Richard Conner's Blog: Transformerpreneur

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“Picking up something new in this context is a distraction from your feelings and thoughts. Use the time to do what you are creatively or instinctively drawn to in the moment.”

Challenge Work Vacuum

Do you want to test out a Work Vacuum without taking a vacation? Take a 30-day diet of no TV, movies or box sets, no news media of any kind, no social media or magazines, no reading, no networking, no drinking alcohol and no socialising or networking. I would encourage you to throw in a couple of silent days each week while you’re at it. This will heighten your sensitivity to your inner voice.

Reading non-fiction self-development books is allowed but a maximum of only one hour a day. No eating or drinking non-alcoholic drinks more than you normally would to placate any feelings that come up during the challenge.

Make a promise to yourself to journal and take notes about your experience, your thoughts, emotions, as and when they come up, noting the time of day. Elaborate on your findings when you feel the urge, see where your thoughts will take you and what emotions come up as you write. Look out for recurring patterns in your behaviour.

Beware. This part of you has very likely been drowned out and neglected for the most part of your life by mild or extreme workaholism. Don’t be surprised if this aspect of you isn’t best pleased that you’ve suddenly decided to start listening to it after ignoring it for so long.

From time to time engage in writing, singing, dancing, and drawing, sketching or playing a musical instrument, something that you’re already reasonably adept at. Do this only when you’re inspired. Don’t do this to combat boredom or frustration.

This is not to learn how to do these activities. Picking up something new in this context is a distraction from your feelings and thoughts. Use the time to do what you are creatively or instinctively drawn to in the moment.

It doesn’t matter if these creative outlets aren’t your thing. We all write in some form so fall back to journalling as your daily ritual and moment by moment witness to your thoughts, feelings, emotions, resistance, reactions, triggers, habits and behaviours regardless of whether you deem them negative, neutral or positive.

Be sure to track your time and the detail of the work you have been carrying out and Why. Remember a Why can be as simple as ‘because my boss asked me to’ or ‘I need the money’ or it can be as deep and meaningful as ‘this is an important project, I’m learning, I’m giving and am excited to see it come to life and help people!’

This also counts for personal ‘Non-Work’ projects or creative moments you start or continue while experimenting and trying out this mini Work Vacuum you’ve created by rising to this challenge.

Who is happier and more purposeful? The bricklayer who when asked what he’s doing replies ‘Laying bricks.’ Or the one who responds ‘Building a cathedral.’? None would argue the latter’s Why is more powerful both to him and to others.

You’ll be amazed after 30 days how much time you have available to live and work more creatively. Whether you realise and appreciate it or not you have kickstarted your Creative Feeling and enhanced your Creative Thinking in the process.

Welcome to the Creative Loop.

Learn more about Creative Thinking in the Work Vacuum by opting in to 'Unlock your time and creativity" at The Creative Core. You'll receive Work Life Wide Open Book #1 'Break Your Busy - Set Your Creativity Free' and Book #2 'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life' FREE plus other related bonuses when you sign up.

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“We miss this because we are overwhelmed by our own busyness. We fail to realise how distracted we are by the knock-on coping mechanisms, good or bad, that we turn to without question day in and day out.”

The Creative Loop

We’re always struggling against the clock. Literally pulled from pillar to post to deliver any number of project and business objectives. Even if we’re in a position or role of focussed responsibilities we’re likely still battling with time and spread too thinly. Despite the stress and overwhelm, it may even be that we’re getting the opportunity to do some creative work in our day to day working lives.

This rare respite from the onslaught of busyness is often just enough for the grass to always appear greener. Indeed, engaging with a moment of creativity can leave us dissatisfied with the rest of our expanding and never-ending workload. Contrary to our heartfelt instincts the surrounding overwhelm forces us to retreat further from the unknowns and challenges of exploring our creativity, especially at work, where budgets and deadlines loom large.

The first thing we can do to address this recurring issue is to change our thinking. 

We need to look at the process of unlocking time and creativity as work in itself, not just something we try to do at work. To do this we need to understand our selves a little more and get to grips with our version and level of creativity as it were.

