Twenty one years, three months and a few days ago I looked up into a star filled night sky and I was overcome by feelings of regret, fear, loss and embarrassment.

I didn’t like where I was, what I had become and what the future would hold if I was to continue down the same path I was on. I also remember thinking massive change only comes from massive action.

And so on my 25th birthday I decided, committed and began down my own "road less travelled". 

Today I'm a few decades further down my road as I continue on life's journey and with the luxury of hindsight and experiences can now reflect back upon and share with you what worked what didn’t and the “one-two thing” to do every day.

Only Three Ingredients Needed for Your Success 

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Just like when my personal computers freeze because I have too many programs open so to my decision making freezes when I have so many competing important matters in my life.

This got me thinking about how to solve life’s problems from the perspective of an IT help desk.

Life has taught me when I choose to neglect a problem so too does my probability of an epic crash increase. When talking with others about my problems I’ve also found that most of us share similar if not the same problems and fears. Most importantly our problems are not unsolvable.

Often I've experienced many of my life’s problems solved simply by updating an old program or as I call it my daily routine. If this update doesn’t work then I research better programs to do the job and install this new program i.e. daily routine into my life.

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This blog is not based on new theories, new ideas or new philosophies; it‘s simply a collection of experiences, insights and discoveries on a journey to financial independence over the last twenty years. As such the blog hasn’t just happened it’s evolved.

On the journey to financial independence we've read a lot of financial books and information. Most of such assumes financial success determines our quality of life and experiences. While on the surface this sounds logical, real life experience has taught us otherwise.

For example our decision to either save, borrow, buy, invest or sell is not in fact to make more money; but to experience an emotionally inspired feeling and certainty of security, freedom, choice, independence, deeper relationships, increased stature and happiness. All which directly enhance our quality of life.

Early into this journey of  financial independence I (Peter) found myself quickly out of my depth and questioning my own abilities be them emotionally, financially and my courage to commit.

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Making better financial choices is the key to unlocking higher returns.

So why is creating wealth counter intuitive?

Simply because the more we touch our money, the less it grows.

The following are five age old and proven ways to help you accelerate our wealth, keep it longer and enjoy it more.

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“The middle is messy but that’s where the magic happens”  Brene Brown

I love ice cream any time of the day and I especially love an ice-cream on a hot summer day.

Today is one of those days, 31c with 95% humidity, so it feels very hot.

As I sit back and enjoying this simple pleasure of eating an ice-cream my mind wanders back to happy childhood memories and dreaming about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember liking trucks; wanting to be rich and become someone important.

Like most people I had no idea what this meant or what I really wanted to do.

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We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us

Or put another way;

Our success is dependent on our decision to choose the activities that will propel us towards our goals compared to those that will hinder us.

When I first began savings I set myself a challenge to have a money free weekend once a month. In fact I found the challenge so addictive and fun I'm still doing it twenty two years later.

Remember the media, marketers and advertises all want one thing. Our money! They do this by selling the perception that you buying what they’re selling will equal’s happiness for you.

The following is a list of activities that require no money to participate in; however they all provide the foundation to experience a higher quality of life; for you and those important to you.

$10,000  Money Saving Ideas:

• Instead of buying books join a library. Libraries today are more than books; they have DVD’s, newspapers, free internet, books of course. Free. Savings estimated $250 pa+
• Make lunch with from previous dinner and bring to work. Savings estimated $2,500 pa+
• If you live close enough to walk/run/ride to work or public transport, only use the car on weekends or alternatively car share. Savings estimated $1,000 pa+
• Ensure bank accounts, credit cards have no annual fees or ATM withdrawal fees, only withdraw from Banks ATM or affiliates so not to attract transaction fees. Savings estimated $250 pa+
• If possible choose public transport over taxi. Savings estimated $500 pa+
• Wash own car & iron clothes instead of car wash or cleaner. Savings estimated $500 pa+
• Review/shop insurance premiums annually for savings. Savings estimated $500 pa+
• Meal coupons, shows, vouchers etc... (dining out regularly). Savings estimated $2,500 pa+
• Hold off expensive purchase/gifts until sale time and/or shop at outlet or online so to minimise risk of overspending and of unnecessary compulsive purchases Savings estimated $1,000 pa+
• Buy in bulk cleaning, personal care, staple goods when on sale. Savings estimated $1,000 pa+

