Archive for the 'Self-awareness' Category

Page 3 of 10

Our progress

Published on 29 January, 2008 in relationships and Self-awareness. 2 Comments

Sometimes I forget just how much I have changed in the past few years.

Somebody – somehow – found my old blogger blog this morning and made a comment on something I wrote two years ago. She felt called to correct inaccuracies I had made.

And I agreed with her – the simplifications that I had made for the audience that I was addressing the post towards impaired the accuracy of my depiction of the overall message… I wouldn’t have phrased it that way today!

Yet I am grateful for her comment… and that I can notice the difference.

Isn’t it funny how it is often only when we can notice “the difference” that we can see our own progress?

(The post was about David Deida’s Way of the Superior Man, a book you will probably want to read at some point. It’s not for wusses – but it’s got great material. Check out my notes here…)

Communication is not that difficult… REALLY!!!

Published on 28 January, 2008 in Business, Creativity and genius, High performance, Overcoming, Self-awareness and Stories. 4 Comments

When I was in primary school I knew that I was going to enjoy public speaking. Debating was my first love though my attention shifted towards public speaking and training. Right now I’m involved with three Toastmasters Clubs here in Shanghai – to me, it still offers the best value speaking training in the world today. Yet I am still staggered at how people who call themselves leaders can possess such embarrassing communication skills. Continue reading “Communication is not that difficult… REALLY!!!” »

Doing what you REALLY want to do

Published on 19 November, 2007 in Creativity and genius, High performance, Lifestyle and Self-awareness. 2 Comments

Listening to a Stanford podcast from the founder of Tesla Motors, I made the following notes that I thought worth writing down…

  • Do something you’re passionate about
  • Do something meaningful
  • Be bold
  • Think your ideas through
  • Build your company while you build your product
  • Face reality everyday
  • Hire the best
  • Aggressively follow all leads

Makes a nice snap back to reality after yesterday’s session with China NLP on values…

Pride, Peace and Compassion

Published on 16 November, 2007 in Self-awareness. 2 Comments

I read Power vs Force some time back and was recently reminded that one of the powerful shifts that we can choose to make is to think of the successes of others as our own.

It’s a strange concept for most of us, but what if you could think of yourself as being connected to everybody else around you? What if you not only could feel the pains of those less fortunate as if they were afflicting another part of yourself, yet share in the successes and achievements as if they are another “flowering” of our Collective Consciousness?

Perhaps this is one of the wonderous benefits of feeling love and compassion for our fellow creatures?

As I walk through the streets of Shanghai I am regularly approached by beggars. Amid the tremendous wealth and booming development there is desperate poverty. Waiting for the bus near my apartment the other day, while listening to Return to Love on my new phone, I noticed a woman sitting on a step. Within a few moments, she came over toward me and asked for money. As I have come to do, I tried to ignore her.

I feel called to extend compassion towards the people like her. I remain philosophically opposed to giving money to beggars on the street, yet I do feel called to send a private thought, prayer or spiritual wish for her peace… to give myself the opportunity to notice that this woman and I are connected on a deep yet powerfully profound level.

The Power of Now

Published on 14 November, 2007 in Self-awareness. 2 Comments

Tonight, I presented a brief overview of my learnings, experiences and favourite quotes from The Power of Now.

For me, this book focuses upon cultivating and expanding consciousness. It is focused on enhancing our presence in each moment, letting go of our attachment to the past and the future. Eckhart Tolle also deals with relationships as a spiritual path. If you are interested, I can send you a synopsis.

Read it. If you’ve read it already, read it again.

Thank you, Lyma, once again for giving me this book. I read the inscription – my favourite of all my books – again this week and felt re-energized by your words again.

What drives you?

Published on 11 October, 2007 in Business, Creativity and genius, High performance, Lifestyle and Self-awareness. 2 Comments

A few minutes ago, I was asked to attend an induction ceremony. As I perused the agenda for the early morning meeting (my unborn own child would be considerate enough to wait until after 8:45am on a Saturday morning to be born!!!) outlined eight outcomes… of which at most one were relevant to me. For me, that’s the sort of meeting that I try fervently to avoid, so I phoned the person who called the meeting to confirm whether I needed to attend… and the response that I got astounded me: “it’s procedure”.

“it’s procedure”!!!!!

Maybe waisting your time is “procedure” for some, but I like to not be one of those people… but it got me thinking about motivations. I realised – as I was speaking with the MBA-educated meeting convener – that she was motivated by fulfilling the criteria (going through the motions or just doing stuff), rather than actually achieving outcomes.

It really got me annoyed for a few minutes… until I got curious.

I noticed that some people sincerely believe that life is accomplished by going through the motions… it’s more than the difference between being efficient and being effective – I’m really talking about alignment. I’m talking about the importance of getting your actions and outcomes aligned with your overall direction or vision, and consistent with your values.

