With all this talk about LOVE recently here at Buzzing with Ange, I wanted to bring something to your attention. If you love inspirational books, best selling author Kurek Ashley has just released his long awaited How Would Love Respond on Amazon. My copy is on order and I can’t wait for it to arrive.

I met Kurek a little over 18 months ago and listened as he told his story of how he went from acting the bad guy in Hollywood movies to becoming one of the most sort after speakers around the globe in his role as a Peak Performance Life Success Coach.

My good friend and mentor Sean Rasmussen met with Kurek for an interview where they discuss some very valid points in how to manage your thoughts and change some habits that could be holding you back from achieving your goals.

Here is part 1 of that interview.

Peak Perfomance Motivational Legend

Kurek also holds the record for the longest fire walk which took 4 minutes walking over 81 metres of hot coals! This is not to impress you, but to impress upon you that anything is achievable and I am taking Kurek’s words with me over the next 10 days while I trek the Kokoda Trail. Mindset is what will get me through each day. It’s about Personal Development and where I want to go with my life.

Where do you want to go with your life? Kurek Ashley’s book may be just the thing that helps you decide.

Yes, that’s right! 16 more sleeps until I am on a plane flying out to Papua New Guinea to trek the Kokoda Trail. Yikes!! The training has almost taken over as I prepare for this grueling trek. By the time I have packed to go out for a hike and then get to where there are mountains to climb, most of the day is over when I get back home. There have also been gym sessions and other walking and aerobic exercises as part of keeping my fitness up. The training has been difficult, however, I have just sat through a series of videos on YouTube which I had mixed emotions about and at times, had tears streaming down my face which I will show you shortly.

A few months back when I was looking into the history of the track, I found that there were many video’s and sites with information regarding Kokoda. It is not something that I had specifically wanted to do although I knew that a personal challenge such as this was on the cards in so far as my own personal development went and when my friend and personal trainer Marc Stafford was organising a team to go and asked me, I said “yes.” To continue to grow in mind and spirit, challenges or goals which seem out of reach must be set in order to step up to the next level.

photo credit-pomfotos

Now I am not saying that you all have to go and trek Kokoda to step up to the next level. You yourself know what might be out of your reach and going for it may be the ticket that opens your mind and helps you along your own journey of personal development.

One of my goals for this year is to Coach, as in a Life Coach so this trek is fitting to help me discover parts about me which I need to develop and also to increase my mental toughness. My mental toughness (or lack of) will surely show while on the trek and it will be around 60 - 70 percent of that which gets me to the end of the 8 days. I have affirmations which I repeat out loud to myself to get into the right headspace for now. I’m sure once I am on the track, they will come in very handy to get me from one village to another. One foot in front of the other… one step at a time.

This trek, along with my NLP training and my own personal coaching with a very tough coach is what will bring me closer to this goal of being in a position to empower others to achieve the goals and dreams they set for themselves.

So this is part 1 of 8 of the video’s which I watched embedded here with the links to the rest of the series. It is worth the 30 minutes to sit through them all and see this band of Australian personalities to get an all round vision of what the trek is like and how they cope along the way. As well as getting a look at some of the most pristine rain forest in the world. Share your thoughts with me on this once you have been through them.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Thank You for watching.

Have you ever had something happen to you that made you angry and because of this, you said hurtful words to a loved one without meaning too? I was visiting with some friends the other day and they were having a new oven delivered. Upon unwrapping the oven it was obvious that they had received the wrong one, so she got all in a tizz and said something awful to her husband on a totally different subject! I immediately noticed why this had happened and hinted that perhaps she was angry with the store that had delivered the wrong oven and not angry with her husband. She is a good friend so I can say these things to her.

The point I am making here is that when you are challenged and it makes you feel the emotion of anger, no matter who is there with you, and if nobody is, we do have a tendency to call someone just so we can vent our anger, we can easily slip up and say something that we may regret. Your anger can unintentionally hurt another so make it a habit to become aware of the language and the words you use when conversing with others… especially those we love.

In this case above, the husband dismissed what his wife had said but it could have easily turned into an outright misunderstanding causing a whole set of problems which wouldn’t have served either one of them. Have you been aware of this happening to you? I know that there have been times when something has upset me and without thinking, I have lashed out at the person closest to me. That was before I learned how to be aware of my thoughts and language.

Quick to think, slow to anger, and slow to speak

It takes practice to know why we say the things we do. It could be something as easy as stubbing your toe upon getting out of bed that sets your day in a direction of a downward spiral and without knowing, we snap and let the fact that we are not happy, make someone else not happy just so we don’t have to suffer alone! Does this make sense?

Think for a moment to the last time you were hurt or disappointed, how you re-acted and if you happened to use language that empowered or dis-empowered yourself or someone else! Remember how it felt and if you can, also, how was your physiology at the time? I say this because we do sit/stand differently when we are upset as opposed to when we are ecstatic! Our physiology then has a role to play in the language we use.

Okay, take time out and try this. Stand up and hang your head and hunch your shoulders over as though you are a victim of circumstance. Think back to a time when you felt anger. In this position, try smiling and having good thoughts. Can you? I mean, can you really think good thoughts if you have just been hurt or are angry?