$10,000+  Money Making Ideas

• If you don’t mind branding your car as a moving billboard you can earn approx $5,000 pa
• In your spare time become a mystery shopper/write product reviews/research market group earn approx $2,500 annually in addition to receiving free products.
• Start a business aligned to your passion online/markets etc...It’s a great way to meet people of similar interests, make some extra cash, potential tax deductions and learn about biz.
• While it’s not a guarantee becoming more qualified in your profession. Higher earnings have research to be linked to higher qualification of approx 15%-25%+ more than unskilled roles.
• Consider ways to maximize your rental return if you have an investment property. Properties furnished white good properties can increase weekly rentals by an additional $50 pw or $2,500 pa and are deductible items for tax.
• Become an extra for movies, television, commercials and earn up to $500-$1,000 per day.

21 Free Positive Experiences & Activities Challenge

• Get creative. Write poem, a short story, a song, your memoir, blog, a diary, draw etc
• Learn a new & interesting skill. An entertaining magic trick, a new language, astronomy etc...
• Walking tour around your city, learning history and famous historical landmarks and markets
• Visit parks, forests, gardens, beach get out doors... maybe have a picnic there too.
• Exercise. Getting fit doesn’t require a gym. Go for a run, bike ride, free weights, yoga etc.
• Spring clean and sort/donate your old clothes/items. One part chore another you will feel great and de-clutter you environment.
• Maintain your stuff. Sharpen your knives, weed garden, wash vehicles and fix small things etc before they become bigger problems. Feel great and proud you take care of your things.
• Get sexy. Candles, flower petals, bath, massage with a partner...
• Sort your old photo album and label where, when and your feeling at the time.
• Try solving a crossword puzzle, Sudoku, What’s different in these two pictures? etc...
• Visit the library, an art gallery, museum in your city. Most, if not all are free entry.
• Find an inspiring interesting book at the library you would like to read and read it.
• Grow something from seed. Feel great that with your care, you are encouraging life to grow!
•  Volunteer for a cause you are passionate about or offer to help out a friend or neighbor. Meet other like minded people, do something nice for someone else and feel great.
• Get your finances in order, accounts, check correct payments, receipts for tax, write a will, do some goals planning you will fill more confident and have greater peace of mind.
• Attend a free community class, or concert, a free intro offer class, or religious service.
• Play a game with family and/or friends, Sherade’s (sounds like?), hangman or a board game/card you have.
• Catch up with family or old friends for a chat, if they are far away write a letter, card or email
• Have a nap. Life can get hectic so remember to take care of yourself too, i.e. rest & recovery
• Mentor someone and be mentored by someone. We stop growing we go backwards in life.
• Schedule your life and stick to it. Allocating me time (reflection), exercise time, relationship time, career time, self development time, home chores, preparation for next day, and fun experience time. This will help you stay on track with self accountability and the small goal you achieve for yourself will build your confidence to take on bigger goals. 

If you are stuck in a funk or you’re lost in a cloud of complexity feel free to contact me. Most often in life we just need someone to talk things through and to lighten our load a little. The following article may also be of help.

Are you in the way of your own success?

Financial independence made simple

From little tings big things grow

The story of 4 horses

Live your ideal life without financial concern

This post was written by Peter Horsfield, as such they are his personal views.

About Peter Horsfield

Peter Horsfield in an Authorised Representative and Investsure Holdings Pty Ltd ABN 16 050 286 630 as trustee for Horsfield Family Trust ABN 55 609 068 513 is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Infocus Securities Australia Pty Ltd ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL and Australian Credit Licence No. 236523.

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Decluttering since 1973. Age 2.

It is easy to forget about what is most important to us. Especially during the frontal daily assault of today’s fast paced world and the demands it places on us.

