INSPIRING MAX

Double Take

October 28, 2014 inspiringmax

You step into an acquaintance’s house for the first time, and discover that everything — from the furniture, to the books, to the art on the wall — is identical to your home. What happens next?

“My, what great taste you have,” I said. My new friend looked at me with confusion written all over her face.

“Thank you” she said sheepishly, wondering what I would say next.

“Do you realise that this house and everything in it, is exactly the same as my house?” I replied.

“Your kidding. I’ve been collecting my things for thirty years and I don’t even know where you live,” she said.

“I believe you because many of them tell their own story. They would take a lot of effort to purchase today—they belong to the 80’s.” I replied.

We spent the next hour discussing our experiences with our belongings— where we had bought them and the story behind them. Although many of our stories were similar, some were vastly different. My miniature bottle collection was started as a 21st birthday present by a friend, whereas my new friend commenced hers after travelling overseas and bringing her free in flight alcohol bottles home.

A small selection

The more we talked—the more we realised we had in common. Then, an idea hit me.

“We seem to be similar people, with similar ways of thinking. Let’s write a series of books together. We could get them done in half the time but with double the resources. What do you think?” I asked.

“Yes I would love to. Sounds great.” she said, as she grabbed her ideas folder from the coffee table. And, with that our new writing career began—here are a few of our titles.

Double Take
Double Trouble
Double Jeopardy
Double Life

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/doppelganger-alert/

A Ray of Hope

October 27, 2014 inspiringmax

Imagine we lived in a world that’s all of a sudden devoid of color, but where you’re given the option to have just one object keep its original hue. Which object (and which color) would that be?

I love colour. It brightens my day and lifts my mood. I would struggle living in a monotone world of black and white initially—although after time I would adapt. The problem isn’t in the black and white—they are stark contrasts and have their own sharpness because of it—the problem is all the shades of grey in between.

To contrast the lack of colour, I would choose to keep the rainbow. I see the rainbow as a symbol of hope. Hope—that after the storm, there can be a beautiful ending. It would remind me of the colours that can come and brighten our world again. Even if colours never do return to our world—the rainbow would inspire hope that they are going to.

All my life when I see a rainbow—I instantly dream about the pot of gold at the end of it. The one, I heard about in so many childhood stories. I now use rainbows to remember to dream, smile and make plans for my future.

Rainbows need both water and sunlight to be created, so by ensuring a supply of rainbows, I am ensuring a supply of both of these natural elements— necessary for life.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/local-color/

Share Your World – 2014 Week 42

October 26, 2014 inspiringmax

What would be your preference, awake before dawn or awake before noon?

I wake around dawn most days to get to work on time. I needed to get up even earlier this week to take my daughter to work and it reminded me of how much work you can get done early in the day. Staying in bed until noon would waste so much of my time these days. I am sure when I was younger, I would have given you a different answer.

If you could choose between wisdom and luck, which would you pick?

Wisdom can change your world and help you achieve your goals. I believe that many people interpret good use of wisdom as luck. From my experience—very few things rely on luck—usually they appear to be luck but they are actually the culmination of planning and positive thinking. Without wisdom—even the winning the lottery type of luck is short lived.

If you were given the opportunity for free sky diving lessons would you take them? Why or why not?

Yes. I have wanted to sky dive for many years now. I think it would be an exhilarating feeling. However, if I had to do it alone my answer would be, no. My jump would need to be a tandem jump—so someone experienced was in control.

Is the glass half empty or half full. What is in the glass?

I am a positive person so my glass is always half full. Even in difficult times, I will focus on what I do have rather than what I don’t have. My glass is of course filled with a very expensive French Champagne to celebrate the joy in my life.

Photo credit: Google Images

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I arranged to self-publish my book with Balboa Press. This takes even closer to being a published author in 2015. Exciting and scary. I did have a little glass of champagne to celebrate.

http://ceenphotography.com/2014/10/20/share-your-world-2014-week-42/

Masks Off

October 26, 2014 inspiringmax

We’re less than a week away from Halloween! If you had to design a costume that channeled your true, innermost self, what would that costume look like? Would you dare to wear it?

