If you are going to do something with your life, if you have a desire for change, make sure that whatever it is you know why you are doing it.

It is important that you are running toward and embracing something that you want and not simply running away from something that you do not want.

It is the part that I have always found the least interesting in all that I do, the marketing and promotion of what I do.

As will likely become quite frequently mentioned here, I am now in the process of creating ways I can promote and bring into the world’s awareness and consciousness my latest offering.

Mind Over Matter, Heart Over Mind: A book and album experience designed to inspire and motivate you to go and create the life you want.

This now is a test of my patience because in the past I have hit a wall after creating something and find that if it is not an immediate success then I lose momentum and energy around it. I am determined for this to be a success and the beginning of something much bigger and I am also determined to rewrite the script of how I deal with the incubation period and growth in popularity of what I have created.

This leads me to a very quick and real appeal for assistance. If you are a keen marketing type person and you want to talk to me about how we can successfully put your skills, talents and passion together with mine, providing us both with a winner then please contact me. Use the contact form with MOMHOM in the subject line.

Right I need some sleep! G’ night.

Enjoy!

I have, in the past looked at life with the attitude that one day I will have "done enough" to make my life complete and I will just be able to stop and rest. This is of course an illusion, unless you want to stagnate. If you want to live the life of your dreams then you will have to accept that there is a price. That price is to never stop "dancing" with life, but that doesn’t mean having to keep going when you don’t want to. If you don’t want to carry on with something then stop it and get on with something else, but the truth is that if you want to grow as a person, live the kind of life you want to live and, basically feel like your life is worth something then you can’t stand still for long.

I accept this and embrace it. I love engaging with something, especially if it challenges me because there is always a great feeling of accomplishment, self-worth and satisfaction on the other side of it.

Now just when my book and album "Mind Over Matter – Heart Over Mind" is about to be officially launched, it is only the beginning and the big news in my world right now (apart from me becoming a father in a few months) is that the 50/90 challenge is back on July 4th. A challenge to write 50 songs in 90 days. I can’t leave that alone. I must try. I don’t know where the time is going to come from to accomplish that in the middle of everything else, but I know I can do it. I have done it before and it will provide material for nearly another year of WSC. Aren’t you lucky!

A parting note: The price of living the life of your dreams is low compared to the price of standing still.

From Longing to Living is the name of an ebook I wrote earlier this year and is also the basis for a series of works of mine that focus on creating the life of your dreams.

It seems to be taking an age to sort out all the technical details to get my new book and album site fully functioning, but it’s nearly there.

Mind Over Matter – Heart Over Mind is what it is called and it is part of the Longing to Living series of works, using the principles I have been living by for the last couple of years to create the life you want for yourself and also exploiting the benefits of making positive associations in the mind using music. With these associations in place, you can create the feelings you need to help you maintain the motivation, discipline and focus you need to make your dreams a reality. Just the way it should be: Success without struggle or sacrifice.

Enjoy!

Still the fact that we are all masters of the universe is something that I love talking about and writing about for that matter.

Coming soon is a new book and 5-track album that I have created called "Mind Over Matter – Heart Over Mind". It’s very closed to being unleashed into the digital world, I’m just enjoying a relaxing family break where I am resisting the urge to spend much time in front of the computer.

Please listen out for the news on the book release, which is coming very soon though!

Enjoy!

I am going to use this week’s episode as a bit of a plug for the new book. It will be available as soon as I have finished sorting out some technical details for reliably delivering the package. It’s pretty big because it contains high quality MP3s, which are much bigger than the usual iTunes quality ones, several versions of the book in pdf format, which include interactive audio and music and an interactive song book which enables you to listen to the songs within the book as you are reading the lyrics and the song descriptions.

The intention of the package is to inspire the reader/listener to gain the ultimate belief in their own abilities to create the life of their dreams, the songs match the chapters of the book in terms of subject matter and by making associations with the inspiring message of the book and the songs, I am hoping it will provide help the listener/reader to call up the feelings they have when imagining their dream life and thus putting them naturally in a motivated and disciplined frame of mind to stay focused on what they need to do and be aware of in order to create the life they desire.

It has been quite a journey and looking back over the last few months from when I first had the idea for the book, tried various practices that I have detailed in the book and up to now I can see just how powerful the principles in the book have been in cementing more and more elements of my dream life in physical reality.

It can sometimes feel like not much progress is happening when you have goals and intentions and I do feel like that too on occasion, but what is incredible is that I can see how all the while things may seem quiet on the surface, the entire universe is conspiring in the your favour to bring you what you need. Right now, for me, many loose ends are being tied, many seeds are being planted and many seeds that were sown previously are shooting. Now it is time to allow the growth to continue… Exponentially!

Enjoy!

I remember one morning, over a year ago walking home from work (seems like another lifetime) and seeing as I had just finished a 13 hour nightshift and felt a bit spaced out I happened to notice; I mean actually notice the sky. I was really awe struck by its magnificence and the sheer vastness of it. It was beautiful.

What was special about the sky that morning? Nothing. It was a normal sky, you know the type: A bit blue, a bit grey, clouds; some white, some a bit grey. Just the sky going about its everyday business.

What was different on that morning was me. I actually noticed it, saw it and realized how amazing it really is. That’s the beauty of life. It is always there. It is up to you whether you see it or not.

The life of your dreams, your big break, the cause of you having a great day may just be seen if you stop and look for a while. Try looking up first!

Enjoy!

HAHAHAHAHA! Actually I didn’t say any of those things. I’m over beating myself up for being me! I remembered this morning that I forgot to publish this weeks song by the deadline – Deadline is Sunday. As long as it is Sunday somewhere in the World it qualifies That’s the first time since I started the WSC. My initial thought was that because I had forgotten then I must be losing interest and that made me annoyed.

However after all of about 2 seconds I realized that it’s no big deal at all. I am working on a pretty intense (for me) project at the moment and I was caught up in that. It also shows me that sometimes the ball gets dropped, but no life is threatened and nothing is actually wrong.

I think its healthy to not always see things so black and white, which is why I chose this song for this weeks’ slightly belated offering. The point is that you only suffer if you have an attachment to the outcome of a situation. If your happiness or even your own sense of identity depends on things turning out a particular way then you may end up suffering unnecessarily.

Life is not a game of chess, no matter what people may say, so it matters not whether White or Black wins.

Enjoy!

I’ll leave you to think about what and where your heart is, but I will encourage you to really discover what is important to you from your heart’s perspective rather than your mind’s and see where that takes you if you follow it.

All in all though I believe that your heart’s desire always wins out against your head’s desire, but if you are really attached to your head’s desire then your heart’s desire may sometimes appear to you as undesirable. Hence the term "Rise above it". Do that and you can get a better view of everything and see the truth.

Enjoy!

All I know is that when I wrote this I had something on my mind: My music and my crazy ideas!

Enjoy!

The reason people often don’t think big and go after their big dream, their true heart’s desire is to limit the potential hurt and damage they believe is possible if they do not succeed in hitting their target.

This is all an illusion by the way. There is really nothing to be afraid of.

Enjoy!

I am spending the 3 weeks away from my wife on the other side of the world, so this song actually fits perfectly for this weekend.

This is for my teerak.

So the point is that you can live any life you desire if it is your heart’s desire. Get clear about what that is and don’t set your mind on it, set you heart on it. Your mind has a limited amount of creative power and will convince you to back out of things if they look too difficult . Your mind will sell you on the easy option, but whilst that may sound nice and comfortable it will not make you truly happy the way your heart desires. However, your heart has a connection to an infinite resource that cannot fail you if you tap into it, trust it and follow it, so be bold and go with the heart every time. It will always be worth it.

It is worth repeating again. Your mind may sell you out, but your heart never will.

There is a well-known saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome. In this context living at the mercy of the ego when you know its game could be looked at as insane, but many of us do it because it has such a strong hold and it is doing all it can do for its own survival that you have to play hard to live outside of its spell.

There’s nothing evil about the ego. There’s no need to disown it, but realize that it is very keen on running the show for you because it has become very comfortable with the way things are. If you want to break through into a new level in your life, you have to strike a deal with your ego and make it very clear that it is not running the show, your true self is. Your heart.

So I’m changing the game. How about you?

I won’t bore you with the details of what it is because I am consciously putting my energy into focusing on this area in my life in nothing but a positive and trusting way. However it needs pointing out that whilst I understand a lot about how to truly create your life by design on an intellectual level. I still need to do some "internal" work on myself to transform certain beliefs I have about what is possible in my life.

Simply knowing stuff is not enough on its own. If knowledge was all you needed to be rich and successful then school teachers and college lecturers would be millionaires and the queue for the public library would be a mile long!

It Will Be So
So back to the song. To describe very simply the process, all you need do to achieve what you want is to put your thoughts and feelings into whatever that is and as much as you are able to live your life by it – with those thoughts and feelings, just like you have already achieved it. Before you do that, you need to clarify with your intuition what it is you desire to achieve. Clarity, certainty and a feeling of it already being achieved.

It is very simple, but not always easy. However I trust that this is the way it works. I have seen enough personal results already when I have got myself out of the way long enough. I just need to make it more habitual too. The other trap is wanting something too badly. That only pushes it away.

I will be writing more about this in a new book I am putting together which will be packaged together with my music with the intention of inspiring the listener/reader to start creating their own dream life by design.

You can read all about it at my blog Leave The Office

Without writing anything down or thinking about it I did the whole thing ad-lib – As if you’d notice! . I made a vow to do one take and one take only, whatever came out remained, no matter what it was or how good or bad it may be.

The title came first because of the repetitive nature of the music and after I had jokingly put down the vocals and listened back to it I realized that although it sounds like fun and a bit "throw away" the lyrics actually have a good message. Maybe that’s where my mind was subconsciously because it does reflect some of what I have been doing in the recent past.

You can’t dance, so you stay where you are…
… Rooted to the spot in an intro that never ends! I want to re-iterate that point because often as I am also guilty of sometimes, we don’t get started because we think we need more time or more training before we can have the confidence to begin, but true confidence will only come from actual results and results come from experience. It’s not the inability to dance that stops you from going out on the dance floor. It is the fear of what others will think of you. Who cares about them? They don’t actually pay that much attention anyway, they are too busy thinking about their own problems.

Really. The intro has been playing long enough now, time to start the first verse and get to that epic chorus! Go and do whatever it is you want to do and feel good about it!

Enjoy!

How are you playing out your "endless intro"? Leave you’re comments please.

Actually I am starting to feel that there is only one real big "secret" to life these days and that’s confidence. Simple really, but that’s the difference between knowing the path and walking it.

What does this song say to you? Does it relate to your current situation? I’d love to know because I think being overloaded with information, what to do next, what’s the right or wrong thing to do and so on, is pretty common place these days.

I will write about this more in the future.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

What I am starting to see is that my intentions in life are becoming clearer as I focus on fulfilling a purpose bigger than myself and use it to create a harmonious life by design, which integrates everything from being fulfilled, being of value and service to others and enjoying success. Mmm, after mentioning success I should really mention the article I wrote the other day about what success is (or isn’t).

However you define success though I know what it is to me and since getting very clear about how I want to spend my time and what it is I want to do… and writing it down every day it is evolving into an ever clearer vision. Ideas come to me everyday and although this has been the case for several months now, the ideas I get now are starting to blossom and growing further than simply being "Good ideas". I am starting to naturally put plans in place and strategies to realize these ideas and give them life.

I have invested in the process of learning new things about myself and how I have created the results I have experienced up to now and it is really paying off. My intentions, focus and action of the last year or two is starting to show now.

So knowing what i know about myself I cannot ignore it ever again. Any patterns or automatic thinking that I have discovered and exposed cannot be overlooked anymore. Now they have become glaringly obvious, so with that comes more responsibility and less excuses outside of myself to use when things don’t work out the way I desire.

It reminds me of the character Jules in the movie Pulp Fiction (There is a lot more to that movie than the violence and language on the surface). After standing in front of a guy firing every single round from his gun at him from point-blank range, he finds himself still standing having been missed by every, single bullet. Now whatever the reasons for it: Miracle, magic, touch of God, whatever – he gets it. For him it is a sign that the path he is on brings him close to death in every moment and he has a chance to change his habitual lifestyle now he has some awareness of it.

I feel a bit like that. I have encountered a few close shaves in the last few years that have all contributed to waking me up to something of myself that is simply automatic and unconscious and now I am more conscious of certain things I do without any awareness of it, it is impossible to go back to being unaware of them.

It sums up what I would consider a good day when your in the flow and coming from a place of authenticity rather than just what your mind tells you you should be doing. Its the point I am always aiming for and what inspired the song and the statement – a football score (real football, not that game called football from the USA where you use your hands most of the time) was that very feeling of being without limitation and in a winning position on my path creating life as I design it. I feel this way more times than I don’t nowadays and actually it has a cumulative effect because once you are in this state you have more personal power, naturally to maintain it.

There’s no need to kill your ego, but it is great when it has less power over you. Feed your spirit!

Enjoy!

It wasn’t actually supposed to be an anti war song when I started writing it. It was more of a song about how reacting to situations without really being aware of the fact that you are just automatically reacting. Just living unconsciously is really missing a big chunk of life and as I was writing it I started thinking about how world leaders, who have so much power of decision at their fingertips behave in just the same way.

We must remember that world leaders are human too, but instead of using that as an excuse for their mistakes, we should be calling them to account and telling them that as a human whose decision can directly affect millions of people, which is what sets them apart from most other humans, they should exercise more responsibility when making decisions that are largely determined by their egos.

Well actually that is about as political as I want to get because I prefer to focus on things that make me feel happy, so that I may have a better chance of spreading a more positive feeling to people I meet. That is my way of helping to change the world, seeing as the only thing I can guarantee having some control over is how I feel… most of the time.

So I’m grateful for the opportunity to say my little bit by being featured on the Living with War page and now my song has said its piece I do feel quite good about that.

Enjoy!

This song is about a struggle with the pest that is known as the mosquito! Yoong is Thai for mosquito and after battling with a mini swarm of them in my studio room, which was disrupting my creative flow the subject matter for the song materialized, so I supposed they actually helped the creative flow in this instance!

I still don’t like them though, even though they seem to love me! These lyrics are supposed to make this a novelty song, but I think it comes across as a rather serious song. Great, a bit of dark humour maybe. No matter how dark or serious this may sound. This song is meant as a joke, but I really like the way it has come out.

What do you think?

Enjoy!

I am still writing songs as part of the FAWM challenge and this is one of those songs. The time passes, the more I feel that writing songs is my number one passion, even if I don’t feel in the mood to do it every day. I am starting to get more and more interest in my music in the way I have always hoped, so the dream of doing this for a living is beginning to materialize.

The period of time alluded to in this song is at the core of what changed my life to put me where I am right now, so it is also fitting that everything feels like it is coming together at the time of this song being written.

Enjoy!

Despite the title, which is the main line in the chorus, this is not some morbid song about not wanting somebody to die. It is a metaphor for encouraging a friend or someone you care about to not give up on their dreams or ambitions.

I’ve seen it before and come close to it myself when people who start out determined, confident and ambitious end up resigned to failure and seem to just give up on everything. It is one of the biggest tragedies people experience and most that do experience this pattern in their life don’t realize what a tragedy it really is because they just buy into the age-old agreement that this is normal life and all that you can expect.

Well I believe that what you expect is what comes about, so if you expect the worst or expect nothing at all then you will get exactly what you expect and guess what I always train myself to expect every day? The best of course!

This song is a story of somebody making a plea to an old friend who has become more and more despondent over time and seemingly giving up on their dreams, or whatever. Its a reminder to them that they still have something of value and they still have what it takes. I think most of us probably have a friend that we could help out with that kind of encouragement. I no longer worry about annoying my friends with my positive stance on things or with my encouragement. If they really aren’t interested then they don’t have to listen, but I know that some part of them may be glad to hear it and keep it there for when they are ready to listen at a later date.

Never give up.

The truth is that it is so common to grip tightly to something, believing that this is the way to keep and control it, but that very approach is what pushes it further away. When a relationship ends for instance all the fears and pre-emptive feelings we had during that relationship are made real, so we get to be right about how we have been dealt a hard blow and that life is so painful.

We say things like "My life will never be the same again". Well that part is absolutely right because the truth is that every morning you wake up your life will never be the same as it was when you went to sleep. In fact in every moment that passes your life will never be the same. It is how existence is.

Life is one brand-new moment and potentially one brand-new you after another, meaning that there is never a moment that you can’t choose to create your life differently to the way you did in the moments before it; the way you want it to be. It means that you can feel the best you can in any moment dependent on what thoughts you choose to focus and act upon.

Don’t Fear Losing
Do you want to lose? If not then you have to live without fear of losing. Nothing actually belongs to you anyway, so fearing losing anything is like praying for having those experiences that mean a lot to you to be taken away. I’ve lost count of the things now that have remained in my life or come back better, stronger and more fulfilling and joyful after I let them go and focused on growing as a person. I’m not sure exactly how it all works, but I can tell you it does.

The fact that you will never be the same person as you were in the moment before is to be embraced and acknowledged. If you remain exactly the same then you are not conscious, you are not living and then how can you truly enjoy the things and the people you have and wish to keep in your life?

This song needs some work. Vocal harmonies and possibly some attention to the arrangement. I can’t decide if this song is clever in the way it transforms or if it is unsure of what kind of song it wants to be. What do you think?

Enjoy!

When I say the world is how it is because of you I mean that you create your own perception of the world around you, just as everyone else does and if we humans were able to maintain a level of awareness about this instead of falling back into our everyday, habitual patterns then we would see that this means it is possible for us to live in a world where we are happy about the way things are and about how we fit into the whole thing. Less conflict and more joy.

This may seem a little far fetched for some, but that’s OK, because I’m not going to preach about this. I’d rather suggest you try it on for size. Imagine choosing your own reality. One where you get to do what you love to do to make your living, which in turn helped other people get what they want out of life. Imagine everyone else choosing to adopt this way of looking at life and you can see it doesn’t take much to realize that this could transform the world we live in. Nobody bothered about what other people’s beliefs are or what they do with their lives. No so-called bad things like persecution, torture, abuse etc… because everybody would be more focused on this new way of thinking. yeah, it sounds idyllic and romantic and not very realistic doesn’t it? Tell that to Martin Luther King. The only people who have actually played a big role in changing the World had one thing in common. they had a positive outlook and they also faced a lot of cynicism, criticism and harsh opposition from those who feared change and found it easier not to bother looking at another perspective. Some even died for the belief of their vision.

