How Can You Be The Best FOR The World?

How Can You Be The Best For The World?

How can you be the best for the world? Well, someone recently asked me this question and it sent me into a wonderful thought spiral because don't most people want to be the best in the world? So what is the difference? One is about contribution and the other is about ego. Or is it? That is up to you to determine. The next question that then came to mind is what is it that you want to contribute to be the best for the world...
What are your unique skills and talents? What can you give to the world? What will make a difference?

What can you 'give' is fascinating because so many people do not know what their skills or talents are because they are so natural and easy for them. Take for example a friend of mine who teaches yoga, she had no idea it was a talent, she said it was simply something that she liked doing. Without realising it she is being her best for the world by sharing her yoga talent and inspiring others to find peace and bendiness. What about if you have a job that you simply choose to be your best in and positively up lift others. By choosing to give your best you are actively being the best for the world. What about people who are great at giving hugs? The more they hug people (who want it - otherwise it could be awkward...) the more they connect to others which may be all that someone needs. Or those who love, really love demonstrating love to the world. There is so much possibility.

To be the best for the world find what you love doing. What comes naturally to you? What makes you feel alive? How can you positively share and affect others?

I personally spent time considering this and realised that I love writing blogs, writing books and thinking a lot about a lot of things... Have you noticed? I would do what I do whether I make money from it or not. So that in itself is a little bit of a reveal about a talent. What would you spend your time doing even if you did not get paid for it?

So how can you be the best you can be for the world? Look at what you love doing, spend time doing it and then share it. Your happiness, joy and passion will positively affect others. We then have a positive chain reaction. Isn't that a beautiful thought?

Enjoy my audio books at the following link:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Money-Farm-Audiobook/B010BOM9A8/ref=a_search_c4_1_2_srTtl?qid=1471072677&sr=1-2

Are You Having A Laugh?

Are you having a laugh?

Come on admit it: there is nothing like a good belly laugh or laughing until there are tears streaming from your eyes and you can hardly breathe. In fact laughing hysterically is one of my favourite things and I indulge in it regularly. That is why I returned to writing children’s books because I can step into a world of wonder, where the most ridiculous scenarios have me shaking with laughter or force me to take a stroll around the room to get myself back in order. The thing is laughter is infectious. It lifts our energy and even on a cell level contributes to our health. So why aren’t we laughing more? Or laughing as much as possible?

There was a time when I was working for a large corporation and the head of the department, who appeared as though he had a smell under his nose, passed by while I was shaking with laughter. He paused by my desk and asked whether I was actually laughing. I replied that I was. He seemed bemused, as if he had not witnessed laughter in a long time.  Later that day I was called into an office and advised by my manger that I was to limit my conversation to ‘Good Morning and Good Night’ and certainly no laughter shenanigans. I asked him whether he realised that a happy team was a highly productive team. He avoided answering. I also questioned him - I said since people spend a huge amount of time at work – did they expect them to be robots? His response was ‘yes they wanted robots.’ They wanted the ‘robots’ to produce. Needless to say, I handed in my resignation. Within three months ninety percent of team left because the atmosphere had died and people did not want to spend their days doing a mundane job in misery. The remaining ten percent happened to be one person – the manager.

 

As the complete opposite to the above, my great friend is a laughter therapist and laughter yoga teacher. She uses laughter to break down internal barriers. She has developed quite a reputation and recently was asked to hold a speech for the police. So guess what she did? She got a huge hall of police people to laugh like the laughing policeman until everyone was shaking with laughter. The atmosphere in the room was so energised that everything she said was inspired. The room was united in laughter and each and every police officer who attended that talk left with such a positive experience that they would attend again.  The thing is laughter unites people and makes them more open. Don’t you gravitate to the person who is filled with laughter instead of the one who stands like a black-hole filled with doom?

With all the above in mind, I have taken some time out from writing my intensively researched books to having a bit of fun with some children’s books. Some of my colleagues at work asked me to put something together that would appeal to their children. So I came up with The Hairy-Legged Mystery, which went on sale last week, was snapped up for audio this week and the production is already complete and should be released next week. The same thing happened with Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs. Both of these books were written for personal entertainment and friends and were not expected to be put out into the wider market. Instead I wrote them with the intention to create something that made me laugh out loud at the desk and would be fun for my friends to read to their children. I admit, I do do some rather bizarre things and crying at the desk could be considered one of them. The way that I see it is that I write for sheer enjoyment and creativity - that enjoyment involves belly laughter, general tears of laughter at the desk and titles like a ‘cucumber catastrophy.’

