Elevate Your Thinking: 8 Elements to Finding Your Inner Strength in a World of Chaos and Expectation 9780648996705, 9780648996712

Table of contents :
Bel Elevate Your Thinking EBOOK 11_25
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: Life Is Created Through a Series of Dots That Combine to Make Your Line
CHAPTER 2: Seek Clarity
CHAPTER 3: The Strength of the Pinwheel Lies in the Axle and in the Stick That Supports It
CHAPTER 4: Building Your Inner Strength Through the Primary Elements
CHAPTER 5: Finding the Power Within Through the Secondary Elements
CHAPTER 6: The Pinwheel and Its Blades
CHAPTER 7: Creating Your Winning Team
CHAPTER 8: Be the Person Who Chooses the Glass to Be Half Full
CHAPTER 9: Pinwheel Example One: Health and Wellbeing
CHAPTER 10: Pinwheel Example Two: Wealth Creation
CHAPTER 11: Your End Destination

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ELEVATE YOUR THINKING 8 Elements to Finding Your Inner Strength in a World of Chaos and Expectation Belinda Colubriale

Copyright © 2020 by Belinda Colubriale All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, including international, federal, state, and local governing professional licensing, business practices, advertising, and all other aspects of doing business in the US, Canada, Australia or any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of the reader and consumer. Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of the consumer or reader of this material. Any perceived slight of any individual or organisation is purely unintentional. The resources in this book are provided for informational purposes only and should not be used to replace the speciali s ed training and professional judgment of a health care or mental health care professional. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for the use of the information provided within this book. Please always consult a trained professional before making any decision regarding treatment of yourself or others.

Paperback: ISBN 978-0-6489967-0-5 eBook: ISBN 978-0-6489967-1-2 Cover Design: 100 Covers Editor: Amy Pattee Colvin Interior Design: Amy Pattee Colvin

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Dedication To my husband, Vince, for your loyalty, support, and love over the past 14 years. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. — Marcel Proust

Contents Introduction Section I: Creating the Life You Want 1: Life Is Created Through a Series of Dots That Combine to Make Your Line 2: Seek Clarity Section II: The Pinwheel 3: The Strength of the Pinwheel Lies in the Axle and in the Stick That Supports It 4: Building Your Inner Strength Through the Primary Elements 5: Finding the Power Within Through the Secondary Elements 6: The Pinwheel and Its Blades Section III: Choose Who Surrounds You 7: Creating Your Winning Team 8: Be the Person Who Chooses the Glass to Be Half Full Section IV: Gathering Momentum 9: Pinwheel Example One: Health and Wellbeing 10: Pinwheel Example Two: Wealth Creation 11: Your End Destination Next Steps

Introduction Life is lived in the extra beats we hold as time unfolds. Soon, the two beats become four, the four become eight, etc. and eventually we would have experienced and mastered the art of life. —Brendan Burchard Growing up can be exhausting and overwhelming. I know I have been the overwhelmed and exhausted adult many times in the past. Many times in my life, I felt drained. I did not have enough hours in the day to do what I wanted to do; as for what I did do, I never felt that I was doing it to my full capability. I had all these great ideas, but I felt I had no time to implement them, let alone do them well. With four young children keeping me busy, and by trying to fill their love tanks, the juggling of all the areas of my life became too much, including running my business, as well as maintaining my health and wellbeing. I was struggling to do it all, and I knew something needed to change. I needed to find a way to be better. I needed to find within me an inner strength and build and maintain habits that I felt would be important. I needed to find essential elements to help me achieve my best. These elements needed to be important in not only moving me forward but in allowing me to thrive. I wanted to find ways to manage all the areas in my life, and I needed to do it better than I ever had before. Finding the balance was hard. I needed more sleep, but then if I slept, I would lose the time I required to do other things. I wanted to become healthier, but sometimes I would opt for the quick meals to

get us by, as this was easier. I wanted to grow my business, but the more time spent on that meant less time with my family. I felt like I was beginning to fail at everything, and I needed to find a way to change. You might be feeling the same. You may have gotten that job promotion, so you get more money, but now you are finding you see your family less. The result, you feel agitated and overwhelmed, and so the cycle continues. You may assume it's normal because many others that you speak to feel the same way. I'm here to tell you that it may be the norm in society to feel this way, but it doesn’t have to be your normal. Life keeps getting busier and busier, but you can manage all the different areas, and you can manage them well and thrive, no matter how busy you are. In this book, I will set out a plan for you on how to do so moving forward. I'm here to tell you that there is a way. What if I told you that by mapping out the different areas of your life into sections and seeing where improvements can be made, you could have it all? Would that sound like something you would be interested in? And, the great news is that it's simple in theory and just takes a bit of practice. All you need to do is change your mindset to make the shift. This book will give you the elements needed to help. Make your core strong, meaning build on your inner strength and who you are deep within, and you can begin to focus on the other areas of your life. And the best part is, you can do it successfully. I was the person who was overwhelmed, fatigued, and unmotivated at times. I was trying to do my best in all areas of my life, but my best was falling way short of the mark, and way short of the standard that I set for myself. I wanted to be at my best for my husband and my kids, but my tank was running on empty . I knew I had to change what I was doing, and I had to change it fast. I wanted to change not only how I was showing up in the world, but I also wanted to raise the bar in my life. So, I set out to make some fundamental changes, and I have never felt as good as I do now. Room for improvement? Sure. I never want to stop growing, but I am on my way to becoming my best self. I am the busiest that I have ever been, yet I have a plan to manage the different areas in my life and manage them well.

Though busy, I have created a busy life that I feel is also productive and fulfilling. I have found my groove where all the different areas of my life come together in unison to create my best life, and I have done this by simply elevating my thinking. Imagine yourself lying on the grass. Around you are a bunch of pinwheels. These individual pinwheels represent different areas of your life, and their respective sizes depend on the importance of these areas. The larger ones are the areas most important to you.

These areas could include health, mindfulness, wealth, family, and the list goes on. The main thing is that they are unique to you. Taking this one step further and imagine the pinwheels are spinning at different velocities. Some spin faster than others. The faster ones are the ones that you can manage more efficiently. The ones that need work may be moving more slowly. These slow pinwheels represent work that you have delayed or aspects of life where you aren’t even sure how to get these blades moving. Then finally, others have stopped and need attention. These pinwheels, when combined, make up your life, and when you can start increasing the rate at which they spin, you begin to realise that you are living the life you desire. The good news is that although the blades on each pinwheel are specific to the areas of your life that are important to you, the strength of these pinwheels lies in the axle and then in the stick that is implanted into the ground. This axle allows those pinwheels to spin. If you build a strong foundation, your life will begin to transform. This transformation will be in ways that you never imagined possible. I know this works because I can tell you the difference between how I felt in the past and how I feel now. For me, these pinwheels will only continue to spin faster and faster until eventually, with little effort, they will spin themselves, and then, the extra things you do in your life

are the icing on the cake. I now feel I have an abundance of time for what is important to me. I am the most energised I have ever been, and I feel fulfilled. I am a better wife and parent, all because I manage things more efficiently, by building on a strong base. I focus on what is important; I say no to what doesn’t serve, and I have a goal, a destination of where and who I want to be, and a vision of a star that is now within my reach. If you feel that you lack time, if you feel exhausted, if you feel the pinwheels in your life aren’t spinning and your axle is not strong, then this book is for you. If you feel unsure within yourself, if you lack the key elements to be at your best, then please continue reading on. There is no time like the present.

If you want to take back control of your life, raise the bar, and make a difference, then let's do so together. Before you get started, please download the workbook at the link below to help you along the way, and together, we can build a personalised plan tailored for you. www.elevateyourthinking.com.au/EYTworkbook

SECTION I: Creating the Life You Want

CHAPTER 1: Life Is Created Through a Series of Dots That Combine to Make Your Line The 3 C’s of Life: Choices, Chances, Changes. You must make a choice to take a chance, or your life will never change. ―Zig Ziglar As soon as I was old enough to work, that’s what I did. My first job was as a waitress at a reception centre. I worked there for four years. This job, at times, was exhausting. The hours were long, and the way you were treated was average. Yet, I learnt some of my most important life lessons here and lessons that would help me in my future. It was a blessing in disguise. On a professional level, I learnt best practices on treating staff when I was in future leadership roles. Why? Because the head chef, the person in charge, was always belittling her staff. She was on a major ego trip, and she could not manage her stress levels. She exerted her authority through her negative actions, and she terrified most of the younger staff, especially the newer ones. On a seven- to eight- hour shift, dinner breaks were usually no longer than fifteen minutes. You ate while standing up, and usually with minimal chatter amongst the staff. As soon as you finished eating, you would be back out on the floor, picking up the next course’s dinner dishes. So, most of us took our time eating, as we knew we were heading straight back outside. Throughout my time at this reception centre, a few managers came and went. Some because they could not deal with the head chef and some for other reasons. One day another new manager came in. He

tried to make some changes to modernise the workplace. He was younger than the previous managers, and he would not put up with the head chef’s constant antics and belittling of staff. They often argued, and, as a result, he didn’t last too long either. But, during this time, he took me under his wing. Eventually, more opportunities became available to me. Soon, I was not only waitressing at night, but I was also called in to help this new manager set up event functions. These events included weddings, engagements, special gala nights, pension days, and more, and I loved doing this. I loved the longer shifts; I loved the sudden diversity that it taught me, and I also loved the associated increase in pay. I was working about twenty hours a week on the weekends. Often when we got paid, this manager would also put some extra money into my envelope. Although the days were often long, I will never forget the feeling of being appreciated. I was about sixteen years old. Throughout my time at this reception centre, I was aware that I was learning different skills that I would carry forward through life. I was learning how to speak to different generations of people, both young and old. I was learning about good work ethics and how to take on extra responsibilities. I was also becoming more efficient in managing my time, balancing school, work, and sport. I was learning that although most people are appreciative of being served, some are rude, arrogant, and ignorant. This new knowledge also served me well as I would take this into the future and start to find my voice around these types of individuals. When this manager who had helped me grow and learn resigned, I asked him for a reference. I had no intention of leaving at the time, but I was also unsure of who the next manager would be. I was not ignorant of the fact that in one way or another, I would be starting again, so this reference would help me in my future. It turns out the reference that he gave me helped me secure my next job. This new job would come a year or so later. I had applied to work at one of the major department stores in Melbourne. I thought the chances of getting the job were slim, but regardless, I sent my resume in. I remember sitting in at the group interview feeling intimidated and completely out of my comfort zone. Everyone was older than me and seemed to have more life

experience and confidence. At one point, we had to go around a circle and answer questions. I found this to be daunting, and I felt awkward. During the interview, we learned of all the different departments within this store that were hiring. I remember thinking that the only value I felt I could offer was setting up tables and serving food to people. I thought to myself, “Who would hire someone with only that skill?” The moment that changed my level of insecurity was when I saw that one of the job vacancies on this list was in the restaurant. The restaurant was hiring staff. Now that was a position I could apply for. Our job, the job of those getting interviewed, was to list in order of preference which sector we wanted to work in, and the reason why that department should employ us. Here is where the opportunity came for me; it was a lightbulb moment for this young kid. Was the restaurant my top choice? No, but I knew it was this specific department that would give me the best chance of securing the job, and then from there, once I had proven myself, I could transfer into another area. Further increasing my chances, I was also pretty confident that few others would apply for a job in this area, which, in turn, eliminated much of the competition. I put down the restaurant as my number one choice. I detailed my reasons and the experience I had in this area. I got the job, and the rest was history. Ironically, I stayed in this position for a couple of years and never ended up changing departments. I enjoyed the work, the environment, and the flexibility that came with the job. What am I trying to say here? I believe that without writing down my preference to work in the restaurant, I would not have gotten the job at this department store. The other individuals in the interview were more experienced, more knowledgeable, and were much older than I was. Yet, I saw an opportunity, and so I went for it. I had nothing to lose. To get to where you want to be, you need to step up and be the one to create the opportunity and build the momentum in your life. You need to elevate your thinking to get it to the next level to see opportunities that are outside of the box. More about this in the next chapter. The opportunities you think of as dots eventually combine to

make a line, which becomes your line in life. I stayed in this role for a couple of years, and while I was there, I began studying a Bachelor of Vision Science degree at The University of Melbourne. My ultimate goal was to transfer into Optometry. I loved my job working in the restaurant. I knew where I had come from and how we were treated there, so I appreciated good management, and looking back, it was the overall experience that I loved. I could not pinpoint just one specific area. I liked meeting different customers from all walks of life. I enjoyed serving these individuals, and I appreciated the diversity it brought. I liked the staff members I worked with. I also enjoyed knowing that when customers returned repeatedly, I had built a relationship with them, and I knew what their orders would be. I enjoyed knowing how much or how little sugar they wanted in their tea or coffee. I even enjoyed playing practical jokes on my coworkers, and to this day, that has not changed. There was a familiarity that came with this job, and as a result, I never wanted to change departments. Yet, after a few years, I wanted more. I got to the stage again, where I was dreaming of the next big thing. What could I move onto, where could my future take me, how could I be better, more efficient, happier. I always felt I had something to prove, more so to myself than to others. So, while still studying at university, I got a job in the optical industry, and this industry would become my career for the next twenty years. Having had six eye operations myself to try and correct a squint, I had always had a passion for optics, and I, for years, had been interested in exploring this further. I was sure that my path included me working hard to get good grades so that I could transfer into Optometry. While I was studying and working, my auntie passed away from cancer. She was only thirty-eight years old, and we were extremely close. I could not concentrate on my studies. My motivation and my drive had gone, and so I decided to defer for a semester. I believed this would allow me time to clear my head, work more, and put some money aside. I took six months off, and I did not intend to waste it. I planned on

