The world is struggling. Just watch the news and you will have to work hard to stay positive. At the same time the struggling world needs people like you and I who can see and feel the struggles, pain and setbacks but then pause and choose to respond differently. I believe now is the time to have open minds and hearts to re-imagine, redesign and rebuild our future with intentionality determination. Now is a time for change. So, be different, become the change. (more…)
Category: Change
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Weather the Storm, see the Rainbow
You are so much stronger if you know how to weather the storms of life and navigate your ship through it. It’s a cliché, but on the other side a rainbow (or two) might be waiting for you.  And you can learn the skill, even when you feel you have been shipwrecked too many times.
As the saying goes: life is not plain sailing. Someone once said: “you are either in a storm, just through one, or about to go into oneâ€. Health and financial issues, relationship pain, failure, price hikes, climatic challenges, floods and droughts, political unrest, corruption, accidents, and unfairness. That’s life (but only some of the time – the rest can be fun). So, let’s build muscle and grit! (more…)
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New Story, New Life
Imagine yourself changing a limiting story you are currently telling yourself and everything changes for the good. An old story about life, your age, your identity, your abilities, marriage and other people can feel so true and at the same time be sadly limiting and causing you pain. (more…)
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Relabeling 2021
Maybe we should not merely finish the year and get things over and done with, and go of on a holiday to relax and forget. Perhaps, that is how you feel? But let’s rather use a bit of mindfulness and awareness so that we may finish the year on a higher note. I believe many beautiful flavours the year has brought us may still be discovered, tasted and appreciated – and this appreciation will set you in the best frame of mind to enter 2022 with expectation and energy.
For that to happen, you need to pause to remember, redefine and appreciate the many unnoticed, good things that happened while you were on your traveling through 2021. While on the road we often don’t connect the dots, nor see the real or bigger picture. That’s why they say “hindsight is an exact scienceâ€, but it can also give new perspective.
Recently, when asked what was/is the best thing of the year that’s almost behind us, a coachee jokingly said: “that it’s almost over!†And, although joking, in a sense he actually really meant it. He calls it “the most difficult year of my entire lifeâ€. The year did not go as he wished and planned. It was the year in which his dad died and they experienced tough challenges in the extended family. He had to do very tiring negotiations on behalf of his employer and interactions were often tainted by political and selfish motives. His life was threatened more than once and at one stage he suffered burnout. On top of that he is going through dramatic life changes, e.g. moving house (because of the threats), a new job description, and a different office.
And yet the picture changed from bleak to bright when we relabelled 2021, and started to discover and name the positives, the support he got, the learning curve, the relationships built, the difference he made, the transitions he successfully navigated, his strenths that became so evident, and the fact that he is really alive and well at the end of this year. Then 2021 became a year of so much goodness that brought him to redefine and reinvent himself into a new role and focus from where he can plan for 2022 and the years to come. And then this man became excited and energised.
We can say he is now busy relabelling 2021 as a year of transitioning and looking forward to 2022 as a year of repositioning. Is this just a play of words? No, I don’t think so. Rather, redefining reality and life.
My friend, may you find the time to look back with appreciation in order to look forward with hope and positive expectation! Have a wonderful Christmas, remembering the real gift that came many years ago – a gift you are invited to unwrap to bring you real life, life worth living.
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Surrender Certainty to gain Possibility
What do you do with the many things of life that are out of your control? My recent quadruple heart bypass operation made me a student of life again. It affected and still affects everything in my life. And in the process I realised I am missing out on so much. Life, business, family, have so much more to offer. There is so much untapped possibility waiting to be unlocked if I am only willing to see it and move with it. But the reality is, while I want control and certainty, the possibility of what can be evades me. (more…)