Dare to dream

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

– Paolo Coelho, The Alchemist –

I’m currently re-reading The Alchemist for the second time in my life. Reading books twice is not something that I have tended to do, however I have just re-read James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy and Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince. These are all books that I first read in my mid-twenties. And it seems that now I am reading them with fresh eyes, noticing things and meanings that were not apparent to me before.

And so, the inspiration for today’s blog post is about the importance of dreams.

At the beginning of the year, I had a dream to write and publish a book this year.

For me, it was a pretty wild dream. Exciting, but a little scary at the same time.

What if no one wanted to read it? What if no one cared what I had to say? What if people didn’t like my writing style? What if I couldn’t find enough words to fill enough pages to make a book? What if I ran out of ideas? What if it just wasn’t good enough?

I could go on . . .

However, it was the dream, the idea, the desire to write a book, that spurred me on. It’s something I have never done. Most people talk all their lives about writing a book, but never actually do.

So I found a course that would help me to write a book. And I started the course back in March. And I started writing the book. Then I stopped. It didn’t feel right. So I started writing another book. The beginning of that book didn’t feel right either, so I changed direction. Now I am 12,500 words into my second book and I haven’t written anything for weeks. Why? Because I haven’t felt to. Why? Because I couldn’t remember why I was writing the book.

Was I writing it for the prestige? No. Was I writing it to benefit me in business? No. Was I writing it because I wanted to write a book? Maybe. I couldn’t work out why I was writing the book, and so therefore, if I wasn’t clear on the purpose of writing it, why the heck should I write it?

And then I watched the beginning of a talk that David Icke gave at Wembley Arena a few years ago entitled ‘Remember Who You Are‘. Now, it might be a little confronting to some people, but in essence he has a powerful message about the importance of taking back your power and deciding to raise your consciousness. This comes in the form of making better decisions about how you live your life, interact with the reality we have created and what we put in our bodies and our minds.

And I felt a very strong urge to start writing my book again. I was reminded that I wanted to write my book, for no other reason than to spread the good word and message about the importance of being conscious. And quite specifically, being conscious in how we set up and run our businesses and create brands.

I remembered that the entire reason I have set up my business is to inspire and educate people about the importance of being clear on your WHY and the importance of living a conscious life, and (if you run one) having a conscious business. And my book aims to shine a light on all of the wonderful beings on the planet who are doing just that, to act as beacons of inspiration for others. To show them that there is another way of doing things and being.

And I was also reminded that writing a book has nothing to do with what comes at the end, because really there is no end. You write a book, you publish it, you make it available for people to buy, you hold a launch party, you tell people that it exists, and that’s that. Then what? Write another? Wait for everyone to tell you how amazing you are for having written it? Make lots of money, because people think you’re more credible now that you have written a book on a subject? Then what? If you’re writing a book for any other reason than the fact that you would love to, then you’re writing it for the wrong reason.

For me, I have realised, it is about the message and it is about the journey. Which is what essentially every experience in our lives is about. It’s about ‘the possibility of the dream coming true that makes life interesting.’

It’s the possibility of writing and publishing a book that makes life interesting for me. Therefore, the only reason I should write a book is if I feel to do so. If it would bring me happiness and joy in the moment and in the process and the journey of writing a book. And I believe it would.

At the same time I would get to interact with some pretty amazing people, I would enjoy the very process of writing (which I do), the process of getting the cover designed, the book edited, the entire thing laid out and then printed. And that is the reason to write a book. For me. And if anyone else benefits in the process (which I hope they would), then awesome. And in essence, I am everyone, as I am an infinite being in the Universe, so we all get to enjoy the journey.

Now, that I am clear on my WHY, I feel inspired to finish my book. And furthermore, I hope I may have inspired others through the truth of this post who may be considering writing a book, or are struggling with writers block with a book they have already started.

Write a book for you. Write a book because you would love to. Write a book because you feel you have something to share. Write a book because you know you will enjoy the experience. Because the moment you make it about anything other than that, the meaning will be gone, as will the impetus to write it.

Hope this is helpful to you all my darlings.