Reinforced by daily undermining by social media posts, colleague’s family, friends well intended words, and society at large all competing for self-validation. Trying to convince themselves/ourselves and others that they/we have all their/our s**t together, when the truth is, they/we are far from together and blind to their/our own brokenness.

Today’s ‘silver bullet” solution to this problem is only a hack, an app, or a pill away. So, we are told.

The problem is these “quick fix - silver bullets” do not address the real root of our problems. They merely they provide mild relief to our pain, helping continue our illusion that we are fixed, so we can continue to “solider on” in front of others, but ultimately to our own detriment.

If we are to truly heal, become strong and resilient we must first go to the root of our problem.

Consider the following examples: Addressing excess weight.

The logical answer is eating less calories than you burn. The marketing and nutrition industries make billions of dollars every year selling their solutions and tips; however, obesity continues to increase and be the leading cause of preventable death.

The root of the problem however is not calories. It is our relationship with food, with ourselves and our intent. The sustainable life changing solution to reducing our weight is to implement our actions/belief system in the right order. As a result, we will consciously and subconsciously exercise more, eat better food and less calories thereby giving ourselves the greatest chance of success.

More time and money.

This is another problem that the wealth industry, marketers, and media outlets are making billions of dollars every year, selling their secrets and tips to wealth and financial freedom.

The simple answer is save/invest more and spend less as well as get others to do the work for you.

Simple? Yes. Easy? No.

Again, the root of our problem is not our capacity to save or get others to do things for us. It is our relationship with ourselves, with others, our priorities, the things that are within our control and the things that are outside of our control.

Not only does having more time and money require all I have just mentioned. We also must implement our actions/beliefs in the right order.

Personally, speaking this required me to address the issue of more time and money in the following order.

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Hey, congratulations! 

Peter Horsfield's SMARTadvice.

You are one of the Top 3 Financial services in Cairns, QLD.

We would like to Thank You for providing consistent high-quality service in your area of business. Our review team either approved or updated your business listing using our rigorous 50-Point Inspection which includes everything from checking reputation, history, complaints, ratings, satisfaction, nearness, trust, cost, and general excellence.

Three Best Rated® was created with a simple goal to find Top 3 local businesses, professionals, restaurants, health care providers, etc., in key cities. We display only businesses that are verified by our team since customers deserve only the best.

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As a financial planner for the last 20 years, planning is now well and truly part of my DNA.

And between you and me, once you know the core fundamentals about money planning; working with numbers, projections, legislations and financial product features all day can at times get a bit dry and dull.

So given that today is a Monday, I’m in Cairns, it’s my first day back from Christmas and New Year holidays and I love to plan and make the most, and get the most from my year ahead.

I thought I’d pause first before rushing ahead into the year and make for some better holiday plans (while still firmly in my roll of planning) and research the following juicy question.

How to take more time off and still be paid for it?

What I discovered is that with a bit of planning, getting your holiday requests in early (before other staff) and a flexible boss. You can easily extend your 20 days annual leave all the way out to 56 days a year, or a 280% increase in leisure time.

The following maximising you leave and holidays is based on for Australian public holidays.

Each state has their own additional public holidays i.e. Queensland has 3 additional public holidays (Labour Day 3^rd May, Show Day (in Cains 16^th July) & Queens Birthday 4^th October).

Please check your relevant state holidays there as they may differ slightly i.e. different Labour Day, Queens Birthday, Show Day dates etc.

So let’s begin!

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Well friends, 2020 is now dry cement. Yeah!!!!!!!

However before we embark on our plans for 2021 I’d like to share the ups and downs, successes and failures of the 2020 that was.

I do this to keep myself accountable and inspired on this journey called life. As a reference point click the 2019 Benchmarking Success link and a link to previous years here.

The past maybe dry cement, but I believe it’s also important to also celebrate how far we’ve come, reflect on where we could have done better and put myself out there publicly as a form of motivation to do the work I need to do in making my plans a reality.

I hope that you find my wins, stumbles, and insights help you on your own journey to getting the most out of your life.

Each year I ask and I answer three basic questions.

1. What went well?
2. What didn’t go well?
3. What to do better?

Feel free to apply a similar format and use for your own journal.

