I feared for my life...

I had an awesome experience at Darren Eden’s 3 day workshop on called 'the Initiation' on the weekend and I can't wait to do the course again in London in October (but more on this in future emails…).

The story I wanted to share with you today was how I got down to the Darren's workshop in Brighton (which is about an hour or so from London)….

*****

On the afternoon before the workshop it dawned on me that I had completely messed up.

I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to catch a train down to Brighton in the morning and arrive on time as I had hoped.

I have always been a last minute kinda guy when it comes to things like booking hotels and making travel arrangements. Most of the time I seem to have the knack of getting away with it.

Strangely, this didn’t feel like one of those times.

My mobile phone rang.

It was my very good buddy Bruce Muzik. He was wondering how I was travelling down to the workshop. As soon as he said it, I felt a sick feeling emerge in the pit of my stomach.

I instantly knew that the only way that I could get to the workshop on time was on the back of Bruce’s motorcycle.

My workshop had started early…

An exercise in trust.

The following morning Bruce ran me through his very well rehearsed motorcycle safety routine. He told me that this was a going to be an exercise in trust.

Having had years of training in the importance of mindset in creating your own reality, I refrained from telling him about the shear terror I was experiencing. Nor did I tell him about how someone very dear to me had just had a motorcycle accident a few days earlier.

We were running late so we began our journey in earnest. The ride began pleasantly enough. As our two wheels gathered momentum there was a part of me that hoped that maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

And then the moment that I had secretly dreaded emerged...

After around 10 minutes of riding, Bruce turned his bike onto the motorway. In a heartbeat all of my demons erupted inside of me. A part of me felt certain that I was going to die.

Another thing that I decided not to mention to Bruce was the fact that one of the last times that I had travelled down a motorway was when I had a near death experience in car crash 4.5 years earlier.

As I held on for my life, I thought about all the different ways I could potentially fall off the back of his bike. With each possible scenario that I constructed in my mind, my only hope was that my ultimate death would be swift.

I gripped the back of the bike as tight as I could. My knuckles were white and full of fear.

And then it started to rain…

Just when I needed no other evidence to support my conviction of imminent death, it started to rain.

To make matters worse, I think Bruce realised that we were now running extremely late and decided to put his foot down. The confidence with which he speed up gave me a sense of complete oblivion to any speed cameras…

Somewhere in amongst the horror of this experience, I remembered what Bruce had said early that morning about how this was an ‘exercise in trust’.

Never had truer words been spoken I thought to myself as I grimaced yet again.

I then had a blinding flash of the obvious.

It was at that precise moment that I had a blinding flash of the obvious. It was like a thunderbolt penetrating through the overcast skies.

I hadn’t actually offered up my trust. I almost couldn’t believe it, I hadn’t offered my trust. Not to Bruce nor to the situation.

There was only one thing I could do.

In this heightened state of awareness, I realised that the only thing I could do was to just completely surrender and trust.

I then thought that if these were going to be the last 30 minutes of my life, I wanted to enjoy them! I decided that I wanted my dying thoughts to be ones of excitement rather than ones of fear.

I then took the opportunity to think about all the amazing things that I had already experienced in life. Most importantly, I thought about all the incredible people that I had crossed paths with.

I hoped in my heart, that they would know that I loved them, regardless of the outcome of my little motorcycle adventure.

We arrived in Brighton.

When we arrived safely at the workshop in Brighton I proceeded to give Bruce the biggest bear hug I could muster.

Not only was I still alive, but through the experience I had faced some of my worse fears and had finally arrived at a place of love, peace and gratitude.

I can’t say that I will be on the backend of a motorcycle again anytime soon but one thing I can assure you of is the fact that this incredible lesson will stay with me forever…

Bruce's Adventurous Spirit

To download an incredible free 5 part e-course that Bruce wrote detailing some powerful life lessons that he learnt on a recent motorcycle trip around India click the following link now…

Download your Free Life Adventure e-Course Now!

A word from Seth Godin on Niche Marketing

Don't wait until tomorrow...

A very good friend of mine Rob just shared this short inspirational video clip with me and I felt moved to share it on my blog...

To check it out click the link below...

What do you stand for?

I was 28 when I made the decision to leave the world of high finance behind me for good.

To be honest, I’d been searching for the courage to do it from the moment I had taken on my first graduate position. I had known right from the start that it was a world that I didn’t belong in and frankly I was tired of trying to be someone else.

Many people told me that my decision was a bold one.

When I finally made the decision to leave for good, many people told me that my decision was a bold one. I could feel their disbelief when they asked me ‘Have you really thought this through properly?’

What they didn’t realise was that I had spent the previous 7 years of my life ‘thinking it through’ and I had finally reached the stage where I was ‘through with thinking’.

I discovered that all I really needed to do was to just start living from my heart.

When you step onto the path, the Universe will test you.

All new paths come with their own unique challenges and mentally, I had moved into a space where I wanted to face them all.

I had come to realise that challenges were nothing more than opportunities for growth and rather than try and live a life devoid of challenge, I decided to embrace them to become the person I was capable of becoming.

My first challenge was unexpected.

As prepared as I was, the first challenge I had to face was completely unexpected.

In my first week of chasing my entrepreneurial dreams, I received not one, but two 6 figure city job offers, both with 20% more cash than I had been earning previously.

When I received the first offer something strange happened… I declined it without a second thought. I didn’t ask for time to consider the offer or for some else’s opinion – I just turned it down point blank. (And it felt amazing I have to tell you!)

The same thing happened when I received the second offer a couple of days later.

Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything…

One of my favourite quotes is 'those who stand for nothing, fall for anything'.

