Month: April 2023 Page 1 of 2

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” C.S Lewis.

Over the years, I’ve heard many people talk about a dream they had when they were younger or talk with a touch of regret about something that they’ve always wanted or would like to do but haven’t yet accomplished. Only to say “but I am too old now.”

The London Marathon took place yesterday and it reminded me about the Cliff Young story. He achieved something outstanding against all the odds. His story counters the limiting belief “I am too old now.”

Cliff Young, was an Australian potato farmer and athlete, best known for his unexpected win of the Sydney to Melbourne ultra-marathon (543 miles) in 1983 at 61 years of age.

What makes this feat even more incredible is the way that Cliff went about winning the race. It’s normally only attempted by world class athletes, who train specially for the event and are typically less than 30 years of age. In fact, it was the first race that Cliff had entered!

When he showed up at the start of the race in 1983, Cliff was wearing overalls and work boots! Everyone watching was shocked to discover Cliff wasn’t a spectator when he picked up his race number and joined the other runners.

He was told that he was crazy and there was no way he would finish the race. To which he replied “Yes I can. See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or tractors, and the whole time I was growing up, whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race.”

Once the race was underway, Cliff didn’t even run properly; he appeared to shuffle. Many people feared for the farmer’s safety. The professional athletes knew that it took about 5 days to finish the race. In order to compete, they ran about 18 hours a day and slept for the remaining 6 hours.

Cliff wasn’t constrained by conventional wisdom. He was unaware of this approach to the race. Whilst the top athletes slept, he kept on running! To everybody’s disbelief, Cliff ran the whole five days without any sleep and secured an amazing victory!

Today, the “Young-shuffle” has been adopted by ultra-marathon runners because it is considered more energy-efficient.

One of the things that the Covid pandemic has shown us the past few years is that life is uncertain. None of us know what is around the corner. Life is fragile and we must seize opportunities when we have the chance. It’s important that we live in the here and now and if we have dreams or desires, we must listen to our hearts and make every effort to fulfil them.

As part of the process, we may have to get clear on any obstacles or limiting beliefs that could prevent us from fulfilling our goals. If we identify something it’s important that we figure out solutions and devise an action plan to overcome them.

We have it in our power to take action to attempt to make our desires a reality. Life is short and none of us should allow the possibility to look back on our life with regret at the chances we didn’t seize or the action we didn’t take.

This week, why not take a few moments to reflect and consider if there is something that you dream of doing but haven’t yet accomplished or experienced. Think about if you’re able to take some action to make it happen. If so, what will be your first step?

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

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” Napoleon Hill.

I’m a big believer in using visualisation to help achieve goals. As part of the goal setting process, I regularly picture myself having achieved the goal. In the past I’ve also created vision posters so that I have a visual representation of my dreams.

Visualisation is the act of creating compelling and vivid pictures in our mind. It activates the creative powers of our sub conscious mind.  It’s a practice used by many people from all walks of life to help them accomplish their goals. Many sports people use the technique as part of their training and preparation.

There is a part of the brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS) that plays a vital part in our ability to achieve goals. Our RAS is the automatic mechanism inside our brain that brings relevant information to our attention.

I have two examples from my own life that demonstrate the role that the RAS plays. My wife and I were talking about a make of electric car. Ever since that conversation, I can’t stop seeing that particular model (Tesla) on nearly single car journey that I make. Secondly, I saw a tv advert promoting a food company that deliver prepared meals. They have been established for 30 years but I’d never heard of them. The next morning, I saw one of their vans making a delivery near to where I live!

Very helpfully, the RAS will help us spot opportunities that will move us towards our vision.  It acts as a kind of filtering system between our conscious and subconscious minds. It takes instructions from our conscious mind and passes them on to our subconscious.

It focuses our brain to notice available resources that were always present but had previously gone unnoticed. On your next journey try it for yourself by looking out for yellow cars. These cars would have been on your journey but you may not have noticed them if you hadn’t made a point of consciously looking for them.  You may be surprised by how many you spot!

Researchers have found that when you perform a task in life, our brain uses the same processes it would if you were merely visualising the task.  Our brain sees no difference between visualising something and doing it. Our RAS can’t distinguish between ‘real events’ and ‘synthetic’ reality. In other words, it tends to believe whatever messages we give it.

Visualisation actually magnetizes and attracts to us, the people, resources and opportunities that we need to achieve a goal. If you give it images of your dream house, your perfect partner, the career that you would like or the places you want to visit, it will provide ideas and solutions to help you achieve those dreams.

This week, why not pause for a few moments to reflect. Consider what resources, people or information you need your RAS to spot to help you achieve your vision and goals.

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

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”  Charlie Chaplin.

In last week’s blog, I talked about Stress Awareness Month. A good antidote to stress is regular laughter. So, this week, I thought I would share an interesting story about the value of laughing regularly.

One of my favourite sayings that I remember from my childhood is “Laughter is the best medicine.” I was therefore interested to read a story about its origins. I’d assumed that it was a biblical quote but apparently it doesn’t appear in the bible. However, it probably does originate from a quote in Proverbs: “A joyful heart is good medicine but a broken spirit dries up the bones.”

Whilst I was researching the benefits of laughter, I came across an interesting story about Norman Cousins who was an American political journalist, author, professor and world peace advocate who died in 1990 aged 75. Remarkably, Cousins was diagnosed in 1964 as having a serious disease and was told that his chances for survival were one in five hundred and that he had just months to live.

Norman Cousins had a strong will to live, so he decided to assume most of the responsibility for his own healing. Having been told that he had little chance of surviving, he developed a recovery programme.  It included big doses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films and anything else that he could get his hands on to make him laugh. Cousins developed a systematic programme for getting daily doses of hearty laughter.

He said “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.”

It’s remarkable that he was able to laugh having been told he had an irreversible disease and didn’t have long to live.

He wrote of his healing experiences in “Anatomy of an Illness.” Medical tests done since then have established that there is a physiological basis for the theory that laughter is good medicine.

After his remarkable recovery, Cousins continued to study the effects of positive emotions on the human system. Eventually, he joined the medical faculty at the UCLA Medical School, a rare appointment for a person without a medical degree.

Cousins was one of the pioneers in linking laughter to healing. Since his initial explorations, his research has been duplicated by many both in and out of the medical profession. These include Dr Bernie Siegel and Dr Patch Adams. Both have written extensively about the power of humour and hope in the healing process.

My research also revealed some information from the Mayo Clinic about the short term and long benefits of laughter: –

Short-term benefits – laughter can: –

• Stimulate many organs as it enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
• Activate and relieve your stress response and lead to a good relaxed feeling.
• Soothe tension, stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, which help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.

Long-term benefits – laughter may: –

• Relieve pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers. Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders. It can also improve your immune system as positive thoughts release neuropeptides which help fight stress and illness.
• Increase personal satisfaction. It can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations and help you connect with other people.
• Improve your mood. It can reduce depression and anxiety and increase happiness.

Researchers at California’s Loma Linda University did a study with people in their 60s and 70s on the effects of humour on stress levels and short-term memory. Participants who viewed the funny videos had much higher improvement in recall abilities, 43.6 percent, compared with 20.3 percent in the non-humour group. The humour group showed considerably lower levels of cortisol, the “stress hormone” after watching the videos.

This week, why not pause for a few moments to reflect and consider what you need to do to introduce a little more laughter into your life.

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