Consistency is King (And Momentum is His Queen)

I am busy revamping this very website. Re-doing a website is not unlike doing house renovations – it is messy, tricky, seemingly never-ending and really, really hard work. I have been up at five am for two weeks chipping away at it before work because I am about to relaunch Rebel Zen as not just a blog about topics like motivation and meaning but also as a straight up business. So today is Thursday morning and because I have been busy getting the new website ready I was going to skip this week’s blog post.

But then, just now, before I started working on the new website content, I thought about the blog and The Voice – you know: my Higher Voice, The Great Ju-Ju – gently popped this phrase into my ear “Consistency is King” and I knew that I had to post on the blog this week even though I am mental busy.

The thing is I know that my inconsistency over the course of my life so far has let me down. It’s all about momentum: getting any is hard work (inertia is a bitch) and once you get some you have to run with it or it just stops dead. For example…

Behold, My Laundry List Of Couldabeens!

As a kid fresh out of school, I genuinely nearly became an actual rock star but then I got distracted and stopped working at it consistently. The massive momentum we had ground to a halt.

During my twenties I had an awesome thing going on with a busy cafe that me and a friend were managing. Sounds lame but actually it was amazing, a thriving scene of creative, young, beautiful people and such a profoundly promising business opportunity that banks and business people were clamouring to lend us large sums of money to grow it. But I got distracted and didn’t follow through and the massive momentum we had ground to a halt.

I once established a career as a writer of personal development articles in a major magazine which I could have leveraged for greater things; I even had a major book publisher hounding me for a book. But I didn’t follow through with any consistency and the momentum I had ground to a halt.

I know – what a loser! And I can cite several more examples of great opportunity and hurtling momentum squandered due to my inconsistency, my tendency to change direction on a whim chasing the next shiny object that flitters past. Look! A squirrel!

Another example is this blog. When my former business partner and I started it in 2008, we had the attention of the personal development and motivational blogging community. Every post was getting loads of page views and comments and we were scoring links from some of the biggest blogs in the world. But then we started focussing elsewhere and eventually this blog’s momentum, you guessed it, all but ground to a halt.

Same goes for my marketing consultancy that I started in 2008 as well. I grew it – then I all but let it wither on the vine. But I have learned (the hard way, clearly) that you have to follow through if you want success. You must show the people of the world and Universe itself that you have the consistency to finish what you start.

The Great Ju-Ju Says: Respect The Momentum

With this in mind I have been working this blog back up to speed slowly but surely over the last 6 months or more. It has been slow going, and is nowhere near “there” yet, but it has turned a corner. My page views have been up, product sales have been slowly increasing and comments have been reappearing, like under this recent post about living in abundance.

And I intend, this time, to respect this momentum and follow through with consistency. I swear that I will not be turning my back on the next round of bountiful gifts that the Great Ju-Ju hands me. Or indeed, on those She has already handed me. This is why I have resurrected this blog, why I am again building up my marketing consultancy, why I am persisting with my music – and why I am doing something very exciting here at Rebel Zen over the next couple of weeks.

But you’ll have to stay tuned for that. Not ready yet! Hint: following in the theme of consistency, it has everything to do with the three main areas of endeavour mentioned in the last paragraph…

The post Why Consistency Is King: How To Get Ahead By Following Through appeared first on Rebel Zen.

The Empress tarot card

The Empress tarot card speaks to you of the gestation of your creative works. Inside of you there are creative expressions that must be birthed and it is vital that you give time and effort to these babies or the consequences can be dire. Having said that, it makes a lot of sense to be patient and calm as we grow our ideas into fully-fledged “creative babies” ready for birthing into the world; being stress and anxiety ridden is no good for Mother (you) or Baby (your work).

The pomegranates on the Empress’s dress represent fertility and as in the High Priestess tarot card, the gestating mother’s determination and focus to grow and nurture the idea until it is ready to be brought out into the world. In front of the Empress grows a field of golden wheat, representative of the previous work she has done, now ripening – an abundance of realised ambitions come to fruition.

The Empress Tarot Card = Abundance

Abundance is probably the single most important keyword associated with the Empress tarot card. The Empress is the symbol for living in abundance and there’s no doubting that she is quite the lush as she sits in her open space, just beyond a private woodland. A stream runs out from the woods and empties over a small waterfall near her feet. The stream that runs through the tarot speaks of the unconscious mind and the journey to personal fruition (self-actualisation). And this is the message of the Empress, right near the beginning of the tarot card journey: that we can go the distance, that we can birth our ideas and that we must.

Once you are pregnant with a notion, like a real mother-to-be, there is no going back. When my partner was great with child she would sometimes feel despondent – being pregnant is the longest nine months of your life! But while the going was long and tough, in the end, that kid was coming out, no two ways about it.

Same goes for your self-expression. The Empress tarot card reminds you that you are pregnant with ideas that must find their way into this planet. If you do not nurture and nourish your creative self-expression, this energy will out itself in ways less ideal, most likely as physical sickness or psychological issues such as depression or a bitter heart.

A Life Fully Self-Expressed

Most creative people like you have had the experience of “working for the man” in some capacity (school, a job) and hating every moment of it. The reason we feel so put out in these situations (especially when we are young and have not learned the subtle arts of ninja self-expression) is because we feel so inauthentic when we put on the school (or fast food franchise) uniform or the neat casual office attire. Something inside us rebels, we feel we are wasting the time we have been given to live a life fully self-expressed.

