Joy is Nested in the Comfort of Being with Yourself
Archive for July, 2010
A Small World – An Umbrella, a Left Turn, Good Music and Overshooting the Bus
Jul 13th
What is the TITLE going on ABOUT?
I thought I’d share a very interesting day with the audience….you can call it what you like, judge it as you please but here we go…
I work as a Fire Engineer full-time, I had a full-day…full of projects to manage…and full of lovely things to learn…It was 5:30PM as I remember it when I left work to walk down to Town Hall within the CBD to get a haircut from my fav hairdresser (decently priced too). It was perfect, she commented on how difficult it was to cut my hair..blablabla…which was good because she just did what she had to do quickly and I could walk off before I could doze off in the customer chair…zzZZ…
ANYWAY, here is where the plot thickens and then drops off the cliff like a drunk climber without a harness would….
1) I left the hairdresser and FORGOT my Umbrella…So I walked 5 mins to get back there to collect it… NOW, I just do not normally forget items like that but hey..whatever.. On my way back to my bustop, I was walking in the underground station and I bumped into a friend (Jaimee) and we looked at each other More >
The Possible and the Impossible – The Colors of the Mind That Distinguish the Can and the Cannot Be
Jul 7th
For the people reading this article, I’m assuming you may have stumbled across this for one of the following reasons:
1) You found the title of my article somewhat intriguing
2) You’re open-minded and you’d like to see what angles I can offer on the topic of human limitations and how we as a species can venture into the unknown and tap into a power beyond what the 5 senses can offer.
3) You stumbled into this article somehow, you have no idea what its about and by the time you finish reading the first few paragraphs you’ll be navigating away.
4) You’re a powerful person already, a leader about your peers and you have taken huge actions towards a vision/goal that is intricately tied close to your heart.
Which is perfect. So to start, I’m going to run from item 4 above because I believe there is something of true value I can offer to those. Its undeniable, that humans have a defence mechanisms against change, so when a leader takes ideas forth and attempts to make them a reality…it would seem a large majority of the “crowd” will criticize their actions, deny their possibility and in doing so lead to concluding that their very intent is Impossible.
I’m More >
Leadership Development and the Cliche – How the Cliche Perception Has Injured Leadership Factories
Jul 6th
It is understandable, given the amount of leadership programs and novels (and articles, like this one funnily enough) flying around in this day and age, that people have become deaf to the buzz words and phrases that have been used. Some people may be very familiar with (which may have different meanings depending on how you rate their effectiveness):
- Be the change you want to see around you (Mahatma Gandhi) - Lead by example (aka Walk the Talk) - Conquer your fears (aka face yourself) - It does not matter if you win or lose, but how you play the game - It is not what you know it is who you know (build networks) - Every great journey starts with the first step (variation of Confucious)… …and the list obviously goes on (thanks to our great predecessors).
It is however evidently noticeable that there is a crowd of individuals out there who would typically dismiss your sharing of these great sayings by labeling them as “Cliched”. Which is fair, given that a Cliche is something that has been so overused that it lost all its color (much like washing a colored T-shirt everyday for 30 days and it just fades). More >
The Creation of Disappointment – How a Pre Conceived Outcome Creates Dissatisfaction in Your Life
Jul 6th
So I remember I was 17, I completed high school and achieved a satisfying final year mark of 98.9…and was also embracing the three months of holidays that came with it (pre-university/college). Then fast-forward the pendulum in the midst of an Engineering/Commerce degree, I was in a position in life where my week looked like this:
1. Taekwondo (3 to 4 times a week) 2. Job 1 (Senior High School tutor for Maths, Physics and Chemistry) 3. Helping with family finances (out of love) 4. Girlfriend (love of my life at that time) 5. Job 2 (Undergraduate consultant in systems modelling for an engineering firm) 6. Study, study, study
…and a bit of sleep. So you may be wondering “what happened before that”? The simplest answer I can give is I found a passion for what I wanted to do (item 1) for the rest of my life. I truly loved the deeper aspects of Taekwondo training and in my heart I knew that it would be something I would perpetuate with for the remainder of my existence. However, when I found that thing so to speak, things did not work out the way I had painted them to be in my More >
The Era of the Humanitarian Architect – What the Eco Revolution Creates For Architects Today
Jul 6th
I would like to start by repeating one word which will be the theme for this article. I call it sustainability, sustainability…and sustainability. In this day and age, our precious planet called Earth (Terra), is suffering from overpopulation which has lead to a heavy load on resource extraction.
Architects must simply take this into account in their philosophy of doing things, and take a stand against the conventional EGO driven projects that have actually been masked by pretentious artistic philosophy and words attached to it, so that the population allows them to dig more from our Earth and produce non-real sustainable products. The last time I heard something had a green star rating, I also heard that everything was produced from “new material” rather than “existing recycled material.” There is a slight tone of hypocrisy there.
The greatest architect of all time (in my bias opinion) was Frank Lloyd Wright. I believe his minimalist approach to architecture and his philosophy of it being non-obtrusive to nature is what seriously needs to be reinvigorated today. We all want to create a legacy for our future generations, so they can enjoy the wonders as we ourselves have today. That legacy, is truly no different More >
Dealing With a Storm – A Story About Embracing the Stressful Elements of Success in Life
Jul 5th
Consider that you took an adventure to discover the new land called “success” in life. To do so you took a ship out to sea (aka your life). You literally had everything planned including:
1) The map route 2) The food supplies 3) The repair equipment 4) An awesome crew 5) A forecast of potential obstacles…
and the list goes on. So you basically knew that the sea would not be as smooth as you would playing with a little floating toy in the bathtub (as much as you’d hope so in your mind). Because a Storm is a Storm my friend. You can’t choose the Torrential Wind, The Huge Waves, The Thick Rain, The Fog, The Lightning, The Team’s Withering Moral to arrive separately in some linear process. It is a parallelised system devised to test your ability to express multi-dimensional strength in face of adversity.
So how do we deal with breakdowns when we are completely being pummeled by “mama nature” repeatedly? What happens when you have a busy day and:
a) You forget your umbrella before you go to work…and god-forbid it rains whilst you’re outdoors! b) You forget to take your packed lunch to work, so you have to eat out at a time when you’re low More >