It’s Easier to Make It in This World Than it is to Change It

I have mentioned this quote in the past, but after a good conversation with a friend earlier today I thought it would be good to focus on it specifically:  It is easier to make it in this world than it is to change it.  Why?  Because you have to be willing to change yourself first.  Something I learned with greater depth in 2015 when I completed a U.Lab online certification at MIT through edX.

The course specifically focuses on changing business, society and self.  During our conversation my friend, very eloquently, indicated that the self should be first in order to emphasize that is where it all begins (the focus of the course is nonetheless very much on changing yourself first).  Throughout the course I had the chance to interact with variety of individuals all over the world Continue reading “It’s Easier to Make It in This World Than it is to Change It”

Adventures into the Unknown

adventureFor over a decade I have been exploring various roles, organisations, industries and tools to affect my influence for the greater good as far as possible.  From my varsity days I was restless (I guess I still am a bit).  Always hungry; always searching for more MEANING!  Adventures into the unknown!

And yet every day I look around at the majority of people and how happy they are to simply accept their lot in life and tell themselves that “I guess I will never have a better relationship” or “I can’t get over my addiction”.  But I guess that if you are reading this you are already one of the few who look for answers; who search for life!

That fact of the matter is that our collective consciousness is driven by the mass media and we are very happy to simply go with the flow (Yes, I am a stuck record, but the message needs to be repeated).

Few realise that the world of work is changing dramatically.   Continue reading “Adventures into the Unknown”

Hey! What Ya Reading There?

stack-of-books-1001655_960_720Towards the end of last year, as I was reviewing things a bit, I posted on different manners of reading and I specifically focused on going back and reading things again.  We are in such a rush and sometimes we read multiple books at a time we can potentially lose focus.  I have also listed one or two powerful books that you can read here and here.

Here are a few additional phenomenal reads that I can recommend:

 

Continue reading “Hey! What Ya Reading There?”

Regaining Wisdom

wisdomDon’t just sit there and do nothing!  The words ring loudly in our ears.  The world says we need to take action, do, do, do!  Things won’t happen by themselves.  In the office you must step up, take action and impress people.  Hey you the entrepreneur a minute spent in thought and reflection is a client lost!

And so the fear and anxiety creeps in on the back of shallow insights that destroys the depth of who we are.  Look around you – is the current condition of the world brought about by too much reflection and wise action or by meaningless, overhasty drive and ambition?

Who are you?  Perhaps today is the day to just do nothing and sit there.  Yes, as crazy as that might seem, we do enough and there is no shortage of doers in the world.  You can just look at what we have done over the last two millennia.   But who have we become?!

>> Download your free copy of Alive Today! and sign up for email updates.  …Go from survive to alive today.

Choose a Side

1_99Society is evolving into two disparate opposites.  On the one side you have the dividing 1% influence or trend and on the other you have the 99% transformation hungry.  Sure, the gap is growing but for how long.  It is as Nick Hannauer so succinctly describes – the pitchforks are coming.  And they are coming for the rich.

How long can a world remain so unbalanced and unfair?  If you look at history it is evident that it cannot remain.  Normal human beings simply can’t take it.  The problem will however remain as long as things are okay.  Once things are not okay, i.e. if the pain becomes to great people seek a way out.  Off-course there is so much more to the matter because we live in a complex society but I am making an emotive argument more than a cognitive one.  I would like to stir the hunger for transformation (- a dangerous thing, I know).

In effect I am asking you how do you feel about the state of the world?  On which side are you?  Are you on the side of society that pretends to care but in fact too easily remain comfortable with the way things are or are you on the side of challenge, transformation and deep reward?

Perhaps a bit of both?  Make a decision for life today!

Introducing Cohort C – Renegade Inc.

Before you get into this week’s post remember to click on the link below and get your free copy of…

Alive Today!

And now for the main event…
Where do you get your information from?  What do your read?  Who do you believe?  Hmm, can you tell me?  Ever think about it or do you just pick up the newspaper and get swept away by mediocre info?

