The Art of the Possimpible*
IN SHORT: Changing our words really can change our world!
“The difference between ‘can’t’ and ‘can’ is that ‘can’t’ requires a lot of certainty while ‘can’ just asks for a little possibility.”
[unknown]
(~841 words, approx 5-8 mins to read.)
Last time we discovered that the general assumption that words are just tools for describing our experience isn’t true and that in fact the words we use also define our experience too. I promised that this time we’d dig into that a little more and discover how we can use that to our advantage. Read More »
The Forty Year-Old Pine Cone.
IN SHORT: How much longer are you going to chose to wait to build the life that you were intended for?
“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channelled toward some great good.”
(Brian Tracy, Canada-born self-development author and traveller)
(~816 words, approx. 5-8 mins to read)
On the chimney breast in the house I grew up in were a few mementos of events past. One of them was a short section of a branch with three large pine cones on it. Read More »
Get Active..!
IN SHORT: Take an active role in living your life – it’s the only way it can be the way you want it to be!
“Who finds hidden treasure?
Some of those who seek it,
And none of those who don’t.”
[Anon]“The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing.”
[Michael Gerber, US author]
[1064 words, estimated reading time 6-9 mins]
Safe in the Harbour
(1274 words – approx 7-11 mins to read)
We spoke last time about being open enough and brave enough to entertain the idea of worlds different to our own, so I thought I’d tell you a story that I wrote a while back for a client that seemed to be appropriate…
Join the Dots
IN SHORT: Life is a game of join-the-dots. Although you can’t change the facts of your past, you CAN change what you do with it, how you let it make you feel, and where you go forwards from it – you get to choose which dots you use!
“From now on, I’ll connect the dots my own way.”
[Bill Waterson, US author of the ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ comic strip]
(792 words, approx 5-8 mins to read)
(This month’s ‘slice’ sort of follows on from last month’s ‘Making Meaning’ article, and here we’re focusing more on what we do with strings of experiences rather than just individual ones.)
Do you remember doing join-the-dots pictures when you were young (or maybe even when you were older too)..?
Making Meaning
IN SHORT: We are the authors and editors of our own ‘life dictionary’ and, just as language evolves and the meanings and usage of words changes over time, there’s no reason at all that the meanings and usage of our daily experiences can’t be changed for the better over time too.
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is,
but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.”
[Viktor Frankl, 20th-centrury neurologist, holocaust survivor, author & therapist]“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way
we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
[Hermann Hesse, 19/20th-century novelist & Nobel prize-winner]
(1288 words, approx 7-10 mins to read)
“They’d left the place in a total mess. Read More »