working my butt off. I found myself a morning job at a cafe where I would work five-thirty to eight-thirty every morning Monday to Friday. Then I would go home, shower, then go to work at my optics job for the whole day and do close to full-time hours there. I did this for a few months and then left the morning job as I was getting too tired. I also figured that there must be an easier and smarter way to make money. I was grateful for understanding the value of hard work and the value of the dollar. The time away from university and studying also taught me that becoming an optometrist was not my destined path. I liked being at the front of the shop; I enjoyed the retail side of optics, rather than being in a room testing eyes. I appreciated the interaction with the customers. Interestingly, the part I most enjoyed was pushing myself to reach sales targets. In fact, I was so fascinated and obsessed with it that it became a passion of mine. How could I sell something, to the best of my ability, that I believed a customer needed? How could I put my own spin on what I was taught? How could I pass on the benefits of lens options that the optometrist had recommended? If the optometrist had not recommended a lens option, how could I incorporate this into a conversation? How could I recommend to a customer what I believe they needed without sounding like a typical salesperson? How could I be the person with the highest average order value in my store? How could I, the young kid, prove herself to her team of seniors? I was passionate about finding the answers to all of these questions. This drove me; it inspired me to want to do better, and to be fair, it consumed a lot of my thoughts over that period of time. In this knowledgeable team that I was lucky to be part of, I felt I had something to prove, and I knew that I could add value to their already successful store. Over the next few years, I would move around different stores all within the same company. I then worked my way up to being an assistant manager and then a manager. Sometimes I would apply for these jobs, and other times, I would be asked to move and take the position. At times I did not want to move; I had made friends where I

was, and I was comfortable, but I took the positions knowing that they were leading me to a future of more opportunities. These were all connecting dots that were creating my line in life. Another life changing opportunity happened in 2006 when I went overseas and met my now husband on a Contiki tour. He was from Sydney, and I was from Melbourne. Looking back, I still find it pretty incredible that out of all the tours and all the places in the world one could travel, we each made a choice that caused our paths to align, and our journey together began. On our trip, we spoke of our plans for a future together. It was a whirlwind romance. We had only known each other for eighteen days, and here we were planning the years that were ahead of us. To me meeting my husband was another point that changed my life. He calmed and grounded me. I had never previously met a man like him. I felt I had a clear direction in my life, and we had a clear path for our future. We balanced each other out. I could be hot headed; he was patient. I aimed for the stars, even sometimes stars we could not reach yet; he gently brought me back down to earth. On the flip side, he hesitated to take larger risks, but these were risks that I encouraged. Ultimately, no matter what happened, we always supported each other in pursuing our dreams and moving our future forward. While we lived in different states, we would see each other twice a month. We would take it in turns to fly up or down on a Friday night and return on a Sunday night. At times this became exhausting, but it was well worth the effort. At the same time, I had started a marketing degree. The idea of marketing intrigued me. I thought marketers got paid lots of money for coming up with random ideas, so I enrolled in a night school course. The course was okay, but I didn’t love it. It wasn't the course for me. One night around eight o’clock, it was dark, and when I got to my car, I realised someone had broken into it. The fault was mine, I had left a bag on the passenger seat, and it was gone. I didn’t even realise the car had been broken into until I got in and saw shattered glass everywhere. I was petrified, and I quit my course. Around this time, we each purchased our first investment property.

I had read a couple of investment books, and I wanted to get into the market. I had only nine thousand dollars in my account, so my options were limited, but I bought a house with what I could afford, and he did the same. It didn’t matter where we bought; the important thing to us was that we were in the market. These opportunities helped us move our life forward. Whilst continuing to fly back and forth, I applied for and received a job to be the manager of a small bayside optical store. For me, at the age of twenty-three, I thought I had reached my peak. I had always wanted to work and manage this particular store. I knew I could make a difference in their sales, and I loved the shopping strip that this store was located on. Life was great. I could even walk to the beach during my lunch break. In summer, the store was busy and had a great vibe, but in winter, few people came through the doors, and I began to feel bored. Again, I knew what I was doing wasn’t enough to keep me engaged. Once more, I was in search of a better, brighter, more rewarding opportunity. A life changing moment came one day when I went to get the store's mail. In the letterbox was a letter from a company that was entering the optical market in Australia. They were trying to get partners to buy into their franchise or joint venture models. I still believe today that had I not gone to the mail on that particular day, my life would have been different. I would have missed this opportunity, and this letter may have never reached me. I believed that all my previous jobs and experiences, all the separate dots, came together, leading to this moment. All the chances I had taken pointed me to this opportunity, and it was not to be missed. With the letter in hand, I made the call to enquire about this company. Soon after, I embarked on a journey where I participated in numerous interviews and a mock exam. I received an offer to be a partner in three stores and was asked to choose which one I would prefer. Because I’d experienced work in both small and large stores, I knew that the smaller stores were not an option for me. I knew that it would not be long before I felt bored at a small store, and I wanted this opportunity to be long term. I decided to go for the dual store scenario, two shops, in one shopping centre but on opposite sides. The workload seemed enormous. I had never been challenged in

my working life in this way before, and that excited me. These stores were located in an area that I knew I wanted to reside near one day, so the commute after having kids would not be too long. In this way, this choice of stores would allow extra flexibility. I met my potential new optometrist partner. He was a year older than me, and the excitement from him was the same, although he was more cautious about making a move. The plan was to have two partners working, and then once the stores got busy enough, a third partner would be introduced. Flashing forward, two years later, we had a third partner join us. At the time I was exploring the franchise option, my future husband moved down to Melbourne. To accept this new franchise opportunity and ensure our life together would align, I had to ask him if he was sure about staying in Melbourne. This city offered me a career I wanted, and if I was to take on this opportunity, this would be our home. He loved the city, he was happy in his current role at work, and he had no issues in staying, so I bought shares into these two stores and the company, and the rest is history. Initially, the stores required lots of hard work; we were building a global brand in a new country. However, at the same time, it was an amazing opportunity for someone as young as I was to be given an extraordinary chance while having the backing of a great company that encouraged their partners. Being young, driven, and feeling I had nothing to lose, I took the chance and jumped straight in. For me, the potential reward far outweighed the initial risk. I absolutely believe that if I weren’t so quick to jump in and make this change in my career, the stores would have gone to someone older and more experienced. The only way I could prove myself was to work my butt off to make the stores successful. A few years later, I got married. Life was good. There were challenges, sure, but the hardest year was yet to come.

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages Life is about building momentum, so be aware of opportunities as they arise

Every opportunity is a dot, and many dots make up your line, which directs you through life Look at past learnings; notice where you held back and where you took a chance, and see where you can apply successful past practices into your future

Workbook Questions: 1. List the three main turning points in your life that lead you to where you are now. 2. Looking back, were you consciously aware of how important these moments were?

CHAPTER 2: Seek Clarity People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. ―Elisabeth Kubler-Ross In the previous chapter, we read about how life is created through many different opportunities that come together. In this chapter, we will now look at ways of perceiving life and then at how you can begin to imagine the life you desire. One morning during the Covid pandemic, I was on my way to work. It was extremely foggy, a fog that I had not driven through for a long time. The roads were quiet. People had been instructed to work from home, and the school holidays had been extended. This particular morning as I was driving, I noticed different types of drivers. I saw those with their lights on and ready to be seen through

the fog. I saw those who were struggling to drive properly and those with their lights turned off. I was driving through the fog, and at that exact moment, I was thinking to myself, life is like driving through fog, constantly. Sometimes you think you know what is ahead and where your future will take you, and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you know what is ahead, yet you choose to ignore it. Or you go in a different direction; you choose to “switch off your lights”. You let yourself fade away into the distance. In these moments, you may lose who you are; you might make decisions you will come to regret later, decisions that might affect your future. Sometimes you even lose what you stand for. For others driving through the fog is exciting; not knowing what is around the next bend appeals. The thought that the whole world is out there for you to see, and you can make of it as you wish. You are creating your own path, and that is inspiring. The excitement lies in knowing that you are in control. It does not have to be a popular path, and it does not have to be an easy path. It does not have to be the road most travelled. The important thing is that the path is yours and yours only. You are the only one in charge of the life you create; you are the driver. No matter which way you relate to the “driving through the fog” scenario, the main thing is that as an adult, you are the driver in your own life. You hold the key to the ignition, and you are in control of grasping, steering, and turning the wheel. You can put your foot on the brakes if you need to stop, you can slow down, and you even have the power to put your foot down and speed up if needed. It does not matter what happened in the past, and it does not matter what others say. It does not matter if you have never driven through the fog in this way before. Only you can find a way to see through to the other side and make the distance clear. The strength comes in knowing that the fog is not permanent. It disappears, and when it does, the horizon becomes clear again, and the options are limitless. I experienced the feeling of being stuck in the fog after the birth of my twin girls, babies three and four. I was struggling to function, as a mother, as a wife, as a friend, and as a business partner.

My usual driven self was nowhere to be found. Every day I would wake up in a rut that I could not pull myself out of. My husband finally said it was time to go and chat with a doctor. At first, I denied it and tried to play it down, but eventually, I knew it was the right thing to do. So together, we went to the doctor. After chatting with us, the doctor advised me to take some anti-depression medication and speak to a psychologist. I took his advice, I was on medication for a few months, and I also saw the psychologist, however I instantly knew that this was not the path for me. I knew that I needed to work on myself, but I wanted to work on myself in a more forward thinking way. So, I decided to go searching for my solution, and I found an amazing mindset coach. Others around me were constantly saying and, of course, with the best intentions, it will get easier, you can do it, you need to let go of your expectations, you’re lucky that you have four healthy kids. All this I knew, I was grateful and blessed to have my beautiful family, yet the advice did not feel helpful at all, and I began to feel ungrateful. I was becoming a red hot mess inside. On the outside, people who knew I was struggling thought that I was feeling better, and sure, on some level, they were right. The medication helped, to some degree. But for me, I felt that I was losing the sense of who I was. I went from being emotional to emotionless. I found all my feelings were being dumbed down to the point where at times, I questioned if I had any. I felt that as the days progressed, I was losing my spark, the unique part that made up who I was. I was no longer interested in things that would normally excite and motivate me, and I knew it would not be long before things needed to change. The turning point where I decided to stop the medication came to me one day when I watched something on the news about a little boy being hit by a car. I thought to myself at that moment, if someone told me one of my kids was run over, my reaction would be, “Oh well, that’s a shame, but okay, I understand.” This abnormal reaction to a tragedy made me realise that the medication was changing who I was, to the point where I was becoming numb. I thought, how can I improve who I am if I can't feel anything? It was then I decided to stop the medication immediately

and without consulting my doctor. A few weeks later, at the follow up appointment, I told him what I had done. It's fair to say he was not happy, and he did not agree with my actions. I understood his point. But for me, to this day, I do not regret that decision. It was the kick start I needed, the kick-start to be more aware of my behaviours. I needed to work on the deep lows that I would feel at times, as well as the highs. I needed to be conscious of how quickly it could all change. I needed to elevate my thinking. I felt I had the support around me that I needed. I could work through any deep issues with my coach and my husband and not worry others with the problems I was dealing with. I knew that if I put in the work, momentum would eventually begin to build back up. I had to find a new normal—my new normal, the new enjoyable and manageable normal of juggling life differently. Not only that, I wanted to be better, and I wanted to make changes that would be sustainable. Personal development, for me, has been the main factor in turning my life around. At my darkest point and in the depths of postnatal depression, I did not want to be alive anymore. This is something that only my husband and coach knew about. Personal development has strengthened me in ways I never thought possible. It has and continues to fill the gaps in my life where the pinwheels in my life had stopped turning or were spinning too slowly. It is allowing me to build a stronger core, and in doing so, it helps and inspires me to be my best. I am the freest I have ever felt. I am feeling this sense of calm within my body that I have never felt before. Of course, life is a work in progress, and I never intend to stop growing and learning, but I am well and truly on my way. Life is more hectic than ever, but it is a good busy. If you look for the opportunities to do things differently and manage your time, you begin to realise that time is in abundance. In order to create the life you want, you need to start with yourself. You need to look internally first. You need to do the bloody hard work of picking yourself up if needed and then pulling yourself apart. You need to see where your strengths are and make them stronger. You need to look deeply and review your flaws, your mistakes, and

