"If
you want to feed the world, start by finding one hungry child and giving
her a banana." -Barry Neil Kaufman
Do you know the story of the man walking along a beach who came across
an old woman throwing starfish that had washed up on shore back into the
sea? When he asked her what she was doing, she said she had always wanted
to make a difference, and she had decided that today was a good day to
begin. The man looked from her to the thousands of starfish that lay dying
along the coast line and said "For every starfish you throw back
into the ocean, three more wash up on to the shore! How can you possibly
be making a difference?" The woman looked thoughtful for a moment,
then she picked up another starfish and threw it back into the sea. "Made
a difference to that one," she smiled.
On Doing What You Can With What You Have, Where You Are
I once attended a seminar on film-making where a student complained that
it was nearly impossible to get into the film business if you didn't have
either a lot of money or a lot of connections. The seminar leader thought
for a moment, then offered this reply: "If you want to be a film-maker,
make a film. If you can only raise $500, then make the best film you can
make for $500. Show it to people, and if you've done your job, you'll
probably be able to raise $5000 for the next one. When you've made the
best film you can make for $5000, you might be able to raise $50,000 for
the next one. If you keep doing the best you can with what you've got,
upping the standard and upping the stakes when you can, sooner or later
you'll get your chance to make the big-budget opus of your dreams."
Do you want to be a musician? Then play your music - for anybody, even
if you have to pay them to do it!
Do you want to be a writer? Write something - an e-mail, a letter, a story,
whatever you feel capable of in this moment.
Do you want to be rich? Then take a dollar or a pound or a yen or whatever
you can afford and put it in an envelope marked "investment fund".
In the words of Goethe:
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has
genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now!"
Today's Experiment (approx. time 10 minutes):
1. Choose a dream. If you don't have at least one, keep clearing away
the clutter and tolerations from your life and you'll find them - they're
in there waiting for you!
2. Decide to do at least one thing in the next 24 hours which makes your
dream tangible. It matters less how "big" an action you take
than that you take it with full awareness that you are now making your
dream(s) come true, one step at a time.
3. Repeat step 2 every day for as long as you dream your dream!
Already recognised as one of the outstanding trainers and coaches of his generation, and after nearly a decade at the forefront of human performance technologies research and development in the UK, Michael helped found Quantum5 to create an outlet and forum for further developing and implementing his wide-range of existing and future innovations. Since 1990, he has been teaching and training NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), one of the first human performance technologies to win widespread acceptance in the corporate sector.
Michael is perhaps best known in the field for developing models of "Conversational Change", user-friendly ways of creating pervasive personal and organisational change. He has coached and trained a diverse range of senior-level people ranging from chief executives of multinational companies to members of the Saudi Royal family. He has also been working as a professional actor throughout that time, most notably as "new-age American" Randy in the BAFTA award winning BBC sitcom Satellite City and as Hamlet in the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). For more info check out his website at www.successmadefun.com