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

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

At any point you decide you don’t like what’s happening in your life, you can begin to create something different.

It works like this…

We have a thought and suddenly it is now forming in consciousness. That thought will become reality in the next few seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years. How long it will take to come into being will be dependent upon how much energy is required.

By energy I mean your conscious and subconscious energy, the urgency of your physical energy and actions, the amount of emotional energy and the amount of energy joining from other people. A rider here is also how much baggage you are dragging that might stop you from making necessary mental and physical changes.

Your energy combines with other energy forms outside of you. Like attracting like, joining together – thoughts externalising themselves and becoming physical.

What I failed to understand many years ago was that in struggling to survive day after day in a reality that didn’t work for me, I had chosen to forgo a reality that did work, that supported and strengthened me and led to bigger and better things manifesting in my life.

How we focus our minds for extended periods determines our outcomes. If we focus on things that we don’t enjoy, we compromise other things we could be enjoying.

When we say “Yes” to something we don’t want. We say “No” to something we do want.

When I focussed on getting through a day without abuse, I compromised living a life of freedom and happiness where people were kind to me all day long.

When I focussed on food to provide me with emotional – internal pleasures, I failed to externalise my desire to find a way to find a relationship that could meet my emotional needs and help me become healthier, more confident and more self-motivated.

When I focussed on being broke and worrying about money, I compromised getting out there and finding something that brought me an income.

What I’m talking about here is consciously taking back the control of your life. Finding integrity. Finding the fragments of your life that have become splintered, drawing them back to you, learning from your experiences and then recreating life in a way that is full of purpose, ful-filling (filling up the full) in every way.

A big juicy hug,
Neil

What can you do to take back control of your life? Leave a comment below…

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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

Are you connected with your world?

Are you fully engaged with life?

It’s true. Many of us aren’t as fully engaged in life as we would wish.

Many live begrudgingly…

It’s easy to pinch a bit off here and there from life – taking the kids to school and dashing out the playground to work; getting stuck in traffic and cursing; trying not to share too many lunch breaks with colleagues; shutting ourselves away for nights on end to watch TV.

We separate ourselves from people. We see ourselves as separate to events.

Many blame outside forces… a government, a council, the banks, a colleague and often say: why is this happening to me?!

And it’s not happening to you… It’s happening with you… It’s happening for your benefit.

And you and “it” are one…

We are not separate from everything that’s happening. When we accept this… we recollect the control of our life from outside and bring it back inside.

When we accept the control of our lives we can accept that everything is happening ‘with us,’ is happen for us. We will see no separation between us and the never ending stream of events occurring in our life for our benefit.

It seemed odd to me that one day, out of the blue, two friends I’d not seen for months visited unexpectedly. Yet it happened for my benefit, because it helped me define qualities I wanted to give in friendships – generosity and spontaneity.

I hurt my neck and, while this could have been a bad thing, it made me think about life and where I may be a pain in the neck or who might be a pain in my neck.

If we slow life down a bit… if we engage more fully… we can notice the events stacking up to aid us in the moment towards a better, more fulfilling life.

Stop and notice.

With Loadsa Good Wishes
Neil

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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

I’d like to hear from you – leave a comment below.

It was one of those days, everyone seemed to be picking on me: my kids, my bank, my electricity supplier, even my computer. And everything that should have been done, was just taking longer and longer. Then something occurred to me.

Moving Away From Negative Energy

I’d decided to remove myself from all the negative energy, and decided to shut myself away from everything. And in the peace and tranquillity of that space I discovered something.

What was it?

I was the common denominator – the one they were all picking on.

Gradually it all began to unfold. I was in a bad mood. It was me that was having the impact on everything around me. All that was happening was that everything was reflecting back at me what I was putting out.

And that was when I picked up a book I recommend you read, ‘Ask and it is Given‘ by Ester and Jerry Hicks. The book fell open on these words: ‘Your thoughts absolutely equal your point of attraction, the better you feel the more everything around you improves.’

And then a few lines down, the book continued to rub salt into my wounds. ‘When you put yourself on a schedule where there is a deadline, then often the shortage of time or money looms up and contradicts the energy, making you miserable.’

I got the point!!

It Seems to Come From Nowhere
Frustration can seem to bubble up out of the blue. However, if I looked back on my day there were pointers right from early morning. First thing, as I was dressing I asked my partner if something at work was frustrating her. She told me no and I concluded I had got it wrong. Then there were computer problems, then a power cut, my bank failed to wire money on a business deal that could be worth a substantial sum. The whole day just built up, right to the moment where my son disagreed with me and my daughter raised her voice.

But get this.

When I wanted to say something back. But instead of saying anything I got one of those irritating tickles in the back of my throat that rendered my voice useless. All that came out was a helpless croak. And while my son and my partner fell about laughing and my daughter marched off to her bedroom in annoyance, I decided to call it a day and closed myself away to reflect.

