Wise Wednesdays

  It’s impossible to have a 21st century career without facing a crisis at some point. The research which I discuss in The Success Trap book suggests that these occur around the mid-30s and end around the mid-50s (if you do nothing about it). Interestingly, 50 was about the age that people in ancient India would move from an active, householder life to a more contemplative spiritual life or Vanaprastha . What we call mid-life today was the time when you’d take a step back, assess what you have done and think about the wider meaning of your life and its legacy.   So what if instead of a career crisis, you saw this period of questioning as the doorway to your next level of impact? What if it wasn’t the end of your happy years but the beginning of something greater? Then you could embrace the transformation process, relax and reflect: 1)    What are you proud of that you have already accomplished? 2)    What is it time to let go of (workaholism,...

  This week, I just want to share the beauty of a tree on a spring day with you. Why? Because nature reveals the answers to your biggest questions even when you’re feeling uncertain. What’s a question you’re grappling with right now? Write it down. London’s Plane trees have existed for hundreds of years. Their origin is unclear and mysterious. They’re thought to be the descendant of an american and an asian tree that mixed in Spain and the hybrid found its way to Britain. So the London Plane is kind of global-local. Like many of us. No one knows exactly how long a London Plane tree lives because, while some are hundreds of years old, none have died of old age…They have all been cut down to build the city. They represented 60% of London’s trees a 100 years ago, but only 4% now.  The tree in this photo lives right in the centre of London. It’s about 200 years old. But some are 400 years old. Imagine being this tree - having seen so much over the past 200 years and not knowing ho...

  [Happy Eid if you are celebrating this week! May the fruit of your spiritual work nourish the world.]   It was the summer of 2014. I was sitting in a wooden cabin in the middle of Alaska when it struck me: of course, I’m going to take a leap! This was the pivotal moment when I felt a break from the expected path and that my life and career trajectory transformed.   This moment was preceded by two others that week:   1)    Feeling paralysed on a mountain peak in Arctic Valley, then realising that if I just took one step at a time, it was easy and even fun. 2)    Seeing a receding, crumbling glacier in the Kenai Fjords and feeling a deep desire to align my work with bigger facts of life on our planet.     That week, I decided to let go of the ‘safe path’ of local public health and took a risk to work on the UN Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction at the intersection of health, climate change and sustainable development. Global ...

So it’s been an intense week at the unconference. Believe it or not, it’s easier to go to a structured conference and consume than to an unconference where you also have to co-create and improvise. I offered 3 things including a Reflective Circle on ‘What kind of leaders do we want to be?’ and a ‘Lightening Talk’ on a model of leadership that dropped into my mind last month. It comes from a frustration with leadership models based on industrial, capitalist, patriarchal paradigms that rely on linear thinking and the illusion of readymade answers - as if a leader is a parent who knows what’s needed all the time. Here are 5 principles I think are much more useful than any specific quality like ‘compassion’ or ‘courage’ or ‘decisiveness’ though the principles allow for them. Self-Leadership = an unconscious leader is simply projecting their beliefs and limitations and acting out their subconscious patterns onto others. Self-awareness is the foundation Ethical sensibility = it’s puzzling ho...