I had an interesting conversation with a couple of people recently where I asked them a number of questions about their life, one of which was, “Where are you headed?” I would like to ask you this question as well, “Where are you headed?”

This question is profound in its simplicity but more often than not it’s really difficult to answer. I’ve found that many people really don’t consider the implications of this question when it comes to their life. Getting some peace around “Where you are headed” should be the number one goal that all of us have as it will centre your life and bring meaning to what you are currently doing.

Once you have defined where you are headed you can then map out the steps and decisions that you need to make to get there. Without the direction then you’re going to be like a boat without a rudder aimless being pushed by the currents and winds of life.

It really doesn’t matter how small your steps are towards where you’re are headed. I find that many people don’t take the baby steps because they have an attitude of “what’s the point?” The point is you’re starting to move forward and with every step you’re gaining momentum.

Let’s imagine your dream is to be financially free within three years. If that’s where you’re headed, then why on earth would you try and get some more low paid work on the weekend? It would be far better to establish the beginnings of a reoccurring revenue stream that pays one dollar a day, day in and day out. BTW, particularly with the online world, there are so many ways of doing this is crazy.

So many of us have squashed our passions for the sake of paying for the mortgage or trying to just keep the lights on at home. What we end up leading is a life of quite misery as joy is replaced by a world that seems to be in darkness. We are trapped in indentured servitude and feel like we have nowhere to go to escape…..I’m here to share with you that there is a way out!

Can you remember when you were in primary school and you had such incredible dreams for your life? You wanted to be a fireman, a doctor, travel the world or help people in poor countries. What’s to stop you from doing any of these things?

In my personal time each morning I sometimes like listening to an inspirational speaker on Youtube and it just so happens that last Friday I found myself listening to a great one. She basically said, people don’t pursue what they are passionate about because of fear.

More than that, the brain is wired to avoid challenging circumstances because they are uncomfortable, and the brain wants to keep us safe. Those people that succeed in fulfilling their passions are those that determine through discipline to overcome what their brain is telling them.

It's easy to stay in bed but atheletes get up early each morning to go through a hurtful training session. They discipline their brain to obey their desires and through the process pursue their passion. She said a lot more than this but that was my take.

Last night I had the privilege of listening to an amazing artist talk, among many other things, about her art. I found that I was listening less to the words and more to the emotions she conveyed with her voice and body language. She was a lady full of passion and her entire demeanour reflected the passion she has for her paintings….it was awesome!

Have you ever been asked the question, “How much are you worth?” Most people immediately think of it in terms of dollars and answer, “I’m worth blah, blah, blah….” Is this really the best way to view yourself and is money the only measurement of a person?

If someone asked me how much my wife Roselyn is worth to me then I’d immediately respond by saying, “You can’t put a price on her.” When it comes to relationships, monetary valuations completely fall apart as we more often than not place “irrationally” high values on them…..but there are some exceptions.

Several years ago, I was asked to settle a dispute between a couple of friends who had jointly rented out a house together. It was at lunchtime and I sat down to eat my meal while they were both yelling at each other across a big boardroom table.

For about fifteen minutes I didn’t say a thing while I finished my lunch and just let them go at it. Each one was accusing the other of not paying a $600 bill. I finally pushed my chair back and said, “I’ve never been in a situation where I could put a precise value on a friendship. You both disgust me.” I then walked out of the room.

To this day I have no idea what happened with the situation but there was one thing for sure, both the friends had a lot more problems than $600. The question I’m left with is why do the majority of us find that our relationship with loved ones are incalculable?

A number of things happened to me when I turned around fifty years old. For a start, I found myself less tolerant of putting up with friends that had the habit of making bad decisions and then asking to be bailed out. Why should I perpetuate their illogical decision-making processes?

The second thing that happened was I became very aware of my own mortality. Sitting in front of a computer twelve plus hours per day and living on a diet of Coke-cola, chips and basically anything bad for you had finally caught up with me and I felt terrible.

Once my personal pity party was over my wonderful wife gave me a swift kick up the backside, dragged me away from my PC and introduced me to the outdoors. I would like to say that I had an epiphany of how good it was to be outside but in reality, I went kicking and screaming.

I almost began to dread the weekends because I knew Roselyn would suggest going for a walk, a bike ride or God forbid a hike. When I look back on it now, I have no idea why she put up with the myriad of excuses that I came up with so that I would remain locked inside.

It was when she suggested we watch a documentary on Netflix titled “Forks vs Knives” one evening that the message was finally brought home. For those of you that haven’t seen it, the film discusses changing what we place on our forks versus going under the surgeon’s knife. It presents some pretty compelling evidence that clearly showed me that I was in the process of killing myself or at the very least shortening my lifespan.

I’ve never been a believer in going on diets to lose weight…..in fact, I think there a load of rubbish. You only have to ask the simple question, “What happens when you go off the diet?” to realise the yoyo mentality of on/off what we put in our mouths is pretty stupid. What I am a BIG believer of is “Lifestyle Change”.

A positive lifestyle change is making a decision to permanently alter the way you behave for the betterment of who you are. For instance, a number of years ago my wife and I decided to cut a lot of meat out of our diets and had plant-based meals for about eighty-percent of the time. A few things happened….

The first thing we discovered is some absolutely yummy vegetarian dishes…..and also some shocking ones! Vege-dudes, please don’t try and mimic meat…..you fail! Just be happy with eating really good plant meals and leave the carnivores to themselves. Just of the record, I still like the taste of meat, so I haven’t become a veggie fanatic.

If you’re going to do a lifestyle change in the area of food, then you have to like what you’re eating or you’re going to become miserable and the change won't stick. We tried a heap of different recipes and found a bunch that were awesome. We eat these and forget the terrible ones.

The second thing that happened was my regular blood tests (at fifty I started getting these) caused my doctor to ask me what I’m doing differently. All the various indicators were incredibly positive and I was feeling great!