Cris-i-tunity!
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!
Good Grief
IN SHORT: Losses, great and small, bring grief that if denied will lock us into limbo between past and future; we need to allow ourselves to accept the loss and grieve before we can move on to whatever life has in store next.
“You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.”
[Jan Glidewell]
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief… and unspeakable love.”
[Washington Irving, 18/19th century American writer & author]
(1069 words: approx. 6-10 mins to read)
Roughly a year ago a good friend of ours told us Read More »
The Wholly Trinity of Success
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 More »
The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth
“The truth is heavy, therefore few care to carry it.”
[Unknown]“Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.”
[Winston Churchill, UK war-time Prime Minister, politician, artist & writer]
(1228 words – approx 6-9 mins to read)
Well, that was 2009.
Since we ended last year with the theme of honesty, I thought I’d start 2010 on a similar note. I’ve got a couple of questions I’d like you to answer truthfully – I won’t make you swear to tell it, I’ll just assume that because you want to get the most out of this, you will be totally honest, at least with yourself: Read More »
To Be Perfectly Honest
“The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
[Socrates, 4th-century BC Greek philosopher]“Truth fears no questions.”
[Unknown]
(912 words – approx. 5-8 mins to read)
Take a moment now to think of a few quotes or sayings you can remember about honesty.
Chances are at least one of them was “Honesty is the best policy” or something similar. But is it always what’s best?
We are all actually dishonest – deceptive – about three times in every ten minutes of normal daily conversation, according to psychologist and deception expert Paul Eckman. If you’re surprised by that, or perhaps insulted and would protest that you’d never be that dishonest, bear in mind that there’s more than one type of dishonesty. Read More »
A Passionate Obsession
“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 More »