John's Blog

  5 Bold Ways to Supercharge Your Self-Development Are you stuck in a cycle of "almost"? Almost reaching your goals. Almost feeling fulfilled. Almost living your dream life.  Self-development isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. And the most successful people out there aren’t just lucky—they’re intentional. If you are going to reach beyond "almost," you will have to be deliberate in your growth.  Here are five bold, unorthodox ways to elevate yourself and unleash the version of you the world’s been waiting for. 1. Stop Reading, Start Doing Books, podcasts, and courses are great, but they can become your comfort zone. Are you hiding behind learning instead of living? The Challenge: Pick one concept you’ve been absorbing—just one—and act on it for a week. Post about your progress online to stay accountable. 2. Audit Your Circle Look around. Are the people in your life helping you grow or holding you back? It’s time to assess your relationships with brutal honest...

Truth and Deception may be opposites on the scale of "desirable," but they are grossly enmeshed by a great equalizer called 'self.'     Self Deception is the two-faced enemy of our success. The first face is deception that we are not 'good enough.' We conjure up lies about our worth that works magic to keep us dumb, pathetic, and purposeless.     Once we break free from the depressing shackles of self doubt, by realising the Sea of Potential we possess is enough to overcome any limitation - we suddenly meet the second face of Self Deception.     This cunning enemy comes as our 'friend', stroking our ego and allowing us to wallow is self glorification, believing we are greater than we actually are.     In this delusion of Grandeur, we adopt self -awarded titles reserved for recognition by others, like 'leader' or 'influencer', which inflate our arrogance and sharpens the axe of pride that will eventually cut us down to size....

Life and love don't get meaning from ckearly written definitions. Life and love get meaning from principles.    I watched a documentary of a man, who once played Jesus of Nazareth in a movie, in search of the real Jesus. In the documentary, the actor told of how he researched every portrayal of Jesus he could find, because he wanted to get the "character" just right. He wanted to portray Jesus perfectly.     In the movie, the actor puts very little into the actions or emotions for the character of Jesus, choosing rather to only imply action, emotion and intent, leaving the character of Jesus open to interpretation.     The actor knew that viewers would project their own meaning and intent onto the character.      In the reviews, critics and fans called it the best movie of the life of Jesus ever made. It would have to be so ... because the actor gave us "our own version" of Jesus... we would have to award it the best rendition ever...

Looking around, you will witness a lot of polarity in this world.  Polarity means: for every up there is a down, For every inside there is an outside, For every high there is a low.  Sometimes, these opposite are obvious, but sometimes, these opposites are harder to spot.  Many a therapy session I conduct is with people battling deep lows, unaware that these troubles are not demons, but rather self inflicted balance to their pursuit of frequent highs.  The most common polarity I witness, invisible to most, results in people easily embracing mediocrity, and missing success. This seeming oxymoron is fuelled, I'm told by the average, by the paralysing fear of failure.  Oh sausage! Failure isn't the polarity of success. Failure is an inherent part of the process to success. One simply must fail in order to learn, grow, and win.  What is keeping you from the success you so desire is fear itself. The fear has got you labelling failure negatively,...

Personal Development Skill: Team Work There is no doubt that the single most important skill to define a leader; to will make or break his or her reputation is their ability to work with a team. This important skill quickly separates true leaders from the “wannabe” that wants to gloat in their own self importance. You may fool fans, but you will never fool the team.

https://www.facebook.com/anamcarraleadership/ << Leadership The Space in Leadership 3 Skills of Listening and Timing Music is not in the notes, but in the silence between. Wolfgang Mozart Music is in the space between the notes. Claude Debussy The attribute of Space in Leadership can be compared to the space between notes in music. Whatever you preference of style, it seems that music appeals to people from all walks of life. It is true that each of us has our own choice as to our favourite groups or even style of music. It is also true, you would have to agree, that music is made up of notes and timing.

<< Board of Brilliance , Best Choice John's Board of  Brilliance People always make the best choice... 1:07 video Article by John Usher on Choice: The Best Choice is...

5 Phases of a Developing Team As obvious as it may be to you and I, there are many people floating about claiming the title of leader when they have no team, they have no followers. What should be obvious is that “leader” is not a title, but rather a role or a function. The leader may not always be the most experienced person, nor the oldest. The leader may not walk in front of the pack, but one thing is for certain, a leader carries that label because of the job they perform. The obvious job a leader performs is to lead a group of people. The path may be from A to B, or from A to B and back again. The path a leader takes a group may cover all the letters in the alphabet, but one thing should not be overlooked: the primary function of a leader is to take his or her people from a frazzled group to a high performance team. 

Groups vs. Teams A leader will emerge as a team gathers to accomplish any sort of objective. A handful of key principles will assist a leader to lay a good foundation for his or her personal leadership style. The leader should also understand the phases of a developing team, understand what is required to keep the team on track. A working knowledge of the difference between a group and a team will help the leader identify where the team is in the development process.

Be A SMARTY Pants Some things work. Some things do! In my drive for getting to that section of life I really want to be I am busy evaluating what works for me, and what doesn’t. Things that don’t work I politely but decisively remove from my thinking process (I will share some secrets with you on how to do that without endless affirmations and mishaps in a future article!). Sometimes things work partially and need some adjustment.  One such principle I have adjusted to better suit me and my way of thinking is the (in)famous goal setting aide called S.M.A.R.T. This acronym is used to evaluate a goal set. It is a way to test the comprehensive development of a goal once it has been set. Until I started putting my own twist on it, SMART did not work for me. The new SMARTY is dynamic and living.  I use it not to evaluate the goal once I have defined it, I USE IT TO DEFINE THE GOAL AS I SET IT. May I share this twisted SMARTY version of goal setting with you.