“You can’t believe everything you read on the internet”  –  Abraham Lincoln

Following on from my previous post I believe I am writing to you, the discerning reader, who would like to know of a better way.  As much as I don’t want you to navigate away from great content like this or find out more about connectedness perhaps you should compliment your reading of good stuff (like this website).

The point is I want to share some of the sources I tap that helps me to navigate this world just a little better and help me understand that happiness ensues.  Perhaps you can already attest to the struggle and frustration of the pursuit of elusive happiness?  You run, it hides.  You reach, it disappears…

How about reading Viktor Frankl’s influential work, Man’s Search For Meaning.

How about complimenting your reading repertoire with something like this:  Renegade Inc. – Introducing cohort C.  If you don’t want to read too much you can also explore their video clips and documentary.  I love it when I watch something so bold as this – I think we need more bold right now.  It is time to get our heads out of the sand and realise that you and I are the change and transformation that this world so desperately needs.  We need to do business for good, educate for life, not survival and treat our most important relationships with the respect and commitment they deserve – what else is there?

Go from survive to alive!

It is All Coming Together Beautifully Now – Can You See It?

I would bet that you, the reader, is very much aware  of all the amazing things happening around us.  Things are becoming both more challenging and more beautiful and the most important thing is that we can choose on which side of the divide we want to be.

I  speak to various business owners, entrepreneurs and managers on a frequent basis and many of them look at the changing world in disbelief.  Either with misplaced self-confidence or perhaps some disdain they look at what the ‘young’ people are trying to do and simply laugh it off.  Many times they are concerned about a lack of work ethic and perhaps they do have some ground to stand on.  But…

In the face of dramatic disruptive forces such as quantum computing, new media ecology and jobless growth we need to consider a new way of living and breathing that unites timeless wisdom and timeous innovation.

If you are in business, want to have fulfilling work or you are an entrepreneur you cannot ignore what is happening all around you – besides, the best way to predict the future is to create it.  So, today I want to give you a bit of a heads-up and introduce you to some of the most exciting developments in society and business in the last 100 years or so.  I think you will appreciate this…

Have you heard?!  Capitalism is still cool despite all the movements in anger because of what it has done to society.  Guys like Said Dawalabani are re-imaging how we can go about the business of economics.  Mr Dawalabani is taking on a bold project in the form of Memenomics which is rooted in Spiral Dynamics which has been spearheaded (among others) by Don Beck.  The big idea is that we have overlapping levels of development that any society goes through in order to realise their full potential and that as we progress we have the ability to integrate each level in order to create a society that knows how to ebb and flow with challenges according to various groups and levels of development.  You will have to explore more for yourself…

If you are interested to know how this could potentially impact your business then you will need to read the work of Frederic Laloux that focus on purpose, holism and self-management.  Oh!  And he has included various case studies that shows it works.

I’m gonna stop there for now but there are quite a few more groups and individuals that are either doing similar or related work.  The point is there is definitely a wave of change upon us.  Surf’s up!

surfer-1

What is Hard Work?

For many years I have struggled with a world that blindly accepts that work ethic means that you need to be willing to sacrifice family, health and peace in service of getting the job done.

When you ask people they won’t tell you this – they will rather say something like “that’s not what I meant but we have do get the job done” or “it is only this weekend that we need to work over time”.  Indeed!  But what about the past six months working after hours and putting in extra – there is only 24 hours in every day.  The original 8 hour day movement recognised the need for three critical parts that needs consistent attention: 8 hours work, 8 hours recreation and 8 hours rest on a daily basis.

Perhaps this idea is outdated?  All I can say is that it speaks to me and I try to apply it as far as possible.  It does however require that I do the hard work inside in order to be able to say no; trust for enough and manage my own irrelevant desires that lead astray and rather continuously foster habits that bring life.  So when people say that you need to have a work ethic what I interpret is inefficient mediocrity – i.e. do things of no significance in a dumb way without question.

