Melbourne Cup, How to pick the winner

In  Australia, where I live, we have an annual horse race in November, the Melbourne Cup, which stops the country.

You have to experience it to believe it. It is an unofficial holiday, with parties at work, almost everyone bets, women wear hats, and there is a TV propped up on the desk come race time….

To back the winner of the Melbourne Cup is easy. You just choose the winning horse. Thousands of people do it every year. So now you know. Too easy.

In my first real journalism job for the local newspaper, I paid $5 to go in to the office sweep and was absolutely delighted to get the winner and win $35, which was a lot to add to my meager pay check as a cadet! The Managing Editor came to congratulate me, but he was mostly annoyed that he had lost $500!

It’s a gamble. And I’ll have some fun every November for this amazing horse race, but it’s not the way I play my life. I like more calculated risks.

How many people, maybe yourself, pay a lot to win, but accept poor odds by doing nothing more than putting the money down? Paid for gym membership and never showed up, bought the book but never read it, attended the conference and never implemented a single suggestion? I have done this!

You are full of good intentions, even willing to part with your money, but then the challenge of making changes, taking action, trips you up... 

There are two reasons why this might happen; 

1. Poor alignment; the plan you had is not right for you.

2. You lack something; help or knowledge or encouragement or understanding or motivation. Something was missing to get you over the finishing line.

If you had everything you needed (no excuses please) then it’s time to look and understand yourself and set more aligned goals.

If you didn’t have everything you needed to achieve, work out what’s missing, and get it!

In both cases, most people miss motivation and understanding themselves. They have the money, they have the good intentions, but they are just gambling and the odds are they’ll lose. I don’t like those odds.

Getting self awareness is a job you choose to do, just like building a business and putting out the garbage. If you do the work, good things flow and bad things get handled (yep – they still happen). With self awareness you will know if you are being tripped up by a lack or poor alignment.

So good luck with the Melbourne Cup, have fun with your flutter, but when it comes to your life, don’t gamble. 

Get a system that helps you understand and get alignment.

4me2realize incorporates these principles.

Picture credits http://www.racingweb.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/masteroreilly.jpg

	CASTALY LOMBE Chief of Makin' it Happen
	Be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Live Your Why » Don’t Be Afraid to Jump.

Don’t Be Afraid to Jump.

Oct 19 2010

by Castaly Lombe

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Ghandi

I clarified why I’m here in 2007. It is to use my unlimited love and boundless creativity and enthusiasm to move, awaken and open people to the possibilities in themselves and in this amazing world and be an agent for positive change.

When I clarified this into words, it was like a chorus of angels started singing. Suddenly I understood how everything that had happened, good and bad, had conspired to bring me to that point. I could also see very clearly where I was going and what I needed to do. I was so inspired.

My husband and I had established a software company in 1989. It is very successful — #1 in its niche. I had learned tons building the business with him and our amazing team. He was very happy, but I was struggling with motivation. We set up Anti-Chaos Systems in 2006 and its first product flopped. It wasn’t aligned with my purpose. Then, in 2009, we released 4me2realize. What followed has been amazing.

Starting a new venture is full of pitfalls. Most businesses fail in the first 5 years. We are no exception; getting traction has been exasperating. But, do you want to know something really weird? Even though we are just starting and experiencing some real challenges, I am having the best time!

The things that would have once sent me sideways or backwards, both personally and professionally, are just blips on a radar that is guiding me towards a greater vision. Motivation is not a problem. I never work. I am playing everyday, discovering and learning more than I ever have before. It might look like work to some, but if you are coming from your heart it’s just pure joy.

4me2realize is perfectly aligned with my purpose. It helps people realize their potential. In building this business I use all of my God-given skills. I get people all of the time telling us how they connect with and love 4me2realize, how it helps them build the life they love and fulfill their purpose.

I am frugal by nature and my husband and I are investing a lot in 4me2realize. I feel like I have jumped off of a cliff because all my fears about money are free falling. I am shit scared a lot! You take a risk to follow your heart. Then, you discover what it takes to have faith in yourself. After a while, instead of being scared and falling, you start to fly. It is exhilarating.