Sending you lots of love and light,

Kat x x x

Read more of my blog posts on writing

View all of my posts on writing

Read Write 750 words a day (Part 1) 

Read Write 750 words a day (Part 2)

Read Do what you love (Part 2)

Awesome books to read

The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield

The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The Alchemist – Paolo Coelho

Image gratitude – http://pakhandipandit007.wordpress.com/ 

You are infinite potential

“You’re alive…That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written your name.”

– Neil Gaiman –

I saw a fantastic video today on You Tube and wanted to share it with you. It demonstrates that we are all limitless beings with limitless potential.

And the only difference between those who live their lives in a limitless way and those who don’t is belief that it is possible.

I spent a lot of my life believing the lies that I was told, being comfortably numb, comfortably uncomfortable. Never asking the difficult questions. Never wondering why I was here, what life was really about. Until a few years ago.

I started to challenge convention. I started to challenge the status quo. And as I did so, my heart and mind started to open up to new and infinite possibilities.

About a year and half ago I decided that I wasn’t happy in the corporate world. I wasn’t happy being told what to do, how to think, how to live my life. And I decided that I wanted out.

18 months later I am running my own company, living in a very beautiful part of the world, and am fully in control of my own destiny.

The only limits that we experience in life, are the ones that we impose on ourselves.

Anything is possible. We are infinite beings with infinite potential.

What would you like to change in your life, so you can live in a limitless way? How can you take back your power?

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Image reference – lifeiseasybook.com

Follow your dreams

“When you live with an open heart, anything is possible”

– Unknown –

Last year on 8th June, I left the Corporate World forever, and exactly one week later I registered my business (Thought Cloud Collective) on 15th June. I started it with zero investment, and a cup brimming with positivity, ambition, ideas, excitement and certainty.

I was setting out on a journey into the unknown, the Captain Cook of entrepreneurial exploration. My voyage was going to take me into unchartered territories. My mission, to become one of the first Brits in history to come to Australia, start their own business and sponsor themselves for a 457 visa through that business.

There were a lot of hoops that I needed to jump through. The waters were, at times, very choppy. I encountered shark infested waters on several occasions. I had to make some stops at islands I had never been to before, and I needed to take diversions and turns when I least expected it. It was by no means plain sailing. However, it was the most wonderful, magical mystery tour into the unknown.

My immigration lawyer didn’t know anyone who had done anything like it before me, but he also knew it was entirely possible. Despite the odds being stacked quite significantly against me (I was very new to Australia, I didn’t know many people, didn’t have any family close to me for support, I had zero investment in my business and I was on a Working Holiday Visa that was due to expire in 6 months when I set up my business), I still managed to achieve the seemingly impossible, by following my dream to become an entrepreneur.

On 12.12.12. I was granted sponsorship status for Thought Cloud, sponsorship for myself through Thought Cloud and a 457 visa to be able to work and stay in Australia for 4 years. I was ecstatic and elated.

And now is another big milestone in my journey. I have just launched the brand new website for Thought Cloud and I wanted to share this piece of news with you all in the hope of inspiring you.

It took me a long time to build up the courage and make the decision to follow my intuition and niche in the area that I have decided to niche into.

Thought Cloud creates conscious brands for conscious companies. We want to help people who have a product or service that will benefit people or the planet in an ethical, sustainable and conscious way.

We believe that your brand is at the heart of your business and we exist to help people create a brand that is true for them and one that will attract other people who think and feel the same way.

I have developed a unique and special methodology to help people create a Brand Blueprint for their business. It is a methodology that I have not only spent the last 12 months crafting and perfecting, but that also takes into account the 11 years experience I have had working with some of the biggest brands in the world, including 4 years at Virgin Mobile in the UK.

Everything that I know and understand to be true about brands I have learnt from Richard Branson, and mixing it with my own knowledge and understanding of the importance of creating conscious brands that will change the world for good, I have created a product and service that is truly unique.