There’s three levels, kinds or strands of creativity. They are all restricted or unleashed by the quantity and quality of time we make available to them. In simple terms, the two primary or most well-known levels are Creative Doing and Creative Thinking, or a combination of both. The third, Creative Feeling is often missed entirely or is so far out of our awareness that we don’t even know it exists or is part of the mix at all.

The reason we miss this is generally because of how overwhelmed by busyness we are and how distracted we are with the knock-on coping mechanisms, whether good or bad, that we turn to day in and day out. What we miss out on is the realisation that Creative Feeling is a critical part of being able to continually access your unique form of creativity from within what I call the Creative Loop.

In this article, I’m going to cover the basics of how to unlock time or ‘Break Your Busy’ so that you have a chance to enter the Creative Loop. In the least, you will become more aware of its component parts so you have a chance to ‘Set Your Creativity Free’.

The basics involve the following (in no particular order):

Determining an authentic collection of Whys that resonate with or through your work life as well as your personal life aspirations and mission.Developing the Creative Thinking component of the Creative Loop.Creating a Work Vacuum.

If you’re struggling or lagging behind in any of these basics, look seriously at establishing a Work Vacuum (the subject of my next post). This will help the other two aspects. To create a Work Vacuum we must understand the difference between what Busy Work and Real Work are for us as unique individuals at whatever stage of life and our careers we are.

We work to reduce the former and gradually increase the latter, but not immediately. We do this by listening out for and paying close attention to what our most important Why of the moment is. Resist the urge to dive into the temptation to find one deep-meaning all encompassing Why to your life and work. With time it will come to you. Your Whys of the moment are your stepping stones to these larger, more meaningful realisations.

This space left in the middle of these two opposing works, a Work Vacuum, is purposeful, dedicated time not doing anything, but contemplating, meditating, thinking, journalling and listening to what we might really want in life and work.

There will likely be lots of these Whys that come out when you allow yourself time and space to really consider What you are doing and Why in all areas of your work and life.

A Work Vacuum is space to come to terms with the changes necessary in our lives that we may or may not be ignoring or denying. It could be ten minutes per day or a ten month sabbatical. It involves resisting the urge to do things, especially work, no matter how uncomfortable it becomes. We must avoid falling back into familiar and traditional work patterns because doing so will just uphold the veil of distraction that keeps us from fully exploring our selves and our purpose.

This space is needed regardless of whether we do or don’t know what we want to do with our time, now or in the future, in work or out of work. In either scenario we can find ourselves procrastinating in the day to day or in the bigger picture of our lives, rather than focussing on finding out what we truly want. Doing nothing even for short periods of time may be a completely alien concept to us.

Beware, the pull back to Busy Work will be strong. As we work through and transition a process of Breaking Your Busy we must resist the urge to refill the Work Vacuum. The more we continue to prioritise What we are doing and Why the Work Vacuum we create will inevitably become larger which is why we need to protect it from attracting more of the same. Busy Work, created by ourselves or thrust upon us by others, with permission or not, in our work or personal lives will weed its way back into our unprotected Work Vacuum the moment we aren’t looking.

We must be wary and vigilant.

Learn more about Creative Thinking in the Work Vacuum by opting in to 'Unlock your time and creativity" at The Creative Core. You'll receive Work Life Wide Open Book #1 'Break Your Busy - Set Your Creativity Free' and Book #2 'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life' FREE plus other related bonuses when you sign up.

Click on the image below to start making a change.

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“I couldn’t even fall back on a traumatic childhood as the deep-seated reason for my discord and the seemingly constant set backs in my work and personal life. ”

We yearn for simplificity, yet we are in ourselves very complex creatures by default. We pray for a magic pill that will solve all of our problems and get us back on track living the life we want on our terms.

Despite my years of experience, the responsibility I’d taken for my life outcomes, no matter how negative they were and the fact I’d tried hard to be the master of my destiny by starting businesses I wanted to I’ve waited and hoped for one too. It never came.

The first and persistent problem we hit in the Endless Search is that of course, we are actually all very different despite what the spiritual, business or marketing gurus might lead us to believe.