I don’t want to mislead you; this transformation has had some dark, muddy, slippery, cold and fearful moments. The burning light was and is to clearly follow my purpose. It’s like a guarantee. If I am true to myself, then everything will be alright. I cannot go wrong if my burning desire is true. And there is some pain and resistance and self-awareness that must be unlocked. All I can say is… the seeking is worth the reward.

In today’s busy, competitive world, it’s so easy to get distracted and sidetracked. When I get lost, I go back to my purpose. It gives me comfort, strength, guidance, direction, motivation and determination.

What is really weird is that once you get hooked into your Why, it doesn’t really matter what you do, or what other people think. Conventional definitions of success and failure melt away. You have your own yardstick. Your life purpose doesn’t limit you to one thing — it frees you to do what makes your heart sing, whatever that may be.

With heart singing passion, joy, love and enthusiasm,

Castaly Lombe

PS Here’s a poem that sums up everything 

One Hundred Possibilities, One Authentic Life

When you think there is only one option
There are walls and limitations.

There are one hundred possibilities
for you to realize your potential.

How do you transform boundaries
into boundless opportunities?

Let your thoughts run free
as they were meant to be: creatively.

When you have one hundred possibilities
pick the one that suits your best. Be true to you.
Know WHY you do what you want to do.

When you have one hundred possibilities,
You have a choice.
Choose who you are, Choose how you will live.
Choose your rules. Choose the meaning.

When you have one hundred possibilities,
you have to decide –
Who do you want to be? What’s important?
When do you let go and move on?
Change. Take responsibility.

When you have one hundred possibilities,
you have to take action.
Action that resonates and motivates.
Action that inspires and frightens you.
Action that ignites the fires of creation and brilliance
that for so long lay dormant within you, softly burning.
Massive action that stuns you from the stupors of mediocrity.

When you have one hundred possibilities
the chains that shackle you break.
Your heart opens.
When you have one hundred possibilities
you can live one, authentic life.

Source: http://liveyourwhy.com/

	CASTALY LOMBE Chief of Makin' it Happen
	Be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

  

 

Stillness, silence and solitude

Stillness, silence and solitude

"Shut up! I can't hear myself think!" Have you heard, felt or said this? It is so noisy you can't think. You feel bombarded and overwhelmed. You can't concentrate or focus. There is so much clamouring for your attention, you don't know where to start.... sound familiar?

Have you ever wondered why every major religion has a meditative, prayerful, or retreat in solitude component? Why images of meditating monks on mountain tops resonates with us? Or solitary walks on beaches? 

(Picture taken this morning from my front veranda.)

Everyone recognises the need for stillness, silence and solitude, but how many of us get it, do it, experience it regularly? If you live in a big city, you never get a moment's silence, even in the depth of night, there is a background roar of traffic, machinery, artificial light dims the magnificence of the stars. You are never alone. Yet in the crowds we can feel the greatest isolation...how happy are you with your own company?

We are busy in a noisy, crowded world. When do you lay back, switch off, take time out? Think. Contemplate, stare. Rebalance to our natural state of serenity and calmness?

For most people in today's world, space for stillness, silence and solitude has to be scheduled and planned. Often it is not a priority against other competing demands.

Yet in the spaces we leave for stillness, silence and solitude, can be our greatest creative moments, insights, brilliant concepts conceived. Light bulb moments, life changing decisions. Without effort they come bidden into the spaces we allow. For humans contemplative time is essential to unwind and de-stress. To organise our thoughts and make sense of our lives.

Recently I visited Sydney for business. I was acutely aware of my senses being overloaded, by sounds and sights. I enjoyed the variety, intensity and excitement of the city. But I felt relieved to be home on the farm where there is not a billboard in sight. The silence is deafening and the stars are brilliant in the night sky. I am blessed to have this space around me all the time. But how do my city cousins cope? They are immune, unaware and unconscious, it has become background noise they ignore. In this way, we cope.

