be patient and kind with myself and consequently others too.

When I’m being present great things happen. I made a friend in someone without trying. I discovered things about people I had not before.

Sometimes the voice just comes to you. It’s your voice but you’ll know why it comes to you. There is something to be said. Something to be heard not just for your sake.

I have been on a journey of self discovery. Reading books as I come across them. Listening to wisdom from thousands of years. And writing what comes from within as I go along.

Yesterday was the second time I just couldn’t explain my emotions. I felt overwhelmed with the mask falling away. I felt open and vulnerable and willing to give up my facades.

It’s been 40 years of living this world thinking I was alone and navigating it on my own. Doing it on my own. When in fact I have been protected and guided all along. It’s the realisation of just how much control the inner voice can have over your experience of life.

Letting go. Let go. It finally happened I think.

Letting go of all that hasn’t served me. What hasn’t worked. The conversations about myself, about others, about the world that just don’t work.

Realising that I have had everything I need this whole time.

What happened next is remarkable and unbelievable but for me, it’s like I shook the coconut tree and the coconuts all fell down for me. A magic portal, a door opened, I found the treasure in the hidden cave and unsure how I just received it.

This is what happens when you trust yourself and put yourself out there. This is what happens when you act in service of the things you are most passionate about, most inspired by.

Everything shows up through this new perspective of yourself and your life.

I don’t know how I did it. I just did. I let go of my past well and truly and what that makes available is anything and everything. Anything is possible now. A blank canvas.

This is why I don’t have all the answers but that I can trust myself. I’m walking on the right travelator toward the destination of my dreams.

It’s your season if you say it is. You are on the court of your life if you say you are. You word is much more powerful than you know and if you use it like this you’ll be ok: I don’t have all the answers but I trust myself and the journey of my life.

In Australia we contemplate what it means to be Australian. For many nations right across the world, there is turmoil and suffering, first nations people versus the "arrivals".

There was a lot of assumptions made and a lot of judgement occuring. Unfortunately, that pattern of thinking still hasnt changed today, not in a way that I could vouch for every single human being on the planet and say yes they care about every single other person on the planet.

But the purpose of this blog, is to have a philosophical discussion. Its to try to think of ways to bridge the misunderstandings that have in some ways grown over time.

If I could just step in to both parties shoes for a minute, the thinking was like this:

The arrivals "We are discoverers who travelled from afar. We see land. We are safe. We have found a place to call home."

Im not sure at what point they discover inhabitants, but im guessing they were already convinced of the beauty of the land that lay before them they chose to battle for the land because war is all they knew.

First nations people "we are being invaded, this is not safe, this is our home, we are no longer safe in our home."

A community of families supporting one another, each family with its own dialect, each community with its own designation of language. Each region had its own identification. From a deep connection to land and country, I begin to imagine "how on earth our first nations people could face a league of men with weapons they had never seen before, being a people at peace and harmony with nature?"

We dont get taught Australian history. Not exactly the way it should be taught. It should be the truth. The whole truth. And nothing but the truth. We cant change history. But we can be the change now and moving in to the future. Its up to us to be the change.

Every single human being has the right to be, do and have. But we have built these frameworks that can widen the gap between privileged and non-privileged.

If you are someone with choice, you are privileged. You may still feel you are not as privileged as the next person but choice and the freedom to choose is my definition to empower me to cause and create change in the world so every child will one day experience the freedom to choose.

On this Australia Day it means to many wide and varying things and maybe just maybe we change the context and meaning of the day. Perhaps we need to commemorate the turmoil and suffering, perhaps its time to acknowledge and recognise the deep loss of the day.

While we (collective now) were not the invaders. You can understand the conflict of celebrating Australia Day, the day "the invaders" landed on Australia as discoverers and declared it theirs.

You can understand the hypocrisy of the way in which we treat refugees that arrive on our shores. Why are we (collective now) so determined to repeat the woes of our already past?

I dont have all the answers. I think a lot about what can be done to bridge culture and understanding.

I believe the key is our children and education. Our children and the next generations when they know their ancestors and can be told the truth. With no bias. They will make their own minds up about the world.

We are all brothers and sisters living on one planet. We have one life, one chance to make the difference we want to make.

