HighVibezFocus

  COMMITTING TO TIME Punctuality is commitment and self-discipline combined. It's a key indicator for measuring our awareness of time, will to act on decisions and reliability to deliver. Saying what we mean and doing what we say, are the basic elements required to live a true and purposeful life. Time commitment is our master – commanded from, delivered to and received through the medium of punctuality – self-mastery in a mirrored form. In this regard, we should trust punctuality as a positive attribute to follow and adhere to. The affirmations we receive, after committing to a set time, should be based on our integrity of thought. It encourages mindfulness and consideration. When we agree to a time, we make a conscious choice first and foremost – a shared statement and agreement within ourselves before we agree with others. So, how important is punctuality – for how can we define a person that is always late...are they not the lowest character type – self-deceiver, an i...

  STEPPING UP TO THE TASK   When there's an arduous task ahead and a real need for us to step up our game to tackle it head-on, the fear of the task often becomes more of an obstacle to taking action than performing the actual task itself.  We tend to dwell on the idea of the task itself, the potential discomfort and the time frame we will likely have to endure this feeling, rather than focus on the mechanics and tools we’ll require to accomplish our goal. In the past, when my training for a long-distance run or cycle ride has been lacking, I’ve learned the hard way how to accomplish a tough task. I've had to endure discomfort. Fortunately, it taught me that no matter how tough the perceived task seemed before or felt during, the end result was always the same – I achieved the goal.   And despite the perceived toughness of the situation being confirmed throughout the ongoing hardship – fully realised throughout the entire experience – the ending always, ver...

  STAYING THE COURSE We're all capable of so much more than we realise. And through an ongoing and continued program of dedicated effort, able to accomplish great feats of endurance by building mental & physical strength to attain desired goals.  Unfortunately, what we lack, is the will and determination to continue on a dedicated program to arrive at our destination. In this sense, we can say that we lack, is the commitment.  Committing to something implies that we are keeping an obligation with ourselves to complete a task. We are removing the freedom of action which we ourselves govern. We are the jailer and the jailed all in one. And that's how many of us see the roles – especially when we're restricting ourselves in some way or taking on a particularly tough challenge where there are easier ways out instead. Keeping to the plan, staying on track and doing what we've set out to do, all  take strong will and a mental toughness. This we call self-discipline....

ENGAGING YOUR MIND Our mind is our universe. Our very existence comes from the thoughts and outward projections of those thoughts, realised through our senses. We are conscious beings and all outside influences will register, either picked up in our subconsciousness or consciously aware minds, as will the effects from those influences, be received through our nervous system and become internal influences on our mindset. Without our five known senses, we would still be conscious, but without experiences, we'd be without a basis to measure reality against. Therefore, it must follow that anything picked up through the senses, ultimately becomes our reality. In this sense, reality is dependent on the sensory input we receive and because this is a constant stream of input, our minds can be wildly fickle. We can feel down, unhappy or afraid one instant and in the next, upbeat, happy and carefree. Our emotional influencers are going to sway our mindset and because our minds themselves are...

  A PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE Psychology  is the scientific study of our mental processes and behaviours. Understanding a basic level of psychology can award us an advantage in life. Understanding the behaviours of other people will be key for personal and business relationships and understanding our own minds will identify our strengths, weaknesses, preferences and where we can improve or undo negative behaviour patterns. When I first started looking at the basics of Psychology, I quickly realised that if science was able to rationalise our behaviour, then applying these intellectual ideas to my own processes could greatly help to justify my thoughts and actions in a more subjective way. And so it follows, that learning these workings of the brain will give us greater potential for understanding the requirements for living out purposeful, happy lives.  We Are All Representatives We are led by our unconscious minds. The person each and every one of us thinks we are, is just...

  LEARNING TO LIVE If you're reading this book, chances are, you have been pondering the same questions I've been asking myself. Namely, the question many also ask themselves — who am I? The question has been pondered before, but never before has so much thought been given to how I've arrived at this point in my life and ended up becoming this person under review. This point in time has been reached, via many multiple sets of decisions being made. One thing I'm sure of — my own position in the world today was not reached by chance or decided purely by trial and error. There were deliberate decisions made. Some of these decisions were a consequence of the rules instilled in me and (hopefully), preferable behaviours were championed over those less acceptable ones, and have enabled me to function well within society. So, coming up to a mid-life juncture, with evidently a bit of an identity crisis looming, I've really started to ask myself why I've made the decision...

