Apricot - a trip down memory lane

As a very visual person, I fell instantly in love with Apricot, a short film by Australian Film-maker Ben Birand. I have watched it many times over and it still has a wonderful effect on my senses. With its beautiful cinematography and themes relating back to childhood, summer time and first love you will not be disappointed if you allow 10 minutes of your time to immerse yourself in this beautiful film.



APRICOT — A Short Film by Ben Briand from Moonwalk Films on Vimeo.

Words glorious words

Kaleidoscope twittered about this fantastic site that identifies the words you use the most! I had a go and was quite impressed the outcome. Click on the image below to see it in full size.

What are you tolerating?

I have recently started an 8 week personal foundations course with Coach U. This course is designed to help me clean up my life, to be the best person I can be and to become clearer about who I am and therefore where I am headed.  Just as a house must be built on a strong foundation to avoid collapsing under stress, so must your life.

Tolerations are the first area we are delving into, in particular identifying them and then zapping them. Tolerations are the things that you put up with every day that distracts you from the important things in life.  They can be as simple as cleaning the fridge or as complex as creating a savings plan. They are the things that are on your mind but don’t get done for one reason or another. They are energy zapping and hold you back from achieving all that you really want to achieve.

Some benefits of being toleration free are as follows:

• You stop trying to manage situations that drain your energy and really do not need to be in your way
• You have more energy to devote to your quality of life and to work on the things that are important to you
• You grow more quickly because you are not distracted or weighted down by your tolerations
• You are a model for your community as to what is possible for them in this area. 

So how do you get toleration free?

Well you can start with a very simple exercise that was introduced to me by Leah Grant. Leah suggests that the first step in zapping your tolerations is to find out what you are tolerating.

One way of doing this is by taking a note pad and walk around your house. Be extra observant and write down everything that bothers, bugs or just doesn’t sit right with you. Sit in your car, your office or anywhere else you spend significant time and do the same thing. Then move onto your 5 closest relationships and do the same thing, look at yourself, are you happy with who you are? Keep listing your tolerations until you have exhausted the process. For some of us this might be quite overwhelming, but don’t fear, there is a manageable way to zap these tolerations with out feeling overwhelmed.

The next step in zapping your tolerations. Below is a list of 8 steps to help you with this process.

1. Understand that putting up with things in not useful to anyone.
2. Make a list of the top 10 things you are tolerating from your original list
3. Make a request and take the action to eliminate these items
4. Understand that you are “stunting” your personal growth by tolerating things!
5. Be willing and committed to being toleration- free
6. Stop complaining: instead, make a strong request
7. Invest $1,000 to handle the talks/chores that pain you
8. Do steps 1 through 8 above, again….and again….if necessary!   

(The Coach  U personal development workbook and guide, 2005)

When we create space in our lives, we create more energy! More creativity shows up, we have expediential growth…so get moving and zap those tolerations!