We feel this because we are wired to seek recognition for the spark of life that lies at the heart of who we are. Is this simply monkey behaviour (seeking acceptance from the tribe in order to survive) or a higher manifestation of our purpose? In this case, I believe it is the second. We have been sent here to, as Steve Jobs put it, put a dent in the universe, and if we do not give expression to our existence we suffer internally until eventually, we seek acknowledgement in less healthy ways, even when consciously, we do not want to do this.

It is not our conscious minds that are running this particular show; this is our higher purpose at work. If we fail to nurture and birth the self-expression we were created to be a vehicle for, things go awry.

However there is no need for you to panic! It is not as dramatic as all that if you realise that allowing your self-expression to unfold does not need you to become famous or hugely “successful” in wordly terms. These may be part of your mission, but if you can hold these ambitions lightly and pay attention to the business of doing your work, whatever that may be (making art, starting a business, serving others in whatever manner you find fulfilling) then your higher mission for self-expression is fulfilled and in some way, the way you are meant to, you have made your contribution to the positive evolution of life on Earth.

The Battle of Two Wolves

An old man told a young boy the story of how inside every person’s mind, there are two wolves battling it out for supremecy. One wolf is fearful, anxious and desperate. The other wolf is calm, confident and content. One sees life as a battle over scarcity; the other sees the world as an abundant place, full of bounty, everything he needs.

“Which one wins?” asked the boy.

“The one you feed” came the old man’s reply.

The Empress tarot card implores you to set yourself up as she has, with cushions propping up your back, legs slightly parted, ready for the eventual birth of your creative baby. Her secondary message is that meantime, be content. Make like the Empress and sit fully present in the moment, enjoying the yellow glow of the sun, the signs of plenty all around. Be abundant. Nurture and bring forth into the world your good works and fulfil your higher mission in this lifetime – to live an authentic, fully self-expressed existence.

P.S. I am currently drawing tarot cards to write about them as they come up. Interesting that I drew this card today, seeing as I just wrote about it in this post on living in abundance.

The post The Empress Tarot Card appeared first on Rebel Zen.

Living in abundance is definitely one of the keys to breaking on through to the Awesome Side. To me, “living in abundance” does not just mean having money, that is far too limiting, because whether we have a lot money or not, we can still be abundant. Abundance is more of a mindset than a dollar amount. It incorporates gratitude and enjoyment of “what just is now”, an ability to view the world through a lens of optimism and to live each day with purpose.

The more we remember to dwell in this space, to approach life from an abundant mindset, the more joy we get out of life.

Of course, that’s all very well – but if you’re having a hard time, hurting inside, sick of your dead end job or just broke, this kind of talk can sound pretty annoying. To help with that here’s 7 tips which I personally fall back on to get myself into a place of living in abundance when I get off-track or as reminders when things are going well.

1 – Mindset: The Foundation to Living in Abundance

Living in abundance requires the right mindset. If you look out at the world each day through “a lens of lack”, you feel that you are left wanting. And note “wanting” is not the same as “not having”. There’s lots of stuff I don’t have but I don’t really care because I just don’t want that stuff very much, and this is a great way to feel fantastic about your life. I can walk through a shopping mall resplendent with a million and one shiny consumer goods and not feel that I lack for a thing because I simply don’t want any of it. “Not wanting” things is a definite key to personal freedom.

The second part of the abundance mindset is trusting and believing that everything you need and desire is available to you and that all you have to do is work to accept the gift. I like to think of fruit tress heavy with ripe, low hanging fruit. This is our reality in the first world, and yet we often walk around as if it were us who are starving to death. The resources at our finger tips are incredible, and a lack of abundance is not our problem, our problem is more likely to be not having the right mindset to recognise the massive abundance that we are surrounded by every day and the skills to know what to do with this wealth of resources.

Tweak your mindset to recognise that you are in fact living in abundance already, remember to regularly feel and express your gratitude for this good luck and admit that if you’re not experiencing abundance in any important areas of your life that it is probably because you need to do or change something about yourself.

2 – Meaning: What is Your Ultimate Purpose?

It is hard to walk around feeling like you are living any kind of wonderfully abundant existence if you’re life seems to have no meaning to you. Firstly, let’s define “meaning”. To me meaning is about purpose. If you have defined your Ultimate Purpose for your life, this becomes your key driver and provides you with meaning, a reason, to even bother with the mundane and sometimes boring details of everyday life. Just because you’re living in abundance doesn’t mean you’re not going to have to change nappies, cop a serving from your wife or spend an hour compiling a pointless spreadsheet just to keep the boss happy. But if you have a strong sense of meaning in your life it makes it easier not to lose heart.

For me my meaning is to help people (including, but not limited to, my family) to live abundantly by providing them with inspiration and tools to experience greater health, happiness and success. Whether I do this through my music, this blog or simply by helping them with their marketing, it is all driven by purpose and this gives my life meaning.

3 – Motivation: What Drives You On?

Tapping into this meaning is what gives me the motivation. I have maintained this blog since 2008 with thus far only minor financial reward. I have also been performing and writing music for over twenty years, sometimes to acclaim but usually to a few geezers in a bar, and while my work-a-day existence as a marketer is more lucrative financially, it still requires a butt-load of motivation to keep it afloat. It is the meaning that gives me the motivation to continue ever on with burning desire and unflinching optimism in my heart. I believe that my writing and music will find a sizable, lucrative audience over time and in the meantime, I get truly motivated every time I see one of those geezers in a bar get moved by my music or I receive a message of thanks from a blog reader.