All of the beliefs included in this 10 part Formula for Success Series encourages people to deal with their own perspective on the world. It seems that in this world perspective is the difference between those that achieve their own desired results and those that live in a bitter place. Even Einstein based his Theory of Relativity on the principle of perspective. This discovery made me analyse all of my beliefs differently. As I uncover my beliefs I ask the following questions: What perspective does this belief give me of the world in which I live? What can I learn from this belief and the perspective it offers? How can I alter the belief to give me a better perspective? These questions give me an opportunity to evaluate my own attitude and perspective of my world and my surroundings. If attitude determines altitude, then beliefs are the attitude adjusters! My most limiting attitude has to be the one directed at people. I have caught my-self remarking on people’s intelli...

Our beliefs are what makes us, and our beliefs are what breaks us. Our internal world has such a major impact on the outward consequences. So, it was no surprise to me that amongst the most common beliefs of excellence held as true by the top performing companies is a statement that talks directly to our internal resources. Well, sort of. The eighth belief of excellence that I would like to share with you here is : People have all the resources that they need. "No I don't!" This was my initial reaction to this statement. I looked at my business, the cash flow, my bank statements and thought how I could use a lot more resources than I possessed at the time. I am sure everyone would like to have ac-cess to a little more resources than they have available to them. Especially newly launched entrepreneurs, struggling with cash flow in their start-ups. I regard myself as a tea-spoon in life. I believe my function in the bigger picture is to stir people. Awaken th...

My mother has the gift of the gab. She always has an answer regardless of the situation. Sometimes these are funny chirps, but most often they are comments with a bit of zing in them. Yet strangely, it is when she remains silent in a situation that she communicated the loudest of all. The seventh statement in our beliefs of excellence series is: You cannot not communicate! Yes, I know! It has a double negative in the sentence. But for a moment imagine my 4 foot 8 inch tall Scottish mother, hand on hip, evil angry glint in her look, silent. Is she saying anything? No! Is she communicating? Oh yes! I am a firm believer that effective communication is the backbone of every successful functioning organisation, of every team, of every family and of our personal achievement of goals and dreams. Studies show that more than 50% of divorces occur due to poor communication. A management survey revealed that more than 60% of all management problems have their root in poor communicatio...

What is Mind Mutter? Part 2 – The Force Within Condescending, encouraging, rebuking and challenging! The relentless muttering of our internal voice is ceaseless and extremely effective! You cannot out shout Mind Mutter! You cannot kill it with affirmations. It won’t reduce because you ignore it. Mind Mutter is the driver of the force that is within you, and is unwilling to let go of that steering wheel. It is time to stop ignoring it or running from it. It is time to embrace your only true motivator. It is a fact that mind mutter matters most in effective and efficient self-development.

The Average Enforcer When introducing the wonders of Mind Mutter, what it is and how it works, it is beneficial to look at the effects it has on people like us. This article will take a brief look at how Mind Mutter affects peoples thinking, their achievements, their successes and failures. Have you ever wondered why people at the top of their game somehow fail - spectacularly? Think of people in sports, and how at the pinnacle of their career, they make a blunder that destroys their reputation. A top marathon runner, a shy person that shuns media attention, causes such a media spectacle in a top class race, then drops from the "scene" completely, never to be heard from again. How does this happen to world class athletes?

The Map is Not the Territory Dishes, Dances, Business and even bombs! These days you can find a formula or recipe for just about everything on the internet. I have found one that I particularly like: A survey of the "bigger" 500 companies in the world revealed that they share a common denominator. They share a set of statements, or beliefs, that each of them holds as true. It seems that these beliefs are fundamental in defining the mind set of the employees of the companies, that lead these companies to excellence. It seems that this formula is one to generate success.   All 500 companies hold the same, or at least very similar, beliefs of excellence. Furthermore, they are convinced that by applying this formula, any person or business will be able to duplicate their excellence. Who am I to argue?   So, maybe by sharing these beliefs, I can improve the world? Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that there are at least 10 of these common beliefs of...

No one wants to look at the mess in their lives, thinking: this mess is as a result of what I think and believe!   That just demoralizes people completely. Sadly, the statement is true. So maybe, investing some time and effort (that’s all it will cost) in success-bringing beliefs is required.   As shared in part one—A survey of the Top 500 companies in the world revealed that they share a common denominator. All 500 companies hold the same, or at least very similar, beliefs of excellence. Furthermore, they are convinced that by applying this formula, any person or business will be able to duplicate their excellence. The first of these beliefs was: THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY. The second is : PEOPLE WORK PERFECTLY   As goal achieving, purposeful systems, people are remarkably effective. We are born fearless and without opinion. We learn every behaviour, fear and habit. We have learned how to respond in certain situations. All these behavi...

I was never the most enthusiastic kid in the class when it came to mathematics. I barely scrapped by. It wasn't until I took up art and painting portraits that I began to see the value of numbers. I began to explore the usefulness of mathematics in art and discovered its presence in music. Recently, I discovered that mathematics and motivation have a relationship too.

Personal development centers around goal setting. The central theme for most motivational or self development speakers and courses,  revolve around the participants ability to effectively engage and achieve goals.