Inspiration always comes…

We just have to be still enough to notice it.

In August 2005, just after the train bombings in London, amongst the fear and the negativity, I heard people say: “I want to change the world”. Then they shrugged and added, “But I can’t do it alone.”

I disagreed.

You see, a fundamental belief behind CommunitySoul is that you can change the world.

How?

I won’t happen if we trying to tackle the whole problem. That’s just too much of a big bite. The way to change the world is through changing the part of the world you influence and control.

Let me put it like this…

You will probably agree… that while you may know life isn’t perfect ( i.e. you may have some debt; kids you love, but can’t relate to; a spouse who you love, but lost the spark with) you may not be wandering around 24/7 trying to fix it all.

The truth is the problems most people face are “back of mind” issues rather than “front of mind”. What this means is that we go from day to day coping and getting by, but perhaps never really standing up for our highest truth.

Some spiritual teachers claim everything is a reflection. Others say, “As within, so without”. So this morning as I’m writing this to you, I’m thinking about changing the world and what the riots in major UK cities reflect that we have going on inside us. I’m also wondering about what our Prime Minister calls a, “Sick Society.”

My question is this…

When shops get looted, when cars get burned and people act violently against each other, what is it that is going on inside each of us  that is being reflected on a national scale?

For days I’ve been asking people if they know what the riots are about.

I asked my parents. I asked my children. I posted on Facebook. I read countless articles on-line. What became apparent is that the reasons are varied.

MendLondon website put it in a nutshell: “There was quite clearly a spectrum of reasons people got involved ranging from ego, boredom, peer pressure, anger, sheer bloody-mindedness, greed, territoriality, hatred and for a sense of thrill.”

Martin Luther King in Birmingham Jail

So, what are the riots reflecting in each of us?

For me, all this has happened at a time when I’ve just finished reviewing the life of Martin Luther King for my Life Purpose Group.

Let me share an insight from the great man…

King said (when talking about the Vietnam war and the death of John F. Kennedy) that through our silence and willingness to compromise our highest principles we construct an atmosphere where events materialise.

He says: “By allowing our movie and television screens to teach our children that the hero is the one who masters the art of shooting and techniques of killing, we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred become popular pastimes.”

Of course, since King spoke those words back in the 1960’s, so in addition to TV and movies we can add a whole host of violent video games.

As parents… business owners… as human beings… we all have choices and responsibilities about what to buy, what to create, what to sell, what to allow into our homes and what to allow into our minds.

For example, if we want the world to become a more peaceful less violent angry place we have to exert influence over the part of the world we control. That means we turn the TV over when we notice violence. We skip the movie with needless bloodshed. We don’t buy the game. We send a message to the creators, do make this. When profits are hit, they will stop making the movies and people who do not have your ability to switch off from violence will see less of it.

When I started to do this, I found it hard to begin with, as I broke old habits.

Andey, playing guitar

Is it possible that as you make that choice your children will see less violence and be less aggressive?

When my son was 13 years old his behaviour became uncharacteristically aggressive. I noticed this coincided with him playing on the Playstation.  We spoke about it and regulated his time with it. Coinciding with other changes in his life (we took him out of school) he sometimes complained of  boredom.  Boredom, with some parental love, allowed him space to experience who he really is and discover a purpose and one day he picked up a guitar. Four years later he began teaching music, enrolled in a music course at college, played in a various band, regularly gets on the stage at open mic nights and records his music in a studio.

As I said, inspiration always comes. Can you see how that materilised from noticing what came out of the boredom which not playing a Playstation allowed?

Can you see how it created opportunity?

Would you agree he discovered something worthwhile and purposeful?

Here’s another example…

My 11 year old daughter watches almost no TV. As a result, her mind is not swamped by – and therefore not programmed by – the adverts or images we have not chosen for her to see.

In our home DVD’s and game stations are mostly for weekends, and only after working together as a family. My daughter contributes to the household. She has taken on a role as a team-player in the home. We pay her for chores and she learns the cause and effect of effort and reward, and financial responsibility.

