The Impossible Made Possible

I'm sorry, I know I stole that from the Coke Zero adverts but it's catchy and well...I like it. Any how, this is how to make the impossible....possible. Now look at these two words, I'll even make the bold to point it out IMPOSSIBLE & POSSIBLE, what's standing in the way of 'Impossible' becoming 'Possible'...I'll give you a second to work this out.

Got it yet? No. Okay the only thing standing in the way of 'Impossible' becoming 'Possible' is 'Im' or I'm...yes that's right, it's you, you're what's stopping the impossible becoming possible. Now please don't get offended by that and leave the page and never visit again. But I mean it, the only person that can stop impossible things in your life becoming possible yourself.

People always see the impossible as something that is just too far away and cannot be achieved. And you know what, if you keep thinking like that it always will be too far away, you'll never reach it. But imagine it, the impossible things in your life, a house, a car, that dream job or even those dream grades in exams, sat there in front of you. They can be there if you set your mind to it.

Now I'm not saying you're going to get all that stuff by just the right mindset. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to achieve those dreams and impossibilities. But you put in the work and you keep focused, you'll get there, and you'll love it when you're there.

A good friend of mine Ben Tarbuck said to me a few years ago "Aaron, a few years down the line, you'll be in a place that you'd never think you'd be in. You just have to work at it." and you know what...I look back now and think 'How on earth have I gotten here?'

Don't stop the impossible becoming possible

Aaron
(@Mr_Aaron_B Twitter)

Running With The Giants - Noah

Right as I said this is based on the book 'Running With The Giants' by John C. Maxwell...I've only had the book two days and I am already though most of it but I want to share with you what I learnt from it chapter by chapter.

So here goes the first chapter and it began to talk about what Noah did with the ark and what not. When you actually look deeper into what the bible says about the story you begin to realise how pivotal Noah's life actually was...I mean come on he saved the human race from extinction, the guy single handedly saved humanity.

What I learned from Noah after reading it in the bible also is that one person really can make a difference no matter what age, Noah was over 600 years old when God told him to build the ark. 600 years old, that's gotta be one frail old man and he's building one of the biggest constructions in ancient history, enough to fit a pair of every land dwelling animal  in existence. Now I know what your thinking ' Dat one BIG boat' ...yes it was...huge in fact. But what it did show is that Noah had a conviction to do what had been set out for him, he'd been told what to do and with faith and conviction he did it.

Although the story of Noah is fading in modern day society, what he achieved will affect the human race forever, he changed the course of history and he was just one man, never feel disheartened and think that you are only one person and you can't achieve anything. Noah did and so can you.


Aaron
(Twitter @Mr_Aaron_B )

Running With The Giants

So this is the start of a new series of blog posts inspired and based on a book by John C. Maxwell entitled 'Running With The Giants' hence the blog title. The book is about what we can learn from the heroes of the old testament. So I'll be sharing with you what I've learnt from the book.

Social media and you.

Those who know me will know that I love facts. So as I'm talking about social media, here are a few.

Facebook has over 500 million active users world wide.

And each user has on average 130 friends and produces around 90 pieces of content a month.

Facebook also has over 30 million active users in the UK alone, that's half of the population.

And people spend over 700 billion minutes on Facebook each month which works out at 1.3 million years a month.

Twitter currently has 106 million users worldwide and that number increases by around 300,000 each day.

So I guess what you get from all that is that social media is powerful.

What I'm going to talk about in this post is how to use your social media for the good not the bad.

I currently manage 7 groups on Facebook, and 4 accounts on Twitter and on each of those groups and accounts you'll never see one bit of negativity, toward people or towards myself.

The social media is such a big tool, use it in the right way and you can open so many doors and create a world of opportunities. But use it in the wrong way and you can land yourself in a heap of trouble, you only have to turn on your TV so see Jeremy Kyle having people shout at him 'she said this on facebook' or 'he liked this' or even look at the news where recently people have been jailed and fired because of the things they post.

The entertainment media has a strong influence on the social media, especially on the users. People are told not to take rubbish from people, which is fair enough, but just because someone says something about you or does something to you doesn't mean you should go and start ripping into them on the sites, that's not why they were created.

I guess what I'm trying to put across is that if you do use social media, use it for the positive, but use it throughout everything you use. Don't go on Twitter and be all positive and wise then go on Facebook and rip into people and claim that it's different...because it isn't...negativity is still negativity.

Social media was created for people to connect and talk from all corners on the earth as if they were sat across the room, it wasn't made for people to moan, cry and whinge about other people. We were all put on this earth for a positive reason, don't be the one to ruin that.

