BY STAN KONTOS

Everybody I know wants to have a good life or make their life better. I want to talk about the difference between being reactive vs being responsive. For many years (I’d say from birth to about just over 30 years old) I was reactive. When something went good, I’d be happy. When something went bad, I’d be negative (either upset or depressed, depending on the situation).

It wasn’t until I read over 200 books in a 2 year period that I discovered a life truth: The key to creating a better life is to transcend from being reactive to being responsive. That is, to understand and apply that first our world is created inside our heart and mind before it manifests into our material world. What a revelation that was!

Of course, I am sure many of us have heard the Biblical wisdom “The Kingdom of Heaven is Within You”, which essentially means the same thing. If you think good things (heavenly thoughts with their associated heavenly emotions of love, joy, gratitude and other positive emotions) you create more and more of a heavenly (good) life. Sounds simple right? Yes, it is simple but it is not easy as it requires a lot of self discipline (which by the way gets easier the more you practice every day).

Yes, it does take lots and lots of practice in meditation (being still), prayer, reflection, thought control and plenty of positive affirmations.

So what is it in life that is not working right now for you? Is it your finances? Is it your health? Is it a relationship gone off track? Whatever it is, I can confidently assure you that if you focus on what is wrong or what is lacking, you will stay in that state and situation longer. The secret is to take control of your heart and mind, and focus on what is good, what is helpful, what is positive. When you do this consistently everyday, you will begin to see life move in the direction of these positive thoughts and words.

Focus on what you want and you will move in that direction.

Coincidences will happen – people and events will come into your life to assist you toward your heavenly life.

Have an open mind – stay away from closed minded people and allow your mind to discover what is possible for you.

Be open to every process that assists in creating your better world – eating healthy (your body is a temple to house your spirit so look after it with healthy foods and drinks), meditation (the stillness of your mind – learn techniques) which brings silence so you can hear the inner voice of destiny more clearly, emotional state management (exercise every day for example raises your endorphins and enkephalins – these are important chemicals that make you feel really good, hence creating an empowering biochemistry) and an active prayer life (praying from the heart to God brings a transformation in your mind such that your automatic thoughts become more tuned into the positive).

Have a success attitude – an attitude that you will do whatever it takes and be open minded so that you can discover more of the truth. The wisdom goes “discover the truth and the truth shall set you free”.

Write yourself a simple list of personal development activities you will do everyday to move you in the direction of leading a positive and empowered life – a life where you feel good (the far majority of the time), are in good health, have great relationships and friendships and are financially abundant.

Come along to the Breakfast at the Next Level each month www.solresults.com/nextlevelbreakfasts where you will learn from state leaders of various industries how to become the best version of you and how to be happy in the process.

Live with passion, always stay on your life purpose, and stay at peace.

Stan Kontos 

BY STAN KONTOS

It is so important to develop the skill of distinguishing as to what are “man made rules” and what are “universal life laws”.  Sometimes we get the two confused so I will endeavour to explain the difference.

Firstly, being humans we are all imperfect (yes, I know some of us think we are really amazing but realistically we will make mistakes from time to time – welcome to humanity). How do we know when something is a “rule” vs a “law” and what is the difference?

A rule is “man made” and can be changed without consequences. For example, one day a road may have a 50km/hour sign and the next day it may be changed by the Road Transport Department to 60km/hour. Had you broken the rule the day before and done 60km in the 50km zone, and there was no camera, then you would get away with it and there’d be no repercussions (I am not suggesting you willfully break these rules, however am using this to demonstrate a point… read on). Even though we may at times call these “laws”, the fact remains they are not life laws but merely  “man-made rules” as they can be changed by man (or woman).

A life law on the other hand is a universal understanding that has its origins from the beginning of time and does not change ever (even after a thousand years). The “law of gravity” is a typical example, you can jump off a cliff and think you can fly, but unless you are a bird, you will fall! It is a universal life law that what goes up must come down – this is the law of gravity. Other laws include, but are not limited to, the law of “sow and reap” – what you put out you get back, for example, if you treat people well, you will have more people treat you well and vice versa… (this is very important in business as well as with family relations). There are life laws from antiquity such as “Thou Shalt Not Lie” are – if you lie, and you know it, you will not feel good (your conscience will not be able to rest) apart from the fact you may get found out and lose other people’s respect.  The life law,  The Law of Reciprocity is another such powerful law – if you give generously to someone then they will subconsciously want to give back to you. Try it and see how it will bring blessings into your life, I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying “treat others the way you’d like to be treated yourself – with kindness and respect”.

