David Brooks is a columnist at the New York Times. His recent column “The Essential Skills for Being Human” has inspired this week’s video and post. I loved his book “The Social Animal” – which is a novel-like story about the lives of 2 people and how their values and actions shape their lives. It … Read more
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who made significant contributions to our understanding of the human psyche. He was a former student and colleague of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, but they eventually parted ways due to major disagreements in their theories. Carl Jung devoted his life to studying the … Read more
“Living Safely is Dangerous” Nietzsche What is your relationship to success and failure? I have been reflecting these recent weeks about how I respond to “failure” – when things do not turn out as I hoped or wished. The video below shares my thinking about a better way of approaching failure in our lives. How … Read more
Sustainability, AI and Digitalisation are three important strategic concerns for all businesses. Covid has accelerated this process of transformation. Some jobs will disappear, and new types of jobs will be created. What skills will keep us valuable? A recent McKinsey report looked at the human skills that will remain in high demand as organisations adapt … Read more
I first met Dandapani at an Entrepreneurs Organisation event in Istanbul in 2012, I have since met him in Boston and then helped bring him to Barcelona to spend a day with our Entrepreneurs’ Organisation chapter. Dandapani teaches some simple but highly important lessons about awareness and our mind, and how to be intentional about … Read more
I’ve been reviewing my purpose statement. I rewrote it earlier this year. The year of Covid shook up my routines and threw me out of balance. It took some discipline with mentors, coaches and my journal to get re-connected to why I get up in the morning. My purpose is “to inspire and challenge others … Read more
Our mindset creates our experience of life. With a poor mindset, my experience of life will suffer. With a better mindset, my experience of life will be of greater joy and resourcefulness. What is Mindset? Your mindset is your collection of beliefs that shape your thought habits. Thought habits affect how you think, what you … Read more
Life is too short to figure everything out on your own. Humans spend the years from birth to 12 learning how to survive. Our parents have a vested interest in helping us develop the Stop there: we merely survive. We live in a highly complex society. There is intense competition for status in whatever hierarchy … Read more
If an oyster keeps all the sand out of his shell, he lives a life of comfort. At the end of his life, you find a dead oyster… in an empty shell. If a grain of sand enters the oyster’s shell, he loses his life of comfort. In order to protect himself from irritation, the … Read more
The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain. As it tires, your brain looks for shortcuts. The 2 most common decision avoidance tactics are: to act impulsively (without seeing the consequences of the decision) to procrastinate (do nothing) Taking decisions takes willpower. Willpower is a form of … Read more