As well as the meaning it is the fact that I am doing what I love that motivates me. I love to write, I love to sing, I love to help people to express themselves through their work. Without this motivation in your belly, living in abundance is not going to be easy. Find what you love and go for it.

4 – Meditation: The Clear Space of Good Feeling

While you might think it is just something to help you deal with stress or anxiety, in fact meditation has many benefits including helping you to move into a mindset of abundance. When you meditate effectively you eventually get to a place where you rise above confusion, self-doubt, grasping and lack and move into what I once heard described as “the clear space of good feeling”. In this clear space you have access to your Higher Mind which is that wise, old part of you that isn’t worried about anything and sees life from an eternal perspective. When you get into this space you get very connected to the truth of the abundance of life and the scarcity mindset departs.

Once you’ve accessed these heightened states and Universal insights, you don’t need to do it all the time to draw on the wisdom you’ve gained. So you can bring yourself back into this clear space of good feeling without formally meditating as you face the challenges of your day.

5 – Marketing: Communicate The Value You Have To Offer

What? Marketing?

Yes, marketing.

Marketing has a bad name out there in the world and possibly in your own mind and this is because it is very often sorely misunderstood. If the word marketing makes you recoil in horror or cynicism, please bear with me.

Put manipulative TV ads and sleazy sales tactics out of your mind for a moment and think of marketing for what it truly is: taking the value you provide and communicating it to the world.

We all provide value. Value is “something that someone sees as being valuable to themselves”. You provide value to your family in the form of love, companionship, loyalty, care and/or security. If you are in business you provide value to your customers. If you are an employee then you provide value to your boss and, indirectly or not, to her customers.

So marketing is simply being aware of the value that you provide to the different people in your life and communicating this value to them in an honest way from a well-meaning place (a desire to help). Living in abundance is a lot easier if you are marketing yourself effectively in this way in your private and professional lives and if you are tapped into the meaning that motivates you, it can genuinely be a pleasure.

6 – Money: A Neutral System of Value Exchange

Money is not the be all and end all, despite being treated as such, but it does grease the wheels of society. I have always found with money that, when I have more than enough, is not very exciting. How thrilling can a few naughts in the bank be? But the absence of money is a real pain in the arse, suddenly every bill causes teeth gnashing, limitations to self-expression pop-up like mushrooms and relations at home can get strained.

So in order to live abundantly we do need to address the issue of maintaining a positive cash flow. Most people just deal with this by getting a job, but for people like me who avoid the nine-to-five grind in favour of pursuing creative business glory, we must remember that cash is the life blood of our operations and without it everything grinds to a halt.

The thing to realise is that if we can address our emotional hang-ups about money, life gets easier. Money is nothing more than a neutral system for exchanging value. It is neither evil nor scarce.

7 – Management: Get Your Operational Shit Together

Again this might seem like a strange thing to see in a list dealing with something as traditionally “woo-woo” as living in abundance, but it is important. Without management systems to make our personal and professional lives more efficient we struggle to step into abundance.

I have to admit that I have a lot to learn in this area, I have resisted it for years. In my professional life I am still learning to manage my affairs in a more organised fashion in order to make my working life easier and more pleasant.

While some areas, usually those to do with The Dreaded Numbers, are still a work in progress, one area that I have installed truly effective management systems into with great success is my time and priorities. I expect to be sharing this information about how I get so much done and stay on track in midst of many demands and information-overload.

I hope this post has given you some great insights into the “secrets” of living in abundance. Feel free and encouraged to share your thoughts (abundantly!) in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you.

The post The 7 Keys to Living in Abundance appeared first on Rebel Zen.

By Seamus Anthony

The High Priestess tarot card is rich with symbology relating to the unconscious mind. She sits in front of a veil that separates us from this vast sea of thought, memory and feelings related to our past. Some psychologists say each of us have in our life an ocean of the mind that we do not ordinarily feel aware of even though its influence is strong in our daily lives. You can see this ocean illustrated in the card, just behind the High Priestess’ veil.

The High Priestess comes to tell us that we can access and explore this part of the mind if we are prepared to and that there are good reasons to do so. She also serves as a kind of gatekeeper, not there so much to stop us from entering into the unconscious realm but to gently warn us as to the gravity of the undertaking. For once we begin down the road to self-discovery, once we push aside the veil and explore these previously hidden aspects of ourselves, there is no turning back. You cannot undo self-awareness; rather you must then persevere until you come out the other side as a self-empowered and whole person, healed and self-actualized (as represented by The World card).

The High Priestess Tarot Card = No Free Lunch

The thing is, before we get to the unified whole that is the ideal result of this inner journey we must pass through such trials as the Tower, the Devil and the Moon. By this it is meant you must face your demons and explore the pain body that you carry around with you, sorting through its contents and finding methods to release the pain that you carry with you until it is healed.

People who never step past the veil may never become self-aware. They may go through life with no clue as to their urges to self-medicate, their inability to be happy with their lot or why they live re-actively, finding fault with others everywhere and acting out from a place of fear.

Those who do step through the veil and explore their own inner existence begin to understand their motivations, why they are how they are, why they feel how they do. But this does not make healing easy, and in all probability the psycho-spiritual wounds they seek to heal will feel worse before they get better. They are like a man who does not feel any pain until he looks down and notices that he has been seriously wounded and is suddenly engulfed in agony. I am not saying that ignorance is bliss necessarily, I don’t think people with low self-awareness are very happy, but neither are most people who do have a strong measure of self-awareness and I think this is because their healing journey is incomplete, possibly stalled.