Although Halloween celebrations are not big in Australia, I do enjoy dressing up in fancy dress costume. Wearing masks however—are not my thing. I find them restrictive and controlling. Neither which fit my personality. I chose my costume to be something that works for the occasion—with my open face plus or minus makeup.

On a day to day basis, I believe I channel my true self—in person as well as in my writing. Being genuine to who I am is important to me and constancy is the key. I am an honest, considerate person who loves teaching, nurturing and supporting others to grow. I also believe that it is important for me to do this for myself—to lead by example. I am aware of my limitations, but am happy to push myself beyond my comfort zone. If necessary, my personality allows deal with difficult situations to achieve the best outcomes.

Depending on how make-up is applied, it can be a mask, hiding someones real personality. Not all heavily applied make-up is a mask but, for some people it is. At times, this can be a very effective tool. However, used all the time masks can stunt your personal growth, as they stop you and others from connecting to the real you. Naturally applied make-up can be our friend. It isn’t a mask and doesn’t stop our personality coming through—hides our worse and highlights our best features—making us shine.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/masks-off/

Out Of Breath

October 25, 2014 inspiringmax

The busier my day is—the more I need to focus on my breathing. It energises and anchors me. I take time to—stop and just breath.

I stand still

Take a deep breath in

Create a circle with my arms

And breath out deeply and slowly

Moving my body helps me to organise my headspace and thinking. If I don’t do it, things get crazy and my desk or work area reflects the chaos in my world. However by stopping, taking control and replacing my breath—I can change my world by centering it.

My busy day isn’t taken away by this activity—I am just put in the present moment and able to make a plan. Yes, by a plan—I do mean a list—naming all the priorities to be addressed today. If I need any extra strength, after my deep breath—I will stand in a power pose for two minutes to increase my testosterone levels—it is simple yet very effective skill.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/out-of-breath/

The Butterfly Effect

October 24, 2014 inspiringmax

The Butterfly has unknown origins but has strong learning for each of us to consider about what we need to fly—sometimes things are not as they seem.

A man finds a butterfly cocoon, which develops a small hole. Over several hours, he notices the butterfly struggling to force its body through the small hole.

After a period, the man noticed that the butterfly appeared stop progressing. In an attempt to be helpful, the man decides to cut the cocoon open. The butterfly emerged easily however its body was swollen and it had small-shrivelled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly expecting at any moment the wings to enlarge and expand enough to support the body.

Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around the ground. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not realise was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle by the butterfly to break free was nature’s way of forcing the fluid out of the butterfly’s body and into its wings so that it is ready for flight when the butterfly emerged.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. They allow us to overcome obstacles that would otherwise cripple us. Without them, we are unable to fly. We can get impatient when we think nothing is changing and begin to lose hope. This is the time to look back at how far we have come and remember a firm foundation takes time to build. Everyone’s journeys is a unique experience, and there are no maps.

Like the butterfly’s journey out of the cocoon, the struggles, we overcome in life, develop the strengths we need. Life has an odd way of putting the challenges we require in our path. It is important to notice what we learn from each experience—the good, the bad and the ugly. This is true for all areas of everyone’s life.

This butterfly effect has come into play since I began my blogging journey. I started my blog back in May and followed the advice of a blog builder to set it up. This worked really well except—I didn’t understand what I was doing. I actually didn’t even understand that I had set up a self-hosted blog or the struggles it would create for me. In the long term, a self-hosted blog was my goal, but not necessarily in the beginning, before I had an audience.

Now is the time my blog is squeezed through the hole and I figure out what I need to do to get it working. Originally, I couldn’t get any stats as my Jetpack wasn’t working, which was frustrating. I was definitely growing as a writer but had no audience, so life got busy and I stopped blogging for six weeks.

In August, I returned to my blog and was able to restart my Jetpack account only to realise—surprise, surprise—I had followers from Writing 101. Inspiring Max was developing its own online voice and I was beginning to fly. I have learnt a lot through my struggles to develop my blog and they have made me a stronger, more confident beginner blogger.

Welcome to my world.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_writing_challenge/the-butterfly-effect/

Beer Please?