Now I realise there is no one-size fits all cure-all that will release us from this right-of-passage jail time anxiety inducing anguish. I’ve wasted years looking for an escape from this perpetual prison sentence.

Little did I realise the way out was much closer to home and absolutely without a shadow of doubt always within our control and available to us at any and all times.

For this reason, I worked relentlessly to translate my concepts and ideas into a flexible framework that would apply to everyone but in practice be unique to the individual. In this way, it has a much greater chance of helping more people, no matter their background.

The first book in the Work Life Wide Open series ‘Break Your Busy - Set Your Creativity Free’ was intended as an on-ramp to these deeper, more insightful concepts and practical blueprint for the High Definition Life we are all trying to live happier more, useful and meaningful lives within.

So far the first book in my Work Life Wide Open Series has started to serve its purpose and is continuing to deliver on its promise.

It has hit #1 in many of its categories on Amazon’s free listings including Mentoring & Coaching, Time Management, Business Skills, Creativity & Genius, Creativity, Personal Transformation, Stress Management, Personal Growth and Personal Success.

Now, the next book in the series ‘The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life’ digs deeper into the core curriculum and foundation of Significant Life Change. It takes us a step closer to identifying our core life problem, explaining why it’s so persistent. It explores how to make small changes in our life now that will lay the groundwork for more meaningful, longer lasting and impactful change to come. 

Change now. Unlock your time and creativity.

'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life : Reduce Inner and Outer Conflict with a New Flexible Blueprint for The High Definition Life' is now available on Amazon.

Buy 'The Seven Works' on Amazon NOW

Believe me, when I tell you that even with the solid foundation I had in life I wasn’t able to crack the code by myself. Primed by ten solid years of seeking and searching everywhere and anywhere to find the answers it still took me what seemed like forever to join the dots and finally see what was going on.

I couldn’t even fall back on a traumatic childhood as the deep-seated reason for my discord and the seemingly constant set backs in my work and personal life. I had a loving and supportive family, a post-graduate education and an excellent work ethic. These Godsends combined with an ability to learn quickly and apply what I’d learned efficiently with unrelenting and often extreme focus left me perplexed at how the life I wanted continually eluded me.

Even with a not insignificant level of worldly achievement and success I still wasn’t able to start living life how I wanted. Hell, I couldn’t really, underneath it all get to grips with what I wanted, never mind what I truly needed.

It’s amazing how not knowing what you want, let alone living it can ricochet around your life, your work, and your relationships, wreaking havoc along the way, without you being aware what the real problem is. I call this living in the Idyllic Illusion. Avoid it at all costs.

Through the ups and downs of broken relationships, businesses and finances I’ve been searching. But it wasn’t until I finally made a significant life changing decision to break my busy did I eventually start on the path to understanding how life does and doesn’t work for us in the High Definition Life and what to do about it.

This is where ‘The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life : Reduce Inner and Outer Conflict with a New Flexible Blueprint for The High Definition Life’ picks up the baton and comes to our collective rescue.

With it, we can say goodbye to the outdated concept of work-life balance, and all but eliminate conflict at home and work. In the process, we will gain far greater insight and clarity into What we want to be and do in the world and most importantly Why.

These enduring Real Work characteristics are the pre-cursors to creating the life we want by Planning To Give of ourselves to life as oppose to Planning To Get as much as we possibly can from it. Sounds a little too obvious now I say it doesn't it?

Maybe, but in reality, we can easily confuse ourselves and only when we peel back a few layers of our life experience do we start to appreciate we had it the wrong way around all along.

Take the first or next step to developing a simple, unique practice that will allow you to maintain a truly meaningful connection with your self and others while on your evolving life-work adventure.

It’s not only time to get to know and understand the facets of life, but it is also long overdue that we all started to reconfigure them in our own special unique way.

Change now. Unlock your time and creativity.

'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life : Reduce Inner and Outer Conflict with a New Flexible Blueprint for The High Definition Life' is now available on Amazon.

