Wise Wednesdays

UK weather is never guaranteed. More often cloudy than not. It’s famously moody…   Since the start of the war, I’ve noticed my mood fluctuate more. One day good, one day bad.   That’s fine. Problems only arise if we get caught in our moods.   The key is to not get caught.   Either way, the mood will pass. In Buddhism it’s called impermanence. A good mood will pass. A bad mood will pass.   But what if you do get caught?   Perhaps you get caught in a bad mood and suddenly the world seems like a gloomy place where nothing will ever change. Conversely, you might have a good day and feel that everything’s going to be great from now on. You’re on track and nothing will ever disturb you again…   Moods have less to do with reality and more to do with the inherent fluctuations of the mind.   But if you’re caught in a mood, it’s hard to see beyond it, right?   In quantum physics, this border effect on reality is called the Heisenberg Cut . You can’t ac...

This new season marks Year 6 since my big career leap into the unknown and then into coaching, as well as six years of Wise Wednesdays (260 Wise Wednesdays to be precise)!   Thank you, for your readership, engagement and support for the vision and work that Wise Wednesdays represents. Your questions, suggestions and challenges have also been integral to the journey.   According to national statistics, less than 50% of business ventures make it to year 6, and even fewer to year 10. While this might put you off from starting your dream business, remember that the pandemic has strengthened your ability to navigate uncertainty. I don’t know whether I’ll make it to year 7 but the journey has already been worth the ticket.   In the meantime, here are 3.5 insights from this 6 year adventure that might help you if you’re on a similar journey:   1)     Lesson 1: A map without a compass will only get you so far.     In, 2016 didn’t make sense for ...

It was my eleventh interview. It was 2003 and I’d tried and failed to get my dream job ten times. My peers were sailing through their interviews or going for less competitive jobs. It felt like hell sometimes. But something told me to keep going.   At the end of the final interview, I had that feeling that it went well. That the opportunity had arrived. When I got the offer, I knew that a new phase had begun. After that episode in my early career, I got my subsequent dream jobs on the first interview.   (If you’re going through interviews right now, here’s a Wise Wednesdays where I share the top 3 questions you must be able to answer and will help you master the interview process .) https://www.doctoramina.com/single-post/how-to-ace-an-interview-3-questions-to-focus-on-wise-wednesdays   While I wouldn’t change anything about my experience, with hindsight there are 3 mistakes I made at the time. Here’s what I learned:   1) I tried to be like others (don’t) I alwa...

This question has come up a few times for myself and my clients. It can come up for a number of reasons including:   1) You’ve experienced burnout before 2) You’re facing uncertainty in a project 3) You are really tired (either physically or mentally) Sometimes you're not sure what to do, so what do you do?   NOT FORCING, NOT STOPPING Continuing on the theme of Eastern wisdom from last week's Be Like Water, a related principle that’s helped me in these relatively turbulent times is the Taoist and Buddhist of finding the sweet spot between  not forcing and not stopping . It’s the sense you have when you're not pushing yourself to make something happen but you're not giving up or stopping entirely either. It’s helped my clients to intuitively sense where their energy level is and adjust their level of activity accordingly without thinking too much about it.   Otherwise, it’s been an intense week with many energy allocation decisions! 1) The good: award time. I s...

What do you do when you have to do something you don’t want to do?   Millions of people are caught in conflict zones around the world right now, mostly in Africa, Asia and now Europe.   Perhaps for you the conflict is on a smaller scale (either an inner-conflict or with someone else). But it might still feel stressful. Maybe you’re being asked to work from home when you’d rather be back at the office accessing more social contact for your mental wellbeing. Or perhaps you’re the opposite and being asked to come into the office when you’d rather work from home and be in your own space doing things at your own rhythm, like one of my dear clients recently.   Legend in the making: E is a global head of marketing in a large company. He’s passionate about creating robust supply chains through diverse teams to make sure the world has enough food while looking after his family. He reached out after starting to feel stuck as to where to go next in his career and fulfil his potentia...