I love what Robin Sharma says: “Manage your focus, not your time”.  I completely agree, you have no power over the time that is given to you but you do have a good bit of control over yourself.  The fact is that few people try and change themselves in order to realise their true selves which will manifest accomplishment and significance rather than material success or achievement as defined bu those with “work ethic”.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in dedication responsibility and accountability for that which you have agreed to but I do not believe in blindly following orders without questioning the why of work.

So today I challenge you to get more life and avoid just surviving by asking yourself whether you are thinking about who you are, where you are heading – you know the ethical stuff of doing what is right – and then do the work that aligns to this.  Now that’s what I call work ethic.  …And that is hard work.

P.S. Don’t forget to grab your copy of Alive Today! if you haven’t done so yet.

What is Hard Work?

DSC_0359

For many years I have struggled with a world that blindly accepts that work ethic means that you need to be willing to sacrifice family, health and peace in service of getting the job done.

When you ask people they won’t tell you this – they will rather say something like “that’s not what I meant but we have do get the job done” or “it is only this weekend that we need to work over time”.  Indeed!  But what about the past six months working after hours and putting in extra – there is only 24 hours in every day.  The original 8 hour day movement recognised the need for three critical parts that needs consistent attention: 8 hours work, 8 hours recreation and 8 hours rest on a daily basis.

Perhaps this idea is outdated?  All I can say is that it speaks to me and I try to apply it as far as possible.  It does however require that I do the hard work inside in order to be able to say no; trust for enough and manage my own irrelevant desires that lead astray and rather continuously foster habits that bring life.  So when people say that you need to have a work ethic what I interpret is inefficient mediocrity – i.e. do things of no significance in a dumb way without question.

I love what Robin Sharma says: “Manage your focus, not your time”.  I completely agree, you have no power over the time that is given to you but you do have a good bit of control over yourself.  The fact is that few people try and change themselves in order to realise their true selves which will manifest accomplishment and significance rather than material success or achievement as defined bu those with “work ethic”.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in dedication responsibility and accountability for that which you have agreed to but I do not believe in blindly following orders without questioning the why of work.

So today I challenge you to get more life and avoid just surviving by asking yourself whether you are thinking about who you are, where you are heading – you know the ethical stuff of doing what is right – and then do the work that aligns to this.  Now that’s what I call work ethic.  …And that is hard work.

P.S. Don’t forget to grab your copy of Alive Today! if you haven’t done so yet.

From Personal Growth to the Growth of a Nation

_20150619_141353As previously discussed in the defining growth post I promised to link personal growth to national growth.  So here goes…

There is normally much debate around how to uplift a nation and the split is usually between the conservatives and the liberals.  On the one hand the conservative will tell you that the focus is on the person – work harder, greater moral development, discipline, etc. and on the other hand you have the liberal that says you need to change the system, create opportunity and put safety nets in place in order to level the playing field.  Conservatives therefore focus on the personal or interior and the liberals on the system or exterior aspects.

All of this is quite good but the fact of the matter is that we are measuring specific things that are indicative of growth – we value certain things.  As you may well know, globally we use Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the main indicator of a nation’s growth.  Have you ever thought about this measurement?  Is it a good one?  What exactly does it measure?  What is excluded?  Can it be improved?

Without going into too much detail I can say with certainty that there are definitely better ways to measure our progress as society that includes other very important aspects and starts to bridge the gap between interior and exterior.  One of the new approaches includes much broader aspects such as foundations of well-being and if you are interested to learn more go over to TED and see what Michael Green and the Social Progress Index is all about.

There are also many more movements, too many to mention right now, maybe more later, that are focusing on the development of the interior person and how this relates the development and growth of our exterior world.  Once again many thinkers, writers and scholars are making some very important progress.  There are different ways of looking at the challenge but the bottom line is that our inner condition is most certainly part of the cause as I wrote in Fix the Hole.

It doesn’t help we change a system, build a school or produce more cars and never ask why!  Sometimes we can do exactly the same thing but with a very different why – a very different purpose that emanates from a transformed interior.

Now that is going from just surviving on this planet to really living!

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