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Big Appetite
Sunday, 9th May 2010
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Today’s post is a different spin on the importance of being passionate in your life, but before we get into it a couple of quick plugs.
First, BLKMGK ICT is rolling out BLKMGK Go-Live which is a 3 week online course that teaches you everything you wanted to know about building and marketing your own website. If you know anyone who is interested in learning how to build their own website ask them to check out BLKMGK Go-Live.
Second, we’re now doing email subscriptions to the Dream,Build,Inspire,Lead! blog because I don’t want anyone to miss out on any posts so the plan is to email subscribers a summary of all the posts every month and it also gives me an opportunity to find out what people are thinking of the posts and what sort of topics should I be writing about. So help me take the Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead! message out to the world and enter your details into the “Email” box over there on the left. Don’t worry, I’m paranoid about bad internet people getting ahold of my email address so all your details are just for me and me alone. Thanks HEAPS! So onto this week’s post.
You all know how important it is to have passion in your life and when you undertake to do something with passion you summon up a fire deep within you to bring out amazing results. Fellow motivational guru Les Brown takes the concept one step further and says that if you want something to happen in your life then you REALLLY REALLY REALLY have to want it bad. He calls this “hunger” and says that when you are REALLY REALLY REALLY hungry for something amazing things happen.
I stumbled upon one of his videos that illustrates this “hunger” that he talks about and combines it with looking for opportunities and the power of persistence. Check it out for yourself:
An AWESOME story and a lesson well learned. Don’t give up and while you are waiting keep preparing yourself for the moment an opportunity comes your way.
So this week I challenge you to develop your plan of action. What are you going to be working on and focusing on while you wait to seize your moment of opportunity? For example if you were like Les and you wanted to be a DJ, you’re going to need to learn how to be the perfect DJ so that would be part of your action plan.
Never give up and stay “hunnnnnngrrrrry!”
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
p.s. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog!!!
Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
Build, Les Brown, hungry, passion, advice, wisdom,
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Impossible Barriers
Sunday, 2nd May 2010
Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to speak at the United Nations Youth Association Conference here in Darwin. I was part of a panel of cool young people asked to speak on the topic of Youth Empowerment. Now you’ll know that I could speak for weeks on end on that topic alone as it’s something I’m quite passionate about but while I was in this room filled full of bright young people something very unusual happened. Instead of being fired up and motivated by the surrounding positive energy I began to feel sad. Let me explain.
I’ve mentioned it a few times in passing that last year was a pretty rough year for me and how the events of 2009 have caused me to be further away from my goals and ambitions in life than I ever thought possible. There’s a lot of reasons for this but one of the biggest issues I faced was creating my world changing ideas and then meeting with adults to try to make them all happen. Unfortunately for me I encountered each one of the following scenarios many times:
1. They would offer hollow support to me - “Yeah that’s a great idea! Let’s do it!” and have no action at all.
2. They wouldn’t support the idea - “Things don’t work like that. They never have and they never will.”
3. They would embark upon a campaign to actively discredit me “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about you shouldn’t waste your time”
Welcome to the real world. It’s not pretty and it’s nothing like you’ve ever experienced before. That’s why I felt sad sitting in that room full of some of the brightest most passionate young minds in the world. There would come a time in their lives when they took all their ideas with all their passion out to the world only to be slammed up against this gigantic barrier of negative resistance. The force would be so huge that some of them would be rattled permanently and give up their dreams, passions and ambitions. Others might be rattled temporarily and choose to continue fighting in frustration only to give up later on. However a few of them, like good strategists would sit back and analyse the situation and work out how to turn their dreams into reality. Or if they’re like me, they would go through each one of these phases.
The gigantic barrier of negative resistance that I’m talking about here comes from adults who have had their dreams crushed at some point in their lives and carry this negative attitude with them. I’ve met adults who have said to me “This inspiration and motivation is all garbage. That stuff never works.” But the point is that they’ve forgotten that they too once had dreams and ambitions and goals. How do you think they learned to walk and talk?!? Everyone is born with dreams, goals and ambitions yet at some point in their lives they come up against this MASSIVE Wall of Resistance and get slammed into it. It’s at those pivotal moments that our lives are shaped when we make the decision to either give up, continue in frustration or sit back analyse and strategise.
I am in complete agreeance with the idea “Those who do not believe that it cannot be done, should not interfere with those already doing it!” but sadly THEY DO! Scientists believe the bumble bee should not be able to fly simply because it defies the law of physics with its wings not being able to generate the required amount of lift for its body weight. But it doesn’t know this so it continues to fly.
