Finding your inner consultant is like taking a holiday without leaving home.

When I started running a business I didn't go on holiday. I thought that I didn't have the money or the time. When I finally did take a holiday I made a strange discovery. I discovered that a holiday actually gave me more time. When I returned many of the things that I had been struggling with had answers that I had previously missed because I had been working so hard on them. Solving a problem by taking it head on can work but often the answer is to go around it or to solve a different problem instead. You have the wisdom but you prevent yourself from using it. A holiday frees you up.

I was bought up with the ethos that the harder you work the better you will do, it certainly goes a long way but I think working smarter is more effective. I think this is the trick with holidays, when I return I apply my effort in just the right place so it is far more effective. The thing that interested me is that I had the knowledge of the right place to apply that effort all along but somehow I didn’t think of it. This is what I mean by “your inner consultant”, the wisdom that you have gained from experience and from all the books you have read. Most of us can’t go on holiday everyday so I started to search for ways to use this ability without actually going on holiday. This website is all about that search. Check out the Audio book to get a great overview of what I have found so far.


There is actually a great way to have a real holiday without leaving home. My partner and I call it a Mykonos holiday or a Paris holiday but you can name it after any place that you have had a wonderful time. This is what you do.

Choose a day on your calender when you don't have anything that you need to do. Block out the day and make sure all the chores, work and other stuff that you would usually do on that day are taken care of. Sort out any food the day before so that you won't need to do any cooking other that a quick 5 minutes putting things together. You can always go out to eat if that is what you would do on holiday. Put on the phone answering machine.

Now having set things up there is only one rule.You can only do stuff that you would do on holiday in the place you have chosen. No TV, no Internet, no phone calls. If holiday for you means spending the day in a café then do that, if it involves just sitting in the sun do that. If you like to do more energetic things that is fine but remember the golden rule. You can only do stuff that you would do on holiday in the place you have chosen.


I was going to link to this as a blog but decided to post it here as I thought there would be some interesting comments.

I have been using a free your mind up technique for years. when there is a problem that I cannot deal with or solve I decide to leave it alone for a while and concentrate on something else, totaly different. Its amazing how a soloution will present itself. As someone who needs to have in memory the names of many plants, I sometimes find that a name hides. in my unconcious when need to recall it. Typicaly this will happen when I am unexpectedly asked to name a plant for a visitor to the Botanic Garden. I could allow myself to get embarressed or stressed about this, however I find that admitting the name is hiding and will come out eventually then chatting for a while about another plant or how memory becomes crowded with knowledge as we age, generally will free the name. Just another example of how a short rest can refresh the parts that stressing won't. Incidentaly the habit of a long walk at the weekend can do wonders for brains and bodies.

southnick wrote:

Finding your inner consultant is like taking a holiday without leaving home.

When I started running a business I didn't go on holiday. I thought that I didn't have the money or the time. When I finally did take a holiday I made a strange discovery.

I discovered that a holiday actually gave me more time.

*Some explanations here would be nescessary regarding what is meant i.e., giving the examples of the verbs behind the reasoning of expanded or maybe even slowed analyze times, ....

When I returned many of the things that I had been struggling with had answers that I had previously missed because I had been working so hard on them.

Solving a problem by taking it head on can work but often the answer is to go around it or to solve a different problem instead. You have the wisdom but you prevent yourself from using it. A holiday frees you up.

*Problem solving head on often works like a charm, sometimes thou by working around a problem defuse the problem, frequently the vacation manifest itself by going towards rather than away from solutions.

I was bought up with the ethos that the harder you work the better you will do, it certainly goes a long way but I think working smarter is more effective.

*Change smarter to brilliantly, see if the onus works the same

I think this is the trick with holidays, when I return I apply my effort in just the right place so it is far more effective.

*My priorities are reprioritize, b/c I got to dump out everything what's on my mind to paper thus freeing me to get along with myself better? Does 'Making it all work by David Allen, ring a bell?

The thing that interested me is that I had the knowledge of the right place to apply that effort all along but somehow I didn’t think of it. This is what I mean by “your inner consultant”, the wisdom that you have gained from experience and from all the books you have read.

*Expand or contract meant on inner-consultations farther to get to the gist of things and onto the point more precise.

Most of us can’t go on holiday everyday so I started to search for ways to use this ability without actually going on holiday. This website is all about that search. Check out the Audio book to get a great overview of what I have found so far.

*Some of us can't get out of to feeling holidays, and close the knowing doing gap by understanding more.

There is actually a great way to have a real holiday without leaving home. My partner and I call it a Mykonos holiday or a Paris holiday but you can name it after any place that you have had a wonderful time. This is what you do.
*Nice
Choose a day on your calender when you don't have anything that you need to do. Block out the day and make sure all the chores, work and other stuff that you would usually do on that day are taken care of. Sort out any food the day before so that you won't need to do any cooking other that a quick 5 minutes putting things together. You can always go out to eat if that is what you would do on holiday. Put on the phone answering machine.

Now having set things up there is only one rule.You can only do stuff that you would do on holiday in the place you have chosen. No TV, no Internet, no phone calls. If holiday for you means spending the day in a café then do that, if it involves just sitting in the sun do that. If you like to do more energetic things that is fine but remember the golden rule. You can only do stuff that you would do on holiday in the place you have chosen.


I was going to link to this as a blog but decided to post it here as I thought there would be some interesting comments.

I thought you wanted a critic review as if like in a movie, so I'll abstain being helpful further, and no one might touch 'em with a 10ft pole and you rock.

Hi Mike,

Bit confused by your comment. Helpful is good.

Margaret

You are right. Just take the pressure off and suddenly the answer pops into your mind.

Margaretelisabeth wrote:

I have been using a free your mind up technique for years. when there is a problem that I cannot deal with or solve I decide to leave it alone for a while and concentrate on something else, totaly different.

Often I never felt like waiting so I used to do a deal and still do sometimes.

I would say to my unconscious "I promise to not think about what it is I am trying to remember" I couldn't always do it but if you are sincere your unconscious forgives you I have found.

However the deal is that your unconscious mind has to provide you with the answer at some specified time or when a particular event occurs such as when you are ready to go out.

No one is more amazed than me at the number of times it continues to work.

John

The only difference between me and a mad man is that I am not mad

Me, neither. Being mad just wastes *so*, *so* much energy!

Venus

I am going to try taking a holiday without actually taking a holiday, how the hell am I not going to answer my phone or go online? I will have to force myself

Find something you like to do even more than the phone or going on-line.

What do you love doing on holiday. For me it is going to street food markets, reading a novel without interruption and lying on a blanket in the dark watching bats and shooting stars.

I can't guarantee the bats and shooting stars in Southampton but I can go to a farmers market then lie on the sofa in my garden studio reading a great book with a cocktail in my hand.

Think about what you love to do then adapt it. Switch your answer machine to silent. If you don't have an answer machine they are pretty inexpensive so treat yourself.

Have a wonderful day.

Nick