What I have realised through creating these books is that laughter is precious. Laughter lifts our spirits and illuminates our souls. The question ‘are you having a laugh?’ made me consider how can I bring more laughter to the world. There is so much doom and gloom around and endless fear being perpetuated that I came to the conclusion we need more laughter. Obviously the answer is not pointing at people and laughing because that would be unfair. This one thought actually was the catalyst for the current children’s book I am writing. I am not going to give details because it is not complete yet.  It does involved giggling, laughter and a baddy who is truly miserable. The thing is the world needs more laughter and unites people positively through laughter. So my question is not only are you have a laugh but how do we encourage more laughter to lift our energy? If you have any answers that would be wonderful!!! This is the reason I released Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs along with The Hairy-Legged Mystery because it is my way of sharing the laughter.

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AMAZON.COM - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Ruby+Allure&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Ruby+Allure&sort=relevancerank

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AUDIBLE.COM
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mn_mt_ano_tseft__galileo?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+Allure&x=0&y=0 

NEW RELEASE: TINGLE DINGLE AND THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS

 https://www.amazon.com/Tingle-Dingle-Little-Mischiefs-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G9C0XC2?ie=UTF8&keywords=Ruby%20Allure&qid=1465049617&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

NEW RELEASE: THE HAIRY-LEGGED MYSTERY

https://www.amazon.com/Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Ruby-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G2C0Y9Q?ie=UTF8&qid=1465049724&ref_=sr_1_2&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

The Art of Dealing with Criticism

The Art of Dealing with Criticism

 

Can you think of a single person who likes to be criticised?. Has anyone in the past wandered up to you and said please criticise me? This week I have been thinking a lot about criticism and people's perspectives because I had some work provided with 'constructive feedback.'

 

Just to give you an insight of what initiated these thoughts, within my corporate social media and business work, I often produce presentations. I am always trying to progress and make them more and more interesting. Quite often I push boundaries. Of late I have been using a program called Videoscribe to produce small films to illustrate themes like Rewards and Recognition and promote the Social Media within the corporate environment. For those who work in business or in a corporation; I am sure you know that the main way of communication is through email or making very straight-line Powerpoint presentations. Nothing jumps out at you and the header should be another 'boring email that talks at me.' This is why I lead a communications team because I don't do boring.

 

So this week I made two presentations that were used on a Global scale and my Managing Director came up to me and said "I saw your films. They were very clever but I would not have done it like that." So that was the line... that made me travel on the journey of criticism and how people pass comment on others. I realised that most people's response to criticism is to become defensive. The second is to respond with a snarky comment and the third is to desire to punch them in the balls or smack a female version around the head with a handbag (in your mind of course!) The thing is sometimes people believe they are being helpful. There have been times when a comment has shown me something I missed. So not all criticism is bad. Sometime it is more how you deal with it.

 

 

So with this in mind I came up with the following on how to deal with criticism.

 

The biggest thing is to not take whatever is said personally. People make comments based on themselves. Sometimes they don't even realise they are criticising. What is interesting is so many people believe you care about their opinion. Remember it is just an opinion. Also use the comment to evaluate whether something can be done better to improve your project or whatever is being commented on.

 

So here are a few responses:

 

Response: Thank you for your insight. How would you do it? Oh have you done it like that before and did it get a good response? (This is not to be said with a tone of sarcasm, no matter how tempting).

 

Thank you for your opinion. What did you feel that worked and what needs to be adapted?

 

If you are not bothered by people's approval simply say 'thanks for your input.'

 

Or if you are a bit of a git then simply say 'I would love to see how you would do it and see the final piece.' I write this because the person concerned does not deliver and is just a talker. There are plenty of those in life.

 

This subject then made me think that there must be benefits to criticism... Why else would people do it? In my opinion it is a power dynamic. People criticise to 'steal your fire.' The thing is when you have established self-esteem you look at them and in your head you think 'I couldn't give a sh** what you think.

