INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION, LIFE, LIVING & LOVING

My more recent blogs have veered away from photography and towards a discussion of different sources of motivation and inspiration and how people use different sources to help them to plan their futures, motivate themselves, become inspired, or just make it through to the next day.

Readers of my blog have placed their own interpretations on why I was writing on these topics and offered me messages of support, sent me links to further information and passed on their general good wishes all for which I'm very grateful.

My reason for sharing these thoughts with you over the last few months is simply because I've become more aware of them and have been in a position to see and hear messages both via Twitter and in presentations that previously I hadn't noticed or had the opportunity to receive which gave me more than just a passing interest in what was being said.

I've read much and learned plenty including how controversial some of the motivational, inspirational and life planning methods actually are, certainly not everybody has agreed with what I've written or discussed with them face-to-face. It's also fair to say that much of what I have read is very subjective as much of my reading about motivation, inspiration and life planning has left me; well ... uninspired!

So I want to finish up this series of blogs with a few sentences on what did get through to me and hope that you might find it useful. One thing I have noticed is that it's virtually impossible to apply these good messages to your life holistically but they can certainly be applied to certain situations.

So .. firstly I'd like to mention the presentation by Neil Holloway from Microsoft at the University of Reading. He gave a beautifully understated insight into life planning that I wrote about in my blog No Regrets . Follow the link back to the blog and you read all about it.

Secondly, I was sent a link to this image which made me smile and with which I agree wholeheartedly.

And finally I'd like to link you to the Energised Performance blog from Kim Ingleby. A lady who I've never met but would love to be able to share some time with at some point in the future. On the blog Kim links to a 'video' featuring insights from Steve Jobs the last few seconds of which I wrote down and pinned to my PC. I have applied the words it in a number of situations in my day job and I've found it to be truly helpful.


It reads ..

Your Time Is Limited

Dont Waste It By Living Someone Elses Life

Dont Be Trapped By Dogma Which is Living With The Results Of Other
Peoples Thinking

Don't Let The Noise Of Other Peoples Opinions Drown Out Your Own 

Inner Voice

And Most Important Have The Courage To Follow Your Heart And Intuition

They Somehow Already Know What You Truly Want To Become

Steve Jobs

REFLECTION AND RECONSTRUCTION

It will come as no suprise to regular visitors that my blog has been unusually quiet in recent weeks.

Sometimes in life events happen that make you want to reflect on how best to move forward. Sometimes when these events come along one at a time it is difficult enough but when a number of events come together at the same time it can be almost impossible to reflect and choose best paths because of all the 'noise'.

My friend Paula White wrote a blog called 'What Do You Say To The Person In The Mirror' which tells the story of a networking event we attended which included a motivtional talk from Jim McLeod. Jim spoke about identifying and removing influences which prevent you from achieving your aims and happiness and so I set about identifying what those might be.

Having given it some thought I decided on courses of action I need to take but to take all of them at the same time just isn't possible. The next step I took was to put them in an actionable order.

The first action I have decided to take is to simplify my on-line presence to make it more manageable and effective within the time I am able to dedicate to it. I'll do this by streamlining the relationship between my blog and professional website and effectively integrate the two.

This will give me more time to start to action other steps I need to complete to move forward again.


This work includes changing the colour scheme to match that of my professional website and simplify the page layout and give it an integrated look and feel. It may be a bit untidy for a while but once it's finished I hope it will look so much better.

In the meantime, if you have arrived at this page through the Kevin Leighton Photography website and you can't get back by clicking the 'Home' button please use the 'Back' button on your browser. If you didn't and you'd like to go there then please click here.