Our people, when I say this I want to take ownership for the division, in our country - our people are everyone who lives in Australia right now, have made sacrifices and are suffering. When will we collectively say enough is enough, I take 100% responsibility for the mistakes of our ancestor invaders and also for the suffering of our ancestor first nations people.

Its time to heal our country. Time to take care of one another like never before. Time to listen. Time to be in eachother's worlds and really hear.

Its time for us to figure it out. We are a group of intelligent people who can surely figure this out?

Consider for a moment life is the game.

What we are doing is creating context we can step in to, in order to better understand what it means to live this life. Our life.

Its not the truth. Its made up. Made up to give us perspective.

So instead of shying away from the multitude of possibilities before you, if this was a computer game, what would you do?

Would you take a little more risk because its only a game?

Would you be little more brave, courageous, willing because its only a game?

Would you turn the corner with a little less fear because its just a game?

Would you turn the same corner again and again or because you've been there done that, would you turn another corner, to investigate the curiosity of what lingers around the next corner?

See - who we are from one context to another can carry us forward, if we just took a moment to be present, stop and pause and have a look at what is really holding us back.

Our world is full of distractions. Device this. Device that. Some of which adds value to our lives depending on how we use them. What if YOU are the device? What if the WORLD is the device?

How would you relate to yourself, as a device, how would you seek out your better or best performance? How would you relate to the world differently?

If you have seen the matrix, you understand the portrayal of a world as a device and humans the characters, avatars, players within the matrix.

Maybe its not as clear, but there are hundreds/thousands of possibilitities and although you dont need a joystick or controller, you get to choose which way to turn, "choose your own adventure" and its all there (here!) for your choosing.

We often think there are limited choices because of our limiting beliefs. But they are just patterns and programming from your past.

I used to play Nintendo, Super Mario Brothers, a linear game. Meaning the screen moved you from the left to the right. I had a chip in my version of the game which meant it had a series of hidden ways to jump through the levels. Also known as cheating.

But the intention of the chip was to create secret pathways. You had to be willing to find them knowing they were there.

Im not suggesting life is about cheating but I am suggesting that in life there is more than one pathway. More than one way to skin a cat as they say. There is more than one way to achieve the things you set out to achieve, if you would just be willing to investigate, experiment and follow through.

I remember being determined to find all the hidden parts of the game. I knew the game inside out. It was almost like the card game of memory. Eventuallly I unlocked as many secrets and finished the game.

When the game was finished. Guess what? It was no longer a challenge for me and I was bored of it because....

I knew what was going to happen. So I no longer held the urge to continue playing the game.

See in life you could challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone numerous times in just one day even. All you have to do is not honour the little voice in your head, that is determined to allow doubt to creep in to your mind.

Honour your word as your word. Relate to integrity as your word. Your word has power. Observe closely what you say about yourself and others around you.

Its tricky but you have to cultivate a beautiful garden in your mind minus all of the weeds. You do this through intention and your words.

What will have you playing on the courts versus watching from the sidelines?

I watched Soul, an animated movie, about life before and after death. It explores the idea of someone finding their spark. This spark lights up the person and the world. Has them living a purposeful and fulfilled life. What is your spark?

What is your something?

In the end its about a willingness to be alive and be in the world. Which is how this started. I wanted my kids to realise if they just look up and out in to the world, wonderment lay before them.

Life is all about perspective.

What if being flawed and having flaws IS actually what life is all about?

One of the reasons we are so intrigued by art is its ability to reflect back the truth to us.

Art with all its flaws, is still art. Are they actually flaws or are they what makes art, art?

Life with all its flaws, is still life. Are they actually flaws or are they what makes life, life?

You see when something happens to us that is unexpected we can turn to there is something wrong here or we can see how this is a necessary ebb and flow of our life.

The ying and yang. Black and white. Dark and light. This contrast of our lives is what gives us the content and context to appreciate what we have and accept more gracefully what we dont have.

Its the contrast that gives the content and context. Without knowing what life feels like without first, can we understand what life feels like with.