Father and daughter ready for a dinner party

We also speak about games she plays and who she plays with and how they add meaning to her life. We talk every day about life in general and work with her to resolve issues.

Her is a recent one…

A teacher had been shouting at her and this upsetting her. After speaking with me she went to the teacher. She promised to give respect to the teacher and asked for respect in return (i.e. not being shouted at). The teacher responded positively and now has an excellent relationship with my daughter.

Do you believe she is learning to respect our home?

Do you believe she is learning a healthy respect for money?

Do you believe she has an understanding of her importance to the family unit?

Can you see how she is learning about having a healthy self-respect and how to communicate her needs?

Contrast that with a child left to watch TV or play video games all day long, who is given “hand-outs” like pocket money, allowed to leave their dirty undies on the floor and their plate by the sink after dinner and whose parents are both run ragged. Think about what that teaches a child.

Following King’s suggestion we create an atmosphere where events materialise. And what materialises if we love our children so much that we do everything for them?

Dependency?

State hand-outs?

An inability to contribute?

Failure to understand worth as a human being place and value in society?

Lack of care for society?

Frustration?

Anger?

A generation who covet nice things, but lack the knowledge to lawfully create having it.

My commitment, back in 2005, was to do what I could to change the world through changing the part of the world I influence and control. I aim to do this in my finances and in my relationship with my wife. I do this through my business. I encourage everyone who takes part in my Life Purpose programme to try what I suggest and then use the programme material to lead by example and inspire their children.

How we raise our children is just one of the ways we can influence and control world change.

As we change, the world around us changes. The example you create has a ripple effect on others beside our children. It ripples out to their friends and teachers, our partners, the people we work with, our friends and neighbours.

Most of us don’t need a government to create new laws to make the world a better place. Most of us know that governments are big machines that take years to bring about changes. Experience shows that commercial interests and economic growth is often a higher value than moral rightness.

So the decisions we make as mother’s father’s and business owners and human beings about what we watch, what we buy, what we sell, what we allow into our homes and into our minds will determined the pace with which consciousness shifts in our country.

As we make better decisions, the decisions made by those around us become better.

Take the green issues for example. Whether you believe in global warming or not does not matter. The fact is we are polluting the air and raping the resources of the world by the way we live. Governments have been talking about the problems for years, but have solved it yet?

But you and I both know the solution isn’t new laws. It’s about us doing what we have always known to be the right thing to do.

Some of my choices (and yours may be different) are to grow some fruit and veg at home, walk when I don;t need to drive, stop buying things that I don’t need and that have little or no real purpose, recycle, reuse, refuse (and more often than not borrow from a friend or family member).

In this article I have only scratched the surface of a much bigger debate, but…

Are you starting to see how much power you really have to influence changes in the world?

Are you seeing how much more control you really have over your life and the issues that face you?

Can you see how world change ripples outwards from the choices you make?

If we can define our purpose… what’s most important to us… we can start to change the world.

As Ghandi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

CommunitySoul is all about helping people improve their everyday experience in life. You can sign up for a FREE hour exploring Life Purpose with me at www.communitysoullife.co.uk

Good wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes
Director
CommunitySoul

What is the number one challenge for 76% of businesses?

When you learn to drive a car, you start off driving consciously, thinking every gear change, brake, accelerator, clutch movement. Then, over time, it starts to become more and more natural.

Then one day you brake into a corner, accelerate around it and slip through the gears, 3rd, 4th, 5th without thinking and you then realise what just happened and go: “That’s was cool!”

Business can be like that too and it changes when all the things you once did consciously now become second nature and the learning you’ve been doing becomes knowing.

The knowing comes in the results – from the growing expectancy that you now are actually succeeding and can literally see your dream coming true. In driving it’s when your movement becomes instinctive. In business it’s when you have ideas that are grounded in habits, strategies, systems and processes and you know what tool to apply to what problem so that your dream continues to unfold naturally and effortlessly.

