Imagination Is Everything

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

– Albert Einstein –

I came across this quote yesterday, when I was looking for inspiration for my blog, and even though it didn’t fit what I wanted to write then, I knew I would use it at some point. Today is the day.

And I have just searched for Imagination in You Tube, which has brought me this fantastic video about parkour. Tim talks about how important imagination is when doing parkour and that the two most important things in life to him are passion and belief. Which I very much agree with.

So, what is it that you are passionate about in life? Are you filling your life with enough of it? If not, why not and what can you do to change this? And if you are living your passion, do you have the belief that you can be successful at it?

One of my passions is writing and I put off starting a blog for a long time, because I had the limiting belief that no one would want to read what I had to say. I am constantly getting beautiful and positive comments and messages about my blog and I can’t believe what my life would be like without it now. It brings me so much happiness and joy. And most importantly, it gives my imagination a really good work out every day.

So what can you fill your life with more of in order to let your imagination run wild?

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Albert Einstein

Parkour – You Tube video – Imagination Is Everything

The World’s Best Parkour and Freerunning 2012 – You Tube Video

The Power of Pause

“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

– Albert Einstein –

Some of you may or may not have noticed that I haven’t blogged for the last 2 days.

I decided to have a rest. Take a time out. And have a pause.

A month or so ago I made a promise and commitment to myself that I would write at least one blog post a day. And I have been true to my word and done that ever since.

I have written 55 blog posts since 31st March, averaging at least one a day. And since I started my blog with my first post ‘Anything could happen’ on 13th March, I have written over 33,638 words, and today will be my 60th post in 73 days. Put into a word document, my posts total 70 pages.

My blog has had 2981 views, has received 77 comments, has 66 beautiful followers with my best performing post having received 170 views (coincidentally this was my first post too). My best performing week welcomed 422 views and 212 visitors, viewing an average of 2 posts per visit.

And in the month of April, I welcomed 561 unique visitors to my blog and received 1250 views.

So, why am I telling you all of this? Because I’m enjoying a good pause and want to communicate the Power of a Good Pause to you as well.

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the doing, we forget to stop, enjoy the moment and reflect on how we have got to this point. Also, we sometimes beat ourselves up for pausing, because we feel bad that we’re not doing.

So I have decided to pause for the last couple of days. And it has felt really good! And I urge you to have a good pause if you feel like it too.

I also stumbled across a really fantastic speech on The Power of Pause, that  Maria Shriver gave to the Class of 2013 graduating from Annenburg School for Communication and Journalism in Southern California. You can read her address or watch a 20 minute video of it, as I did.

So, if ever you feel like life is moving too fast, you can’t catch your tail or you’re just not sure what to do next. Take a moment to pause. Or better still, take longer than a moment to pause. Take stock. And truly appreciate where you are and how you go there. You might be surprised what happens.

Wishing you lots of love, light and hugs,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Maria Shrivers address ‘The Power of Pause’ to the Class of 2013 – Annenburg School for Communication and Journalism – You Tube

Linke In Article – The Power of Pause

Life’s a game, play on

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

– Albert Einstein –

Today is the final day of the Business and Marketing course that I’m on, and I have split feelings for the fact that it’s ending. On the one hand, I’m happy to say goodbye to the 12-13 hour days, getting up at 5.30 and coming home at 9pm. However on the other hand, I’ve loved every minute of it, learnt more in the last few days than I have in the last few months. A truly accelerated learning experience. And the pinnacle of this experience? A business strategy game that we played for 5 hours yesterday afternoon.

Now as you’ll know, I’m a fan of strategy board games, from my previous post ‘Enjoy the ride’. So I was excited about this prospect. I’m also a big fan of the Apprentice too and have watched the first 6 or 7 series of it in the UK before I left, in a row. And I very nearly applied to be on the TV show at one point, just because I was interested to see what it would be like.

And yesterday was a really brilliant micro simulator of what it would be like to be on The Apprentice, except none of us got fired at the end. Which was awesome. It was a fantastic opportunity to not only learn about business in an accelerated way, but to learn about ourselves too.