Pomegranates and Palms

Once I was studying and meditating on the High Priestess and I came across some information about the symbology that is on the veil. Decorating her veil is nothing less than a very major and important “secret” to your successful journey to healing and indeed to any major achievement in life: the pomegranates and palms. The pomegranates represent a determined will to see an idea through (a feminine energy trait – see also the Empress tarot card) and the palms represent the action needed in the real world to make it happen (a male energy trait). A definite major purpose backed by relentless, focused, persistent action.

At the risk of flirting with old fashioned, sexist ideas, it reminds me of the archetype of the man on a mission backed up and driven on by a powerful wife. Without the woman’s clarity of mind and determination of purpose, the man would not have the ability to stay the course long enough to see a result. Like most clichés, there’s a lot of real world truth in this. I think most men, me included, would get a lot less done without the strength and clarity of purpose of a feisty female partner. Of course there are always going to be plenty of exceptions to this rule (he hastily added, before moving on).

I would suggest that by choosing material patterned in this way, the High Priestess is handing to us some major advice to help us to make this journey through the murky, often confusing and certainly quite emotional realms of the unconscious. She is saying to you “Look, if you decide to go past this point, you cannot just turn around and go back when the going gets rough. You cannot simply “un-know” the truths you will discover in here. So go in with a clear purpose and then support this mission with the wherewithal to follow through until you are done, no matter how rough the seas get as you journey through to healing and wholeness”.

The High Priestess’ Message To You

If you came to the High Priestess looking for a sign that you are on the right path, the pomegranates and the palms are telling you to approach your challenge with clarity of mind and purpose backed up by determined effort. Note: there are no guarantees – but this approach greatly increases your chances of success.

If you came to High Priestess looking for healing or personal growth you may be receiving a message that it is time to “look under the hood” as such (via meditation, therapy, healing modalities, etc.) and explore how your unconscious mind is affecting your happiness, health and success in your day-to-day life. In order to heal, explore how you can access and work on the issues you will find there, but do not expect the journey to be easy or quick.

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If you want your children to grow up happy, you yourself must learn to be happy. If you want them to live passionately, striving for their dreams, living a life they love – then you must show them how through your own life. Completely sacrificing your own happiness will not magically transfer happiness onto your kids, it will just teach them to sacrifice their own happiness.

As a responsible family man, if you want to meet your own needs (and you should) you need to introduce a high level of self-discipline into your schedule. I think this is the major challenge for a lot of us: how to meet the needs of the family and also meet your own needs. Most of us think we do not have enough time to meet our own needs, so the guitar stays in its case for months on end (despite the inner calling to play) the massage never gets booked (despite the painful crick in the neck), the paints stay in their box and the exercise routine withers and dies after only a few short bursts of energy.

And yet this need for nurturing the self does actually get met, it just may be that when you say “I don’t have the time” in fact what you are really doing is avoiding the issue and instead not making the time.

How To Find The Time

The answer is simple. I get up at 5am, Monday to Friday, to spend the first two hours of my day building my dream. I don’t knock myself out with substances the night before and I go to bed early so that I am fresh in the morning. It’s not that hard, the secret is to be getting up to do something you love, something that means something to you, more than recreation – a purpose.

The Monkey Mind tricks you into meeting your needs in ways that do not help you to progress. You may protest that no, you really don’t have the time, but yet you probably find time to veg out in front of the TV, play computer games to wind down, drink beer or other tasty beverages either with your mates or alone, smoke some pot, or read novels for an hour every night before bed.

And of course, so you should, nobody is saying that it is wrong to do these things or that you don’t deserve and need some down time, of course you do. The trouble arises however when we fall into the habit of always catering to these base needs without ever making the time to deal with our higher needs, like finding an avenue for self expression or healing our hearts, minds and bodies.

When I see people who have completely surrendered their own needs and desires over to their families, I feel a bit sad for them and for their own family. The reasons I feel sad for them is because I believe that it is the wrong strategy for a strong, healthy family even if it seems like the best strategy in the short term.

Men Need To Find and Answer Their Calling

…and let’s face it, your calling probably isn’t what you do all day to earn a buck.

The man who never gets to meet his own needs, or who is trapped in a cycle of meeting his own needs in sub-standard ways, brings his dysfunction into the family energy sphere, causing pain and strain between family members and ultimately leaving as part of his inheritance to his children a legacy of issues that will be carried down through the generations.

There is nothing unmanly about taking the time out to acknowledge and respond to the call of our Higher Self. This call is louder than we care to admit, but subtle enough that we can pretend to drown it out in our day to day lives with the noise of work, substances, duty and recreation.

However, the ultimate result of this is a life less fulfilled; a journey not fully undertaken and a heart that withers and dies on the vine. This results in men who are not actually fantastic examples of towering strength to the children but instead miserable models of misguided virtue. The lesson we often teach is one of complete self-sacrifice to duty, which on the surface this seems like a great lesson to teach, but in fact it is incomplete.

Yes, you must teach your kids that a man meets his responsibilities, but you must also teach that the whole man also finds time to explore and meet his own needs, because in doing so:

• you will become so much more effective in every area of your life
• your children will grow up healthier with a father who teaches the lesson that responsibility and self-actualisation can in fact go hand-in-hand
• and that part of a healthy and well-rounded life experience is staying true to yourself and to your journey on the path to wholeness.