This interference has caused a massive disconnect between youth and adults these days with the whole Gen Y debate still raging on. The crux of the debate lies in the whole issue of knowledge vs wisdom. Young people tend to confuse the two and believe they can do more than what they are capable of and this frustrates adults because they have both knowledge and wisdom, well most of the time anyway. The difference between the two is:
“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”
Cool Young People! We need to recognise that while we can gain knowledge quite easily we often don’t have the experience that wisdom brings to the party and as a result we need to go easy on the adults when they lecture us for not knowing anything. They forget that we do have knowledge but we need their help to leverage their wisdom.
Now Adults! You are in a unique situation. Your wisdom puts you in a position of power and you need to use this power very carefully. You have the power to kill a young person’s dream in a split second or encourage and support them to turn their dreams into reality for the rest of their lives. Teachers have a really important part to play in this as having a bad teacher vs a good teacher makes such a difference in the outcome of people’s lives.
Going back to the conference and the Cool Young People in that room, I decided to flip the script on my speech and give them something real that they could take away to help them with their goals. As well as talking about “How to make $2000 in 2 minutes” (the secret to success), I told them to change their way of thinking by asking one simple powerful question when undertaking their change the world activities. Ask “How can I do this?” instead of “Can this be done?” This one simple technique helped me build my Technology Training Initiatives. Imagine what it could do for you?
For those of you out there who are facing walls of negativity in your own lives, I offer the advice from Gandhi who says “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Most of us take that saying for granted but when you really think about it, imagine if you did want a better world and you started acting differently. Imagine what would happen when you entered the workforce and climbed up the career ladder and made more informed decisions based on your awareness of the negativity of society. Imagine if it wasn’t only you that changed yourself, but your friends around you and perhaps even in your community. All of a sudden you have a new generation of people in key leadership positions that start to improve a community, a town/city, a country and finally you start to see things REALLY change...and it all starts from a Cool Young Person being inspired and motivated to turn their dreams into reality. This is the “Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!” message that I’m taking out to the rest of the world and if you want to help me achieve this goal, join me by subscribing to the updates on the blog.
So this week I challenge you all to change your way of thinking and ask yourself this one simple powerful question when you are faced with any sort of resistance to your ideas - “How can I make this work?”
Finally before I head off for this week, I want to introduce you to some friends of mine who are out there changing the world as we speak. These guys were my fellow panel members and I’m deeply honoured to share the stage with them all. Check out this quick video to meet them:
Oh and last but not least, a huge thank you to Kathryn Crofts for giving me the opportunity to speak. You are a true gem:
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead! youth empowerment, killing a dream, adults, young people, knowledge, wisdom, Gen Y,
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Meeting Cynthia Morton
Sunday, 25th April 2010
I’ve had an interesting 48 hours and I’ve met some amazing people. First off, I had a fantastic opportunity to meet the 2005 Australian of the Year - Cynthia Morton; and second, I had the opportunity to speak at a United Nations Youth Association I met some really cool young people with dreams filled full of hope desire and passion. Both events had an interesting effect on me but perhaps not the effect that one would expect. Let me explain.
Cythia Morton is an absolutely amazing person who has overcome traumatic experiences such as child abuse and drug addiction and channeled her life long pain into an amazing story that she shares with Australians trying to overcome similar problems. To hear Cythia speak is nothing short of an incredible gift as you capture a glimpse into the life of someone who has experienced incredible pain and suffering and how her passion and persistence have come together to turn things around for her.
While most of Cynthia’s work is viewed by people involved with mental health I looked upon her story through the eyes of young person looking to change the world hoping to find some lessons I could use in my quest. Cynthia spoke a lot about her two sons and how her destructive lifestyle had an immense impact on their lives. There was one story in particular that stood out where she was in a shopping centre with her two boys and just collapsed onto the floor and curled up in the foetal position. Her two sons just stood over her and kept calming her down and managed to phone her peer support person to come and pick them up. They knew she was in trouble yet were totally focused on helping her in such a clear step by step process. That’ll only happen to kids when they are used to it and know exactly what to do when it happens. I’m sure there are heaps of kids who are faced with emergency situations like Cynthia’s kids but you never really hear about it do you?
So these kids were switched on and loved their mother very much despite what she was doing to herself. When Cynthia began to clean her life up the boys were a bit older and she tells this one story of how one day they came to her and asked her or rather told her that they wanted to take up music. The eldest wanted to play drums and the youngest wanted to play guitar. She encouraged them to follow their heart and both boys picked up the instruments and started playing. As with any instrument you need to practice and during those formative years unless you’re the musician playing the instrument “practice” has a close resemblance to screeching nails on a chalkboard. Despite all of this Cynthia continued to encourage her boys with amazing results.
