Being Available

I’m sitting on a plane. Seat 11D. Up above the clouds. Over the Atlantic somewhere. I’m going to the I CAN DO IT Conference in Atlanta. I feel sad to have left my family for the weekend, but I’m also happy to be participating in another wonderful Hay House event. I’m experiencing one of those poignant moments in which I sense a beautiful orchestration to our lives. As Hafiz says, “This place where you are right now God circled on a map for you.” So I say “Yes” to this wonderful journey. I say “Yes’ to this life. And I say “Yes” to making myself available to all good things.

When you make yourself available to inspiration,

inspiration makes itself available to you.

When you make yourself available to joy,

joy makes itself available to you.

When you make yourself available to peace,

peace makes itself available to you.

When you make yourself available to love,

love makes itself available to you.

When you make yourself available to your spirit,

your Spirit makes itself available to you.

When you make yourself available to God,

God makes God available to you.

When you make yourself available to Heaven,

Heaven makes Heaven available to you.

Becoming a Dad

Today our daughter Bo is five years old. Bo has been nearly five for a whole year now, so we are all super excited. Being a child is such a big adventure, and so too is being a parent. Below is a rough draft of a poem I wrote, called Becoming a Dad. Some poems are born all at once, and others become poems over time, just like children and parents become themselves over time.

You don’t just become a dad

once.

It happens many times over with

the same child.

When your child is born, you

become a dad.

And when you take your child home

for the first time, you really

become a dad.

When you rock your baby to sleep

in the early a.m. hours, you

become a dad.

When there is no one else to clean

up the sick, you really

become a dad.

And when she smiles at you,

not just with her lips, but with her

eyes and her heart, you are

anointed and blessed and you

become a dad.

Across the years, in every moment

that passes, you become a dad,

and you are given a chance to be

who you really are.

One day, as you sit there, waiting

for a business meeting to begin,

or something, it hits you. Really

hits you. Between the eyes. “I

am a dad.”

A real dad.

And as you smile to yourself, your

heart takes off, like a big balloon,

floating high into the sky.

Disappearing into Love

Happy Valentines to you. Here is a poem about love that encourages us to make every day of our life a celebration of love. I wrote it last week, and read it out for the first time at our Personal Best workshop in London last Friday. I hope you like it:

When they ask you what is your
religion, tell them that it is
love.

And if they ask you what is your
politics, tell them that it is
also love.

If they ask you what that means,
you can tell them your
philosophy is love.

If they want to know anything
else about you, tell them your
favourite occupation is
loving.

And don't forget to tell them
that your nationality is
love.

And that even your blood
group Is love.

Not everyone will stick around
to hear what you say next,
but fear not.

Family and friends may get busy
so as to pretend to forget what
you just said.

It’d drive them crazy now to know
that their blood group is also love,
that their nationality is love,
and that the real work of their
life is love.

One day they will give in, and then
their philosophy will be love,
their politics will be love,
and their religion will be love.

Love gets us all in the end.
We all of us disappear back into
love eventually.

Success in 144 Characters or Less!

Over the next five days I am co-presenting Coaching Success with Ben Renshaw. This program explores the essential principles and practices at the heart of the Success Intelligence project. The night before a workshop is always an interesting time. It’s as if the workshop has already begun. The effect of the next five days is already working on me. I feel excited, and nervous. I enjoy the anticipation, and I am anxious to get started. I notice a sense of curiosity, and also a knowing that the whole of my life is going to benefit because of what happens over the next five days.

In essence, Success Intelligence is a meditation on the question “what is success?” On Coaching Success we will look again at what true success means for each of us. One of my favourite exercises is creating definitions of success in 144 characters or less (where did I get 144 from?!). This exercise is quite a challenge. You have to be focused, clear, specific, and direct. Initially, you may draw a blank. Your first attempt may not be that great. Never mind. Keep going. One of the benefits of meditating on “what is success?” is that you will get clearer.

