On holiday I kept waking up with my brain on fire with creative imagination.
First came the new name for my seven step coaching process; Seven Lightstones...
DISCOVERY
RELATIONSHIP
ZONE
CHOICE
BEING
BELIEF
ATTRACTION
I then was drawn to a book on lighthouses...
A quote that reminds us that a dream happens first in our imagination:
I dream my paintings and then I paint my dreams
Vincent Van Gogh
When I create space to daydream in my life I feel happier instantly. It can start as a wouldn't it be nice if....and often ends in a pleasant frenzy of activity as I see how my daydreaming starts to offer me clues to my new reality. I know that in order to make my dreams come true I must spend a high proportion of my day taking the right kind of action. And I also know that there would be no purposeful action to take if I did not allow myself the joy of daydreaming.
Which of your daydreams will you paint today?
Dreams aren't all fluffy pink clouds and angel song. In fact, thinking about what might go wrong if you dare to dream can be a huge block to getting started. Who wants to live their worst nightmare? There is that saying - Be careful what you wish for, that it may come true. So sometimes it seems safer to stay in the ordinary world and avoid the risk of failure, or face the fear of success. I'd like to say that these fears are never realised, but that is just not true - as I discovered recently.
I just love coaching hero's to be their best true self and live their dreams by BEING On Purpose.
Isn't it wonderful when their special character and brave spirit are passed onto their kindred?
One of the true hero's I have coached is Ian. A man who has done so much to transform the environment, by creating what might be described as nature resorts... IN A QUARRY!!!
He has won green award after green award. A regular celebrity.
Ian has the courage of a Lion and he has bravely agreed to share some of his very personal Life Map incantations with you...
True Best... I AM THE SOUL OF LIFE
Life Purpose... I HELP LIFE ENJOY LIFE
Emotional Feelings... I am CARING
Social Relationships... I am the CRANE (that lifts people)
Spiritual Meaning... I am GENUINE
So is BLOOD thicker than WATER?
What we need is a crystal clear example...
Of Giant and Hero
It is fitting that the first journal since transferring my personal growth writing from the TV Smith Forum to this starfishrising weblog is on the great man himself.
Talent Victorious…
TV Smith is a extremely gifted songsmith, a passionate singer, an energised guitarist and a captivating entertainer. A man of true genuine values. A man fuelled by belief and perseverance. A man of humility and humour. A man with the gift.
Television who?
TV Smith first appeared on many people’s radar screens in 1977, when he shot into our music charts at eighteen with a bullet. Looking back, it is rather bizarre that TV Smith, and his band The Adverts, are best known for the black humoured and quirky ‘Looking through Gary Gilmore’s Eye’s. Even TV Smith himself admits that of his 200 songs it is far from his purple patched peak. This doesn’t really matter though as the song has served a far higher purpose. It has enabled him to change his history now and build a true and honest legend. Over the last 30 years the song has enabled TV to clearly explain who he is, to be remembered and to draw the crowds of the Earth, bound for his shows. Describing a TV Smith show as a gig doesn’t do it justice as the man is the consummate entertainer. The fusion of his ‘alive with energy’ guitar playing, the passion of his inspirational singing and his quick witted and thought provoking speeches leave many expecting just the simple fun of nostalgia in total awe.
The Adverts, Gary Gilmore’s Eyes, was a catalyst for me too. In 1977 the prairie fire of Punk Rock set my life ablaze. It is where I first cultivated the attitude of “I don’t believe you have to sell your soul and do what everybody says” and “do anything you wanna do.” It was when I first started to believe that we can do anything. The teenaged shy introverted Harry Potter metamorphed into a confident, enthusiastic and extrovert believer.
On the 1st September 1977 TV Smith pushed his microphone into the face of this believer and he sang along…
“Looking through Gary Gilmore’s Eyes.”
