About Jeremy Rolleston

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So far Jeremy Rolleston has created 130 blog entries.
305, 2011

The Masai and eskimos are happy too !

By |May 3rd, 2011|A Life That Counts|2 Comments

………..

Can money buy happiness? Many would say “yes, unequivocally!” A more thoughtful, common, quick, and casual response is something like, “I’m not sure, but it’s certainly better to have money than not to have it.” Perhaps there’s some truth in that.


In 2004, The Wall Street Journal published the results of a survey that found that the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans, on a scale of 1.0 to 7.0, rated their life satisfaction level at a 5.8. Homeless people living on the streets of Calcutta, India, on the other hand, gave their life satisfaction a score of 2.9. And the Inuit people of northern Greenland and the cattle-herding Masai people of Kenya rated their lives 5.8 – the same as America’s richest.

So what do we take from this ?

  • Happiness comes from the inside out not the outside in. It is not found in things ! Even the 400 richest people in the U.S. have only an 82 percent level of life—satisfaction; i.e., only 5.8 out of 7.0. The Masai live in dung-huts with no running water and the Inuit live in the freezing Artic temperatures, with little company, food that is difficult to find and houses which at times consist of igloos and not the marble bathrooms of the American rich.
  • Certainly money helps contribute to happiness but it is still a very imperfect predictor of levels of happiness. The homeless street-dwellers in Calcutta, among the poorest of the world’s poor, have a life-satisfaction that is 50 percent that of the richest 400; i.e., 2.9 versus 5.8. When they’re able to move from life on the streets to a life into the city’s rundown slum dwellings, they improve their satisfaction level from 2.9 to 4.6; i.e., to almost 80 percent the satisfaction level of the richest 400 in the U.S.

The modern world offers us materialism and many formula’s for happiness. There is greed and envy and striving to ‘make the list’ or achieve celebrity or gather things. But take a step back. See the nonsense that often drives us. See the mindsets we often look at life with.

Consider what really makes you happy. What could you do without and still be as happy or happier ? What could you focus more on and focus less on that would make you happier, whether you live in a dung hut, an igloo or a mansion with marble bathrooms !

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2604, 2011

Goal Setting – the magic noone gets

By |April 26th, 2011|Goal Setting|0 Comments

How many posts and articles, videos and books, seminars and podcasts exist on goal-setting ? … Far too many when I consider that nearly all miss the 3 ingredients that make all the difference. Here’s a quick recap of what I mean.

Big goals to little goals

People seem to get confused by how small or big goals should be. They should be both. Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila explains this well.

‘You’ve got to have the outcome goals. These are big and bright. The ones you think about every day. You can almost taste them. Under that goal, though, I would have all my milestone goals, and then under those, I would have the ways and strategies for achieving those goals. Before the Vancouver Olympics, I went from having pretty scattered goal­setting methods to very systematic ones where every goal was broken down into small achievable steps.’ (Lydia Lassila, Olympic Gold medallist, Women’s aerials, Vancouver, 2010)

You see you should dream big and these dreams (and associated goals) motivate you and give you energy. They are not cumbersome points on a piece of paper. These are the dreams that keep you up at night. you can’t get them out of your head. They are big and bright. It is then from this point that you start to get structured and organised and employ the more mechanical goal setting techniques (eg S.M.A.R.T.R) to write the smaller goals that you will aim for, achieve, tick off and change as you go along. The shorter and medium term goals that you hit along the way to achieving the big outcome goal.

Write them down as you want them

Remember to write down your goals as you want them to be rather than what you don’t want; that is, they should be positively stated. For example, you wouldn’t say, ‘I’m no longer struggling with my weight.’ You’d say, ‘I have excellent and healthy eating habits.’ Rather than say, ‘I won’t get angry any more when . . .’ you’d say, ‘I act with control and calmly when . . .’ Focus on what your positive expectations are – what you want to occur, rather than on things you’re afraid might go wrong. Use confident, successful, goal-oriented statements such as ‘I will . . .’, ‘I can . . .’ and ‘I’m going to . . .’ You can read more about the psychology behind this in Chapter Four of my book A Life That Counts.

Making your dreams come alive

Most people will get inspired and write their goals down on a list. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem though is that lists are too tame and too boring. You need to turn your goals into a genuine experience that has emotional power. You need to arouse your emotions because it is this that will drive you forward. You need to change them from just words to powerful images that you can immerse yourself in and connect with and that will fire up those powerful emotional circuits in your brain that are going to be critical in your ability to change and continue to be motivated. You need to feel your goals on an emotional level. Otherwise you will just be relying on your conscious motivation which will dissipate all too quickly (how many NYE resolutions have you seen through to fruition after all). You need to make your dreams come alive – to feel all the fulfilment, excitement, joy, freedom and satisfaction – or whatever emotion that desire means to you – as if you’ve already attained your goals. You need to taste them, smell them, touch them. You need to involve all your senses so your goals become alive, vibrant, tangible and motivating. In so doing, you’ll harness the positive power of emotions (the powerful limbic­system drivers) in the process of what you are going after.  This will help make your goals the sort of thing that make you want to get off the couch and achieve them.

One way of doing this is using vision boards and visualising. As athletes we employ these techniques all the time. You can find out more about this in Chapter Five of my book A Life That Counts. And at the same time, you’ll be closing the gap between what you’re dreaming about and what you actually believe you can achieve. (By visualising your dream so powerfully in your mind, you’ll suddenly find it much easier for your mind to believe you’ll achieve the goal.)

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1904, 2011

A whole life context – an exercise for you

By |April 19th, 2011|Dare to Dream|0 Comments

It is said that most people spend more time planning a holiday than they do planning their year or the life they want to create. You don’t turn up at the airport and ‘hope’ your holiday will work out – with no passport, no destination and no money. Yet people often turn up to life with exactly that attitude … so here is an exercise to take a step back and think about your life.

Think of your life as a wheel that has many spokes.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (whereby 1 means ‘Not at all satisfied’ and 10 means ‘Completely satisfied’) rank each area of your life and then start to write down how you want that area to be / look / feel / be experienced. Write down your dreams for those areas. Remember to think big and without limitation.

As an interesting side note, in 2004, The Wall Street Journal published the results of a survey on happiness that found that the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans, on a scale of 1.0 to 7.0, rate their life satisfaction at 5.8. The interesting bit – the Inuit people of northernGreenland and the cattle-herding Masai people of Kenya rated themselves the same as the 400 richest Americans in a similar rating of happiness, despite the fact that their lifestyle in all ways is pretty removed from the lifestyle of the Forbes 400. Hmmmm – interesting isn’t it !

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1204, 2011

Pure Inspiration

By |April 12th, 2011|Overcoming Adversity|0 Comments

Ahhhhh – life ebbs and flows and some days we feel good about ourselves and other days we feel bad about ourselves.

Today for me is one of those days. I woke up feeling sorry for myself, without much motivation, without much inspiration for anything. And then I saw this ! …

How can I ever feel sorry for myself. How can I not be inspired. Sure it is a 12 minute video, but those 12 minutes may change your life forever and these images may stay with you for a long time to come (in a good way). Amazing. Encouraging. Challenging.

You’re welcome.

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504, 2011

Reality. What's reality ?

By |April 5th, 2011|Psychology|0 Comments

For seven or eight years of my life, I knew Santa was real. After all, he came to my house every Christmas night so I had no reason to believe anything else. All of my experiences until that point in my young life had reinforced the messages my parents had shared with me. There were the presents that he left. The cookies that he ate and the milk that he drank. There were the letters that I wrote to him, his visits at the shopping centre, and the TV shows where I saw Mrs Claus and the elves preparing my presents for the sleigh and Santa’s big trip on Christmas Eve

…  So, you can imagine the devastation when boys at school told me that Santa wasn’t real and then Mum and Dad confirmed my worst fears. I was shattered. What would I do now that Santa wasn’t real ?  Was it really true ?

Some Psychology

I’m no psychologist but I do know that our reality is not always reality. It is one of the presuppositions of NLP – that we respond to our experience, not to reality itself. You see, we are bombarded every second by millions of bits of information. Information that is sourced by our senses. What we see, what we feel, what we hear, what we taste and what we touch. The brain can’t consciously process all this, so the unconscious mind deletes, distorts and generalises this information for storing. For example, one person may have a visual preference in the way they process information (and therefore notice these things more) whilst another person may notice sounds more. So our Reticular Activation System (RAS) takes note of our sensory preferences and this affects what information we delete, what we distort and what we generalise. (Want proof of this – have you ever bought a car and then noticed suddenly how many of those cars are on the road. You can’t believe you never noticed them before. That is your RAS filtering more of those examples into your perception).

And not only does the unconscious mind filter according to your sensory preferences, it also filters according to your values, your beliefs, your personality preferences and so on. That is, our upbringing, our personality and our environment affect how we delete, distort and generalise the information we take in every second.

And ultimately all this information is chunked down into 5-9 bits of information that we consciously take in (in our shorter term memories).  It is like having 2 million toothpicks falling from the ceiling every second and you can only grab 5-9 toothpicks. What do you think the chances of you grabbing the same 5-9 toothpicks as your best friend are ?

When our reality is not reality ?

Do you think this understanding explains why 2 people remember the same event differently ? Even more so when you consider that every memory is stored in the brain as an internal representation (IR) – an image that has the sights, sounds, smells, feeling, emotions and self-talk attached to that memory – all of which could be different between two people even for the same identical event / memory. Does it help you understand that our reality is our reality only because of our perception of it. We all see the world differently. Your reality may not be the actual reality or the only reality.

Can you see that your reality can change ? Can you see how in changing your perception of an event (eg the emotions attached with it) that your reality can change. A past event can not have as much an emotional stronghold over you. A future event cannot seem so fearful. Is it time for you to accept that there is another reality ?

When Our Truth is a Myth

Let me go one step further. Sometimes we arrive at a point on our journey only to discover that our truth is actually a myth. A story we’ve been told. A story we’ve told ourselves. A lie we’ve bought into. Sometimes, things aren’t as they seem. Or, again, as we see them. Sometimes, the only place something is real is in our head. Sometimes, we believe what’s comfortable while ignoring what everyone else already knows.

Is it time for you to let go of your Santa so you can move forward ?

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2903, 2011

Overcoming adversity

By |March 29th, 2011|Overcoming Adversity|0 Comments

When I wrote my book ‘A Life That Counts‘ there were a couple of people I wanted in the book who I thought were inspirational but for one reason or another couldn’t be part of it. Paul Degelder is one of those inspirational people – a navy clearance diver who was attacked by a shark in Sydney Harbour. Read and watch his story and be inspired …

Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 11, 2009. A navy diver fought off a shark as it attacked him during an anti-terrorism training exercise in Sydney Harbour, the navy says. Able Seaman Paul Degelder, 31, of the clearance diving team based at HMAS Penguin at Balmoral,  is in a serious but stable condition following the attack at Woolloomooloo Bay, in Sydney’s inner east, just before 7am today. A NSW ambulance spokesman said he suffered severe injuries to his right hand and leg and is serious but stable in St Vincents Hospital. Able Seaman Degelder was taking part in the Kondari Trial, a test of new technologies to protect ports and ships from terrorist attack, which began on Monday.A spokesman for the Defence Science and Technology Organisation said it was likely the trial would be cancelled today. A defence spokesman said it was the first recorded attack on a navy clearance diver. He said no shark repellent equipment was used as the equipment was only used in water deemed to be a high risk of shark attack. Sydney Harbour had been assessed as being low risk, he said. There was also no sonar equipment being used.

I defy you not to be inspired by what he’s doing 12 months on and how he has overcome the adversity that he faced (and continues to face). And remember Paul next time you feel like throwing a pity party or skipping your workout. I know I will …

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2203, 2011

10 things to know about you

By |March 22nd, 2011|Motivation|0 Comments

Do you know there is no one else like you in the entire world. You’re one of a kind. A ‘once in all history’ event. A miracle. Completely unique. An amazing individual … so with that in mind, here’s some other thoughts for you / about you / for you …

1. You are not your body and your body is not you but you best look after each other anyway. You might be together for a while.

2. You’ll never have more potential than you do right now, so find a way to use more of what you’ve got.

3. It’s not a time issue. It’s a how-you-manage-your-time issue. After all Mother Theresa and Bill Gates and Bono and Nelson Mendella and Michael Phelps all only have 24 hours in the day too.

4. You’ll never be perfect , so aim for better.

5. You’ll never live in the future or the past, so find a way to be happy in the now.

6. Life doesn’t get better, you do. Life is life – it will happen to you, around you and despite you. It’s your job to get better in the middle of it all. We can choose how we feel and how we respond. One person sees a problem. Another person sees a lesson. One person sees an obstacle. Another person sees a challenge.  Things only have the meaning you give them. Every day, you get to create your own reality. We are often just too busy rationalising, justifying and making excuses. So choose wisely.

7. The only thing you can change about the past is how it affects us.

8. You’ll never find yourself or happiness in things. So stop looking there. Your happiness works from the inside-out. Not the other way around.

9. Even though you might not feel it, think it, believe it or hear it, you are good enough. And you do deserve it.

10. Real success is not about what you earn, own, achieve or win but who you become along the way.

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1403, 2011

So what is 'A Life That Counts' anyway ?

By |March 14th, 2011|A Life That Counts|0 Comments

I’ve been thinking lately about what I actually think living a life that counts is.

Ben Franklin once wrote, “I would rather have it said ‘he lived usefully’ than ‘he died rich.”

And Winston Churchill famously said “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

In my book I was purposely non-descriptive in describing what I thought ‘a life that counts’ is, because different people will measure their life in different ways and against different standards. However, here’s some thoughts for you to ponder on as you consider your life that lies before you, how you will construct and live it, and what it will count for at the end of the day.

  • Living a life bigger than your own – their focus isn’t solely on themselves. They see the bigger picture and have a bigger perspective.  They’re famous not just for what they’ve achieved but what they’ve given. They give back in some way and make the world around them a better place. They leave a legacy – an imprint – their mark.
  • They have an “abundance mentality. Bill Gates has this. Warren Buffet has this. William Colgate had this. Ben Franklin had this. Instead of seeing the world in terms of how much money they could make, these people see/saw the world in terms of how many people he could help. To them, making money was not the end in itself. They didn’t measure their life by dollars and cents despite how rich they were. And being useful was its own reward.
  • They value relationships. Relationships help us to define who we are and what we can become. They shape your character, values, and interest as we interact and exchange energy, emotions, ideas and values. Some relationships reinforce our values and uplift us; while others undercut our convictions and drain us. Getting along with yourself, appreciating and valuing people (treat others as you would want them to treat you) and making the effort to form and cultivate relationships will be one of your  greatest treasures in life and an immense source of joy.
  • The experiences they encounter mould them for the better. In addition to relationships and decisions, our lives are shaped by pivotal experiences. Whether triumphs or tragedies, our lives are moulded and shaped by pivotal experiences. Perhaps we receive a long-awaited promotion or we’re suddenly let go from a job. Perhaps a loved one passes away, or a newborn baby enters our lives. These experiences immerse us in emotions and challenge our convictions. Oftentimes, we’re defined not so much in the moment of experience itself as in our response to the experience. Do we quit or rebound? Do we harbour bitterness or choose to forgive? Do we blame or improve? Whatever the case, the experiences in our lives profoundly touch us.
  • They have perspective on what really matters. They live a magnificent, passionate, authentic and purposeful life. They chase their dreams but realise that this is just part of the fabric of life. They are successful by whatever terms they measure it, but  at the same time appreciate the bigger perspective. That is, there are always people worse off. We live in a big world with much need and so to purpose to make a difference in others life is truly a higher purpose. Character on the inside is more important than all that glitters on the outside. Peace and happiness is not measured by gold medals, twitter followers or dollars in the bank.

So what is a life that counts ?  … to me, it is all these things. Or put another way – if you’re not doing something with your life, then it doesn’t matter how long you live. If you’re doing something with your life, then it doesn’t matter how short your life may be. A life is not measured by years lived, but by its usefulness. If you are giving, loving, serving, helping, encouraging, making a difference, adding value to others, then you’re living a life that counts!

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503, 2011

Say no to ‘no’

By |March 5th, 2011|Dare to Dream, Destiny|0 Comments

Remember when you were a kid? What did you dream of ? “One day when I grow up I’m going to ….”

Remember when you were in primary school ? Remember meeting or watching someone on TV that inspired you ? “I’m going to be just like them when I grow up …”

Remember when you were at highschool ? Remember truly discovering and exploring your talents and passions. “One day I want to … I’m going to …”

BUT,

Remember you parents or brothers or sisters or teacher or coach who said “You couldn’t do that !” “Why would you want to do that ?” “You can’t earn a living from that. Get a real job” “Not everyone can do that. What makes you think you can do that ? You’re to …” “Forget it and get your head out of the clouds” and so on.

The thing is, there will always be someone to tell you that you can’t do something. And even more than that, they may even be saying it with your best interests in mind (according to them and as funny as that seems). There are always more pessimists than optomists. It is easy to criticise. It is safer to say something can’t be done. There are always people who want to project their limiting mindsets onto you.

But, at some point, YOU need to make a CONSCIOUS DECISION to ignore them. To go your own way. To follow your own heart. To back yourself. To not be limited by others. To say yes to yoruself and what you want to go after. To say NO to ‘NO’.

Of course when you follow your dreams, there needs to be an alignment of skills and talents (ie Australian Idol). And certainly there needs to be wisdom with how this works in with the rest of your life . And certainly there is a lot of hardwork, perseverence, determination and commitment that comes along with it. But it starts, with exactly what this video talks about. it starts with unlimited thinking and a conscious decision to not only face your own fears, but more often than not, to not let other people define your future. SAY NO TO ‘NO’.

Is there some area or some dream or someone or some  situation in which you need to decide to SAY NO to ‘NO’ ?

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2102, 2011

The New Book Unveiled

By |February 21st, 2011|A Life That Counts|0 Comments

It’s time to celebrate! Today is the day!

After a year in the making, countless late nights, a lot of learning, thousands of emails to printers / editors / typesetters / contributors / transcribers / graphic designers etc, some soul-searching on my part, a number of very interesting interviews with incredible contributors and so on …

My new book is finally here: A Life That Counts.

It will get launched today, is available on my websites NOW (www.jeremyrolleston.com and www.alifethatcounts.com.au) and will be released into bookstores across Australia and NZ from now on. I could not be happier with the end product. Truly, I am ecstatic and quietly proud.

If you want a handbook and a guide to your future success – this is it.

The book is about following your dreams, regardless of the outcome, and irrespective of what your dream is and how you define success. It is also about HOW the successful actually achieve what they do. Plenty of books tell us what to do, but almost none show us HOW to do it. How do you change your thinking (the psychology) to get changed behaviour because very often our best intentions don’t result in any meaningful change ? What do the successful people do on a daily basis ? How do you discover your dreams ? How do you goal set properly ? How do you develop mental toughness and ignore that little voice in our heads that tells us to give up, or not try, or we’re not good enough etc. How do you get over disappointment ? Many people have dreams but very few are prepared to go after them ? Why ? And how do you get over the fears and  mindsets that often hold us back from chasing the dreams we have for our lives ? This is a little taste of some of the topics covered in the book. And alongside this you have the real-life stories of myself and the ten famous and successful Australians to inspire people and give them an insight into how they do it / did it. I want to give you a book that will

1) inspire you

2) you can flick through briefly and yet still take something away

3) is full of real ‘meat’ for those that want to go deeper into the tools, strategies, techniques & psychology of success

4) be an interesting read as you read the behind the scenes real-life stories of myself and the ten amazing contributors.

Here’s the back cover description:

A HANDBOOK FOR YOUR SUCCESS

WITH TOOLS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT IN YOUR OWN LIFE

AND REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES FROM OLYMPIC AND WORLD CHAMPIONS

TO INSPIRE AND HELP YOU BE ALL YOU CAN BE

Many books tell you what success is but don’t reveal how to make it happen. In this book, two-time Olympian Jeremy Rolleston reveals the step-by-step processes, strategies, psychology and techniques used by Olympic and World champions.

Find out how you can use these in your own life to help you successfully follow your dreams, no matter how you define success and whatever your dreams may be.

This is your opportunity to learn from Jeremy and 10 other high-achieving Australians including Dick Smith, Gai Waterhouse, Louise Sauvage, James Tomkins, Lydia Lassila, Matthew Burke, Matt Shirvington, Michael Milton, Jason Stevens and Alexandra Croak. Read their real-life stories – when it’s all going well and when it isn’t! Discover what sets them apart. Learn from their experiences, uncover their secrets, and find out how they’ve used these timeless principles and simple techniques to help them achieve remarkable success.

Practical, thought-provoking and challenging, A Life that Counts will inspire you to chase your dreams and reach your full potential. It celebrates the ‘want to’s’, the ‘choose to’s’ and the ‘dream ofs’ in your own life.

You’ll come away from this book with an exciting vision of your potential along with the confidence, knowledge and tools you need to successfully follow your dreams and live an extraordinary, fulfilled and purposeful life.

I would like to ask your help to make this the success I know it can be:

THE ASK:

I try not to ask for too much on this blog, but today I will ask a favor: if this book sounds interesting to you, please take a moment to BUY it today. Isn’t this a great gift for friends – to help them chase their dreams more successfully, learn from Olympic & World champions and be all they can be?

TO MEDIA, BLOGGERS, AND LIST OWNERS:

I’ve made very few media commitments thus far. Do you have a column, show, mailing list, or blog audience? Would you like to do a feature, an interview, or post an excerpt? Please email me at [email protected]

Thanks for all your support. Here’s to your future success and here’s to 2011 being your best year yet !

Jeremy

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