your negative patterns. You need to tease them apart in a constructive way. You need to see where you are triggered, and you need to notice patterns you are running in your life. Put in the hard work to reap the rewards. The better you get at this, the more successful you realise you can be. For me, the excitement lies in knowing that I will never reach my peak as I will just keep aiming higher and higher. I needed to see where I was rigid, and I needed to become more flexible. I needed to let go of some control, and I needed to look at patterns within. I needed to find more time, time to recharge. I needed to create new patterns that calmed me, grounded me, and made me show up in a better way. For everyone, this is ever-evolving, and by no means is it easy. You’ll have off days, but the idea is that the hard days become easier and easier and are managed more effectively. When you start with yourself, you need to look in the mirror or get someone who you trust to constructively and gently point things out to you. Later on, in this book, we will chat about creating pinwheels in your life to assist you in doing this. You will write down some areas that you feel need work. You will also learn about how to become stronger within yourself and the elements that are necessary to do so. You will have a plan on how to start the growth process, how to keep growing, and how to build the momentum that you need to elevate your thinking. At times this path may be frustrating. After all, it's hard to change when you are used to doing things a particular way. At times you get stuck; you want to run away or give up. This has been true for me many, many times. When you feel like you are climbing up a hill and you can’t see the top, it's bloody hard; there is no denying that. But once it starts to come into focus and you begin to envision the top of that peak, there is no turning back. If you put in the effort, if you persist and if you take a break when you're tired, then resume when you have the energy, it is a journey that is worth the work. At times you may fall a few steps back, but each time you begin to move forward again, and you come back stronger. You’ll start to create

the internal dialogue, which tells yourself that each time you stumble, it gets easier and easier to get back up. After putting in the work, you begin to notice that you look at situations differently. You begin to approach problems with a different mindset. You can break things down to a more simplistic level. You focus on what you can control, and you let go of the external when it doesn’t serve you. Things become easier. You work on your internal, and you begin to realise the rest is just external noise. Again, imagine yourself lying on the grass, surrounded by pinwheels; the axle supports the pinwheels. In the axle and the stick is where the power lies. This represents the strength that lies within you. In the following pages, I will mark out how to strengthen your axle by building on the elements in the stick. The axle is your intention for each area of your life. Your job, by the end of this book, is to build a strong stick, be sure of the intent in the axle, and then have a plan to get these pinwheels gathering momentum. Eventually, the momentum will be so great that the pinwheels continue to spin with minimal effort, and you then focus on the other pinwheels. When this happens, you begin to reach your optimal performance, where you start to feel at your best. If you do this, you will begin to realise that the days, weeks, and months change. You begin to create more freedom, and you are starting to create the life you desire. You begin to have more time and more energy. You become more fulfilled in your life, both personally and professionally. You appreciate the small things. Things begin to appear in abundance, and there are limitless opportunities. You begin to view aspects of life like never before. Your thinking has been elevated. If you continue to do this, week over week, month over month, and year over year, eventually, at the end of your life, you look back and know you gave your all in many different areas. You will have created the life you desire.

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages Look at the same old situations with a new lens; you can react differently and see things in a more positive and forward thinking way

Be aware of how you are turning up for yourself in the difficult moments Begin to think about areas where you can create some flexibility to give you the life you desire Ultimately you are the only one who is in charge of creating the life you want Gather support around you to help you grow

Workbook Questions: 1. Fill in the circles on your workbook page according to the areas that are most important to you. As we continue to read on, these circles will form your pinwheels. Remember that the larger ones are the most important. You do not need to fill all the circles out—ideally no more than four to six circles. Examples of your circle could include health, finances, time management, family, and so on. 2. Write down in the same circles that you have labelled how well you believe them to be spinning at the moment between zero to ten. Zero means it is not spinning at all, and ten is as fast as it can go. Once you have completed this, move on to chapter three.

SECTION II: The Pinwheel

CHAPTER 3: The Strength of the Pinwheel Lies in the Axle and in the Stick That Supports It As we drive along this road called life, occasionally a gal will find herself a little lost. And when that happens, I guess she has to let go of all the coulda, shoulda, woulda, buckle up and just keep going. ―Carrie Bradshaw Now you have begun to create the start of your pinwheel. You have labelled areas of your life that are important to you. You are aware of the size of these areas, and you also know their levels of momentum with which they are currently spinning. When you think about your life, you’ll notice many moving parts. Some parts you love, and some parts need work. Some areas you’re excited to explore, and others you’d prefer to ignore. You may even push some of these less than loved areas down and never try to dig deeper. You might be in denial or believe that path may seem too hard to explore. There are other areas where you are willing to put in the work. Some areas may be more enjoyable, and these areas may inspire you to see a bigger purpose. In some areas, you may not have a choice but to function, you need to keep these going. So, while you focus on certain parts, you may find other areas fall behind. This is normal and is a fact of life. The importance lies in your awareness. If you are aware, then you can begin to change. As humans, most things we need are within our reach. And, when we can get them moving effortlessly, life just seems a whole lot easier. You have goals, and you have ideals, and perhaps on New Years'

Eve, you tell your friends or your partner these goals. You tell them your ambitions for the next year. You may want to have more time for your kids. You may want to go on that vacation. You may want to change careers. You may want to figure out a way to become financially free, lose that weight, and the list goes on and on and on. Then, more often than not, what happens is, life gets in the way. For yet another year, you don’t act on the goals that you have set out for yourself. You continue to do what you have been doing year in and year out. Unsurprisingly, you get the same result that you have been getting year in and year out. You have not made any changes, and so nothing changes. You may have made some improvements, but they are not the initial improvements and intentions you set out to achieve. So, you wait until the following New Years’ Eve, and you repeat the pattern again and do so again the next year and the next year. This is where the idea of spinning pinwheels can begin to transform your life. You may not have a well thought out plan, and you may not be inspired to enact change yet. You might not know where to start. So, let's create a plan so that you know exactly what to do, this week, this month, next month, next year, and the years that follow. Let’s begin to build on the momentum in your life. Picture yourself with pinwheels spinning around you. It is easy to determine which ones need work because, in the previous chapter, you labelled their size and speed. In the next chapter, we will focus on building this pinwheel, starting from the axle, and working our way down the stick to ensure it is firmly anchored into the ground. By creating a strong axle, you give yourself the best chance of allowing a strong base to be formed. Creating that strong base supports you in becoming your best self. From there, we will then focus on the areas in your life that need work. It's up to you to start to change the way your pinwheels spin. It's up to you to build that momentum. Spinning your way to personal success sounds simple enough, and, if we break it up, it should allow you to examine the parts of your life that need work. Then by strengthening your thinking and just building a strong base, you can

begin to find your inner strength and then create a plan for each part moving forward. So why a pinwheel, why not just a simple circle, and what's the point of the blades? Let's get to know the pinwheel!

The Pinwheel A pinwheel is a children’s toy usually made with specifically folded squares of paper or a paper cup cut to create blades. These blades are attached at its axle to a stick, generally by a pin. The pinwheel spins when the wind blows straight at it or when a person blows on it, and it spins most effectively when wind or the person blows into the blades near the axle. The axle provides strength, stability, power, and accurate placement of the blades. Without the axle, the blades cannot spin. The axle and the stick are the stabilising part. In other words, the axle is the heart of the pinwheel. Consider individual pinwheels as different areas of your life. All the blades on the pinwheel make up the main areas of that specific part of your life. The axle and stick are you, the grounding force that can allow the pinwheel to move. Though you may have many pinwheels in your life representing different areas, at its core, you are at the heart of the pinwheel. You are the centre. You need inner strength to make the stick and axle strong and to give it power. If you are strong and continually growing, the pinwheel moves faster more easily. If the axle stops working, so does the pinwheel. To thrive in life, you want to be as strong as possible so your pinwheels

can spin freely. You need to blow air into the blades of each pinwheel and build momentum. The pinwheel will not spin if the axle and the supporting shaft beneath it have no strength. Therefore, we need to learn how to make our stick and axle strong. So how do you build the strength needed to begin this journey? Below I’ll outline eight elements essential to the consistent and optimal functioning of the sticks and attached axles. Once you are aware of these components and ensure all are functioning well within your life, and you have set your intention, we can then begin to elevate your thinking and focus on getting those blades spinning. Let's start firstly by talking about creating a strong base. After building a strong base, we’ll discuss creating a functional axle, working on the sections of life that need improvement and then we can explore how to make the blades turn well. Following these steps will help you create your winning formula for each pinwheel. The axle is attached to the stick of the pinwheel. This stick consists of primary and secondary elements. These primary elements are indispensable when elevating your thinking and creating your best self. You need them as you walk down the path of creating and living your best life. These primary elements are: Mindfulness Organisation Motivation Drive Being mindful is a way of viewing the world. It colours how you think and feel about things and how you let them affect you. To be organised, you need a plan. You need to know your end goal and then work backwards to find a way to reach it. Along with a plan, we need the motivation to push us in the right direction. It is a driving force that guides us. It’s the force within you that makes you want to be better for a bigger cause; it’s the reason you want to get up and do something. Motivation is the willingness to put in the effort to get to the desired location.

Drive means connecting a series of dots to create a line. Drive represents continually moving forward with patience, stepping from one stone, dot, opportunity, career, relationship to the next with intention. You know where you want to go, and drive helps you get there. After the primary elements are thought through and in action, it is time to employ the secondary elements. These secondary elements are: Resilience Discipline Inspiration Creativity The secondary elements are what you need to get to the next level. In fact, taking this one step further, it’s the only way to get to the next level. The following steps in the journey often become more difficult, and the secondary elements help you think at higher levels. Here, strength arises in knowing that you have done the groundwork of employing the primary elements, and these secondary elements help you keep going when things get tough. Resilience is knowing that you can bounce back from difficult situations. It's knowing that although you may experience setbacks, you are strong enough within yourself to overcome them. Discipline is believing in yourself enough to stick to the tasks that need to be done to get you where you want to be. Discipline helps you to know internally that you will meet the challenges ahead. It is knowing wholeheartedly why you are doing something. Discipline allows you to see the higher purpose in what you are trying to achieve. It inspires you from deep within to do your best; you want to put in the work and make a difference. It helps you achieve your highest level. And finally, creativity is the last of the secondary elements. Creativity means finding a way to do something that you have not previously thought of. It involves using your imagination to create something with intent. Together these eight essential elements ensure the stick has

strength and can stabilise the axle. Together these eight elements allow you to find your inner strength in a world that is filled with chaos and expectation.

The Axle complete with its Primary and Secondary Elements

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages Many areas make up your life, but if you focus on building a strong inner core — think of the axle and the stick, then you are on your way. The good news is these eight elements are the same for each pinwheel, and they will enable you to be your best in all areas of life. First, you will need to utilise the primary elements: Mindfulness Organisation Motivation Drive Then , you will utilise the secondary elements, which help you during tough times as they elevate your thinking: Resilience Discipline Inspiration Creativity In a world that is filled with chaos and expectation, these eight elements will ground you and give you inner strength to be your

best.

Workbook Question: 1. Refer to the picture of the pinwheel in the workbook and mark yourself from zero to ten on how strong each element is in terms of its influence on your life at this moment. Zero equals I’m struggling with this; ten means I’m succeeding with flying colours.

CHAPTER 4: Building Your Inner Strength Through the Primary Elements Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain . ―Vivian Greene As mentioned in the previous chapter, the stick and the axle work together to provide and maintain strength for the pinwheel's blades. If the stick is not planted far enough into the ground, it loses its power. Relating this to our own lives, when we are overwhelmed, exhausted, or unhappy, we are not as efficient as we can be. As a result, we do not function at our best. Imagine what happens to the pinwheel when the stick cracks. With a broken stick, the pinwheel fails to function. Likewise, if we are not building internal strength, we struggle to gather momentum in our life. Both the primary and then the secondary elements of the stick are essential in both building and maintaining this strength. They help us to grow and to be at our best. There is an internal strength that lies within each of us; it is the core of who we are. When we begin to work on various areas of our lives, we find that we become stronger, where we may have initially felt weakness.

Let's start at the top of the stick and work our way down. To realise our true potential, we need to work on and activate the primary elements; they, in turn, help get us going. They are the main drivers from which the secondary elements can be built, and we already know that the secondary elements help us thrive. The axle is our overall intention, and the stick allows an ordered process through the eight elements that we can follow through with and implement in these areas. The four primary elements on the stick in order from the top down, are mindfulness, organisation, motivation, and drive.

Primary Axle

1. Be the Mindful Leader in Your Own Life Being the mindful leader in your own life means that it all starts with you. To do this, you need to believe that you can learn. You need to believe that you can grow and that you can improve. If you are on a journey to elevate your thinking, if you are on a journey to live to your full potential, you need to strip back your layers. You need to see where you can develop, and you need to work on how you want to face the world moving forward. Ideally, you want to start creating the mindset that will allow you to respond to situations in the healthiest way possible. Alternatively, if you can't respond in an ideal way, you want to learn how you can grow and improve in this area. You want to create a state of flow where you become more open, caring, and accepting. Mindfulness involves being aware of how your body feels and also the emotions that you are experiencing that go with these feelings.