In 1978 the first light of Punk faded and TV Smith carried on his journey and explored bold new sounds of great imagination, supported by his cast of thousands. As the new decade began TV enlisted Colin Stoner to join the cruise. Stoner had been the bass player of the Ziggyesque legends the Doctors of Madness. Considered, by those who believed, to be the finest band ever risen in our green and pleasant land. It was Stoner’s face, with cocked cool hat, on the back of TV Smith’s fourth album that kept the light ablaze. I had little back then and had to leave the cast behind, but after seeing Stoner’s face I knew I couldn’t simply turn my back on these great explorers and simply walk away. I loved every fun note and every perfect word. It would keep me carrying on.
Years later we are in the grip of an iron maiden and I’m walking the streets of Leeds. I notice a poster of TV Smith’s Cheap. TV Smith Cheap? …How the mighty fall.
That night I visit The Duchess and TV Smith and I chat like two long lost friends and remember fondly our years as bored teenagers.
The early morning call shatters the dream. The Credit Controller trudges off to work to plead with people to pay his Company their overdue debt.
Ten years after exploring the sound of Smith and Stoner and it’s the same street, but different shop. The vinyl has shrunk to disc. I notice a blue sleeve with TV Smith March of the Giants emblazoned across it in brightest canary yellow and tangerine. On the cover a lone figure wards off a huge skyscraper armed with a high swinging acoustic guitar.
I mistake the skyscraper as the giant.
At home the dining room is filled with the purist beauty of a master guitarist. I quiver at the atmosphere and cross the room to sit and soak in the magic of Earth sound. “I see you sparkle in the mud, like a little diamond in the rough.” I shall never forget that life tingling moment. I was hooked, lined and sunk forever.
March of the Giants now sits on my top shelve alongside the Doctors of Madness, Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms… the greatest albums of all time.
TV Smith re-invented himself with a sound immortal. Rich in melody, wise in words and a voice of purest compassion powerfully fused with protest passion. The Punk Dylan came of age.
We roll like a river into the 1990’s and I’m in Plymouth and I bump into TV Smith walking out of The Dolphin in Plymouth. TV lights up and we chat like two long lost friends and remember fondly our years as bored teenagers. I follow TV back into The Dolphin and TV plays “The Day I caught The Big Fish.” The room swirls in joy.
The early morning call shatters the dream. The Credit Manager strides off to work to lead his dream team to facilitate the ‘Looking Forward To Success’ culture change.
It’s the late 1990’s and the Group Service Improvement Manager is leading the ‘Improvement Through People’ culture change with companions old and new. I’ve had enough of dreams. It’s time for reality. My feeling thoughts pulse vigorously in positive passion. The time is now. Time to meet the hero. Time for the magic of giants.
It’s February ’99 and I’m, in the Duck and Drake devouring a fine ale. I pick up the local gig listing mag perched on the bar. I turn the pages and mind chant… “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!” “TV SMITH!”
“TV SMITH!”
It’s the 21st of February and I’m walking back from the bar armed with two pints of Old Peculier. My good friend Burkey watches as I bump into an old friend on my return. He glances with but a passing interest as the two long lost friends catch up on the long lost years since they were bored teenagers.
“Who was that?” enquires Burkey, “An old mate from football?”
“TV Smith,” I reply… sounding like it’s someone I bump into every month.
Contact!
A circle is complete.
An electric live wire takes to the stage armed with an acoustic guitar that can out punch a skyscraper. And it does! The fusion of his ‘alive with energy’ guitar playing, the passion of his inspirational singing and his quick witted and thought provoking speeches leave me in total awe.
The future just got better.
I chat with TV about his new album and the mystery of Channel 5. A friend yet to be found...
I borrow fifty quid from Nev, who had been at my side when I sang Gary Gilmore’s Eyes, as I hung from the side of the stage at The Adverts gig at Leeds Polytechnic all those years ago. I buy two copies of Generation Y, two copies of Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms and two copies of Last Words of the Great Explorer. Both the later albums are on the Ozit label. Strange? Favourites brought together by destiny or design? …Another seed is sown.
“Bloody Hell! He’s bought the shop!” laughs a jubilant TV Smith.
