This passage was given to me recently and I think it’s a great example of the awareness we all need to achieve of how we are marketed to and the change we need to embrace related to it.

Recently, in a large city in Australia, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said, “This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?”

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.)

They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia. Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don’t exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don’t have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them… where is IT? Therefore, they don’t have kids either… Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me: I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a glass of wine with my friends.

Probably the most powerful external influence on your life that acts daily to derail any attempts you make to achieve and live your Ideal Life with Thriving Health is the media or companies using media style marketing. Specifically images of models with “perfect” bodies living a “perfect” life.

Well did you know that the overwhelming majority of images in magazines and other forms of print media are altered using Photoshop or other software? That’s the message given by professional photographer/retoucher Tim Lynch, who works with the stars. Celebrities maintain strict control over what images are allowed to be printed.

How can everyone else strive to achieve a look even celebrities cannot attain? At some level the public believes the perfection of celebrities to be real, yet it is not. This external/internal game of deception wreaks havoc on the ability to achieve realistic Thriving Health.

It is at the heart of my principle of Awareness. I hope this growing trend continues so that we become more and more aware of this powerful influence on our lives.

In health,

Brent

Creating the space for more time with my family!

The summer of 2009 has been one of significant change in our household.  We celebrated Maya’s 1st birthday by having some beautiful pictures taken, including several with her in the midst of a cake smashing frenzy.  Classic!  We took in some of Edmonton’s wonderful festivals, spent many hot sunny summer days with family and friends and, in many respects, just enjoyed the slower pace of summer.

I did something else this summer.  Clearing!  Yup clearing and closing loops standing as speed bumps to living my ideal life.  What I’m talking about are all those things that I agreed to do out of obligation but didn’t really want to.  The things I thought at the time might be a good thing to do but now I don’t really want to deal with them anymore.  The things that have been lingering and hanging on, in some cases for years.  These are the things that require my time, effort, and attention but are not aligned with my goals, dreams and ideal life.  Yet they are still out there…incomplete, unresolved, perhaps with someone else expecting something from me.  They are personal things and they are business things.  They are seemingly tiny things and they are huge things.  The problem with them is that they draw energy from me 24/7 by simply still being there.  They increase stress when I am reminded of them and may have harmed relationships through my avoidance.  Probably the most critical thing they do is to take my focus off of what is most important; my dream of an ideal life and how I will achieve it and live it with my family.  Too many things on the plate, not enough time, not enough energy all resonate as excuses for avoidance and procrastination.  I used them all.  Feeling down, drained, frustrated, and powerless at times further supported my inaction on many of these things too.  Now there have been other times of dealing with emotional clutter along my journey but now this particular group of things was between me and taking a next huge step in my evolution towards my ideal life.  I began to shift.  I began to reconnect to the fact that I wanted even more.  More for me and more for my family.

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”     Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Instead of focusing on this list and the overwhelming obligations I felt I had, I spent some time reflecting on what my WHY is!  Why change.  Why I wanted more.  Why clear and refocus my energy so that it aligns with my ideal life?  Why?  My beautiful girls immediately came to mind.  Instantly I had visions of us being able to do the things we love to do, when we want to do them, and to be wherever we want to be.  Freedom, energy, and choice.  There is nothing like connecting with with your why to get you moving.  With my WHY squarely positioned as a passionate motivator that I now connect with every day I became crystal clear of what was on my list that required my clearing and what loops remained open that required closing so that I could move forward in continuing to create my ideal life so that we could live it more and more every day.

The range of things tackled was pretty wide.  It included Gail and I talking in depth about her returning to work after maternity leave and how that would look and align with our dreams right now and into the future.  It included Maya starting in a day home and ensuring everything about it aligned with our goals and future plans.  It included things such as completing outstanding home renovations and rental property renovations and management. There was simply clearing and giving away items we no longer needed in storage in our basement and garage.  There were several little personal tasks on the list as well. With each one done the weight on my shoulders was a bit lighter.  I also looked at aspects of my businesses that were not supporting me and getting rid of them or effectively delegating them.  It involved looking at the businesses themselves and reframing them to align with my dreams and goals more concisely.  As I mentioned earlier some appear small and some appear large but the bottom line is that all were weighing me down and needed to be addressed.

Step by step, task by task, loop by loop I began to close and clear.  Some things were completed while others involving more of a process are well underway.  What I experienced was amazing!  My energy increased as the stress load of incompletion was lifted and the momentum of action and progress was experienced.  I felt free to focus where I wanted.  I became liberated from what felt like a stranglehold over my time and energy.  I experienced a positively snowballing effect on the speed of moving forward in my life.  I have been on the journey of transforming my life from the pain, limitations and barriers of the past to now moving from a good life to a great one living my ideal life every day.  It is not a destination but a state of being that continues to evolve and transform.    This process of clearing has once again served me immensely in shifting into the next gear of my journey and I believe it can be an integral part of everyone’s life in getting jump started into action towards transforming your life from wherever you are at towards a great one aligned with your dreams.  We tend to do spring cleaning in a literal sense once a year.  Why not clear a little more regularly so the energy drain does not take hold of you and your life.

What do you need to clear so that your energy can be freed allowing you to focus on what matters most?

Pick one thing.  Start with that.  Experience the energy and freedom as some stressful weight is lifted from your shoulders then pick another.  Start your transformation today!

You can have it all!  Your ideal life awaits!

Brent