Sometimes you become stronger by being softer and more vulnerable. Mindfulness involves choosing your attitude at any given moment. It involves learning from prior mistakes, and this learning helps to make your future better. Mindfulness means being aware of subconscious conclusions that you draw to particular situations. It can sometimes mean changing the meaning associated with things you have seen, witnessed, or faced in your past. If you begin to believe that everyone is doing their best in each moment, you will begin to see the world and situations differently. As you work on being a mindful leader in your life, it’s important to know that discomfort equals progress. It's also important to note that progress does not mean perfection. When you feel serious discomfort, recognise that you are actually making real progress. In ancient Buddhist literature, there is a story told of a pampered princess. One day she was walking barefoot through her father’s kingdom when she stepped on a thorn. Her immediate reaction was to call one of her father’s advisors and demand that the entire kingdom be carpeted, so this would never happen again. She could not see past her initial pain. Instead of carpeting the whole kingdom, one advisor asked her to put on a pair of sandals instead. In doing so, he knew that in the future, with sandals on her feet, she would not feel pain in her foot if she were to ever step on another thorn in the kingdom. If the princess had looked internally, she would have seen that the answer lay within her, rather than blaming her pain on something external. She could have simply put on a pair of sandals. Sometimes it is easy to demand the soft carpet so that we don’t step on the thorns in our lives. But, looking to take the easy way, we also cause our minds to become fragile, less understanding of certain situations, and at times even a little selfish. Instead of blaming the outside world for our problems and demanding to carpet the entire kingdom, isn’t it easier to believe that we should put on shoes? Many situations in our lives exist where we could apply this exact same principle. When we look to put on the sandals, we are creating options that often result in the solution to many of our problems lying within us. This allows us to take back the

power. In doing so, we are not relying on the external, and we are building on the internal strength that lies within us. Putting on the sandals, instead of carpeting the kingdom, allows us to find courage. It allows us to be honest in situations that can sometimes be difficult and uncomfortable to work through. By being the mindful leader in our own life and knowing that the control lies with us, we create strength at the very top of the stick. Once that’s done, we can begin to make our way down to ensure that the rest of the elements are equally just as strong.

2. Get Organised and Create a Structured Plan To make a change in our lives, we need to be organised. Taking that one step further, we need to create a structured plan. This plan needs to be visible, and it needs to be detailed. Find the areas of your life where you have gaps, write them down, and then try and work out a way to fill them. For example, gaps might be questions such as what career, if any, inspires you? What are you not happy with currently? How do you intend to show up? What relationships in your life need work? Once we know this, it is easier to work backward and try and improve in these areas. Get a loved one involved to hold you accountable. Have deadlines for the specific actions you need to take in certain areas to reach your goal. Block off dedicated time to ensure that you stick to what you need to do to get you to this level. Turn off social media when you are working on this; ignore your phone and text messages. Studies have shown that for every minute that you turn away from your work to check social media, it takes another seventeen minutes to get you back to that same state of working. Do that four or five times, and you have wasted an hour. Come up with a time when you are most productive, and make it your mission to be vigilant in using that time. Are you a morning person, or are you a night owl? Find your own rhythm, make no exceptions, and make no excuses. If you allow life to get in the way, it will. Try to be focused and willing to put in the effort to get the outcomes that you desire. If you start to build momentum in this area, you will begin to feel

an immediate transformation in your life, and you will begin to be unstoppable on your mission.

3. Be Motivated to Make the Change You Desire Why, having been endowed with the courageous heart of a lion, do we live as mice? ―Brendan Burchard Our role is as the director in our own movie of life. We are in control of the here and now. No one except you is in charge of the energy you bring to your life, your ambitions, your dreams, or your goals. Motivation is the driving force that guides us. It’s the force within you that makes you want to be better for a bigger cause, the reason you want to get up and do something. Motivation is the need, the desire within us to improve and to push forward. It is the force that allows us to begin our journey of doing something great. Motivation can be broken up into two sections, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation relates to a person's internal fulfilment and satisfaction when achieving certain goals. An example of this is playing the piano because you enjoy it, rather than because you will receive an award for doing so. Extrinsic motivation arises from the external factors that help you to stay focused on achieving these goals. These may include things such as weight loss goals you may have or the quality of life you want to live. Extrinsic factors are measurable. A motivated person is passionate about their cause and cares about what they are doing. They are more energised and more focused. They are well aware that they are in charge of their own reality. They decide what they want from a situation, and they go out to make it their mission to try and do this. A motivated person builds momentum in their lives and does not leave anything to chance. They know that they are responsible for their journey and for arriving at their destination. The Yerkes-Dodson law, developed in 1908, is a theory based on the idea that stress increases performance, but only up to a certain point. In other words, stress levels help to increase motivation to a point, but beyond that point, it can have a detrimental effect.

The Yerkes-Dodson Law If the stress levels become too high, performance decreases; eventually, a tipping point is reached, and progress goes backward. When this happens, we lose motivation, and something else is needed to carry us forward. A lot of self starting individuals are motivated. They have that push and willingness to get going. But, there often comes a certain point where motivation stops. When this happens, you need other elements to help you continue the momentum; this is where drive comes in.

4. Be Driven in Your Endeavours Motivation is the willingness to do something, but drive is the planned effort to get to your desired location. Drive is the continual force you need to keep going. It allows you to connect a series of dots, collate them together, and draw your line. Drive is saying to yourself, this is where I intend to be, and this is how I intend to get there. Driven people want to improve. They want to reach a certain goal, and they set benchmarks along the way to track their progress. Motivation will get you to a certain point, but your internal drive will get you to the next level. When you are driven and have specific, measurable goals, you can better manage your emotions. You are better able to pivot around or through roadblocks that might get in the way. Your decision making improves. You can look at the bigger cause and the reason for doing what you are doing. You can work out a way to succeed using your strengths to guide you. Driven individuals are usually more authentic in their paths. Their path is specific, and it is unique. This path allows them to continue on the road of motivation and on the way to inspiration. When things get tough, they refer to their end goal. They then work out a way to connect these dots and continue forward.

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages You are in charge of creating a strong foundation for your life. Start with the axle, your point of intention, and work on creating strength in the stick. The four primary elements that will help you to build your inner strength are: Mindfulness: be aware of how you feel, what you think, and choose your attitude. I f you make a mistake, learn, grow, and continue on. Organisation: have a plan on how you intend to be your best. Vo cali s e it, write it down, follow it, and hold yourself accountable. Motivation: find your reason to push yourself forward and work at staying in that optimal zone to avoid boredom or burnout; don’t leave things to chance. Drive: plan your effort in getting to your destination. Set benchmarks for yourself and track your progress.

Workbook Questions: 1. Under each primary element, write down two things you are doing well and two areas where you can improve. 2. With these two areas which need work, write down how you plan to improve and set yourself a timeline for doing so. For example: in the next month, I intend to have a plan for X, Y, Z that includes...

CHAPTER 5: Finding the Power Within Through the Secondary Elements

It's not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it. ―Lou Holtz The primary elements of mindfulness, organisation, motivation, and drive are important in providing the initial strength needed to live your best life. However, they can only get you so far. After this, you need to start making conscious mindset changes, and that’s where the secondary elements come in. These elements are needed when things get tough. This elevated level of thinking and feeling will get your stick firmly stuck into the ground. The strength in the secondary elements comes in after knowing that you can do the groundwork in any area of your life. You have the ability to build momentum when things become more difficult, and you can more easily face hurdles that you may encounter.

Secondary Axle

1. Resilience Resilience is the ability to get back up and continue on after a difficult situation. You are not born with this skill; it needs to be developed. Like other abilities, it needs to be worked on in order to improve. Resilience enables us to thrive and come out stronger on the other side when faced with difficult situations in our lives. Being resilient does not mean that you are bulletproof. Rather, it implies that you can handle setbacks and move forward in a way that helps you grow and be better in your future. Resilience allows you to know that although you will have hard

days, you are strong enough to deal with them and continue moving forward. You know that the difficult moments will pass because you have found a way to manage them. To maintain resilience, it's important to keep perspective on what is going on. Resilience does not mean being in denial or blocking out parts of yourself or your life that you do not like. Resilience means accepting things for what they are and finding a way to navigate the hardship you may feel. It means finding a way to come up with a positive in what was before a negative situation. Kintsugi pottery dates back to the late fifteenth century and is a common practice used today in Japan. It is the art of repairing something that is broken. When repaired in its traditional form, it is usually repaired with gold, silver, or platinum. The idea is not to cover the crack with an invisible adhesive but rather with something that is visible and show the beauty created from the break. The whole point of this practice is to complete the repair so that the pottery is stronger than before. Relating this to ourselves, the cracks could be something such as an emotional scar or scars that have formed after being through something that you have found traumatic. The scars do not need to be visible for the world to see, but they are your scars, and they make up the person that you are. The cracks or broken bits could be circumstances that have surrounded your life or parts that you wish would heal. Imagine using resilience to heal these parts of life. It is like repairing broken pottery with platinum; resilience has made you stronger. Resilience is knowing that you can bounce back from a difficult situation. It's knowing that although in life you will experience setbacks, you are strong enough within yourself to overcome them. When you do bounce back, you’re often stronger and more beautiful than before.

2. Discipline Discipline is believing in yourself enough to stick to a task or tasks that need to be done without wavering. Discipline allows you to be comfortable knowing you are strong enough to meet the challenges of what lies ahead. Discipline reaffirms that you have a system in place to help you reach your destination even if the road washes out.

In becoming your best self, discipline is important. It helps channel your energy to reach your target and improve. Through discipline, you are better able to develop a positive attitude, and your focus increases. In a world that is full of distractions, discipline is the force that allows us to keep moving forward. If you want to reach your full potential as a professional athlete, you need extreme discipline. If you are a tennis player, many shots are available at your disposal on the tennis court. You want to ensure you have put in the work required to use all these shots when needed, which in turn shows your opponent that you have minimal areas of weakness. You are only as good as your weakest groundstroke. Using tennis as an example, if you have a great forehand but your backhand needs work, what does an elite athlete do? A few options are available; the player could be in denial and not work on the shot. This is unlikely, but it’s a possibility. The player could run around the ball every time a backhand shot comes and convert it into a forehand. After a while, this would be exhausting, especially if the opponent notices. Or, the athlete would begin to change the way they hit their backhand and turn their weakest shot into one of their best. What would the athlete do? Most likely, the tennis player would decide to improve their backhand. They’d do research, looking up players whose backhands are successful. Their coach, their trainers, and those in their inner circle would have input in this shot. They’d begin to practice and practice, day in and day out. Although they may be frustrated when trying to improve this shot, they are disciplined in what they are doing. Before long, not only can they produce a good backhand, but diversity has been added to this shot. This athlete has turned their backhand around and made it stronger and more flexible. Now the player is so confident with their backhand groundstroke that all of a sudden, they can hit the winner down the line; they can hit the winner crosscourt, and they can also slice the ball and run up to the net to put away the volley. The backhand is now so flexible and well rehearsed that this shot becomes second nature. Now it’s not only a ground stroke, but it’s also a winning ground stroke, which creates opportunities for this player. This metaphor exemplifies discipline—practising, pushing through,

even when it's uncomfortable, until you reach the outcome you desire. You need to develop options and find the points you want to focus on in your life. You need to put in the work in getting you to your destination. Self discipline is vital for personal success. You can’t be successful without discipline. It is impossible. Discipline allows you to create healthy habits and boundaries in your life. By being disciplined, you begin to have a laser sharp focus on what you want and where you want to be. Success only comes to those who deserve it. It is not a chance encounter.

3. Inspiration Where motivation pushes us, inspiration pulls us, and when motivation stops, inspiration starts. Inspiration is the internal energy that we aim towards; it enables us to put in our best efforts. Inspiration is our life’s purpose, and everyone is energised by their own unique inspiration. It can be thought of as a magnet pulling you towards something, your higher purpose. You do not need to push yourself there. Rather, it’s an automatic attraction that pulls you towards it. Inspiration allows creative ideas to flow. It’s the internal enthusiasm that you get from something or someone. In a society where motivation is always spoken about, we often overlook the important role that inspiration plays. Inspiration enables us to broaden our horizons and see the amazing possibilities that lie ahead of us. It allows us to reach our full capabilities, and it allows us to reach for what seems like that sometimes unattainable star. Inspiration plays a major role in helping us to live our best and most fulfilled life. In studies that have been conducted, inspired individuals show certain characteristics. They are more open to new experiences and they have a stronger desire to completely immerse themselves into their work. Inspired individuals believe in their own capabilities. They are more optimistic and have higher self-esteem. Inspired individuals are usually those you gravitate towards and you want to be around. Inspired individuals have a plan. They prepare, and they research their key life areas and turn them into their version of mastery. They

are open to experiences around them, as they never know where their next opportunity may be. Inspiration is knowing the wholehearted reason that you are doing something. You see the higher purpose in what you are trying to achieve, and it has heartfelt meaning to you. Inspired individuals want to be their best, and so they put in the work to get to that higher level of thinking. No matter how much the world tries to hold you back and what you may have dealt with in the past or even what you may be currently dealing with, it's important to maintain the belief that what you want to achieve is always possible. Believing you can become successful and being inspired to do so is the most important step in achieving your goals. Many people go through life thinking that they cannot do something because they have not been able to do it in the past. You are only hindered by your mindset. By elevating your mindset, you are better able to find the inspiration that you are looking for. Isn’t this refreshing to know that the power lies within yourself? If you believe there is a way to move yourself forward, find that inspiration. Find that reason and make it your mission to work towards it. Don’t be like the elephants below.

The Elephant and the Rope by A.M. Marcus: A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains. All that was holding them back from escaping the camp was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs. As the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely confused about why the elephants didn’t just use their strength to break the rope and escape the camp. They could easily have done so, but instead, they didn’t try to at all. Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape. The trainer replied, “When they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they

cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was that over time they adopted the belief that it just wasn’t possible. Have the belief that you can do something and get inspired to do it.

