Why I Love to Travel I've just come back from a trip to Tangalooma. We took the whole family.

while snorkling I saw one fish. I was so happy. I'd seen a fish in the wild. Then I turned around and looked down deeper. There were hundreds of fish. Yellows, purples, greens. So many colors. Fish the size of small suitcases. I was reaching out, almost touching them.

Why People Do Personal Development I've been coaching for twelve years now. I came up with an acronym: INSPIRED. Each letter stands for a reason people come to personal development.

Let me walk you through it.

I - Increase Income People want to increase their income. Why? Because they believe it will make them happy. And there's truth to that. Money gives you opportunities. Travel. Experiences. For your family.

But here's the nuance. Money and happiness rise together up to a point. Once you have all your needs met and some of your wants, more money doesn't create more happiness. Yet people keep acquiring, hoping it will.

N - Never Work for a Boss Again Why do people want this? Because bosses can give you a hard time. Micromanage you. Undermine you. Give you the work of four people. Come down hard on mistakes. Create stress. Tightness across your neck and shoulders.

People want to work for themselves. Choose their own hours. Remove the cap on their income. And they believe that will make them happy.

S - Spare Time More spare time means time for hobbies. Time for family. Time for friends. Time for activities that make you smile and laugh. That make you feel happy.

P - Personal Development Some people just love personal development. They love growing. It's been said that you're either growing or you're dying. Growth is part of fulfillment. The other part is contribution.

I - Influencer People want to become influencers. To inspire others. To lift others. To guide others. To be a coach or a leader.

When you impact somebody in a positive way, you get benefits too. It feels good. When someone says, "Thank you. You've changed my life for the better," that's powerful.

R - Retirement / Saving People prepare for retirement. But it's not just financial. You need to emotionally clear your past. Heal your inner child. Stop ruminating. Stop being depressed about what happened. Stop being anxious about what might happen.

I heard Barbara O'Neil tell a story. A couple came to her health retreat. They were retired professionals. Both earned lots of money. But they had health problems. They said, "We're retired now. We can focus on our health." And they changed their lives.

Here's a sad story. A man was driving to his own retirement function. He had a heart attack in the car. Died before he enjoyed one day of retirement.

Prepare your mind, your heart, your body, your spirit. Not just your bank account.

E - Enjoy Financial Freedom People fall in love with travel. With living the lifestyle they want. Money creates happiness to a point. Beyond that, you can find more happiness by using your wealth to impact others. Charity. Service. Getting your message out to help people.

D - Design a Destiny Personal development gives you the ability to design the future you want. Your love life. Your relationships. Your health. Your energy. Your vitality. Your finances. Your emotional well-being.

The Rear Vision Mirror We all have a past and we all have a future. But what we don't want to do is jump in our vehicle and drive out into our life looking into the rear vision mirror. You can glance at it momentarily. What you don't want to do is be looking at it in a fixated way because that's going to lead to an accident, especially at high speed.

Your past doesn't equal your future.

The Definition of Insanity The definition of insanity is a person doing the same thing the same way repeatedly expecting a different result. Some people do that. They beat a dead horse and wonder why it doesn't get up and run.

It's been said that a person who's worked in a job for twenty years may say, "I've got twenty years experience." That's not correct. They probably have one year experience repeated twenty times.I believed something different. I believed you could go from victim to survivor to thrive. I believed that you can change. That the past doesn't equal the future. That if you bring in different ideas, different tools, and work with your beliefs, you can shift not just your attitude but your behavior.

We had different belief systems. I think that led to our separation.

The Room and the Doorway Imagine you're in a dark room. There's a door. On the other side of that door is a spotlight pointing at the door. But the door has no gaps. No light is seeping through.

That's "not possible." You're stuck. Hopeless. Helpless.

Now imagine you open the door just a fraction. A sliver of light comes in. You can start to make out the walls. The objects. Everything becomes clearer.

That's "possible." That's the first step.

Then you move to "probable." I can probably heal. I can probably overcome this. I can probably change my situation.

