Today I repaired a shower grip that had come loose, instead of simply buying a replacement. This small act saved me a few dollars, and brought a disproportionately large surge of joy. I think the joy came from knowing that I was in control of my life. I had found do-it-yourself joy. Do it yourself […]
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A big tree needs deep roots to grow tall and withstand the buffeting of the winds. We too need to put down deep personal roots to stand firm when faced with the challenges of life. Our world is becoming more global and people frequently move around. Busy lifestyles leave less time for the bonding that […]
Many personality tests suggest that people fall into four dominant personality types. I was wondering if character types could be generalised in a similar way. My calculator suggested a useful approach.
As with personality types, there may be some overlaps but you should be able to discern one dominant type that largely describes you. Here’s my unauthorised, tongue-in-cheek version of your character symbol: you are either an add-er, a subtract-er, a multiplier, or a divider.
As part of my commitment to myself to read a book a week, I’m going to post a review for the book of the week every Sunday. That’s the current plan anyway. There’s no particular reason this is the first book. It just happened to be the book I was reading when I decided to ‘go public’ with my reading commitment.
Do post a comment if you have any suggestions how this book review can be made more useful for you, the reader. Here goes! Read more…
I love my desserts just like everyone else, but humble pie is certainly not one of them! Yet this is an essential part of life’s diet. Those of us who are unable to admit our errors and apologise come across as arrogant, foolish, or both. This holds us back in our careers and relationships.
How do you know if you’re truly in the wrong, and how do you take the difficult step of being the first to back down and reach out? Read more…
Are you the decisive or indecisive type? If you are decisive, do most of your decisions turn out well? Or are you overly decisive, jumping to conclusions and trying to influence the course of events instead of letting things unfold?
Making decisions is one of the few things that we cannot delegate or subcontract to others, however much we’d like to. When I was younger I often wished that someone would just tell me what to do. Now I know that our choices make us who we are, and decisions are not necessary evils but opportunities to define ourselves. Read more…
You’ve probably heard that walking 10,000 steps a day is recommended for overall health, maintaining a high metabolic rate, keeping in shape and so on. The question is, are you doing it? Here are some easy ways for you to get moving. Read more…
There is a Chinese proverb which reminds us that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In our world of fast food, accelerated learning, and youthful millionaires, many people now expect instant success and want to become big the moment they start. Yet a quick look at the big successes around us point to small beginnings.
MacDonald’s was born of a hotdog stand whose owners had no ambition to expand. Google started as a research project on backlinks on the world wide web, which itself started when Tim Berners-Lee sought a solution to his problem of finding information on other databases. The international Red Cross began with one man rounding up some villagers to tend the wounded in war.
Whatever you’re hoping to achieve, start small now and keep taking a step every day. You cannot help progressing far in your journey if you keep doing this. Read more…
You will never be able to do everything that you want to, because there is limited time available to all of us. Some things are going to be left undone, and that’s a given. What you can decide though, is what gets left undone.
With proper planning, the stuff that gets left undone will be the non-essentials. Your priorities will be taken care of because you have worked this into your schedule before anything else is allowed into it.
For most people, the best timeframe to schedule your priorities would be weekly. If you prefer a monthly timeframe, this is fine too, especially if you have monthly goals to achieve. The idea is to get past the trap of daily to-do lists that are based on external pressures rather than your inner purpose. Read more…
While I fully advocate living in the present, being in the Now and all that, sometimes we need to know how to step out of the current moment. This may be one of those times, given the world’s economic situation.
Experts are saying that we are going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. People are losing their savings, investments, jobs, and sanity. Now, more than ever, we need to remind ourselves: This too shall pass. Read more…