#Motivation

The Sober Friend….

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On a sobering note ……..

If you consider drinking and driving these days. With the amount of daily accidents on our roads it really is not at all wise. If you are involved in an accident and even if it’s not your fault you could loose your licence and even go to prison if someone gets injured or killed.

I’d loose my job if I lost my licence and no doubt you would too!!

In the autumn, my family made me promise not to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking, my son says he doesn’t want me to miss all the celebrations of the forth coming birthdays and Christmases in future years.

I know people turn to alcohol in times of stress. Go home after work and have a strong drink. But, I’ve cut back on drinking because my daily expenses have risen with the price of diesel and commuting to the office 3 or 4 days a week. Also, the increase in energy bills.

Actually, I feel a lot healthier for drinking less.

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September

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September went fast.

Ultra Challenge Day went well. Met a few new people (women) that enjoyed walking. Discussed doing a similar challenge next year. I said it would need to be flatter, enjoyed the sunshine and got a lot of exercise. My feet survived it. No blisters thankfully.

Week 2 – not so good- thought I had a Gastritis flare up, chemist gave me “Milk of Magnesia” which really seemed to give me a burning sensation in my gut. For a long time, I was unable to eat anything. Just drinking sips of water and lying in bed due to having a fever. Went back to work on the Thursday and found two others had had the same issue.

Week 3 – my long awaited vacation but due to a type of gastric flu not able to venture out too much. Most plans for this week cancelled because of the death of Queen Elisabeth.

In a way I was grateful not to have to go up to London even though I had been looking forward to seeing my Entrepreneurial friends. Not seen them in person since before lockdown/covid. Actually, I’ve not been on a train since before Covid either.

I have just been driving in my car and using the bus. Started my Sussex Gospel Partnership Bible Study Course, one a month for 2 years.

Week 3- On my week off I went to the local health club, went to watch some friends playing in their bands at various venues in Hastings.

Week 4 – Then I was fortunate to be able to work from home for a few weeks.

Discovered I had lost 10kilos. Now I can wear my super dry jacket again.

Keen to keep up the fitness regime. Making sure I actively walk or go to the gym weekly to walk on the treadmill.

Regrets, I’ve had a few,

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the opportunities that I thought were for me, only to discovered I didn’t have what it took to bring them to fruition.

Sins – thought, word and sometimes deeds.  I am not perfect but I am thankful that by the grace of God my sins are forgiven when I am repenting and renounce my sins

The relationships I tried to cultivate with non-believers that made me angry because of the lack of commitment, distrust and no inner peace.

I am grateful now i realise that all these situations taught me wisdom and instilled in me the discernment to know that in all situations God has to be first.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “

In relationships – 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (Adapted from The Message)

“ Don’t become partners  ( close relationships/ in business) with those who reject Jesus as God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:

“I’ll live in them, move into them;

I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.

So leave the corruption and compromise;

leave it for good,” says God.

“Don’t link up with those who’s ideas go against God’s will for your life”

It is of great benefit when I spend time in the word each day, even in my busy life I know it is important to still  make time for God. My smart phone is my best resource to have the Bible app, subscribe to daily prayer and bible readings, listen to podcasts from inspiring speakers. and enjoy listening to inspiring worship leaders on Spotify.

I am a member of All Saints Church, Eastbourne  and attend a home group every week and get prayer support for my needs.

Try to give with a willing heart via tithing 10% of my earnings.

Each and every morning in prayer I bring my daily needs to God and believe that he answers and hears my prayers.  I have a prayer journal so I can look back and see my progress.

I believe that God has opened doors for me that cannot be closed and that he will continue to draw towards me the right people to help me succeed and give me wisdom and guidance. I thank God for the seeds that are being sow and that they are bearing fruit.  I believe that God gives me the Holy Spirit to empower me to carry out the work he has put on my heart to carry out and that he is daily guiding my steps.

I thank God to renew my heart and mind so I can aspire to clearly display the fruit of the Spirit in my daily life – the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Having the heart and destiny for “Servant Leadership” can have its rewards as well as its disadvantages

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Having the heart and destiny for “Servant Leadership” can have its rewards as well as its disadvantages.

Through my friendship with my neighbour who is involved in the local music scene I got to know a few musicians and a local film production company.

Via the film production company I began a friendship with a man who suffered with mental illness and to an extent housebound

I have no concept or experience with mental illness and It was very challenging for me, also to spend time with someone who is living their life on the opposite side of the day.

It seems that when people have no motivation to get up in the morning tend to sit up for half the night and then get up late, so your early evening is their morning then the trouble is your late evening is their midday so they are raring to go when you’re starting to slow down.

I helped my friend with his housework, shopping and we also spent some time creating some music which was published on Soundcloud.  Just a bit of a comedy spoof nothing serious.

In 2012, I undertook some training to be a Life Coach, it gave me great pleasure as I am passionate about being Entrepreneurial I was keen to help awaken the spirit inside him so he would explore his entrepreneurial talents and move him to a place where he could be active in the community.

I succeeded to encourage him to begin painting again which then led on to his love for theatre and it seemed his talent for being a script writer and a producer.