4. Creativity: Creativity is the final secondary element. It is the part of the stick that is implanted the deepest into the ground. Creativity is the icing on the cake; it’s that little bit extra to get you excited. Creativity comes from inspiration, from being open. It comes from believing in abundance, seeing unlimited options everywhere. If you are creative, you become a better problem solver in all areas of your life. Creative people can live with more uncertainty, as they show the willingness to allow for the unknown. You are not born more creative than another individual; you need to manifest and search for that part of you. There are all different forms of creativity, and it is a skill that can be taught. Creativity is a simple mindset shift. Creative people ask questions; they are curious. They often take on challenges as they believe that they will find the answer one way or another. They find ways to bring out their creative side and come up with ideas. Creativity does not only include singing a song, painting a picture, or writing a piece of music. Being creative means finding a way to do something that you have not previously thought of. Creativity involves using your imagination and creating something with intent. Together these secondary elements of resilience, discipline, inspiration, and creativity build the final parts of your stick. They create the uniqueness that is you and allow you to thrive; so, work on making them the best that they can be.

The primary and secondary elements combined

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages Once the initial strength has been added through the primary elements, it’s time to dig deeper and focus on finding your inner strength and the power within. The secondary elements of resilience, discipline, inspiration, and creativity allow us to do that: Resilience is knowing that you can bounce back stronger and more courageous than before. It is knowing that your scars, although they may not be visible, make you beautiful. Discipline is having laser sharp focus on who you are and where you want to be and being consistent and unwavering in moving forward. Inspiration is the pull toward something greater; it is seeing the higher purpose in what you are trying to achieve and why. Creativity is the icing on the cake; it is recognising that options are abundantly everywhere.

Workbook Questions: 1. Under each secondary element, write down two things that you are doing well and two areas where you can improve. 2. With these two areas which need work, write down how you plan to improve and set yourself a timeline for this improvement. For example: in the next month, I intend to have a plan for X, Y, Z, that includes...

CHAPTER 6: The Pinwheel and Its Blades Some people want it to happen; some wish it would happen; others make it happen. ―Michael Jordan In the previous chapters, we learnt about the importance of the pinwheel's primary and secondary elements. These elements provide strength and power in allowing us to be our best. This strength in the axle and the stick will then enable the pinwheel to spin. The primary elements of mindfulness, organisation, motivation, and drive start our inner journey of elevating our thinking. But they will only get us so far. A time will come when we need more. To achieve the next level of thinking, we need the secondary elements. We need resilience, discipline, inspiration, and creativity to see the world in a different light. A pin usually connects the axle to the pinwheel. The pin and the axle make up the intention and belief of wanting to do better. From here, we can start to build momentum in life's different areas. In life, our setbacks and our mistakes make us stronger, but only if we choose to look at them in that way. They give us an opportunity to grow, learn, and improve. Every mistake teaches us something, even if it is something minor. At school, my daughter's teachers are always saying, “mistakes are marvellous”. That’s because without them, progress does not happen, and forward momentum slows to a crawl. Without hardships, we cannot grow, and without growth, we cannot move. You want your axle and the stick attached to it to be stable and firm. You want it implanted deep into the ground so that even the strongest wind will not allow it to bend. All the different areas of your life that are important will only work as well as you feel. These blades on the pinwheel can only build momentum if your

axle and your base are strong. So, spend the time to build the base. Make it as strong as it can be, and then make the adjustments and tweaks in different areas of your life to improve each section where necessary. At the beginning of the book, I spoke about imagining yourself lying on the grass surrounded by pinwheels of different sizes representing different areas of your life. You marked down these areas in your workbook in chapter two. Now it’s time to form the final part of the pinwheel. If you haven’t done so, please download the workbook at www.elevateyourthinking.com.au/EYTworkbook. The whole point is to get these pinwheels gathering momentum so that each area of your life eventually moves effortlessly. Each pinwheel has the same eight essential elements. The only parts that change are the areas of your life you are focusing on. Each different area that you labelled in chapter two has its own blades. They each need their own winning formula, as they are focusing on different parts of your life. Remember, you want each pinwheel to continue to build momentum so that eventually, they continue to spin themselves. Then, you can maintain and build the momentum of the next pinwheel and then the next pinwheel, and the cycle continues. Then one day, you wake up, and you are lying on the grass surrounded by pinwheels that spin themselves! Each pinwheel usually includes four to six blades. These blades are cupped, which allows the wind, or the breath of the person blowing them to spin when the air is captured. One blade leans on the next, and then the next, and the process continues while momentum is being built. If we were to make a chocolate cake these are the blades that we would require. Blade 1: ingredients Blade 2: equipment Blade 3: the recipe Blade 4: the cook The above blades are necessary for this pinwheel. Making a chocolate

cake would not be one of your pinwheels, but it’s a simple example, so you are able to get an idea of what the blades could be, and to show you what is needed to allow it to all come together, to give you the outcome you desire.

Chocolate Cake Pinwheel See below the table on the pinwheel, its size and its momentum simplified.

As long as you have built the initial strength, your pinwheels will start to spin faster with time and effort put into your blades. The only thing that is then missing, the final piece of the puzzle, is working out how to get the blades functioning and working together to be their best. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins speaks about the concept of the flywheel effect. The flywheel concept basically says that you begin to build momentum over time. You need to start at point A. If you do point A, then inevitably, this

leads you to point B, leading you to point C, and then to point D; you begin to gather speed and keep turning. Then D goes to A, which goes to B and then C and D and so on. With each turn, the spin is getting faster and faster, and you are getting better and better at each point A to B to C to D. Essentially, you are gathering momentum.

Gathering Momentum Just like the flywheel, in life, no single event is the result of only one action. Many components make up the different areas of your life. Put another way, you need different blades to achieve your outcome. Let’s relate the flywheel now to the final part of completing our pinwheel. The pinwheel, as mentioned, has a variable number of blades. These are the sectors that make up that area of your life. In the previous chapter, we spoke about an elite tennis athlete perfecting their backhand. The same goes for the chocolate cake example. If you are missing essential ingredients, you are unable to make the cake. Or, if you leave out an ingredient, it does not taste as good. Alternatively, if you cook the cake for too long or at too high a temperature, the cake can burn. This idea can be applied to all the main areas of your life. You are in control of the pinwheel, and you are in control of the blades. You are also responsible for ensuring you have the right ingredients to make the pinwheel spin. So, how do you get it spinning? For each pinwheel to spin, you need to create a winning formula. That formula needs to be unique to that particular section of your life. The good news is that the hard work has been done. That’s the part you have already established and written down in your workbook. You are aware of how to make the base stronger. You have the eight essential elements. Now the next step is to gather the information relating to the

different areas of your life that need work and then come up with a strategy for each area to ensure progress and success. In the next few chapters, it will become clear on how to do this.

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages The good news is, the hardest part has been done. You have already labelled the eight elements of the axle and how to improve in these areas. You have also labelled the areas in your life that need improving and determined their size. The pin is the section that connects the axle to the pinwheel. Together the pin and the axle are your intention to improve. Each pinwheel is a major area in your life. These areas are then broken down into blades, usually four to six. Think about the chocolate cake example and how if one blade is missing or not functioning, the cake falls short of tasting delicious. This is a very simplistic example, but this same theory applies to all of the areas in your life.

Workbook Question: 1. Label the two largest pinwheels in your life and their current momentum. Copy this from what you wrote down in chapter two. Now determine the four to six blades you require to get this area building momentum.

SECTION III: Choose Who Surrounds You

CHAPTER 7: Creating Your Winning Team Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life. ―Amy Poehler In life, everyone has individualised ideas on how to create their “winning team”. This team needs to be specific to the area of your life or the pinwheel that you are focusing on at the time. Your winning team should not be the same as mine, which should not be the same as somebody else’s. As well as this, your winning team does not need to consist only of individuals. It could include materials such as books, podcasts, mindfulness routines, courses, and seminars. To become successful, you need to get creative. Remember the eight elements. The whole idea is that you want to create blades that get you feeling and being your best. The dictionary defines winning in many ways; the definition that applies to you depends on the circumstances surrounding specific situations. Winning can be in relation to a competition where you are the last one standing, the champion, or the winner. Winning could be watching your stocks go up in value. It could be achieving the weight loss goals you’ve worked at. In all these situations, you are winning at something. But winning is not enough. You need more; you need to be specific in gathering the right resources around you to allow yourself to thrive. Thinking outside the box and coming up with more examples, winning also has many other meanings. It could be working out a way to come out of postnatal depression and thriving on the other side. Winning could be getting through the long days of isolation at home,

such as during the Covid pandemic, when you were not allowed visitors. Winning could be getting to the end of the week and knowing that you get a break from your usual routine for two days. Winning could be leaving an abusive relationship. It could be leaving a marriage where you were not respected. In all of these situations, winning is about what a situation and outcome means to you. It is specific to your views, rather than what the outside world thinks it should look like. Let’s take this concept even further. For a cancer patient, winning could be reaching the end of their treatment and knowing that they have killed the cells that caused damage to their body. Or, it could be knowing that the treatment did not and will not work but that they gave it their best shot. For this cancer patient winning could mean choosing not to continue with treatment. Their win might be in knowing that not only they gave it their best, but they had the power to say no to more medication. To that terminally ill cancer patient, that could be their view of winning. Winning could be looking back on your life, sitting on your death bed , and thinking, “You know what, I did ok. I did my best; I wasn’t perfect, but I gave it a go, and I was surrounded by people I loved, and I hope I made a positive impact on their lives.” There are so many different definitions of winning, the important thing to remember is that winning is what feels good to you. You need to create these wins for yourself along your journey of life. The same principle could apply to the definition of a team. In the dictionary, one of the meanings of a team is, “A group of players forming one side in a competitive game or sport”. Your team could be composed of your family, your partner, your kids, and your pets. These all make up the dynamic of a family team. At work, your team could be your work colleagues. In your personal life, your team could be the people that surround you—the ones who bring out the best in you and with whom you feel most comfortable. The main thing is that a team's purpose is to come together to achieve a common goal. When you combine the definitions of winning and team and make them specific to your life’s areas, you can begin to create your winning

team. Everyone in life should be surrounded by individuals and elements that they believe will help them create their winning team. It is our job to create these teams for ourselves. No one else is responsible. Nothing changes if nothing changes. Your winning team for each pinwheel should aim to achieve a common goal. So now, the question is, how do you create this type of winning team for each pinwheel? What are examples of different types of teams? Then finally, how can you build your own winning teams? To create a winning team, you need to work out where you want to be in certain areas of your life. You then need to work backwards and make the decisions on how to get there. Most of us pick our line of work. Sometimes we are even lucky enough to pick the people that we work with. We choose our friends. We decide who our accountant will be, which sports team we play on, and the list goes on. We believe that these choices will give us the best opportunities to live a fulfilled life. Every decision that we make is a dot on our journey, and together these dots connect to create a line. This line ultimately leads us to our destinations throughout our lives. As the years go on, ideally, you get better and better at choosing your winning team. You work out your boundaries, and you learn where you can let the floodgates open to allow more opportunities to come in. You work out what makes you happy. You learn who and what to keep in your life. Ideally, you also decide to let some things go when they no longer serve you. Life is about creating opportunities and seeing where you can improve. By doing this, you can bridge the gap and expand your thinking to create your best life. In my working life, I took many small opportunities along the way, and chances that I grasped lead me to where I am now. Sometimes these were uncomfortable changes, but without them, I could not grow. Begin by looking at the different areas of your life. Look at these areas as an observer standing from the outside. You want to see each pinwheel for what it currently is. When you do so, try and be objective.