29 years and 10 days after that first sharing the mic contact and 50 TV Smith gigs after the first sharing words meeting in The Duchess and I’m in the New Roscoe in Leeds being interviewed for a documentary on Punk Rock. By now even Richard ‘Kid’ Strange, the lead singer on the Doctors of Madness, has confessed on stage that TV Smith is a legend.
We talk about the leg end and I share my stories… How I set up the TUTS fan club based around the amazing people on Klaus Fleischer’s wonderful website and forum. Why I think the anti-hero is in reality the alive-hero. Why Punk was such a catalyst for so many. And how I met the man; it’s the first time I’ve told anyone the story.
Is the secret out?
Jamie, the interviewer, asks me to take a drink for the camera. I quaff the fine Exploring Madness ale I have brewed for the event with my good friends, the exceptional brewers; Dave ‘E&S Elland’ Sanders and Mark ‘Two Halves’ Smith. The taste is both delicious and dangerously drinkable. Jamie, who is also a huge Adverts fan, asks about the double Doctors of Madness and TV Smith’s Explorers re-union event. I talk about the seven years I’ve spent persevering to fulfil the two favourite bands re-union dream. I talk of other dreams… of how it felt to sing lead vocals for the Doctors of Madness on the previous night in Doncaster.
Livings dreams changes forever…
Two hours later and TV introduces Carrying On and dedicates the song to me. He talks about how one man can make a difference. TV’s most positive and inspirational song perfectly captures the Dare To Dream spirit of the two magical gigs. Stoner’s bass playing simply divine, as one with TV’s voice and acoustic guitar. TV Smith has seldom sounded so exquisite.
“We can do anything.”
Ten minutes later and I’m called onto the stage. I stand with TV Smith to my right and Stoner to my left. Right in between the two and it’s great. We sing in unison… “I can jump a mountain now. Poke my head above the cloud. I’m proud, I’m alive, now I’ve found some purpose.”
Opportunities disappear like snowflakes on the path of life. I seize the moment and go for it! I punch my fist though the dream cloud and raise the wreck to sail anew.
Dare to dream?
The second circle is complete
A success coach awoke this morning filled with the light of the ultimate day of this, the most successful month of his life, and he knew it was time to tell the hero’s story.
A flash of clarity hit him like a thunderbolt out of the blue. It wasn’t magic that brought them together… it was science.
Quantum physics to be precise.
To tell you more I’d have to share a sacred law.
Instead, for now, let’s just say it’s a secret.
And due to the flaw in the sound recording of the documentary interview, it’s just like this story was.
… Until today.
Are you ready to hear The Secret?
Are you ready to awaken the giant within?
Are you ready to take the hero’s journey?
Are you ready to truly dare to dream?
Tim Sundown
30.06.07
The storm clouds will pass...
The sun will shine its magical light and amazing things will be attracted into your life this year.
I can feel it in my bones. Its energy makes me truly alive.
Feeling thoughts become reality. The more positive the passion, the more you share and grow the more you become alive and free and what you really want to be...
It's not really a secret; I'll share what life and success are all about for me...
It's all about being in the now, choosing how you are going to best be, living your purpose, believing in you and the things you want to happen...
You see, YOU, no-one or no-thing else, attracts the health, wealth, growth, love, joy, fun and success into your life.
It's easier than you think.
Shine your light, life your dreams
Tim Sundown
It’s so important to think about how we look at words. If we look at them negatively we reject and resist what they represent. Our lives are so often ruled by our beliefs, perceptions and assumptions. So may of these beliefs seem to centre around money. Yet, if we truly embrace wealth and richness we can make an even bigger difference to the World.
For example let’s look at dictionary definitions…
Being Rich is a wonderful thing. As well as being wealthy and abundant, being rich means… Well supplied with desirable qualities, full of cultural interest, fertile, quality, great worth, luxuriant, prolific, elegant, flavoursome, fragrant, resonant voice, amusing and laughter.
Wealth is the state of being Rich, so all the above apply again.
Money is simply a medium of exchange that functions as legal tender; the official currency in the form of bank notes and coins.
Abundance is plentiful supply. It is fullness. It is benevolence.