By answering the Higher Call with maturity and a sensible outlook, we will see that being a Warrior of Purpose is the best lesson we can teach our children. After all, you want your kids to believe that they can achieve great things and be happy. The way to teach them this is not to trash your own happiness and fulfilment but to direct part of your time, as much as is appropriate for wherever you are in your life, to finding and pursuing your Ultimate Purpose.

Teach how to do by doing, teach how to be by being. Redirect some of your spare time into the pursuit of the thing that gives you more energy (your Ultimate Purpose) and you will be surprised to find that in fact you do have the time and you do have the energy.

Watching too much TV, too many hours spent playing computer games, smoking too much pot, drinking too much beer, or just being too bored, serious or stressed – all these things sap your energy, leaving you spinning your wheels in the car park of your life. Deep inside, you know you’re bigger than that. It’s time for you to do something about that.

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I have lost weight and 6 months in I am not looking back.

I wasn’t the fattest guy in the world but I was lugging around a pretty decent spare tyre around middle and I had a pretty sweet extra chin thing going on. This had a lot to do with eating lots of sugary foods, drinking way too much beer and not doing anywhere near enough exercise. Surprise, surprise, turns out this wasn’t the greatest way to stay slim and healthy.

It hasn’t been easy but as you can see from the photo here, I ain’t lugging too much extra baggage thanks very much.

The odd thing is that this has been a side-effect. Sure, losing weight was something I wanted to do. Getting fitter, easing off the booze and exercising regularly were things I sort of vaguely intended to do  – but I just wasn’t doing it … UNTIL …

Until I fixed down hard on a single purpose and made up my mind to have it. Now.

Until I became a Warrior of Purpose.

The Secret Is To Have A Single, Ultimate Purpose

I am not saying this is the only secret but it is one of the Big Kahunas in the wobbly, distant land of “Big Secrets That Everyone Who Does Well Knows”. You have to stand for something – one thing – and this has to be your Ultimate Purpose.

You’ve got to drill down on that one thing and say this is what my life is about. This is why I am here. This is what I do and why, period.

For me whenever I drill down on the what and the why, things align and shit starts getting done. Losing weight and getting healthy became logical side effects of my Ultimate Purpose.

But when I want fifty different things (and my cake too) that’s when my wheels spin and everything grinds to a halt.

What Is Your Ultimate Purpose?

This is an important question. If you don’t know the answer to this then you will probably never fulfil your vast, raw potential or get much satisfaction out of life. You should do yourself a massive favour and stop to take some time out. Take as much time as you need until you know what it is.

If you previously had a major goal in life, ask yourself: does this goal still serve me? Is it still what I really want to be aiming towards? Sometimes, the goals that motivated us five, ten or twenty years ago no longer resonate, but if you are still focussing on it out of habit or stubbornness, it can be detrimental to your progress through life.

If you have no idea what your Ultimate Purpose is then try the following:

• Sit quietly and focus on your breathing for a while
• Allow all the flotsam and jetsam of your mind to settle (don’t worry if it never seems to quieten down. Give it about 5 minutes and then if your mind is still really busy, move on to the next step)
• Slowly, over ten or twenty minutes, continue to sit and breathe and ask your Higher Self questions like “If money were no object and if I could not fail – what would I most love to do in this life? What is my Ultimate Purpose? What do I really, truly, when nobody is looking, wish that I could do in this life? What idea just tickles me pink? How can I contribute the most value to society and to the planet?

Do not censor yourself. Don’t try to “keep it real”. Keep it UN-real! If your truest desire is to be a famous artist or a jet-setting yoga instructor to the stars – then this is your Ultimate Purpose. Do not allow the Monkey Mind to trick you into believing you should play small. That is just the voice of Fear – ignore it and be true to your highest calling.

Dedicate Yourself To Your Ultimate Purpose

Whatever it is that you actually WANT to do, regardless of how practical it is, this IS your Ultimate Purpose and it IS why you are here. Honour this and make it the sole focus of your life’s work. Dedicate yourself to the discipline of making your Ultimate Purpose real in this world. Become a Warrior of Purpose.

Personally, my Ultimate Purpose is to inspire, empower and motivate creative people like you to feel better about Life, providing tools and ideas so that you can empower yourself to enjoy increased happiness, health and success.

That’s it. That’s what my music is about, that’s what my writing is about. Rebel Zen is here to help you tap your creative genius and make shit happen. That why I am here. I know it. And I really care about this, I am really passionate about helping you to realise that you CAN make art, music, write a book, get fit or start a business. It might not be easy but you can do it and you deserve to do it.

Get Up And Get into Action

Since recommitting to my Purpose, I have written a business plan and started to build a business. It hasn’t been easy: I have been getting up early or working late after the bills are paid and the kids are in bed. Meanwhile, I have taken a risk. In a leap of faith I have left lucrative marketing consulting work on the table to get this passion work happening.

But when you know what IT is, and you KNOW it’s happening, you have to make a stand. You must say THIS is what’s happening. THIS. Right now.

Become a Warrior of Purpose. Every day assess whether what you are doing furthers your Warrior Mission. If it doesn’t, give it the flick (goodbye chocolate biscuits). If you need to do something, do it, even if it isn’t your idea of fun (hello writing business plan).

And this does not mean neglecting your duties or your family. A warrior would never do that. In order to operate at the highest level, your house must be in order. Your family must be happy, you must be happy, your bills must be paid. Only then are you free to pursue your Ultimate Purpose unhindered. The foundations of your house must be strong or it’ll all come tumbling down.