  KNOW THYSELF The Greek philosophers are once again, my first point of reference on this most important topic.  For those wishing to understand more about the values of life, discover a purpose, award meaning to their short existence and forge a path towards greater success, the number one priority for the individual, is the quest for knowing what makes them tick.  The classic day thinkers delved into what it means to be alive. They dedicated their time to study and in some instances, lost their lives in the pursuit for life's true meaning. If great men have pained and died for this cause,  the study of philosophy should surely then be on everyone's personal  curriculum . We are hugely complex creatures and trying to fully understand what makes us act the way we do, has been the focus of  many great minds. Kant, Hume, Nietch and Freud  — to mention but a few more modern day thinkers — have all tried to decipher human psychology and to fit the jigsaw p...

  THE QUEST FOR HAPPINESS The quest for happiness in life is something we all aim for. To be happy, is, according to the Greeks, not a temporary state of being, unrelated to our personal feelings, but more of an objective concept that comes from a completely rational state of mind. There are many philosophical schools of thought proclaiming to hold the definitive answers for exactly what happiness is and one can argue that a collective ethical approach - a moral code that benefits all, is the ultimate good - or a personal code of ethics, is the definitive path to take. I personally believe the latter to be the priority, for in order to benefit the greater good, one must be happy in their own moral conduct first and foremost. Finding Purpose We are all interconnected in the subtlest of ways. Our thoughts determine actions, which in turn cause reactions from others, which set off an infinite set of chain reactions. We can choose how to act, only if we are aware of our mindset. Our in...

WE ARE WHAT WE BELIEVE True - we have genetics to thank for much of our physical appearance. But we shape our facial features  through mindset , affect our health through lifestyle choice and mould our lives by the thoughts and actions we take. Our genetics can play a major role in determining what tools we have available, but many have shown us through sport etc. how perceived disadvantages caused by birth defects or disabilities, can be overcome through mindset. Arguably, our social standing - our 'place' in society - has significantly more power to hold us on a pre-determined path, which is harder to break free from. And for the most part, it's our minds holding us back from breaking free from these chains we place on ourselves. It's mostly how we 'see' and what value we place on ourselves, then leaving the rest to society, our peers and even what our friends/family tell us, to define who & what we are. Change may seem difficult and a new, a brighter path...

  BLOATED OUT OF PROPORTION Training hard? Check! Drinking less alcohol? Check! Hydrating more? Check! Eating a well-balanced, highly nutritious diet? Check, check & check! Yet, feeling overly tired, low in energy and suffering with ailments stemming from an out-of-sorts digestive system? This is where a better understanding of food is required to  heal the gut  and get back on track. Plug The Leak Reading up on  Zonulin  and  leaky gut syndrome , it's relatively easy to discover some helpful clues as to why our energy levels are so low and why eyes are dull or skin dry and flakey. Damage to the digestive system can be caused by a multitude of different factors and it can also  manifest in all kinds of ways , ranging from the more obvious signs like a bloated stomach, to the not so obvious ones, like experiencing more mood swings, chronic fatigue, lacking in concentration or having sustained bouts of  brain fog & headaches . Without t...

  YOU ARE YOUR UNIVERSE Everything we see, hear, touch or experience as we journey through life, ultimately makes up our reality. Our senses feed information into our minds and it's our interpretation of this torrent from the environment about us, that becomes our personal universe. All our connections, including everybody and everything we come into contact with, will be  relative to only us  in our own unique way. There will be positive, negative and neutral connotations associated with everything, depending on our personal interpretations and therefore it's  how we  choose  to  perceive the world  around us that determines our path through life.  The universe has no  feelings  and does not make order from chaos or draw on emotions - these are human traits.  There is no meaning  to the universe, just  universal natural laws . So without our minds trying to make some  sense out of this universal information or a...