October 24, 2014 inspiringmax

We arrived at the cafe in our hotel after an exhausting 22 hours in transit from Sydney, Australia to Zhenzhou, China. She was the first person we met and looked younger than her years. Her Chinese hospitality uniform stole any individuality she had. She was humble and worked hard trying to communicate with us despite her very broken English.

“Hello” she said. Handing us a menu.

“Hi” replied my husband, asking if she had any dark beer. She looked confused and began pointing at pictures understanding the word beer.

“This one?” she asked

“No” replied my husband.

“This one?”

“No.”

“I get help” she said and slowly walked to get her friend. She returned with her friend who appeared eager to help and looked at my husband.

“Do you have dark beer?” he asked.

“Yes, I think this one” she said as she pointed to a German dark beer written in Chinese.

“Yes” he said. Both girls looked at each other and smiled broadly, proud that together they had met the needs of this Australian traveller.

“I get for you” replied our first waitress and she returned with the beer and a free bowl of beer nuts. My husband loved it.

This interaction began the nightly ritual of our stay in Zhenzhou. During the day every time we walked passed the cafe our new friends would smile and wave if they were working and saw us.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/ready-set-done-5/

Great Expectations

October 23, 2014 inspiringmax

How high are your expectations? One issue regularly struggled with is how high to set your expectations. If you set them too low, your expectations are achieved but they mean little as they were too easy.

“A calm sea never made a skilled sailor.” Anonymous

On the flip side—if you are to set the bar too high it becomes impossible to reach and you give up. This is frustrating and convinces you not to start.

The answer is to make your expectations great and achievable. Set realistic expectations at each stage. Let’s pretend that your great expectation is to sail in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race considered to be one of the most difficult ocean races in the world.

It is dangerous to think you would be able to do this as your first sailing experience. To achieve this great expectation, you would need to set various smaller challenges to build the skills required to achieve your ultimate goal— The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

Possible goals may include:

1. Learn to sail.

2. Practice your skills in calm conditions.

3. Learn to read the weather and understand what a change in the conditions can mean and how to manage them. Out to sea there is no protection and unfortunately rescue and death are real options that need to be addressed.

4. Increase the difficulty of your sailing conditions to increase your skills.

5. Join a sailing club and begin yacht racing as a crew member.This will give you experience on decisions needing to be quickly and followed through. It can be an adrenaline rush as you realise that by tacking (changing direction and sailing into the wind), suddenly you can be leading the race.

6. When possible increase the size of the yachts you are crewing on to gain different experience and increase your skills.

7. When the opportunity presents itself, crew on yachts as they go in smaller ocean racing classics. If this yacht enters the Sydney To Hobart you will become familiar with the yacht which will help develop your confidence.

8. Learn as much as you can about the race and conditions of the Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race. Join a crew, understand the risks and enjoy achieving your great expectation.

Without Fear

October 21, 2014 inspiringmax

At what age did you realize you were not immortal? How did you react to that discovery?

Immortality is a funny thing. I don’t think I ever thought I was immortal, however, when I was young fear was not something I considered before doing anything. I don’t see this as a bad thing either. Before being a teenager, I can clearly remember playing with snakes, jumping of the 10 metre diving platform without any care or training—just for fun and swinging on the swings so high that I nearly went the whole way around. It was a feeling of freedom.

Somewhere in my teenage years fear crept into my life—or maybe it was just an understanding that things can go wrong. This was confirmed in my senior years of high school when I was affected by two fatal car accidents. One involved other school students and the second, a personal family friend. They were all my age. Death suddenly became a reality—not something to focus on, but a reality. This same year, my beloved grandfather also suddenly died while on holidays—unfortunately I never got to tell him that I became a nurse.

Yes, there are a lot of things that can happen—good and bad. But, if you focus on the bad you will never get to experience the good. It is for this reason that I decided years ago to always focus on the positive. Even in difficult situations there is always a silver lining—something to be learnt from it. This is how we grow through pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. Afterall, there are only two guarantees in life—death and taxes. And while my personal goal is to live to be 100 with a great quality of life, if I don’t get to achieve this goal, I want to look back on my life and say with confidence—fear didn’t stop me giving it a go.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/finite-creatures/