Buy 'The Seven Works' on Amazon NOW












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“...there has always been something I couldn’t quite solve. This persistent, recurring issue was no ordinary common or garden problem.”

If you’re anything like me, you’ve read countless books on everything from personal development and self-help, through spirituality and psychology to business and marketing searching for ways to solve your life and work problems. 

With over twenty years of business experience and forty years of life lessons to draw from I found I could solve all kinds of problems and achieve a level of success in the process.

But, there has always been something I couldn’t solve. This persistent, recurring issue was no ordinary common or garden problem. Until recently I could never quite put my finger on it. As far as being able to put my mind to unearthing it so I could break free from its annoyingly elusive and persistent hold over me, that’s a different matter entirely.

Sure, indulging in the Endless Search via these books, courses, seminars and workshops can be useful and empowering to some degree. Employing a process of elimination is a proven way to bottom out many a situation to reveal the core underlying causes of the undesirable effects they create in our lives.

And yes, like you no doubt, through continued work I was able to glean some insights, strategies, and tactics to make small changes and improvements in my life, but to what end? Despite my continued and long-suffering efforts I found myself at best only treading water. For the most part, I seemed to be taking two steps forward and three steps back!

Little did I know what was waiting, impatiently, in the wings of my deeply frustrated, disillusioned and I don’t mind saying it now, unhappy and often depressed life experience.

No matter what I did, or didn’t do, I never really seemed to ‘feel’ any better. It was like I was always waiting for something to happen before I could start doing what I wanted to do. The problem, I thought, was I didn’t know what the ‘doing’ of what I wanted to do might be. I was suspended in an invisible holding pattern forever waiting in the queue for a time slot and available space to land.

To compound the situation, logically I believed I was doing what I wanted so that couldn’t be the problem, could it? For most of my career, I’d not only been working in but was also building and leading successful businesses in the creative industries. I didn’t even have the excuse I wasn't creative. I’d made my bed and was sleeping, literally, in it.

Of course, I’d experienced moments of creative problem solving and creative doing from time to time. You know, the sort that keeps you up late at night and gets you up early in the morning. So what was my problem? 

If I had a gun to my head and my life depended on my delivering an honest answer, I'd have to say that despite everything, I’d stopped feeling creative and free in my work and my life, and there was no apparent reason for it.

No matter what I tried to rectify the situation and reverse the feeling, the effect was short-lived. I couldn’t see that I’d been trying to scratch an itch that couldn’t be by just doing more of the same, creative or otherwise, in the traditional sense. To say I’d been working harder and not smarter is an understatement, to say the least.

I used to wake up, as early as I could, get straight out of bed and be out of the house as quickly as possible, weekends included. I was motivated by a deep-seated low vibration stress to get on with work, no matter what it was, to ease the pain and conflict I was experiencing.

The closest I came to verbalising what was going on for me at the time was that I felt like I was wasting my life. A tad melodramatic perhaps but it summed up the symptomatic experience I was living, or more precisely, dying, day in and day out.

Change now. Unlock your time and creativity.

'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life : Reduce Inner and Outer Conflict with a New Flexible Blueprint for The High Definition Life' is now available on Amazon.

Buy 'The Seven Works' on Amazon NOW

If I looked too long at reality, as far as I could see it, regardless of my achievements, I’d feel uneasy, uncomfortable, off-centre, and quickly revert to negative thought and feeling patterns. These depressive undercurrents were nothing short of a downward spiral into stress, overwhelm and busy workaholism.

I believed that if I just did more of what I was doing my results, the outcomes in my life would be different, better somehow. I think it was Einstein that called this behaviour and belief system insanity. I know now, without a doubt, he wasn’t wrong.

This daily dose of trouble and strife led to nothing but a constant conflict that I tried to cover up as much as possible by putting on a false happy front so that I didn’t appear like an ungrateful, negative complainer. The sort of people, even friends, soon tire.

I would never have guessed what the first thing my friends would say to me after I made my Significant Life Change. It started with ‘At last! You’ve been talking about this problem for years…’

I’d always thought I was discreet when talking about my issues. You might be able to convince yourself some of the time, but you’ll never convince everyone else all of the time.Your friends really can see right through any facade you put up to disguise the truth even if you won’t.

