The Prepare For Awesome Podcast

Does living your dream really mean you need to drop everything and run off to a Caribbean island and sail wealthy pensioners around for the rest of your days while sipping cocktails every evening and being free from modern life?

Does not knowing what your passion is specifically mean that you have some kind of deficiency in your life?

Or is it just all a load of rubbish at worst and hype at best?

On today's show, I want to talk with you about rule number 8 in being awesome everyday and that is to 'Live your Dream and Follow your Passion.

In other words, to live a life worth living.

Let me begin by dispelling a few myths.  

Most motivational speakers, coaches, guru's of one sort or another, will encourage you to find and follow your passion, which in and of it's self is a good thing.  But its easy, they will say to you.  It's natural.  You will know in your heart what you are passionate about.  

And if you don't know what that thing which is supposedly in your heart, your mind, your souls or some other part of your body, is you feel like a failure.

The fact is that finding and knowing your passion is not necessarily easy to do nor is it the only thing you will ever do in your life.  Following it, is even more difficult.

Episode 31 Show Notes:

What is self awareness and why is it important?  From the ancient Greeks to western psychology, the topic of self awareness has been a subject of intrigue and inquiry, particularly in the last century or so.

But what is it and why is it important to you?

Over the past few week, we have been speaking about  the 11 Most Common Rules to be Awesome Everyday and on today's show, I want to chat with you about number 7 and that is self-awareness.

Now as I said at the top of the show, it is a topic which has been researched, inquired about and studied by philosophers, psychologists and other scientists for hundreds of years, but it's study has grown particularly in the past 100 years or so.

Way back in the day, some of the Ancient Greeks followed the philosophy of know thyself.  Socrates and Plato, in particular, used the maxim extensively with Socrates teaching that 'the unexamined life is not worth living.'

Benjamim Franklin wrote how difficult a task it is when he wrote in his 'Poor Richards Almanack', 'There are 3 things extremely hard, steel, a diamond and to know one's self.'

And Stephen Covey wrote, 'Self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions and our habits and tendencies.'

So as far back as I can find, people have been trying to understand themselves and that essentially is what self-awareness is.

Episode 30 Show Notes:    

On today's show, we will be talking about the 6th rule in the most common rules to be awesome everyday and that is to work hard and smart.

So over the past few weeks, I have covered 5 of these rules and I have had some great feed back from listeners, so please send me your comments on email.  

So the 5 rules we have spoken about so far are:

Firstly mindset.  There we chatted about changing from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.  That was back in episode 19.  The second of these rules we spoke about was that you should set the standard you will live by.  It is not other peoples right or responsibility to set your standards.  If you want to be the best you possibly can be, you must set your own standards.

In episode 23, we chatted about ignoring the little men and women who try to hold you back from becoming all you can become and in the next session we spoke about rule number 4 and that is respecting the efforts of other people.

And then in episodes 26 and 27 we spoke about failure.  What is its and how you can overcome it.

So today I want to chat with you about the next of these rules and as I said earlier, that is working both hard and smart.

Episode 29 Show notes: http://vicwilliams.net/6-in-the-most-common-rules-to-be-awesome-is-to-work-hard-and-work-smart/

#PrepareForAwesome #Rules #WorkHard #WorkSmart

On today's show, I'm not getting into that discussion, but rather we will be talking about the idea that nothing is permanent.  Not Y2K, not 1999 or 2000.  Not fear, failure, success.  Nothing lasts forever, except the is death.

Now I know that are some people who will think I am being callous, but I'm not.  Let make it a bit clearer.  No words, attitudes, circumstances are permanent or last for ever.

A Greek philosopher once said 'No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he is not the same man.'

You see everything in life, from attitudes and actions, to the weather and circumstances are in constant motion.  People change their minds.  Governments change laws.  The wind changes direction.  Companies changes managers.

All day every day, everything is changing.

Now some people will say that it is scary to think like that, but for me it is empowering, because nothing is permanent.  

You see if you think of it as scary, you may think there is nothing to live for, but if you think it is empowering, you know life is for living and that becomes exciting.

What do I mean?

Episode 28 Show Notes:   http://vicwilliams.net/nothing-lasts-for-ever-except-death/

On today's show, I want to pick up on the topic I spoke about last week and that is the big F word.  Failure, but today I want to look at what to do and how you can respond to failure.  

So as we begin this new year, you like many other people may have reflected on last year.  What went well, what did not.  How you did according to your goals in all the various areas of life and business.  

Now for some people, that look back can be good as you recognise that on the whole you did well and met most of your goals.  However, for other people you may look back at the disaster which was last year in horror and wonder how you will move forward or you may look back and see those things that did not go according to plan and failed.

In the last episode of this podcast, I mentioned a quote by Winston Churchill.  'Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,' and that brings me to a question from a listener to this channel which is a follow on from late week.

Mike asked, 'Last year for me was a failure as I did not reach any of my goals and in some cases went backwards.  What can I do differently this year so that I reach the goals I want to reach?  Some one said I am reaching to high and should expect to fail, so I must lower my expectations.  Is that the right?  I will avoid disappointment that way.'

The first thing to say is don't lower your expectations or your goals.  That only breeds mediocrity.  

Episode 27 Show Notes:  http://vicwilliams.net/pfa-027-4-things-you-can-do-to-respond-to-failure/

#Failure #PrepareForAwesome #Motivation #Consistency #Inspiration #WinstonChurchill #Success #CharlesLindburgh  

On today's show, we will be talking about the big F word.  No not the F word you are thinking of.  We are going to talk about failure, why it can be a good thing as well as how and why you should embrace failure it.

And I want to start with a quote ascribed to Winston Churchill.  As many of you know, Winston Churchill for all his faults, prejudices and failings, was a man who did not give up and seems always to have found a way of making things work out.  He was tenacious and had endurance.  Along with Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela, he is the man I have learned the most from about leadership and success than almost any other.

And so to quote Winston Churchill,  'Success is not final, failure is not fatal:  it is the courage to continue that counts.'

Now whether it is Churchill who actually said it does not matter, the facts of the quote are the important part to think about.

The problem though is the word failure has for many years received a bad report.  I think it was Tiger Woods who epitomised the bad rap it has received when he said, 'Second is first loser.'  In other words, if you don't win, you are a loser.  A failure.

I, however, think we need to look at failure differently and that is with the aforementioned quote in mind.  I think the capacity to fail is the most important qualities a human possesses as failure is what makes achievement possible.  With one very big condition thrown into the mix!  

Failure must be accompanied by a learning experience otherwise it is just failure.  It must be accompanied by that ability to get up and keep moving with the attitude of, 'OK, so that did not work out.  What can I learn and how can I get better.'

Episode 26 Show Notes: http://vicwilliams.net/5-in-the-most-common-rules-to-be-awesome-is-to-embrace-failure/

#Failure #PrepareForAwesome #Motivation # Inspiration #WinstonChurchill #AbrahamLincoln #NelsonMandela