Usually I know what I want to achieve before I do something. But sometimes I don’t and I’m okay with that, especially if I feel – intuitively – I need to do that thing.

Let me share an example of what I mean….

One night Jo and I were sitting chatting. I had a networking meeting coming up the next morning and wasn’t feeling particularly inspired, though felt there was a reason to go to the meeting.

Have we all been there at least once?

We looked back to our overall vision for the business and looked at the current challenge back then. Then we started to create a vision (more of a fantasy really) about how the networking event would go.

At that time gaining more media contacts was what I needed, so we talked and began to build this incredible vision that went way beyond imagination. It started with just meeting ordinary members of the press and ended up with us being interviewed on Richard and Judy. Then we became Richard and Judy and we were interviewing people like Oprah and it all ended up in madness from there.

Anyway… as it happened the next morning when I arrived at the breakfast meeting I was told I’d been placed on the top table. When I got to the table I was met by a PR agent, a photographer, a local radio station and the local newspaper – and as many of you know, I’ve since gone on to interview a dozen top people in personal and spiritual development.

Amazing what happens when you have a vision and then follow through with some action.

But the thing here is that if you think about what I originally saw – a networking event I felt no inspiration for, then suddenly it opened up into an expression of play and fun. Then look what happened.

William Bloom said to me once, “Create an energy of blessing and leave room for the miracles.”

And I think that’s what I’m talking about here. Yes know your vision. But sometimes you might have an opportunity you don’t understand. Explore it, open your intuition to it, fantasise and then leave room for the miracles.

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

It’s no coincidence when you feel your best at work, you attract the best results and the better you feel the better it gets.

Having your business be lighthearted and fun often is going to mean your business is going to continually evolve into something better and better. And that adds more and more greatness to your life and to the hundreds or thousands of people you come into contact with.

When you set your intention for your business, make it fun and don’t inhibit yourself with reality. If you inhibit yourself, you may miss out on the opportunity to explore, understand and grow and you might then miss out on the fruits of being self-employed – which is just about the experience of learning and growing.

For example, when you can start to wonder how you go from £30 an hour  to £200 an hour in 12 months, for a moment you stop thinking about lacking confidence. And while you sense you may be dreaming, you can start to see some natural steps if you watch out for them. You’ll get your focus on how you grow and expand  and you’ll start to ask:  Where will I learn? Who will I learn from.

When I was out with my personal trainer, he said to me, “Don’t worry about winning the race. Just stay focussed on the guy in front. Imagine he has a target on his back and keep your eyes on him until you overtake.”

In business, we have a list of mentors we want to emulate and surpass in various fields and in various ways. Equalling and surpassing the mentor is a milestone on the way to the stars.

It keeps us focussed on a specific task and we don’t lower the focus where we might have questions about belief and confidence. We just stay focussed on what we need to do to surpass the mentor.

Any goal you set is not about the end result really, it’s really about the adventure the goal takes you on -  the research you do, the people you meet, the mistakes you make and learn from, the fun you have, the down days when you beat yourself up into a new shape that somehow makes you stronger and more resilient, and the up days that excite you.

Yes, goals provide a sense of direction or purpose, and yes we can perform better with them, but the learning along the way is what we can take on the rest of the journey with us.

And that’s what I want to focus on now… the journey and the experience and, in particular, self-acceptance.

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

What’s the dream you’re working on right now?

You may know the answer to this straight away, but if you pause for more than 3 seconds to gather loose strands of thoughts about things you thought about days or weeks ago, you’re going to find this article the catalyst to moving the goal posts to a time, sometime sooner.

The first component is focus. You have to know clearly what you want long term. That long-term focus might break down into smaller steps.

Let’s say the long term focus is a great relationship that has thus far been illusive. That then might break down into daily tasks.

Each day I look at my 5 points of focus and decide what one thing I’m going to do on each of them. This means each day I move a step closer to my goal.

In the relationship example maybe the short-term goal is to do some self-work, book on a workshop, uncover what your ideal mate will be into, become a better kisser, dress better, feel better about yourself – whatever you feel is appropriate.