This unresolved conflict battling between what my habits and expectations believed I should be doing to achieve ‘success’ vs. what I wanted to do and be played out for a long, long time. It was a never-ending story. Just ask my friends and family!

In the end, after a few bouts of isolated depression, phases of waking up frustrated and angry, I started to realise what the problem was. The cracks were beginning to show, and they were now getting bigger, wider and more visible each and every day. I couldn’t hide from my self anymore.

This unwanted breakfast, lunch, and dinner I was force feeding myself continued until I’d taken the most important step in my life to date. It was a change that would pave the way for everything good and great that followed.

From that point on I was able to start clarifying the exact steps that worked to give me more peace of mind, self-acceptance, deep-seated self-confidence, energy, time, unbridled creativity and freedom to be my true self.

These essential life qualities had eluded me to the point of desperation, despite my seemingly never-ending, necessary (who else was going to do it for me) extreme effort, hard work, and persistence.

Before I knew it, I’d created the biggest Work Vacuum of my life and effectively ‘streamed’ a book all about life and work and the recurring traps into which we lure our selves.

These mental constructs and behavioural mazes forged in relationship with those we interact with on a daily basis unbeknownst to us establish our lifelong, ingrained limiting habits and beliefs.

Worse still, the symptoms of these self-imposed limits are amplified by the High Definition Life we are hell-bent co-creating at breakneck speed. Stress, overwhelm and busyness is the order of the day. Otherwise, success is unattainable, right? Wrong.

I could not stop writing this book, my magnum opus until I’d finished. It took a year, full time and then some to create. It turned out to be 1200 pages long! Combined with my previous journaling and evolving concepts revolving around unlocking time and creativity through conscious change, creativity, communication, and connection meant I had five books worth of transformative content to give back to the world.

By just making space, allowing what is, without forcing the situation my Real Work of the moment had emerged. With my Busy Work exposed for what it is I could see more clearly what I simply must do, not what I should do.

Believe me when I say this felt far more satisfying and rewarding than waking up every day to the traditional way of doing, doing and more doing to solve the largely self-inflicted problems we force ourselves to endure within the High Definition Life.

Change now. Unlock your time and creativity.

'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life : Reduce Inner and Outer Conflict with a New Flexible Blueprint for The High Definition Life' is now available on Amazon.

Buy 'The Seven Works' on Amazon NOW












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Watch 'First Flow - Be More Creative'

“This vital component of the Creative Loop isn’t always apparent...”

First Flow

I'm going to talk about the Creative Loop. If you don't know what it is or, you do and you're just not in it, or not in it often enough read on.

Whether you’re overly absorbed in or regularly distracted by the High Definition Life or not we would all feel better if we were more creative in our life, work and relationships. When I talk about being creative I’m not just referring to the obvious forms of creativity like the arts, crafts or design professions, inventing a new product, or starting and building a business.

I’m also referring to being more creative in how we approach situations, events and relationships in our personal life and work life. It doesn’t matter if these are big things or little things, creative thinking not just creative doing permeates all of our lives to varying degrees depending on what we’re dealing with. Implementing change is inherently creative.

If we’re honest with ourselves we could all do with more of the thinking variety. Creative thinking helps us see and understand the bigger picture. This can, in turn, prevent us from wasting valuable energy, time and money on ill-considered creative doing.

However, there is a missing link, in what is effectively a creative loop. Before we can think and do freely, we must also feel free. Normally this vital component of the creative loop isn’t apparent. We take for granted that we’re thinking or doing, or not carrying out either. As far as we are concerned that’s the end of it. We’re in the mood to create at some level or we aren’t. We fail to recognise that this seemingly missing link is, behind the scenes, either stopping or starting our creative thinking and doing.

Stopping and Starting

The stopping can show up as distraction, procrastination, doubt, uncertainty, excuse making, anxiety and fear which culminates in a more reactive yet passive response to our High Definition Life experience. Conversely, the starting looks like direction, focus, confidence and passion which is a much more proactive assertive and positive response.