If you want some good examples of people who do nothing but spread positivity follow these guys on Twitter @Mr_Aaron_B @dannywith @davebelfield @bentarbuck @sjonesuk they know how it's done

Keep it real and keep it positive.

Aaron 

(@Mr_Aaron_B Twitter)

A new way forward - Change your family

So, I've been asked too write about changing your family for the better, and being the pioneer in your family, well, that's what i plan too do. First, we need to know what being a Pioneer is...So here goes.

My View on being a Pioneer is being a Leader, someone who points people in the right direction, personally, I think that's great, being able too show lead someone and be able too be there guide. Anybody can be your Pioneer, but you want someone you can trust, someone you can rely on. You want someone who can lead you. We all have that potential in us, but we need too let it out, to prove it too someone.

Now Leading your Family, it's always difficult too lead someone in a completely different direction too the way they were going. I think that you should just be there, no matter how difficult the situation is, It's hard, nobody said it'd be easy, but it's a commitment you've made, and I guess, it's one you can't just put down and just pick up were you left off.

Now, putting them both together, well that's the tricky bit...But..It's not impossible, you can do it. I have, well, I'm trying to. I think really that we need to believe that we can do it. Not just think we can. I remember one of my friends told me once, "What mind thinks thinks, your body will follow" But really, I disagree with this. I think it is "What your Heart believes your mind will follow."

Don't be scared to make the change.

Nikita!

(Twitter @Nikitaa_Marie)

A new way forward - What's your mentality?

Before you carry on reading watch this video the rest of this post is going to be based around it.

Watched it? Good. This whole post is based around this video.

A quote from the video says this 'It ain't about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward' 'That's how winning is done'. In that quote is the mentality of a pioneer, no matter how hard things get, you keep going, you don't stop, you look to the future and you taste the reward at the end and you get up and keep going.

That mentality is a winning mentality it'll take you forward. I'm not saying your going to develop that mentality overnight (you might do I don't know), it takes time to develop a mentality, you have to work it into our daily life, make it who you are.

There's always a big thing around mentality and it seems to be that our generation and our nation has the mentality of 'it's only going to get worse, so what's the point' that's the sort of thing talked about in the video, that is the mentality that life craves, you allow life to beat you down and keep you there. You develop the victim mentality, you begin to think ' I've had the worst done to me why should I keep going' but that's the entire reason to keep going, you've had the worst done to you.

A big part of the mentality of a pioneer is that winning bounce back mentality. Richard Branson for example suffered from dyslexia and dropped out of high school at sixteen with poor academic results. But did he let any of this stop him, not a chance he bounced back and started a business at sixteen which lead to the empire that is Virgin and has made him the 5th richest man in the UK. He saw his future, had the mentality to do and went out and got it.


As I wrap up this rather short post as I wanted the video to do the talking. All I wanted to say is that the right mentality will take you anywhere.

Thanks for reading

Aaron
(Twitter @Mr_Aaron_B)

P.S. Look out for posts from new bloggers coming soon, they'll be continuing this 'A new way forward' topic so keep your eyes peeled.

A new way forward - Change your school.

School's we all hate them one way and love them in another. However you see school there is no doubt what so ever that they are essential. The doctor that finds the cure to cancer, the engineer that pushes the boundaries of travel, the political leader that brings about world peace are in or will be in schools across the world.

You may be thinking ' if school has got all these great future people in it, why do we need to change it?' well the answer to that is simple, the potential is there, but the way this generation is heading that potential will never be released, we'll never be the generation we're called to be. In the bible it states that if we do not fulfil the calling God has given us, we will be replaced. I don't know about you but I don't want to be replaced, I want to fulfil my purpose set out for me.

Schools are where dreams are made, planned out, set into motion. It seemed to me at my time in high school that everyone had their dream job, house, car, wife set out, they seemed to have it all figured out. And then you had me, sat there just plodding along through my time at school, not making a difference, I didn't have a dream job, I knew what I would be interested in doing but never thought I'd ever be able to get anywhere near it. All in all I felt kinda hopeless in high school, people didn't know the true me and made things up to hide it (I was hiding being a christian just for clarity). And I guess for quite a while after leaving school I still thought of my dream/ would love to do job too far away and it was only after I'd had a good chat with a friend of mine that I decided to go for it and it was all because he said 'What good is dreaming if they're too far away'

So now lets get to it. Why change your school? well that's up to you really but if you think about it this way, all those influential people sat in school it's a perfect opportunity to be a pioneer, all pioneers start by learning, if you read the last post I explained that pioneers don't just think of a new way out of the blue it's put together over a period of time from teachings by leaders. I guess what I'm basically trying to say is that there are pioneers in your school and you are one of them, your called to forge new grounds for people to follow.