 

So the benefits of criticism are as follows:

 

The Benefits of Criticism

Personal Growth:

1. Are there any seeds of truth that can be worked on? If there are how can you use this to enable you to grow?

2. Is there a new perspective that you can use? You can expand, evaluate and evolve your thinking?

3. Take the opportunity to hear. Again Criticism gives you a chance to listen effectively to determine what someone actually means.

4. You have the chance to see the world through a critics' eyes. If they are criticising you then what must be going on inside their heads at themselves?

5. When critics hit a sensitive spot then it is an opportunity explore unresolved issues. Why else would you  be triggered into a reaction? If you were resolved within your self then would just smile and say thanks.

6.Criticism enables you to choose peace over conflict. You have a choice - create a drama or let it go.

7. Do you have people-pleasing tendencies? Criticism and your response will highlight whether you desire to please others. Ask yourself why you need to please? Also criticism enables you to define boundaries and teach people how you want to be treated. 

 

8. Learn to be criticised and move on quickly. It the same as fail quickly and move to success. 

You can learn to be time efficient and stop wasting mental energy on being criticisied.

If you have the right state of mind criticism enables you to progress, learn how you feel and whether you wish to be around the critic. We all have inner critics and sometimes criticism reveals something you already knew. Wouldn't it be worse if everyone said something was brilliant and there was an obvious flaw that you had not seen and no one had the balls to tell you? The critical enemy can be your best friend!

AUDIBLE LINK FOR A SHORT COURSE IN CREATIVE WRITING: http://amzn.com/B01390THLK

21/08/15

 

"An Unexpected Gem"

***I was provided a copy of this audio book for the purpose of a review ***

With the required disclaimer out of the way, let me be brutally honest, I had not expected this little gem. In fact, I had expected my listening would be a bit rough and was fortified by it being less than 2 hours.

The synopsis says the author wrote the book as a takeaway from her evening classes on creative writing. My mental context was ... Community Ed evening classes ...and expected a well intended but kind of amateur product. However, I am interested in adult education, and batter my own nerd head against a giant personal creativity brick wall.

So you have an idea of my mind set... low expectations along with high interest.

Amateur hour it was NOT.

I don't know where the author teaches her class, but Sign Me Up! And bring the narrator. Wow. Two hours of unadulterated, straight up, right on, good learning material delivered by a close friend just sharing the material. The narrator's voice was warm, sincere without any artifact or pompous patronising, and well modulated throughout. The material was mind opening for me, with the right mix of the mechanics of writing exercises, sufficient context that using prompts now makes sense to me, and a sprinkling of the inner heart work of creativity through written material.

This was just what I didn't dare hope for in a how to creative writing listen.

Truly an unexpected gem and a learning and growing experience for me.

A keeper and one I will return to many times as I deconstruct my own wall, one block at a time.

Thank You, Ruby and Thank You, Erin.

 

TO BUY MONEY FARM ON AMAZON.com http://amzn.com/B010F04W9O

· Frode

06/08/15

5 STAR

"M.O.N.E.Y. is bad? This book is not!"

So Money Farm by Ruby Allure was a surprise! When I REALLY did not read things about this book I review for Audiobook Blast, I sometimes get books I don't know something about. BTW: I read 99% about the books I want to review, but this book I can't remember I did that for. Anyways: This was a nice surprise, and I think it is one of those books that is better the second time you read it. No joke! I listen to this twice before I made this! Money Farm makes you thin, and who does not like to hear a book that makes you think? It is an awesome book, that I will recommend to all that likes audiobooks, and really to people that does not!

Helen Lloyd English accent its the topic like a glow and a hand! Her "lady like" voice is so cold, and clear I feel that the author made this book thinking that Helen Lloyd would read it out loud! That is how I feel those two fits together! The 2 times 14 hrs and 6 mins I spend with her never feels boring or uninteresting! I would love to spend it again, and I will because this book I will hear again, and again, even when it is 14 hrs and 6 mins long! That is saying something!

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com

MONEY FARM

· "Incredibly thought provoking..."

What did you like most about Money Farm?

It was an eye opener.

 

What did you like best about this story?

I like the way it made you think about the way normal everyday life is here and now, and the future...

 

Have you listened to any of Helen Lloyd’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Helen Lloyd narrated this fairly long audiobook brilliantly. Although the story content was very intense and thought provoking, her lovely smooth voice was very easy to listen to and I thought it was just perfect, a fascinating book wonderfully narrated.

 

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes it was, although it is too long to do so.