Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Innovation

Posted: 28 Jul 2008 01:57 AM CDT

When things are going well, or even acceptably it is often difficult to spot the opportunities for improvement. This is true for us as individuals, it is true for us in business and it is also true for us as societies.

It takes a very special character to continually move on. To continually reinvent their character or business, when there is nothing wrong. We even have an expression to reinforce this, "if it ain't broke don't fix it."

The consequence of this is that as individuals, organisations and as whole societies we generally wait until there is a crisis before we make the changes that improve our lives.

So, if we are reluctant to maintain the pressure for continual improvement, the other option is to embrace crisis as a catalyst for improvement. Whatever the crisis and at whatever level it is just an opportunity to change, develop, evolve and improve.

For example, let us embrace the opportunity of the climate crisis. It is creating wonderful and exciting opportunities to improve the way that we run our society.

The way that we produce our energy or transport ourselves about, has had a pollution problem since the industrial revolution, but it is not until there is a climate crisis that we have the will to make the changes.

Look at these thrilling examples of how we can choose to produce our energy or to transport ourselves, which become a possibility only now that we are threatened with catastrophe.

Similarly the financial crisis creates opportunities for businesses to innovate and do things better, with less energy, more efficiently and for less money.

It may feel inconvenient to suddenly be pitched into a period where making a living is more challenging, but think of the opportunity, to be more efficient, more effective or to come up with better and more relevant products or services.

Similarly personal crisis gives us the opportunity to review our lives and make changes for the better, to move on from behaviours, beliefs or habits that do not serve us well to new ones that do.

Of course the other option, is to develop a practice of creativity and innovation in our personal lives, our working lives and in our societies that helps us to avoid the crisis altogether.

So - three innovations from me this week :-)

1 - I am having a coaching "sale" during the month of August. August tends to be quiet for me while September is busy, so if you book two coaching sessions during August, I will give you another for free - three for the price of two. August is a quiet time for many people and a good time for reflection and reinvention, perhaps I could help you reinvent yourself for when things get going in September or perhaps I could help you transform your attitude to money over the summer?

2 - I very much want to continue writing these Monday morning e-mails, but as I get busier it gets more and more difficult to justify the time spent on them. If they could bring in more financial energy directly, it would be easier. So I have created the option for readers to make a small contribution to the continued creation of these mails. It is strictly voluntary, but if you get value from these mails, you may also want to contribute value back and now you can do so - here.

3 - The big new event for me - and the only one I will be offering for the foreseeable future is The PIE Retreat. If you want to create the opportunity in your life to continually improve without crisis, this is the best possible environment for learning how to do it. I would love to see you there.

with love

nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile +44 (0) 7775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk  
www.authentictransformation.co.uk

Do
Or do not
There is no try

Yoda



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Friday, July 25, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Profit from passion