If you want to get shit done, identify your Ultimate Purpose and commit to it wholeheartedly – every single day.

The post How To Really Make Shit Happen: Become A Warrior Of Purpose appeared first on Rebel Zen.

A couple of months ago, I published part one of Cereal Theory, asserting (with the kind of impenetrable self-confidence that only a safely obscure blogger sitting pretty in his comfy slippers can muster) that “success is like eating a bowl of cereal”.

Stupidly, I threatened a sequel to that post, and never one to back down from a threat (unless bribed or clearly in actual physical danger) I hoisted myself out of bed at 5am this morning to bloody well get that one off my infernal fucking “to do” list already. Enjoy.

Proof #2 – Finishing the Bowl: Success Requires Focus on One Thing

When you eat a bowl of cereal you are only focussed one thing – finishing it.

“But wait!” I hear you cry “I like to read the news on my ipad while I eat my brekkie!”

OK, yes, so you do.

Fine.

BUT (he hollers, scrambling around for a half-decent rebuttal)

… while you are reading the paper, you are mainly focussed on eating the cereal; this is your major purpose. And when you’ve finished it, unless it’s Sunday or something, you put the ipad down and get on with something else.

Now … *cough* … moving right along…

Proof #3: You Enjoy Eating Cereal More Than “Having Eaten”

As in, when you’ve just smashed down a giant bowl of sugary, crunchy goodness bathed in full cream cow juice, you probably feel less excited about that idea than when you were, so to speak, smashing it.

There’s a funny quote I like:

“I hate writing, I love having written.” (Dorothy Parker, if the Internet is to be believed.)

I say “poo” to this.

I have often met so-called writers, but every time I ask them if they have been writing, they shrug and say “not really, something something, hard to find time, mumble”. Yet they have plenty of time for yoga or drinking red wine or whatever. Which is fine, but success only comes (if it does at all) if you do the work. And you are only likely to do the work if you love the process.

I love the writing itself, that’s why I keep smashing out blog posts and e-books, even if it means getting up at 5am to do it.

Proof #4: You Have 100% Belief in Your Ability to Finish the Bowl

It’s unlikely that when you pour a bowl of cereal that you feel very overwhelmed by the task of munching that tasty stuff down. You probably don’t even give your ability to accomplish an empty bowl much thought at all. You just size up how much you reckon you can handle and then get to work.

Same goes for success – if you’re going to do it then you need to believe that you can.

It doesn’t matter if, according to common logic, your belief is irrational or delusion. And it doesn’t matter whether other people believe in you. The thing that matters is that you believe you can eat the bowl. Otherwise you never will.

This is easier than it seems when just about every person you know assumes the default position of utter scepticism in the face of your dreams and passions. Raised eyebrows and ever-so-slightly-sardonic smiles can leave you seething at the big family dinner, wanting to slam your fist in your plate of roast beef and scream “WHY DO YOU PEOPLE HAVE NO VISION!?”. What’s worse, they can be demoralizing. When those closest to you don’t believe in your ability to shine, after a while their fear starts to rub off.

But here’s the thing:

YOU MUST NOT LET YOUR OWN OR ANYBODY’S FEARS AND INSECURITIES STOP YOU FROM BELIEVING IN YOURSELF – OR YOUR DREAMS ARE DOOMED.

The fact that your stated dream to become a professional dancer (writer, singer, business owner, artist, whatever) fills you with self-doubt and pushes all of your loved one’s hot buttons is irrelevant to your mission.

Nobody who ever did anything awesome ever let the general cry for “common sense” stop them from doing it anyway. It can be really hard to deflect this energy, and I will going into this in detail in my forthcoming book “Taming The Monkey Mind” (working title) but for now I suggest that whenever you begin to feel that your self-belief is being undermined, from within or without, remember this quote by Steve Jobs:

“Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Thus endeth this post and probably my ability to squeeze said cereal metaphor. You can download & share both parts as a mini-ebook for free, no email required, right here. It’s the long version too (i.e. boring and/or unwieldy bits left in).

In other news, the tarot card featured above is the Wheel of Fortune card which I wrote some guff about a while back, maybe you’d like to read.

The post Cereal Theory: Part Two appeared first on Rebel Zen.

You CAN beat anxiety. Step 1: remove swords from back!

By Seamus Anthony

On three separate occasions I have been afflicted by terrible, ongoing anxiety which lasted for a number of months at a time.

It’s a nightmarish feeling: my heart would beat too fast, I felt like I was crawling out of my skin and every time a car drove down the street at night I thought they were coming to take me away – that the game was up. What I was guilty of, I have no idea … bad breath in the morning?

I am lucky in that I have been able each time to beat anxiety in relatively short time frames. Here’s a short list of how I did it.

Beat Anxiety Tip 1: Meditation Is The Bomb, Seriously

You might think meditation is something only weird, hairy alternative types (like me) do but nothing could be further from the truth. Meditation is a mainstream pursuit these days, recommended by doctors and NOTHING to do with any religion or sect (unless you want it to be, if that’s your thing).

Meditation is scientifically proven to help the body and mind to fight stress. It takes your body out of the “fight-or-flight” mode that anxiety sufferers are chronically stuck in and instead allows the Relaxation Response to help you to feel calm, relaxed and less fearful and jittery.

It is beyond the scope of this article to teach you how to meditate, but you can pretty easily find classes or books to teach you how, like for example, my own e-book – Anxiety Meditation.