So where are you at? What are your values? How aligned are you? How aligned is your organisation?

There are now more than a hundred billionaires in China – and the youngest was born in the 1980s! And you can bet that they are lean, focused and disciplined to get profit… and profit is where you are better aligned to deliver value than your competitors. Fundamentally, that’s why capitalism can work so well… it rewards and challenges us to create ever-greater value.

In a world of hypercompetition, free design (as it is once you get to scale) and a boundary-less world alignment is everything… to deliver alignment you have to design it, necessitating self-awareness and the determination to understand your underlying values.

Because if you don’t, you can be sure that someone else will.

Upgrading the software for your mind

Published on 4 October, 2007 in Cool friends and ideas, Creativity and genius, High performance, Lifestyle, Science and technology and Self-awareness. 0 Comments

We talk a lot about software for your mind as a metaphor for your thought patterns – cultivating emotions (like compassion, tenacity, playfulness, love etc) or refining our thinking skills (creativity, learning, problem solving…)

However there’s some great software out there. One of them – Mindjet’s MindManager is sensational! It helps you organise, implement and communicate your ideas and concepts. I’ve just fallen in love with it (and their viewer that comes with a 5-day trial of the full software): Now I want a version for my smartphone…

If you’re looking for a more metaphorical software upgrade, I like the Four Hour Work Week generally, and particularly this post on Tim’s blog about finding your rhythm for peak creativity. His ChangeThis manifesto is pretty cool too. Though if you want a more-easily accessed stimulus for creativity, try sitting for a few hours in the couches of the Grand Cafe on the 54th floor of Jin Mao as I did this afternoon… truly inspiring!

It’s a damn small world

Published on 23 September, 2007 in Self-awareness, Stories and Travel. 0 Comments

I was in an outlying suburb of Shanghai on Friday afternoon, and of all the people that would walk up to me was my best friend’s brother-in-law! We met once – at his sister’s wedding – back in May, and we headed out last night :)

In London two years ago, I walked into Sarah, one of my dearest friends from law school, as we walked down the street in opposite directions – but a lot more of my friends or associates have ended up in London than here in Shanghai.

There are two things that this really made clear to me:

  1. The world is really really really really small, and
  2. Shanghai is an increasingly cool place to be. 

Certificates make great wallpaper

Published on 17 September, 2007 in Creativity and genius and Self-awareness. 0 Comments

I always loved collecting certificates. When I was in Scouts, I collected as many badges as I had sleeve space. When I was at school, I collected lines of writing for my blazer. At university, I similarly collected an array of parchment (five so far). And in karate, I didn’t want just a ‘black belt’ and completed my Yondan (fourth degree black belt rank) in two systems.

But as I was preparing for my last karate grading, one of my great instructors asked me whether I was chasing the rank or whether the rank was chasing me. The word “dan” in Japanese refers to the degree of black belt, so “shodan” is a first degree, “nidan” is second degree and so on. This of course meant that he was able to ask me: “Is the dan chasing Dan, or is Dan chasing the dan?”

Being conditioned to be ‘an achiever’ from a very young age, this was very confronting – I knew nothing other than to chase “the dan”. Yet over time, it dawned on me that having a sheet of paper without having the competence that the sheet of paper represents is meaningless, while being competent makes the sheet of paper a largely redundant formality.  Certificates can make great wallpaper.

Collect competence, not just certificates.

Who is John Galt?

Published on 16 September, 2007 in Business, Cool friends and ideas, Creativity and genius, High performance, relationships, Self-awareness and Social development. 2 Comments

The New York Times has just published an article acknowledging the role played by Ayn Rand in the thinking of modern capitalists. My Grandfather gave me The Fountainhead when I was an arrogant 13-year-old with a warning that the first half was boring but the second half made it worthwhile. He was right on both counts.

While “the virtue of selfishness” might be very unpopular as a phrase, I was transformed by this book and still have it together with my Grandfather’s copy of Atlas Shrugged in a special place in my bookcase at home.

It’s not a complete philosophy. Assumptions arrogantly taken for “axioms” are adopted by ignorant idealogues undermine the intellectual integrity that Objectivists purport to uphold. However, as James M. Kilts is quoted as noting in the NYT article, Ayn Rand’s works uphold a very important value that has few other sources:

“that excellence should be your goal”

Spiritual masters, NLPers and psychologists are largely and unusually in agreement (though they won’t let you know!): Self-actualisers, prime mover geniuses and happy “ordinary” people everywhere live in accordance with the vision that Rand had for the world… rather than being the victim of what other people want for you or think of you, may we all take personal responsibilty for how you feel, what you think and the life that you live.

Be excellent.

-->