What went well in 2020?

As I like to begin on a positive let’s cover the wins of 2020. Here’s what went well in the year that was.

 Business: 2020 was a standout year for our business.

2020 was always going to be a difficult year for every financial planning business in Australia.

New regulations, additional education standards, and essential changes to our client base being just a few of the challenges that we would have ahead of us.

Back in 2015 I was fortunate enough to see Alisa Camplin present an inspirational message of her rise to being Australia’s 2^nd Winter Olympic Gold Medallist in 2002.

Our 1^st Winter Olympics Gold Medal was won by Steven Bradbury in the short track speed skating event just days earlier. I was also fortunate enough to meet Steve a few years ago and hear him share his equally inspiring message of hard work, sacrifice, smarts, commitment and luck.

What I’ve learnt from every sporting, business and everyday mortals with regard to their success stories, is that they have a goal, backed up by a plan and beyond that they stay patient and simply do the work.

Since Alisa’s inspiring message our team has integrated this same philosophy. Believing that the work itself ultimately yields our results and regardless of external events. By simply doing the work we give ourselves a higher chance to achieve our goals than turning up and winging it. Rather than most businesses and people do i.e. they simply react.

So looking back, while 2020 was a year of massive challenges, the foundation we’d built over the previous 4 years not only carried us through, it helped us to remain on track and ultimately grow our business 20% and position us for continued growth in 2021.

Lifestyle: I continue to believe Cairns is the lifestyle capital city of Australia.

Covid-19 has had a significant impact on all our lives. Fortunately living in Cairns (so far) we escaped the severe lockdowns we’ve witnessed across the world and in countries capital cities.

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Who, How, What, When, Where and Why?

We all get stuck at times. Be it as a result of a significant event. Be it while we're on the path we are on, or even after we have accomplished a massive goal we set ourselves.

Added to this, our confusion can be magnified and blurred by the very expectations we put on ourselves, what others are telling us, or even as a result of our rebirthing in a new awareness of our previous actions.

While confusion can be a time of heightened anxiety and paralysis. If we can maintain our focus, we stand a better chance to see the forest through the trees, making the expereince less scary and one of courage, empowerment and emancipation.

The challenge and luxury we face today is that life is filled with societal support (at least in developed countries) and conveniences allowing us the luxury us to stay stuck in our funk and us to navel gaze even longer while life continues to roll on and we remain stalled in a fog of confussion. Rather than putting in the courage and effort to live a life that fulfils both ourselves and others. 

Some of us may choose not to do anything because the pain of change is greater than the pain to remain unchanged. Others may choose to stay stuck and paralysed in a state of decision paralysis. However choosing either of these i.e. avoidance or denial is to experience a slow death akin to a bower constrictor slowly choking the life out of its prey. 

Personally when I find myself stuck in this funk of confusion I like to remind myself that

1. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and
2. So is salt water.

Shortly after you’ll find me at a beach and going for a swim, however whatever works for you, you must do it!

What has this got to do with financial planning? Well everything!

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What the world needs now is love sweet…Not just for some but for everyone one.

A song written fifty five years ago in 1965 by Burt Bacharach and Hal David at the time the world was diving deeper into conflict and war (Vietnam); is just as relevant today as it was back then.

If we were to look back on today’s times some fifty five years from now, what would we say about our modern world of today?

My best guess is historians will conclude. It was time of massive disruption and division on a global scale. Change that effected everyone down to an individual basis. Be it careers, families, health, religion, governments and society.

With all that has been achieved from great leaps in technology and the improvements to people’s quality of life, resulting in the majority of the population never feeling more isolated, uncertain and fearful.

John F. Kennedy (USA President) said “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.”

What are some of the opportunities in the crisis we face today?

• Changing working environments- improved work life balance
• Online services and stores- improved time and efficiencies
• Social sharing services- lower cost, convenience, greater choices
• Social activism- improved environment and accountability.

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How can you save thousands of dollars a year on groceries with a small change to your shopping habits?

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1. Let ‘It’ Go

2. It’s a process

3. Take Care of Yourself

4. Start Now

Letting ‘It’ Go.