Take for example our health and wellbeing. We can literally take it for granted day by day. Until something happens to us. And in a blink of an eye, this something shows us how grateful we are for our health and wellbeing. What is your something? Maybe its happened. Maybe it hasnt happened yet but I can assure you if it does, it will be the something that rattles you as you did not expect it.

Im not saying we need tragedy in our lives in order to feel bliss. Im trying to put perspective around those things that happen in our lives, that we may perceive as flaws or that we are somehow flawed.

What is your something? Did you stop working because of it? Thinking how will I continue to support myself and my family while trying to tackle this thing? Will life look different or the same? I have to look after myself and put myself first, a first time in a long time! Information overload, overwhelm. Trying to be the pillar at home when struggling to be a pillar for myself?

You see everything is a lesson in life. Not a lesson because its time to punish you - no. A perspective that asks what will I learn from this something? It isnt always easy to see it, when youre in it. When you look back on the something, the context and content gives rise to the contrast.

I learnt to put myself first.

I learnt to look after myself.

I learnt to cultivate intention and manifest what I want in my life.

I discovered just how much my family relies upon me.

Im grateful for my life and everything I have.

I wont hold myself back from experiencing all that life has to offer.

Ill step outside my comfort zone time and time again.

I realise I have nothing to lose because of my exerience of nearly losing everything.

I recognise the speed bumps, twists and turns in my life are a necessary.

They are guiding me toward meaning and purpose to fulfil my duty in being on planet earth.

My flaws are my scars. I am flawed but these are my scars of the life I have led.

They are what make me unique to you. They are what give me my perspective on life.

Secret keys to secret doors.

Are you willing to open the doors gracefully and walk through them or resist the situation or circumstance you're currently facing?

"When one door closes, another door opens" - I have a new understanding with this saying now too.

Being in a transition phase of your life journey, wherever you are, its an imperfect life where its all perfect for your journey.

Its all perfect for your journey.

If you are stuck in a fork in the road, it only matters to say am I honouring my heart when I choose?

I chose to be grateful for my something. Thank you its me and not my children or anyone else in my family.

I chose to heal myself.

I chose to go within and trust myself - I knew what was best for me.

I did heal.

And now searching for all the meaning and all the purpose in my life and found it too.

Flawed. And cant wait for more.

It is as easy as a choice you make in every moment of every day.

Who knew it would or it could be so easy?

We make choices in every moment of every day.

We make them so quickly, we forget.

What if we could continue to make them quickly, but be intentional about what we are choosing?

Am I choosing to be miserable in this moment versus what can I learn from this moment, that would make me grateful for this moment? Or simply how can I be grateful for this moment?

We are looking for our own personal best not someone else’s.

We are not comparing, competing, counting, compiling, and still feeling less than.

We are simply looking for our own victories over the past.

We are trying to be better in each moment. Better each day. Better each week. Each month. Each year.

Until one day, we say I am being my personal best right now in this moment.

It’s the triumph over the past you’re looking for. Every moment, of everyday. How is this moment a triumph over the past - For Me?

And then celebrating it. Letting the world know about your triumph is more about letting the world in to your world. It’s about collaborating, connecting, creating and belonging.

Sharing your triumph over the past creates a space for connection.

This is your unique view. Your perspective on the world. It’s yours and yours alone.

Navigating this world as a child, as an adult is your own personal journey.

No one but no one has shared the exact journey as you but there are some things we commonly share as human beings.

The place where connection happens is the same place that has you be vulnerable and open, and has the person reading your story recognise themselves in your story.

You don’t know when this will happen.

It’s not for you to know.

But if you put yourself out there, you’ll find out.

The only way to know what’s in store for you, is to be willing to step outside of your comfort zone.

Growth is waiting for you around every street corner.

It’s waiting for you at home and at work.

It’s not scary at all, it’s your friend.

And it all begins with a choice, snap your fingers, make a choice.

Like the pop of corn, make a choice.

A choice to become the best version of you, every moment, of every day.

Have you ever wondered “what is the meaning of life?”

What if the meaning of life is whatever you say? This is where we must come to contemplate the power of our words and the power of honouring our words.

What we create in thoughts can become. What we say in words can become. What if all that we create both unintentionally and intentionally can become?

Would you want to be more intentional about that which you create? Could you be more intentional?