So, what did I learn? Very simple, it’s the lessons that are more important than the outcome. Despite the fact that our team didn’t win, it was the learnings that we all gleaned from participating in the game that were more valuable than the satisfaction of winning. And secondly, once you’ve rolled your sleeves up, got involved and played the game, you can apply your learning’s the next time you play, and win.

And here’s where I have the proof.

A couple of weeks ago when Darren and I played Ticket to Ride, he beat me. Pretty convincingly. And he has also later pointed out that the point gap was actually significantly wider than 15 points as I previously stated. I think it was more like 30 (Darren feel free to comment and further correct me). 🙂

However, we played Ticket to Ride again last week. And this time, even though I knew I would enjoy the game, I was keen to apply my learnings and win the second time. I was also keen to take more risks.

Without going into too much detail and to cut a long (2 hour game) short, I won. And I won convincingly this time. And it was only because I had applied what I had previously learnt and had taken some pretty big risks and played all out to win. After all I had nothing to lose, it was just a game.

So, I believe, and I have been taught this by a number of my mentors, that life is just a game. And all we need to do is participate, play to the best of our ability, be constantly taking the learning’s and applying them, and tweaking the way we play the game accordingly, and remembering that every time we wake up in the morning we have an opportunity to play the game differently. We can try different strategies, test them, see how they work, and constantly iterate and improve the way we play the game.

So I guess my question to you is, how can you be playing the game differently? Do you need a different strategy or approach? Are there any rules you can bend? Are there any previous learning’s that you have forgotten to apply?

And best of all, play more games, because the way you play the game is a reflection of how you live you life. And a 2 hour board game can give you more learning’s about how better you can approach life, than you realise. The important thing is to keep playing.

Lots of love, light and hugs,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Frontier Trainings

The Game of Life

We are all connected

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space.

He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. 

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. 

– Albert Einstein, 1921 –

Last night I watched I Heart Huckabees for the first time ever and it blew my mind.

To be honest, I had been putting it off for a while, because I knew it would bake my noodle, but I’m glad I finally got around to watching it (JFDI).

It is not only an existential film about metaphysics, the meaning of life, being and everything and nothing, but it is also a film that connects the dots. And it’s a film that makes you think.

It’s a seemingly complex film, and it took me a while to get my head around it, but there are a few conclusions that I drew from it.

We are all connected.

And importantly, when we realise this, and understand that we are all one, by loving and being compassionate to ourselves, we are in turn being loving and compassionate to others.

There are some fantastic quotes that I have found by the Dalai Lama that really help to articulate some of the key themes and messages from the movie:

“When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realise that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.”

“If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not able of developing compassion for others.”

“Happiness is not ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries, without them, humanity cannot survive.”

There isn’t much more that I feel I can write about the film, without just recommending that you watch it if you’re curious to find out and understand how we are all connected. It’s pretty awesome. Lots of love to you all. x x x

Inspiration for this post

I Heart Huckabees

Go do something awesome

This time last year I went on a two-day seminar in Sydney that changed my life forever. I had already decided that I wanted to stay in Australia, and had sponsorship that had been offered to me on a plate from my current employer, News Ltd. However, somewhere deep inside, I knew there was another was another way to stay and live and work here. I just wasn’t sure what it was.

I also had let go of a bunch of limiting beliefs that I had around not being experienced enough or knowing enough, and decided that I wanted to set up my own company. The difficulty, was not only how I was going to manage that (especially as I had only been in the country for 6 months and was on a Working Holiday Visa at the time), but finding the confidence and the motivation to make it happen.

That was where my coach, Mr Ben Khodeir, became invaluable to me. Without Ben, not only would I probably not be sitting here in my beautiful flat in Manly, typing this blog post to you, but I definitely wouldn’t have my fantastic company (Thought Cloud) or have earned the visa and sponsorship status in order to be operating my company and living here.

So, why am I sharing this with you? Because I believe that we all need a coach or mentor in life. We need someone who has our backs, always. Someone that has unconditional love for us and our dreams. Someone that picks us up, dusts us off and pushes us in the right direction when we have a wobble. Someone who is our ultimate cheerleader. Someone who celebrates our highs and who helps us through our lows as quickly as possible.