The past is dry cement. It’s set. We can’t be changed. It is what it is.

The reality is “life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards” Soren Kierkegaard.

The challenge is how to do it more effectively and how to do it well.

Elsa in the blockbuster Disney movie Frozen sings about the self-empowerment and freedom of letting it go.

Maria Kondo writes about the power of sparking joy through the process of letting go.

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus have even started a movement of minimalists with their quest to live a more meaningful life, by embraces less AKA letting go via the process of minimalism.

There are countless other guru’s, spiritual leaders and teachers we can also draw on for inspiration and advice too, however ultimately letting go come down to us and the personal decisions we make.

Learning to fail forward it’s the key here, rather than remaining a nut stuck in a rut and having our failures, fears, judgements and self-criticisms hold you back.

Acknowledging failure AKA hugging the cactus helps us to recognise the areas where we need to evolve.

Failure is a massive part of being successful, because failure is where the lessons are. However letting go of what we are hanging onto and that which is holding us back is the first big and vulnerable step we must all take, if our failures are to be the starting point for our growth.

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I love people. This is my greatest asset and also my biggest weakness.

I believe the more you help others the higher the probability is that they will help you.

However in this hyper competitive, crowded, catch phrase, race for others to like us, world we live in I feel sometimes we lose sight of what truly completes us and what we think we have to gain others approval of us.

The reality is that we all love reality.

We only have to switch on the TV and be bombarded by reality home renovation, cooking, dating, survival and even watching people watching TV (google box) programs. Even when we know they are not reality we still gravitate to watching them.

We are also socially hardwired to look through the lens of others’ lives and modify our own behaviours, opinions, and expectations as a means of self-validation and acceptance by those important to us.

So we play it safe. We do things that we think others will approve of and as a result we die a slow silent death inside of ourselves until we one die or two face a significant event that causes us to make a change.

What I have also come to appreciate is playing this game of life is best played at the edges. I’m not talking about recklessness, I mean living life authentically and true to what’s important to you and who you aspire to become.

I can’t say I’m better either, because I too bought into the expectations of my parents, friends, community and the society. I borrowed as much as I could to by the most expensive house I could and pretended to be successful when all I was doing was struggling in my career and drowning in debt.

While money is important, I frequently see in my role, time and time again miserable people because they are burdened by lifestyles and debts in an effort to be accepted or seen as successful in the eyes of others. It tears me up all the time!!!

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The world is not changing, it is evolving.

Today there is no less or more time today than there was a millennia ago and the same conundrums exist i.e. answers to our question.

How can we do more, be more, have more, experience more with the resources we currently have?

Steven Covey recommends prioritising the big rocks in our life. This video is a valuable lesson and reminder about time management and how to better prioritise the important things to us in life.

It is in our nature to problem solve and become more efficient and effective.

We have evolved to walk instead of crawl. We’ve learnt to fly and dive safely to incredible ocean depths. We have travelled into space and today with the internet today we can communicate across the globe instantaneously. What we humans have accomplished is truly astonishing.

The process of achieving these amazing feats follows a well-worn path. Dream, try, fail, and engage others help. Create, fail, try again, improve again and repeat this process through to achieving our goals.

On this journey we have created products that have assisted us to achieving these results, at the same time the products we’ve created make redundant less efficient and effective processes and industries.

As we evolve our question of relevance and opportunity remains.

The good news is the solution has also never changed. Those who can create, problem solve and deliver improved results will continue to have the advantage because of their value in the eyes of others.

We pay others to solve our problems. Be it a tax bill, protecting our estate, fill in the blank….

Now I’m not a rocket scientist and I’m no Steve Jobs, but what I am is me.

Getting this was the biggest paradigm shift and answered my own questions of relevance, self-discovery and how to deliver “me” in a way that is authentically consistent at the same time add value to others.

The truth is living authentically not only clarifies in the eyes of others our point of difference, it is the foundation of our success for everything and everyone.

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1. Financial Planning is a lot like golf. You can make it so complicated as to be impossible or you can simply walk up and hit the ball. I've been helping and advising clients for almost 20 years and my advice is to walk up and hit the ball.

