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In all of the doom and gloom that the media is throwing at us lately I would like to share some good news with you. On 10th June this year I will celebrate being in business as a professional speaker for ten years. I am not about to let it pass without a celebration and I would like you to join me.

The link image (left) is for a downloadable flyer giving details of my Gott Shots and "Me Too" moments" evening that I will be hosting at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on 10th June 2009. What the flyer doesn't tell you is that I will be joined in the second half of the evening by my good friend Jamie Jones Buchanan. Jamie is a professional rugby league player who this year is celebrating his testimonial year. A testimonial is given to certain professional players who have played for the same team for ten years as Jamie has done with Leeds Rhinos.

Jamie and I both believe that we have learned many things in our ten year careers as athletes and business owners that, should we share them with each other, will help us to make it through to the next anniversary. So we have put some of the lessons that we have each learned together and on 10th June we are going to share them with you. Lessons like...

• Eating before we are hungry is as important to a business person as it is to an athlete
• There is no such thing as a self-made athlete or business person
• It's not always about winning, sometime it's about dealing with the losses that make you stronger

We will share with you ten great lessons that cross over from business to sport and back. The cost of the evening is just a £10 donation to charity that equates to just £1 per two-years of experience. For a donation of £15 or more you will receive a copy of my new book How to take life by the throat and say "I'm not done yet" by way of a thank you. We are even offering five places for the price of four so why not treat the whole team or even some clients to an evening of Celebration, Inspiration and fun.

It would be absolutely fantastic if you could join us on 10th June at 6.30 pm at the Royal Armouries. And as an added bonus just by attending you will be contributing to the Radio Aire & Magic 828's Cash for Kids appeal which raises money to help sick, disabled or underprivileged children in west Yorkshire. We hope to see you there.

For more details go to http://www.clivegott.com/celebration/ or contact me on clive@clivegott.com

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My truth

My truth is that no matter how bad we are led to believe the world has become there is always something to laugh at, even if it is ourselves. Remember that if we are laughing at ourselves others can only laugh WITH us.

So far this year it is the recession that the media has used to make an attempt to keep us all awake at nights worrying about whether it is worth buying Christmas cards early. And now it is pig flu or something. I heard one interview on the news recently where the person being interviewed was giving a few reasons why he thought we would be ok by the end of the year. The interviewer then turned to another guest and said (verbatim) "Is he right to be so optimistic?" as if it were a crime to be so. Blooming heck if there are many more of these optimist type people around we might just run out of ways to scare the heeby jeebys out of people. Well I don't know about you but I'm sick of all of the doom and gloom so here are a few things I have dug up from my files or read somewhere that might just put a smile on your face.

This is a genuine quote from our esteemed Prime Minister when finally saying sorry for the email smearing campaign...

"I take full responsibility for what happened...so the person responsible has been removed from office.." WHAT???

These are word-for-word transcripts taken from a book called "Disorder in the American Courts" available on Amazon...

• Attorney: "Now doctor is it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?"
• Witness: "Did you actually pass the bar exam?"

• Attorney: "Do you recall the time you examined the body?"
• Witness: "The autopsy started around 08:30."
• Attorney: "And Mr Denton was dead at the time?"
• Witness: "No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him."

• Attorney: "How was your first marriage terminated?"
• Witness: "By death."
• Attorney: "And whose death terminated the marriage?"
• Witness: "Whose death do you suppose terminated the marriage?"

And if life gets really tough why not just Google Tommy Jokes! Here are some of the best...

• So I got home and the phone was ringing. I picked it up and said "Who's speaking please?" A voice said "You are!"
• So I rang up my local swimming baths. I said "Is that the local swimming baths?" He said "It depends where you're calling from!"
• I went to the doctors the other day and I said "have you got anything for wind?" He gave me a kite!

So you see the world isn't all doom and gloom, but you just might have to look further than the media to find something to smile about.

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Book, film or quote of the month

Have you ever said something so profound that you have had to stop what you are doing to write it down? I did just that recently. During a session I was doing on personal values recently I was being questioned about integrity and more to the point MY integrity. Someone pointed out that we can tell people anything we want to about who or what we are and asked "how do they know that you are telling the truth?? My answer was that they don't particularly need to believe that you are telling the truth, only you have to believe that you are telling the truth. And then I said...

"It matters not what I tell people I do with, and in, my life, it is what I actually do when I am my only witness that creates my integrity."

Now I haven't said too many original things in my life that have made me step back and say "wow...that was profound.? But this statement made me do just that. Well done me for finding a way to describe exactly what integrity means to me. Of course this is just my truth. Integrity might mean something completely different to you, and if it does I am absolutely certain that you will let me know. But for now this is on my office wall with my name bottom right.

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What do I know now that I didn't know a month ago?

Apparently my hands are bigger than average...?

Sometimes the biggest teeth marks on your bum are left by your own truth when it comes back to bite you.