To the extent we are stopping we are more open to, accepting of, and to some degree in need of outside external leadership. When we are starting we are at our core leading ourselves where we want to go within the High Definition Life. As a result, because our creative thinking and creative doing are more aligned and connected we will most likely experience positive life outcomes.

That Creative Feeling

What is this missing link? It is creative feeling and it is the oil in our idea engine that bridges the gap between thinking and doing. At the same time, it allows the creative loop to keep flowing continuously. 

What if I told you there was a quick way to access greater and more consistent levels of creativity, in the form of both thinking and doing? What if this process is also capable of removing obstacles that might ordinarily stop you taking action to turn your dreams into reality now, rather than later, in some distant ever-receding future?

Why stop there? On top of all of that this same simple technique also helps unblock and unlock other areas of your life, like your health, wellbeing and relationships. It does this at the same time as allowing you to be more open to Conscious Change, Creativity, Communication and Connection with your self, intimate others and your High Definition Life content and context.

What is this elixir of life I hear you ask? Of what, exactly do I speak? Well, I’m not here to sell you into some new-fangled methodology. My aim is to shed some light on a proven approach to living and working a better more creative and enjoyable life.

Drum roll please. It is, of course, breathing and breathwork. Our life-given biological inheritance that provides free access to creative feeling and consequently unrestricted creative thinking and doing.

Early into my Significant Life Change (SLC) I discovered conscious breathing and breathwork meditation as very powerful forms of emotional self-healing. This led me to take a full-time three-week intensive Rebirthing Breathwork Training course. The course and breathwork turned out to be a lot of things but quite unexpectedly it was a way to be more creative more consistently.

Do you want to be more creative?

Do you struggle to act consistently on your ideas and creativity?

Are you considered 'creative' and a 'doer' but don't really feel like you are either?

Did you answer yes to any of these questions? Then know that even a moderate sporadic practice of conscious breathing or breathwork meditation can free you to be more open to change, which is an inherently creative process in itself, and increasingly connected to your creative feeling, thinking and doing.

During and after the training I created a twenty-one-day mini-documentary called ‘First Flow - Be More Creative’ to spread the word about how breathwork really can help you live a fuller more creative life.

Watch 'First Flow - Be More Creative'

Before taking the training it had gradually dawned on me that releasing negative emotions and trauma from your body frees up the mind to be calmer and therefore more creative. After the relative intensity of the training (on average 2 hours per day of conscious breathwork 5 days a week), I’d go so far as to say breathwork is one of the quickest and most profoundly powerful ways to achieve a more consistent and permanent level of enhanced creativity.

In short, It’s an incredibly efficient way to clear the fog of distraction, keep the overwhelm storm of the High Definition Life at bay and reveal the truth of your creativity and your Real Work.

Breathing to be more creative doesn’t have to be full-blown breathwork. Benefits can also be felt and experienced by engaging in a few minutes breathing exercises each or every other day. It’s not just your creative thinking, feeling and doing that will be improved, so will your health. 

You can learn more about breathwork and how it affects health, wellbeing and creativity by watching my FREE ‘First Flow - Be More Creative’ Mini-Documentary here.

Watch 'First Flow - Be More Creative'

For now, I’ll leave you with a summary of my first breathwork session and the corresponding 'Day 01' video log from the documentary.

Day 01 - My First Breathwork Session

My session was supported and guided by an experienced breathworker, with three other trainees in the room observing. After a short period of relaxation and breathing, I entered a primarily feeling state that was predominantly focused on and in my body.

I moved from being very conscious to the extremities of my body to only the internal energy flow, it's blockages and how powerful it was. As I allowed myself, through discomfort, to breathe into the painful resistance in my arms, hands, legs and back, I could feel my body and consciousness expand into a softer energetic glow.

Momentary releases within this state marked gradual levels of surrender to the unwanted feelings. I was encouraged to maintain my breathing through the resistance. And then as I was floating in the sensations, breath flowing continuously as if I was being breathed by something more than myself I was shocked back to a more present awareness, engulfed in what I can only describe as a cloud of fear.

