Wise Wednesdays

  Of course, there’s nothing you ‘should’ do. You’re in control of your choices.   But here's a question: when you die, how much of yourself do you want to keep?   The word "selling", from the Old English ‘sellan’, originally meant ‘giving’. In this sense, when you ‘sell’ yourself, you give. For example, you give:   •           your attention •           your knowledge •           your wisdom •           etc.   It was only later that the emphasis on giving was shifted to exchanging for money when using the word ‘selling’.   Selling can be challenging due to associations with manipulation and greed in an extractive system. Money is emotionally charged, often tied to childhood experiences. The discomfort in ‘selling’ is rooted in deeply engrained societal norms t...

Uncertainty is hard to be with. That’s why resilience is so elusive (it requires more uncertainty tolerance than we’re trained for). Yet, every organisation wants its employees to be more ‘resilient’ without providing the right training and support or modelling the behaviours. So what to do? [Read on or get a cup of tea and watch this week’s video musings.] My journey from utopian ideals to cynicism: In my 20s, I had a clear goal. I believed the world could be saved, and my contribution was through global health policy - I believed in utopia. My dad used to joke that I wanted to live in ‘The Little House on the Prairie' (the early episodes). By my mid-30s, I was reaching my career goals, but the goalposts kept moving. I felt that managing the politics required too much energy and that a kind of hypocrisy dominated institutions. I fell into a level of cynicism. One of my mentors at the time told me, “you’ve got to be hungry.” But I wasn’t hungry for the same things anymore. Utopia v...

  Ever caught yourself dwelling on negative thoughts about someone? Maybe they did something upsetting, or you disagreed in some way.   Imagine a friend organises an event without inviting you. How would you feel? What stories would you tell yourself? Now, envision discovering it was a surprise party for you. Perspective changes everything. The question is: which perspective is correct?   A petty disagreement with a colleague once left us in an office deadlock. The colleague wouldn’t talk to me and I didn’t know what to do. After meditating and shifting my perspective I felt a sense of compassion and forgiveness towards him. I was surprised to be greeted warmly by him the next day. Shifting perspective works in weird and wonderful ways sometimes...   So how do you shift perspective?   [Read on or watch the video to take a walk with me]   Awareness first: Beware Enemy Images…   Why does this negative rumination happen? It’s an automatic response to perc...

Happy New Year!   There’s a lot of talk about resilience these days but what does it mean exactly?     McKinsey calls it “resilience in a fragmenting world”. The Bible calls it faith in the End of Times. We could just call it living through another great transformation.   What does resilience mean for you? And how do you know it’s working?   [Read on or watch this week’s video]     Resilience is often defined as bouncing back. But what if you don’t know what you’re bouncing back to? What if the same laws of physics don’t even apply where you need to go?   I believe resilience has different flavours for different people. Its flavour has 3 general qualities:   1.    It’s specific to you and your current situation and learning curve 2.    It’s emergent and comes to you from the depths of your psyche e.g. while you’re walking, in the shower or reading something unrelated (or in my case meditation) 3.  ...