Month: November 2018 Page 1 of 2

“Trust your own instincts, go inside and follow your heart. Stand up for what you believe in. As I’ve learned, that’s the path to happiness.” Lesley Ann Warren.

I went to see the film Bohemian Rhapsody recently. The film is a celebration of the band Queen, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury. Freddie defied stereotypes and shattered convention to become one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet. The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound. The film takes its title from one of the bands best-selling singles.

The song Bohemian Rhapsody was written by Freddie Mercury for the band’s 1975 album A Night at the Opera. When it was released as a single, Bohemian Rhapsody became a commercial success, staying at the top of the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks and selling more than a million copies by the end of January 1976.

It eventually became one of the UK’s best-selling singles of all time. It is also the only song to be the UK Christmas number one twice by the same artist. It topped the charts in several other markets as well, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and The Netherlands.

In 2004, Bohemian Rhapsody was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2012, the song topped the list on an ITV nationwide poll in the UK to find “The Nation’s Favourite Number One” over 60 years of music.

What’s really interesting is that it almost didn’t get released as a single. The band’s record company EMI were reluctant to release it as a single. They felt that at 6 minutes, the track was too long and wouldn’t be played by radio stations!

Convinced that the record would be a success, the band took a copy of the single to DJ Kenny Everett. He played it on London’s Capital Radio 14 times over the following weekend. This persuaded EMI and other sceptics that the listening public could handle it.

This story provides an important lesson to us all that people’s opinions aren’t always right. It’s vital that we trust our inner voice and opinions when we believe in something or have an instinct about a situation. We must not fall into the trap of giving up too easily on our opinions just to please other people or “fit in.”

Imagine if Queen had allowed EMI views to stop them releasing Bohemian Rhapsody as a single. They would not have received many awards and enjoyed as much commercial success. It is great that they persisted, backed themselves and got the record released.

There are countless examples of the challenges that people encountered on the road to success. These illustrate how people’s opinions may have stopped some people experiencing success.

For instance, we may never have heard a record from the Beatles, if they had taken rejection as a sign to not pursue their passion. When they first started out, a recording company turned them down and said “We don’t like your sound and guitar music is on the way out.”

Many people may not have viewed a Disney movie or visited Disneyworld if Walt Disney had given up when he was fired early in his career by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

Oprah Winfrey faced a hard road to be one of the most iconic faces on television. It has been written that she endured a rough and often abusive childhood as well as numerous career setbacks including being fired from her job as a television reporter because she was “unfit for television.”

When we experience obstacles and adversity in life they can teach us valuable lessons. Such challenges can be viewed as a test to see how committed we are to a particular project or goal.

If we channel our focus and energy in the right way to meet such challenges they can help to strengthen our resolve and inner belief.

This week, why not take a few moments out and consider if there are situations in your life where you need to have greater courage in your convictions and show greater belief and confidence in your opinions. What small steps can you take to change your approach?

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”  Oscar Wilde.

In last week’s blog, I mentioned that I had just published my second book “Just Be.” I have therefore decided to include an extract from the book in the blog this week. I have included the final chapter ‘Be Yourself’ below. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Be Yourself – chapter 52 of Just Be.

There’s a sign in my office that I’ve just glanced at, as I prepared to write this final chapter. It says “In a world where you can be anything, be yourself!” I believe that in life, it’s so important to be who you really are and true to yourself. It helps to create an inner peace and contentment.

To be yourself isn’t always easy. It requires courage, determination and lots of self-discipline because we face peer pressure all our life to be a certain way to “fit in.” This particularly affects us in our childhood and young adult years.

It’s not always easy to stay true to yourself because deep down we all want to be accepted and feel part of the crowd.

We live in a very material world and following the rise in consumerism we’re bombarded daily with numerous marketing messages influencing us to buy stuff. We are encouraged to look, dress and act a certain way.

All of these messages can influence us to become what we think others want us to be and can lead us to overly worry about what people think of us.

On this theme, there is a great quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson; He said “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Why not pause for a moment and consider what it means to you to “be yourself?”

Our true self is who we really are when we let go of the stories, labels and judgements that we have placed on ourselves in order to “fit in.” It’s who we are without our social masks and pretentiousness.

For me, part of being ourselves is about making full use of the natural gifts and talents that we’ve been given. As I said earlier in the book, these are a unique combination. When we fully use them we fulfil our true purpose and unlimited potential.

I believe a large part of being yourself is coming from the heart and speaking with honesty, clarity, pure intention and acting with integrity. If you speak from the heart, you will never be lost for words! This is worth bearing in mind if you’re ever called upon to do a presentation.

Being yourself is essential when you have an important and tough decision to make. At times like these having some quiet time to tune into the messages and feelings contained in your heart can help. This enables you to act upon the wisdom of your intuition.