But this possibility of choosing how your life is day to day is great because if you don’t currently like what you’re doing now you can change it. Interestingly right now as I type this an email announcing the latest blog post from Bill Harris of Centerpointe Institute of Research (and creator of The Holosync Solution) and it seems pretty fitting to include a link to it, so here goes: Self Fulfilling Prophecies and You.

Hahaha and what’s even more amazing is that Derek Sivers has just sent an email through announcing his website is now available in several languages and included a very apt message about how to stay inspired. Music Thoughts.

OK back on topic (almost). What I’m trying to get at with this song is that you have the power to create the world in a better way, as long as you believe it is possible and, of course if enough other people hold the same belief. If that happens things do change. That is how one person can change the world. Not simply by themselves, but inspiring other people to adopt the same dream.

It’s also, I suppose a message to those who are in power who make decisions based on the limited perspective of their own ego and the egos of their "advisors" and business associates. These decisions are always to fulfil a very short term and insular agenda, basically self gratification and unfortunately that affects many other people.

You’re Not on Your Own, Even Though You Feel Alone
You may feel separate form everything around you, but the truth is that you are more connected and a part of everything around you than you believe and that means that when you do something, whether it is a so-called good or bad thing, that has a knock on effect on things outside of you and your experience. This includes what you think although this is less obvious and takes a lot more than this post to discuss. So, you are not on your own and you make a difference all the time, no matter the nature of your actions.

Its Not So Much Fun Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun
This line was initially thrown in because it sounded cool. I will admit to that, but then I realized that, whilst at first it may not seem to have anything to do with the rest of the song, it actually has, in an abstract sense. Have you ever held a gun to someone’s head? metaphorically speaking I mean. Have you played games with people’s emotions or played on someone’s weakness to get something out of them? I think we all have done that before. Well it’s no fun when it is done to you either is it? I know everyone will be able to say they’ve been on the receiving end too. This is an example of your actions having a permanent effect on the world around you.

But the whole message here is not a moral one. People make decisions, for the most part because they believe they are doing the right thing. Even if that seems totally crazy to other people. The message here is awareness. Awareness of the way we are being in any given moment. Awareness of how we are inviting a repeat of that undesirable situation we keep facing in or lives and awareness of how the "spell" can be broken is key to the human race being able to enjoy all the great things we have on this planet and a whole lot more.

If you stay aware that your actions change the world, then take actions that are of a giving and contributory nature. You’ll find that you will profit from this more over time than if you opt for the take, take, take option.

I am absolutely loving the process of running this online album since I decided to do a more fully recorded track every week. My house becomes a buzzing hive of energy for 3 days of the week or so. Sparks fly and I transcend. It’s just the best. this is the result and is my interpretation of contribution in some way.

Give it your all. ALL THE TIME.

Enjoy!

Well sorry, but I’m not going to take your side on that one, except to say that the phrase "Let it Go" is over used and abused. People say it without really giving any thought to the truth behind it. It’s normally said because they feel uncomfortable seeing you bothered and would feel better if you did, indeed let it go.

However, no matter who people are or what they do or say, letting things go is one of the fundamental pieces of the puzzle of finding happiness. Letting things go does not mean to stop caring, nor does it mean being weak. It’s a bit like how forgiveness works. If you something bothers you then it’s fair to say that you feel worse than if it doesn’t bother you, so would you rather feel better of worse? It’s as simple as that and you are the only one who can make any situation feel better than it may be right now, nobody else chooses your feelings. You do, even if you think your feelings happen to you. They don’t.

This song is a reference to how you can have a good or a bad day depending on your choices about how you feel. For example: A bad day normally starts bad. Maybe with just a small thing when you wake up. You stub your toe on the leg of the bed and curse, then you stagger into the bathroom wondering why you bothered to get out of bed, then you get stuck in traffic and are late for work. The rest of the day is an unfolding of problems, irksome situations and ends in misery. This was all caused by the initial reaction to what happened when awaking. What you experience is a result of where your predominant focus has been prior, so if your focus is on what’s going wrong as soon as you get out of bed then you are potentially setting up the rest of the day as being undesirable because generally the rest follows on, being created and attracted by you sub-consciously.

OK I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but how about choosing to laugh at the comical side of stubbing your toe this morning? If that’s the only thing you’ve got that makes you feel better in that moment then seize it! It is that feeling that sets up the next and where your focus will take you next. Of course, you need to be aware that laughing and seeing the funny or happy side is an option, so I’m making you aware of it now. That’s why awareness is possibly the biggest strength we can develop and guess what. We are all born with the ability to grow our awareness.

It’s actually very obvious to me that if you find a thought that makes you feel good; as good as you can get in the moment then you are going to feel the best you possibly can in that moment and how can that be anything other than the best possible choice? What’s crazy is that it takes a hell of a lot of suffering for many people to come to that realization and even then, many people never really do get to realize it because they don’t become truly, consciously aware of how they think, feel and focus that creates what they don’t want.

I could write about this for ever and ever and never get bored. In fact I write about this stuff at The Neural Recon Report and Leave The Office, which are currently going through redesign work and will be awesome website experiences in the near future.

For now though. I just want to remind you that you have a choice about everything because it is all dependent on how you feel first, which is your choice and your choice only. Letting it go is simply a choice to feel good about the moment, to see the best side of it and to drop the attachment to how a situation should be or how you want it to transpire. That attachment is what causes the suffering, not the situation itself.

Early Warning In The Morning
Everything that follows is your work. That statement may annoy you, but there is some good news. Because of that fact, you always have the ability to change it to exactly the way you want it. The reason many people have a problem with this is that whilst they may try it, they soon stop because they don’t see their life change immediately. If you practice focusing on what you want and exercising your mental "muscle", you will gain the certainty that your life is growing in the direction you want it to and you will naturally find you are dropping your attachment to certain things being a certain way, which you can’t control. Just do it. Let go, be patient, be certain, practice and watch the quality of your life soar to new heights. It doesn’t cost a dime, just a bit of self discipline, but you can afford that surely.

Wow, did you realize that there was so much behind this simple song?

Enjoy!

My approach is that if you want to change something, give up smoking, lose weight, get fit etc… then choose to because you want to and not because you feel you should. Did you know that any commitment that isn’t really rooted with desire is half-hearted and is likely to fail? Well it’s true, but it’s not your fault if you drop your Resolutions. It’s a habit. You are just being you. If you want to make New Year Resolutions then make sure they are things that you naturally desire. You may want to be fit and healthy, but do you really want to go to the gym and work out 3 to 5 days a week, when you normally use that hour or two doing something that makes you happy? Think about that. Real change comes from staying power and staying power comes from a true desire for commitment, so if you feel that way about something, you will have no difficulty in successfully maintaining the discipline required.

I make my resolutions at any time of the year. If I get to a point where I can really see and feel the benefit of doing or changing something then I will commit to it because I can feel it is something I am excited about changing. If that enthusiasm and excitement isn’t there then, for me I know already that I won’t keep it up and that’s OK because when I am ready the commitment will be made.

Interestingly I started running a couple of weeks before Christmas as a "non-New Year" Resolution to improve my fitness and I have seriously painful sciatica as a result. I have a 15 year old back injury and my osteopath told me I was a fool to be running. He is right. So whilst I was actually enjoying running at 6.30 every morning and having no trouble getting up to commit myself, it’s like my higher self was telling me to stop. I wish my higher self could find a less painful way to tell me, but then again I seem to recall some mild sensations that could have been signs, so I won’t pass the blame!

Its Worth The Pain
This song was recorded in rather extreme circumstances. I had to stop literally every few minutes to stretch, lie down and simply breathe my way through agonizing pain… This is what I am prepared to go through to keep The Weekly Songcast going. You see? That’s what I mean by a commitment that is easy to maintain because I swear if it was any other job or task it would not have been completed on time. You may even notice a hint of my agony in the singing and some rough edges to the guitar playing, mainly the tuning, but I just had to get it down. Most of it was done today. In fact though I’m not making excuses. I’m actually very happy with the way this song sounds.

If Its On Paper Then You Have a Chance
I had a fantastic conversation with a good friend of mine recently. I haven’t know him very long, but we’ve spoken about some great stuff and a few weeks ago he told me about the power of writing things down. I had heard this before, but never really committed to it (see where this all ties up now?). I intellectually understood the power of writing down goals, intentions and stuff like that, but never really did it. It may seem crazy, but I assure you that since I have started writing down my intentions, goals and, if you like a scenario of what my life feels like achieving these goals is having the most profound effect. I’ll report more on this over time as things unfold, probably at The Neural Recon Report. What’s amazing is that I had written this song before I had that conversation and then everything made sense to me.

So writing things down changes your life. There I’ll commit myself to saying that because I believe it is true. After all I have been writing things down in song format for over a year now and my life has shifted about 1.2 light years from where it was when I started.

Enjoy!

So this week’s song – Feel is basically an anthem for all those who want to be inspired. Inspired into action, to have a dream, to wake up and be involved more in their day to day lives. This is indicative of the direction I seem to be moving in with my online activity. I started many projects in 2008, which didn’t get far past the design or concept stage, so sat without much sense of purpose for a while, but just before Christmas I saw that all of my seemingly conflicting projects actually had a common thread and that was quite a strong link for all of them to be associated. I’m also really pleased with the audio quality of this one too.

I spent most of last year with more than one online identity. One for friends, one for music related networking and one for my other main topic of interest, which is self growth and development (in case you hadn’t noticed) Now I am happy to bring them all together, so these worlds can fuse and empower each other. I have been studying the concept of niche songwriting and as it happens, my songs do seem to be about a fairly specific topic. I can use my music, writings, web projects and any interest I gather from all of them to communicate my message, which is to follow your dreams, find your heart’s desire and live by it.

I don’t think that point can ever be over stressed or repeated too many times. We are here to experience and we have been given the ability to choose that experience by being who and what we truly are beyond our skin and bones. We are here to FEEL!

Carry on ’til we hit our stride
That’s about perseverance. If you are certain that what you are going for is truly in your heart then you cannot fail, but at those times when it seems to be taking too long to come to fruition, so that you get those doubts, that is when you must carry on, once you hit your stride everything else falls into place. You will meet people who can help your cause, situations that work out in your favour and notice opportunities that will take you closer to your goal. Of course, once you see these things you actually have to then activate your side of the process by taking whatever action is necessary to receive the rewards.

Enjoy!

So this is the last song of the year, so I thought it would be good to make a statement along the lines of my intentions for 2009. I have nowhere near peaked yet. I do believe I am still on an upward trend in terms of my songwriting ability. 2009, I have decided will eclipse 2008 in terms of being a good year. I talk about desire backed by faith and a certainty of success a lot in my posts, both here and at The Neural Recon Report, but now I am actually feeling that rather than just getting the principle at an intellectual level.

In reference to an earlier WSC song, I feel it in my bones. So what else for 2009? I have a list as long as my arm of projects that I want to get moving, but what’s great is that I noticed recently that all these projects are like modules of a bigger, greater cause and they all fit together rather nicely. It means that by focusing on one of my projects I won’t feel uncomfortable about neglecting another because now I can view all of them as steps in one overall, life project.

I know I have spent much of 2008 talking about me here at the WSC, which I apologize for if that gets boring, but I also think that by sharing what I experience and writing about stuff the in the style that is most natural for me is the best way for me to keep creating content. My goal is still to inspire a belief that by making simple choices based on your passion in life and not what you think is expected of you by others is possible. I feel compelled to help, if I can for other people to achieve something they dream about and to experience the feelings I have already had during 2008.

May I wish you all a very Happy New Year and much prosperity, love, happiness and abundance in 2009 and beyond.

Thank you again for listening and reading.

Enjoy! Boy@Heart

I am very grateful to those that have commented here and shown their support. I have had some very encouraging emails and kind feedback from people who visited the site and listened to the songs. Although I have many projects all vying for my attention I want to make 2009 the year that the profile of The Weekly Songcast goes through the roof. I’m not sure about how I’m going to do that right now, but I do know that it’s not possible without the energy of you the listeners and readers.

The Weekly Songcast was born out of my desire to be able to write songs by myself and immediately added to that intention was the desire to inspire the belief in other people that to succeed in something takes little more than making the decision to do it and that includes knowing exactly what you want to do and why… and that’s all you need to start on your path to extraordinary success and the life of your dreams. Get down and start, even if you don’t know how it is all supposed to happen. This project takes up a lot of my time and energy and I don’t think I could have done anything for this long if it wasn’t something close to my heart, so absolutely part of who and what I am, so thanks for keeping me inspired. Now let’s grow this in 2009! What you get here is my heart-felt expression of a life worth living and a source of free inspiring music. Now why wouldn’t you want to tell your friends about that? That’s something to talk about over dinner, in the pub or write about on your blog

I went over a report I received last year about my business personality type, referred to as a wealth profile, which I wrote about on another blog of mine called Traveling Money – Portable Income Ideas (which has been inactive for a while, but due to be revived in 2009). My wealth profile is The Creator and of the other 7 types (there are 8 in total described in the article) I have fair amount of The Star and The Mechanic. I’m glad I found the report again because it made me realize a few things. For me to experience more success with following my passion, which is music I need to focus on what I do best (creating) and team up with a mechanic (systems type mind) and or a deal maker.

For a bit of fun. Have a look over the article and see if you can tell what you are. If you’re a deal maker especially, give me a shout. Maybe we can work together on dominating the world! The year ahead will see me moving into new territory and expanding my horizons even more. Just making one decision in December 2007 has changed my day to day life. I am no longer a guy who knows that one day he can write songs. I am a songwriter whatever anyone says and I love it!

Three Feet From Gold
Inspired by a true story detailed in Napoleon Hill’s "Think and Grow Rich". Just hang in there and if you can’t then accept that there is a lesson to learn from your decision, which will guide you back to glory if you follow it.

Where you’re at right now is where you need to be. If it feels horrible, uncomfortable or frightening, try and step back from those feelings and try to watch them as if they are happening to someone else. Once you do that, you will see that feelings and emotions are two different things. You ARE NOT your feelings and you CAN choose your feelings no matter what you are believing right now. With some distance you may even be able to see in the moment that there is an incredible opportunity for learning and growth from this experience (if you can’t, one day you will realize what it was) and you will see that you are so close to where you want to be you will be able to touch it.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you feel at the end of your tether and thinking of giving up, you are very likely only three feet from gold.

Enjoy!

I also happen to think this is one of the best songs I have done so far. At least as far as being catchy. This one really rocks! I would be really grateful for some feedback too because this seems to be the kind of musical direction I find myself heading in and I am still searching for my perfect audience. I know there is a "Boy @ Heart demographic" lurking out there somewhere. How many of you are there?

There is a part of you, a part of me and a part of everyone else that has got it in for you. I’m not being negative I just want to point out that we all have a side to us that maybe doesn’t quite believe enough in ourselves or our abilities to achieve the things we want to achieve. What is so clever about this "thing" is that it is so familiar to us that we don’t even realize that it has us trapped in it’s cage. Your shadow is there to protect you, but it’s protection is way too much. It’s that voice in your head that is just automatic and you simply accept it without questioning what it is. It tells you that you must play safe, not take risks, not follow your dreams. It’s the voice that tells you that you are about to potentially mess up famously and that it would be advisable to stop now and turn back and resume the normal, safe and uninspired proceedings of your everyday life.

It’s easy to see that a shadow is not real
The voice of your shadow is unrelenting. It only really stops when you are very present to the moment, which is why meditation is so good for raising the levels of your awareness, so you can catch it in the act and see that it is NOT YOU! Not the essence of who you really are and you can see that it doesn’t share your dreams or desires. It’s goals in life are boring compared to yours, so be strong, be bold, be big and above all: Don’t be afraid!

Enjoy!

It’s what brings me to this week’s song. I decided mid-week that I would now be publishing a complete, produced song every week in order to make 2009 different to the past year. 2008 was when I started writing complete songs and I gathered some staggering momentum and to date have written nearly 80 songs in less than a year, so 2009 has a lot to live up to. I am intent on taking myself to a level I have never got myself before.

Here’s the thing. It took me longer to complete the full-blown song than I thought. It is all recorded, but not mixed, so it will have to be next week that visitors will be treated to more Power-Poptastic energy from The Boy @ Heart. From next week the theme will be a finished song and worthy of official release. So far I seem to be naturally going in a rock/pop direction. I think it’s the vocal harmonies I love doing those. I will post about the direction the music is taking very soon on the Boy@Heart site

After a bit of a crossroads in my life (yes another one!) for the last few weeks I have allowed a little bit too much internal conversation get the better of my judgment and have been perpetuating the big taboo of worrying about what I am going to do and how I will be able to pay future bills, making it all seem like such an important problem and today after some intense recording work I remembered the reality, which is that I know what it is I should be doing, so I am going to continue with that come what may. I might still get foggy thinking about how I can promote my music online and how I can improve my networking skills. In fact the main thing is to put a band together and play. I was thinking a trio with all members singing. I like the sound of that.

Anyway what with thinking about my situation, regardless of the size of my bank balance, I realized that I am a bloody rich bloke! I am also extremely grateful for the wonderful things I have in my life and I feel like a right ungrateful so-and-so for forgetting that at times. I give permission for anyone to remind me of it too. So… I live in a beautiful place, I have the opportunity to do something I love to do everyday and I have a staggeringly fantastic wife and a very supportive family on the other side of the World looking out for me too. If I forget any of that then surely it must be hard to justify deserving it, so there it is…

I’m a rich man. I was from the start
I believe that if you are totally happy and grateful right now in the moment with the way things are then that is the only way that what you desire can possibly happen for you. Seeing as it is you who creates everything in your reality, it stands to reason that if you are not appreciative of what you have, your thoughts are on that which you don’t want and guess what you’re asking the universe for when your thoughts are like that? You got it! More of the same old S**T. Clean up your thinking. You’re a rich person too!

Enjoy!