Being a pioneer doesn't necessarily mean your a leader, pioneers have forged a new way and it has been years before anyone has taken that path but don't let that discourage you, just because no one is following you now doesn't mean they won't. Leadership develops over time and comes with maturity.

I guess what I'm trying to say as I rap this up is that you need to make a new way in your school, college or university, you need to bring change and release the true potential in our generation.

Thanks for reading

Aaron
(Twitter: @Mr_Aaron_B)

P.S. New Generation are an amazing group dedicated to help bringing change to schools through you. Take a look on their website or check them out on Facebook or Twitter. @NewGenerationUK  http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2220179092 http://www.newgeneration.co.uk/

Also don't forget to check out another of my blogs http://thisislifetoday.blogspot.com/ your just gonna be stoked about it.

One more thing, I'd like to give a massive shout out to my good friend Nikita Withington who's rather ill at the moment but still determined to champion a new way in her school...keep it up Lil sis.

Just a quick thing

I've started a new blog as a side runner to this one which is basically for answering life questions you have. Take a look http://thisislifetoday.blogspot.com/

A new way forward - Change your perspective.

Right here we go. I've not written a post in a while so if it's rubbishly formatted I'm sorry but you should get the general gist of what I'm saying, if not read it again. So changing perspective, it's a tough thing to do in this world of ever changing opinions, for example; One news station may give an opinion a story which you agree with as where another news station may give a completely different view that you also agree with and you feel torn between the two. Well this is kinda what this post is all about, a great way to start to change your own perspective is to stop looking from other peoples, looking at an issue from only one side is going to give you a biased opinion. Looking at any situation, event or issue from someone else's point of view is a very dangerous thing, it leaves you wide open to mistrust, disrespect and destructive criticism. You should always look at things from your own point of view, don't be influenced by negative and destructive views of others, keep focused on your own view, your own perspective. Own perspective is fundamental to a pioneer. You see you can't be a true pioneer with someone else's perspective because perspective provides vision and vision tells to where to go. Having someone else's perspective means that you also have their vision. Now I'm not necessarily saying that that is a bad thing, in church for example you need to follow your senior leaders vision but also need to make it your own. Most pioneers didn't just imagine a new way (some did but I'll get to that soon) they had input throughout thier life, they sought teaching's from previous pioneers, leaders and influencers. But these pioneers didn't just take in the teachings and apply them, they took it further, they had the mentallity that 'where we are isn't enough, we've got to go further' and they did, they took an idea/cultures/futures and ran with it. Bill Gates one of the world's richest and most influencial men saw a future where the computer came out of the science lab and into peoples homes and everyday lifes, he saw that future and he grabbed it with both hands and ran with it. He had a vision, he had his own perspective and through that he changed the world forever. Can you imagine if he saw that vision and just said 'nahh it's too much effort' can you actually imagine your life without computers, I probably wouldn't be writing this nor you be reading it. The scary thing is the mentality of 'nahh it's too much effort' is quickly growing in our generation and threating the future of our world, our generation needs to re-evaluate our perspective and insure the future of the next generation.

Thanks for reading
Aaron

A new way forward.

This is the start of new series of blogs I'm going to be writing about being a pioneer in both your own life and the world. This series is aimed at how you can pioneer a new way in your family, school, workplace etc. There will be different titles to the series but keep an eye out for them as there going to be good.

Get Real. The three points of passion, point 2

The second point of passion is love, now I know I go on a lot about love but it is key to our everyday living, love and passion go hand in hand so much so that the dictionary describes love as a form of passion. Now as I have said in previous posts love does make the world go around, the world cannot function without love people would feel hopeless. Anyway love and passion, to love people (not in like a family, relationship or stalker kind of way) is an extension of your heart, you really have to have a passion to love people, you can't really go around saying that you love people and that people are your heart when their really the last thing you care about. It has to come from the heart and I mean from the deepest depths of your heart, you can't just love people a little bit, it's all or nothing. Love is a very strong word, providing you mean it. I've seen so many relationships where one person has said they love the other over and over again but there's been no heart behind it just empty words and those relationships have fallen through and either side has come out the other side in pieces. Words are so powerful, they can make or break you. For example, if you say to someone your going to do something for them and then don't do it, your gonna lose the respect of that person. Love is the most complicated point of the three to talk about as its a never ending subject. I guess what I'm trying to some up in this is that love is probably the most important point of passion, love and passion are tied together they are effectively the same thing. Just remember that you have to truly mean it before you can say it.