Posted: 28 Apr 2008 08:05 AM CDT

First - imagine an authentic society:
Imagine an authentic form of government - perhaps a little like the ones you see in Science Fiction where a committee of wise, ego free, elders engage the community and guide it with compassion and care.
Where taxes are levied on things that the society wants to stop (like pollution) and not on things it wants to encourage like working for the greater good.
Imagine authentic education that helps every child to find their inner brilliance and how to apply it in adult life. Teenagers emerging confidently rather than confused into adulthood.
Imagine authentic businesses that contribute as much to society as they do to the bottom line. Creating great products that help society to function sustainably, healthily and peacefully, whilst also creating inspiring and fulfilling working environments without exploitation of people or planet.
This has been imagined before. Utopia is not an original idea.
So given that we have had quite a bit of time to work this one out, how is it that we have not made greater progress?
I think there are two things that have held us back before, and which will hold us back again unless we can include them in our transformation. This goes for cultural change at any level - in a business, community or a society.
The first is integration. Transformation cannot be done separately from the rest of society. When it is done separately all you do is to create factions, who generally end up in conflict.
At a societal level integration involves family and finance.
Family is the fundamental building block of humanity, any transformation that does not have successful family living at it's heart will not succeed on a large scale. This includes the current experiment where many families are put under intolerable strain by the way many of us earn our living.
Which is the link to finance:
In todays society financial security is as important as physical security. Not necessarily in a literal sense, but certainly in a practical sense. Most of us reading this e-mail enjoy sufficient physical security that financial security replaces physical security in our concerns.
In Maslow's hierarchy of needs we can see that security, including financial security, forms the base from which we can build. Without a sense of security it is very difficult to broaden our considerations to others, or deepen them spiritually.
It is a sense of confidence and security that enables us to progress to a wider sense of the world than our own ego self, which is the second thing that might hold us back.
Until those who lead us in government, business and education can feel the confidence to go beyond their own fear driven, ego thinking, transformation will not be widespread.
An authentic transformation has to be profitable.
If we want to see our society, or community or our business transform we have two related things to do - we have to build self confidence for ourselves and those around us and we have to build financial security.
Fortunately for the transformation, authenticity is great for business. As I discovered in the research for my book "Authentic Business", authentic businesses are able to spend up to 80% less on marketing and motivation than their conventional counterparts.
There has been a level of conversation in the community of progressives, transformers and social change agents that sees profit, money and sometimes business as a 'bad' thing.
If we are to create a sustainable transformation we have to overcome this thinking. Profit, money and business can be fantastic agents for social development and empowerment. It is exploitation that we need to avoid.
If we fear money, growth, success or profit we are seriously limiting our potential, both for ourselves as individuals and our ability to influence the direction of our society.
I am writing a new article on Authentic Business as an update on the book. The article will look at the businesses I wrote about in the book, some new ones that have started since and some other inspiring businesses.
If you have a authentic business story you would like to share, I would love to hear from you.
I am writing the article speculatively - so if you are interested in publishing the article please let me know.
I have a great deal of experience authenticity in business, helping authentic businesses to start, build and profit. Also helping established businesses to become more authentic. Perhaps I can contribute to your business? Let me know if you want to have a chat.
with love
nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile +44 (0)7775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk 
 www.authentictransformation.co.uk

Show up
Be Present
Tell the truth
Let it all go

Harrison Owen - creator of Open Space Technology

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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Crisis is just a catalyst for change

Posted: 23 Jul 2008 02:12 AM CDT

Whatever the crisis and at whatever level it is just an opportunity to change, develop, evolve and improve.

We don't always spot the opportunities to transform our lives while things are going well.

Environment crisis creates
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/travelandtransport.automotive

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/solarpower.windpower

Financial crisis creates opportunties for businesses to innovate and do things better, with less energy, more efficiently and for less money.

Personal crisis gives us the opportunity to review our lives and make changes for the better.

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Easy as PIE

Posted: 21 Jul 2008 01:44 AM CDT

Teachers are like busses, I spent years looking for a teacher between my time at Razorfish and when we came to Mallorca and then two show up at once.

Not the kind of teacher you get at school you understand, more like a a "Yoda" figure in my life. Someone who could help me find my better hidden talents and potential.

I was out here for a couple of days last summer, while I was looking for somewhere for our family to live in Mallorca. An estate agent who had built up a bit of a reputation for finding the most off-beat houses, told me that a place had just come on the market that I had to go and see.

I went with the usual mixture of curiosity and hope that attends these viewing and arrived at Can Pujola, a ready made personal development centre. There was a woman sweeping leaves in the garden who greeted me like a long lost friend, and that was Judy.

We connected immediately and since we moved here Judy and I have met every Monday, just after I finish writing these writing these mails, if I am fast enough.

Just after we arrived I decided to run an inspiration evening in our village at Can Pujola. One of the attendees who arrived that evening, a little flustered was David.

David had a phone call about an hour before the event was due to start from a friend who said he had to go to this authentic inspiration thing. It was evening, he had had a busy day and just wanted to go home, but something told him he had to go.