I believe that positive change in the world won’t necessarily come from big businesses, big governments or the UN. Instead I believe it will come from the individual. I also believe that small businesses and social and conscious entrepreneurs have a huge role to play in raising the consciousness of people across the globe and helping to change the world for good. This is why I believe that every conscious small business should have a Brand Blueprint to act as a solid foundation upon which to build their business and to act as a guiding light to help them stay true to their mission and their values, be clear about what they do, how they do it and most importantly why they do it and have a hymn sheet from which they can sing from.

I’m so happy and proud at what I have achieved over the last 12 months and I am so grateful for all of the help, support, love, kindness and advice that I have received from so many amazing people across the globe. I am certain that I wouldn’t be where I am today, nor would Thought Cloud exist if it wasn’t for the loving kindness of so many other beautiful people.

I am living the dream. I am so very lucky to be able to do what I love and help people with branding their businesses. I love where I live and I love the people who I work with on a daily basis. I honestly and genuinely would fill my days doing what I do, if money was no object and if I won the lottery tomorrow I would still continue on to spread the Thought Cloud love.

It is my mission for there to be a Thought Cloud in every major city in the world, so we can help millions of conscious businesses create Brand Blueprints and be able to spread their message and connect with other like-minded people who think and feel the same way as they do. People who will want to work for them, partner with them, supply to them or buy from them.

I’m living breathing proof that anything is indeed possible if you put your heart and mind to it and believe. I’m proof that you should follow your dreams. And I’m proof that you really can live the life that you thought you might only be able to imagine.

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Myself & Thought Cloud

Thought Cloud video – Be the change you want to see

JFDI (Just flipping do it)

“And every day that you want to waste, that you want to waste, you can
And every day that you want to wake up, and you want to wake, you can
And every day that you want to change, that you want to change, yeah
I’ll help you see it through ’cause I just really want to be with you”

– Foster the People –

I’ll admit that I can be an awesome procrastinator. In fact, if it was an Olympic sport, I’d definitely make it to the podium. However on the flip side, I’m also really good at committing to a task and a deadline and just deciding to do something.

There is something really special and exciting about throwing caution to the wind, asking yourself ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ and deciding to do something that you’ve always wanted to do, but have been putting it off for some reason.

Recently a good friend of mine from the UK came over the Australia for a holiday and while he was here spent a bit of time with us in Sydney. He’d been toying with the idea of moving to Oz for a while, not 100% happy with his job or living situation, but a little uncertain or overwhelmed with the idea of moving so far away from home.

After being in Australia for just a week or so, and before he even came to see us, he’d decided that he was going to move here, which was awesome. And today, I received a message confirming that within a week of getting back home he had organised a Working Holiday Visa and a one way ticket to fly out here in September. So exciting, so fantastic, so brilliant!

Yet another person in my life who has decided to take action, make a positive change in their life and do something different.

So the question is, what thing have you been putting off in your life that you’d secretly really love to do, but are a little frightened to, or you think it’s too hard or too difficult?

What thing do you just need to decide that you’re going to do, commit to and give yourself a deadline by which to complete it?

Life’s pretty simple and awesome when you decide to JFDI.

Inspiration for this post

Waste by Foster the People

The Power of Intention and Taking Action

“As you move towards a dream, the dream moves towards you.”

– Julia Cameron –

To put it mildly, I am a big fan of setting intentions or goals. In fact, if Intention was a band, I’d follow it around the world, go and watch every gig it played, wear my I Heart Intention t-shirt with pride and shout from the highest mountain I could find, how flipping awesome I think setting intentions are.

I am such a fan of them, I set intentions for the day ahead, every morning before I start my day. I can’t tell you how important it is to get clear about what you’d like to achieve, and then set about taking the relevant action in order to make it happen.

I have done A LOT of personal development over the last 12 months, been to a lot of seminars, met a lot of awesome people and I have noticed that there is one big difference between the people who have made massive positive changes in their life and seen some incredible successes.

It’s very simple, these people share one common attribute. The set goals or intentions, and take massive action in order to achieve them.

After all, it’s one thing to say you’re going to do something, and quite another to actually go and do it.

This time last year I set some really fantastic goals with my coach, that I wanted to achieve by the end of the year, and as a result of getting really clear about what I’d like to see happen in my life, achieved some truly incredibly things.