Meditation isn’t always easy to do but even if you find it a bit difficult while you’re learning, it will probably still help.

Beat Anxiety Tip 2: Drugs Are Bad, Mmmkay?

I am a long-time lush who has probably drunk more brews than you’ve had hot dinners, but as much as I love a sweet, frosty lager, when it came time to try and beat anxiety, I had to face facts: the booze was just making it worse.

I mean to say, it was fine while I was drinking it – but the next day the anxiety would just as bad or worse (depending on if I had gotten, as we like to say down here in Oz, shitfaced or not).

So each time I needed to beat anxiety, I put the booze aside for a little while and I noticed almost straight away that the symptoms lessened noticeably. Alcohol is a proven depressant – why would you think it won’t make your anxiety worse too?

And as for cigarettes and marijuana – well, in my case, back when I used to indulge in these two smoky little nasties regularly, I definitely found that they made the anxiety way, way worse. These days I hardly ever touch either as it just doesn’t help my frame of mind.

Beat Anxiety Tip 3:  Run For Your Life!

When I was suffering anxiety, I used to have this constant feeling that I just needed to get out of here – “here” being wherever I was. It was murder to sit still and chat politely. I was edgy and fidgety. I just really felt like I needed to run away, literally.

So I did.

No really – I started running. OK I didn’t run away never to be seen again, but I did start to regularly strap on my stinky old sneakers and go jogging. And it helped me enormously.

I was discussing this with a psychologist friend of mine at the time and she told me that this is something that medical professionals always recommend to people trying to beat anxiety. I suppose it makes sense, when you are stuck in “fight-or-flight” mode, and given that fighting is not an option anybody sane would recommend*, fleeing the scene for a bit makes perfect sense! Try it, worked for me.

*Some would say the same about jogging. If you’re one of them, try brisk walking instead. Or juggling cats. No? What about climbing a greasy flagpole?

Beat Anxiety Bonus Tip!

Speaking of psychologists, if you are suffering from anxiety, you probably should see a medical professional. I used to always try and sort everything out on my own without seeking professional help but then one time my anxiety was so bad that I went to see a psychologist and it made such a huge difference. I just didn’t really realise (maybe it’s a male thing) that merely telling someone how shit I was feeling would help so much.

My tips here are intended to complement, not substitute genuine, professional help and should not be used as a replacement for such help.

So get on the phone and call your local doctor. They can discuss your need to beat anxiety with you and then they can recommend the right professional to help you get better.

In the words of Kramer from Seinfeld: “Here’s to feeling good all the time!”

I have just released a detailed ebook that will show you how to beat anxiety using simple, non-religious meditation, just like I did. Click here to learn more.

The post How To Beat Anxiety: 3 Ideas To Help You Get Back on the Good Foot appeared first on Rebel Zen.

Your Problem: Anxiety is ruining your life and you have simply got to make it stop.

Meanwhile, you know that meditation is supposed to be great for anxiety – but – you don’t know how to meditate effectively! You’ve tried it but you get no results, just more anxiety and more stress.

Maybe you have tried to meditate in a one or a variety of ways but have found the experience frustrating.

You may find that while meditating your mind drives you crazy while you sit, bored, fidgety and more anxious than ever. You may have been left feeling very emotional and annoyed by the experience.

You may have tried a meditation class but been put off by the traditional, inflexible and even sexist attitudes that a lot of meditation schools insist on.

Some meditation styles are too complicated – you get all wound up just trying to “do it right”.

Some meditation styles are so cheesy that you find yourself wanting to barf (or do bad things to the New Age lame-o narrating the meditation CD).

And don’t even get me started on the majority of meditation music styles that you hear out there. Oh my goddamn ears! The pain!

But jokes aside, you have a problem. Anxiety is ruining your life and you have simply got to make it stop. So you NEED meditation because it promises you a calm mind, a relaxed mind – happiness even. And yes – meditation certainly can provide you with that. And it doesn’t need to be a big deal.

Anxiety Meditation is Simple

Seriously, it is simple to use meditation to calm your anxiety. I know because I’m not an expert in traditional meditation techniques. I haven’t spent years cross-legged at the feet of the guru. Actually I am just a rock musician from Melbourne, Australia who found out through trial and error how to beat anxiety using simple, non-religious meditation.

And look, I don’t want you to get to the bottom of this article and be all like “Oh man! This is a freakin’ sales pitch!” so let me clear – I am selling something here. But the benefit to you, when compared to the cost, makes this a no-brainer for anyone suffering, as I once did, from the mental anguish that is an anxiety disorder.

By spending a measly $10 on my detailed eBook “Anxiety Meditation” you can discover how simple meditation can be (once you turf all the chanting, gongs and other hippy bullshit). And more importantly, you can enjoy the wonderful benefits of meditation that you crave: relief from anxiety, stress and depression.

This book will free you from any of the limiting rubbish you may have read before about meditation – that you need to do it in exactly such-and-such a way, or according to this guru or that. It will take away the silly idea that the way you sit, or what you eat or the “sacred energy” that you need to tap into mean anything at all. (Hint: they don’t.)

You will come to know a simple technique to reduce anxiety and increase feelings of peace, calm and happiness that anyone can do, just about anywhere. You don’t need any special CD’s, MP3’s or “revolutionary technologies”. You don’t need to sign up for a weekend retreat in the mountains and you don’t need to become some kind of gormless hippy zen-monk wanna-be who never has any beer, meat or fun.