As we get older, we discover (much from mistakes or from other wise people) what are rules and what are laws. We learn that although we must to our best, endeavours follow both rules and laws, it is the laws that can have a more profound effect on our life – particularly with our personal development and spiritual development. If we want peace of mind, joy, happiness and more abundance in our lives (whether it is the abundance of love, money or health) then we must be extra diligent with following the life laws. Following life laws ultimately gives us more life.

I encourage you to begin thinking today and ensure you do not give the same value to when you inadvertently break a rule vs breaking a law. Although we must always endeavour to always do the right thing, learn to be forgiving to yourself (basically this means I am sorry and will do my utmost to never do this again) and realise that laws have much more significant impact on your destiny than rules.

For me, I get annoyed at myself if I inadvertently drive 55km/hour in a 50km/hour zone as I do not want to receive a fine. And if there is no camera, I just say to myself “C’mon next time let’s be more observant buddy”.  However, I get really upset with myself if I break a life law such as being “snappy” toward someone and not treating them the way I’d like to be treated.

In both cases, I will forgive myself, reflect and endeavour to do better next time.

If you want to become better at life laws, come to Breakfast at the Next Level (www.solresults.com/nextlevelbreakfasts) and you will see that the highly successful South Australian leaders we bring on as guests do tend to do one thing in common, and that is, they know and apply life laws.

Live with passion, always stay on your life purpose, and stay at peace.

Stan Kontos 

BY STAN KONTOS

People often ask me how we came up with the idea for Breakfast at The Next Level whereby we interview amazing leaders, entrepreneurs, and those that have a powerful influence in our society.

Many years ago (almost 20 years ago now), I desired to learn more about success. I didn’t know the answers but I knew that others knew. I became a seeker of success, and you know the wisdom “If you seek, you shall find.” I personally followed up CEO’s, entrepreneurs, and other leaders to learn from them on a personal one to one basis. The education they imparted to me was invaluable in assisting me to grow a business chain, create wealth in real estate, develop an enjoyable style of life, grow spiritually, and master my thinking and emotions at a higher level.

We now have the privilege of bringing these types of people to over 100 audience members so they can enjoy learning from our inspiring guests each month. We host Breakfast at the Next Level 11 times a year on the first Wednesday of every month from 7:00am to 8:30am, check out our website for more information www.solresults.com/nextlevelbreakfasts/

The secret to success is to learn from those who have succeeded and to apply this knowledge in your life. Yes that’s right, once you have acquired the knowledge (hence the importance of attending events like the breakfast event), you then need a program or system to integrate it into your life, execute the strategies, and create the results. This second step is where a resource like a coach can be invaluable. That coach could be a formal arrangement, such as becoming a Platinum Program Member at SOL Results, for example, or it could be a business partner that holds you accountable or even your wife, husband or partner that has a skill set in making sure you deliver and do what you say you will do. We all need someone to hold us accountable and help us, I have someone to coach me to success and have had one for 20 years.

Once you have the information, have someone to help you to succeed, and you do succeed, it is then important to pass this knowledge on to your family (perhaps you have kids and want them to have a better life), friends, business partners and colleagues. There is plenty of success to go around for everyone! When we all teach success because we want others to do better, we help create a better society that becomes world leading. When we have a world leading society, we can then help the less fortunate societies to improve.

So, it is important that you discover your inner potential and be the very best version of you that you can possibly be. The more you explore what amazing things you are capable of, the progress created will bring greater happiness into your life, and then you will impact others in your circle of influence helping make their lives better too.

Hence, the purpose of Breakfast at the Next Level is much more than just listening to someone who has been very successful. It is about making you more successful and then everyone you influence.

