The Sixth Sense

Vox is back!

It’s been over a year in coming but Vox is - finally - back. We’ve still been running the book club and the Yelo events but we’ve not held our signature Vox night since July 2007. The wait is now over.

For those of you in or around Sheffield, make sure you come along. (Check out the Facebook event here.) It’ll be a great night. And, for those of you from further afield, we’ll be posting video online shortly after the event.

Here are the details:

Here’s some video from the last event:

You can’t always get what you want

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need

This song has been running through my head this morning. I often find myself humming a tune in the shower…my thinking space. Sometimes the songs stay in there, but other times they stick with me as I’m getting around, making lunch, feeding Max. And then I stop to wonder, “Why in the world am I singing this song?”.

If it’s an annoying song stuck in my head, I’ll either play music to push it out, or the sure fire way to rid one song stuck in my head. I’ll sing another, equally catching song, like the song from the Irn Bru Snowman advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfiqrkV_ZqI. It works EVERY TIME!

But today, as I was belting out that old Stone’s song, I stopped to wonder, why this song? I don’t listen to the Stone’s, in fact I had to google the lyrics to see who actually sang that song. But still, it keeps ringing over and over. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might just find, you get what you need.

I think my train of thought started with the realization that nearly a year ago our lives went on a journey. We started on an adventure…off towards what we wanted. We sold our house, which we wanted to do. And then we moved all our belongings to England…which we REALLY wanted. But then, what we wanted started to get in the way of what we needed. We had to make difficult decisions. In fact, they were quite straight forward decisions. But difficult to admit.

We didn’t want to move back to the States. We didn’t want to live here. Once we got back, we tried to work our desires back into the equation and moved to California. Which worked out horribly for our son, who needed much more care than the medical teams could offer him in California. So, nearly a year later, we sit where we started. We came back in July, and bought the same model car we sold while moving to England. We searched until we found just the right house, less than a mile from our old house. My son got back in with all of the medical professionals he was working with before we left.

This year we have definitely not gotten what we wanted…but as it turns out…we did get exactly what we needed. We have been provided for in amazing ways. Ways that I can’t even wrap my head around sometimes. And while I don’t always understand the logic we’ve followed this past year, I know every decision has been the best decision for us. For now, I’m trying to not focus on what I want. It seems that’s not been the best thing for me this year. Instead, I’m trying to focus on what we need. And then, seeing over and over, that’s exactly what has been making me happy. All my needs have been met. I am healthy, my family is healthy. We are happy, and cared for.

I think it’s important to dream of wants, and desires. But it’s equally important, if not more so, to focus on the needs, rather than taking for granted that all our needs will be met if we just work at the wants in our lives.

What do you think?

[Visit Deana's personal blog here.]

Obama: SECOND African American President?

I’d love to know what impact the hit show ‘24′ has had on this current US presidential election. Barack Obama is on the brink of becoming the first African American President of the United States of America. But how much has the electability of an African American been shaped - subconsciously at least - by a certain President Palmer.

It is probably impossible to ever fully know, but I am convinced that on some levels President Palmer has helped ease open the door for President Obama.

How ironic that Fox is behind ‘24′!

Logging off

When was the last time you logged off or switched your phone off. And I mean off, not just silenced.

We used to shut our computers down when we’d finished. Now we leave them in standby mode. We used to switch our phones off. Instead we, at best, only turn them to silent or vibrate.

This isn’t all bad of course. It’s the reality of the world we live in. But if we are going to be people who maximise our potential, we will need to be people who know the importance of taking time out. You know, that thing called rest.

Here’s some ideas:

- Maybe we could have one day a week where we actually log off. No email, no work, no computer. Just chill. Enjoy life. Spend quality time with friends and family.

- How about ignoring the phone when we’re eating. Savour that time and that food. Enjoy the company of the people you’re eating with by being fully there.

- What if we intentionally created some space within every day to slow down. Take a break. Enjoy that lunch hour. Step out of what you’re in the middle of with a change of scenery. Perhaps a book. Or the park. Anything really, just change the scene.

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This post is a duplication from my blog at The Human Potential Company. Not all posts are duplicated here so to make sure you don’t miss any, subscribe here.