If it wasn’t for Ben, I wouldn’t have set the intention to stay in Australia and set up my own company. If it wasn’t for Ben, I wouldn’t have sought out an Immigration Lawyer to not only educate me on what I needed to do in order to be able to sponsor myself, but help and support me through the entire process.

If it wasn’t for Ben I wouldn’t have pushed through all of the mental and emotional barriers that I needed to along the way. If it wasn’t for Ben, I wouldn’t have been held accountable for achieving the things that I set out to achieve. If it wasn’t for Ben, I wouldn’t have had the self belief and confidence that is required to do something as crazy as set up a company, from scratch, with zero funding, no family around for support, 10,000 miles away from where I’m from, in a country I barely know, with a limited set of people around me for help and support.

I’m 32 and turn 33 this November. I left the UK to go travelling in May 2011 in search of a happier, more fulfilling and loving life. Serendipitously I ended up in Australia, quite specifically Manly. Don’t ask me how or why, I just followed my heart and this is where it brought me, and I’ve not left since.

All I knew when I left the UK was that it was time to do something different with my life. It was time for some big changes. My old ways of doing things weren’t serving me anymore, so I needed to try a different approach.

Einstein is quoted by some as saying that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ So I knew I needed to find a new way of doing things.

I had had a string of relationships throughout my 20s, all of which seemed great at the time, but had all ended one way or another. I had had a fair few jobs too, which again, at the time were awesome, but weren’t fulfilling me to the extent I wanted. And, even though I’d spent 7 fantastic years in London, I was keen to live somewhere different. Somewhere warm and sunny. Somewhere that I could enjoy the great outdoors. Which is how I ended up in Australia.

And I now live in a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment in Manly, with the love of my life, 2 minutes from the beach and 18 mins from Sydney on the ferry. I love my life, I love my company, I love my clients, my friends and family. I was sitting watching the sunset with my boyfriend just the other week, and I said to him, that I felt for the first time in my entire life that there was absolutely nothing I would change. Such an amazing feeling to have. Seemingly impossible, but actually very possible indeed.

However, none of this was handed to me on a plate.

I have put in a lot of time and effort to getting my psychology right and changing the way I think and do things. I’ve read a lot of books, been to a lot of seminars and training events. I have worked through every challenge that life has thrown up for me along the way, and am continuing to do so. And most importantly, I have had a coach or a mentor to guide me every step of the way. I, and only I am responsible for creating the life of my dreams and my own reality. And the first step was getting clear on my intention, and for that I needed a coach.

I believe so strongly in the importance of a coach and mentor this is part of what I do for a living now.

So, how has the start of the year been for you? Is it what you expected? Are you truly happy with your life situation? Is there anything you would change?

We’re a quarter of the way through already, so there is still a lot of time to make changes. What would you like to be celebrating at the end of the year? Is there a hobby that you have been putting off starting that you’d love to try? Is there a book that has been sitting inside of you your whole life that you’re just itching to start writing? Do you want to make a living out of photography or art, but don’t know where to start or don’t have the confidence to get going? Do you have an awesome business idea, but you need some help or direction on how to get it going? Or are you completely lost in the fog of life? Do you know that you need a change, but you’re just not sure what it is or what you’re here to do?

I would like to offer the gift of clarity to 4 lucky people who would like help in finding the answers to the questions in their head. This gift comes in the form of a Thought Hug.

A Thought Hug is a 60 minute session (in person in Manly or over Skype) that will help you to find clarity in your current life situation and provide you with energy, inspiration, motivation and guidance (and a to do list) to help you move through the fog, into the light.

Your investment for a Thought Hug is $500 and $150 of that will be made as a donation to the charity that we support ‘My Happy Village Cambodia‘ and will directly contribute to their goal of raising $18,000 this year to build a school for their community.

I only have 4 spaces available, and Thought Hugs always get snapped up within 24 hours of being made available, so the first 4 people to contact me directly to request one will be the lucky few.