I have grappled in the past with things that I wanted to be a certain way, but turned out the way I didn’t want them to and more recently I have been able to take responsibility for them as I get more insight into my own way of being in past situations. Sometimes I even get to witness a past event that had a lasting effect on me and how I perceived everything without me ever knowing what a grip it had over my way of being. Once this witnessing has taken place I then get to see it for what it really was: Simply an event, a chapter, nothing but another episode in the story of my life and it doesn’t take long to fall away and free up a chunk of energy that I am then able to channel into creating my life the way I desire it to be.

Of course. There are many of these blockages still residing and they are still standing in the way of certain things I want to achieve in life. In truth they are all choices I have made, so therefore they can only be unmade by myself and for me to do that I have to see them again, long after they have been forgotten and buried. The thing is though that, whilst they may be buried deep, they are far from forgotten because they are at the root of the subconscious programming and automatic behaviour that sees me create my reality every day. Sounds hopeless doesn’t;t it? Well what’s great about that is that my subconscious knows exactly where I need to release certain blockages in order to empower myself in the direction that I really want to go and all I need to do is keep asking it where to look next.

Of course, that’s where the difficulty comes in, seeing as the subconscious is not just someone I can sit down with and ask directly for answers. In order for me to get these answers and look in the right places I have to be on a level with my subconscious, which means turning down all that noise in my mind to the point where there is space for it’s voice to be heard, then the communication is instant, powerful and very enlightening. I find meditation helps me here tremendously, but it still seems to happen that I forget all of this the next day and have to remind myself again of how my life can be bigger. It’s a gradual thing and for me it is part of what living is all about; to remember all the things that I forgot as soon as I arrived.

Gotta Exorcise These Demons Somehow
Imagine what life could be without them, or at least without the ones that have the most grip over you. It is possible and I believe beyond them is the ability to create your life as you wish it to be, at will, effortlessly and for the good of all around you. I think we should all try exorcising our demons, because whatever you say… we all have at least one.

Enjoy!

OK so this week’s song comes at the right time to help put some awareness into where my focus is and to then work out where I want it to be. I suffered a couple of setbacks in the week; results I didn’t want and it put me down for a while, so I was able to see that I was focusing on being a victim of circumstance, which will only give rise to more outcomes just like it. At time like these I always go back to Napoleon Hill. He said "Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit". Even when I can’t see the benefit I trust it is there, I am grateful for it and somewhere down the line I do notice how I was to benefit, so the lesson to learn here is just never to let anything outside of you stop you trying.

What you touch turns to gold… or to dust
You are blessed with the ability to choose your attitude in any situation at the beginning of any process. It is that attitude that will determine the outcome if it is maintained. An attitude of low self esteem or disbelief will, unsurprisingly yield a result close to your initial thoughts and fears. "Whether you believe you can or can’t… You are right": Henry Ford.

For more reading on how your thoughts and your resulting actions can determine your reality and how you can replace any less-than-useful thought patterns with more constructive ones, read The Neural Recon Report.

Enjoy!

It started on the morning I flew to Bangkok when I felt some discomfort in my lower back. I have an old back injury that resurfaces from time to time, but not normally as strong as it came on this time. My lower spine just stopped moving, basically and I was walking around like I had a rod up my…. you know what!

I found an osteopath (seeing as my usual guy is 6,000 miles away in London) and he seems to have done a good job, along with giving me the news that the symptoms are not indicative of any damage; mostly muscle tension. Since being stretched and twisted I am feeling so much better and much more mobile. I decided during the last few days that, although I wanted to be pro-active I just needed to rest and stop doing anything, especially sitting in front of my computer, which is largely a cause of the initial back strain I think. It’s not easy to get comfortable in front of a laptop.

So I’ve had a little downtime and I may take a little bit more for a day or two before really getting down to promoting my album and finding a promoter or someone to help manage my publicity a little bit… hint hint

Downtime
Sometimes your body tells you it’s time to stop and recharge and I mean more than just time for bed. After what can be a long time of relentless abuse of your system (Your body can take a hell of a lot) on a project that you are driven by, it is easy to forget about taking care of yourself properly. Even if you try to do so, there can be things you neglect and your body knows better than you do when it needs some time to repair. This is why it is crazy when people drag themselves to work when they are sick. I mean truly sick. We get sick for a reason. When we are out of balance, disease and sickness are signals to redress the balance. In this day and age, the causes of this imbalance are often rooted in our jobs and careers, our fear of losing them. In my case it is the feeling of losing ground in some way if I stop doing anything for a moment and the truth is that when I am doing something for the sake of doing it, that is a sure sign of wasted energy.

I intend to remain in the best of health and to give myself the time and rest I require to maintain that so I can be as effective as possible in achieving all my goals. You heard it here!

Enjoy!

Unfortunately my internet connection has gone down (again) just at the time I was about to go away for a few days, so I had to abandon those plans and quickly find an internet cafe on my way to where I was going to publish this week’s song. I’ll put the video on Youtube when I get the chance.

I wanted to put the video to music and when I got home I thought how it fitted with this song. What I was filming was so much larger than myself and effortlessly successful in fulfilling its purpose without fail every day.

The whole universe is made of the same stuff… literally. Stars are made primarily of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon. We are made of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon. We are made of the same stuff that stars are made of. It stands to reason as far as I can see that we have the potential to just as effortlessly fulfill our own purpose in life instead of fighting against something all the time, which is usually something within ourselves anyway.

This is the first attempt as a video episode of The Weekly Songcast. I like it, not only because it is a reminder of how amazing this world isl, but because it was so quick to put together. A small example of what can be effortlessly created with some inspiration.

"If you give up the fight… You’ll be larger than life"
While that line may sound strange, it is the constant fighting that keeps us from being as big as we could be. Have you heard the phrase "What you resist persists"? This is because what you are fighting against or trying to stop, avoid etc… is where your focus is and focusing on what you don’t want makes you suffer. When you suffer or just plain feel bad, you are not fulfilled and therefore you diminish yourself. I declare that it is all our duties to be larger than life! How about it?

Enjoy!

In short I’ve got a new dog called Bam Bam and he is a real character and gets up to all sorts of mischief including a recent episode where he was regularly visiting the neighbour’s house to have a poo! Yep, he’s a naughty fella, but he is a dog and he had his tackle snipped too when he was a tiny pup, so I guess he’s got to find a way of having some fun somehow!

This song was not actually written about Bam Bam. I wrote it before I got him, but it seems like a good opportunity to actually post a picture that is almost relevant to the song for a change. I’m taking a break from sharing insights this week and just posting a fairly light and easy song and a nice little message to say that I think my dog is great. Of course he has no idea I said that, but if he did, he’d probably say… "Stop being so soft… Can I have some chicken!"

Top Dog
Yes you can be the top dog if you want to be. Are you ready for the responsibility though? It’s a big one! Actually I’ve just thought how apt that is what with the US elections being round the corner. Who’s gonna be the top dog? What do you think?

What is important however is the fact that when I am less than tip-top and indulging in my less constructive beliefs I am much quicker to spot it and act quickly. It normally involves taking a moment to see if I can tell what it is that I am focusing on that I do not want and finding a way to move that focus onto something I do want. What is even more effective is when I can see exactly what I am focusing on that I do not want and finding a way to invert that focus, so those thoughts (most of them start sub-consciously) are transformed into something I do want.

Actually I think this is a fundamental factor in day to day happiness. How we feel is largely the result of what we are focusing on. When you focus on something you do not want it makes you feel bad. Very simple really. Spend more time focusing on what you want and not only will you feel better, but you will also be far more likely to find ways of creating what it is you want into stark reality.

If you have heard the phrase "Thought become things" this is a typical example of it. People who are generally happy in their life spend more time thinking about things they want than things they don’t. Ask them, even if they don’t realize the connection they’ll be able to tell you that much. For instance, how can you complain about something if you are thinking about what you want. It’s impossible. You can only complain or suffer if your focus is on that which you do not want and don’t worry about being human. You can’t have perfect thoughts all the time. The secret is to be aware of when when you are thinking yourself into a slump, so you can do something about it. Happiness is not reached through fate or luck. It is the result of a particular way of thinking and acting.

I Relish Those Moments Now
So I wrote this when feeling a little powerless compared to normal and, funnily enough this is not the first time I have done that with the result being a song I am rather pleased with. Can we please all now just start viewing so called "bad" feelings as potential for creative expression and possible breakthrough and growth?

I have been meditating pretty intensely for over a year now, you can read about that in my Holosync Diary at The Neural Recon Report. What I have learned is that chaos comes with the territory and is a part of evolution and growth. Every so often I hit a wall and feel like I don’t know who I am or where I am going. All my inspired plans and ambitions become foggy and sometimes even look to be so far away. Part of me actually relishes these moments because it knows that things are changing. The being I am rather than the person I have built around it is about to become more apparent, which means more access to more personal power… That part of me is the part that is more awakened than the character I have built with a name, an age and a shoe size. It is the very essence of who I am.

Throughout the tracking of my debut solo album "All in a Life’s Work" and the mix sessions that are beginning this weekend, repetition is something I am getting used to! I have heard every nuance of these songs so many times over that I can remember every detail in my head and this is the main point of this week’s post.

