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 

BY STAN KONTOS

Who you hang around with the most, and who you listen to intently, you will then become most like in that area of life. We have had many amazing guests interviewed at our breakfast event (www.nextlevelbreakfasts.com.au) and we all learn so much from each amazing leader.

One person, the leader in the tiling industry in Australia Bob Beaumont (from Beaumont Tiles) once said to me “Stan, don’t dream big….dream huge!” You see Bob has become the number 1 tiling retailer in the country and continues to grow with aspirations to become number 1 in the world. WOW that’s a BIG goal indeed!  I like hanging out with Bob because he thinks differently and that excites me to also think this way too.

And so I pass this inspirational way of thinking to you too…are you thinking big? And if you are, how about going to the next level and think huge!

You probably have the book “As A Man Thinketh” by James Allen (if you come along to the breakfast, we have them there for you) and in this amazing book it says that our lives (and businesses) are a direct reflection of our thinking. The bigger we think about any area of our life, the more we will move toward that thought. Yes we become what we think about most of the time.

Are you thinking HUGE when it comes to your business or career? Are you thinking HUGE when it comes to your finances? And what about your leisure activities, your health optimisation, and your relationships? It is so important to think huge in every area of your life.

When we think huge, we get inspired…we get excited…and so we begin to think and act differently that when we were thinking only big.

Yes my friends, when we think the way our Creator intended us to think, then we get his inspiration flowing through us. Think huge and you will feel better, you will get excited every morning when you get out of bed, and you will live longer because you are excited about the prospects of life.

So what can you think huge about today? Go set yourself a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) and begin working on it each day and watch how your world unfolds.

Always think huge.

And to help you think huge, if you live in SA and can be up early come along to see Francis Wong (Managing Director of Encounter Australia) being interviewed at the next breakfast event http://www.nextlevelbreakfasts.com.au

Have a wonderful day, a great week, and a HUGE month!

Stan Kontos 

BY STAN KONTOS

One of the greatest learnings that I continue to make in life and business is the incredible value of continuing to give my best in having an open mind. Like all of us, we all believe we are open minded however did you know that to be good at this, one needs to practice and exercise their mind daily?

What truly makes a mind open is the question one asks immediately after being presented with a statement  together with the ability not to place judgement on another human being’s perspective. This as we know sounds easier than it is in practice.  One of the greatest wisdoms I have ever heard is “Thou shalt not judge”. This wisdom although thousands of years in the making is still relevant today. But what exactly does it mean and how is it related to having an open mind?

If someone comes to you and says “I’ve been through a relationship breakdown and you know what –  you cannot trust anyone in this world”. Would you allow their perspective to affect your model of the world (how you see things)?  Or would you ask an internal open ended  question to yourself and keep your mind open such as “Isn’t that interesting. I’d like to learn more about this human being’s life experience.” You see, it is only by asking an open ended question such as this that you truly do not place judgement on this person’s perspective but rather begin to adopt an inquisitive approach eager to learn more and perhaps in turn being of assistance to them.

And what if you met someone who came up to you and stated  “I earn $10,000 per hour whenever I want to make more money and find it easy to do so”. How would you internally react in thought to this statement?  Would it be with an open mind such as “Isn’t that incredible?  Wouldn’t that be a wonderful skill to learn too?”.

When you keep your mind open in every situation whether in life or business, you will learn more, you will be more at peace with your inner self, and you will be getting the maximum value from the journey of life.

So what simple exercise can we all do today to take our life to another level in open mindedness? The simplest one thing that we can do which if we did on a consistent basis all day long is say an affirmation to ourselves that will then guide our mind to becoming what we are saying. Now of course, you may choose any affirmation that works for you to help you keep an open mind during each day – here is one that I believe will do the job:

“Every day, in every way, I look at every situation and say to myself  Isn’t that interesting?  What do I need to learn of value from this?”

The above statement, quietly muttered to oneself throughout the day (100’s of times) will result in you conditioning your mind to respond differently and you will begin to see more how life works and the many opportunities you have to learn, grow, add value and be more at peace.

One of the greatest privileges I have is the opportunity to interview great people every month at our breakfast event (http://www.nextlevelbreakfasts.com.au/) and this month will be with a great (Swedish) thinker Goran Roos. I am sure he will help us all to completely see things differently in how the world is evolving,  what innovations are on the horizon, and where the opportunities are for the future for all of us.  I encourage you to come along on Wednesday August 9^th.

Remember that with your thoughts you create your world. And with your questions you create your emotions and the direction of your life.

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

Stan Kontos 

BY STAN KONTOS

I have discovered that, as with everything good,   success always leaves clues.   We all know that wealth can only be achieved when money is made to work for you, and not you for money. Now I know that at some stage in all our lives, we must work to make money (either through a job or through a small business). For some, money becomes their master (they have to keep working). For others, money becomes their servant (money works for them). How is this difference so?

The secret formula is earn money, then save money, then invest and multiply the money. Sounds simple –  this is the truth.

A long time ago when I was working and being paid by the hour I discovered that it didn’t really matter how much money I got paid per hour if I didn’t know how to budget and create savings. What I discovered about my human nature was that the more I earnt per hour, the more I spent (it happened subconsciously – having a more expensive car, going out to eat more often at restaurants, finding more ways to spend my hard earned money on clothing, travel, and so forth). Similarly, I have noticed in others that when they earn more money per hour they don’t necessarily save this pay increase because it subconsciously gets spent. I am fortunate to have the responsibility of coordinating the employment of many people in my organisations and I see their frustration when as they earn more it doesn’t translate into more savings. Hence I am passionate about educating people to learn the secrets to wealth creation, including my own staff.

Here is a very important question that will help you determine how you are programed – are you programmed for wealth creation?

Q: What is more important to you – to get a higher hourly rate or to get the knowledge of how to create more money even if it means working at a slightly lower hourly rate?

A: Knowledge is more important than money.

Over 10 years ago, I recall deciding to find a way to be in the company of someone who was very successful. I found a way to invest in their business and in doing so was fortunate to be able to spend 3-4 days per month (yes I had to fly interstate once a month to attend to my business responsibilities all at my own personal cost) so I could spend time with this person and educate myself on business and wealth creation. My method over the years has been to always find people better than me and to spend time with them. I take copious amounts of notes and learn their secrets. Then  I apply this knowledge helping myself and in turn helping others in my environment. The secret is when you acquire knowledge to help yourself and you help others, you will always make more money.

As a Performance Coach (and having coached many hundreds of people over the years) , I have observed from experience that one of the biggest issues in our society is a lack of sufficient money to live abundantly. I believe that every one of us was meant to enjoy abundance – it is a universal law that we are meant to live joyfully. The 3% of our population that get to understand the laws of abundance are the ones who have sought   the knowledge and applied it for the benefit of others as well as themselves.

I encourage you to become one of that 3% today. Go and acquire new knowledge (perhaps come along to our breakfast event http://www.nextlevelbreakfasts.com.au/). Whilst it is good to find ways to earn more money per hour, it is far more important to learn to budget and create savings, and to then multiply these savings from wise investments. These wise investments over a 10 year period become your ticket to financial freedom – the choice of having to work vs wanting to work.  Financial freedom is a desire we all have for it gives us the choice to live the way that makes us joyful as well as the ability to help others.

I wish you abundance always. If you wish to learn more about our coaching program (Platinum Program http://www.solresultscoaching.com/), designed to assist you to obtain the mindset and the strategies to create more in your life, we would be happy to let you know more.

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

Stan Kontos