The expectancy comes in signs the results are coming. In business that might be signs that a product is right because the research checks out or sales start clocking up or that a marketing campaing is working because it’s generating leads and sales.

But the decision to succeed is made earlier. It’s made when we commit to doing the things you need to do to succeed. It happens when we stop making excuses. It happens when we stop saying “I can’t” and start saying “I will.”

Let me give you an everyday example. A recent CommunitySoul poll said 76% of businesses number one challenge is finding new business. So let’s use that as an example.

Let’s say your currently worried about where the next client’s going to come from and you’ve got a bottle neck of other things that need to get done. You’re waking up in the morning saying I don’t know where to start… I wish I could find more clients… I wish I could make more money… but before I do that I have to do deal with XYZ.

And you’re right. You have to deal with XYZ. In fact you have to deal with it to the extent it’s eliminated or severely reduced because right now it’s choking you.

Many years ago I worked with someone who complained they had no business coming in. I asked them to give me a breakdown of their typical working day. They told me they did yoga at 9am. Meditation at 11. Made lunch at 12. Walked the dog at 1.30. Did computer practice at 2.30pm then began the evening meal. This was an extreme case. But it clearly shows how the hours of “doing stuff” go by. Now for you that stuff might be emails, phone calls, admin, office tidying – it’s all the same.

But you have to realise that all that “stuff” is stopping you from success and all you need to do is put that aside and decide that you’ll stop doing that and start doing the work that will actually keep you in business – making a difference to others and making money while you do that.

With good wishes
Neil

I Can Show You How To Add A Thousand People To Your Mailing List

Getting your business known is where so many people struggle. We had that problem once too. But that’s no longer an issue, because we learnt how. Now you can too in our new business programme which shows you not only how to add a thousand people to your mailing list, but how to create up to £10,000 from the same event. Find out how you can add 1000 people to your mailing list now: http://communitysoulbusiness.com/fillmyve/

————————

What’s your challenge? Would love to have you leave a comment.

When I notice my energy pouring away, that’s the point where I realise I need to get out of the process.

I realised this a long time ago. I’m simply not good at putting together the systems and processes of a new product.

I like the creative parts, the bit where I come up with the idea, the bits where I can speak to a group or network an idea.

We all have different skills and we can all use them in different ways. The trick is bringing all those people together into a project in different ways that create a pay off.

In our industry people often talk about having a “passion”. And this is fine. But you also need to make sure you can earn a living from that passion.

There is a mistake people make in our industry in following a passion. Let me give you an example…

If you have a passion about yoga and you want others to experience the benefits you have experienced from yoga, you don’t have to become a teacher and try to market your own yoga classes.

There are different ways to earn a living from yoga. For example, your natural gift might be marketing, so team up with a yoga instructor who doesn’t like marketing and show them how to reach more people.

You may also be someone who can create a product that hones in on a specific pain point for people who would benefit from yoga. So, help a teacher create a product.

My own passion is helping people have a better experience of life and while I can, and still occasionally do, mentor or coach, my real passion is elsewhere.

There are already a multitude of amazing teachers, speakers and writers, but where our industry needs the support is in the marketing and PR professionals who can help that message reach the market.

My own passion these days is creating joint ventures for clients – knitting together two people with passions so they can work or market together. Plus we have a great platform to help launch those ventures.

Think about your passion… is it really in the way you are doing what you are doing?

You’ll know by how much energy you have for your work. If it flows and you feel you are thriving, you have it right. If energy feels stuck, something isn’t right – you may be in the right niche, but in the wrong role in that niche.

Good wishes
Neil

—————————————————————————————————
Offer of the Month
“I wanted a bit of bliss and real happiness”
Would you like to discover the right career, find the perfect partner and be able to feel authentic and confident and move on from a “Ground-hog Day” existence. Learn how now
Find your purpose now – Click Here:  www.communitysoul.co.uk/lifepurpose.htm
—————————————————————————————————-

Two guiding principles I go by are:
1.    Know my purpose
2.    Remove obstacles and things that don’t work

Since childhood we’ve been told what to do by our parents, teachers and religions. At work we were told what time to arrive and what time we could leave.