Well this is what he told me and also that he had achieved other things, so I had no reason to doubt it and so was carried along in the moment I guess.

It was all very feasible and convincing that I never doubted it! Well, I did a little bit of sleuthing on the web but never found a single grain of evidence to what he said which did make me wonder a bit..

Melio Media Films were going to offer my  actor cousin Mark Lindsay Chapman, a role in their new film while Mark was in  Eastbourne visiting the family, but once my friend was introduced to Mark  the whole situation totally changed.

We were planning on working together and using my Social Media skills and decided to create a film company, though at this time I wasn’t aware at the time that my friend’s involvement with past script writing and production was in fact very minimal even to the point of only brain storming new ideas and supporting someone else’s work, so I didn’t realize that he wasn’t actually capable of writing a script, so when I was talking to the Mark and his colleague  I was backing up his story that he was competent to undertake the work they were wanting to give him and so it fueled up his ego to think that he would be competent and from that point onward wouldn’t allow any form of communication from me which he understood to be negative, in other words if I dared to mention that I didn’t agree with him!!!

During this time the new film company had been created, I was suppose to be part of this team and use my social media service , but when I went to implement things I found that the Web Designer had already started and so it upset my strategy and I was cross and then more problems arose as I was told I was upsetting people and so it gave a negative reaction and another reason why he decided  I should leave  the team. Overall, I didn’t have much of a say in what happened including what I was going to do myself and so we reached a mutual understanding that I wouldn’t have any involvement with it at all!!!

Then Steve and I  had a long chat about past events and we discussed how our mutual friend had got involved with his company  and he told me that they had known each other now for about six years and he though he was helping him by giving him a little bit of work to do from home, unpaid work, but it gave him a small bit of responsibility, he had encouraged him by calling him a film producer, not realizing that our friend would take this literally and use it as a platform to try and gain trust and deceive people about his abilities.

All this came as a bit of a shock to me, especially as i had introduced him to my trusted sources!

The epilogue in this situation is that our mutual friend’s talents do not lie in script writing production but more at a level of “project manager” who has managed to gain influence to create a group of budding actors/actresses that are now creating short films.   I would say good luck to them!

This trail of events made me feel very low and I had another accident and fell down some stairs damaging my collar bone which made me feel that  I just wanted to take a back seat from everything however since I have been online for the past twenty years and have built this system with it’s various processes my life is entwined with all the other people I have linked to on the various business and social networking sites, people from all aspects of my life who regularly comment, tag and post it’s impossible to leave it alone for more than a few hours.

Currently taking a back seat and temping while i seek inspiration for my next project.

Why do we allow our thoughts to give us limitations? (1)

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The fear of loss is a motivating factor if it can propel you in to action, .however you may in the beginning be paralysed with negative thoughts that stop you changing your mindset and doing things differently…

Life is very challenging for me at present and also I can empathise with those near and dear to me that are also finding that they have challenges to overcome.

We had an interesting morning in our church on Sunday, Pastors Ashley and Ruth Schmierer were our guest speakers. Ps Ashley was talking about how he had been limited as a child by the negative comments his teachers had made about him. That he was the clown in the class and that they didn’t think he would amount to anything. He is now the COC International President.

Ps Ashley, was speaking about how we allow our thoughts to give us limitations on what we can achieve in our lives.

For those of us that have a FAITH /Christianity is about having a relationship with Jesus via prayer, praise and reading the Bible, those that have given their life to him and invited the Holy Spirit to live in them then can understand the scriptures and the power in them to transform lives. It is also important to have Christian fellowship, always there will be people in the body of Christ that you don’t see eye to eye with, but you can also find people that you do get along with and these people will inspire and encourage you in you daily walk and you can do the same for them. I have found FACEBOOK really powerful for this and daily connect and share content with my fellow Christian connections all over the world.

In our every day lives we have to get along with people that have no faith at all and we do our best to get along with them as we care about them as they are our friends.

In the case of the work place we find that we have to adhere to the thoughts and intentions of those of whom do not follow the same mindset. This is where the root of negative thinking starts to rise… Other people’s perspectives start to cloud our thinking.

In the case of the working environment you might have to follow the plan and purpose for someone else’s business…, you might well find yourself in the same situation that happened to me that someone used a rather calculated method to gain my attention and support.

Have you heard about the Chameleon in the Office scenario?

Do read the interesting blog written by my colleague- Blackstar Sharon Egan – I actually I winced when I first read it  –The third paragraph down was in fact the very thing that snared me– “So, when with you, they’ll mirror your beliefs, your values, your attitudes… and, because of that, create fantastic rapport with you. You’d think they were your best buddy..-Apparently, this is a ploy taught in sales and in particular network-marketing.   Of course in my case – I am a “Connector” sitting on a rather a large database of names which is appealing to people that are building lists of people to contact.