Once you have the clarity, the second thing to look at is your desire to make it happen. You’ve got to want it. It’s all fine and dandy thinking you’d like something, but do you really have a desire to have it happen. There’s little point in deciding you want something, then getting passive about it.

If the desire is there, then the third thing to look at is belief. You’ve got to believe you can do it. I believe I’m capable of pretty much anything I turn my mind to. I believe that when I come from a place of playfulness and fun, I double my chances.

Fourth element to consider is self-acceptance. Do you believe you’re worthy of what you want? To pull it off you have to believe this down to your core.

Be… do… have…

With clarity, desire, belief and self-acceptance in place, it’s easier to begin to “be” what you want – to act as if.

For example, if you want to earn £250,000 next year and you work that out, based on the hours you’d work during the next 12 months as roughly earning £200 per hour, you’d be clear on what you want.

When you look at why you want it, you build the desire. When you look for examples of where you are close to that value each hour, you build the belief. When you look at why you’re deserving of your goal, you build the references around you.

So when you begin to “do”, you’ll discover more evidence of when you’re earning your hourly rate. You may also notice when you’re not. When you start to move to lower then £200 an hour tasks from your way, you begin to get ever closer to the amount you want to earn.

When your focus, attention and behaviour have been honed long enough on what you want, your dream will come true.

Until next time

Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

Sitting down, on the floor in my living room, with Jo and a dozen bits of scrap paper neatly placed around us, isn’t the way we always spend a Saturday night. But what a night it turned out to be…

I’d just spent the day with my favourite teacher, Dr. William Bloom, as he gave his take on Creating and Manifesting a great life. He’d been asking a question during his course: “Who is telling my story?”

I thought about some of my beliefs, behaviours and values and mulled over where those patterns had been instilled – at school, by parents, friends, work colleagues, sports team managers etc.

There were a few beliefs and behaviour’s that struck me, but one I particularly want to share with you, in case you have something similar to heal…

During my school days I was always picked for leadership – team captain, town, county and club, games captain and prefect. I loved lifting trophies, hated losing, and always led by example. In football – my favourite sport – it was a thrill to captain lads who went on to sign for Arsenal, West Ham and Northampton.

I missed out on trials for Leicester because of a back injury and never got another chance to fulfil my footballing dream. (Ahhh!)

I ended up playing for the second best semi-pro outfit in the town, doing a solid job at centre half, but hankering to play in my best position, fullback. When I asked the manager to switch me, he said he’d think about it. The next match, he gave me the only roasting a team manager ever gave me, and he did it in front of the rest of the team, just because I’d asked him to play me where I knew I’d deliver my best for the team.

If that humiliation wasn’t enough, he dropped me to the 3rd team reserves the following week.

Had I dug in, gritted my teeth and fought my way back, maybe I’d have eventually worked my way back into the team and gone on to fulfill my footballing dream… who knows? But it wasn’t to be…

So as a 17 year old, I chose not to roll up my sleeves and pull out the fire from within. My will broken, I gave up. Told the manger where to shove his team and entered a bitter loop.

With my old friends playing professionally, me missing my golden opportunity, ending up at semi-pro level and then being dropped to the 3rd team, I became trapped in the experience of “not feeling good enough” – a psychological drama that many people share, for lots of different reasons.

But what’s all this got to do with sitting on the living room floor with Jo on a Saturday night?

Well, I’d become interested with the differences that separate success from failure and I wanted to ensure I ditched this not-feeling-good-enough feeling. It was no longer serving me and the direction my life was going in.

So I wrote down, “not good enough and weak willed” on this scrap of paper. Then I sat back and wondered, if I turned this over to the Universe (God, the Tao, Spirit – or whatever you want to call it) how would this experience be used as a force for good.

The answer was simple. “By determination and excellence.”

When I read the life story of top football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, I was left in no doubt that when he was faced with similar situations of being dropped as a footballer, he was tougher than me. Today, as a manager he buys only excellence and demands excellence from his team every time.

So I adopted his determination and pursuit of excellence and asked another question, “How would I express this determination and excellence?”

The answer: put in five times more effort. So I have.

I began by clearing space. I looked at habits and behaviours that were not determined and began changing them. When I do something that doesn’t match the new standard, I go back and do it again and again until it is.