2. Financial planning is about people and it's about problem solving. It is not about newer technology, hot stock tips, financial products or legislation. It's about people and it's about solving problems.

3. People engage you as an adviser for 4 things and 4 things only. Ever. Those 4 things are to have more time, more money, richer experiences, and approval/peace of mind. If you try to change them with your advice about something other than those 4 things you and they will fail.

4. People buy aspirin (pain relief) always. They buy vitamins (to be better) only occasionally and at unpredictable times. Sell aspirin (relief to your client’s pain).

5. Being valuable and useful is all you ever need to do to be valuable in the eyes of others. Help people out. Send interesting posts. Write birthday cards. Record videos sharing your ideas for growing their business. Introduce people who would benefit from knowing each other, then get out of the way, expecting nothing in return. Do this consistently and authentically and the people you want as your clients will find ways to be your clients. I promise.

6. No one cares about your work load, your increased costs, increased compliance, and your competitors undermining your value, etc. No one. They care about the problem you are solving for them."

7. There is no lack of clients stopping you from creating your ideal business and life. Add value to your clients, price yourself fairly (win/win), and deliver on your promises to you clients.

Your clients choose you because they believe in you! Prove them right!

If you are stuck in a funk or you’re lost in a cloud of complexity feel free to contact me. Most often in life we just need someone to talk things through and to lighten our load a little. The following article may also be of help.

Are you in the way of your own success?

What's the price of financial advice?

If You were listed on the share market would you buy your stock?

Why making money is counter intuitive

This post was written by Peter Horsfield, as such they are his personal views. Peter helps you to focus on what’s most important, the right strategies at the right time. To learn more about How to become Financially Independent visit Peter Horsfield Smart Advice

About Peter Horsfield

Peter Horsfield in an Authorised Representative and Investsure Holdings Pty Ltd ABN 16 050 286 630 as trustee for Horsfield Family Trust ABN 55 609 068 513 is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Infocus Securities Australia Pty Ltd ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL and Australian Credit Licence No. 236523.

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If you are willing to own it, you can change it!

I know what I have to do, I also know that there’s no getting around it, however procrastination is how I like start my day.

I’m still trying to understand why I find such reassurance and motivation by having this process, maybe it’s an echo of my youth stalling before diving into a cold pool at 5.30am. If you’ve done something similar I’m sure you understand the desire to delay and self-psych it entails.

Starting my day 99% of the time looks like opening emails, checking the financial news, industry talk and a general news.

Last Wednesday was no different. One article I came across was about an Instagram show called Cuppa with Kumi.

Kumi Taguchi is a presenter with ABC’s Compass program. Compass and Kumi interview philosophers, public leaders religious leaders and everyday Australians about life and spirituality.

Intrigued, I gave myself a reason to procrastinate a little longer I decided to watch the video connecting to values

The title “Connecting to Values” resonated with me because as an adviser I believe my most important value is facilitating, accountability and support for clients, team, colleagues and myself to live a life of authenticity and alignment to our core values,

When your value are clear your decisions are easy and our financial security is the by-product of smart choices and our actions.

Kumi interviewed Johann Hari Author of Lost Connections about how we can better define our values and some simple steps we can all do so to move forward and live a life more aligned to our core values?

One of the best lines in the interview was about junk values and these being like KFC for the soul.

“We all know about junk food and how it has taken over our diets and made us physical sick. But there is also strong evidence that junk values have also taken over our minds and made us mentally sick too”. Said Johann Hari.

"Junk values being the values that we think will make us happy, or only happy for a short time, and after we they make us feel much worse even worse have long term negative effects on our quality of life" he said..

Examples of junk values being, money, status, showing off.

The problem being that the more these values drive us, the more susceptible we are to become depressed and anxious......By quite a significant amount.

Modern society has us immersed in a culture of consumerism. Resulting in society and us as individuals placing more and more importance and value on money and status, Unfortunately this has been for most if not all of our lifetimes.

Resulting in us being trained by society, our peers, advertisers and our tribe to seek out happiness in all the wrong places.