Of course!

So what are you creating? First, you just want to become aware, bear witness to what you are creating and then make a choice to become more intentional.

Becoming intentional can mean you choose what you are allowing your mind to soak up. What knowledge or wisdom will you allow your mind to absorb?

In the beginning, you want to flood your mind with moments of inspiration. You want to be surrounded by the kind of people who bring more inspiration to and around you.

How can you do this? How will you do this? What are some of the ways you have been inspired by who you are? What has inspired you in the past? Who has inspired you in the past?

Start there and begin opening your mind, be willing to see something new always. This is as they say the growth mindset - to grow your mind means you are always learning, always growing.

There is a famous quote from or shared by Wayne Dyer “Night and day dream of what you intend to do and what you intend to be and those dreams will interpret your intentions. Let no doubt creep into our dreams and intentions.”

Sometimes we come across a message and our ego won’t allow us to let the message sink in. You may have to find many ways of saying something that will resonate or enter in an experimental way to allow you to truly get it. This is why I love writing. I believe the source of my words is pure and if I create the words, I’ll truly connect with them.

So with that in mind you have to be someone who dreams, who imagines and who creates - you don’t just one day wake up and stop dreaming, imagining and creating. Be a kid again. Remember what it was like to be a kid. Harness that energy - the pure energy. The fun energy. The excitement energy. The everything is new energy.

Now with this present be this way in your life. Conquer your fears, knowing that even though this is the first time you’re learning to do something you don’t know how to do, you will survive, you will look back and go that was so easy, give me my next challenge! This is how you make life work for you. This is what it means life is what you make of it.

Go out in to the world and become more of who you are supposed to become dropping the veil of your patterns and programming of the past. Put out all the dreams, hopes and wishes you have for yourself, for your family, for your communities, for the world.

Even if you don’t know how to achieve these things you dream, you can still put it out there!

I believe in you to dream and intend the life you want for yourself.

How do you make yourself at home?

You’ve heard this phrase it’s what your friends and family, colleagues, anyone really says to you when they invite you over to their place.

“Make yourself at home”.

How do you do this literally anywhere? How do you create a space of homeliness for yourself, wherever you are?

Is the space created by you? Or by the invitation?

When I was growing up with business all around me, a memory is etched in mind.

My grandparents home which was also their two businesses would have a small sitting room which was also their dining room containing a small lounge, TV and a grandfather clock. This was a step through room. You moved from the front of one shop, step through this room, to get to the rear of the other shop.

One day, I walked in to this room which is usually reserved for family, it was part the house and not the businesses. There I found customers pulling up a stool to the drop leaf tables.

That’s the day I witnessed “make yourself at home” for myself.

It was an odd feeling and experience, at first I was slightly bewildered, scratching my head, I actually asked are you ok? And then I thought to myself, my grandparents would be so proud of our being so welcoming and accomodating. The only reason the customers came in to that room, was because it was the only seating left, meaning the place was packed.

It’s funny how certain moments remain etched and the reasons why. I take that essence with me in the way I treat others. I want them to feel like they are part of my family. I want them to feel at home with me, no matter where I am.

I believe this is some of the how in which you create your values and things most important to you. What memories are etched in your mind? How have these shaped who you have become? Who you know yourself to be?

You probably keep these things to yourself, for you. The minute you start to declare who you are, the world will start to recognise the real and true you.

Why are you hiding? Where have you been hiding? Maybe the world needs you? Maybe the world needs your unique thinking, innovation, ideas. Maybe you don’t yet know how to follow through.

But maybe just maybe who you are in the world is significant, important and you have a role to play in making the world a better place. What is it? What is your part?

It’s time to stop playing small and recognise you do have a huge contribution to make to the world through your unique talents. Not everyone has a defined talent such as being a singer or musician. My dad says this all the time he wishes we were singers or musicians. Funny thing is we are - we just don’t make money or make a living from it.

What are your unique buffet of talents? Yes! You do have more than one. Whoever asked us the question who do you want to be, actually didn’t ask it properly. Not a title or a job. Who do you want to be as a way of being. Then consider what do you want to create in this world?

Start there and think what do I feel at home doing and being?