Now try this. Stand up tall with eyes forward and a big smile on your face. How easy is it to say something positive? Totally different way of looking and feeling isn’t it? So how easy would it be now to become aware of your language that you use and how it affects others?

So, there is a marked difference as to how we speak depending on our physiology. If you can get over it sooner rather than later, you will be doing yourself and those around you a great favour. Don’t let your anger unintentionally hurt someone else. Be aware of how you are feeling and think about the words you will speak before opening your mouth. Life can be so much more pleasant when feeling love rather than anger.

If you enjoyed this article and it is your first time here, you may consider subscribing to my site so that you never miss an update. Let me know your thoughts and if/when you have noticed this kind of thing happening to you before now. How has it impacted your life?

Have you ever felt like you were the only person in the whole universe with a challenge? You may have noticed that I have been absent from Buzzing with Ange a bit lately. To tell you the truth, I lost my creativity and didn’t want to bring you half-baked articles just to keep updating. Instead, I have been meandering along another path away from my laptop and that is the one of further study for my NLP (Neuro-Linguistic-Programming) Master Practitioner along with training for the Kokoda Trek!

Aside from that, we, that is my family, have recently found out that my dad needs to have open heart surgery and as I type this, he has been hospitalised due to a series of recurring minor heart attacks and we are waiting to hear when he will be able to have the procedure done. Needless to say, it has put us all on standby wondering what the outcome will be.

Through all this, I have learned something about myself and that is that I am not the super emotionally strong person I thought I was. Does this mean that I have failed? No, not at all! In fact, what is has done is made me aware of the vulnerabilities that we as humans all have and that is that when someone close to us that we love faces a life threatening challenge, we start asking the questions why. After all, my dad is a very fit man and at the age of 78, he walks 60 kms per week!

The thing is to not ask why, but rather, how do we adapt to make this experience go as smoothly as possible while maintaining a positive outlook so as to keep my dad’s spirits up and help him as best we can through this challenge?


This Is How We Grow

While being empathic to his reality, I think the best thing I can do is spend time with him and ask questions so that I can learn as much as I can about him… I’m sure there are many things that I do not know about my dad and at the same time, tell him how I feel about him. Use the time to really bond and I think I am sounding like this is the end for him, and I’m sure it isn’t, but what an opportunity to get even closer than I was before! My point is that sometimes we leave things unsaid and then have regrets that we shoulda coulda woulda done this that and the other. I have heard it too many times before and I would rather not be left in that situation so speak now before it is too late.

This way of thinking can apply to anyone in our lives who we may be needing to discuss things with. What I mean is to not let emotions hold you back from speaking up about something or clearing the air if need be. I’m thinking in particular about forgiveness and emotional intelligence which goes a long way towards your personal development. Being consciously aware of our reactions to particular people or circumstances and coming to an agreement with ourselves or others, helps us keep things in perspective and not make up stories about it… after all, your reality will differ from the next person’s reality. We all have a different view of life and whatever your beliefs, it is the right one for you. Remember though that holding onto negative thoughts you have without either writing them down or talking about them with someone, will only make you the victim so please, if you have something to say then say it.

I know I am not the first person to be faced with this situation and I won’t be the last. So, I am not looking for sympathy here, rather, I would like to ask what are some of the things you may have tried in a similar situation which worked for you and your family to get you through a time like this?

It seems only fitting that my 100th post on Buzzing with Ange is to share with you my greatest personal challenge to date. Seeing as this blog is about personal development, it is important that I let you in on how my journey is progressing and some of the challenges that I take on. I am involved with a fitness group who have organised to trek the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in June of this year.

For Australians, this is the setting of an extremely difficult time during World War II where we lost the most number of diggers - 6000, in the shortest space of time - 7 months. The Aussie soldiers held the Japanese back from taking Port Moresby by land, retreating many times and firing back to exhaust the Japanese soldiers into re-thinking their strategy which saw them file back to the Northern part of the Island.

The Kokada Trail is a single file footpath that stretches for 96 kilometres (about 60 miles) in a north/south direction, straight across the Owen Stanley ranges in Papua New Guinea. My good Aussie mate Allan and I will be combining our efforts to bring you some history of the Kokoda Trail, along with the training I am undertaking and most importantly, the mindset behind taking on such a feat.

This is not a decision I made lightly and for those that know me on a personal level would know that I am not the kind of girl to get my hands dirty, camping and hiking in the outback is not something I do on a regular basis as I am a creature of comforts and I really, really like hot showers, clean toilets, meals cooked in a clean kitchen and a comfy bed with a cozy doona/comforter to snuggle into. So, do you think I am going to have to have a paradigm shift in order to get through this challenge and change my mindset around creature comforts? I think it will open up new possibilities for me in the way I perceive things, and I will definitely be in need of a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel on this trip.


Kokoda Memorial 1000 Steps

Saturday just gone was our first official training day as a group and I was whisked off to the Dandenong Ranges here in Melbourne to climb the 1000 steps which are part of the Kokoda memorial. I didn’t count them as I was too busy trying to catch my breath. I have plenty of work to do on my fitness level in preparation for this adventure so stick with me and I will give updates on my progress.

I will leave you with a sample of what I am to expect once we land in Port Moresby… tell me your thoughts and if someone here has already taken this challenge on, please share your experience. There are many expeditions organised on regular basis through various companies.