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!

In this blog I would like to share with you about a force more impactful than a trade war and more destructive than an atomic bomb. Each of these incredibly powerful events are nothing compared to the power that can be unleashed by gossip. Yes, you read that correctly, gossip.

With the power of an ill-spoken word a friendship can be destroyed, a marriage torn asunder and children estranged. I’ve seen it and I imagine you've seen or even experienced it. In particular, the power unleashed by gossip can undermine an organisation and ruin the synergies of teamwork in a flash.

Gossip is when something is shared in a negative manner and the listener has no ability to influence the situation. It seems pretty innocuous, but it doesn’t take long for the negativity to develop a life of its own.

I can guarantee that the person being shared about will eventually hear about what is being said about them. Could you imagine being them? None of the people they thought were friends and colleagues had their back and stopped the spreading of the vicious hurtful rumour. They end up feeling hurt, disenfranchised and no longer part of the team.

Gossip is so insidious that often starts small and grows and grows! For instance, did you hear that John had a fight with his wife, took off down the pub to drown his sorrows and ended up being found by the police sleeping on a park bench the next morning.

When I was a young strapping lad, (I sound so old!) I attended cubs and loved it. As well as learning about bush craft and how to be a better person I had the motto of “Be Prepared” drummed into my head. Some people mistakenly believe that this motto only related to the outdoors, but they would be completely wrong.

“Being Prepared” was meant to be for all aspects of life. It was all about being prepared to do your best in every situation. For the past eighteen months, my wife Roselyn and I have been preparing for a five-day hike in the South Island of New Zealand. As well purchasing a whole lot of gear we instituted a regular exercise regime. Although it’s hard work it’s going to be well worth the effort.

Could you imagine embarking on a hike by just rocking up? You’d get to lunch and regret the food you left in the cupboard. This is how many people approach business meetings. They turn up without having prepared and expect a great outcome…..sadly, they will be mistaken.

I have a motto when it comes to business and that’s I always try and be more prepared than anyone else in the room. Given circumstances, this isn’t always possible but it’s an aspiration that I’m sure my cub leader would be proud.

The scout motto didn’t just finish with “Be Prepared” it continued on with, “Do our best!” Having a “best” mentality raises the standard not only for yourself but for all those around you. If you are leading a team and only put in your second best, then don’t expect those whom you lead to excel. They will look to you as their leader for inspiration and finding it lacking.

Finding out how you recharge your batteries is one of the most important things you can do. Each of us have a little internal dynamo that sometimes winds down. The end result is that many of us grit our teeth with internal exhaustion as we face each day.

Internal tiredness has nothing to do with the number of hours of sleep we’ve had the night before but more about a sense of needing some “me” time. For some people this means going to the gym, taking a walk or staring at the television….for me it’s a little different.

For example, last night at around midnight I decided to stop working and pulled out a new computer game. Next thing I know it’s 4am and my empire has now expanded across multiple star systems. I tear myself away from my PC and decide that it’s about time for me to head to bed. I wake up about 5 hours later completely refreshed and so excited about the Saturday ahead of me.

This past week has been pretty difficult for me. Business has been going incredibly well but a personal problem arose with an external social organisation that I needed to work through (not family or anything like that…they’re all awesome!).

Due to the emotions of the encounter with a number of individuals I found myself really stressed out and not getting to sleep until 4am each night for most of the week….which is a rare occurrence for me. I thought that I’d share with you how I dealt with the stress and what I did to get through to the other side of the problem.

The first night was a shocker. My mind seemed to swirl back and forth trying to wrestle with all the issues at hand. I found my brain replaying events on it's internal DVR over the previous 24 hours over and over again. Each time I would think of a witty riposte to a comment made and then the loop replayed again and again.

I must admit that I fell in the trap of PLOM’s disease. For those of you that don’t know, PLOMs is Poor Little Old Me…..it’s an absolutely pointless state of mind that doesn’t solve anything. If you stay in this mode of thinking then you’ll end up severely depressed (get some help if you are)….I made the decision that I wasn’t going to let that happen.

The second night was a lot more proactive as I did a brain dump of about six pages of notes about the situation. What I was trying to do was array the facts and leave the emotion out of things. This really helped calm the internal dialogue down and provided me with the necessary information for my mind to go searching for solutions.