Having said that, you will need to actually practise the meditation techniques described in the book. But truly, they are really easy to follow and you can do it:

• when it suits you
• as often as it suits you
• while listening to whatever music that you like.
• or no music
• while sitting in a comfortable positon.

Hell – you can even meditate on the john if you can’t get any goddamn peace anywhere else. It. Doesn’t. Matter.

The point is meditation works to eliminate anxiety and my “Anxiety Meditation” ebook will show you how simple meditation really is. That’s my no-bullshit guarantee.

Does The Following Sound Like You?

Anxiety is characterised as a feeling of dread, the persistent worry that something bad is happening or about to happen. There are situations where to feel some anxiety is only normal, like driving to your first day at a new job or school, or when you are flying overseas for the first time. Instances like these are simply your brain’s way of saying “Hey, we are venturing into the unknown here and that could mean trouble. Everybody on high alert until we are certain everything is cool”.

Abnormal anxiety occurs when the feelings of heightened worry and anxiousness are present persistently even when you are in your own environment or another familiar, comfortable situation where there seems to be no overt reason to be “on high alert”.

If you are suffering from a GAD (general anxiety disorder) then you may be obsessed with small problems to an abnormal degree, you may experience heightened heart rate, sweaty palms and forehead, a rising sense of panic. You may have trouble remembering details or focussing on daily tasks or conversation. Even if there is little that is actually going wrong in your life, your mind and body are acting as if something is going very wrong indeed because you suffer from a persistent, non-specific feelings and thoughts of worry and fear.

Anxiety disorders can be a very serious medical condition and while this e-book can’t be a replacement for professional, medical help it DOES contain my story of what TOTALLY worked for me and how you can try my “Anxiety Meditation” technique to see if it helps you also. Chances are good that it will.

Purchase Now For Only $10

My Experiences With Anxiety

I am not generally an anxious person; in fact I am usually just the opposite: a very happy-go-lucky, chilled out dude. However, life throws everyone its challenges and one of mine has been 3 distinct phases where I suffered from extended periods of intense, unbearable anxiety.

The first time it happened to me was in my mid-late twenties. The second and third times it happened I was in my mid-thirties. All three times I was filled with incredibly persistent feelings of dread, like the world was about to end at any moment.

I found myself unable to concentrate when people were talking and on my tasks at work. I was constantly fretting about one imagined threat after another and would often have sweaty palms and a racing heart. Not only could I not concentrate on what people were saying I really, really wanted everybody to simply shut up because I felt like I needed to fully concentrate on surviving whatever it was – usually it was non-specific – that was obviously about to go wrong.

Consequently, I increasingly avoided social interaction and, when unavoidable, preferred to use alcohol as a crutch to get me through barbecues and dinner parties.

I often felt like running away, just taking off down the street and not looking back and not stopping. At night I could barely sleep. I would think about how terrible and cruel humans can be to each other, I would despair at the suffering of wars long gone or many miles away and the craziest thing was when cars would drive slowly up the road in the wee hours of the morning (as they do) I would freak out, certain that “they” were coming for me.

I knew full well that this state of mind was abnormal, and in my better moments I would talk myself around with logic, going over the fact that I was a law-abiding citizen and there was no reason for “them” to come and take me away. I would calmly go over the very clear fact that there was no evidence that anything bad was happening or about to happen, and I would feel better for a short while.

But then it would get dark or something would just click in my mind and I would be right back where I started, freaking out about everything and nothing – silently, to myself, without talking to anyone about it.

I was living in relative paradise but experiencing my own private hell.

How I Cured My Anxiety

…enter meditation, stage left.

This may sound dramatic, but discovering meditation saved my life. It took me from the dark into the light. It took me from hell and took me to heaven. It made the demons go away and filled my heart with angels. More to the point – it gave me a very real way out from the horrible anxiety that had consumed my mind and body.

Once I learned how to meditate I stopped seeing the world as something to be feared and returned to a carefree, youthful place of optimism and cheerfulness. I stopped thinking stupid shit about “them” coming to take me away and started reaching out to the world again, expecting good things. I stopped trying to fly under the radar and again felt good enough about myself to stand tall and say “here I am world – check it out”.

Meditating took away the angst, edginess, the desire to flee, the inability to concentrate and that ever-present, inexplicable sense of impending doom. Misery packed its bags and left without so much as a threatening look over its shoulder.

Meditation took me to the “clear space of good feeling” inside me, it opened a door to the inside of me where to my surprise, in a glowing, golden palace, lived a Loving Presence who held out a gift to me – the gift of reassurance that everything is ok. That things are – and you may find this hard to believe right now – exactly perfect just how they are.

It revealed to me that I am just fine, that I do my best and my best is good enough. That I contribute greatly to this world and have every reason to feel good about myself. Mediation revealed to me that I am a good person, not, as I had come to feel, a repugnant slime ball who deserves nothing but guilt and punishment for a non-existent litany of unspeakable, hideous, imaginary crimes.

Meditation was the key in the door – and when I turned it, all the pain went away and it felt wonderful to be alive again, just like it ought to. Just like I deserve.

And you deserve it too, you may not feel like it now but no matter who you are or how you feel about yourself right now, you deserve to be happy and carefree – so grab my book, and with a little application, you too can leave the Forest of Doom and begin your journey to the Castle of Light.

Buy the book now and discover how simple Anxiety Meditation is and how powerful it can be, bringing calm, peace of mind and happiness into your life and giving anxiety, stress and depression their marching orders…

Purchase Now For Only $10

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