You see, being in a flow of having more isn’t just about asking for more – it’s about matching up to what you want. Having more isn’t just about writing down a goal. It’s not making a wish. It’s about putting your soul into the thing you want and doing it with love, joy compassion and good grace that honours your journey and the new you that is emerging.

Who is telling your story? What holds you back? What would life be like if you changed that forever?

How about you change it?

With love

Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

What I’m going to take you through in this article is a technique I use to constantly close the gap between where I am and where I want to get to. I’m sharing this so you can use it too.

When I sit down to write an article or I’m mapping out one of the Insiders Secrets webinars or training session I always start with a visualisation.

I imagine that I am looking beyond the page and seeing everyone taking notes, and magical golden fairy dust passing down the phone lines, enveloping you – and as a result of what I share, you become more prosperous.

And I appreciate that might all sound a bit fanciful, but it’s a technique that I know inspires me to create information that helps people and gets great feedback.

In the grand scheme of things this might seem small, but if something you take notes from becomes a way you do business, or helps you create something that changes lives or leads to your prosperity or the prosperity of one of your clients, then that’s a very cool ripple.

A vision I hold for CommunitySoul is that whoever walks with us becomes increasingly prosperous as a result of the association. Our aim is to help 12,000 business reach more than a million people and change their lives by the end of this year.

Part of the vision for these newsletters is that it’s fluff free, so let me ground what I’m saying here, before you accuse me of going off with the fairies!

Knowing the vision allows me to sit back after our events and evaluate. I’m looking at the details. What will help us to achieve our vision faster? Where don’t we match up to the vision? Are the presentations right? Did people learn all they could in the time we had? Who else can benefit from hearing this speaker? Could people listen in comfort? Is everyone moving forward? Timings? Overall message? The marketing? What needs to improve? Who will do it?

So, when you have a clear vision, you can see how easily you can begin to constantly close the gap between where you are now and where you want to get too.

It’s simple. Know your vision. Know your starting point. Close the gap.

Best wishes

Neil

www.communitysoul.co.uk

Making money is a measure.

It could be a measure for how many people you helped, how often you helped them and how much value you and they feel you bring to their life for what you do.

So making money could just be about the difference it makes to you and the people you love to help.

And we’ve all heard the saying that “the journey is more important that the end result”, so making money is just part of the journey.

Imagine for a moment that you set a goal to make £250,000 by 31st December and you have an idea that is incredible and can make a huge difference in the lives of others. As a result, the demand for how you help people grows.

In your efforts to make the quarter million, you learn so much about people and philosophy and the way the world works. You meet the wealthy and the poor and you understand more about how they became that way.

And in making your £250,000 you now make a new network of people. Other  opportunities naturally come your way and you now make a million.

And remember it’s not just about the money – the money is just a measure of how many people you’ve helped and how much value they and you put on what you do.

Maybe through the money you earn, or through your network, or both, you can help remove poverty and create more prosperity. Maybe you can help to remove damage to the environment and reduce pollution…

I was once taught how to Karate chop a board in half. I was doing this live, for the first time and in front of an audience of about 50 people.

I was instructed to focus beyond the board, where my hand would hit, once the board had broken in two. This style of vision creating is just like that – it’s putting your attention not just on having what you dream of, but on what is beyond and even better than that.

Look at what you think you want. Then consider the journey beyond it. The one that is even better than you dare dream of.

Best wishes
Neil

There’s a technique to building a business beyond your dreams and in this article I’m going to share that with you.

As you may know I love writing. In the past I took a create writing course and drafted several novels, before finally publishing one.

Writing novels taught me about the tapestry of life, especially how we can weave it.

In a novel, when you’re creating the character’s journey one thing you have to do in is create conflict and you do this by continually asking one question and  repeating it over and over.

That question is: what could be worse than that?

Someone loses their job. What could be worse? They lose their relationship too. What would be worse than that? They find out their partner was having an affair. Worse than that? They get drunk as a result. Worse than that? They walk out in front of a car…

When you are creating your dream business, you follow the technique, but ask a different question… “What would be even better than this?”

So you’re doing great, everything is going really well, you’re appreciating the great things that have happened to you so far and now you drop in that question: what would be even better than this?