To be the first to request your Thought Hug email me at kat@thoughtcloudcollective.com or contact me on my mobile +61 (0) 468 351 334 and tell me why you deserve a Thought Hug.

What are people saying about my Thought Hugs?

Tom Bass, Entrepreneur
‘Big thank you to Kat for an awesome Thought Hug! Great feedback on my latest project and the direction that I’m taking at the moment to follow my truth. :-)’

Kristy Smith, Virtual Elves
‘OMG Thought Cloud Collective and Kat Kinnie, you have just ignited a bonfire in me after our thought hug today! I am so excited I want to shout it to the world! Can’t wait to get started and create an awesome ME!!!! xxxxxx’

Mitch Davis, MJD Fitness
‘What a huge help and difference 1 hour can make, thanks to the one and only Kat Kinnie. You are truly brilliant at what you do! Small businesses do yourselves a favour and get in contact with Thought Cloud Collective.’ 

Christine Walter, Body Business Mobile Massage
‘Hi Kat, it was so great to meet you at our first Thought Hug on Monday. Im so inspired now to get my message out and hands busy, seeing more and more people. The world needs more massages and more (thought) hugs! Looking forward to our next steps together and working with your passion and expertise.’

Jon Wolfgang Miller, Fifty-One
‘Thanks to Kat at Thought Cloud Collective for the thought hug! She gave us lots of awesome inspiration and ideas for the future of Fifty-One! The future’s looking very bright people!!!’

Sara Litchfield, The Right Ink On The Wall
“I was lucky enough to spend some quality-time with Kat Kinnie, which was a privilege as well as a pleasure. The power of this time was transformational. I went from having new year’s resolutions to having results in a matter of days. When I first met Kat, all I had was pipe dreams and potential; now I have a business-to-be, with a brand and a website in the making, and a mission and a plan already in place. These are mine – they were inside of me, but I needed the energy and self-belief to realise them, and this is what came from the Cloud and bounced off the walls when I was with Kat.

The very concept of Thought Cloud is inspirational and its founder a true Katalyst for positive change, in your life and in your career. Kat is an inspiration on both a personal and professional level. She has led by example, fostering the potential of others to blossom into successful business-owners in the same way she has herself. What is forming is a very brilliant collective of minds and ideas that I’m excited to be a part of.

I truly believe that what is coming out of and through and via the Thought Cloud Collective are ideas that can change the world. When it comes to your own life, it starts by challenging and changing the way you think in order to accomplish your aims. The value of validation of your dreams and the power of a push in the right direction are truly priceless. All of that can be gained in one Thought Hug. Imagine what more you can achieve when you connect with the experience and talent at your fingertips by further engaging with Thought Cloud. You are setting yourself up to succeed.”

 

Everything is Energy

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

– Albert Einstein –

I love Albert Einstein. I think he is super cool, and even more importantly, it’s his Birthday today, so happy Birthday Albert.

In fact, the guys that made the Back to the Future trilogy loved him so much, they named Doc Brown’s dog after him.

So, what does this all mean? “Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality.”

Have you ever really, really wanted to do something, achieve something or go somewhere, because your heart tells you to? And somehow, for some unbeknown reason, that thing has magically happened? You’ve told yourself it was a coincidence, because that’s the rational explanation for it. But perhaps, there’s more to it than that?

Perhaps, just by following our hearts and doing things that we love and spending time with people we love, life will always find a way to support us. And if, for any reason we bottle it, and make the mistake of listening to our heads instead, or over thinking what we truly desire to do, life will make things harder than they need to be, just to teach a lesson. We should have listened to our hearts and we have an intuition for a reason.

Life is meant to be easy & effortless. It’s meant to just flow. The Universe wants us to live a life of peace, love & joy. It wants us to be happy. And the only reason we get the opposite is because we put our energy into the wrong things. The things we think we ‘should’ be doing, rather than the things we LOVE to do.

So, what energy do you need to put into doing something that you love today? I promise that you’ll be rewarded. Be loving & kind to yourself, you deserve the reality of your dreams.

Love, hugs & light,

Kat x x x

P.S.

Inspiration for this post

Albert Einstein

The Power of Love & Back to the Future