I write over at the Neural Recon Report about the techniques that can be used to purposefully re-wire your brain to be more effective in achieving the goals you set out to achieve. Nearly all of what determines our success is governed by our subconscious patterns of thinking and acting. The conscious mind is responsible for setting the stage as it were, deciding on the goal or the intention, but it really has very little power beyond that. What do you think is responsible for your motivation to keep working on the goal or to get you out of bed to continue when you feel like a lie in? It is the sub-conscious and it is like a thermostat.

Over time, through experience and what decisions you made about yourself and the world in which you fit, you were setting up a certain state of programming in your mind to the effect of it being so automatic now that certain ways of thinking and acting that you perform every day go unnoticed, just like the automatic functions you carry out every day to keep your heart beating and your lungs pumping. The thermostatic nature of this is what keeps you doing "your thing" over and over again. You can make a conscious effort to change something about yourself, but if you don’t imprint that intention as a belief in your sub-conscious very little will change.

So the principle of auto-suggestion; ways in which to instill more empowering, constructive or positive beliefs and habits about a certain thing in order to have far more power in achieving your goals and living the life you want is where this is going and repetition is one of the most effective ways in which we learn things and become better at with more of it. Repetition of a positive thought for example is very likely to bring about a habit of that thought naturally rather than having to try to think about it and the "better" your thoughts, the better things around you appear. I know from experience if I happen to be feeling happy and positive and all those flowery things then I seem to happen upon positive situations more naturally, like meeting happy people rather than miserable ones for example.

Repetition of a New Philosophy
I encourage you to create an alternative, more empowering outlook on a particular situation today and keep repeating it to yourself, writing it down and just thinking about it as much as you possibly can for a while. As the saying goes "Fake it until you make it". If you feel like you are lying to yourself, then remember that your sub-conscious mind cannot tell the difference between a lie and reality. It just takes your orders and processes them according to the programming that you determine and you can choose to change the way that happens if you really want to. I believe you will find it will make a difference. Before I started this podcast I believed I couldn’t write lyrics, so I started saying to myself "I am a complete songwriter" instead of "I want to be…" or "I wish I was…" It didn’t take long for that statement to become a hard fact. Now it doesn’t actually matter if my lyrics are good or if they are C**P because it’s all subjective anyway, but what is important is that I am happy about what I create and what I achieve and much of that has been down to the power of repetition.

This week’s song is featured on the album and it might just end up being the opening track. It’s a song I wrote during the 50/90 challenge and is one that got written very quickly. It took as long as it takes to play, to write, pretty much. After the album is finished I am going to consider more closely a new approach I thought of for The WSC.

I will continue the new song every week concept, but I am thinking it might be fun to start publishing a produced, finished recording of a new song every week. That way I will not have to re-record songs later. I have so many songs now, it will take a long time to produce them all properly, but I do intend to eventually, so by combining the production process with the songwriting process I believe I can still maintain the philosophy of sharing the songs as they come out, whilst being able to make them finished pieces of work as I go along.

I am not going to get too fussy about making the production too perfect. I have noticed that my favourite records all have quite significant imperfections in them, which I think is why they sound so inspiring because they remind me that what I am listening was created by real people and real instruments. I want the spirit of the song to come across. I have also decided too, during recording of this album to completely drop out of "The Loudness War". The modern approach to finished recordings is to compress the sound so much to make them so loud in order for them to stand out more on the radio than other records, but this is actually a complete misnomer. They don’t actually sound louder on the radio and in fact on your stereo the result is that modern music, as a result is simply tiring to listen to. Listen to old Led Zep or Bowie records for example. They absolutely rock, they have superb production, loads of attitude and they are about half as "loud" as records recorded today. That is what the volume control is for on your system. Use it please!

What I Got
This song is quite simply an expression of being grateful for what I have and not being so attached to specific outcomes or things. Like it says in the song If I’m moving up or falling down, it’s all part of the game. Look I love in a tropical paradise with a gorgeous, inspiring woman, doing what I love most of the time, eating lunch by the beach, watching beautiful sunsets, meeting new & interesting people and being more creative than ever. What can I possibly have to complain about? I have learned to look for the lesson in any so called setback. Even if I can’t see it straight away I trust that there is always a lesson there.

Go and do something you love today, even if you only have 5 minutes to do it… and enjoy!

Knowing this doesn’t make it any easier to accept though and because I have been totally focused on recording my album I have neglected my website activity for a while. Still this is only temporary and I haven’t forgotten the Weekly Songcast. Recording of the album “All in a Life’s Work” is taking over my life at the moment. I have more time for it now, seeing as I’m not breaking off to write and record new songs for the 50/90 challenge, but I still have a way to go. It will be vocals as of Monday 6th October. The biggest part! The good news is that the album is already half mixed because I have been mixing it I go, so this means that there is less work to do than appears and I am very happy with how it sounds

With all this in mind I suppose this week’s song is pretty topical. Just as long as I keep going then things will come together. I believe that just about the biggest thing that stops people from success and achievement is giving up for any reason. sounds obvious doesn’t it? So why do so many of us give up at some point or another if it is such an obvious fact. Maybe we’re all too good at seeing the mistakes others make and not our own.

My ear is better. I have been on antibiotics for a week, which I didn’t like because they made me feel very tired and I couldn’t drink any beer… even with ice!

Keep On Walking
Whatever you do just keep on walking. I think I’ve said it before, but I have found that the best way to really get something is through repetition until it gets right into the bones, so I will say it again. You may be closer to success than you think, so just keep going and have faith in yourself to create the outcome you desire.

Volume 3 of The WSC will be available as soon as I get the time to upload it to the web store and check out The Boy at Heart website: Soon I will announcing various ideas I have. I don’t know whether to run a competition or something with a more personal touch for loyal visitors.

Enjoy!

So now my family visit to rural, Southern Thailand (as shown in the picture) is set up nicely. I will not have to worry about whether I will be able to get that elusive last song written when I get back home on the last official day of the challenge. I can immerse myself in 3 days of real Thai culture. I feel so good about myself I can’t begin to put it into words.

This is a bit of a rush post too. I have been so caught up in completing the challenge and working hell-for-leather on recording my album I almost forgot to update The WSC! I am supposed to be in bed getting rested for a long drive early in the morning, but I just realized that I hadn’t posted this week’s song and if I missed doing that I would miss my first weekly deadline to date and that is just not acceptable. In fact soon or in the new year, I haven’t decided yet, I will be upping the ante at The WSC, but I won’t divulge all the details yet until I have a very clear mission statement of that. It seems only right to raise the bar after blowing all my goals and targets in the area of songwriting out of the water. I don’t think I have ever obliterated a target goal like this before. Thanks to the 50/90 challenge and all those involved. Now my profile page on the challenge proudly shows the word WINNER. I like that

The price of this small success of mine has been a temporary dip in health. I think I suffered some lack of sleep and I have an ear infection and feel very drained physically. Emotionally however I am really on fire and that reminds me to also thank my wife for her continuous support and belief in me. I love you teerak!

On a Roll
No "meaningful" message this week. I’ll spare you the lectures. I’m going to take this opportunity if I may to bask in my own glory and feel pleased with myself. Sorry I’ll be back to normal next week In the meantime get on a roll. It’s really easy to do. Don’t think about it, just get into something you really love and it will happen. Just make sure you get your sleep!

Quick thanks to a couple of folks, who have helped inspire me with ideas during the last three months.

Enjoy!

Do you know people who just never seem to be able to go five minutes without complaining about something, whether it is about their dissatisfaction with their lives or just about any small detail that happens to have grabbed their attention?

I have been guilty of this myself and these days I am purposefully dealing with that. I complain so much less than I used to. It’s basically a gratitude thing. Complaining is a way of being ungrateful for what you already have. Of course some people do have a lot of seemingly justifiable things to complain about, but even then, complaining about them only gives such circumstances more power over you.

It is so important to engage with something that really gives you a sense of belonging in this world, doing something you love to do and in doing so being more to other people as is so eloquently put by Tina Su at Think Simple Now: One of my favourite blogs on the entire web. When you do that and become outstanding as Tina puts it, you will automatically have far less to complain about. How can you think about stopping what you are doing to complain when what you are doing is giving you a great sense of fulfillment and joy?

Living in South East Asia where the standard of living for many people is not as high as it is in the West has really helped to educate me in the fact that happiness comes first, before all the comforts and luxuries and especially before money. Not only in the sense of it being more important, but it literally comes first. You don’t attain happiness by coming into money or a new car; at least not true, lasting happiness anyway. If you want to be happy, you have to choose to be happy and start now before anything else has a chance of becoming real for you.

The people here are generally less stressed than back home in the UK, they smile nearly all the time and most of them don’t get grey hairs until they are well into old age! There’s a lesson! I noticed the same thing too when I travelled around Cambodia in 2004. Those people really do have very little compared to the West, but they seemed to have much more in the way of inner peace and happiness. It was obvious even from 100 yards away and think what those people have gone through in the last 30 or 40 years. Food for thought.

Stop Complaining
Complaining is like praying for what makes your life a drag. Can you imagine waking up every morning putting your hands together and saying "I pray for misery, suffering and all things annoying in my day, Amen". That would be ridiculous wouldn’t it? Well a perpetual habit of complaining is pretty much doing just that, especially when you already have things in your life that other people would be really happy to have.

You know the old saying "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it"? Well stop complaining and you will stop getting many things in life that you don’t want.

Enjoy!

