Change your habits, transfrom your life

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

Trying to change one's life without changing one's habits is as effective as trying to drive fast on a flat tyre.
So how do we change our habits, how do we change the way that we habitually act?

Step 1 is awareness - We must recognise our habit.
Step 2 is acceptance - To transform anything we must first accept what is so now.
Step 3 is understanding the reasons - Understanding why we acted the way we did
Step 4 is understanding the results - Understanding the result of out habitual actions.
Step 5 is forgiveness - We forgive ourselves and we forgive others - This is essential!
Step 6 is desire - How would we like life to be?
Step 7 is choice - We choose to create habits that will support us to live the life we desire.
Step 8 is structure - We create structures that support us to maintain our habits.

Let's take the example of a heavy drinker:

Step 1 - The heavy drinker recognises that he is drinking heavily.
Step 2 - He accepts that he is drinking heavily (without judgement).
Step 3 - He understand that his friends are heavy drinkers and that he drinks to forget.
Step 4 - He understands the impact that his drinking is having on himself and his loved ones
Step 5 - He forgives himself and others for where he is now.
Step 6 - He desires to live a healthy clean life.
Step 7 - He chooses to create healthy life habits including food, drink, exercise and social life.
Step 8 - He creates structures that support him to maintain his habits - Friends, support groups etc.

The process can take a long time and can also happen very quickly. The key is to make small changes to our habits, to create an environment that supports the new habits and to stick to the new habit.

Encounters Events

It's been a while since my last post. I moved back to England in June and spent the summer in Bournemouth.

I moved to London at the start of October and am once again Life Coaching and organising parties for single professionals.


The next event is a hosted drinks evening on Wednesday 26th November Abacus Bar in Bank.

The age range for the event is 26-42 and the dress code is smart casual or work suit.

Tickets are £25 each and can be bought at www.encountersevents.co.uk or by calling
Daniel on 07801 598376.

Maybe see you there!

Leaving Perth

In three days I leave Perth to return to England, via Sydney and Hong Kong.

I will be sad to leave and am already looking forward to returning in November.

Perth has been good to me these last six months here and there are many things I will miss:

- The warm, friendly people many of whom I now call friends.
- The stunningly beautiful nature, especially the river and the beaches both of which have been a great inspiration for my writing and a source of fabulous scenery for many long walks and jogs.
- The wonderful Mediterranean style climate with long hot summers, warm mild springs and autumns and winters that barely register as such by my English standards!
- The combination of city and beach - I grew up in a seaside town and lived most of my adult life in London and having both sea and city is wonderful.
- The outdoor lifestyle which has encouraged me to train regularly and improve my fitness to a level I was at 10 years ago.

I could go on, and I probably will in a later post, suffice to say, Perth is a beautiful, warm and friendly city and I am looking forward to coming back.

Location freedom

I am in the fortunate position of running my own business, which requires can be run from any location with a laptop, Internet access and a mobile phone.

It was not always this way for me.

I used to work in an office, with a boss, admin assistants, an accounts department, a legal team, cleaners, the whole number.

That was all great and served it's purpose for a while.

Then I decided that I wanted a bigger piece of the pie and more importantly I wanted the freedom to come and go as I pleased and not pay a £20 fine if I was 5 minutes late for work (I kid you not!)

So eight years ago, I started my own business and eight years on I am still running it.

To begin with I had an office at home with a lot of files and computer equipment that I really didn't need, that made me feel like I was running a business.

After a while the files and the unused computer equipment became clutter and I decided to have a clear out. This was about four years ago and I have never really stopped clearing out.

From moving house four years ago in a 3.5 tonne truck to now being able to move house in a car and being able to spend six months abroad taking only a suitcase and a small rucksack and continuing with business as usual.

I have finally reached my goal of being location free, I can and do work from anywhere.

All this comes at a price. I have released a lot of possessions, lots of things with sentimental value, things that 'might come in handy one day' or that 'might be valuable one day!'

I have also upset some people along the way who would like me to stay in one place and settle down. Well in my own way I am settling down, just not in the conventional sense.

In my experience, the benefits of being able to work from anywhere far outweigh the costs.
I intend to continue to be able to work from anywhere even if I choose to stay put in one place for an extended period of time.

Being able to work from anywhere has many benefits, including:

1. It encourages me to travel light and only keep what serves me
2. I do not get too attached to any particular place
3. I think globally rather that being limited to a specific location
4. My needs reduce to what I truly need not what my ego says I need
5. I get to travel lots and still run my business

As an experiment, I invite you to try out working in a different location (for some people this may not be practical; a surgeon would be ill advise to practise surgery in the park).

It could be as simple as taking your laptop to a coffee shop for the afternoon, or sitting at a different desk at work.

Give it a try, move out of your everyday comfort zone and see what shows up.

Have fun and keep it light!

Big orange head

A man walks into a doctors office and his head is big and orange.

The doctor says "Good god man, you've got a big orange head! How did this happen?"
The man starts to tell his story.

"Well doctor, the other day I was walking along the beach when I notice a piece of metal sticking out of the sand. I picked it up and it was a lamp. I brushed off the sand and *poof* out pops a genie who says he will grant me three wishes. I say genie for my first wish I want a bank account with £10 billion. Genie says *poof* and hands the me a card with a account number and sort code to a bank account with £10 billion."

"Then I said 'Genie for my second wish I want to be married to the most beautiful woman in the world and I want her to be madly in love with me.' All of a sudden *poof* I'm standing next to the most beautiful woman in the world, and in her hand she has a marriage certificate.

At this point in the story the guy turns to the doctor and says "Doctor, I think this is the point where I went wrong. I turned to the genie and said 'Genie for my third wish I want a big orange head!'"

Second post

So after procratinating for a while before writing my first post I then found myself unhappy with what I wrote, unhappy with the title of the blog, unsure about whether blogging was really for me and generally enjoying writing less because I felt obliged to write my next post.

All that made for lots of thinking, resisting and procrastinating and not very much writing.

Then I had a thought. If I am experiencing this, then probably lots of other people are too, so rather than wait until I have something 'good' to write, I can write about my experience of starting a blog. Well it seemed like a good idea to me :-)

So perfectionist put to one side, inner critic silenced, here is my second post!

Welcome to The Freedom Coach

Hello and welcome to The Freedom Coach.

My name is Daniel Wise. I'm a 35 year old English man currently living in Perth, Western Australia. I own and run a Futurebilty Ltd, which has various businesses activities including Life & Executive Coaching.

Freedom is one of my highest values and I believe that without freedom very little is possible and with freedom most things are possible.

A quick search on Dictionary.com gives multiple definitions including:

1. The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.

2. Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. The power to determine action without restraint.

The definitions fall broadly into two categories:

Freedom from - e.g. Debt, pain, inprisonment or obligation.

Freedom to - e.g. Create, travel, express, play or relax.

In this blog, I will be focusing on freedom to and in particular freedom of time, location and money.

My intention in the blog is to share some ideas and insights about how to experience more freedom in your life in the areas that are most important to you.

What you do with that freedom, now that's up to you!