Nobody fulfils their potential by accident

Making the most of our potential is not always easy. In fact, to break through all the obstacles and barriers in our way, it will take a lot of hard work.

Nobody fulfils their potential by accident.

We make the most of our potential when we take our innate talents and then, on top of that, work hard to develop the necessary skills and add the relevant knowledge so that we can do something meaningful with our talent.

David Beckham may well have been born with the unique ability to curve a football like few other people, but that talent would never have reached it’s potential if he had not spent hours on the training field practicing and practicing and practicing.

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This post is a duplication from my blog at The Human Potential Company. Not all posts will be duplicated here so to make sure you don’t miss any, subscribe here.

Doing what you love

I’m giving a lot of time and thought to the company I’m setting up at the moment focussed on helping people and organisations maximise their potential.

I was chatting with my wife, Rachel, about it all and weighing up the practicalities. You know, making sure we’ll have a enough money and things like that. 

As we were chatting I realised how much I love what I’m going to be doing. And it is, without doubt, something that I love and believe in so much that, if I didn’t need the money, I’d have no problem doing what I’m looking to do for free.

I love helping people maximise their potential. I love helping and seeing teams work better together because of a better understanding of each others uniqueness.

Of course, I DO need to make money from this venture. But I’m excited to embark on something that I enjoy to the extent that I would do it for free if I could.

I think that’s a great place to be.

How often do you get to do what you love?

Sickening politics by McCain

Mid-speech recently John McCain hit a line which said something along the lines of ‘just who is Barack Obama?’ Before he had a chance to continue, someone in the crowd yelled out ‘terrorist’.

The McCain camp’s only aim right now seems to be to try and convince people that Obama is a friends of terrorists. It is, quite simply, a lie. A sickening lie. And does John McCain really want to foster such anger in people that they seriously start to think Obama is a terrorist?

You would have thought that, for the sake of honour at least, McCain would rein things back in. Sadly not. He is fueling it even further as the below ad he released today shows.

Frankly, I think this is sickening. I thought McCain was a pretty decent guy even though I disagree with him on various fronts. Now he practically has zero respect from me.

I suspect we are about to see the dirtiest few weeks in American political history as McCain is simply desperate to win no matter the cost. No matter the harm and devisions he causes.

Here’s to hoping that dirty politics doesn’t win the day.

And this is simply horrible. Again, is this really the type of legacy McCain wants to leave?

What do you think?

No. 674 - The warrior poet does not live for himself

Wisdom and tales from the Warrior Poet

The warrior poet does not live for himself.

The warrior poet knows that the key to being alive is death. He recognises that life is more than mere existence.

Existence is easy. Any fool can exist. To truly live - to be fully alive - is to die.

This is not a death to ambition or purpose. Neither is it a death to personal growth and development. It is rather a death to a self absorbed and self consumed life.

The warrior poet understands that to truly live is to live for something larger than himself. It is to live for something other than himself. He knows deep down that a world orientated around himself is not the sort of world others would want to live in.

Women are like…

We were enjoying a fun and relaxing evening of conversation in Switzerland last week where we somehow ended up talking about the complexity of women. (Or was it the simplicity of men?)

In the middle of this my wife, Rachel, blurted out this:

“Women are like a ticking bomb which men are left trying to figure out whether to cut the blue wire or the red wire or the green wire with little idea what impact their choice will make!”

We were in stitches for ages. So true!

Video conference anyone?!

I’m considering the possibility of hosting a video conference conversation for a maximum of ten people every 4 to 6 weeks.

There are so many good books being read, so many important topics being thought about, and so many issues being mulled over. But all too often this is only happening amongst ourselves as individuals. And that so often results in little action happening as a result.

I’m as guilty as the next person of reading a great, challenging book but then doing nothing about it. But when I read and discuss a book with others, there is much more motivation (and peer pressure!) to actually do something.

So, here’s some ideas:

- We could read a book together and then organise a video conversation to process it and work towards action ideas.

- We could share ideas and issues that we’d like to discuss and perhaps put them to the vote for which one will get discussed during that particular video conference.

Obviously, there’s loads more possibilities and I’d love you to share any you have. And, of course, some conversations will be of more interest to some than others. We’ll pick a topic or a book though, set a date, and the first 10 people who are interested can participate.

What do you think? Anyone interested?