Then you move to "definite." Absolute knowledge. Total conviction. Life coaching is grabbing that door handle and ripping the door open so the floodlight fills the room.

The Healing Process How do you resolve the past? Because it happened. You can't erase it. Here's what you do:

1. Recognize there's a problem.
2. Stop picking at it. Stop telling the same story the same way.
3. Forgiveness.
4. Gratitude.

That's the healing process. It gets you from "not possible" to "I know it."

My Second Marriage I remarried a wonderful woman named Rebecca. She helped me back onto my feet. Helped me get the confidence back to believe I could create and design a future I could absolutely love.

I've been with Rebecca for nineteen plus years. It's a relationship filled with love and passion. If I had believed that the past equals the future, I would have been destined to repeat the same pattern. I didn't repeat it.

Final Statement Wherever you are right now. If you're feeling stuck. Dealing with depression. Anxiety. Even suicidal ideology. There is a way forward. There is a way out. There is a light at the end of that dark tunnel.

Your past doesn't have to equal your future.

The Basketball Injury That Changed My Mind I was playing basketball. I landed on someone else's foot and rolled my ankle. My right ankle has been sprained many times. I went home, put a bandage on it, used ice. Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. The RICE formula. That was the plan. Reduce the swelling.

Then my mum spoke to me. She had been reading a book by Louise Hay. The book said every physical problem has an underlying emotional reason. Mum looked it up. A sprained ankle meant fear of moving forward.

I argued with her. I said, "Mum, it has nothing to do with my emotions. I landed on someone's foot. I rolled my ankle."

But later, I thought about it. Was I afraid of something? Was there fear of moving forward in my life? I realized there probably was. That idea stayed with me.

The Tony Robbins Shift Years later, I went to a Tony Robbins event. After that, my mind was more open than ever before. I started to believe that our mind has power over our body. If something isn't working physiologically, there is an emotional reason. I started working with energy healing. I started teaching what my mother once said.

The Spinning Technique (David Snyder) I found David Snyder on YouTube. He had a technique called the spinning technique. He worked with the physical body, the nervous system, and emotions. People were reducing pain in real time.

One demonstration stuck with me. A military person at an airport had a PTSD episode. Someone did the spinning technique on him. Afterward, he followed that person around the airport. He just wanted to be near them. His nervous system had been reprogrammed in moments.

David Snyder said there were three prerequisites for healing:

1. Play pretend
2. Full absorption
3. Have fun

Once those were in place, pain could be reduced to zero.

I didn't believe it at first. I had an ingrown toenail once. Even with anesthetic, it was painful. The idea that the mind could get rid of all pain seemed impossible.

But I tried the technique. I did it with one person, then another. Before long, I had done it 100 times. People kept getting results. Back pain. Headaches. Period pain. Cancer. Sprained ankles. I started to believe. Anybody could heal from anything.

The Frozen Shoulder Demonstration I had a frozen shoulder once. I tried the technique on myself. It didn't work. I'm stubborn. But I used it on a woman with a frozen shoulder. She could only lift her arm to 90 degrees. I did the technique. I said, "Now raise your arm as high as you can." She went over her head. She couldn't believe it.

I never promise it works 100% of the time. I just say, "Let's find out. Let's see if this makes a shift." And person after person has reduced or eliminated pain.

The Acid-Alkaline Balance We have an acid-alkaline balance in our body. Blood sits at 7.36, slightly alkaline. When your body chemistry moves toward an acidic state, disease, illness, and even cancer can be produced.

We think about diet. We think about rest. We think about oxygen. But what about emotions?

The Chemistry of Connection Couples who make love regularly produce endorphins and oxytocin. These create a euphoric feeling. They are good for the heart. Good for the circulatory system. Good for creating positive emotions.

Arguments, fights, conflict? Those create toxicity in the body. They create inflammation. They make you sick.

Final Thought Unprocessed trauma manifests as illness. Resolve the emotional challenge, and the condition can leave. That is what I have learned. That is what I now teach.