When you turn your senses off to the "hurly burley," it enables you to survive and thrive in a busy crowded environment.  You focus on what you need to do and the rest is filtered out. There is a risk that you will filter out some stuff you need to hear, feel and do.  That you disconnect from your awareness and consciousness. Good news, easy to fix, just make sure you have time for stillness, silence and solitude; and it doesn't have to be hard, try these;

·         Turn the radio/music  off sometimes

·         Turn off the TV for a day or a week

·         Visit a national park for a day and get into the bush

·         Meditate, pray or reflect

·         Listen more than talk

·         Get out of town to star gaze

·         Be alone

·         Find a place that is still or silent, and be still or silent in it

·         Lie on some grass and watch clouds or tree leaves

·         Be unoccupied with anything

·         Have a day doing nothing but whatever you feel like...

Finding space in your life for stillness, silence and solitude is a precious gift to yourself. You will be surprised at the results as you reconnect with feelings, sensations, feedback from your inner voice, yourself.

So next time you schedule the meeting, the shopping, whatever, plan some time for silence, stillness and solitude. Be amazed at what you discover within your own head space.

 4me2realize uses self reflection in the Journey section to help you hear your inner voice, to contemplate your life and make sense of what you do amidst the noise and clutter.

Wishing you stillness, silence and solitude....

Cas

Castaly Lombe -  Chief of Makin' Things Happen

Director Anti-Chaos Systems Pty Ltd

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

Phone +61 1 300 344 070  www.4me2realize.com

How heavy is it?

source : http://www.lostartsmedia.com/images/NatureInLove01.jpg

Have you ever noticed how bad stuff gets more attention than good stuff? It weighs more somehow. Why is this?

My husband and I were in travelling with a group in Germany when we found ourselves in the midst of a fight, over something silly, yet it absorbed all our attention. We didn't notice the glistening snow, or the beautiful forest or our smoky cold breath hanging in the icy air. We talked and thought all about this problem we had with these people.

When we became aware that we were immersed in this crap, we asked why... the key is asking good questions....and we could see a pattern, that when ever there is a problem it gets more of our attention. More than when there is something good happening.

We put it down to a biological legacy driven by the need to survive. Back in "cave man" days problems had to be solved to ensure the survival of the social group.  But the problems we were giving all our emotional attention and energy were not a matter of survival, they were just plain silly. What amazed us is how we had got sucked into this emotional vortex. And we got out. We stopped focusing on this silly problem, decided what we would do, and got on with more enjoyable things.

People are much more motivated by pain than pleasure, sad but true. You get much more attention if you're "clinically depressed,' rather than coping and thriving! You buy newspapers and magazines that relish bad news. It's so intriguing when someone else has cocked up! Media magnets know this so well. They make millions from our inherent interest in bad stuff.

But at the end of the day it is a CHOICE. Your choice. What you invest your emotional energy in defines you. Ask yourself, what are you choosing to focus on and what meaning are you giving it? Are these thoughts dragging you down or building you up? Choose to build. Reject thoughts that destroy. Learn whatever lesson is there for you and then move on. Your emotional energy is just as important as your physical vitality. Are you fat and lazy with your thinking? Are you feeding your brain junk food?

Become aware of what your brain and thinking is consuming and producing. What are you reading and listening to? Is it building or destroying you? What are you thinking, positive or negative?

My son had a bad dream when he was little. He was frightened to go back to sleep again. As I sat with him he visualised the bad dream, then we got a big black imaginary marker and drew a big black imaginary cross right over those bad thoughts. We crossed them right out. He realised he had POWER to CHOOSE what he was thinking about and to turn off destructive frightening thoughts. This was an amazingly simple, powerful life lesson and he uses it all the time.

Personally, I restrict the news I listen to, the people I let into my inner circle, the amount of advertising I see. I have chosen the place I live to give me peace and serenity. I read and view television and internet content selectively and I minimise the time I spend there. I am discerning. I exercise rigorously my right to CHOOSE what my mind consumes. This discipline frees me to create the life I want.

The bad stuff can consume a disproportionate weight of your attention. That's natural as you learn the lesson, but don't get stuck enjoying the dramatic weight of bad stuff. Move on.   

4me2realize helps you become aware of the weight and impact of your thinking. Use it regularly to exercise your right to choose, the discipline to create the life you want to realize.

 Kindest regards

Cas

Castaly Lombe -  Chief of Makin' Things Happen

Director Anti-Chaos Systems Pty Ltd

 

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

Phone +61 1 300 344 070  www.4me2realize.com

What story are you buying?