Then you want to get the ball rolling on making necessary changes. Begin to remove aspects of your life that no longer serve you. Add things that you are missing, and make the required changes to improve these parts of your life. For each area of life, create a plan and get inspired to spin those blades so that they can gather momentum. For each pinwheel to thrive, each blade needs components specific to the area you are focusing on. The individuals who you choose to be in your pinwheels need to believe in your goals. It’s important that they support you and have faith in your cause. You want honest but constructive feedback. You want to be open to hearing about ways to do things better. You need mutual respect and trust. You want specialists in those particular areas whose opinions you value. The individuals you surround yourself with and situations you are a part of change everything. Be willing to raise the bar in your own life to raise the frequency with which you live. Get individuals on your team whose values align with yours. Not everyone has to agree with what you do or how you choose to live your life. What matters is how authentic and fulfilled you feel in each of these areas. You want to become your best, so you feel amazing, and then you can spread that outwards to your family and friends. You need to put in the work to reach your destination. Get inspired and be disciplined to get the outcome you want. Take the time to build a strong foundation with individuals that you choose on your winning team. When I choose people for my winning team, I want them in my team for life, not just a period of time. I’m working on a long-term strategy, and my mission is to build on those relationships in the future. In the third section of this book, we will discuss two specific examples of pinwheels and their blades. By the end of this book, my goal is for you to have set up a couple of these pinwheels for yourself. You will then establish who and what you need on your team. Then you can also start to think about a strategy on how you can strengthen those blades. In clarifying and strengthening the pinwheels blades, you are creating the life you want. Get excited! Changes to improve your life

are about to happen. No one else can decide which areas in your life should be of focus, and more importantly, only you determine how fast you want your pinwheels to spin. You are in control of your destiny. How fast those pinwheels turn depends on how much work you put into both the axle and the stick and then into your teams. Knowing that you have control is an important factor and gives you freedom. Now we need to look at the influences, either internal or external, in your life. From here, we begin to decipher if you have the right people on the team. Remember that you are the driving force. How willing are you to take charge and make adjustments when needed? Your willingness to get these blades working together will determine how you progress moving forward. Ask yourself the following questions. Do you feel that you have all the individuals and components on board to make up your winning team in the different areas of your life? Where is the opportunity for improvement? Where is change needed? Now is the time, time to start fresh. What are the parts about yourself and your life that you would like to change? If you are trying to create a winning team in the workplace, do you have the right skills and people on board who believe in your vision? How do you show up at your job? Do you motivate and then inspire? Are you investing time in your people? How can you lead better, which in turn makes them want to be better? What training and personal development can you do to bring out the best in your work team? It all starts with you. Set the standard that you want others to follow. Be the example. Also, what happens if you thought you had the right individuals on your team, but you don’t, and you need to change in order to thrive? Do you stay quiet and build resentment within, or do you prefer to deal with issues as they arise? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both? When picking your winning team, it's important to remember that winning isn’t always easy. Sometimes you need to make the tough calls. Your end goal is to create your best life. Assess where

improvements can be made; assess where you can be better, and aim to raise the bar. Raise the bar both for yourself and for others around you. Not everyone has to believe in your vision. Their vision is their own, but if your vision is important to you, no one has the right to step on your dreams or bring you down. Creating your individual teams takes time. View this time spent as an investment in yourself. The path is not always easy, nor is it always clear. You will make mistakes along the way. You may find out things about yourself that you did not know or do not want to deal with. You may also find that more effort is required than what you originally thought. The question then becomes; how much do you want to improve your life? How do you want to show up, and who do you want to be an example for if you are not doing this just for yourself? Commit one hundred per cent to knowing and believing that the end cause is worth it. If something is important to you, make the time and give it your all. In my personal life, I am the busiest that I have ever been, yet I am also the most productive. I make the time for things that are important to me. I look at the sections of my life like pinwheels. I separate them and then work on building the blades according to how I want them to spin. Is it perfect? No, not at all. It’s definitely a work in progress. However, I am aware of my ultimate goal, and I am on the path of trying to reach it. I am on the path of progress, not perfection, and I know that discomfort equals progress. History has told us to look after others, and then to care for yourself. This is how many generations of individuals grew up. It took me a while to reach this point, but in fact, the opposite is the case. If you are unhappy and unfulfilled, if your body is not nourished, if you lack energy, how can you serve others? How can you show up as the best version of yourself? If you are not whole within yourself, then leading by example is much more difficult. Sometimes by saying no and taking time out for yourself, you begin to create healthier boundaries. You also give yourself the time you need to recharge and feel better within. If something does not serve you, it’s ok to say no. Sometimes you need to create boundaries to

allow you to be at your best. Does this work all the time? Of course not. Sometimes, what we say and what we believe do not align. These instances, when we are aware of them, offer an opportunity for us to learn and grow. Remembering again, life is about progress, not perfection. The mistakes that you have made do not matter. Learn from them and try to make better decisions in the future. Get people on board who believe in you; find people who want to work with you. Utilise those who want to help you and who make your pinwheels spin faster. Let’s work on becoming your best self!

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages Your pinwheels and the blades that make up your winning teams are unique to you. Believe in your end goal. Start to think about the areas in your life and which blades need work in gathering momentum. You will make mistakes; don’t be ashamed of them. Learn from them and view them as growth opportunities. Work on yourself first, which, in turn, allows you to show up better for those around you. Remember each time we feel discomfort, we are progressing, and remember as well that progress does not mean perfection.

Workbook Question: 1. Just like earlier on with the chocolate cake example, using the same pinwheels you labelled from chapter six, write on the blades the parts of the winning team that you require for each section. In other words, write down what you need to get that pinwheel spinning faster. Remember, your blades can consist of both individuals and components.

CHAPTER 8: Be the Person Who Chooses the Glass to Be Half Full Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more. ― Tony Robbins To create our winning teams, we need to begin a journey of bringing in individuals who inspire us and enhance our lives. Also, we need to welcome differences of opinions and know that everyone is entitled to their own points of view. Someone else’s opinion is their opinion. You are not there to try and change others, and they should not be trying to change or dictate the way you live. What someone else thinks of you is none of your business. Once you start to view things in this way, life starts to feel a whole lot easier. This is where boundaries come in. Boundaries play an important role in allowing you to manage the way you are treated. They also allow you to choose the way you respond. In most situations in your life, you have a choice in both your internal and external reactions or responses. You have a choice on how you let the moods and actions of others affect you. Creating healthy boundaries allows you to view a situation and act accordingly. You cannot control how someone external to you behaves. But you have complete control over how you allow it to make you feel inside and how you allow it to affect you moving forward. Boundaries keep our relationships healthy. They also allow us to see the unhealthy parts, the parts that need work. They stop us from being manipulated, used, and walked all over. Creating a boundary allows you to become empowered. It also allows you to maintain your

mental wellbeing. Boundaries free up your mind and energy to focus on what is most important in your life. When you set boundaries, you are looking after yourself and what you need. Boundaries are tests for how strong your relationships are, and they are opportunities to see where adjustments need to be made. In some instances, boundaries can be set by simply saying, “No”. Social media boundaries can be set by limiting usage; for example, managing how many times you check it on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Boundaries can, and should, be created and maintained for all different types of reasons. You can create internal boundaries of which only you are aware. Likewise, you can set external boundaries that influence things outside of yourself. Below are some examples of setting boundaries in different situations:

Having boundaries helps you control your responses and can have a tremendous ability to change certain parts of your life. They allow you to become freer in both your thinking and your feeling. Setting healthy boundaries helps you to focus on what is most important. When creating your pinwheels, it is important to surround yourself with individuals who help you to grow. Those who help and encourage you to progress and those who accept you for who you are. By setting boundaries where required, you are freeing yourself up to do this. In relationships, who you surround yourself with changes everything. If you are feeling happy and energised, you often attract

similar uplifting energy. On the contrary, if you are angry or down, you may find you attract this energy to you as well. Be the person that encourages others to choose to look at life optimistically. Encourage them to make the changes to energise their life, and do the same for yourself. If someone does not want to change, that’s ok as well. It is their life, and they can choose to live it however they wish. Creating this boundary, though, will allow you to see that others act and make choices independently from you and your mood should not be dependant on theirs. Be the person who looks at the glass as half full, the person who sees the opportunities in times of crisis. Be the person who knows that with pain comes change, and with discomfort comes growth. For me, the Covid pandemic was a blessing in disguise. It was a way for me to reassess my life. It forced me to sit down, to stop, and to think. I asked myself, “Is this the path I want to be on? Is this the life I want to live? What can I do differently, and what can I do better”? Covid caused so much devastation and turmoil. Lives were lost, jobs were lost, and the economy struggled. It also brought out different personality types. People tended to either be panicked, wondering what the next stage would bring, or become proactive, working out a way to move through and forward. Many would argue that the pandemic impacted the world in only negative ways. However, I do not agree. In my opinion, there have also been so many positives—positives that included the chance to sit back and revaluate our current lives. If one chose to, an opportunity was offered to look more closely and see the many chances that were being presented. Opportunities that we may never otherwise have noticed or may never have realised. Unexpectedly, you could spend more time with your family without the usual hustle and bustle of activities. You could take a look at what you actually needed in your life and what you didn’t. You could remove the fluff. It was a great time to start that new project or do that puzzle that had been sitting in the cupboard for years. It was a great chance to spend quality time with your children. It was a time to work on personal development. I'm not saying that it was all positive, not at all,

and personal circumstances differed for each individual and their families, but many opportunities to view life differently arose from this pandemic. For business owners lucky enough to have a business at the end of it all, it was also a chance to reassess. How is the business being run? What and where are the missed opportunities? Where could we be more efficient? What could we do now so that we would come out stronger in the months to come than we did before? How do we go from not only surviving but actually thriving? At the same time, it forced me to look at my life. Am I working on projects that I am passionate about? What are my other interests? How do I want to spend the next thirty-plus years? Where do I want to be? Am I making the difference that I want to make? And in short, the answer was no, not always. You get used to the busyness of life. Day in and day out, you just continue to do what you have been doing without really thinking about the future. The forced stop made me consider how I want to show up, not only for myself but also for others. What are the areas of work that I have always put off or pushed to the back of my mind? What did I need to bring to the forefront, and what needed to be my focus moving forward? Covid taught the world that the external is out of our control. You may think you have a thriving business, but the government makes an announcement, and your patients stop entering your store. You think your kids are going to school, yet an announcement is made, and school is suspended for the time being and substituted with remote learning. You think you are getting married, going overseas, going out for dinner, seeing your friends and family, yet you don’t have control. You think your job is secure, yet, throw a virus into the mix, and that changes as well. The only thing that we have control over is our internal perspective, our thinking, and our feeling, and how we deal with life moving forward. The world has changed, and as individuals, we have to change with it to come out stronger on the other side. In every situation, your outlook depends on how you view what is presented to you. Usually, if you look hard enough, you’ll find a silver lining, even in the toughest of situations, an opportunity to learn

something. There is always a chance for a shift to be made. If you remember this and try to be flexible in your thinking, the outlook that you have evolves. The glass begins to look more half full rather than half empty. The silver lining is something that allows you to see the positive in a negative situation. It is something that you can focus on during these tough times. It is an opportunity to learn and grow. Try and be the optimist who sees the opportunities, instead of the pessimist looking for excuses and reasons for something to always be wrong. Be the one who thinks good things will happen and encourage those around you to do the same. Each time you do this, you are building your inner strength, and you are elevating your thinking. Too often, we forget the most important and meaningful parts of our life’s story. The parts we miss are often important and influential in shaping us. These are the chapters that illustrate not only the highs throughout life but also the lows. Combined, the highs and lows make up our life’s journey. The world is ever evolving, and if we do not evolve, we will be left behind. In the twenty first century, workplace success is no longer measured by how long your tenure and how loyal you are to a certain company. Success is measured by your influence and the value you bring to work, and the value that work brings to you. Success means doing a job that you love and doing it well. You can be great at your job, but if you don’t love your work, you can't feel that level of workplace success. Alternatively, you can have a great personal life, but if you don't love your job or enjoy what you are doing, then you do not have overall success. Refer back to the pinwheels that you want to spin. The whole point is to build a strong axle and stick and get the blades working in unison to gather momentum. We know the pinwheels are all different sizes depending on the importance in your life. We want them building momentum so that at any point, they can spin by themselves, and then that becomes your

new normal, that is, your new successful normal. We want to achieve this goal so that you start to feel fulfilled in every area of your life. The more work you put into getting the blades to spin, the more you can begin to picture your end goal being within reach. To find ultimate success, you need to search for that star in the sky, whatever that may be. If you stepped into a fairy tale, what would your ending be? Once you know the ending, be inspired, and get creative on how to get there. When you create your plan, memorise it, and speak it. Find others that have done what you want to achieve in that field. Look them up, chat with them, learn from them. Ask them where they started, how they achieved their goals, what makes them feel successful. Everyone started somewhere. Taking action may feel intimidating. Others will know more; referring back to the tennis example, others may have a better backhand, but if you find your own path to success, your efforts will be worth it. Often people who excel in their field are happy to share information they have learnt along the way. Take from them their learnings, their mistakes, and their wins. But you need to be motivated to start. You need to have a plan, and then you need to get inspired about what you want to create for your future. In those life areas important to you, begin to push yourself and come up with options. Begin to create your pinwheels, getting specific about what blades you need to create for a better future. No one can change the momentum of these pinwheels except you. Having the correct blades helps you to build this momentum. To create ultimate success and to be fulfilled, create boundaries where required. You may need to take some risks, and you may need to try something that you have never done before. Think outside the box, and learn to find ways to “perfect your backhand” or “bake the most delicious chocolate cake”. Are you ready to get moving so that you can look back on your life and know that you did the best you could and have no regrets? Elevate your thinking, never stop learning, and never stop growing. In the next section, we will look more in depth at a couple of

different pinwheels and the blades required to get them moving. Then you’ll be better able to relate this to your own life and see how it can be applied moving forward.

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages Boundaries create a space between the internal and the external and allow you to live your life more congruently with who you are. Boundaries play an important role in managing the way you are treated and how you choose to respond. Be aware of what you allow into your internal space and how that makes you feel. Take the time to stop and consider your life. Are you living your ideal life, or are there areas that you can improve? The world is ever evolving, and if we do not evolve with it, we will be left behind.

Workbook Questions: 1. Write down two areas in your life where boundaries are required. 2. If you were to create boundaries around these areas, how would your life change, and how would this allow your pinwheel to build momentum? 3. What are you going to do to make this a reality?

SECTION IV: Gathering Momentum In the next two chapters, we will speak about the final component of the pinwheel, the blades. By now, you are aware that the pin and the axle represent your intention. You also know of both the primary and secondary elements that are needed to create the strength for the stick. You are aware that you need to create different winning teams to succeed, and you also know where you need to create boundaries. Now it’s time to get specific and gather together the individual blades for each pinwheel. This will make each area as successful as it can be in order to get you on your way to your most fulfilled life.

CHAPTER 9: Pinwheel Example One: Health and Wellbeing For everyone, wellbeing is a journey. The secret is committing to that journey and taking those first steps with hope and belief in yourself. ―Deepak Chopra When we speak about, and when we think about health and wellbeing, most of the time, we relate it to our weight and the foods we eat. Yes, these are important constituents that make up health. However, they are not the only factors to consider when we want to create our healthiest life. The pinwheel of health has many blades, and these will vary for each person. The example below will give you an idea of how to create this pinwheel. You should modify it as necessary to tailor the example to your life and your personal situation. The blades on the pinwheel of health and wellbeing: Blade 1: mental health and wellbeing Blade 2: emotional health and wellbeing Blade 3: physical health and wellbeing Blade 4: spiritual health and wellbeing Blade 5: self-care Blade 6: laughter

Health and Wellbeing Pinwheel: Health includes mental health, physical health, emotional health, and spiritual health. Mental health and wellbeing are states of mind that you feel daily. If you were to vocalise three words that describe your condition on any given day or week, these words generally give you a good idea as to the state of your mental health. I believe that mental wellbeing is the most important blade on the health pinwheel. If you do not feel stable, sound, and secure mentally, it is nearly impossible to begin improving in any of the other areas listed below. The mental wellbeing of someone anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed is completely different from the mental wellbeing of someone who is energised, inspired, and hopeful. Mental health is vital throughout all stages of our lives. When our mental health is at a low point, it's important to note this, and moving forward, it is even more important to try and improve it. Most of the time, you are aware of the reasoning for this low point; however, this is not always the case, and sometimes you may be struggling to figure it out. Perhaps you struggle to either talk about it or healthfully deal with it. You may also feel that something is broken or beyond repair, or it may even be a part of your life that is yet to heal. A while back, I was reading a book called Ikigar . Ikigar is a Japanese concept meaning the reason for being. It refers to having a purpose in your life. No matter your mental state, if you believe that you have a purpose for being, you can try and piece together the

broken parts. You can try and piece together the parts that you don’t feel proud of. Accepting yourself, including the broken parts, helps to create the perfectly imperfect you! Put simply, your health and wellbeing relates to how you think and how you feel, and it relates to how this thinking and feeling go together to help and support you in any given moment. When these two are not aligned, then as a general rule, you are not feeling as emotionally healthy as you could. Signs that you may need to work on your emotional health include stress around certain topics, an inability to relax, and an inability to sleep. When you begin to work on your emotional health and wellbeing, and when you are aware of your triggers, you immediately start to feel better. As a result, you begin to understand your body on another level, and you no longer want to do things that jeopardise that feeling. You begin to look after yourself better than ever before, and in doing so, you only want to continue to improve. Looking after your health and wellbeing should become a common theme in your life. When you are well looked after in this area, you can begin to function at your best, and subsequently, you see how you can better serve others. Emotional health can be improved by meditating, practising yoga, or any other forms of physical activity that releases tension and stress. Listening to music may also be another way of improving your health and wellbeing. The aim is to choose something that calms and relaxes you. On the contrary to this calm and relaxing music, you may also discover that the music you need on a particular day is loud and angry. This may also be another way of grounding yourself on days when it feels tough. The important part is that you need to get creative in finding whatever it is that helps you to feel better. Try and find whatever will help you to improve your emotional wellbeing and try to make a conscious effort to put actions in place to implement this. Emotional wellness could be something as simple as walking up to your child and giving them a hug. It could be enjoying your partner's company over dinner. Recognising and implementing ways to improve your emotional health, and making adjustments where required, will have you feeling stronger and happier.

Physical health and wellbeing ranges from what you put into your mouth, how much you exercise, to how your body feels as a whole. If you are not nourishing your body with foods that provide you with a source of energy, if you are not exercising regularly, your body will not feel replenished. Generally, the other forms of wellbeing (emotional, mental, and spiritual) are not functioning at their best when your physical health and wellbeing lags. Start to listen to what your body is saying. Find a routine that works for you at your current level in life at this present moment. Physical health and wellbeing may include going to speak to someone, perhaps a nutritionist or a dietician, to see where even minor tweaks can be made to help you to feel more energised. Physical health can also include a yearly trip to the doctor. It can be a way to start the year on a clean slate, getting your blood tested, your moles checked, and anything else that may be on your list. You only have one body, and it is your job to look after it and nourish it. Spirituality connects meaning to your life. It gives you an authentic purpose that is unique only to yourself. It is connecting with your heart, finding what feels congruent with you, and expressing that feeling outwards. Spiritual health and wellbeing are not solely religion based. Spirituality is working out exactly who you are and then not being afraid to share this with others. Spiritual wellbeing is achieved when you feel whole with yourself and who you are, no matter the influences of the outside world. It is you being comfortable with you and how you show up on any given day. It is being comfortable in expressing yourself. Spiritual wellness is you being at peace with the life you are creating. Ideally, to live an optimal life, health and wellbeing should be one of your major pinwheels. If you are at your best, then you are more likely to be your best. The possibilities are endless. Try and become as healthy as you can, and then inspire those around you to do the same. Self-care is taking an active role in improving your health. Self-care decreases your stress levels. It improves your mood and is vital in maintaining your health and wellbeing. Begin to become aware of when more self-care is needed and try to find ways to fill this gap in your life. This could simply be by having a bath, taking a nap, or

reading a book. The last blade that I believe should be on the pinwheel of health and wellbeing is laughter. Laughter has multiple benefits. It decreases stress, and it increases your blood flow. Laughter connects you with others and can make light of some difficult situations you might be facing. Laughter improves your mood and releases endorphins in your body to promote an overall sense of wellbeing. It also helps you to burn calories, which is always a bonus! Days without laughter are days wasted as they bring so much joy to yourself and to others around you. Always find a reason to laugh; it may not add years to your life but will surely add life to your years. ―Unknown

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages The pinwheel of health and wellbeing has many blades to get you functioning at your best. These blades are different for every individual. The blades that make up this example on the health and wellbeing pinwheel are: Mental health: the most important form of health and includes how you feel on a day to day basis. Emotional health: how you think and feel at any given moment and how these two elements are working together to support you. Physical health: ranges from what you put into your mouth to how much sleep you are getting to how much exercise you are doing. Spiritual health and wellbeing: working out who you are and then not being afraid to share that with others. It is you feeling whole, no matter the influences of the outside world. Self-care: is knowing what you need and finding a way to fill the

gaps to be your best. Laughter: days without laughter are days wasted, so add this to your daily routine.

Workbook Questions: 1. With the health and wellbeing pinwheel, label your blades according to what you need in order to thrive in this area. Only label as many blades as you need. Ideally, anywhere between four to six. 2. Once you have done this, mark yourself from zero to ten on how well you are doing in these areas and one point of improvement for each blade.

CHAPTER 10: Pinwheel Example Two: Wealth Creation If you’ve failed, that means you’re doing something. If you’re doing something, you have a chance ―Robert Kiyosaki In the previous chapter, we used the example of health and wellbeing to make up one of the major pinwheels. In this next example, we will use wealth creation as the second major pinwheel in our lives. Remember, your pinwheels are unique to you, so the blades on this example as compared to yourself may differ. The definition of wealth is an abundance of something which makes you healthier, happier, or richer. Although wealth has many branches, for the sake of this example, we will just refer to monetary wealth. That is, monetary wealth created through different forms of income. Ideally, when speaking about wealth, you want to create options. You want these options so that you can choose how you live your life.

By thinking outside the box and taking chances, you are able to give yourself the best chance of creating this wealth. Financial freedom means having been successful enough that the wealth you have created sets you free. This freedom then allows you to do what you love. It gives you choices and does not hold you down. Three main forms of monetary income can help you get your pinwheel to gather momentum. Some of these forms require you to work, some require you to think, and some require you to wait and then to be proactive or reactive. We live in a world where things are getting more and more expensive. Our annual salaries usually aren't a good reflection of what the eye wants. Sometimes our salary isn't enough to cover the education we want to give our kids. It may not be enough to purchase the house of our dreams or the car we want. It may not even be enough to go on the holidays we would like to go on. Usually, our eyes always want more. Basically, if we were given a chance to live exactly how we wanted to, our annual income would usually not suffice. Many people live paycheck to paycheck, working to cover their rent or mortgage, basic bills, and other necessary life expenses. If they were to lose their jobs in the next week, month or year, they would not have sufficient back up to last months, let alone years. Why? Because life is getting too expensive. There are many different forms of income that many do not even consider. There is an abundance of ways to build wealth, and this building of wealth can be found everywhere. If you could choose to live the life of your dreams, would you choose to live how you are now, or would you want to create more options? My belief is that you should work in your day job or equivalent for pocket money only. You want to create ways to build wealth that is not solely dependent on your job. Taking this one step further, if you had the chance to do that, then your day job could be doing something that you loved and that you were passionate about. The pressure would be eased. You would feel enormous freedom. What if your yearly salary was not the dictator of how you lived your life. Rather it could be a form of supplementary income that

allows you the flexibility in growing the branches of your wealth tree. Your day job creates opportunities. If you aim to change the way you look at money and building wealth, you begin to realise that opportunities to create it are everywhere. But to do this, you need to find a way to be motivated and inspired enough to create different forms of income. You will need to expand your knowledge, elevate your thinking, and change your mindset. You need to think outside of the box. Begin by asking yourself the following questions. How do you generate monetary wealth from different sources? How do you raise your financial IQ to live the life you want? Remembering the stick on the pinwheel, it all starts with you. You need to believe that you can. You need to be mindful. There will be many critics telling you that your ideas are crazy. They will tell you that you can’t do it. You will be told to just be happy with what you have. If you feel that you need more and feel that you can get more, you and only you need to find a way to do that. Take courses, read books on building wealth, go to seminars. Build your financial IQ. Employ experts to help you. Tell them about your plan. Watch their reaction. If they are the right people, they will want to get on board. Set your goals, then work backwards to achieve them. I keep hearing that I would rather be happy than to be rich. Why not be both? ―Robert Kiyosaki For this example, the blades on the pinwheel of wealth include: Blade 1: financial IQ Blade 2: earned income Blade 3: passive income Blade 4: portfolio income Blade 5: relationships Blade 6: risk versus reward

Wealth Creation Pinwheel: Financial IQ is your financial intelligence. It is understanding money, and therefore being able to manage your wealth. Financial IQ can be improved in many ways, including speaking to advisors, reading, listening to podcasts, going to seminars, and taking courses. The options are limitless. Becoming more financially intelligent increases your confidence. In doing so, you can take more calculated risks. You can discover possibilities that may not be the normal way of acquiring wealth. You can increase your assets rather than just increase your debts. Earned income is the most common form of income. You finish school or graduate from university and find a job that is hopefully in the field you studied. You then spend the next thirty to forty years going to work. You may change careers; you may climb the ladder and get promoted. You may take some time off or reduce hours when you have kids, but you are ultimately doing the same thing. As I mentioned before, I believe that your earned income should be pocket money to use for building assets. Assets you put in your portfolio and passive income box. You are never too young or too old to start this; you just need to get more creative in the way you think about money. If you want the life of financial freedom or want to head down that path, you need to think outside the box. Do not allow your subconscious to tell you that you can’t afford something. You need to work out a way to start believing in what is possible and change your mindset from ‘I can’t afford that’ to “When will I afford that?”

So how do you begin to spin the pinwheel of wealth? If you earn fifty thousand a year, start planning to use a portion of that money to diversify your portfolio. Get people on your team to chat with you about managing money. There is no time like the present. Start now. You do not want to get stuck in the trap of working for earned income where you have no choice but to get up Monday to Friday and work a forty-hour week. That is unless, of course, you love what you’re doing. Create a financial team around you to help in different areas, get brokers, and advocates on your team who know their stuff. Read up on different types of investments, get some great books to increase your financial IQ, and start making some changes. If you are using the excuse that you don't have the time, of course you do! Wake up earlier, go to bed later, miss some TV shows that don't serve you, change a part of your routine. If you want it badly enough, you will be able to find the time. That may have sounded a little harsh, but nonetheless, it’s true. If you put aside twenty minutes a day, that is one hundred and forty minutes a week, six hundred and two minutes a month, and over seven thousand minutes in a year. That’s over one hundred and sixteen hours. Imagine all of the changes you could implement, changes you could make to your life in that time. Take the time to make your life better. Take the time and do the research and become educated on becoming financially free, if that is important to you. Next is passive income. This is income that is generated through initial work, but then it flows to you without requiring much future thought or effort. This type of income may include something such as rent from a property. Passive income is usually received regularly. Other forms of passive income could be royalties from writing music and dividends from shareholdings, which are paid quarterly. The main point of passive income is that it brings in money while you sleep, and you know when it is coming in. It comes in while you are on holiday and, most importantly, without you having to be there. It is an asset form that just keeps on giving. Portfolio income is income generated through property, investments, dividends, or paper assets such as stocks and even