Jolted I gasped for air. Was this my moment of birth? I was encouraged to breath into the fear. I existed at one with it. Shaken, shocked, gasping, I felt now as if I was expanded into a body-less and limitless existence. The experience came with a feeling of being watched by a warm expansive comfort that I could if I wanted flow and grow into and explore.

I think it was me that I had found and entered. On returning to my body, which took quite some time, I cried and sobbed, not really knowing why. I experienced a deep level of release. While it exhausted me, it also enlivened me, giving me a level of peace and calm that is so rarely felt but always welcome.

The pain and resistance are in my experience always followed by bliss. I always look forward to experiencing this, especially when guided by an intuitive highly experienced breathworker.

Sometime during or after the bliss, maybe a few hours, or even days I’m exposed to new realisations and creative insights about my life and work. The doubts, excuses and fears that would normally have held me back in life no longer carry any weight. In fact, they seem to have been replaced with a resolute objectivity and an excitement to get started. This isn’t a short-lived, flash-in-the-pan burst of energy. It’s the calmer, more consistent whirring of my idea engine being put through it’s paces.

You can learn more about breathwork and how it affects health, wellbeing and creativity by watching my FREE ‘First Flow - Be More Creative’ Mini-Documentary here.

Watch 'First Flow - Be More Creative'

Imagine a river watercourse flowing from its mountain source to the ocean. The water will carve its route unabated with or without interference. We knowingly and unknowingly manipulate and obstruct this creative flow through our resistance to it.

The reality of this energy flow lifecycle is to return to its mountain and ocean source. Over time despite resistance, it will remove all barriers in its way.

If not allowed to run its course it will eventually break its banks and overflow overcoming any obstacles in its path. Allowing the breath to find its natural way through us will lead to a powerful and healing overflow of energy, insights and new realisations.

In this way, we remove obstacles to life flow and experience the full power of the creative energy moving through us. In surrender, we breathe fully no matter what we experience physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Watch 'First Flow - Be More Creative'
Change now. Unlock your time and creativity.

'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life : Reduce Inner and Outer Conflict with a New Flexible Blueprint for The High Definition Life' is now available on Amazon.

Buy 'The Seven Works' on Amazon NOW












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“....only 1 in 50 people had a mobile phone...the Internet was only dial-up.”

The Future of Home

Futopia 2096 was my final thesis project. It was presented and submitted 20 years ago at the end of my 4th year at architecture school which was the first year of my post-graduate diploma in architecture at The Bartlett, University College London.

The project set by my tutors was to explore the concept of ‘HOME’. I decided to look to the future and envision how technology might marry with a more traditional model of luxury villa or mansion style suburban home ownership complete with separation, security and privacy while still establishing and maintaining a level of meaningful connection with family, friends, neighbours and colleagues.

World First

At the time students would display drawings and models for their final presentation. However, having taken out a relatively huge student loan to buy an Apple Power Macintosh 8500 (the first Mac to have built-in video capture and export capabilities) I created a computer-generated (CG) animated film. I did not produce any drawings or physical models which were the norm to communicate architecture at that time. Presenting an architectural thesis project in this way was a first in the country and dare I say it probably the world.

Producing the film involved weeks of running in and out of Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners' (now GRIMSHAW) office (Eden Project, Waterloo International Eurostar Terminal), where I did my year out and was working part time during my diploma. I had to manually set up rendering animation sequences moving from workstation to workstation day in and day out on their 50 strong network of Mac II’s and the odd Power PC.

A few days before the final year crit presentation I had enough frames to edit together a film and tell the story I wanted to tell. After a few all-nighters on the bounce, I arrived at Wates House and put the VHS video cassette in the machine and pressed play.

Hollywood Inspiration

The graphic style and packaging of the film were inspired by both the marketing of the residential development that gave birth to the landmark sign in the Hollywood Hills, and a recent blockbuster film at that time. Can you guess which?