I recently looked at some face creams and treatments that promised to make me more beautiful and less wrinkly. The asking price was nearly $1000. I was attracted to the promise of a more youthful visage.

It got me thinking what was driving my attraction? If I am more “beautiful” with less wrinkles, what then? Do I get more compliments, more sex, do I feel better? Does it take $1000 worth of wrinkle treatment for me to “feel” better?

You see, I can’t see my face. Unless I look into a mirror, my face is completely hidden to me. BUT everyone else sees my face. So, the premise goes.... how my face looks affects what everyone else sees and thinks about me.

And we all want to be liked right? So there lies the appeal of a youthful visage, to look more beautiful, the assumption is we will be more liked, loved, wanted, accepted, approved of, admired... all in a pot of cream for $1000. No wonder people buy it, but what you are really buying is a story.

I once met a lady heading for 100 years who was one of the most beautiful people I have ever met. She could whistle like an angel and was a fighter for good causes. We sat in the sun and she and told me her philosophy on life. Her eyes twinkled with life and joy. Her inner beauty transcended her stooped figure, wrinkles, grey hair, her shaky hands. She was a delight and a lesson that true beauty is an inner quality that transcends all outer appearances. We all recognise true beauty when we see it, but it is not something that fits a definition, because truth and beauty are uniquely individual.

We all know “beautiful people” we avoid because of their ugly personalities. So being beautiful on the outside is not automatically going to deliver you happiness and love. And a good thing too, as physical beauty is a fleeting thing!

So pots of creams, the wraps, the clothes, the house, the car, are external things sold on hope and the “unstated” premise that this accessory will win you what you already possess, love, approval, appreciation, recognition, security. It really is a scam of the most outrageous proportions.

We lust after external things because we are seeking feelings, internally. But looking for them in the external world is an unfulfilling quest, because it is never ending.

Could I just feel good about myself even though I have wrinkles, spots and blemishes? Absolutely yes. Will people avoid me, dismiss me, reject me if I look old? Absolutely not. Yet the beauty industry is worth globally thousands of billions of dollars. It trades on our insecurity.

Don’t get me wrong I love my face creams, make up and the way I feel when I dress up. But I don’t buy the story. I am not less if I look my age. I am not fighting my age. I accept my age, embrace it, love it. I earned it!

Have you ever noticed there appear to be two worlds? The one inside you and the one outside you? What I feel about myself, my life, my world, depends on what I think internally. This is an insider’s game. If I think I am beautiful, then I am.

All the things we seek externally, love, admiration, approval, acceptance, security, respect and recognition, are the things we lack internally. Finding a way to them from within is critical to fulfilment and happiness that doesn’t end when the pills or potions do.

When the sales woman asked me what I was worried about, wrinkles? I answered “No, not wrinkles, my wrinkles were being taken care of by my failing eyesight!” What I was really after was something that would make my sensitive aging skin “feel” nice in our very dry and cold climate. If the $1000 cream does that, then I will buy it knowing what I am really buying into.

If you are on a path of finding happiness from your internal world, then 4me2realize can help you on your journey.


Picture credit to http://thump01.pbase.com/g6/74/450574/3/75063618.RpANKH8Y.jpg

Kind regards
Cas

Castaly Lombe
Chief of Makin' Things Happen

Anti Chaos Systems Director
"Be the change you want to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
Phone +61 1 300 344 070  www.4me2realize.com

Do you have a mental crap cupboard?

After a lovely breakfast in bed prepared by my teenage son I cleaned up the linen cupboard on Mother’s Day last. Not very glamorous, but revealing.

There’s a huge pile for the church jumble sale. What struck me was the excess; 2 feather quilts, 4 wool blankets, 5 sleeping bags, 10 pillows and cushions, 30 sheets, 16 pillowcases, 15 towels, 3 mattress protectors and a box of toys and clothes. It was a miracle the cupboard didn’t explode! How did this happen? How did I accumulate all this stuff I didn’t need?

I learnt a lot from cleaning the linen cupboard, because I think we all have crappy cupboards.... do you recognise these symptoms?