The Truth
Frustration doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s the build up of events, often self-inflicted deadlines or unreasonable demands. As the pressure mounts we become less reasonable, with ourselves, with others and even with our work.

The words of Ester and Jerry Hicks were timely reminders for me and I hope reminders to us all that our thoughts are our point of attraction. If we feel frustrated then we attract more frustration. If we feel happiness then we attract more of that.

Best
Neil

Leave a comment: What is it that you’re trying to attract?  How long can you maintain your focus on this before something occurs and makes you think about that?

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

Financial transactions are as much about building relationships as they are spending money; so I have to admit, I do get a little peeved when I spend money and then feel disrespected by the company I’ve paid.

A few years ago we used to buy our food from the local superstore. We’d spend on average around £4500 a year there.

I had shopped with this superstore for my entire adult life and therefore spent in the region of £76500 in their premises.

But then I noticed their quality had dropped. The apples in the store were bruised. The tins were getting more dented. The tortilla wraps had begun sticking together, the pita bread had holes in them, and they had begun to have items they used to have in stock, regularly out of stock.

I wrote to the local branch. Three weeks later, when they hadn’t replied, I wrote to their Head Office. Funnily enough, they didn’t reply either. So I assumed that perhaps ignoring customer’s complaints was now company policy. I also noticed that nothing had improved in the store.

I suppose my £4500 a year is quite small compared to their annual profit of £2.65 billion. And I suppose losing my business doesn’t really mean that much to them.

However, this got me thinking…

I’d been wrestling with food miles and the environmental stuff for quite some time. I knew that my veg, even if grown locally will probably go to somewhere like Germany to get packaged before it will return to the UK and go on a shelf.

I know all this is not good for the environment. I know how superstores are now able to dictate pricing to suppliers and even influence town planning. I don’t necessarily like the idea of 180 new superstores being opened in the UK in the next 18 months. But I do accept there are some benefits to having these stores as part of the diversity of our culture.

But having said all that, when a company fails to value the relationship with a customer, then the customer is probably right to review the relationship with the company.

So I considered the food miles and the environment and the growth of the superstores and came to the conclusion… It was time to grow my own food, get my own chickens, shop where it is most convenient and buy local.

When we spend money in our local economy, most of it stays in our local economy, but when we spend it at a superstore, very little of it returns.

Since I live in the countryside and am surrounded by farmers – some of whom I know – I’d prefer to line their pockets than people who do not value my relationship with them.

I’d love to know your take on this.

Best
Neil

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Leave a comment: Have you ever felt unappreciated by the businesses you patronize? Did you go elsewhere? Or, what steps do you take in your business to show your appreciation to clients? I’d love to hear your story.

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

I remember one of my business coaches once saying to me, “What if you met someone who could give you 15 clients – what are your “Buts”?

I said, “but what do they want in return”, “but I don’t feel worthy of that” and “but nobody does something for nothing.”

This is what awareness brings us – it shows us the disparity between what we ask for and what we do to get that.

And it’s the same in a family scenario. We say to our children will you do this or that and we try to get them to do this or that and they don’t want to do this or that; and then we end up feeling fed up and resentful, or we feel like we should chuck in the towel.

But what the pain or frustration or anger or disappointment in our awareness is showing us is something we must address and until we find out how to change it, and start to act on what will work, nothing changes and we just carry on feeling fed up and wanting to throw in that towel.

And every time something like this happens, it brings up thoughts and feelings. And it’s our job to notice it and transform the situation.

Transformation breaks down into two words. Trance and formation. So trance is about the illusion or disillusion we live in… it’s the state of conscious or unconscious thinking and behaviour we live in… and the formation is about what we create as a result of that thinking and behaviour trance that we go about in.

So let’s apply this to taking care of the environment. You know that when we’re using our car or buying food in packaging that we’re doing some harm and we set an intention to do less harm. Then in your awareness, two weeks later you notice that you just drove to the shop in your car and then threw a sackful of plastic wrappers away. So now you have an intention, and in your awareness you notice where you’re not yet living it.

Let’s apply this to living in peace in the world. We want peace and harmony around us and we all know at our core that we shouldn’t cause harm in any way. So we start to notice day-to-day that we harbour a negative thought about another culture, race or neighbour.

So what we’re doing is we’re becoming aware. We’re starting to notice the disparity between what we say we want in our life and what we’re actually getting. We start to sift through the reality of our life and we start to realise our actions might need to change in order for us to have the peace and harmony or the environment we want.

Give it a try this week. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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

When you set up the vision for your business… when you’ve written down the goals and visualised it all as you want it to be… the next part – and  the part that most people struggle with is – getting out of your seat and making it happen.