The boys formed a band and started playing gigs around Brisbane and soon entered a battle of the bands competition. Unfortunately they didn’t win but came very close thanks to her encouragement and support. Following their success from that competition they entered the TEDUncharted Competition and managed to win it!!! For a local band this meant that they would receive national recognition AND get to play at one of Australia’s largest music festivals - The Big Day Out. AMAZING Success!!!
And that’s what really brought the whole thing home to me as to why Cynthia is an amazing person. She’s undergone such phenomenal negativity in her life and turned things around for not only herself but her family as well and shares her lessons in life to others hoping to achieve the same thing. For these people she is truly changing the world.
Adults often forget they are in a position of power when it comes to impressionable young people. A young person will come to them and ask their advice on a particular issue and adults will not think about their answer properly and will quite often discourage the young person from pursuing that idea. Sure there are lots of cases where adults do actually encourage kids but these days society tends to be rather negative so these cases tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
In Cynthia’s case it was her sons coming to her to ask or rather tell about playing musical instruments. Even though Cynthia experienced such negativity in her life in that moment she overflowed positivity towards her sons’ requests and supported them in their decision and look at the results. Imagine what would have happened if in that moment Cynthia had called her kids crazy and discouraged them from following their passion?
ALL Adults need to think about the advice they are giving kids these days. They need to be careful what they say and always look to encourage young people to follow their dreams through guidance and support. There is a huge gap between the world of an adult and the world of a kid and one of the fundamental differences is the issue of knowledge versus wisdom. Young people gain knowledge very quickly but sometimes they lack the wisdom that experience brings. Adults have this wisdom yet very few impart it wisely. The difference between knowledge and wisdom is highlighted in one of my favourite quotes:
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”
So this week I challenge you to think about this disconnect between adults and kids. If you’re an adult reading this, keep in mind that you should be using your wisdom to guide and shape ideas of kids. Not kill their dreams - and sometimes you do it unconsciously. If you’re a young person reading this, recognise the fact that while you can gain knowledge quite easily you might not have the wisdom yet that experience brings and therefore might not be able to see the full picture. So go easy on the adults when you ask for their opinion on something important. Evaluate their experience and see if you can leverage it to turn your dreams into reality.
Which brings me to my next adventure, speaking at the United Nations Youth Association Conference...but that’s a story for next week...
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
P.S. Visit Cynthia’s Blog here
Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
Inspire, Dream, Cynthia Morton, youth, abuse, drug addiction, inspiring women,
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Golden Opportunity
Sunday, 19th April 2010
I am truly puzzled at the universe lately for it would seem that it is conspiring to serve me a bunch of challenges designed to teach me some sort of lesson in life. Most of the world would consider these challenges serious problems but me on the other hand, they are all opportunities for me to refine the “Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!” principles and put them to the test. There are golden opportunities everywhere you look but you have to be in the right mindset to see them in front of you. Consider the following:
Two shoe salesman are tasked with making shoe sales to a remote village. They are optimistically hopefully to meet their monthly quota from the people in the village and are both excited at the opportunity presented to them. Upon arriving at the village however they soon discover that no one there wears shoes. The first salesman immediately becomes agitated and proclaims “These people are idiots!!! They don’t have enough brains to wear shoes even! I’m wasting my time here...” and he promptly leaves the village.
The second salesman sees things differently. Their lack of shoes means he has the opportunity to sell everyone a pair. He starts to talk to the villagers and understand their way of life and soon ends up selling every single villager a pair of shoes AND socks as well!
See most of the people you will encounter in life are like the first salesman, expecting opportunities to be presented to them in neatly wrapped up bows. But the ones who are like the second salesman not only generate opportunities for themselves but others around them also.
So assuming that you want to be like the second salesman what can you do to become more like him? The answer is very simple. Ask yourself the following question over and over again:
“How can I make this work for me?”
Every time you are presented with a situation either good or bad, ask yourself that question and run with your answer until you get the result you want.
Hence this week’s challenge. I want you to be on the lookout for an opportunity for something that you want to achieve in your own life and then ask yourself “How can I make this work for me?”. The real test of undertaking this exercise is when you are faced to make a decision under serious pressure and you automatically ask yourself “how can I make this work for me?” without even thinking twice.
Do you remember my technology training initiatives that I put together last year? How do you think that came together...
Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!
AJ~
p.s. Quick plug for BLKMGK Go-Live, our program that teaches you how to build your own website. Have you checked it out??? BLKMGK Go-Live
Author: AJ Kulatunga
Category:
Inspire, opportunity, sales, problems, challenges
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