My success in 144 characters (or less): Success is being present in my life, living from my heart, thinking the thoughts of God, and allowing the grace of the soul to steer my course.

Your turn.

Valentine's Day: Loving Everyone

Happy Valentine’s Day to you.

Traditionally, Valentine’s Day is the day we show our love to one special person in our life. This is a lovely thing to do. That said, I feel that Valentine’s Day would be even lovelier if we made it a day to show our love to everyone in our life. Everyone must also include our self too. Maybe we could start a new tradition. Starting from today.

Below is a short poem called “Loving Everyone.”

If you want to find someone
to love,
I recommend you start
loving everyone
immediately.

Love will find you if you are
being the love
that
you
are.

If you want to learn how
to love someone
with all your
heart,
I advise you to fall in love
with everyone
a little bit
more.

Loving everyone is the key
to loving
someone.

And if you want someone
to love you
more,
I urge you to get on with it,
and to start
loving yourself.

Someone has to do it.
It may as well be you.
Show us how it is done.
So that you make it easy
for us to love
you too.

The Drama of Authenticity

“When do I feel most authentic?” This is the question I have been asking myself over the last week, in preparation for a workshop I am presenting tomorrow (Feb 1st, in Central London) with Ben Renshaw and Avril Carson called Authentic Success. Each day, for the last seven days, I have set aside 15 minutes to stop, be still, and sit with the question, “When do I feel most authentic?” Each time, I found the first five minutes or so to be very difficult: my mind would go blank, my heart wouldn’t register any feelings, and my body would get fidgety. I noticed I’d try to convince myself to cut short the fifteen minutes. Maybe I could read some inspirational quotations on authenticity instead. Someone else can do this for me.

Authenticity feels so natural, so why isn’t it easy? As I continued to sit with my inquiry, I gradually made contact with myself. It’s like I’d been away from myself, but I didn’t know it, not until just now: caught up in the habits of my personality; thinking thoughts all day long; busily trying to be someone; and putting on a face for all the other faces out there. Who is the real me? Not the personality that is manufactured in the world. The real me. Not the empty self that always wants something. The real me. Not a tinned version of a soul. The real me.

I kept sitting. I did not leave myself. I wanted to know my real thoughts. I wanted to feel my heart. I wanted to breathe more deeply again. My inquiry into “When do I feel most authentic?” felt frustrating and delightful; mysterious and illuminating; healing and joyful. I have long believed that being authentic is the key to success, happiness, love and all good things; but I have also experienced the fear of authenticity and so on. Such is the drama of authenticity. Such Is our daily challenge; and our daily choice. Success is recognizing who you really are; and happiness is letting yourself be you.

I hand the inquiry over to you now. When do you feel most authentic? Don’t let anyone else do your homework for you. Take fifteen minutes to stop, be still, and make contact with yourself.

VALENTINE'S DAY: To Love Someone

Happy Valentine's Day!

May TODAY be a day in which every individual, and the whole wide world, chooses love over fear, love over hate, and love over attack.

Below is a poem I wrote, called "To Love Someone" when I was putting together the vision for a forthcoming workshop called "Love and Fear."

How do you really love

some

one?

In a way that they really

know they

are

loved?

And in a way that you

know that

this is

love?

I can’t tell you that.

That is not my job.

Only love can

teach you how to

love.

Therefore, this is what

you must do.

Pray to Love, like you

would pray to God.

Say to Love, “Show me

how to love this

person.”

Say to Love, “I am

finished. Now it is

Your turn to have a

go.”

Say to Love, “I am

Yours. Please use me.

Please help me to be a

presence of love on this

planet.”

Keep petitioning to Love.

Go straight to the top.

Accept no other teacher.

Let Love teach you to

love.

Eventually, spiritual e-mails

will land in your heart.

Internal memos, sent by

Love, will guide you and

direct you.

Love notes will write

themselves

into your

life.

And Love will show you

how to

love.