Being yourself is about being real, authentic and not fake. In doing so, you decide that you are prepared to show your vulnerability and to be human. It demonstrates that you stand up for what you believe to be true even though you may be a lone voice.

When part of a debate or discussion, it’s about carefully listening and weighing up the merits and pro’s/cons of each opinion and argument, whilst maintaining an open mind and objectivity.

Once you’ve completed this process, you’re able to make a decision on who/what to support based on how you feel about what you’ve heard and considered. In this way, you align with your values and who you really are. You remain true to yourself.

It’s also about not doing things to merely get attention or to please others. We can learn much from watching small children. You will notice how free from attachments they are. They care little about what people think about them. They are just in the moment and more often than not they’re following their joy.

If you are overly concerned about what others think of you, frequently ask yourself “How would I act right now if I had no cares about what others think of me?”

This week, why not take a few moments to reflect and ask yourself:

Are there any situations in my life that require me to speak my truth? If so, what will be my first step?

What action do I need to take to just be myself more?

Just Be is available for purchase from the Be First Class website here.

It’s priced at £12.99 plus £2 for postage and packaging (UK Orders). International orders are priced at £21.99 including postage and packaging. To Place an order for Just Be, click here.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

“You can do anything as long as you have the passion, the drive, the focus, and the support.” Sabrina Bryan.

This week’s blog is a very special one for me as it’s the 250^th one that I have written since the first one was written almost 5 years ago on January 21 2014. I have posted a blog to the Be First class website every Monday since then and haven’t missed a week.

My first blog was titled “Small and incremental steps do make a difference”

Here is an extract from it:

“Life is all about margins – there is often a small difference between winning and losing, success and failure, hitting or missing a target, winning or losing an election.

I am sure that you can think of countless examples from your own life experiences. It can be the tiniest of margins that determine the outcome of a situation. We all sometimes mistakenly think that we have to keep taking massive action to get a result. The fact is that small incremental steps towards a goal accumulate into massive progress when applied consistently.

One action per day applied every working day of the year, towards a specific goal amounts to 260 separate actions and seems somehow bigger when you look at it like that!

As I am writing this, I am reminded of that famous African Proverb, often attributed to Anita Roddick, Founder of Body Shop ”if you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.”

***

I believe that it’s very important to walk your talk in this world and that actions speak louder than words.

I actually followed my own advice about small incremental steps being consistently applied. I am glad that I did as it’s yielded some very positive results.

As well as developing my writing ability and confidence, putting the blog together every week has enabled me to produce material to help me to write and publish two books.

The first “Be First Class” was published in May 2016 and the second “Just Be” has just been published.

I am quite often asked what my main insights have been from writing books and any tips that I would pass on to anyone considering writing one.

An important insight for me is the value of a step by step approach and getting clear at the outset on the motivation for wanting to do it. Having clarity on your motivation for pursuing any goal is vital. When the going gets tough, you need to be able to remind yourself why you are doing it and this gives you the drive to persevere.

My books come together step by step and the way I write them is a good practical example of how small action steps applied consistently lead to massive results over a period of time. When I sit to down to write I plan to write at least 750 words and ensure I do this at least once per week. This enables me to prepare the draft of a 160 page book within a year.

The approach I adopt to book writing can be applied to any goal or project that you would like to achieve. Breaking a goal down into small manageable chunks works provided that you take the action consistently.

Here are a few other insights that I have learned from writing books which can actually be used to help you achieve any goal, dream or ambition:

Be self-disciplined. Have a clear plan and stick to it.

This is vital. It isn’t easy to fit in book writing when you have the demands of running a business and life in general.

The same can be said for any goal you would like to achieve like gaining a qualification, starting a business or learning a new skill or hobby. The importance of self-discipline can’t be overstated. I have to ensure that I plan specific slots in my schedule and stick to them (even if I don’t feel like it sometimes). This helps achieve the deadline I set. I treat these slots like I have an appointment with a client and attach the same value and importance to them.

Shut out distractions.

Eradicate things that erode and drain your energy. Some practical examples of this are turning off e mail and social media notifications, reducing the amount of time that you watch television or web browsing. Unsubscribe from some mailing lists and cut down time spent dealing with e mails.

Be accountable.

Share your plan with some trusted people. I share my writing plans with a few friends so that I have an accountability mechanism and support network. At my request they check on my progress regularly. I have no desire to tell them I’m behind plan, so it provides me with a bit of extra motivation to hit deadlines. They encourage me and are an important part of the process.

We do best what we enjoy doing.

Life is very precious and we have limited time and energy. Therefore it is imperative that we focus some of our time on things that we enjoy and are passionate about.

This week why not take a few moments to reflect and think if there is a goal that you would really like to achieve. You may have one that you haven’t taken action on recently. What one step could you take to ignite and energise this goal?

Remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk