The Starfish & Unrest Principle

The Preamble:

Before I get to the crux of the matter I 1^st have to set the scene. I was watching Wild Earth this morning at Sunrise, I was enthralled by this Big orange ball of fire peeping over the horizon, slowly but methodically rising into the sky, heating up the Earth and all that dwell upon it, giving us the Gift of Life and influencing every aspect of life on Earth, this Beautiful planet we call home. I began to ponder our participation in this process and our longevity on this planet.

The Starfish:

You have probably heard this story before. A little girl was walking along the beach, when she came across 1000’ds of Starfish washed up on the shore, and immediately began throwing them back into the sea one by one, an elderly gentleman approached the little girl with his wisdom, telling her that she was wasting her time by throwing the Starfish back one at a time, as it did not matter in the greater scheme of things. The little girl looked at him with disdain, throwing another Starfish into the sea she remarked, “it made a difference to that one “. Just imagine if a 1000 people showed up with that attitude, all the Starfish would have been saved.

The Resent Unrest:

A while ago, South Africa experienced a terrible week of violence, mass looting and  destruction, people died, businesses were burnt to the ground and  livelihoods were destroyed, and  what did we do … we all banded together regardless of race, religion or gender, everybody that could, pitched in to defend our properties and  preserve human life, guys stood at roadblocks through the cold nights, while women brought them hot coffee and  sandwiches. The people at home shared whatever food they had with their friends and neighbours, as shops were closed, man it was awesome. Once the danger passed, everybody again pitched in to clean up, rebuild and replenish before going back to their New Normal.

The Biggest Threat to Mankind:

In the background looms the Biggest Threat to mankind ever, called Climate Change (CC).  What is Climate Change; a very brief explanation of CC would include both Global Warming driven by human-induced emissions of Greenhouse Gasses and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns and the heating up of the Earth’s Surface.

We have all seen the warning signs, just switch on the TV and witness the slow destruction of our beautiful planet due to, uncontrollable Wild Fires, destroying millions of hectares of forests, Torrential Rain causing massive Floods and Mud Slides, destroying whole towns. In other parts of the world, they are experiencing severe Droughts, causing large scale Famine, the Polar Ice-Caps are melting, causing the rise in sea levels and on and on it goes, while most of us stand idly by and watch it happen, while starting our vehicle to go to the same shop for the 3^rd time today. The catastrophe awaiting mankind is to horrendous to contemplate if we do nothing to limit Climate Change.

In Conclusion;

One small facet of Climate Change is the global sea level have risen 20cm over the last century. In the last decade alone, the rate of rise has nearly doubled. This is a direct result of the Polar Ice Caps melting at an alarming rate due to increased global temperature. If this rise continues, entire countries like Bangladesh to name but one could be totally submerged under water. “Humanity faces many threats, but none is greater than Climate Change. In damaging our climate, we are becoming the architects of our own destruction. We have the knowledge, the tools and the money to solve this crises” (Prince Charles, U.K) but do we have the resolve.

Ask yourself, what have I done lately to help prevent CC? If we ALL wake up tomorrow morning with the same attitude as that little girl with the Starfish or reacted like the men and women in the time of unrest, we might just be able to save this beautiful planet Earth, we all call home, for ourselves and the future generations.

This may all sound so melodramatic, but is it? I challenge you to just type in “Climate Change” into your browser, whatever that may be (Most probably Google) and educate yourself on the Biggest Socio-Economic catastrophe awaiting mankind and see what you can do to throw back your Starfish.

Awake from your Slumber

Many years ago I received a message that read, “Awake from your Slumber” & even though I understood the individual words, I didn’t really  understand the message, until I started with Life Coach training, … all of a sudden my personal Alarm Clock went off, without a snooze button, Wow! What an awakening.

I had a wonderful coach called Jenni B from New Insights, who so eloquently articulated the inner workings of life, like how our Beliefs do & don’t serve us, & how we can change those limiting beliefs for starters, & how these Beliefs lead to our Value System that ultimately determines our behavior, it started dawning on me, that even though I was awake, I was Slumbering.