Some of these things included the seemingly unimaginable, like celebrating Christmas with my family in the South Island of New Zealand and spending 2 weeks there over the festive period and New Year.

Now, some people would say that isn’t that bonkers a goal to set, but considering that when I set the goal, my Mum & Dad, and Sister and Brother-In Law were all living in the UK and had no intention of travelling to NZ in 2012, nor had we ever celebrated Christmas outside of the UK in my 31 years on the planet, it seemed like a pretty tall order.

But somehow, by hook or by crook, we all ended up pulling crackers and tucking into my Mum’s famous Christmas dinner in a beautiful house, by a lake in Queenstown. And I’m so happy that I set that goal!

There is a longer story attached to this, that involves my little Sister and a big change that she made in her life, but I will save that for another post. It’s too awesome and too huge to try to squidge into this one, but it’s truly inspirational, I promise you.

Another big goal that I set for myself was to set up my own business and sponsor myself through that business to stay in Australia.

Now, this is a slightly trickier goal, especially considering that setting up a business in your own country is tricky enough, but travelling 10,000 miles to the other side of the world, and giving it a bash when you have only been there for 6 months is a little more difficult.

Furthermore, most people don’t even know that you can set up a company and sponsor yourself through it, and the people who do know that you can, haven’t even bothered attempting it, because it’s too darn hard.

Lucky that I love a challenge in life, and rarely choose the easy option.

Again, the story about how I went about this, is far too long to tackle in this post, but to say the least, the good news is, I managed it.

However, goodness knows where I would be and indeed where I would have celebrated Christmas and New Year if I had set those incredible goals.

Of course it is great to dream, of course some people will say that we’re crazy to set goals and intentions that are seemingly impossible to achieve, but to be honest, I’ve not set a goal that I would truly love to achieve and not managed it yet. So I’m just going to keep on setting them, the crazier and more bonkers, the better I say!

So, the question is, what dream do you want to realise that secretly you know you could make happen? What would you love to see occur in your life? What would you attempt if you knew you couldn’t fail? I’m sure there is at least one thing in your head and your heart right now, that if you committed to writing it down you could turn into reality, rather than just leaving it as a wish.

Inspiration for this post

A meeting that I had today with my friend and client, Mr Ben Levy

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

Anything Could Happen

So, here it is, my long awaited blog. This is something that I have been putting off and procrastinating about for years, and the time has come, the time is now.

I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I know I will enjoy writing it.

I’m keen to keep these posts fairly short, sweet and to the point, so people are more inclined to read them. Plus I’m a big fan of Seth Godin’s blog, and his posts are generally a perfect length, so that is my benchmark.

I went to see Ellie Goulding last Friday in Sydney and was completely and utterly blown away by her set. She has been on my ‘to see’ list for quite some time, but nothing prepared me for just how amazing her voice sounds live. The venue was electric with an incredible energy from her & her band, and the response from the crowd. Truly fantastic.

A song from her set has stayed in my head ever since that night. Anything Could Happen.

What if anything literally could happen? What if, despite the fact that we think we’re not in control of our destinies, we actually are? What would you do differently? What would you change? What risks would you take? Where would you live? What career change would you make? What business would you start? What book would you write? Who would you call to tell them that you love them?

Over the last 20 months I have made some pretty seismic changes in my life, which have included leaving my country of birth (England) to go travelling at the age of 30, following my heart and finding myself on the opposite side of the world in Australia. Now I live in my own flat two minutes from the beach, in beautiful Manly, Sydney & run my own philanthropic marketing, branding, design & events business (Thought Cloud Collective) and love every minute of my beautiful life.

I am writing this blog to share the learning’s that I have gained and am continuing to gain on a daily basis. This is in the hope that I can inspire others to live the life of their dreams and trust that if they follow their heart and do the things they love, they will be rewarded.

In the words of Mary Poppins – ‘Until we meet again remember, anything could happen if you let it.’

Feel free to leave comments below or share with anyone who you think would like to read my blog.

Lots of love, hugs and light, Kat x x x

P.S.

Inspiration for this post – Video for Anything Could Happen – Ellie Goulding