David had quite a breakthrough and bought all three of my print books. David is a chiropractor who practices an evolution of chiropracting called Network Spinal Analysis. Since that day I have run several inspiration events at David's practice and have visited him regularly for sessions of Network.

These two marvelous teachers are helping me continue to learn and evolve. To make real progress in life it is essential to have a teacher, to stretch you, to hold you to complete honesty and to help you to understand your true potential. After a long drought, I am now fortunate enough to have two.

We have done a few small collaborations, David guested at the Total Potential Retreat and Judy and I guested at an event that David ran in the spring. It was clear from the power of this combination that a fully collaborative event would be spectacular.

And so we came to The PIE Retreat.

PIE stands for Physical, Intellectual, Emotional - the three key levels at which we learn. The PIE Retreat is an intensive learning forum that will propel participants towards their full potential.

The PIE Retreat takes place in Mallorca from the 10-12 October at the simply stunning mountain top monastery, Santuari de Cura. ( You can see the view over Palma above) We would love to welcome you there. For more information and to reserve your place see - www.authentictransformation.co.uk or call +44 (0) 7775 658534.

With love

nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile 07775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk 
 www.authentictransformation.co.uk

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Money, Money, Money

Posted: 14 Jul 2008 01:48 PM CDT

What is the deal with our relationship with money?

Most of us have extremely complicated ideas about money. Some are obsessed with getting more of it, some regard it as dangerous and bad. Some peoples lives are dominated by it, some simply cannot keep hold of it.

Many of us would like to have a bit more, maybe a lot more, but perhaps few of us understand how to have more without selling our souls. Many of us find it hard to understand how valuable we are.

Perhaps it is because money is such a deceptively simple way to put a price on someone's worth that we find it so difficult.

My own relationship with money has been challenging and improves as I continue to learn and understand it better. I have experienced all of the above at different times in my life as well as real fear when there appears to have been a critical shortage.

As I have learned more about money, largely from direct personal experience, my fears are reduced and more easy to control.

Through my coaching and consultancy work with businesses I have discovered just how common these fears around money are. So I have put together another e-book to help people find a more balanced relationship with money.

You can download it for free at www.authentictransformation.co.uk

Let me know how you get on with it and please tell others about it too.

With love

nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile +44 7775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk  
www.authentictransformation.co.uk

Do
Or do not
There is no try

Yoda


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Monday, July 07, 2008

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Always a way

Posted: 07 Jul 2008 12:05 AM CDT

Since I broke the push mower on a tree stump six weeks ago our house has been gradually disappearing like Sleeping Beauty's castle. With about 3000 square meters of almond terraces, growing like mad since the wet May we needed another mowing solution - fast.

I looked at new tractor type mowers, but they are pricy and I was not convinced that running a new mower over our rough terraces was all that sensible. Then the credit crunch hit home when it turned out that the 'Interest free" credit offered would not be available.

So - we needed another solution.

We asked around in the village and it turned out that someone had an old tractor mower. It had been sitting, neglected, unused and outdoors for five years, but they were prepared to give us, if we could take it away.

Some friends helped to transport it back and I set to work to get it going again. It took most of the weekend, but yesterday evening it coughed into life and it now runs beautifully.

Not only have we got an excellent mower for the price of battery, but we have also recycled, rather than calling a new machine into existence.

It is the same in life. Whatever you need is available at a price you can afford.

"No" is not a failure, merely a suggestion that you might like to try another route.

The longer you are prepared to sit with a challenge and be creative the more likely it is that opportunities and solutions will present themselves.

It is a good thing if tougher economic and environmental considerations push us into thinking a bit harder about what we have and how we get it.

Life and business can be a fun adventure if we are prepared to push that bit harder, go beyond the norms and innovate and invent our way way through challenges.

Go for it - there is always a way.

If you want some help with getting past challenges in business or life - drop me a line.

With love

nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
UK mobile 07775 658534
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk  
www.authentictransformation.co.uk

Nature does not compromise,
A pelican is not a compromise between a crow and an otter
It is just a pelican.

Amory Lovins

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