Helena created the Three-Word Check-In as part of her process of facilitating brilliance within her clients, and when Sam learnt of it her curiosity was piqued… Helena and Sam started sharing their daily words with each other, and realised how empowering and supportive it was – and that they couldn’t keep it to themselves!

Find out why three words can change the course of your day, and how to make the most of this simple yet profound technique!

After this you’ll now have more energy to put towards the most important things in your life.

Leave a comment and let us know what you discovered by following this exercise and putting the strategy in place.

Not just providing a ‘positive thinking’ theory, they guide you through a specific set of actions and provide a simple framework for you to take on a transformational 30 day challenge to eliminate a key stress or frustration from your life.

Listen to the podcast and leave a comment to let us know you’re taking the challenge and how we can help you to succeed.

Today, I’ve been out-of-sorts (or crabbit, as they call it up here!) all day, feeling lethargic and even a bit nauseous… not to mention having trouble concentrating. Why? Largely because I chose to ignore what my body was telling me during the last 24hrs.

Firstly, I was thirsty much of yesterday, yet only managed to drink about 3 glasses of water despite my dry mouth and deep sense of craving. Secondly, I went to bed late even though I was tired and then felt knackered when I awoke in spite of the 9hrs sleep I’d had. And thirdly, I ate a big slab of baked Camembert for lunch rather than finding myself something decent to eat.

We can probably all relate to self-inflicted late nights, over-indulgence and dehydration at times, so what is so significant about this? Basically, because I know better than to do this to myself. Why? Because my body told me so, and has done on many occasions!

I know from past experience that if I am not asleep by about 11pm, then it doesn’t matter how many hours I get, I’ll still wake feeling tired and poorly-rested. I also know that when I am thirsty, I sometimes confuse water cravings for sugar ones… which leaves me feeling doubly bad (because I don’t drink enough water to wash all the sugar out of my system). And I certainly know that when I have dairy these days, I tend to feel sick afterwards – no matter how much I enjoyed it at the time.

I know these things, because my body has repeatedly given me messages confirming them – particularly when I forget myself and decide to splurge with a late night, lots of chocolate or anything creamy! My body is infinitely patient, and despite my continued mistakes, it simply keeps reminding me that I’m not listening.

But the cost is much more than just feeling crabbit all day.

I haven’t taken some of the actions I’d had planned for today to progress my big goals. I have minimised my chance of feeling refreshed and well-rested come the end of the weekend, and will probably find Monday morning more of a struggle because of this. And I also feel guilty, because deep down, I know this is not how my body deserves to be treated.

On top of that, I’ve also re-enforced some of the bad habits I’ve been working to shift – equivalently undoing some of the good work achieved previously. So how can we tune in to our body wisdom to better effect?

Here are a couple of things to try:

• Simply take a few moments to notice how you physically feel after you eat or drink something. Do you feel good? Lethargic? Refreshed? Unwell?
• Likewise, when you wake in the morning how do you feel? Are you ready to bound out of bed? Feeling like you need another night’s rest? Stressed because you’ve hit the snooze button a few times without realising?
• How do you feel at the end of the day, and what were your activity levels? Were you sedentary for most of the day (at a desk, pc or driving etc)? Did you get your body moving with some exercise?
• Use trial-and-error to check how your body reacts to differences in your diet, exercise or sleep patterns. What seems to work best for you?
• Try picking just one thing that works well for you, and persist with it for a while. What differences do you notice? And how do you feel if you ignore the magic of your body wisdom by reverting to an old habit or choice?

Whilst it is best to start with just one thing, rather than trying to overhaul all your physical routines at the one time, do notice what happens when you choose the “wrong” thing… because often one bad choice where we ignore our body wisdom seems to lead to multiple bad choices, and they compound to leave us feeling even worse!

Once we’ve started building our awareness of the messages our body tries to send us, we can start paying more attention to other things like our “gut instinct”, and even our reactions to situations or specific people. There’s an infinite amount of wisdom within our millions of cells just waiting for us to start listening to it!

Leave a comment below and share with us one message that your body repeatedly tries to send you, and what impact it has when you choose to ignore the wisdom! Enjoy the process of becoming more body aware!

In this podcast, Gina and Chris discuss ways to make sure you do keep a healthy balance of taking care of yourself, while still being strong, supportive and available for your friends and colleagues.