Even when we innately know that these junk values of status, money and being liked are shallow. The problem is that the society we live in has a machine like design output process, to get us to neglect what is important to us i.e. our own core values.

So how do we move away from this?

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Driving into work this morning I passed a sign that profoundly resonated within me.

Introspective, instructive and empowering in a single statement.

It also reminded me of another sign I read in 2014 “Be Better, Not Bigger”.

Looking back in the revision mirror of life, this sign has not only changed my life for the better, it has become my business and life philosophy.

And doing so has allowed me to make faster decisions, keep moving forward in times of struggle and let go of what I can’t control. And to and focus on that which is within my control.

Ever since I became a financial planner in 1999 the industry has been in a state of flux and change.

I’m sure the industry was in this same state of flux before me and it will continue to be so, long after I have left too.

Why? Because money is more than a physical currency, it is a expression of our emotions, aspirations, fears and more, and as long as we believe it is a scarce resource, those who value it over others will act in a self-interested way.

Anyways, these personal views on money are another topic of discussion for another time.

Back to the sign I saw this morning having profound resonance with me.  

The sign read “FIT BY U” 

Three simple words, with incredible hidden power.

Over the last year and a half I have let myself go physically. I’ve probably put on 10kg. I’m more cynical, short tempered and less motivated. Previously I might have had a wine or beer over a meal on Friday night or the weekend. Now I find found myself having a glass of wine every other night. 

I’ve been exercising less and my intake of take away, has increased. Obviously this has had detrimental effect. Physically, mentally, emotionally as well as being a negative energy on the relationship I have with myself and others.

The victim in me would point too facts and external events as justifiable reasoning for my current state i.e. insane levels of new business regulation for financial planners (I know of over a dozen suicides); corona virus, exams, public sentiment etc. is the reason for this state of funk

However the truth is, listening more to the noise that is outside of my control and listening less to myself which was silently had gradually undermined my inner self-confidence.

The sign read “FIT BY U” Fitter Faster Stronger.

Firstly the message is the obvious. The outcome or benefit that we will or can attain by buying what they are selling i.e. the promise.

However what resonated most deeply within me was the “You” in the message.

No one else will get fit for you. “You” must do it for yourself. It is “You” alone who must do the work and “You” who reaps the benefits. Others may benefit via association however it’s “You” who receives the greatest return on your investment in yourself.

The universal truth is that ownership will always be present at the crossroad of all our life’s choices and decisions.  

The level ownership we attach to our choices being apportioned to the success we will experience as a result.

Simple yes. Easy no.

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Because I’m happy! Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth!

And with over a billion downloads of the song ”Happy” I suspect both Pharrell William and his bank account is looking pretty happy too.

More than feeling good, happiness and being happy is the enabler for us to experience more self-confidence, have deeper understanding, be more influential and allows us to embody a greater sense of gratitude within our life and our experiences.

The problem is, the more we focus on attaining our own personal happiness, the more it can feel like it is eluding us.

Other issues arise when we search for happiness via escapism instead of facing up to and resolving the true source of our unhappiness.

Some sage advice. We should concern ourselves not so much with the pursuit of happiness but the happiness of the pursuit.

How many of us can recall a childhood moment when we experienced happiness as a state of being? When everything in our world was alright? 

How many of us have given up on the pursuit of happiness because all the risks and uncertainties of pursuing our dream? Only to reason with ourselves that certainty, logic and self-preservation is more valuable than being true to who we really are, and what ignites passion and action within ourselves to become who we aspire to be.

As Ciara (Rosamund Pike) said to her husband Hector (Simon Pegg) in the movie Hector and the Search for Happiness “If you’re going to do this, do it totally!”

We all know “An inch of action, goes further than miles of good intentions”.

We also all know that success is simple, but at the same time it's not easy. We simply need to know specifically what we want, know how much it will cost and pay for it.

And that change can happen in a moment, however coming to the decision to change can take years if not decades.

If you’re not happy now, when will you choose to be happy? Happiness in your pursuit of wholeness and happiness being your state of being.

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