Stan Kontos 

BY STAN KONTOS

Over the years, I have coached and mentored hundreds of people from all walks of life, different types of businesses, and professions. And one thing I have learnt is there are patterns of behavior we can easily fall into due to our environmental influence. One of the things we need to be careful of living in a Western lifestyle is hurry disease, the need to keep doing things efficiently and over working ourselves.

If you ever get the chance to visit Ikaria, a Greek Island renowned for having some of the longest living people in the world, you will soon discover that stress is minimal. People sleep in until late morning, the shops don’t open until 12 noon! You catch up with friends every afternoon for a chin wag and a glass of wine, and you always get a siesta every afternoon (usually 30-90 minutes).

What a contrast to the stress levels we endure in Western civilised society – at least 1/3 of adults do not sleep well, have to drive through traffic, hurry to get to meetings on time, gobble down our lunch, fight our circadian rhythms to stay awake with a coffee in the afternoon so we do not fall asleep at our desk and push through the day so we can get home and get onto our laptops only to do more work!

It is time to set aside time for yourself, time to reflect, meditate and bring more peace into your life. I encourage you to begin thinking about how you can incorporate a little of the “Ikarian life” into your life here in your Western world. Perhaps you can take 15 to 30 minutes out each day to meditate, or schedule half a day each week to review your goals and aspirations and ensure you are on track, or develop a regular group of friends to enjoy human interactions outside of your business/work (a walking group, a tennis group, a cycling group, and so forth).

Let this year be the year you bring more balance into your life and realise that a long, healthy life needs the foundation of peace, rest, reflection and human interaction at a deeper level.

If you would like further information about Balance of Life strategies, please enquire with one of our staff members at SOL Results on (08) 8362 3111 about our Platinum Program.

Live with passion , purpose and of course always aim to be at peace.

Stan Kontos 

BY STAN KONTOS

Did you know one of my greatest inspirational moments was when I read how Benjamin Franklin developed himself to such an incredible world changing level? Do you want to know what he did to become a world leader? Well here is one of the key things he did… he developed his value system. What is a value system? It is a series of emotional states that create behaviours that dictate what we value in life.

So for example, if we say we value our health then logically our behaviours will be to eat healthy, think healthy (minimise stressful thoughts), exercise daily, drink alcohol moderately and have a program for managing our health (prevention is better than cure). Hence, if we say we value health and we display the behaviours as well, then we are living congruently. If we say though that we value something (like health) but do not display the behaviours then we are incongruent and not really serious about our proposed value.

So it is with other things we value in life such as love, family, friends, giving, happiness, wealth creation, leadership, and so the list of values goes on and on.

Benjamin Franklin realised that value systems require daily attention to create habitual behaviours and it would take about a month before a behaviour became permanent – that is a habitual force in one’s personality.

I have been working on my values lately to further strengthen my personality and the last month have focused on a daily basis to ensure I display the following 4 key values each day;

1. Love & kindness – I always look for ways to make people feel special whether it is buying them a gift, buying them a meal, giving them a helping hand, complimenting them, displaying positive energy toward them and so forth.
2. Courageous – this past month I have looked for ways to get out of my comfort zone and face any uncertainties “head on”. Items  like undertaking a larger investment than normal (something that stretches me), speaking out and challenging when I think someone is being unfair, or going out of my comfort zone and powerfully addressing problems that have come up.
3. Encouraging – this may link to number 1 somewhat – always looking for ways to be uplifting to people and getting them to focus on what is possible rather than focus on what is stopping them from achieving things (a very powerful method in my coaching and mentoring)
4. Generosity – stretching out of my comfort zone in giving larger amounts of money to necessary or needy causes and learning to feel good thinking bigger in this area of my life. Also continually thinking of ways to give money, knowledge or time to everyone I am about to meet or who become attracted into my life.

So what will be the 3-4 key values you will focus on in the next month over the festive season? Will it be happiness, health, abundance, contribution, love, kindness, expansiveness, leadership, or other value systems?

I encourage you to write down 3-4 values and monitor yourself each and every day for a month. Perhaps get someone close to you to give you an honest assessment how you have been going and whether they can see your internal development coming through? And of course always spend time with people who have developed very powerful value systems to learn from them.

Stan Kontos