If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly. Sign up to receive the podcast directly to your inbox, plus an additional weekly blog post! You’ll also be the first to receive a copy of our new e-Book.

In this podcast, Sam and Chris discuss three levels of listening and offer practical tips to ensure you not only listen well but remain engaged and interested in your conversations.

This topic was inspired by the recent request from a listener, and our answering podcast – The Dance of a Social Butterfly.

If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly. Sign up to receive the podcast directly to your inbox, plus an additional weekly blog post! You’ll also be the first to receive a copy of our new e-Book.

Sam and Paul as the question of “So what?” to challenge themselves before someone else does!

If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the podcast directly to your inbox, plus an additional weekly blog post!

At the same time, we don’t often think about what being mentally healthy is like either, or what our mental health can actually mean for our daily lives. Join Paul and Sam for this podcast ‘experiment’ as they explore what their own personal definitions are – and give you the opportunity to discover yours.

We all experience life’s ups and downs, and go through periods of stress; so what if there was a personal checklist just for you that could help you cope with those experiences a bit better?

Let’s find out! Ideally, you’ll need to have 1-2 minutes where you can pause the podcast at the appropriate point and jot down a few ideas in response to a question. If that isn’t convenient, then do try to make time to find your own answers later on – as they’ll be much more meaningful for you and will hopefully give you a blueprint or some signposts to come back to and take action on.

We would love to hear whether you’ve found this experiment helpful or not, so please let us know! If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review, and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly.

Yet like all words, ‘curiosity’ is as open to individual interpretation as the rest of them. We have our own unique definitions for words, regardless of how commonplace or highbrow they are; and these meanings we imbue words with are influenced by the context we see them in, our personal experiences and memories, and particularly what we need or feel at the moment of hearing/reading them. For example, what comes to mind when you hear ‘I really need some money.’? Each of us will have a different reaction to the word and sentence, depending on things like:

• your childhood circumstances and the predominant beliefs you were taught – ‘money can’t buy you love’, ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’, ‘work hard and you’ll be paid well’, ‘money gives you choices’, ‘saving money for a rainy day’ etc.
• your current financial state, and how comfortable or stressed you are about your investments, bills and income.
• and the context you read the word in as well as the influence of the Media – For just $x, you get…You’ve just won… or You owe… Millions lost… etc.

It could mean ‘I’m desperately broke and can’t pay my bills’, or ‘I don’t have any cash and they don’t take plastic’, or ‘I can’t wait to buy that latest x’ or even ‘I really want to sponsor that child/animal/fundraiser’.

In this age of electronic communication, we’re all likely to have been party to misunderstandings related to emailed, blogged or even Twittered text – whether we were the one misunderstood, or the one who reacted to an unintended tone or connotation (which Emoticons can only begin to address). However, communicating face-to-face or verbally doesn’t ensure immunity either.

Spoken words are not susceptible for exactly the same reasons as text – where tone and body language are largely absent – but rather because the way your listener processes the words you say may not match the way you intended them.
Assumptions can be risky at the best of times, but how aware are you of the dangers in assuming someone assigns the same meaning to a word that you do?

Let’s play with this a little: (take a moment to consider) what does curiosity mean to you personally?

A Twitter friend, @deltalady, described it as a ‘renewal of your younger self to be more open to current experiences’ after establishing for herself that my @CuriosityCoach title wasn’t simply facetious!
I think of curiosity as being in a state of childlike wonder & awe, of asking lots of questions (usually avoiding starting with ‘Why?’, & most requiring me to let go of being right/having all the answers), of being willing to see the extraordinary in ordinary things, and ordinary in extraordinary ones, plus handfuls of other nuances – some of which I’m sure I’ve not even discovered yet!
The dictionary offers even further connotations including prying, meddlesome, and inexplicability!
And one person possibly interpreted it through his hormone-filters to be ‘I’m interested in getting to know you intimately!’ …which is one I’ll certainly need to be more aware of going forwards!

So, what does this mean for you?

Start by noticing the assumed meaning you give to words that you hear or read. After a while, you’ll find it easier to pick up on times when a word shared with someone has different definitions for you both… this can help you maximise your understanding of what you’re hearing, and minimise the scope for someone else’s interpretation of what you’ve said to remain unaddressed.

You may even find yourself getting curious about what particular words can mean to a range of different people!