You then repeat this question over and over. Using this technique helped me transform my mentoring process: it gave my clients a huge saving in their investment, gave me back 1 month per year in time and in the first 12 months grew my income by 25% (it’s grown several times that in year two).

You can do this with other areas of your business too. You can ask: how can I reduce my impact on the environment? How can I help my local community through my business? What can I do to surprise and delight my customers?

Growing a business using this question: “What would be even better than this?” will transform the way you approach your business. I promise you. It will also be a lot more fun that thinking just logically.

Best wishes

Neil

I knew Pete was homeless before I walked up to him and started the conversation. He was selling Big Issues.

For most of my life I’ve walked along streets and I’m ashamed to say I’ve ignored guys like Pete.

Then for a few years I took pity on homeless people, giving them some change when I had it, sometimes buying a Big Issue. But then one morning, six months ago something happened.

I woke from a dream in which I wasn’t feeling any pity at all for homeless people – I was talking to them with genuine interest and an eager want to understand how they ended up on the street.

The sun was shining and the high street was buzzing on a Devon lunchtime as I stood next to Homeless Pete outside a Lloyds TSB Bank.

He tells me he ended up on the street when his old relationship broke down. His GP put him on Prozac. He tells me Prozac wasn’t good for him.

I tell him I once left a relationship. I tell him my GP put me on Prozac too. I share a story with Pete about how a friend of mine called me every day to make sure I was okay until I was off the drug. I tell him how I reversed into a car while I was on it.

I ask Pete how selling the Big Issue has changed his life. He says it has saved him. It got him out amongst people – interacting. He’s been selling Big Issues now for 5 years. He says he enjoys starting before 9am and giving people a smile as they go to work. He says he’s helping them feel happier and that makes him feel good.

‘You feel you’re helping people smile?’ I ask. Amazed that without a home he is even considering anyone else.

‘Oh yeah,’ he smiles.

His dog – which I hadn’t noticed until then – barks at a passing terrier and Pete tells me his dog once belonged to a friend who died. He looks away and swallows. His friend’s death still affects him.

I ask what he’d like to be doing in five years. He says he’d like to live in his own home and get a job as a street cleaner. He says he’d also like to meet Graham Walker.

He tells me Graham used to sell the Big Issue and has now written a book called Unsettled. Pete hands me a Big Issue and shows me a picture of Graham. I can see a twinkle in Pete’s eye. Graham is clearly an idol.

I ask Pete where he sleeps and he tells me he sleeps in the car park, under a roof and that sometimes the police move him on at night. I can’t help wondering what that’s like. My bedroom sometimes feels cold in spring – what’s a winter night like for Pete?

He says he and a friend once saved up the deposit for a house, but he couldn’t find a landlord who would take a dog. I felt his frustration. He’s not going to compromise the dog. It’s a symbol of love. It’s his friend.

But he says the deposit got spent on a trip to his home town.

A lady buys a Big Issue. ‘Careful,’ Pete says, ‘There are some loose papers inside that might blow away.’

The lady thanks him and he turns to me. ‘It happened once before. Loads of paper blew down the street. I picked it up though. I have street cleaner in my blood,’ he boasts.

I talk to Pete about how he gets the house, where a landlord will let him keep the dog and how he finds the job to keep the roof over his head. He says he doesn’t really know, so I tell him what I’d try – simple things that don’t cost money, but that let people – and the Universe know Pete is looking.

He thanks me for my advice and I feel he genuinely means it.

As I walk away his words, ‘I have street cleaner in my blood,’ stick in my head. I turn back and look. His ambition isn’t a big ask – to have a house, a job as a street cleaner and meet Graham Walker – is it?

As I step forward again I wonder why I didn’t connect with homeless people before. Was I embarrassed by my life of luxury? Did I feel sorry because I didn’t know how to help? Was I scared they’d mug me? Did I think they were all druggies? And what else did I have in common with them… except being human?

And that’s it, isn’t it, really. We are all human. We’re all kin. And we’re as strong as a nation as our weakest and most vulnerable links.

It’s easy to send £50 to a victim of Tsunami or pay £10 a month for a child in Africa. We can send our good will gesture and not really get involved. But it is hard to face the man on the town centre high street who is a product of our culture and society.