There are people out there who actually teach you how to use social media ~ www.reachfurther.com

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Challenging your thinking

"This is it" moments...
Have you ever had one of those déjà vu moments?

Déjà vu; Illusion of having already experienced present situation

Although not exactly déjà vu moments "this is it" moments are on the same lines. I was at a lunch last week and Nadine was on my table. Her good news was that the day before she had been sat in her garden in the middle of the day enjoying the sunshine and she said to herself "this is why I decided to work for myself.? That was a "this is it" moment.

Recently I spoke with my friend Richie who plays professional Rugby League. Richie was telling me of his moment. Around seven years ago Richie suffered a huge disappointment in his career when he was dropped for an important final. When he had composed himself we set about setting his goals for his future in the game. Richie wrote down a scene that he imagined at some point in the future when he was playing in a huge stadium in front of a capacity crowd in a major competition.

Three years ago he was a member of the Rhinos squad who made it to the Grand Final at Old Trafford. Old Trafford is massive and the grand final always attracts a capacity crowd in excess of 70,000 spectators. Richie said that none of this had registered with him until he was taking off one of his training tops during the warm up. As he pulled the top over his head he glanced up and saw the crowd, he heard the live music being played as pre-match entertainment and he told me that at that point he said out-loud "this is it, this is what I wrote down."

I have regular "this is it" moments. The most recent was when I was washing my car on my drive while my dog was asleep on my lovely garden. At that moment in time that was it.

None of these or countless other "this is it" moments would have happened for us or anyone else for that matter if we hadn't decided what "it" was a long time before it actually manifested.

What will be your "this is it" moments of the future. What will you suddenly realise is the manifestation of a goal or a dream that you set a long time ago? Perhaps you have had several already but not realised that you have brought about wherever you are right now by your actions and beliefs of your past. My challenge to you is to take some time to write a vision of your future that excites you, that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck when you think of it actually coming true. It might be creating something or meeting someone. You might have a dream of becoming someone that you are not already. It could be a vision of your perfect Sunday or more ambitiously your perfect life at any given time. Whatever it is take yourself off somewhere private and quiet and write it down, then put it away somewhere safe and get on with living your life but be awake to the opportunities and 'coincidences' that occur from that point on. If you write with honesty and conviction and you don't clutter yourself with the how question you will wake up one day and you too will say "This is it, this is the dream I wrote down all those years ago.? Enjoy the journey and wake up to what is out there for us all.

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Achievements Inventory

I'm on Twitter (www.twitter.com/clivegott). I'm not altogether certain what to do with it yet but I'm up there.

I am also on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com/in/clivegott). Same as twitter though but I'm working on being proficient with both!

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Feedback

Construct; fit together, build
Criticise; find fault with

Given the dictionary definition of these two words I still fail to see the advantage in anyone offering 'constructive criticism.' Feedback is described as a response and I for one am happy to instigate a response. Instigating a response is one of the results of putting my thoughts out there on my newsletters or my blog in the first place. If it were not for feedback how would anyone know whether what they were doing was working or not? When I had my breakdown in 2007 for instance I was receiving feedback that the way I was living my life was not positive, I changed immediately as a result of that feedback. My blog has generated some interesting feedback which has come in several forms...

Positive; This is not necessarily feedback that agrees with what I have said, in fact some of it contradicts everything I stand for, however it is positive and usually worthy of entering into a discussion over. This feedback does not always agree but it is agreeable.

Abusive; This is obviously not agreeing with what I have to say although it is voiced in a disagreeable, rude and sometimes insulting way. This usually generates a response thanking the sender for their time however I am unlikely to enter into any discussions.

Orchestrated; This is feedback that comes from several people who have been rallied round to reply for or by someone else. The major clue is that they have all picked up on the same point (or even the same line or word) in a posting and replied within a short period of time. Each has a valid point however it is invariably the same valid point. Each however deserves and receives a polite reply as is befitting for the time they have spent reading and replying to my postings.

Immediately dismissible after a polite reply; I honestly believe that anyone who takes the time to offer me feedback is entitled to a polite reply. Some replies though I might have to send with a smile on my face as I did to one of my postings. Unless I actually know someone personally (as with Rebelwolf) it is unlikely that I am going to take too seriously any feedback that is hidden behind a pseudonym? And in answer to the question why do I talk about myself, well I once heard someone else talking about me and decided that I could do a much better job of it.

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My Latest adventure

All of my adventures are now featured in my blog Gott Shots & Me, Too moments. This month I became a tourist in Liverpool when Elaine and I took ourselves off to the Cavern for a few beers and some live music. If you want to know what it was like you find out about Mixing business with pleasure! on my blog.

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A question for discussion.

Given the recent outbreak of swine flu in Mexico the media were meeting people arriving home at certain airports. They were surprised to find that in Mexico there was no panic and the people arriving home were very calm. Is the British media guilty on this and many other occasions of whipping up panic for the sake of god news coverage?

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