Get Real. The three points of passion, point 1

Get real. Alot of people may take that as an insult, an offence those people are probably thinking 'who is this guy telling me to get real?..really who does he think he is?' and others are probably thinking 'I don't need to get real. I'm already sorted, I'm fine, I've got nothing to worry about this doesn't apply to me' well to those people I understand exactly how you feel, you feel slightly angry, upset, you feel like your pride has been tampered with. You know why I know how you feel? It's because I felt the exact same way when I first heard what I'm about to share with you, I felt all those things and probably more. This is from a series of talks/messages from my senior leader at Today's Community Church, Wigan, UK Dave Belfield, it's a series that's still going to this day and probably will continue for a while. The Get Real series was based on observations and realisations that Dave had, he saw something wrong and told us about it. I'm not going to lie, it hurt the first time I heard it, but it started something inside of me, a chain reaction if you would, I began to see things in a different light, realise what the world actually looks like, it inspired me to start this blog. Most of the series so far has been based on passion, or rather the lack of it, and that's where I'm going to talk from, I'll be talking about the lack of passion in everyday life, whether it be in work situations, family situations or even national situations. Being British (sorry to any non-Brits reading this) we're supposed to be passionate, courageous and a force to be reckoned with kind of nation, a nation that if someone stood up to us we'd just growl and they'd sit back down. Now I'm not saying we're the kind of people that let other people walk all over us, we're not. But we have lost that passion, the passion to take on anyone in our way and win. You only have to look back 50-60 years ago to see that passion at it's best, during the second world war towns and cities across the UK were bombed and civilian's were killed night after night but that didn't stop our determination to win, and because of that we won. But enough history lessons, we as a nation have lost that passion, the drive that wants to make us the best we can be, the passion to go out there everyday, do the job at hand and go further than necessary to make Britain great. People today would rather go to work, do the job, come home and watch TV. That's not passion, there's nothing wrong with that believe me I'm the first person who would happily sit down and watch an entire TV series back to back but it's having that drive to come home and instead of switching on the TV going out, going to your neighbours house and connecting with them, getting to know them, becoming part of their life, not just living next door to them. Now your probably thinking here 'has he been hired by the government to promote the Big Society campaign?' no I havn't I'm just telling you what I think.The first point of passion is connection is the basis to any good nieghbourhood/ society/ family/ school/ college/ workplace etc. because for the simple fact of that people cannot function without connection, when was the last time you went to a resteruant, sat down got a menu, chose what you want and when the waitor comes over to take your order you just sit there and expect him to know what you want, of course your not, it requires connection, it requires you telling the waitor what it is you want and how you like it. Connection isn't easy and it isn't hard, it isn't easy because it means stepping out of your comfort zones and making an effort, something that most people hate to do, it requires you to step out against the social normalities and actually go and talk to some one. Facebook announced early last week that it had hit over 30 million active users in the UK alone which ammounts to nearly 50% of the population and Facebook also have 500 million users world wide, and it is all based on connection to other people, finding out stuff you didn't know about someone, finding old friends and new friends. It has become a internet phenomenon and is currently the highest profiting website ever. And it all started from something you can do on a walk to the shops (and by that I don't mean poke random people as you go and get some bread, you can be arrested for that). There is passion through connection, it takes passion to go and deliberatly connect to someone.

Inspired by Dave Belfield (@davebelfield Twitter)

Stand up and be counted

Stand up, do it, actually stand up (providing your sat down, if your not, sit down and stand up again)..done it? Feels good standing up doesn't it, no imagine what it feels like standing up for something, something your passionate about your faith, your beliefs, your family for example. Take me for example I stand for my generation, I stand for my faith.

There is a famous quote ' If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything' I don't want to fall for anything, I want to be able to go to the grave knowing that I stood for something, that I made a difference. I want to know that I was a man of significance and that I actually made a difference to this world. In that I choose to stand for the things that are close to me, for example; my youth group Two Twenty, my church TCC, my friends, my faith, my family. They're the things I want to stand for.

But in standing for something you can't just say you stand for something unless you actually live it, day in day out, it has to run through our veins. I guess what I mean is you have to be passionate about it, and the thing about passion is that no one should ever have to ask you what you're passionate about, they should just be able to see it in you.

This whole post was inspired by a talk from my youth leader and one of my closest friends who I've mentioned before so I won't mention him again. But in his talk about this he summed up what this entire blog is about when he said "I choose to stand for my generation" that's what this blog was set up to do, stand up and be counted.

You look through history's giants and world changers, Dr Martin Luther King Jr for example, he saw an injustice and he stood up and said something and shared his vision, although to this day his vision has not been fully completed as there are people who insist on dragging it down but he changed the way the colour of a persons skin or any other difference was treated, he truly set about equality.