I also designed a video box cover and blurb to go with it which you can read below before or after checking out the short film. Keep in mind the animation was created over 20 years ago in 1996 when only 1 in 50 people had a mobile phone (if they did they didn’t have screens), floppy discs were the preferred method of transferring data and the internet was only dial-up.

Oh, if you're wondering, I'm pretty sure that I imagined Yellow Car and Blue Car as semi-autonomous self-driving electric solar powered vehicles ;-)

Why Re-Publish?

Why did I decide to dig this piece of Real Work out of my archive and re-publish? Because my Work Life Wide Open series of books has focussed on understanding the context and content of the High Definition Life we have all been busy co-creating along with its inevitable impact, good or bad, on our internal as well as external worlds. Appreciation of these inescapable components of the High Definition Life is an essential pre-cursor to Conscious Change.

Important Questions

Can we be better prepared for the future but still enjoy our life and work now, in the moment? If so then how? I think Futopia 2096 was beginning to address these questions, but 20 years ago. It's only now I've started joining the dots scattered by my seemingly disparate periods of Real Work over the years that I can see more clearly what's important and why.

So as part nostalgia, part fun and partly to highlight how quickly things change and how on or off point we can be with our global as well as personal predictions I'm posting this now to trigger a dialogue. With everything going on in the world we can and do struggle to remember what technology really ought to be intended for. Isn't it to help us enjoy the simple and often necessary things in life like Conscious Change, Creativity, Communication and Connection?

On reflection, knowing what I know now and remembering the prevailing context that triggered the creation of Futopia 2096 it's clear that we were already taking baby steps, and in some cases giant leaps toward the High Definition Life we’re all part of now. Ok, I accept that it's happening 80 years earlier than I anticipated and envisioned but as a 23-year-old student n 1996 with his eyes firmly on the future Futopia 2016 didn't sound half as interesting as Futopia 2096!

Unexpected Future Benefits

There has been another unexpected benefit of reviewing my Real Work archive and specifically Futopia 2096. It has given me some fresh ideas and insights about what I might call my next Real Work adventure of Science Fiction novel and screenwriting.

Watch this space, before long my Futopia will receive a complete overhaul and reboot.

Futopia. Future or Fantasy?

The slightly tongue-in-cheek back cover blurb.

Futopia 2096 assembles an all-star cast for a tale of everyday life in the newest housing estate in town (out of town actually). The Looking Glass (Virtual Home VH Magazine December 2095), and Blue Mug (Essence of Home) provide an interesting insight into the possible life Futopia might bring us.

Yellow Car and Blue Car deliver career performances as Futopian vehicles navigating the many private driveways which divide the riverside site. The Fish swims in wonderful style while presenting the concept of the Horizontal Looking Glass. Fishing when you’re bathing? You’ll have to be up early to net The Fish out of his virtual lake.

Lasting nearly 4 minutes and covering your own Looking Glass with full motion and full screen action FUTOPIA 2096 is not to be missed.

Cut Scene Copy

As the video is captured from analogue VHS cassette the text on the cut scenes can be a little hard to read so I’ve included it below so you get the full story.

The Looking Glass from Virtual Home
Hold meetings with your colleagues in the comfort of your own home.
Dine with remote family and friends without leaving the house.
Enjoy many sports with the expandable space offered by the Looking Glass.

Small Dwellings in Futopia
The small family house with Looking Glass.

Large Dwellings in Futopia
The large family house with Looking Glass and private roof garden.
Watch out for horizontal and vertical Looking Glass starring The Fish!

Shared Work Space
A Shared Virtual or Real work space used on a pre-programmed timetable.
The space also serves as a physical connection link between two dwellings.

Reality Links
Physical links between dwellings which don’t communicate by the usual Virtual links.

Vehicular Entrance
A walkway links the vehicle turntable to the dwelling entrance point.
Note the grocery shopping being delivered to the home.

Change now. Unlock your time and creativity.

'The Seven Works - Reconfigure The Facets of Life : Reduce Inner and Outer Conflict with a New Flexible Blueprint for The High Definition Life' is now available on Amazon.

Buy 'The Seven Works' on Amazon NOW












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