Our peers influence us and so does the TV. And under the weight of all this influence, I suspect that many of us have hardly given much thought to what we really want.

Sometimes I think it’s a bit like we’ve all been hypnotised and just don’t have the brain space to think, so we do what’s being strongly suggested to us.

Our mind reacts to suggestions, and from those suggestion emotions can rise: be they love, anger, joy or hate.

People who succeed on their paths are the people who have learned to control their minds and handle the suggestibility more effectively than others. They have learned to respond only to what is good for them and ignore what is not so good.

Probably one of the biggest influence on our minds is the TV and media. Through news broadcasts we can be manipulated into feeling angry or fearful of other races, cultures and religions and ignore the fact that we’re all human beings and our spiritual priority – above all else – is probably to ensure co-operation and avoid domination.

Advertising is incredibly suggestive. When I was trying to lose weight, I found that whenever I sat down in front of the TV I wanted to eat. Then I realized that a large number of the adverts were food adverts and that after they came on I wanted food.

By knowing my purpose, it allowed me to see the manipulation of the TV. The choice then was, do I watch TV or am I mentally strong enough to self-manage my stomach?

Try following my two guiding principles:
Know my purpose
Remove obstacles and things that don’t work

Lotsa Love
Neil

p.s. If you need more help try our Life Purpose Programme – www.communitysoul.co.uk/lifepurpose.htm

———–

And while you’re here, leave a comment below and let me know what your guiding principles are.

Here is a list of the 10 most influential people in my business. It\’s not in any particular order – and to be honest I could have added a few more had time permitted… who are your top 10?

1. Jo (my wife) – she can take an idea and simplify it, make a system and process for it and make it function

2. My dad – He\’s always supportive, throws in an idea or two and is an expert on time management and project planning

3. Dr. William Bloom – I know William thinks things through in detail like a teacher. He\’s got integrity and he cares about how something affects people and the environment. When I\’m making a big decision, I\’ll often type out an email to William and ask his opinion. I almost never send the emails, because I can hear him answering as I type the questions – so I guess his response and that helps me.

4. Sir Richard Branson – I love that he\’ll go into an industry where customers are not being treated well, raise a pirate flag against the industry big hitters and start taking the customer they mistreated. The best bit of advice Richard Branson ever gave me was: always work out the downside as well as the upside before you jump into a new venture.

5. Roger Hamilton – his book, Your Life Your Legacy is outstanding. His book is excellent if you want to work out how to leverage your value in the world through your work. A must read for every entrepreneur, in my view.

6. Nelson Mandela – he showed business skills in his campaign to free Africa-  vision, skill and persistence and the ability to adapt to circumstance.

7. Bernadette Doyle – watching what she does – both as our mentor, and because we work closely with her behind the scenes of her business – has taught me it\’s not over until you say it is. Having what you want is about your intent to complete what you start. Through a mastermind group Bernadette also led us to make one of our best ever business decisions.

8. Yanik Silver – The guy is just an outstanding copywriting genius… but more than that, he taught me about how to make people go “Wow” on delivery. He delivers some of the best business products that justify the amazing copy he writes to market them. I remember the first time I read his marketing copy I wanted what he was offering before I was half-way through his copy. I bought it and then the box with all the stuff arrived… manuals, dvds, booklets, cd\’s – more than I would ever need or could have wished for.

9. Lisa Turner – Lisa runs a successful business and laughs more than any other person I know. She is an amazing person to work with and an amazing teacher. She helped me dissolve energy that stops me from being all I can be and opened me up to new possibilities.

10. Karen Knowler – She has her business niche down to an art form. She\’s so practical, very grounded and has bags of integrity.

Who would you have on your list and what would their qualities be?

Good wishes
Neil

————————————————————————————————-

Offer of the Month
How to Have More Clarity and Focus And Create A More Meaningful Life
Sometimes we get sidetracked. Sometimes we just get lost. But when we know our life purpose life becomes much simpler and easier. Learn how in 7 steps
Learn now in 7 steps – Click Here -  www.communitysoul.co.uk/lifepurpose.htm

————————————————————————————————-

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

Has your mind taken over your spirit?

