Shine a Light!

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” – Dr Howard Thuman.

Your life should be dedicated to delivering your gifts, talents and skills with confidence. Often we hide away our gifts because to us they seem insignificant yet to others they can be so valuable. Our secret talents and abilities are our greatest gifts to the world.

Our biggest fear is that if we shine brightly then our families and friends will not like us. Instead we hold on to inauthentic personalities and roles in the hope we will will be accepted and will fit in.

Society is designed so that uniqueness is minimised and uniformity is paramount. There is at the base of this driver an economic imperative to ensure an ongoing supply of unquestioning “worker drones” who will keep the wheels of commerce moving and generating more money and power for those whose prosperity and wealth have been built upon the backs of others.

When you embrace your authentic self you may well find that you no longer fit in and that others will look at you strangely. Dare yourself to skirt the fringes of society and be a fringe dweller who is true to Self. Always be true to yourself. That is the road to happiness and fulfilment.

Is there a problem here?

Life is not a problem waiting to be solved. Life is a mysterious celebration of living. At this level of consciousness problems are are no more!

Imagine being in a dark room – the lights are off and you cannot see! Turn the light on and all is revealed. So does darkness really exist or is it more just an absence of light?

Problems are very much like being in a darkened room. A problem is a lack of understanding about a particular situation or event. When we understand that everything is as it is meant to be – the good, the bad and the ugly – then we become enlightened and start to look for the possibilities that exist in all of the stuff that happens to us in life. That doesn’t of course mean that we won’t feel pain or discomfort from time to time just as we will also experience joy and pleasure. Continue reading

The Importance of Downtime

“Downtime” has almost become a dirty word at work these days.

From the moment we arrive at our workplace to the time we eventually leave we are under pressure to be busy, to perform and to impress at all costs. This appears to be symptomatic of a perception  that if we are not busy in business then we are not being good workers.

Remember the days of the good old “smoko break” (such labelling is probably no longer very pc!)? Those were the days when workers took 10 minutes in the morning and afternoon to take a break and have a cuppa together.

While at law these breaks have been entrenched in legislation the stigma attached to not appearing busy means that there is a general perception that you are a “slacker” if you observe those breaks! So most white collar workers choose to have a cuppa at their desks while they continue to work.

Even the word “busi-ness” carries with it the implied notion that it is all about being busy! Continue reading

The Mother-in-law of all Jokes

It could only happen in Tinseltown. In LA a standup comedian who was sued for making mother-in-law jokes has had the last laugh after a federal judge threw the case out of court!

The comedian whose act for years has been to describe her life as a half-black, half-Swedish woman who marries into a Jewish family was sued by her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law claiming that her jokes held them up to public ridicule.

In a 21 page judgment, the US District Judge concluded that the examples they cited including one in which the comedian says her sister-in-law’s voice” sounds like a cat in heat” fell under the category of protected speech as being statements of opinion and not fact and therefore protected by the First Amendment.

The added twist to all this being that the comedian’s husband is a partner in the law firm which represented her and is quoted as saying “he’s excited about the win but he is not happy about the legal fees his firm had to incur!”

Obviously no familial love has been lost here!

The Differing Faces of Competition

You have probably often heard the saying “there’s nothing wrong with a good dose of healthy competition”. I think there is a lot of truth in this saying.

When I think back to my childhood I recall spending alot of time as a competitive sportsperson. All the hard work and hours put into training really did pay off. I was selected for various representative school teams and enjoyed competing and achieving at the highest level.

Later as an adult I enoyed and was successful competing at local and international music competitions. There’s nothing quite like the sweet taste of success eh?

There is however a downside to competition and that can rear its ugly head when the focus moves from the heart felt enjoyment of the activity to winning at all costs. The latter being an egocentric response to a neurotic need to achieve at all costs rather than for the love of the thing itself. The mind must win at all costs! This experience is short-lived. Continue reading