It struck me not that long ago that it is quite common for me to learn and therefore know something intellectually, but not really get it into my body, so to speak and thus not really integrating my new knowledge into my life effectively, which is the case for most people.

What the blazes am I talking about?

Well, I’ll give an example: Let’s say you get angry a lot and it’s become so regular and automatic that it just becomes normal; you don’t even question it because it just happens, pretty much without you even noticing. Of course everybody around you notices because they can see it happening, just as you notice all the so-called negative traits of other people, which they don’t see about themselves.

Then, one day you do notice and you start to realize just how much you get angry and you even tell yourself that you know this isn’t working for you and you vow to control it better. This is a good start, but this is a level of knowing that doesn’t have a great deal of power. How many people know they should stop smoking, but don’t?

In My Bones
So, knowing with your conscious mind is only part of it, but with practice that knowing can become deeper and eventually it does integrate into your being as a new habit or pattern, which is more resourceful and that is what I describe in this song as in my bones. It’s more that just knowing, it is a feeling. There are certain things I knew, which have transformed from just knowing to feeling quite recently and I have to say it feels great. I truly believe that making the decision to follow my dream is playing a big part in this, so I recommend following your passion in life and if you don’t know what that is yet then take a few minutes every day to quietly reflect on it and ask yourself because inside you already know what it is.

Enjoy!

It transpires that this song has proved to be quite a hit with a few of the other songwriters on the challenge. Somebody cited it as one of her favourite songs and that notion was approved by others too. It made me realise that what I see as my best songs really are only my opinion and you just cannot predict what makes a great song all the time because so much of it depends on the listener. Yet more evidence of the fact that reality is in most part created by yourself.

This is why people’s perception of art is so wildly varied. Everything is potentially art, because it is up to the person who experiences it to decide what it is to them. What I don’t understand as artistic, may be someone else’s idea of a perfect expression of art. This is why I have a bit of a problem with some critics in the media because many of them (not all) give you their opinion without any awareness that is all they are giving you. Another reason to welcome both good and bad reviews of your work, because that means exposure. For everyone who doesn’t like your work, there is another who loves it and a review of either polarity plays a part in introducing a potential fan of your work, who would otherwise not have discovered it.

I also had the privilege of sharing some of my insights about making music in an interview on Blog Talk Radio with Maria Palma, who is a professional blogger, artist and entrepreneur in California USA.

Hearts on Fire
Look inside, you have everything required to set our hearts on fire. This is a line from the song and the one which reminded me, as I wrote it that no matter where you believe yourself to be in your life, you are affecting people and things around you and with that in mind you can choose to be inspiring. Funny thing is that I wrote down an intention that I have expressed in thought for years that I want to inspire people, about two days after actually writing it down on paper I received a comment on this song from a fellow songwriting member of the 50/90 challenge that their heart had been set on fire and they felt inspired. That’s the power everybody has if they wish to access it and it is not hard to do, simply decide that it is what you want to do and mean it! You could inspire somebody in the most unexpected way and it doesn’t even have to be profound. In fact the reality is that you do inspire people everyday, so the real point is to choose to be aware of how you do.

Just for the record. Everybody who visits The Weekly Songcast inspires me to keep going and for that I am eternally grateful.

Enjoy!

What’s behind this song really is the fear of and resistance to change that most of us have, whether we realize that’s what it is or not. People change and things change. It is the only thing you can rely on in this universe; the only thing that is constant is the process of change. It never stops, so if you find yourself disappointed in somebody because ‘they have changed’, drop it and look at yourself. This is also aplicable to the need to be right all the time. Sorry to be blunt, but that’s where the problem (if there is one at all) lies. Your perception of what is around you. How can people be wrong for changing? They are not and cannot ever be defined out of your desire for what they should or should not be. If that bothers you then you can do some changing yourself and see it from a healthier perspective.

People can only be themselves and if that is not 100% the same as you want them to be (which is pretty much always the case) you are going to feel bad if you can’t accept it.

Change means being alive. A straight line on a heart-rate machine in the hospital indicates that the patient has stopped living. It indicates life and activity with a line that fluctuates between opposites. Hey people, this is what life is anyway! If you want good then there has to be bad by which good can have reference. Or you could cheer yourself up loads by accepting things as they are, playing the good vs bad game just a little by having a preference for something, but accepting when things are not exactly the way you prefer. It’s called being grateful for what life teaches you and it is the attitude by which you can be much happier and more successful, believe me I have tried both approaches. I know which one I prefer, even if I do sound crazy!

I got these feelings, I don’t wanna believe in
What do I mean? Well, for a start these words just came out like this, which is normally how my lyrics happen. I then listened to what just came out of my mouth and wondered where it came from and this is what I came up with. I do quite a lot of ‘inside work’ on myself in order to grow in awareness and I have to tell you it’s working. I am starting to see how much of what happens in my life is created my me, especially through beliefs I have that are running the show all the time. I recently identified some deeply held beliefs about myself that I never really knew I had and these beliefs didn’t really help me out all that much. These are the beliefs I no longer wish to have, instead forging new, more positive ones; hence the line mentioned above. Wow as I type the Heavens have opened and it is lashing down with rain. I HAVE THE POWER! Hahahaha!

I also write The Neural Recon Report, where I discuss things like beliefs and how your reality is governed by what you are programmed to focus on and filter out automatically and the fact that you can re-program to more consciously apply those filters and focus where you actually want to put your energy. That topic of discussion has brought me an exponential increase in creativity and an abundant source of inspiration for much of my music, which I want to pass on and share with you. Please remember though I am no university, qualified doctor or neuro-scientist. I am just talking from my personal experience.

Oh and by the way I’m always right.

Enjoy!

It is with this desire I chose to do a more light-hearted song this week, inspired to write a humorous song by listening to a superb songwriter from the UK called Ben Walker. Check him out… after you have listened to my song! … By the way this guy has just written the most ingenious song about the phenomenon of social networking on the internet called "You’re No-one if You’re not on Twitter". Here is an interesting update on Ben’s Twitter song as of 25th August

I never even think about writing songs like this normally, so I feel good that I did actually manage this with as much free flowing smoothness as my normal writing style. I hope this means I am improving as a songwriter, so I can keep surprising and entertaining you all.

Here in Thailand it seems to be a custom to drink beer with ice in it. Of course the first time I saw this I thought it was crazy. After all I am from the UK and we all know how much people from the UK like to drink, especially the girls these days! Anyway I tried it and now I seem to have developed a taste for it. Maybe it’s because it’s the only way to keep it cold enough during the day when it can be so hot, especially sitting at a bar by the beach.

Of course I hardly ever do such a lazy thing myself , but I do find myself justifying the practice of drinking beer with ice to myself a lot and it has become a habit, but what the heck anyway!

The truth is that I don’t always drink beer with ice, but I do drink it and I like it and I just don’t give one if you judge me for it!

Whatever your poison…

Enjoy!

I rented a bungalow in this very spot and as a bonus, my wife and I stayed here for the night and watched the sunset again.

Anyway after that dinner, we came home and I got down to writing a song. After a little time working on a new idea I took a kind of break and just started strumming some chords and humming a melody. A-ha! A new song presenting itself. Inspired by the view I had earlier in the day I had my first verse, which then took me in the direction that is demonstrated in the rest of the song. It took minutes to finish, which is always a sign that it is time very well spent and a good result.

It’s a simple structure, not much to it, but right now this song is one of my favourites so far. I do love it when a song comes out like this. I think some of my best songs to date have transpired in this way, where I was working on another song and get distracted by a flash of inspiration. In reference to last week’s song I must have been listening!

Make The Most
There is only one life for you to experience. Of course depending on your beliefs and for for all I know there could be many, but it is advisable to live your life as if it is the only one. If you knew today was your last day, what would you do? Watch TV, have an adventure, spend it with your loved ones? Also the fact that there is only one life to savour means that every moment you are being given the opportunity to make it special. I was fortunate enough to see very clearly recently that what seemed like disasters in the past were essential lessons for me today. I have a lot to say about that and about being ready for your big chances in another episode. Until then…

Enjoy!

Bonus: The tracks on both these albums are the same tracks featured here in the weekly episodes with a few exceptions and differences:

First of all the tracks have all been re-mastered to sound better, especially together as an album. Also 3 tracks on Volume 2 are alternative recordings, previously unpublished here. Details of which are given in the store.

If you want to buy, simply follow the links below and the rest is easy!

• The WSC Volume 1
• The WSC Volume 2

Enjoy!

This is usually due to not having all the factors in place for me to know which step is the right one to take next. Ludicrous really because we never have that guarantee of which is the best step to take, only the choice, to take this step, that one, or stand still and we all know where standing still will take us!

Your heart is the connection to everything that powers life. I don’t mean simply your beating heart in your chest, but you, without your ego and without your skin and bones. The part of you that is awake when you sleep and is bigger than your physical body. It is the connection.

No matter how much I know this in my head, it is never enough to stop me falling into the trap of waiting for a sign from outside to tell me what I should do next, but the time it takes me to notice that is diminishing. Your heart has all the answers and is more aware than you can possibly imagine. I’m referring to that part of you that makes you look over your shoulder just as you were about to pull out on the road, revealing another car in your blind spot. It’s your intuition that saves you and even if you take a step that doesn’t meet the success you were hoping, it’s you intuition that knows why you took that step as it has a very definite lesson for you to learn, so you will be ready enough for your successes when they present themselves to you.