cryptocurrency. Before purchasing in these areas, it is important to do your research. Other than earned income, portfolio income is one of the most popular forms of income. If you are looking at purchasing a property, it is important to work out the reason for the purchase. Is it so that it appreciates in value? Is it for the purpose of a tax deduction? Do you want to develop it? Do you want to renovate and sell? There are many different options and many ways to assess if it is the right property for you. There is no such time as a bad time to buy a property if you find the right one. Build relationships with wealth advisors. Wealth advisors specialise in wealth creation by either looking at your portfolio as a whole like a financial advisor may do, or by working with specialists in certain areas. By building a team of trusted advisors around you, you are not only minimising your risks, but you are also building on your financial IQ by learning. Wealth advisors can include people such as real estate agents, buyers’ advocates, and stockbrokers. Do the research to see who you need on board, and then put in the time to build these relationships. Create relationships that align with the goals you have. Risk versus reward. Creating wealth always involves some level of risk versus reward. Only you can decide on how much of a chance you want to take in a certain area. Your personal situation and comfort level determine your risk tolerance. Usually, the higher the risk, the higher the reward. However, this may also mean the larger the potential loss, so it’s important to speak to professionals before committing to anything. To some degree, risks can be managed. For example, when dealing with stock purchases, ways to minimise risk are possible. By increasing your financial IQ, you are reducing your risks in certain areas. Do your research before making big decisions, and be prepared that risks do not always give you the result you were after. Put in only what you are willing to lose. And, if you lose money, take the learning and remember it moving forward. These are the six blades that I believe make up the pinwheel of wealth creation. When it comes to wealth, it's important not to put all your eggs into

one basket. Give yourself options. Diversify your portfolio, work out what risks you are willing to take, and be prepared to lose. At the same time, learn from your mistakes and build your financial IQ. Get advisors on your team to direct you in these different areas. Begin to build your own formula to put you on the path to greater wealth. Remembering, no matter where you start, it is always important to think about your end goal. Financial freedom, for me, is one of the major pinwheels in my life. I have a plan to get my money to work for me. I don’t mind taking the calculated risks where required, and at times I also like the thrill of taking the larger ones, but I only put in what I am prepared to lose. I have made many mistakes and sometimes jumped in too quickly, but I have learnt from them all, and these learnings I take into my future. I will never stop building on what I know, and hopefully, you are inspired to do the same if this is a pinwheel that is important to you. Have a plan in mind about where you want to end up and also the timeline for when you want to get there. If this is important to you, begin to build on this plan and make it your reality. You cannot become wealthy if you are not passionate about creating wealth. If you cannot see the endless possibilities available and the different ways to get your money to work for you, read more, go to seminars, build your financial IQ. This is the first step on your journey. Nineteen years ago, I read my first book on wealth creation, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, and it changed my outlook on money. If you want to build wealth, begin looking at money differently. Possibilities are in abundance everywhere that you look. Get creative and look at ways you can make your earned income your pocket money, rather than a reason you need to get up and go to work in the morning. But only do it if that is what you believe to be important for you. Remembering, this is your individual pinwheel. Free yourself to think bigger and to aim higher. You do not want to trade your time for money unless it is doing something that you are passionate about. You want to use your knowledge to generate money. This is where true wealth lies, and this is where the aim to financial

freedom should be. If you are working for an earned income, you are limited. Limited with your spare time as well as limited to what you can earn and therefore achieve. Usually, there comes a point where once you have reached the ceiling, you can’t go much higher. By building on your financial IQ, you can smash through that glass ceiling and create financial freedom. Find your unique path of wealth, a path that inspires you to take action. Set your end goal, then work out a way to reach it. Get that pinwheel spinning. Be creative, and be bold, but always seek advice where required.

Elevate Your Thinking Key Messages The pinwheel of wealth creation has many blades to help you get your finances working for you. The blades that make up this pinwheel example are: Financial IQ : is your financial intelligence. Financial IQ is understanding money and therefore being able to manage your wealth. Earned income: is the most common form of income. It is money you receive from employment. Passive income: is income generated by putting in the initial effort into a project, which then eventually offers regular income with little direct effort. Portfolio income: is income generated through property ownership, investments or dividends, or through paper assets such as stocks. Build relationships with wealth advisors. C all on the experts for advice and learn from them. Risk versus reward ratio is the measure of risk you’re willing to tolerate in exchange for potential gains. Learn from your mistakes.

If the idea of wealth creation is important to you, try and find ways to smash through that glass ceiling.

Workbook Questions: 1. With the wealth creation pinwheel included in the workbook, label your blades according to areas that are important to you, ideally anywhere between four to six blades. 2. Once you have done this, mark from zero to ten how well you are doing in these areas, and one point of improvement for each blade.

CHAPTER 11: Your End Destination All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. That’s the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up. ―Walt Disney Your unique and wonderful life is created through opportunities you have taken and mistakes you have made and learnt from. Ultimately, these decisions take you to your destination. Life is about building momentum, so it's important to make yourself aware of and available to opportunities as they arise. As children are told, mistakes are marvellous. Learn from them and use them as opportunities to grow and apply these learnings to your future. Seek clarity in your life and be aware of how you are showing up. Be aware of how you are looking after yourself in different situations. Begin to think about creating flexibility in your thinking. You are the only one who is in charge of creating the life you want. If you are unsure how to get to the next level, please speak to someone whom you can work with to help you grow and change your mindset.

Many areas are unique to your life only. Build a strong core, think of the axle and the stick, and then work on finding your inner strength. Work on the eight elements. This will get you well and truly on your way. Have reassurance in knowing that these primary and secondary elements are the same for each individual pinwheel in your life. At the primary level are four elements that help you build strength. The first is mindfulness; being aware of how you are feeling, what you are thinking, and choosing your attitude. Second is organisation; have a structured plan designed to help you elevate your thinking. Vocalise this plan, write it down and hold yourself accountable or find another individual to keep you accountable. Third is motivation; find your reason to push forward and work at staying in that optimal zone to avoid boredom or burnout. Life does not happen by chance. Fourth is drive; the effort required to reach your destination. Set benchmarks for yourself and track your progress. Start to get passionate about connecting the dots in your life. Once the initial strength has been cultivated through these primary elements, it is time to dig a little deeper and focus on getting you to the next level. You will need the secondary elements to do that. Build on your resilience so that you have the belief that you can bounce back stronger and more beautiful after a difficult situation than ever before. Be disciplined and have a laser sharp focus on who you are and where you want to be. See the higher purpose in what you are trying to achieve and why, and get inspired by the pull directing you there. And finally, get creative. Creativity is the icing on the cake. It sees options are everywhere and that these options are in abundance. Strengthening these eight elements is the most important part of your journey to finding your inner strength. Have faith in knowing that from here on in, the road to success gets easier through the hard work you have already achieved. Remember your intention to do things better than you did them before. Working on these elements will ensure your pinwheel will be strongly anchored into the ground. From here, the blades become the focus. These blades are the

individual components that combine to allow the top of the pinwheel to move. Think about the chocolate cake example; if one blade is not functioning properly or is missing, the pinwheel does not spin as it should, as a result, the chocolate cake is never as delicious as it could be. Each pinwheel in your life is unique to you. The blades represent what is important to you and are not the same as someone else’s pinwheel. Believe in your end goal and where you want to be, and then work backwards in creating blades that build momentum in that area of your life. Look at life in the glass half full kind of way. Get individuals on your team who believe in your vision. Be aware of boundaries and create a space between yourself and the external that allows you to live a life congruent with who you are. Boundaries include how you feel internally, what you think about, and who you let into your life, and in what capacity. Be aware of your internal feelings. Take the time to stop and think about living the life you want and then work on areas that need improvement. Remember, nothing changes if nothing changes. Begin to work on your pinwheels and refer back to the pinwheel examples in the book on health and wellbeing as well as the wealth creation pinwheel for inspiration in getting you started. Remember to add your own uniqueness to your pinwheels. Your unique blades make your pinwheels spin, and they are what makes the pinwheels work for you. The story of Walt Disney shows that being successful does not come down to luck. To be successful, you need to do the hard work, even when those around you don’t believe.

The Story of Walt Disney At the age of four, Walt Disney's artistic talent became apparent when he was asked to draw a horse for his neighbour. Here he found his love of art, and at the age of seven, he began selling his drawings. When he was ten, Walt and his family moved from rural Missouri to Kansas City, where he was employed by his uncle to sell snacks and newspapers along the railroad. Walt was fascinated by watching the trains passing day in and day out and this fuelled his passion for

theme parks. While he was in high school, he would further develop his artistic skills by taking illustration classes at night time. At sixteen, Walt Disney dropped out of high school and applied to be in the army. He was too young to be accepted, so he forged his birth certificate to get a job with the Red Cross. The job was gruesome at times, so in his spare time, he found comfort in creating cartoon characters. After completing his time in the army, he found a job as a newspaper artist, but he was told that he lacked imagination. Not wavering from his belief in his own ability Walt opened his first business. This business was called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists, but this failed after only one month. From here, he found another job producing short films; however, when the agency was not willing to take on his ideas, he quit. He left and opened his second business but once again also failed. Still, at the young age of twenty two, he packed his bags and moved to Hollywood. It was in Hollywood he set up a studio and began the Cartoonland series. He displayed the Disney Bros. Studio name on his front door of where he was working. This series was well received, but a few years later, he left the studio after a co-worker poached his staff. For Walt Disney, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and at the age of twenty-seven, his life changed. He sketched yet another cartoon. He named this cartoon character Mickey Mouse. Mickey mouse resembled Walt as Mickey was more human than the previous characters he had drawn before. It wasn’t long before studios were lining up with deals to offer Walt. He never sold and instead formed Disney Studios and went on to create a series of cartoons. His next success came in producing the feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . He was advised by those closest to him against this idea. Yet he took out multiple loans to fund this project, and the film was a huge success. It won many awards, including in 1938, the most successful motion picture film of the year. Walt's next idea was to create a theme park. One day, this idea came while he was watching his daughters on a merry-go-round, and, in 1954, the first Disneyland opened its doors to thousands of people. Walt Disney's vision and belief in himself to never give up is the

reason why these theme parks exist all around the world today. In 1966 Walt Disney passed away from lung cancer. Since his death and to this very day, his legacy will continue to be passed down through many generations. Successful individuals are not given a golden ticket when they are born. Just like Walt Disney did, they create a plan, and they go out and find ways to inspire themselves to take action. They have a vision, often what others may refer to as unachievable goals. But, through hard work and persistence, they find a way to bring that vision to life. They aim for that star in the sky and find ways that are unique to get there. They are aware that with success comes failure, and so they learn from their mistakes. Like each pinwheel, they gather the strength, and they build the momentum to pick themselves back up and keep trying. This is the true measure of success. Be proud of who you are and what you want to achieve. You have one life to live, so look back on it, knowing that you did the best you could, and you made a difference that you were proud of.

My ultimate goal is that one day you picture yourself lying on the grass. Around you are multiple pinwheels, all spinning as fast as they can. Lying on the grass this particular day, you look up, and you see the brightness in your star. The star that you are aiming for, the one that seemed unattainable, and you begin to hold the belief that maybe you can reach it. One day you reach that star. At that very moment, you know that all the steps you took on your journey, whether they were easy to achieve or whether you had to sit through the discomfort to progress, it all came together to help you reach your goal.

As you lie on the soft grass, you look around. The pinwheels have gathered so much momentum that you feel the gentle breeze they create on your skin. The strongest winds cannot cause your pinwheels to tip over, and the wildest storms cannot damage them either. They have found their strength, and they cannot be broken. When you feel that you are off track or feel that life is hard, remember everything you have learnt and implemented. Have faith knowing that it's just another small setback; pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back on track. This happens quicker and with more resilience each time. You have built strong foundations, and you are on your way to creating your most vibrant self, and finally always remember that greatness arises from a collection of small moments put together. There will be a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. ―Louis L’Amour

Next Steps If you are interested in becoming the best version of yourself but need a little help laying those foundations, I’m here. When you are ready, please head to my website below to see the ways in which we can work together moving forward. www.elevateyourthinking.com.au You hold all the power, the strength, and the knowledge to unlocking the potential in your life, so if you are keen, let me help you to make that become a reality.

Acknowledgments To my husband Vince, for allowing me the time to pick up the pieces and bounce back stronger than before after the birth of our twins. To my four beautiful children Bianca, Luca, Lara, and Ayla, you four make me want to live my best life every day so that I can be a good example to you all. To Justin, thank you for your patience in bringing the illustrations to life. Finally, to Yolande, my mindset coach, you have helped me to see the strength in my own thinking and feeling when I was at my lowest points. You showed me how to combine the two in order to come out stronger on the other side. Without you, this book would not have been written.

About the Author Meet Belinda, a Certified High Performance Coach and the author and founder of Elevate Your Thinking. She has been leading and developing individuals and teams for over 16 years. Belinda is a wife and mother of four children. After the birth of her twins, Belinda suffered postnatal depression and sought to seek to strengthen her thinking by working with a mindset coach.

Witnessing the change in herself, she is now a huge advocate of personal development. She believes that with simple mindset changes, nothing is unattainable. She knows that with the right guidance, everyone is capable of fulfilling their full potential no matter where their starting point is. By building on your inner strengths and creating a strong mental and emotional core, Belinda believes that you can continue to gather momentum and improve, and that’s why her passion lies in helping others to feel the same. She has a proven step by step framework that helps her clients reach their full potential so that they not only learn to survive but thrive. She finds peace in her early morning routines, and she believes that with a healthy mindset, you can create your optimal life. Belinda believes that laughter is the best medicine and that it's important not to take yourself too seriously.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my book. I really appreciate your feedback, and I love hearing what you have to say. Please leave an honest review on Amazon letting me know what you thought of the book. Thanks so much! Belinda Colubriale