Benevolence is an inclination to help others and do good things.
The more you possess, the more you can choose to feel gratitude. The more you possess, the more you can be benevolent, generous and giving. Being wealthy is healthy.
Prior to the Tony Robbins Wealth Mastery course my beliefs included “wanting money is greedy,” “money has no connection with happiness,” and “the stock exchange is gambling.” Limiting beliefs constantly cost us. When I looked back at my life I found that every time I am about to become successful I sub-consciously sabotage myself.
I realised that this was ridiculous and I needed a new empowering believe.
My new belief and Life Map affirmation is now I A RICH - I am Gratitude, Generosity and Abundance).
Straight after Wealth Mastery I had my best month’s business performance ever. Since then every month has been better than the previous month. We get what we focus on in life. It’s the magic of our Genie. When I let my Wisdom Mind wander over to the negative Gremlin I failed, when I chose to focus the magic Genie of my Wisdom Mind on winning, I won.
My Wealthy Mastery team chant was “I love money and money loves me, I make money easily. I’m a money magnet.”
Wealth Mastery also helped me to begin to study Wealth in much the same way as last year I studied Health. Such excellent books as The Richest Man in Babylon, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Think and Grow Rich are helping me to understand so much more about attracting Abundance into my life. My next step is to read Ask and It Is Given, The Law of Attraction and The Secret as everywhere I go people are talking about these books, CD’s and DVD’s. And so I’ve ordered some of them right now.
Tonight I’m meeting my richest self made relative to learn the secret of his success.
Just to wet your appetite to learn more about abundance here’s an interesting suggestion on how to best utilise the wealth you attract into your life…
70% Spend it wisely on living a full, happy and healthy life. Purchase from this 70%, not on credit.
10% Invest wisely in the stock exchange and property. But first learn all you can from the experts.
10% Pay of your debts. Especially your mortgage, as your house is a liability not an asset.
10% Give wisely and give not to receive. According to Tony Robbins giving is the secret of life.
How much of a difference could you make to peoples lives if you had more time and money to give?
Be a winner, be abundant, be generous and be grateful.
Live long and prosper.
Sundown
This is the thread that connects us to creation
made strong from powerful light and glorious magic,
our soul line and our wisdom guide.
This is how we dare to live and how we live to dare.
The thread is pure and strong and is ours for the weaving.
Hold it soft and close and follow it to your source.
jeni starfish
Three years ago I made my escape from the rat race and set sail for the green and pleasant dream of The Land of Plenty. To freedom and happiness.
...Or so I hoped.
It's been very hard work. I've worked crazy hours. I've learnt a lot and it's been one hell of a journey.
I've learnt that running a coaching business is not about focusing on being a good coach. The big learning came from finding out that you have to to excell and cover four key Success Capabilities...
Tim's morning writing contained a particularly evocative phrase for me the other day - "the tomorrow of your dream" - and I began thinking about the life that our dreams have. Take my running. Its past has been a wish (to run a marathon) and one that never became a true dream because it was no more than a wish. Did your parents ever tell you that old adage, if wishes were horses then beggers would ride?
No matter how much I wished, the horse never appeared. Because in the past of my dream I didn't think it through properly, never truly believed I could do this thing, or would have the commitment to make it happen. It was just something I said to myself, that I'd like to do, but it never became a must. Dreams must become a must, if they are to come true.
My dream became a present reality when I scaled the wish down to a size that I could see, hear and feel in my imagination. Half the size, 13 miles not 26, and still a worthy goal, yet tangible now, do-able, sitting on the horizon of my 2007 vision, and oh so compelling. I believe I can do it, and I know it is mine for the effort and the taking.
Now, in the present of my dream, I can plan to enjoy each milestone along the way to make this present last a long lifetime moment. And the tomorrow of my dream is bright coloured with accomplishment and the knowledge that I have pushed another boundary for myself.
I needed the yesterday of my dream to get me to its today. Fully present to my dream, it has a life of its own and is right now flying triumphantly to its tomorrow.
jeni starfish
