my homestead story

It's been quite sometime since i've posted anything. so today i'm sharing some of my little tips and tricks that i've come across over the last few months in my own personal development that you can implement in a similar way.

Recently as a recognition of todays changing economical climate i decided to start my own organically sustainable garden. Since then, it's grown larger and larger and brings me more and more joy to see how well it's going. My garden, like many things, started from humble beginnings, years ago me and my family planted, a mango tree, eventually we planted a mandarin tree too, then mulberries,then lemons, and so on and so forth until we had a small range of fruit tree's in the front of our garden. this was all just haphazard planting for the convience and fun of having a few nice fruit to tend to. but as things continued along i realised that it would be really quite easy to start a sustainable garden, on a budget, with a good mix of fruit and veg, which in the end, taste great and save me some cash.

I'm not saying you have to plant a garden, what i am trying to say though is pick something you have always wanted to do, start small and go from there.

START NOW! it's easier than you think to pick up something you've wanted to now and turn it into something you love doing. Emotion is a elixir of life and youthfulness, pick something that sparks it up, and stick at it, not because you have to or need to, but because you want to.

My garden started with one mango tree, now it has over 28 different fruit and vegetables, 5 custom built plantar boxes, a bird house,a organic composting system, a bee box, an underground watering system that i'm in the process of connecting up to a greywater tank, and will soon be joined by a bokashi style composter and small green house, and incase your thinking of doing something similar and don't have alot of space, neither did i but you'll be surprised what you can do when you put some thought into planning out your garden.

get into it, you'll surprise yourself.

Everyday improvements for everyday greatness

So it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been pretty busy with my uni studies and haven’t had an opportunity to post. So today i wanted to post on a few of the things I’ve been working on or learnt that I think might help some of you out there.

First of all, is what i like to call my “daily change mechanism”. Which is basically as simple as this: Each day you choose to do something that is going to better yourself in some way. This doesn’t mean things like cleaning the house so you don’t feel stressed, although it’s a good idea. What the idea is, is to implement an activity that will result in changing YOU. My main example, (because this is one I’ve been using frequently with a lot of success) is writing with your non-dominant hand. Now this may seem like a simple “pffft” type of thing but studies show that using your non-dominant hand for writing or drawing tasks activates more neural path ways. Why should you care? Well not only does opening up those new neural pathways allow you the opportunity to use them in developing richer and more dense grey matter which will have a carry on effects in everything else you do, but in the interest of motor control it allows you to progressively develop better hand co-ordination and non-dominant hand skills.  Since I started this exercise I’ve greatly improved my non-dominant hand skills to the point of nearly being ambidextrous in the space of less than a month. Defiantly something useful! Not only that, I feel sharper, which made me decide my next “daily change mechanism” was going to take advantage of this improved cognitive ability and learn to speed read. As you can see, the idea behind a daily change mechanism is in constantly improving your skills and yourself into becoming the greatest possible version of you!

So here’s a small one to get the ball rolling:

●Start off writing 5 easy sentences a day e.g. “the cat sat on the mat”

● after you’ve developed that to where it starts becoming easy, move on to writing out the alphabet in lower and upper case

●Once you’ve mastered that, try writing small fluent paragraphs, whatever comes to mind, i recommend using it to document how you feel you are improving

●Next move on to drawing 2- 3 small pictures

● finally try to use your new found skill as frequently as you can during your day so that it feels natural .e.g. writing a shopping list or making notes.

There is a technique in the muscular rehabilitation world known as CIMT, which stands for Constraint Imposed Muscular Therapy. Which works on a very similar basis of supplementing your good limb for using your bad one to try and develop motor control, and is proven to be very effective.

The idea is, pick something you think is going to improve yourself and implement it into your everyday life. Develop the idea that you can always make yourself greater than you are and soon you will find that your goals that used to seem so far away have been well exceeded.

Leave a comment below on methods or idea’s you might have ore have used to improve yourself every day.

Think about this

This is an exercise, so dont't just read it, then flick to the next page and forget it.

Think about the quote below, decipher it, break it down so it applies to you personally, and think of how it might effect your own character. It's short and sweet so why not try it.


"There can be no greater independance thank knowing yourself, your abilities and your unending potential."

what does this mean to you?

Find out what you where made for

Finding your place in the world career wise is without a doubt one of the hardest things to do in your life. You're basically choosing what you plan on doing for the next few decades, which is no small commitment. It's a very daunting prospect, one i suffered with just like most people. But here's the thing,if you choose something that you don't love or isn't going to pay the bills, it's harder.

So how, with all the vocations out there, do you decide what you want to do.

Here are two simple solutions, i felt worked for me, and will hopefully work for you too.

Number 1: follow your passion

It's a no brainer, if you follow your passions and do something you love,not only is the likelihood of your productivity being high excellent, but your work/ life balance and overall satisfaction will usually be on the positive end of the spectrum too. Don't get talked out of following your dreams, make a decision to live them

Number 2: Help others

Helping others is a powerful thing. It's something I'm truly passionate about and therefore thats why i write these blogs( I'm not getting paid, i only earn small amounts in advertisement). There is nothing more rewarding than knowing you have positively influenced someone. Besides which it is one of the reasons we where put on this planet. Helping others pays for itself morally, and reminds us, that as humans, we share equality when it comes to they way we care and react. So help others, aspire to lead, and perhaps soon others will follow.

Manifesting your desire, the truth behind the law of attraction

Due to an influx of popular new thought style books focusing on the law of attraction and other ideas, people seem to have the perception that you can simply materialize things with your thoughts. Now this isn't necessarily true, however the whole idea of thoughts becoming things is not necessarily a lie either.

