Today I received an email from Frank Kern of Mass Control titled “Stolen Video” and I had to take a look as it didn’t say much else. To my surprise, it was a video from the TED Talks series and I had to post it here because about 10 months ago, I wrote a post on this very subject taught to me by Jamie McIntyre!

I think that Tony Robbins does a much better job of explaining this in the video, so take a look and watch out for a Nobel Peace Prize winner in the audience who gets Tony’s attention.

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?

Kurek Ashley had many roles in the movies as the bad guy so he is not well remembered because let’s face it… who remembers the bad guy. I met Kurek just over one year ago at Nik Halik’s Money Masters seminar here in Melbourne. Kurek has worked with John Travolta, Sylvester Stalone and Russell Crowe, to name a few.

Today I listened to Sarah Wilson from Adventure Coaching interview Kurek live and his story is amazing. During his acting career, while working in Asia on the movie Delta Force 2 with Chuck Norris, there was a helicopter crash in which five of his friends were killed. His best friend died in his arms on the way to hospital. Just prior to the tragic loss of lives, Kurek himself had been in that same helicopter as 20 takes were rehearsed and filmed. You can maybe only begin to imagine how that made him feel.

After that incident, Kurek turned to using recreational drugs, drinking alcohol, violence and multiple attempts at suicide. Every day he held a .38 claibre revolver to his head in order to end the pain he was feeling until three years later, he made a decision. A decision where he chose to put an end to the destructive lifestyle he was living. He turned his life around by quitting the drugs and alcohol and reading self-help books, using affirmations with purpose and not long after this, he was running seminars in the US.


Life Success Coach

Today, Kurek is a Peak Performance Coach and holds the world record for the longest fire walk ever being 81 metres in length. In his interview, Kurek said that he is very efficient and that he fits everything in. The powerful tool with which he uses to manage this is his brain.

If your brain picks up that you are happy with your life, you will achieve more results. Feeling grateful for what you already have in your life is equal to love, and feeling the love attracts more love to you.

He also says,

Once you have a thought, put it into action immediately as once you put things on the back-burner, it loses it’s urgency. You must also be willing to DO what the average person is not willing to do and even though today could be the worst day in your life, for someone else, it may be the best day in their lives, if they happen to be having the same kind of day as you!

Kurek uses affirmations like

I am Fortunate

I am Successful

I am Grateful

These are very simple to remember and you could use these easily throughout your day. Say them out loud like you mean it and notice the difference it makes to the way you feel.

Kurek also coached the Australian Womens Volleyball team to win Gold in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. At one seminar he ran, Natalie Cook was sitting in his audience and Kurek suggested that nobody would buy a book from the athlete that won the bronze medal. So after the seminar was over, Natalie walked up to him and said…

I stood on the third box… and I know you have the tools to help me win Gold.

So with that, Kurek coached Natalie Cook and Kerri Ann Pottharst for two and a half years to go on and win that Gold Medal here in Australia on their home soil.

Moral of the Story

With this little knowledge I have given you here, my wish is for you to see that anything is possible. You do not need to go through a state of depression like Kurek did and lead a self destructive lifestyle in order to find the answers within which will give your life’s purpose. Rather, we each have our own little demons and voices in our heads which pop up from time to time and if we listen to these voices and let them take control of our lives, we end up down in the dumps.

Brainstorming to find the things you are passionate about and and writing down a list of goals you want to achieve, broken down into baby steps will give you the desire to do the things that need to be done and once you can work efficiently, you will achieve the results you want to achieve.

Tell me how you deal with the voices in your head. Do you listen to them? Do you let them take over? If not, what steps have you taken to take control of your life? Feel free to share.

Dedicated to Success