Aaron
(Mr_Aaron_B Twitter)

Where is the love?

We live in a world of the mentality 'look out for number one' a world that would rather beat you down than build you up. There are countless groups and organisations that all about random acts of kindness and being loving people. But it doesn't start with a group or an organisation telling you about it, it doesn't even start with this blog, it starts with you...and only you. To love people and love the world it starts in your heart, it starts with you truly looking at the world and thinking to yourself 'I truly love this world'. The love for the world is in you. If you look at people and look at their lives, there is the love in there, its just become in tangled and hidden by the everyday slog that is life. But the true challenge is bringing out that love, untangle it from everything in your world that is holding it down. In 1 Timothy 1:5 (MSG) (yes I have used this text before but its so freaking good) it says ' The whole point of what we’re urging is simply love—love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God.' now I'm not necessarily saying you have to be a christian and open your entire life up to God for this text to apply to you, because you don't all you have to do is do right what it says at the start 'simply love' all I ask of you if you are reading this is that you love, now I know what your thinking 'eeww love, that's well wierd' well yes it is, love is wierd but then again so are alot of things, for example techno trance music from the philipeans is wierd but it makes up what it is to be human and so does love, its apart of us. The media whether it be social or general will always tell you that the world is a dangerous place and it cannot be trusted and you should hate the world, ignore what they tell you 9 times out of 10 its a load of rubbish (now I just want to make a point that although I said ignore what the media says about you not trusting the world, do listen to it abit, don't leave your car unlocked with the keys inside and trust the world that'll be there in the morning because the chances are it won't be, love is trusting but it's not stupid) the media have in a way taken over the way we think about people and even the way we act, we become suspicious of every person we meet, we think that they're somekind of criminal who is going to kill you, when in actual fact they could be someone who is in desperate need of help and in need of someone who loves people (again just to clarify don't go around hugging every person you see because you think they might need it, people have been put in prison for that) but see the world for what it really is. Sure it's got it's problems but problems are there to be solved. Love comes from the heart.

Inspired by the song 'Where is the love by the Black Eyed Peas 2005'
Music video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc

Love People

Loving people. To love people doesn't mean you have to be with them 24/7. It simply means to care for them, give your time to them. People are apart of our lives, their our family, our friends, our work colleages, our governments and we are infact people ourselves. We often see people at face value and never really think of what's deeper under the skin than what we see. Matthew 22 it talks about loving god and loving people and keeping them in the fundamentals of your life, keeping them in everything you do. If you walk into a workplace that is entirely profit centred its going to be full of people that are profit centred and only focus on getting ahead, as where if you walk into a workplace that is people centred your going to meet people that are all about people and the moving forward of people. If you truely think about it people make the world go around (now you may be sat there thinking, well obviously they do, without people there would be nothing) but the world can still function with people who are focused on doing the job at hand, as where people who's lives are about people not only get the job done but incorporate people into the job, they bring people in and they build them up, train them, make them about people. All in all people are awesome, random, annoying at times, wierd and wonderful. But thats what makes us human. Thats what makes us people.

Inspired by a series of 121's with Ben Tarbuck (@bentarbuck twitter)

If not us? Who? If not now? When?

If not us? Who? who will if we don't? We are called to be the generation that leaves a mark, makes a difference, inflicts social change. Our generation is made up of the future doctors, politicians, chefs, sporting legends, scientists, astronauts, world leaders so with that, who says we can't make a difference, who says we can't change the world we live in. We are not the future of our nation, we are the nation, already we are impacting the way our nation functions. People won't change themselves, people are always influenced by the next big thing. Media and social media have controlled the way society works for years by telling people what to belive, what to wear, what to eat and how to look. What mark will you leave? What will people remember you for? Do you want to be the person that is remembered for being negative, demeaning or discouraging or do you want to be the person everyone remembers for being positve, passionate, happy, encouraging and loving? Live and love life.

Inspired by a tweet from @JoelWithington "I will not leave this world the same!"

We Are The Love Generation.

We are the generation. The generation called to carry a bigger responsibility than any generation before us, we're called to love and be loved. We are called to change the way society work, to go against social normality's and make a difference in this world. This is what this blog is all about, making a difference, being the change. 1 Timothy 1:5 (MSG) simply says ' The whole point of what we're urging is simply love - love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God'. People are what drives me forward, keeps me going, seeing life for what it really is, not life surrounded by media and negativity but life with passion, love and hope. Life is impossible without these things, we can't thrive without it. If you read this, all i ask of you is that you lead your life full of passion, love and hope.