YOU can make it happen!

In this article we’re going to look at how you address this…

A good place to start is with these questions: “What is it you need to do next to have your vision happen?” Do you need to write a business or marketing plan? Get a mentor? Pick up the phone and ask for help from a colleague? Is there a book you need to read? A website you need to go to. What do you have to do?

Make a list of all the steps and set a time aside. A mentor of mine once said, “If you make the first 90 minutes each day about your goal, it will happen.”

I want you to take note of the things that cause you a bit of discomfort. For me, I often left detail. I didn’t tidy up the little snags. I also haven’t always been as determined as I might be. For you, you might notice other things.

What I did is notice where the detail wasn’t tidied. For a time I went over it until it became perfect and until that perfection was no longer a pain but an absolute joy.

Of course another way is to outsource what you’re not good at, and I do more and more of that as time goes by… because I found that this was a faster way to joy!

And while we’re talking about overcoming pain and gaining pleasure I should mention self-sabotage. When we begin to do better than we’re comfortable with, we can have glitches.

Anyone who has weight problems will probably be able to tell you that maybe on a certain day, when they suddenly feel lighter or maybe on a day which was stressful, they hit the self-sabotage button and revert back to the old way.

It happens. Why does it happen?

Well, one of the reasons is we hit an upper limit of success – we hit the ceiling of what we can cope with for that moment. We’re unable to accept our self as something else… in other words, the success we once wanted now feels uncomfortable.

It’s important we know this happens and we take the time to handle this, or you might be hitting that self-destruct button… and you don’t want that.

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

I was sitting down with Wendy the other day and I asked her what she wanted from her situation.

For the next minute (until I stopped her) she told me what she didn’t want.

Wendy’s not  unusual. To be honest, I could have substituted Wendy for a dozen other names (and more) who have done the same, when asked that question.

We all notice what we don’t want and as long as we stay focussed on that, we keep getting it.

My son used to walk through the house with his muddy shoes and I told him not to do that, but still he did it. Yet the day I told him what I wanted him to do – i.e. take your shoes off before you come in the house, things improved.

When we notice what we don’t want, it usually comes from pain (in this case dirty carpets). But when we shift the instructions and programme our brain with desired results, changes materialise.

When one of my kids speaks to me in a rude way, it’s not something I desire. It’s very simple to say, “I can’t speak to you/help you until you speak to me with respect.”

They were more annoyed to begin with, then a little confused at my change, but now that sentence is met with a quick apology and usually an immediate change in how I get spoken too.

Asking for what you want is a lot easier than hinting or hoping. But often people struggle with being so clear on what they want, because they don’t know what they want.

Any situation in life that causes you to feel upset, annoyed, angry etc, is just an early warning signal that something you don’t like just happened. Use it to uncover what you want to happen and then ask for that to happen.

It’s so much easier than having the same thing happen over and over (which it inevitably will until you change it in some way).

It’s a lot easier to ask someone to pass the salt, rather than say, “I think my dinner needs a little salt…” and have 3 other people say, “Mine does to,” then wait while they all get the salt or go without because you didn’t want to burden anyone.

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

As you probably know by now, we’ve been helping people – people just like you and me – to live life with purpose, passion and spirit at work and in everyday life for around five years.

The word community means “coming into unity” and CommunitySoul was inspired by a vision of people coming into unity with your soul… expanding, gently growing, being all you can be… loving life… engaging with the adventure of life.

For a long time I’ve been aware that anger, frustration, pain, fear and the like are just pointers – reminders that we have become disconnected from what’s  most important in life.

I’ve had my fair share of the painful side of life and used it time and again to resolve what’s happening. I’ve also taught others how to do this and have seen their lives changed beyond belief in a short space of time.

It’s using the pain points in life that have helped me create a life I love. I’m living in a place that’s at the base of the Mendip hills in the south west of the UK. I’ve got horse paddocks behind me and hills all around, and in the distance I have what an estate agent would call sea glimpses.

Jo and I got married just over a year ago and and for that I took 6 weeks off. And that’s not something everyone can do.

I have two kids, with who I have great relationships, and I’m one of the blessed parents whose kids tell them what a great dad I am (and it’s not always preceding a request for money or a lift!).

I’m engaged in work that  I  adore and find inspiring, serving people who want to become more… and I love that as human beings we can always expand a little more.

I’m not ever-so wealthy, but I am debt-less, and I could take six months off work without worrying and it feels good to have that kind of security.

And I’m sharing this with you because…

I want you to know that whatever setbacks you have, whatever you go through, you can build the life you want to live, from whatever starting point you are at right now.

When you are unhappy with something, it’s evidence that something needs to change. And you are the one who has to… and who can… change it.

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk