ABOUT
Geoff Russell
Some simple ah hah experiences in my life left long-lasting impressions!
From an early age I was curious about how things worked, frequently taking things apart, but inevitably I wasn’t always able to reassemble them correctly! Just Like the first alarm clock I dismantled, I can still clearly remember being embarrassed that I couldn’t put it back together! Although I felt frustrated that I could’t do it, it inspired my curiosity to understand how things worked and to be attentive to how things were designed and built.
y dad couldn’t understand my interest in mechanical things and would shake his head and say things like “use your brains, don’t be a tradesman!”. In many ways he was a very smart guy but his attempts at DIY were often tragic, and so yes, I could see why he would think that way.
My Uncle Dick McDonald was a successful businessman. As a favour to my parents, (we were pretty broke at the time) he generously offered to paint our house. He and my father had great fun together, always joking and jibing, but there was also a serious side to UD.
I remember him perched in white overalls on a ladder in our kitchen with a paint brush in one hand and a can of paint in the other and saying to me, “I feel it is important to have a trade to fall back on if ever I need it”.
His words left a lasting impression on me and later helped me to see the value when I was developing my trade skills as an auto air-conditioning mechanic. I went on to restore cars and motor bikes and ended up creating an automotive window tinting franchise network in Australia and an international franchise network based in London.
Cataclysmic Events
When the GFC struck half our clients in London went broke, dealer ships closed, we struggled on but ultimately ended up closing part of our business.
I decided then to diversify, when I started my business consultancy, my teenage daughter Shanti said to me, “I appreciate how you don’t give up or let misfortune stop you”. It wasn’t easy starting a new career at 54, I had many moments of doubt and uncertainty to deal with. Without having released those limiting beliefs, I may not have been capable of recovering and reinventing myself.
Distractions were easy to give in to, binging on food and movies and feeling unmotivated. Who wants to “Fail Again”? I had to catch myself when I felt myself succumbing to self-limiting thoughts and disempowering negative talk. Having released the limiting beliefs made it possible for me to be stronger and resist the seemingly satisfying denial of a ‘couch potato’ mindset.
Life / Work Balance
For me, my limiting beliefs had caused me to work too hard, took me off the ball in other important areas of my life, such as; love, family, friends, time off, exercise and meditation.
By working so hard I sometimes missed golden opportunities to be happier and more fulfilled.
It wasn’t until I got back in touch with my inner self and set about reprogramming my subconscious mind that my work life improved.
Limiting Beliefs and Blocks
There were many experiences in my life that built my confidence and helped me to enjoy my life and mostly thrive. But at times I lost my way and felt embarrassed or disempowered.
Often the most impactful experiences are things that people do or say that reinforce or create empowering or limiting beliefs in ourselves.
Seeds of limiting beliefs and self-doubt are often sown through memorable life-changing moments in our pre-teens.
My father not understanding my interest in taking things apart and rebuilding them proved he just didn’t get me, so I didn’t feel that I was understood and that my interests were not important or valuable.. This contributed to a limiting set of beliefs that I was not good enough as myself.
When I was 12 I was happily chatting as I walked with my Grandfather, when he suddenly said, “you have too much of what the cat licks itself with”. it is funny now and a simple enough comment but it completely threw me. Here was this great man shutting me up, it affected me deeply (more than I knew at the time).
These early events seem so mild and unimportant, yet they proved to be PIVOTAL in who I thought I was and how I operated. Two giants in my life didn’t seem to get me, so although I continued to be inquisitive, enthusiastic for life, chatty, and mostly happy, there was an underlying discomfort about who I was. I carried a subtle subconscious sense of being out of place, unsure of myself, and self-conscious.
That underlying limiting belief then was reinforced throughout my life when I felt doubt in myself over something or over something someone said that confirmed that belief or when I felt I had failed in something substantial like a business negotiation, each incidence subtly strengthened that subconscious belief and caused me to contract further. I can remember feeling bad, but I didn’t understand at the time what was really going on subconsciously.
Transformational Techniques
In my 20’s I was fortunate to find Tai Chi. I had my first connection to a universal energy (transcendental) experience, it was an extraordinarily wonderful life-changing event. It was then that I became fascinated with meditation and the inner workings of the mind.
When my marriage broke down in my early forties it was a wake-up call, I had lost my way, I knew I needed help to change my thinking. I was heartbroken and couldn’t think straight. This was the catalyst to me finding the secrets to how to successfully release my life long limiting beliefs.
With introspection, digging deep into my thoughts, patterns, and habits I realised that I needed to change but I didn’t know how.
It wasn’t until I found a couple of techniques that helped me bust through these limiting beliefs that I was able to reconnect with my true nature and break free of the hold they had on me and truly enjoy what I was doing.
I had read about Richard Bandler’s Neuro-Linguistic Programming Techniques (NLP) and found a great coach in London who showed me how to find the underlying triggers and how to release them. I was then able to move on and lovingly let my wife go.
The practices led me to experiment with NLP techniques including Time Line Therapy and to attend a number of Tony Robbin’s Neuro Associative Conditioning (NAC) training events, Dr. John Demartini’s Breakthrough Trainings.
It also inspired me to get back into meditation and learning new techniques, Yoga, Tai Chi, and Chi Gung.
By releasing my doubts I was able to acknowledge that I was making a difference in people’s lives. My sense of purpose increased, I felt motivated and inspired to “never give up” and “keep on giving”!
Feeling Inspired
By releasing life-defining limiting beliefs, I was able to make my life more harmonious.
It feels so much better waking up feeling excited to go to work! Doing something I am passionate about.
“Did your parents tell you to get a safe secure job?” or did somebody say something that didn’t make you feel great? I felt so relieved when I found that the root cause of my limiting beliefs was the key to understanding how they had defined me.
It is important to understand that the emotions that define who we are also contribute to the wisdom we gain in our life. But until we stop running conscious and subconscious limiting beliefs, we are not able to apply that wisdom effectively.
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