In declining the two job offers so ‘matter of factly’, what I realised I was doing was making a stand for something that was really important to me - to live a life filled with passion and meaning.

If I had taken one of those jobs, I knew that I would just be a little further along a path that I no longer wanted to walk.

Do you have a big dream living inside of you?

Many people look for the permission of others before they chase after their dreams, but really the most important permission you need to seek is your own.

By giving yourself permission and allowing your dreams to beat proudly from your heart, your life has the opportunity to turn into something quite extraordinary. And the ‘Alchemy of Work Retreat’ has been designed to enable you to do just that!

Set in a stunning valley surrounded by the Andalucian Mountains in Southern Spain, you will be in the company of people who want nothing more than to see you flourish.

If you have reached a point in your life where you are looking to connect with your true calling or would like to take your passions to a completely new level, then the Alchemy of Work Retreat could be just what you need…

We’d love to have you join us...

www.alchemyofwork.com

A perspective on life worth considering...

It's time to break the rules...

Four short years ago I was imprisoned.

Imprisoned in my own limited thinking about what was possible for my working life.

Every morning I would take a deep breathe as I put on my ‘suit of armour’, before bracing myself for another day at the office. I would then jump on to a train packed with other people who were also bracing themselves.

When I finally arrived at the office I found myself taking orders from people that I didn’t respect, to achieve company objectives that I had no affinity with.

The question I had to keep repeatedly asking myself was ‘why?’

Exploring my rules around work.

When I finally made the decision to walk away from this life of quiet desperation, I knew that I had to begin by exploring what had been holding me back.

What I discovered was that the quality of my working life was being dictated by a set of rules.

Some of these rules were imposed upon me by other people whilst others I had imposed upon myself. Interestingly, the rules that caused me the most pain where the ones directly related to my own thinking.

It dawned on me that the rules I had constructed in my mind around work had kept me playing small by suppressing who I was at the deepest level.

Are the rules you are following really serving you?

One of the ways I was able to look at whether or not my rules were serving me was by considering what my life would be like if I actually won the game I was playing.

To help myself get a clear picture on this, I thought about the people I had come across in my corporate career who had ‘made it’.

Sure there were some nice perks, but the thing that stood out in my mind was that the vast majority of them had paid a very dear human price for their ‘success’.

This price had come in a variety of different forms, from high levels of work related stress, destructive addictions, health challenges and relationship breakdowns. On top of this, nearly all of them had aged well beyond their years.

It didn’t take me long to work out that this wasn’t a game I wanted to win.

Learning how to break the rules.

Intuitively I knew that I needed to ‘break the rules’ I had created for myself so I could establish more empowering ones.

One of my core frustrations of working in the corporate world was that I didn’t have any role models that I truly aspired to be like.

When I stepped off the treadmill and moved towards inspiring work, I was amazed by how many people I connected with who had already transcended their fears to do work that they truly loved. I found that magical things started to unfold in my life purely by being in their presence.

Experiencing the joys of these connections have made me even more committed to helping you realise more of your own personal truth so that you can do the same.

The one thing the world needs more of.

The world is crying out for more people to step out of the prisons of their own limited thinking and ‘break the rules’.

Following self imposed rules of disempowerment doesn’t serve anyone. You are far more powerful than you could imagine and no one really wins by you playing small.

If the time has come for you to step into work that brings you fully alive, then click the following link now…

www.alchemyofwork.com

Is this your wake up call?

Last week I dropped you an email saying that I was going to announce something very exciting this week. Before I do, I just wanted to share a personal story with you...

A little over four years ago at the age of 28, I had a 'wake up call'.

Sure I'd heard many people speak about wake up calls before but at the time I never imagined that I'd be on the receiving end of one.

In my head, it just seemed so unlikely. I was in great health, in a loving relationship with a girl that I adored and financially successful in my career. However, underneath this glossy exterior was a lingering feeling that I just couldn't shake.

I couldn't shake the feeling.

On a good day, this feeling was kind of like a dull ache. On a bad day, it felt as if it was ready to eat me whole.

Like most, I did my best to ignore it, hoping that it would someday go away (it didn't).

I was determined not to let this feeling impose on my life so I kept myself busy... busy chasing after other peoples dreams. I ran after the pay rises, the responsibility, the status... and it seemed to be fooling everyone... that is, everyone but me.

Just when it seemed as if nothing could help me break this cycle of desperation, the Universe stepped in to give me a helping hand.

The day my life changed forever.

Late one Sunday evening, whilst travelling down the freeway at high speed, I collided with a semi articulated freight lorry. My car was totally crushed.

Miraculously (particularly given the fact that the air bags didn't open), I escaped without a scratch. When I squeezed my way out of the wreck I knew that my life had changed forever.

This experience of being so close to my own death has bought me so many illuminating awarenesses, not just in that moment but in the years that have passed since.

Probably the most powerful thing that I took away from the crash was a personal commitment to take a closer look at that lingering feeling. When I allowed myself to get really still, what I discovered in amongst the emptiness was a simple desire... a desire to live my own personal truth.

Desire.

A very big part of this heightened awareness was the desire to be fully engaged doing work that not only inspired me but was a true reflection of my deepest values.

It was this desire that compelled me to walk away from a financially well-remunerated corporate existence to start exploring what it meant for me to be truly alive.

And it was this desire that brought me and my two good friends Davide De Angelis and Steve Nobel to create something that we believe will have a lasting effect on the lives of people searching for a way to express their personal truth through their work.

If you are ready to do big things in the world please click the following link right now...

www.alchemyofwork.com