Jenni went on session after session, & in one of them, explained that all communication is merely Projection, & that with Projection comes Responsibility … (the ability to respond) & the rest of my education filled in all the gaps, & that culminated in my Awakening, & I realized that my life was as it was because of my Beliefs, & that I had the ability to change the Beliefs that did not serve me, if that was what I wanted my life to look like, so I did! Naturally, there are circumstances in the process, but they don’t define you, how you deal with them do, if you want to read more about circumstances, go to my Blog on my website www.theworldwithin.co.za there is a post on Circumstances, Responsibility & Beliefs, & if you are already there, just scroll to the heading.

You know those conundrum pictures, that are designed to confuse you, where there are pictures within pictures, & the aim is to find the hidden object or characters that are sometimes almost impossible to find, until you do, then you can never Not see it again, the confusion becomes clear, this is what Life Coaching does for one, once you can see the “Woods for the Trees” you will never mistake the Woods again for just Trees. It showed me the hidden aspects of my life that completes my Life’s Picture. I would be remiss if I did not add, that it is ultimately up to each & every one of us to take Responsibility for our own lives, & to find our own unique paths as we are all So different. Life Coaching can & will assist you in drawing up your unique Road Map for your life’s journey, but Only You can decide to take the trip & enjoy it, many people will go with you, & even benefit from your journey, but you have to take the 1^st Step.

In the final analysis, it can’t just be about your Life’s final destination, because that destination is death, so the journey becomes extremely important, & equally important is the enjoyment of your Life’s Journey, it’s time to awake from your slumber & … enjoy the Ride.

You create your world Without according to your world Within

In case this statement conjures up images of lack, let me explain: The word without, is a metaphor for your external world, but let’s look at the word in its literal form as a matter of interest.

Wouldn’t you just love to live a life without all these negative feelings of fear,  anxiety, self-sabotage, hatred, unhappiness, discontent and the list goes on and on… The good news is that a good Life Coach, with a great platform, will teach you how to create your own life the way you want it, you see, we create our own destiny. I make reference to a quotation by James Allen (1864 – 1912) that is still relevant today and forever amen and it goes … “Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armoury of thought he forges weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy & strength & peace.” food for thought isn’t it.

Circumstances, Responsibility & Beliefs.

Firstly, let’s look at the words Circumstances & Responsibility as they go hand in hand.

Circumstance : A fact or condition connected with or relevant to an event or action. (Oxford Dictionary) Events that change your life, over which you have no control. (Cambridge Dictionary)

Responsibility : the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something, in short – the ability to Respond.

I often make reference to a quote by James Allen – “Circumstances do not make the man, it reveals him to himself” .In other words, how you deal with any circumstance or respond to it, reveals you to yourself, the circumstance does not define you, your response to it does.

When we are born, we are born into a set of circumstances which we have no control over, no manual or road map on how to navigate through this life. We are also born without beliefs, a clean slate for that matter but as we grow, we develop over time and out of the rich tapestry of experience that we have in life, i.e. from our parents, our teachers our peers, the media etc. etc. a set of Beliefs form that govern our lives, our emotions our self-worth, our self-confidence all ultimately play a big part in our happiness.

Every morning we wake up with our beliefs –  of ourselves, our skills, our values, our dignity, our deficiencies, other people, school, work, recreation or hobbies – our beliefs of the world, politics, crime, environment and beliefs of a 1000 different concepts, but what we are not told, is that these beliefs are not necessarily true and don’t necessarily serve us. They are merely perception and projections.

What has beliefs got to do with Circumstances & Responsibility?

We have a responsibility to accept the circumstances that help create our beliefs and question them. If you question a concept, idea or belief enough and introduce sufficient doubt or education one will eventually come to disbelieve it and replace it with beliefs that serve us in order to become the best person you can be –  creating your own happiness.

This is where Life Coaching comes in, we explain these crazy phenomena that govern our lives, work through them and create your unique “Road Map” in order to reach Your Chosen destination in Life.