My personality in business is Servant Leadership- with the main concern of helping someone else to achieve their purpose and goals…I align myself to the people with the same mindset…

Coming back to the shared mindset and what would actually attract you to work with someone to see that their goal to earn a living happened and what would you feel like when the truth dawned on you that their why had changed so much that you had that gut feeling that now life was treating them so well (not through their own efforts might I add) the initial effort that they seemed to put in currently was none existent…   I can remember when I first got started first words given to me were we are here to build the network and forget about the product. 

Leadership requires patience and perseverance; I also think that to really take heed and respect the circumstances of others is important.  I think back now and wonder why did I align myself up with people that really didn’t care at all about the plans and purposes of others, why did I get swept away with the dream that this was going to be the way forward for me….

There are however, people in this business who are doing exceedingly well and are making the money that gives them the lifestyle that is promised, those with a true heart of a team spirit.   

In the very beginning I know I was on to a winner as the money came through as a result of prayer and it all worked well for the first six months or so, then people that joined the team all dropped away and those that are left are not in it to build the team, just there for the enjoyment of the product.  Fundamentally, core values of a Servant Leadership – not just about looking after yourself but about looking after other people.    Therefore encouraging people that have no surplus income over and above existing expenses to overspend is immoral.  Also, coming back to the beginning regarding negative comments building a team based on “Trusting relationships as the foundation for collaboration and service, affirming that all relationships should be based on trust and mutual respect, not power, status or coercion. Coercion – (like a form of bullying, threats or
intimidation.) 

Taking all of these circumstances into consideration I now realise why that breakthrough that I really needed to happen hasn’t…..

Tips for building lasting friendships.

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1.  Honour and Respect

2.  Allow other people to be independent and do things their own way and offer help when asked and needed

3.   Be loyal and not criticise them  for having different ideas and opinions., ‘…That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.

4. Resist temptation to seek faults.. Don’t…jump on their failures…unless…you want the same treatment…

5. Give others space  – call up to arrange an appointment before showing up.

6. Only give advise when asked too.

7. Love your friend and neighbour as yourself…

Assistance will be available in your Trials and Struggles!

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God will help you in your trials and struggles.  He knows the people that you need to help you and the resources you need to get the job done and when we ask him, he will provide them.  If we are open to see, we can see God’s hand at work in what ever we are going through today.

Struggles don’t go away, but if we can alter our mindset to the way we see them, not be too passive, but to confront these situations.

I have had a very painful hand for the past couple of months, I have had prayer for it and it has eased up but recently I have been working very hard and I come to realise that it must be repetitive strain with using my USB Mouse.  Today, the Mouse is not working and I have had to result to using the square mouse or what ever you might call it on my laptop which previously I gave up with as it was too slow.  Probably for the best as I don’t want to be crippled for life, so you could say that in this situation God was moving as he showed me a better way to work.

 

‘If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp axe, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down!!!

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Basically, it is the same with Network-Marketing, in this case the FREE DREAM_TRIP you offer people the chance to have a free vacation, all they need to do is register and watch this movie   – http://connector.windreamtrips.com  Some people you ask won’t bother as they don’t believe you when you tell them there is no catch.  Some people start watching the movie and when they see what it speaks about they give up half-way through so they then don’t activate the email that states they have watched the movie, so they don’t get in to the draw.  Some people say point blank they don’t want the opportunity.   Some of the people that actually watch the movie, may see and understand the opportunity and know it is for them, these are the people that I will work with.  Well to find these people it is almost like looking for a needle in a Haystack.  It wasn’t until I got involved with this business that I began to see how many negative and unmotivated people there were around, my own friends and relatives included!

Well, it is a numbers game to find those few people you need to ask just about everyone you come in contact with.  So basically, you are back to this trust element – would people you have never spoken to before actually believe that out of the blue a total stranger would be offering them an opportunity to have a free vacation, no strings attracted!   Sounds wildly unlikely doesn’t it  – though in this case it is true as I am sure that if I persevere with my dream to achieve the living  and a better lifestyle I will find other people who want to have the same.

I was taught a number of years back that the plan in a Christian’s walk was to be blessed so that in turn I would be able to give and bless others.  Recently, someone sneered that it was a bad suggestion to be wealthy, but in fact the aim to be wealthy is to be in the position to give back to the community

. A wise man once said, ‘Effort only releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.’

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Today, here and now I do not have a lot of money, I have a small income coming in every week but that is not enough to pay all my bills and move towards my dreams.  However, I keep positive thoughts and continue to strive forward to meet the challenges and believe that the resources will be available to me when I need them.

Life is that journey and only when we are in the right place, opportunities, resources and the people we need to make it happen will be available to us.   With my World Ventures business – it is people and not money that are the resources that I need to build the team and network of people that will give me the residual income.  Due to the Binary plan – and two team legs, I just need 30 people more and I will be a Senior Representative.   Basically, I need six people with the same mindset as me that can then bring six more people into this business team and then we have our 30 people, I may even win BMW.

Vision doesn’t follow resources, it happens the other way around. First we have a dream, then we have to move forward. Then-and only then-do people and resources follow. Then the plan God has given to us begins to fall into place. A wise man once said, ‘Effort only releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.’ People who succeed ‘see’ what others don’t. It’s what keeps them moving forward. ‘It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.’