• It’s been building up for years.
• But you push it to the background, out of sight out of mind
• It annoys you
• But you never can manage the motivation to do something about it
• It seems bigger than it is
• It affects you every day (every time I went to that cupboard it was a nightmare)
• It makes your life a misery
• You tell yourself you’ll fix it tomorrow
• It’s making your life messy
• You don’t need it
• But you hold onto it out of a false sense of security
• You know how to fix it

This cupboard is an analogy for a lot of behaviour we do. Behaviour that doesn’t serve us but we seem incapable of changing.

If you are struggling with a crappy cupboard of your own.... weight loss, bad moods, anger, shyness, poor relationships, financial problems, etc... then it helps if you can understand, the problem isn’t the problem, it’s your behaviour that’s the problem.

The good news is you can change your behaviour. Psychologists have defined the steps of change that occur and you can use these to clean out your own emotional crap cupboards. First you have to believe three things;

1. This must change NOW; link pain to NOT changing and pleasure to changing to help motivate action.
2. I must change it now; take ownership /responsibility for the problem within yourself.
3. I can change it; the past does not = the future, believe you can.

Then you must take action. Again there are 3 steps;
1. Leverage. Get leverage on yourself. Associate massive, immediate and unbearable levels of pain if you don’t change now.
Change is never a matter of ability, it is a matter of motivation.
If you CAN’T then you MUST

“Oh, I can’t do that” – watch out for the power of our words/thoughts.
“Oh, I could try that” - better words, but not fully committed.
“Oh, I could do that” – best effect, empowering and enabling.

2. Interpret the pattern
Be aware of what you are doing. To change a behaviour pattern, first you must recognise it. If you have been doing it for years, it may take doing something radical or ridiculous to jolt your awareness of the pattern. Set up something that you will do every time you start playing the old pattern. I know one person who would simply lie down on the ground! Very hard to take your old excuses seriously when you are horizontal unexpectedly in a public! This might not be for you, but you get the idea.... Before you start something new, recognise the old.

3. Create an empowering alternative, swap the bad habit for a good habit
Replace the old pattern with an empowering, more fulfilling, rewarding alternative. Reinforce, practice, and train yourself to do the new pattern, so you become addicted to it. That way you are not depriving yourself. For example I broke the coffee habit by replacing it with beautiful herbal teas. I didn’t deprive myself, I just replaced one bad habit with a good one. Now I love my green tea pot ritual. Replace don’t deny. It’s too hard to break an old pattern, just replace it with a new more rewarding pattern.

If it doesn’t work – don’t give up. Try again BUT do something different!

Stupidity is doing the same thing that didn’t work, over again.

Change, do again, doesn’t work, change, try something different. The massively successful are those who have had the most failures. Be persistent. Fail faster. Welcome your failures as lessons to be learned, dance with your fear of failure. Experience comes from bad experiences.

There are 5 elements of change, the chemistry of transformation. Remember addiction is a big scary word for a bad habit. Good news, you can get addicted to good habits

1. Satiation – You really have had enough. If you haven’t, try overdosing on your bad thing.
2. Get dissatisfied with the crap you are doing. It doesn’t give you the rewards anymore.
3. Get to the threshold where change becomes an absolute MUST, don’t look backwards, look forwards.
4. Get an insight, awareness of your bad habit/problem/issue and realize you can’t blame others , that you can do something yourself and that it will transform your life.
5. Jump through the opening. Take action. Face your fears, dance with them. Do something, ring someone, pledge someone, break the cycle, replace the habit. Take massive action. People are rewarded in public from what they practice massively in private. Your crap cupboard is very private. You can talk the talk and never walk the walk.

I found an understanding of mastery helped me when I was making changes. There are 3 steps, and often we get stuck on step one!

1.Cognative Mastery. Intellectual understanding. Knowing is not enough. Everyone knows stuff they don’t do, or should do
2. Emotional Mastery. There are emotional consequences to what you know, and what you do.
• Do you remember where you were when 9/11 happened?
• When someone very dear or a loved one died?
The memory is clear because of the emotional intensity attached to the event. The more emotional intensity you can attach - the more you learn.
3. Physical Mastery. It gets into your body and once it gets into your body you can do it easily. Repetition also helps.

