People Say Nothing Is Impossible, But I Do Nothing Every Day Over the last two weeks of acting on instinct and flipping to opening the diary to offer crisis leadership support, somehow I had over sixty zoom meetings. It has been "purpose-full", fulfilling, energising...
For years I loved to watch "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", which for year after year skewered political idiocy, making serious points with great humour. Every show then finished with Jon saying "here it is, your moment of zen", followed by a short random funny...
The image above is from a blog last week from the amazing Maff Potts of Camerados, who wrote on: "When hugs are banned - when the world finally noticed social distancing". I saw Maff speak at Meaning Conference last year and love what he does. The Camerados movement...
Bravery takes different forms, and it is always relative to the individual. Stories here on swim coaching, mental health, and the bravery of a 7…
“Not all those who wander are lost”JRR Tolkien Today a story as a reminder to consciously look for new perspectives, literally and figuratively. All too often we get stuck in what we know, what we are familiar with. In our businesses, we do the same, we also recruit...
The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.Warren Buffett How often do you say "No"? I am home in Cayman for a week from today, and on each successive trip, I am learning to say...
This morning the latest periodic #OpenLeadership newsletter was sent out to subscribers, entitled: "Could you go slower?". It is a "long read" that I wrote over the holiday period, I hope you enjoy it. For today's daily post, though, I did things a little differently...
Bob Marley, live at the Lyceum 1975 For New Year's Day this year, I'll be up quite early and volunteering at a ParkRun. At other time's of the day, I'll do what I typically do on the first day of the year, which is to take it quietly and, with that, listen to music....
It is the Sunday morning between Christmas and New Year. For me consciously a super quiet couple of days planned this way. As 2019 comes to a close I have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to in 2020, yet still, I find myself struggling today to "do...
...literally, slow down and look at the flowers. Over the last few days I've been taking time to slow down, as with yesterday's post" Slow it down". Last night I arrived back from Scotland to my apartment in London. It took me a while as I busied myself with "life...
Panorama of Edinburgh to the North, December 25th, 2019 Taking Time with others this Holiday season. In the English language, we have the phrase "spending time", which infers that taking time is a "cost" that we "spend". In business and leadership, I hear so often...
On this Christmas Day and for a few days either side, I'm around family and we've all agreed to not buy gifts other than for some of the children and to keep things simple. Sometimes simple is best, reminded of this from Socrates: "The secret of happiness, you see, is...
What are you afraid of, and what does it mean for how Present you can be if you are Fearful versus without fear? Warning, going deep with this post! Please bear with me, I hope the "payoff" at the end is of value to you. Jerry Colonna, Non-Attachment and Fear This...
Hugh McLeod, Gaping Void This morning as I am about to leave Cayman, I am sitting to write today's post and the word Gratitude comes to me, allied to being Present. I then searched my site for those terms and found a post called "Gratitude+Presence" from, similarly,...
Think for a moment about your Vision for yourself, your business or organisation. For those with a focus on the UK, where the General Election just happened, perhaps you may be reflecting on your own Vision for country, economy, society. Now, these all typically have...
Remember to Slow down. Happiness is trying to catch you. Yesterday I woke in the Cayman Islands on a beautiful "Christmas Breeze" morning. However, instead of being truly relaxed, I thought about writing the post for this following day and felt the struggle of coming...
My view this Sunday morning Nyepi is the Balinese “day of silence”, a sacred day of silence on Bali, for self-reflection, silence, meditation.From post in March 2018: Silence and Nyepi – Less is More This weekend I took a very quiet 24 hours from the middle of the day...
Good looking guy, huh? Not sure about the bloke with the dodgy moustache though! This was Sunday evening right before the very last race of the ISL Meet in London. I've been a swim official for a long time, on this occasion and on this evening I was the judge at the...
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. - Aristotle The last few weekends have been, as one says in Britain "full-on" for me, including Kilkenomics , before that Basecamp.London, and just the last two days at Meaning Conference then a workshop led by Nilofer...
"Although many of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think."Jill Bolte Taylor Recently I was at an amazing two-day collaborative event, Basecamp.London. Each participant chose a "challenge" to be part of....
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort felt by a person who holds two or more conflicting ideas, beliefs or values at the same time. Leadership is about people, so understanding people is clearly key. For self-leadership, then, self-awareness is key. As humans we seek...
Being an editor can give us more awareness in our lives. Chip Conley, in his focus upon Modern Elder, talks about how in the first half of our lives we focus on accumulating, but in the second half, we can turn our focus to editing. From a place of awareness, we...
In our busy lives, we all sometimes need to find a "moment of zen". This picture is of "Monarch of the Glen", by Landseer. I wondered what it is that makes a picture of a deer so powerful and famous, until, that is, I saw the picture hanging at the National Gallery of...
I recently watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Tarantino and agree with Tom Shone of the Sunday Times that Brad Pitt was the heart of this movie and that he did it so simply and subtly. "Once Brad Pitt stopped “acting”, he became a great movie star...{years ago}...
Today is a consciously quiet day for me, with absolutely nothing planned, a day out to rest in the middle of a busy period. So, a reminder today that sometimes less is more. I'll model that by making this one of my shortest daily posts ever. What could you do less of...
What happens when one faces the "blank page"? Specifically, what do you do when you are faced with that "blank screen" when you just don’t know what to do next? At well over 600 daily posts on this site since I started that discipline, most days I love to write, some...
How often are we truly present. Remember to keep the presence of mind in beautiful places, such as out in the water. Treading water in the Caribbean sea. Nowhere to be, nothing to do. First time I've done that in a long time. Realised in the moment that I wouldn't...
A grey and stormy day at one of the most remote hotels I've ever stayed at. After breakfast I remark to the owner: "this feels like a wonderful day to do nothing". "Isn't every day a wonderful day to do nothing?", he replied. "That sounds like a 'Winnie the Pooh'...
It is 45km (28 miles) from the airport in Grenada to the remote and beautiful Petite Anse hotel.There are 53 speed bumps. How long would you figure it would take to drive there on the main road around the Caribbean side of this island of 100,000 people? Perhaps you'd...
If we plan to be bored, we allow our minds freedom for creativity and diversity of thought. For the seven weekends starting at the beginning of June I have full plans for every single weekend except one. This weekend I have no plans. Well, a regular Sunday morning...
Take a Walk and experience the power of shifting context for yourself. Walking is beneficial to the body and the mind. Last week I wrote a post called "It is solved by walking", itself linking to an earlier and more detailed post about the power of shifting context by...
Travel has the power to shift our context, causing us to look at things in different ways. A one hour flight, thirty-five minutes drive, a converted shipping container on a farm overlooking a view for miles and miles...
Remember to take time to recharge and rest during your busy life. Swans and cygnets in a London park this weekend The last two weeks have been pretty intense for me, both with lots of work and also with the death of someone close then their funeral. I thought this...
There are indeed no ordinary moments and life carries on in the people you meet. A personal blog today and also one where I wish to share from what I took from a day of shock news. I write this shortly after receiving the unexpected news that someone very close to me...
In a post last year: "Diversity of Thought – how much is too much?" I remarked upon a panellist at an event choosing to be present, to listen, then to respond calmly. Within that post I wrote: "..brings to mind to me a quote from 1770 from the Irish statesman and...
What do you see first in the picture above? In looking at it, did you notice yourself slowing down and focussing closely on the image? In my most recent three daily posts, I have focussed on a theme of reducing and simplifying. When we do this, we are able to bring...