What does abundance mean, and what difference could it make to our lives? Paul and Sam are joined by two guests – lovely ladies Annmarie and Nancy, facilitators of the 55 Concepts – as they discuss their personal experiences of what abundance means, and how to tell if we are living in a state of abundance or in a state of lack.

Join us to explore what you can do to start increasing your awareness of which state you are choosing, and what you can do to experience more abundance in your life. It is time to get curious, be present, and try a sprinkling of gratitude to see how different life can look!

* Apologies in advance for the abundance of traffic noise adding to the discussion a few minutes into this podcast!

For more information on the 55 Concepts, or to get in touch with  Nancy Baker and Annmarie Serratore, visit www.55concepts.com (free newsletter, audio and classes available).

As this is a special edition guest podcast, and is slightly longer than our normal discussions, here’s a summary of the key action ideas:

• Journal your gratitude daily
• Get support – sometimes we can’t see what’s right in front of us
• ‘We chase what we believe we do not have’ – look at what you’re chasing and what beliefs you have about why you don’t have it
• Be present to the abundance in your life (notice and acknowledge)
• Consider what bothers you in others as a signpost for what you need to change in yourself to experience abundance

Paul and Sam talk about how they are building awareness of their finances to help them keep them in the black and out of the red!

Following on from their previous podcast, Reality Check, they discuss how even a little bit of measuring can make a world of difference when it comes to understanding where your money really does go – and once that awareness is there making informed decisions becomes so much easier.

In this podcast, Chris and Paul discuss how to simply break the cycle of worry in any situation and find a better approach.

After listening to the podcast and trying the suggestions, please leave a comment and let us know how it worked for you. We’d love to hear from you!

Think of someone you really admire, and which character traits of their’s shine through.
Sometimes it is much easier to believe something unpleasant about ourselves, than to acknowledge and accept that those traits we really admire in another person are part of us too.

When we think of each relationship as a mirror for ourselves, there is a lot of worthiness there to love – if/when we accept it. (Likewise, when someone is really annoying us – chances are we are doing that ‘annoying thing’ in some way too!)

Join Sam and Paul as they explore the piece of poetry that inspired both this discussion and a Full Out and Fearless blog post by @CoachCharrise on 22nd April 2009; and discover a quick and simple way to start reflecting the love to yourself that you deserve – no matter how scary that may sound!

Seek that which you love in me
And find it in yourself,
For I am but a mirror for all
Your magic inner wealth.

See me shine and light the way
And choose to do so too,
For shared just like the Olympic torch
You too can burn so true.

Feel me stretch and challenge my bounds
And find your wings to fly,
For deep within your caterpillar heart
You are a glorious butterfly.

Sense my presence and be inspired
And acknowledge your own gifts,
For we each are divine and worthy
Your soul my heart uplifts.

Written by Sam Forsberg, 15th February 2008, For Cameron

Ignorance is not bliss. In fact, it tends to make life hell.
As we learn, we are likely to move through 4 stages of competence – rarely jumping from Unconscious Incompetence (ignorance!) directly to Unconscious Competence (mastery!). Along the way, we pass through Conscious Incompetence (aware but struggling), and hopefully into Conscious Competence (aware and succeeding).

Join Paul and Sam as they explore how their actions (no matter how imperfect/perfect, small/large) move them through the challenge of overwhelm and unresourcefulness, and into more aware states of learning, choice and empowerment; where things aren’t all rosy but are a darn sight less ugly!

Tell us why you love this podcast by leaving a comment below (before 15th May), and you’ll automatically be entered into our milestone 5,000th motivational download celebration draw! Click here for more details, or simply add your comment below NOW!

Whilst the perfectionist or overachiever in us cringes at the thought of requesting assistance and sharing the load, our controlling aspects can feel desperate and frustrated, and this seems to add to our stress and uncertainty.

Yet receiving help can be both a miracle and a gift – helping us to make progress and overcome challenges, whilst empowering the giver-of-help with a sense of achievement and purpose. They say two heads are better than one, so Gina & Sam put theirs’ together to explore just why asking for help is so hard, and how we can take small steps towards fruitful collaboration.

wheel-of-life

What you do in the first 20 minutes can set you up for a great day…or an unfulfilled day. Are you aware of your morning habits?

In this podcast Paul and Chris discuss how to create powerful morning habits and ways to overcome the negative habits that you no longer want. Both of which can have a dramatic influence on your daily success.