If you want to change the crap in your cupboard / behaviours that don’t serve you – write out all the reasons WHY it is a must. The Why comes FIRST. The How comes 2nd. Reasons come first – answers come 2nd. Once you know why you must do it, you work out how you can do it. Add emotions, the more intense the better.

Imagine what life would be like if you don’t change, double, triple and quadruple that feeling…. Imagine life when you do change, double, triple and quadruple that feeling….
Now you have emotional intensity to help motivate you. Emotions give you intensity. Intensity gives you leverage.

Involve other people. Find people who want you to improve and stick with them. You don’t need friends who only feel secure when you are doing bad stuff. Let them deal with their own crap cupboard.

Now I must run, I’m off to the church jumble sale. My linen excess will keep people warm this winter. That’s a great feeling. And I’m loving my new tidy cupboard. Life is so much more fulfilling, easy, rewarding, satisfying and happy, with clean cupboards!

All of these principles are made easy in 4me2realize. If you want to seriously change your life, get a system that makes it easier.

Kind regards

Cas

4me2realize Reminder System

My Reminder
Now you have set up all your Goals and Projects how are you going to remember to do all that stuff?
4me2realize has a powerful reminder function that lets you do the nagging, arh, reminders! The reminder feature uses mobile phone text messages and emails to help you remember what’s important. If you have ever got caught up in something, and all your other priorities have gotten lost, then this feature will really help you because it will interrupt you and remind you of what YOUR agenda is.


4me2realize also offers 2 types of reminders, set or random. Set reminders occur at a specific time and are great for goals and projects. Random reminders area bit more feral! They can happen at any time and you can use them to really start working on your unconscious mind. The randomness of the message means you don’t expect it, which adds impact. Random messages are great for wisdom, gratitude, and magic moments, and getting you focused on what really matters in your life.


There are two more reminder types, free form or connected to a project or goal. Free forms are reminders about whatever you want and connected relate to a specific goal or project.

Start Realizing your Dreams Today!

An Overview of this Powerful Tool

The software covers nearly everything you need to know about creating a driving, inspiring purpose and how to live everyday according to that visionary purpose, things like:

• Who you need to be to achieve your purpose
• What drives you to make goal getting easy
• What you must avoid to achieve your goals
• What goals and projects you need to do to achieve your purpose
• An automatic reminder system to keep you on track
• A journal to keep you focused and aligned to you purpose, goals, and projects
• A easy to use systems to track your Progress
• A great way to remember the magic moments in your life
• A tool to quickly create a personal reference of your life’s wisdom that you could use every day.

In addition, every feature in the software is there because it has been proven to work. Hundreds of experts have written about goal setting, life design and contemplative journaling. This systems incorporates all these proven strategies into one, easy to use, integrated, web accessible software system.

• Your driving, inspiring, motivating and meaningful life purpose, your dreams and visions of a better life, with
• Your goals and projects, what you do every day, with
• Your contemplative reflection, in an exciting process of self evaluation and improvement.

4me2realize is a great way to make sure the things you do will create the person you want to be, rather than letting life dictate what you will become. 4me2realize is your secret weapon for incorporating the BIG picture into the small details that you must do every day.
For your eyes only
4me2realize is web-based software and “for your eyes only”. You can access it anywhere you go through the internet and it is more secure than having it on a personal laptop. At the moment, 4me2realize is compatible with Internet Explorer 6 and above.

It is a culmination of a lot of what modern psychology teaches us about goal setting, life design and journaling, COMBINED with the power and accessibility of a private DATABASE in a software tool that you can start using quickly and easily

4me2realize has 7 shortcuts for 

• Easily tracking what you want, with what you do
• Aligning everything you do with your Life's Purpose
• Using Journaling to achieve clarity
• Minimising things that stop or slow you down
• Maximising motivators that help & drive you forward
• Creating habits of enlightenment as you contemplate your life
• Realizing WHY you want something so that it is easy and fun to achieve

4me2realize is a great way to make sure the things you do will create the person you want to be, rather than letting life dictate what you will become. 4me2realize is your secret weapon for incorporating the BIG picture into the small details that you must do every day.