 April 26th, 2010 IN SHORT: Hiding behind every problem and issue we face in life is an opportunity for you to become something more than you were before. You can seek it, find it, take it and find yourself growing, or you can ignore it, miss it, throw it away and instead find your life shrinking…
“A man has no more character than he can command in a crisis.”
[Ralph W. Sockman, 19th/20th century theologian and church leader]
“A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind.”
[Chinese proverb]
[~825 words: approx 5-8 mins to read]
It’s amazing how much chaos one big cloud of dust can cause, isn’t it!
…read the rest… »
February 8th, 2010 IN SHORT: Stubbornly banging your head against a brick wall isn’t going to knock it down – you’ll just end up with a headache and a wall still standing.
“The bend in the road isn’t the end of the road unless you refuse to make the turn.”
[Anon]
(910 words, approx 5-8 mins to read)
A few weeks back, when the snow and ice in Liverpool was pretty much at its worst, I took to the road on my mountain bike, suitably prepared and wrapped up warm, in order to get to a client meeting.
Odd, you might think, but remember that a significant fraction of the nation seem to have forgotten the ‘can do’ spirit of previous generations and decided not to venture off the couch to seek alternative ways of getting around, particularly to work.
I wasn’t going to let a client down, so …read the rest… »
January 7th, 2010
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This isn’t that new a tale – I first used it as part of a series of ‘Creating Calm’ stress-management sessions a few years back.
As always with metaphorical tales, it’s about whatever you take from it… enjoy! …read the rest… »
October 20th, 2009
“When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.”
[Various attributions]
(1208 words; approx 6-9 minutes to read)
Have you ever been so focused on and driven by something it bordered on, or perhaps tipped into, obsession?
I’d assumed I’d written all I could about desire and focus for the moment, but then I found myself listening to an interview with Ellen Macarthur (now a Dame) – famous for her solo sailing exploits and many sailing-related records, including breaking the women’s world record for circumnavigating the globe solo at the age of 24, and both the men’s and women’s record four years later.
During the interview she talked about how she had become obsessed with sailing after her first time in a boat at the age of four. When she, later on but still a child, decided she wanted her own boat, she even saved the change from her school dinner money in order to buy one, making choices as to what she’d have for lunch based on maximising the change she’d get. …read the rest… »
September 25th, 2009 (831 words, approx 5-8 mins to read)
(This article appeared in issue 13 of ‘Liverpool Lifestyle’ magazine from Aintree Publishing – the version here is a slightly different draft to the magazine article, which can be viewed at http://bit.ly/yRjnu)
I’d like to talk about New Year’s Resolutions.
Yes, I know we’re not even into autumn properly yet and Christmas is still months away, but bear with me and I’ll explain myself in what follows.
You see, I think we have it all wrong when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. …read the rest… »
May 31st, 2009 I ran the Edinburgh marathon today – toughest thing I think I’ve ever done so far actually. I didn’t beat my target time of 4 hours and, as I was driving back to Liverpool with aching legs and a sense of disappointment, a song on the radio caught my ear – “The Climb”. Yes, it’s teen-pop, sung by Miley Cyrus, but the words to the chorus struck a neat little chord:
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side,
It’s the climb.
May 26th, 2009
“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”
[Mario Andretti, Italian-born racing driver.]
“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”
[Napoleon Hill, 19th/20th century US author and presidential adviser]
“I stood, nose pressed up against the toy shop window, gazing through at it, my eyes tracing over each feature, every detail of it, until I could almost feel the surface under my itching fingers. Somewhere deep inside I felt a cavernous space open up, a void that happened to be exactly the same shape and size as the very thing I was fixated on. Right then and there I knew that, however long it took me, I would be saving whatever money I could – pocket money, birthday gifts, odd-job payments – until I had the amount that the neatly written numbers on the precisely folded card in front said would be required in exchange for this marvellous item.”
Have you ever wanted something so much you actually felt the want – that yearning, a hollow space that you knew could only, can only, be filled by possessing whatever, or whoever, was the object of your desire? …read the rest… »
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Steve Wooding | 
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