Listen to Your Brave Heart
A while ago, my wife wanted me to write a song called Listen to Your Heart. Cynically, my initial thought was that this would be too cheesy a subject to write about. After all, how many say Listen to Your Heart every day. When you hear things so often they lose their meaning and become cliches, but they have only been said so often because of the truth they contain.

So after some time I opened my mind a little and told myself to put my cynicism to one side and see if I could write a song about listening to your heart. I’m happy enough with it to share it here and if it’s cheesy I don’t care because I know that the sentiment is real and heartfelt.

Enjoy!

Apart from being a bit of a self-growth junkie I am also into having a mission rather than just writing songs and releasing them without really knowing why. This may alienate some people from getting my music, but that’s OK because I’m not trying to appeal to the entire World. I’ll be open about my philosophies, insight, inspiration for what I write and just stuff I like, who I am, that sort of thing.

What I hope people find intriguing here is that these songs are laid bare and almost without exception they are all recorded live as I write them, so what you get to hear is the song as it is born, almost as I do when I hear it for the first time, before it is refined and polished. I do believe that many artists wouldn’t dream of presenting their music in this way, but I want to authentically express myself through my music and this just seems like the most natural way for me to stay true to my philosophy of expressing the music first and foremost rather than giving the songs a make-over before showing them off. My image is myself, as you would find me on any given day in any given place.

I will apply my own production techniques to what I have written; improving, modifying and adapting the lyrical ideas if necessary and recording them in my studio, releasing them as albums and giving some of them away, but these versions will always serve to remind me and anyone else who listens that the heart of my music is exposed without anything to hide behind or be shielded by. Some people, no doubt may prefer the songs this way.

That is how I aim to be myself. Every week between Friday and Sunday a new song will appear and be available to download for free. I will also make these same songs available for sale for those who feel compelled to support the cause and any other interesting ideas I come up with to make the experience at The Weekly Songcast richer I will include here.

As things progress I would love to this to grow to a point where it is viable for me to travel to wherever there is a demand to play live. That is a big ambition of mine; to be able to travel overseas for a few weeks at a time, playing a handful of gigs to people generous enough to want to support me, picking up new supporters as I go and returning home for a while to get back to creating more inspiring material and I know that I could do this without having to put up with being really famous.

I can’t think of a better job!

Lastly, I am still digging deep in my imagination for an idea for a business that serves independent musicians & artists so well that it enables anyone who has the talent and a true desire to make a living doing it. We have to make this world a better place. We can only do that if we all encourage, support and guide each other to find what we love to do and to do it. If we are doing this then we need not spend any time thinking about things that we do not want in our lives. I can do that in the field of music because I love it and I love those who love music, so I will as best I can.

The end of this mini episode resulted in me having the level of clarity I needed to put the plans for my dream lifestyle back on track and this song. I am becoming more aware of my unconscious thoughts and beliefs; my internal map of reality and I’m totally excited by what I notice about my everyday self. I notice something I hadn’t seen before nearly every day. The more aware I am of these less-than-beneficial ways of being, the less I am able to perpetuate them. I hope that makes me a better person to know. I know it makes me feel like a better person.

The possibilities in life really are huge. You don’t have to have a life’s mission that is global, but if it is what is truly in your heart then you will have a positive effect on the world around you and live a life to be proud of. Think about how you would like your children to be influenced by the kind of life you lead. That always puts it into perspective.

I Can’t Lose


Once you get into something you really love and make it your function in life then you are a success, no question about it. Forget any outside notion of what success is supposed to be. Success is the feeling that you are actually here fulfilling a purpose in your life, which in turn will make you generally happy about life. The irony is that if you take that leap of faith and be brave enough to follow your heart, despite apparent obstacles, for example lack of money and having bills to pay (change the record please!) you will find that lack of money will not be a problem. Those success stories you hear where people followed their dream and came close to giving up when they hit rock-bottom, but just past that point everything came together. those stories are real. It’s how life works. It is, you could say the test in life. Are you able to live by the code that is the human experience and succeed? Well I believe everybody is capable regardless of your situation. I just wish the education system focused more on how to create the life you want whilst enriching this world for other people instead of telling them to stop daydreaming and focus on what is supposedly important.

Enjoy!

So once my studio is fully operational (I have had some electrical power issues) I will be doing what I have been dreaming of doing for years; recording music in my studio in a tropical paradise! The next part of the dream will be to make a living doing that and forgetting what the inside of a typical office really looks like!

Download to your heart’s content (it’ll also give me an idea of which songs are the favourites)

Enjoy!

The survey is here.

I got to use my new Thai drum, known as a khlong yao and it sounds pretty good. It cost me 199 baht and I think it was a bit of a bargain!

The subject matter of this song is inspired by a process devised by a Zen Master by the name of Genpo Roshi. Big Mind, Big Heart is quite a remarkable transformative process. Here is a really great description of Big Mind, Big Heart by Ken Wilbur.

Regardless of all the above however, I do find this song to have an uplifting feeling to it. I’m very pleased with it.

Big Mind Big Heart


I have not had the opportunity to attend any of the Big Mind, Big Heart workshops, but I have a DVD of such a workshop, which I watched, undisturbed for about 2 hours and I have to say I had quite a profound experience just watching that. I have to say thanks to Zen Master Genpo Roshi.

Enjoy!

I am about to start promoting this website properly and the more information I can gather about the kinds of people who actually like this music, the better I will be able to hone my craft to make it as good as it can be for its chosen audience.

Its like this. In order to effectively get the word out about my music I need to spend as much of that energy on those people I know will enjoy and feel some benfit from listening to the songs instead of wasting time and energy on a trial and error basis. What use is there of writing songs for a living and sharing them with people who might not appreciate that sharing? Much better to take the time now to find out those people who want to invite The WSC into their music library.

I encourage all visitors here to leave feedback. I would really apreciate you take the short amount of time to fill it in. I also encourage you to be very, honest with your feedback. If you hate my music and you decide you never want to return to this website and you tell me so. I will be very grateful fro the feedback because you will giving me valuable information about the kind of people I am doing this for.

don’t hold back on the comments. In fact I will most likely publish the funniest response in the future, so if you’ve got something to say, good or bad say it because to me it is all good because it is all enlightening information to me.

Get critical…. Here!

I had to revert back to 2.5.1 to keep continuity on this website. If you don’t use podpress every week, you may be OK. News is that is should be fixed in about 10 days from now.

You can read more details here at Wordpress support or here at Podcasting News.

For information from the developers of Podpress, look at ths thread from the Mighty Seek Forum

Keep podcasting regardless of the hurdles!

I now wake up at 4am, which sounds pretty crazy I know, but here are the benefits here in Thailand: The internet is lightning fast and I can get a lot done, it is cool and fresh and by 2pm I have done a good days work on my projects, by which time I get a couple of hours sleep and then I have another "day" to experience.

That time after awaking, meditating and planning the day’s activities I enjoy very much. It gives me a feeling of sowing the seeds for success. This means a sense of enjoyment and fun as I work, especially on The WSC and that translates into more enjoyment for people who visit here. Well that’s the intention anyway!

So this song reflects beauty in the morning of my everyday life on two counts, the morning itself with the feelings I get and the experience I have every day being so lucky to wake up next to a gorgeous soul; my lovely wife.

Effortlessly Gorgeous in The Morning

It is a relatively new experience for me to feel so happy about hearing my alarm clock go off. Very quickly I have somehow transformed my reason for getting up early from one of "having to" to one of "wanting to". I have noticed too that because I can’t wait to get up in the morning. I seem to enjoy an amazing night’s sleep. Getting up in the morning is effortless… and gorgeous! Now what I need to sort out is generating a large income, effortlessly and gorgeously and The WSC is where I would like that to come from.

Enjoy!

It has long been a desire of mine to inspire people and seeing as my passion is in music I want to inspire people through my music: Inspiration for both listeners and people who create their own music and want to get it out there. It’s early days, but I stand by my intention and through my dedication to sharing a new songevery week, indefinitely, for free I believe I can provide that inspiration and lots more besides.

This is a serious thing for me. I will publish an official Vision Statement when I have clarified some details. I am looking at building a team to take this to a new level and the ideas I have, I believe will provide all those involved with a very enjoyable and fulfilling way to work.

Again, more details on that as soon as I have some more scope on what is required.

Enjoy the new layout and please contact me with any feedback, either through the comments here or the contact page

It’s about two friends: One likes exploring new things and can’t stay put for too long, while the other one like things the way they are and isn’t interested in going to faraway places for too long, but despite their widely different preference they are best of friends.

That’s it really a simple song about friendship having no geographical restrictions. Today with the internet and all the sophisticated methods of communication available, this is even more true.

Living so far away from many friends, a regular form of communication for me are the songs here at The WSC, so to all my friends everywhere. Thanks for everything and here’s to all of you.

Without Saying Goodbye

If you are going away for a while and you don’t get a chance to say farewell to a friend, make sure you contact them at some point soon after you arrive. You will notice the difference in how you feel, believe me. Also with all the ways of contacting someone available to you, like the internet, mobile phones etc… there is no excuse.

Enjoy!