When we create a thought of something we desire, no matter what it is, we are putting our intent out there that this is what we desire. Now although the whole concept behind the law of attraction and other similar ideas is that the universe will bring your intended desire to you, it is a bit misleading. In reality, you think a thought, put your intent out there, and then by putting your thought out there you become more consciously aware of resolutions for solving how to manifest your desire. For example, let’s say you want to become healthier. You put your desire out there by thinking about how healthy you want to be, once you have done that, your intent is there. You are consciously aware that you want to be healthier, so the next time a situation arises that you might have an opportunity to get healthier, you will be more inclined to jump on the situation. This could be something like walking through a shopping centre and seeing a special on to join a gym and deciding to join because it fits with your new intended desire, or meeting someone who is a personal trainer or doctor and deciding to ask them how you might go about getting healthier. You may think that this is the universe bringing in opportunities to grant your desires, but in reality, the work is all up to you. You plant your own intentions in your mind and subconsciously remind yourself to take steps to fulfil those desires whenever possible.
This may be disheartening if you have a strong belief that the universe is what is really going to bring you your success, but this the reality. Your brain has the power to grant you your deepest desires, by you funnelling in idea’s and it spitting out solutions to your subconscious, that’s empowering stuff, so celebrate the power of your brain and go out and start creating your success.

The power of words

Never underestimate the power of words. Words can transform your ideas into realities, your enemies into allies and your image into one of greatness. There is nothing greater for gaining a following and developing power. If your idea is strong and your words reflect your passion, your potential is unlimited. Strive to speak to truth of your ideas with passion and high moral status and you my friend, can do anything.

break your cycle

Life's best road only welcomes those willing to trek further off the beaten track. If you want to live a rich life, full of fun, adventure and constant improvement, learn to live through experiences.Sitting back and watching things happen will never get you the satisfaction of doing something yourself. live today, go hunting for experiences in beauty and adventure. that's the way life should be.

A piece of sound advice from a great man

It's been a little while now since the great Steve Jobs passed away, leaving the world with so many great and innovative signs of his legacy, I won’t be writing about any of that. The number of people who have written and expressed their feelings about his legacy and the great loss that the world has had can be summed up simply by the masses who still express their mourning throughout the many vast forms of media. Instead I just want to leave you with a quote from the big man that not only touched me, but hundreds, if not thousands of people as he made his address to a number of Stanford university graduates sometime during 2005. To keep it short and sweet it went something like this:
“I’ve looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today where the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today. And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Strong words and sound advice. Try asking yourself the same thing.

Live up to your dream self

Most of us have a solid image or dream of exactly how we’d like to be. In other words our ideal self. It gives us something to work towards and aspire to; however also for most of us it is just a fantasy. As much as you might desire to become or look like James Bond or Coco Chanel, it isn’t going to happen. But as upsetting as that may be to the avid dreamer, it’s also a great thing. Following the image and principles of someone you aspire to be like is nice, sure, but it’s even better when you can put your own personal spin on it. Sure you might want to look like Bond, he’s got a sharp look and suave demeanour, but you probably don’t want to have to carry a gun around as a dog of the government. So mix it up to meet your own standards. Be the suave stylish gentleman, or in Coco’s case, stylish and unique independent women. Start living up to your dream, but on your own terms. The point is not to aspire to be like others, but to follow your own path, learning from others what you can to reach your desired goals. It’s easy to forget what we are capable of achieving because often we have no need to step outside our comfort zone. Make a decision to break that safety bubble and live up to becoming your ideal self. Following your dreams, whether career wise or lifestyle orientated is the only true way to obtain the happiness you seek and feel like a free individual.

Let your actions speak for you

I wanted to write this post because of a number of things. Firstly, I’ve hit this fantastic point in my own life where things have become clear for me and therefore I’m trying to share what I’ve come to realise with others. Since i was young I’ve always wanted to be successful beyond measure. I always had an idea in my head of who I wanted to be, how I wanted to act and how i wanted to live, and slowly but surely my desire has been coming true, but only through persistence, which brings me to my first point. One of the first things I came to realise( and it's not rocket science, you probably realised it too) is that i couldn't truly become the person i wanted to be without fulfilling the traits I dreamed my ideal self would have, i would have to start acting like the person i want to be ( duh, right?) . The thing is, you can't always live up to your desired traits without sticking your neck out into a new and often daunting experience. So i dedicated myself to developing myself.

Sure that may sound a little selfish to some, but the truth is if you can't master yourself, how can you expect to master your environment, and that means everything from learning to respect other people to having others respect you as a leader. So i decided i would make it my goal to acquiring as many skills as possible and subject myself to as many experiences as possible, and the truth is i have never felt so accomplished, balanced and happy, and that is passing over into everything i do, and it can for you too, once you come to terms with sticking your neck out and developing yourself.

Since I began my journey I’ve done many things I’d have never even considered before, and now I can gladly say that they are beginning to shape who I am. I started Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay thai and furthered that by moving into mixed martial arts. I began learning more about sports performance, health and the human body, I started to learn mandarin, how to wire circuitry and build far more than I ever could before. The list goes on and on, but the points remain’s the same, to develop experience in as much as possible and ultimately start living the life I truly desired. It's a journey that will never end if you truly have the desire to better yourself, and that’s why you need to do it. After all, what is life except for a number of experiences’s that start from the day we're born to the day we die. We can either sit back and hope for the best, or we can go out, take control of our destiny and start letting our actions speak for us. Make your choice the right one.

P.s.  leave a comment of a new skill you’d like to learn, you might inspire a passion in someone else and in return find one yourself.