For most of us, we are driven by what seems to be our needs – emotions and wants. Those needs and wants are driven largely by what we perceive success to be. These perception are created by our masters…

Masters?

Yes, masters. I’m talking about the masters who taught and still teach us how to think and behave. I’m talking about our parents, teachers and peers. I’m also talking about the media, advertisers and clever marketers. Together they make us formidable machines that are driven by unconscious minds.

We literally become machines that will behave in an almost pre-programmed manner, irrespective of whether the current situation warrants the usual behaviour. Some of these masters condition us over time, others plant triggers in our heads, better know as subliminals.

It works like this:

In a relationship I act out the kind of behaviour I saw my parents act out.

In life, I act out the kind of metaphors my parents gave me – work hard for a living, money doesn’t grow on trees. I live these day-in, day-out.

When I sit down to watch TV, I like to sit down with food. If I forget, the advertisers remind me. Before I know it I’m in the kitchen hunting food, despite the fact I want to lose weight and have good dietary habits during the rest of the day.

The trick is to reverse the cycle – get the spirit to drive the mind. Here is how:

1. Sit down in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Now ask your spirit where it would like you to go next on your life path.

2. When you have an answer, consider the possibilities of what needs to be done to get you on that path. Don’t get any fixed or rigid ideas.

3. Create a plan that you think might work and begin to probe and see if things work.

4. Monitor what happens. See where the plan works and see where it takes you and where it doesn’t.  Be aware at all times of when the mind kicks in and tries to take over, saying you ‘should do this‘ or ‘you should do that.’

Whenever the mind takes control you begin to run on auto-pilot. You have to become what they call in quantum physics, the observer.

How do I become the observer?

Simple. You have to learn to monitor your thoughts and begin to question them. By questioning them you become aware of them and can then choose which ones serve you and which ones don‘t. This is much more profitable than making the same mistake ten times and wondering why you keep getting the same result. The question here is always about who is in control…

Was the spirit driving the mind or was the mind driving the spirit?

Love and Good Wishes
Neil

Leave a comment and tell me what drives you — your mind or your spirit? Why?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

In life you either get what you want or you get experiences of failing to have what you want. Life is that simple.

Why is that?

When we say we want something and then don’t do what needs to be done, our behaviour isn’t supporting our intention.

Interestingly our behaviour will always align to what we most want or to our fears about what we most want. What do I mean?

What I mean is when we really want something, our behaviour will align to it or to our anxieties about making the transformation.

So some people may currently have a contradiction between what they say they want and what they do to get it.

When we decide what we want, we create a resonance. That resonance can still include resistance or fear. Only when the resistance or fear is overcome we can achieve what we most want.

And it’s no different to where any of us are now. We have a choice to make our life or the world a better place by taking the steps to do that or to accept the status quo.

What makes the change is gentle action… loving action… spirited action… that keeps us on purpose and helps us be all we can be. And that doesn’t mean ignoring a fear, it means understanding it… accepting it… and working with it.

Fear doesn’t have to stop you. It can propel you!

We resonate with what we want when we make accepting second best a thing of the past. We resonate with what we want when we stop making excuses. We resonate with what we want if we accept our responsibility for everything we do and everything we are.

Contrast that with accepting second best… making excuses… not accepting responsibility… there is immediately a different resonance isn’t there?

Can you feel it?

If you are not currently getting what you want, look at where you accept second best, where you make excuses and where you might not be taking responsibility.

Lots of love and good wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

Elton John, Billy Joel, Phil Collins and Freddie Mercury all have something in common – aside of a smidge of talent and the fact they all became pop-stars.

Watch Elton John perform “I’m Still Standing” or Billy Joel play “My Life” at their pianos; witness Freddie Mercury winding up for “We are the Champions” or Phil Collins on drums during “In The Air Tonight,” and you’ll see something magical happening, something that sends shivers down your spine.