Pete wants to smile at a passers-by – brighten their day. He wants a roof over his head. He wants a job cleaning the street. Though I bought a Big Issue from Pete, I’d like to think that the time we shared had greater value than the £1.50 a Big Issue costs.

The time he gave me certainly had value.

Neil

I must have stared out the window for several minutes. And I still didn’t have the answer – or so it seemed. But then a question came to mind – “what’s the most compelling subject on my mind?”

A few minutes earlier, I’d been in the garden wondering why I couldn’t think of anything to write and beating myself up, because, for the first time ever, I felt like I had writer’s block.

And then it all fell into place…

This week I’ve spent a lot of time reviewing where life is heading and asking questions of myself and those around me. But more important than just asking any old question, I’ve been especially conscious of the power of every question I asked.

And while that may seem bizarre, or perhaps anal, I’d like to beg you to stick with me a moment…

Underlying the chaos of work, relationships, money, kids, stepkids, ex’s, family and the trials and tribulations of teenagers etc, there are, in my opinion, some key fundamentals that shape favourable or unfavourable outcomes in our life.

I can understand why, when faced with problems, most people want to hide. I mean, I remember watching the TV news one evening a couple of years ago and the way the “Credit Crunch” illusion was reported made me want to run away.

While some will tighten their belts, others will hoist up surrender flags and end up handing back the keys to a home for which they’ve slaved for years. Meantime another group of people will wait, ask the right questions and at the right time make a packet of money – because they know even a recession can create a harvest time.

My example here is money, but it wouldn’t matter what aspect of life we picked, because whatever area of life you choose, the outcome will have a large bearing on just one thing – the questions you ask about the situation you’re in.

Maybe you’ve read Esther and Jerry Hicks book with the biblical title, Ask and It’s Given. The book talks about asking for what you want and then having it come to you. On the same theme, Tony Robbins, personal development guru, talks about it slightly differently.

Robbins says the questions you ask determine what you receive. He’s saying that your outcome is determined by the quality of your questions on a subject.

We could ask: How come this is happening? Why now? What have I done to deserve this? How come I can’t get myself ahead? Why didn’t I make better decisions?

Or you could ask: With my skills and knowledge how can I make the best of this situation? What new skills and knowledge can I gain to profit from this? What are the millionaires and billionaires doing that others are not?

The first set of questions don’t help you. They dwell on the sob story. The second set unlock your potential. So the second set of questions has the potential to take you to a more successful outcome than the first.

If you can master your questions you’re going to find life getting easier.

Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

Have you ever set a goal and felt disappointed because you didn’t achieve it? Or have you set a goal and felt out of alignment with it immediately – or felt bad even if you did achieve it? Or have you ever set a goal and laughed at yourself when you set it?

I’ve done all of these at different times in my life. In fact, truth be known, I’ve done most of them more than once.

In the past goal-setting set me up for failure in one way or another, either because I didn’t achieve the goal or because I didn’t like myself while working towards the goal.

I had times when I’d begun working on my goals and felt physically sick. I’d get sweaty hands, have the shivers and go all dizzy. Funny thing was, when I backed off the goal, I suddenly felt better.

This shows the point I want to make about setting goals – and this point isn’t rocket science, but it is, unfortunately, something that can often be overlooked.

When setting a goal you must make sure that you are working towards something you really want – the desire has to be there 100%.

You have to make sure the goal excites you. I don’t mean logical, blokey, “That feels sort of right.” It can’t be “In the brain excitement.”

It has to be an in your cells, “Wow!” and the possibility of achieving the vision literally blows you away. Think back to when you fell in love for the first time and you couldn’t focus on anything else – that kind of excitement.

This kind of excitement will do a couple of things:

1. People around you will notice a transformation and will offer help, move out of your way or do something that helps you

2. You will want to start taking action sooner rather than later

When you feel excited things will begin to flow in your direction and you will start to take action that moves you towards your intention and your intention will begin to manifest in real life.

The more you practice this, the easier it gets. The less it feels like a “spiritual practice” and the more it feels like a part of the way you just do things and things you want and people you want materialise around you.

Best wishes
Neil