This site is the website of motivational speaker Craig Harper. A constantly updated, one-stop information, inspiration, education and motivation station. Unlike many similar sites, it is a totally free resource for anyone who is serious about moving from mediocre to amazing in any area of their personal or professional life. With hundreds of articles covering a wide range of subject matter, great interviews with cool people and inspirational video posts, there's more than enough brain-food to keep you busy for hours. Okay, days!! Enjoy.
Click play above
to
see one of Craig's weekly segments on national
television. (9AM with Kim & David - Network Ten)
Online
Personal Training
Can’t always make it to the gym? With your very own
Cyber-Trainer you don’t need to. Our online PT
service is for people who would like to access the
skill, knowledge and experience of a quality
Trainer, without doing the face-to-face thing.
Life Coach
If you are interested in maximizing your potential,
stepping out of that 'holding pattern' and being
privately coached by Craig click here.
Business Coach
If you're a personal trainer, gym owner or studio
owner who is interested in growing your business
then mentoring with Craig could be a valuable part
of your overall success strategy.
Biological Age Testing
Recently, 67 year old Jan Frazer completed one of
our biological age tests only to discover she has
the body of a 37 year old (in terms of fitness,
strength and function). How old is your body? Find
out here.
Body Composition Analysis
Craig's
team of experts can provide you with a
complete Body Composition Analysis in just 30
minutes.
Online
Nutrition
Many
nutritional experts confuse people with their jargon
and pseudo-science. Let Craig's Director of
Nutrition cut through the dietary confusion and
contradiction for you.
Fattitude
- Craig Harper
While many books focus on food,
Craig teaches that creating life-long change is more about the
dieter, than the actual diet. This book is perfect for people who have a
history of 'almost' getting in shape.
DVD
or CD - Renovate Your Body In this entertaining presentation, Craig discusses the
notion of Renovating Your Body - once and for all. Many of us have a curious
ability to be able to get in shape for events (weddings, parties, reunions
and birthdays), if only we'd get in shape for life.
Craig Harper is Australia's leading
motivational speaker
and educator (according to Google Australia). He is a highly
sought-after corporate coach and is considered to be
a leader and pioneer in the areas of personal and
professional development.
Working with hundreds of
teams, companies and a wide variety of organisations
on numerous continents over the last twenty years
has given Craig a unique insight into, and
understanding of, human performance and all its
variables. Craig has an ability to educate, inspire,
challenge and make people laugh all at the same
time!
Yeah, yeah.. I know this is up a day early but I'm taking the next few days off writing. Crazy I know. Call me lazy. I will be reading and responding to your comments but will be luxuriating at the beach for a day or three, getting some sand between my toes and some cold sea air in my city-slicker lungs. Nice. Remember, tomorrow (Friday) is update day for you 28-day habit changersso make sure you check in and tell us how you're tracking. Stay accountable Groovers. Don't make me come over there and kick your ass. On with today's (or is it tomorrow's?) post....
Emotional Quicksand.
Well, Tuesday's post on stress generated plenty of interest (the normal comments plus a bunch of emails). Not surprising, considering the busy, frantic world we live in. The truth is that many of us manage everything in our lives very effectively except... us! Yep, we do our best to ensure that everything is in tip-top shape; our career, our business, our property portfolio, our finances, our social calendar, our vehicles, our wardrobe (all the external stuff)... if only we invested the same amount of time and energy into managing our own mental and emotional health (the internal stuff). Some of us live (proudly) in our magnificent homes and drive our impressive cars while simultaneously living in emotional quicksand - feeling like we could sink and stop breathing at any moment.
It's a personal thing
Managing stress is like managing our diet and exercise in that there's no one-approach-fits-all solution to effectively rid the world of stress. It's sounds funny but stress is a very personal and individual thing. Just like with our eating and training, we need to figure out what works for us personally when it comes to living a calm, relaxed and stress-free life. What might relax one person and give them great joy, could be a source of stress for another. For example, put me in the ocean and I'm a happy, stress-free little blogger. Wind in my face, waves crashing on my head, sand in my butt crack - pure bliss. Do you have that visual?
Mary in the ocean
Put my gorgeous mother in the same place and she's a panic-stricken, highly-stressed, fearful, wet individual. She would rather hit herself in the head with a spanner than go swimming in the ocean - after all, it's cold, it's dangerous, there's lots of creepy things and it will totally ruin her make-up! Not to mention those big things that eat you! Oh yeah, she can't swim either - that ain't gonna help those stress levels. Drowning is not really on her to-do list.
Ronnie on the motorbike
I've been riding motorbikes on the road for twenty six years (please don't give me that lecture, I've had three thousand of them). Put me on a motorbike and I'm happy, relaxed and having fun. No stress, no worrying, just me on my bike producing happy hormones. Put my dad on the back and it's a whole different story. He hates motorbikes. While I'm on the front enjoying my stress-free state, the old-fella (love you Ron) is on the back drowning in cortisol (that destructive hormone we produce when we're stressed), every muscle in his body is contracted, his heart rate is seven hundred and there ain't any fun or joy in sight. For him.
We create it
How interesting; two people going through the same thing at the same time (a motorbike ride), each having totally different experiences and responses. Why? Because we create our own experiences and responses, that's why - irrespective of what appears to be going on! We create stress (and calm). Stress isn't about the situation, circumstances or environment, it's about you and me in it - it's about how we're personally impacted. Things don't create stress, we do. That's one of the barriers for most people - understanding this simple truth. Yes, certain things may be triggers for you, but ultimately you produce that stress-response because it is your personal reaction to, or interpretation of, what's happening. Capiche?
Happy hormones
Notice that my father and I were having completely different emotional and psychological responses (to the same event), which in turn produced totally different physical responses in each of us individually (happy hormones, nasty hormones, elevated heart rate, low heart rate, total body spasm, loose as a goose). Although we were both doing the same thing at the same time, in our own personal realities (we all create our own reality - we think we live in the world but we actually live in our head) we were individually having quite different experiences.
The spinning round-house kick
So when the psychologist tells the twenty five year-old stressed kickboxer to sit in a grassy field and meditate for an hour each day, the good doc might just end up with a spinning round-house kick to the back of the scone (head) because he doesn't really understand how his patient is wired or what will be an effective strategy for him personally. Different things work for different people, so there is no universally effective generic stress management strategy. As with food and exercise, your body knows what it needs when it comes to managing stress but you need to stop ignoring it. It will constantly tell you what it wants and doesn't want but you need to listen and respond accordingly. Sadly, we've become very good at ignoring and over-riding the signals our body sends us. "No, I'm not really full... can you pass me some more pie?"
1-800-kaftan
Sure I can tell you to get yourself a golden retriever, listen to relaxing music in the car, hang a boxing bag in the garage, spend time in nature, roll around on the floor with your kids, paint your office a more relaxing colour, invest in a weekly massage from Sven, express yourself creatively, get your toes in some sand, feel the sea breeze on your face, meditate in your special chair, buy yourself a kaftan and some slip on yellow shoes, burn some lavender oil, keep a diary, get yourself a lover, express your emotions more and watch re-runs of your favourite comedy... but then again, maybe you just need a really fast motorbike and a pet rat called Kevin.
I would love to know how you manage your stress. Just click on the comment thingy and tell me your strategy....
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