But what is it that they do?

We’ll it’s the same ‘something’ that caused Bob Geldoff to pull all his music industry pals together and raise millions for charity back in the eighties with the hit Do they Know Its Christmas and the subsequent Band Aid appeal. It got Churchill to move the nation with powerful speeches and it is all that stands between you and your true greatness.

But what is that ‘something’? And is it simple enough to bring into our everyday lives?

We all have a gift for something. It’s something that we get inspired by. It’s something that when we do it we feel purposeful and “at one”.

Maybe you know what that is. Maybe you don’t.

When spiritual teachers talk about purpose, they talk about it as something we have inside us. It’s true we all have that special something… that something that is the music inside us, but essentially life is meaningless and empty, until we fill it.

I had that experience last summer when on holiday in Spain. There was no school run. No animals to feed. No work to do. I had a blank canvas and from it I created a new purpose.

Before last summer I had never noticed so obviously that we all have the power to materialise and dematerialise life so easily. We construct meaning to things easily and make ourselves purposeful, but how often does that purposefulness connect with passion and inspiration and cause electric sparks in your being?

Maybe now is the time to rethink things

best wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

What if life is just one massive talent show for us to show off our skills?

What if it’s a stage for us to use our abilities for fun and pleasure and for the pleasure of those around us.

What if life is not a practice for some future event that we hope will just drop out of the sky. What if we have to make it happen… one moment at a time.

Great writers write everyday. Their head and their brain won’t function until the story is told. Great coaches coach everyday because they have a unique gift they want to share. Great musicians play until their fingers bleed…

All of them love every single moment of what they do. It’s about passion. It’s about blissing out. It’s about happiness. It’s about en-thusiasm (emotion in motion).

When you get your emotion into motion and do what you love your emotion reaches its peak, and when you hit your peak, you make manifest all of your greatest desires.

Remember your heroes – great comedians, interviewers, musicians, singers, teachers, orators, sports people etc. They all have that bliss in their eyes. There hearts beat faster when they are at the edge of their performance. And that’s how they move you.

Why are we doing spreadsheets and sweeping roads when we would sooner be an artist or a holistic therapist? Why do we put up with snotty customers at the call centre or organise the bazaar for the WI committee when we could be in the blue-bell wood?

Purpose = passion.

Passion = enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm leads to joy.

Joy leads to the most wonderful, incredible manifestations of your dreams.

What are your passions? What enthuses you? What would you love to do that you dare not do? What did you used to do that you loved and haven’t done for a while?

Best wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

We all have things we want to make a little better.

We all have challenges…

The challenges might come in relationships, at work, with our kids, with our health or something else. So there is always something we want to make a little better.

The first thing to do is the step so many miss. And yet this step really isn’t that profound. In fact it’s simple. It’s profoundly simple. So let me share what it is…

The first thing we have to do to is to make a decision to change things.

I “made” a decision to make my life better in 2002. And it doesn’t matter how good or bad life is, if you want something you don’t yet have, you have to make a decision. If you don’t, nothing changes.

There will be some people reading this article today, who have made a commitment to live life to the full and who will not turn back. These are people who will make a note and who will never look near them and there are people who are ready to make life different – however big or small the change.

In 2002 I was signed off work with a back injury, broke, obese and at this time 33 years old with two kids, and single again after 5 years of abuse. So I couldn’t really go anywhere or do anything much and… to be honest… even if I could… I’d probably have been so depressed no one would have hung out with me for long.

That left me with one focus. That focus was on what would make life better. Nothing else mattered for me at that point and there has been one question that has made a massive difference to me.

The question I ask is, “What is even better than this?”

To ask this question it doesn’t matter how good or bad life is. Asking this question can always make things just a little better.

One afternoon, after a satisfying day, I was laying on the sofa, grinning at the ceiling and I asked, what would make this even better, so I called Jo in for a hug, because sharing my good mood was better than keeping it to myself and it made the moment a bit more special.

Give the question a try…

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk