Friday, May 02, 2003

Have you ever got into the car and started to drive, only to realise that you have inadvertently left the parking brake on? For a while, you can’t work out why your vehicle is so sluggish. Then suddenly, it becomes obvious. I guess sometimes, we make a similar error with the vehicle of our life. We begin to wonder why we just don't seem to be getting anywhere and we feel frustrated because progress is so slow and sluggish. Then it dawns on us. We are holding ourselves back. We are letting ourselves be weighed down by irrelevant fears. Untill the pennies drop. Light bulbs illuminate. Realisations arrive. Suddenly we understand what had been a mystery. One part of us says, "Oh no!"and the other says, “Of course!” ...We all fear facts and discover that these can challenge our view of the world. No matter how open-minded than most people I am but I still prefer to see myself as a person whose insights are impeccable and whose actions are always beyond reproach. Of course, in reality, no such individuals exist. So I suppose all is left is that I have to be brave, to learn the lesson life wants to teach me today...Would life will get happier, instantly?

When you are hungry, the simplest question can seem like an intimidating challenge. When you are sleepy, the easiest task can appear like an entry test for MENSA. When you are running late, when your family are being grouchy, when your team have just lost a game, a pessimistic perspective soon develops. We rarely make enough allowance for the importance of timing. I guess I should remember that some things – for some people (including me) will prove easier to do or deal with tomorrow than today. So I guess I will stop thinking about what has put me through this shock today...and worry about it tomorrow!

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

He asked : When is the darkest hour?
She said : Just before the dawn!
He asked: When are things most likely to change?
She said : Just when we have got used to the idea that they will never change.
He asked :When will we have learned our lesson?
She said :When we realise that life holds more lessons than we can ever learn.

People love to make clear announcements in confident tones and lead us all to believe that they know what they are talking about. But they rarely do. Progress, comes in spite of – not because of – the intervention of experts. We can tell people that a situation contains little hope. As a white lie...we do it all the time at work...( I am a consultant..give me a break!)...but can we do that in our personal life, and with our friends. Just so that it might make them a little happier?? I guess not...That would be wrong! But then again...who sets the right and wrong? Is it like what they say "Medicine amuses the patient, while nature effects the cure"... I think not ...Nor is this the only realm in which credit is often wrongly attributed. The deeply superstitious will frequently testify to the efficacy of their plans to avoid spilling salt or walking under ladders. "Look,"they will say, "I did all the right things – and they must have worked because I am still here."But that would still have been the same even if they had done all the wrong things?". so does this mean that we need to follow an insurance policy so expensive that we need an insurance policy to cover our ability to afford it???

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Why can't leopards change their spots? You would think that in this go-getting, commercial world of the 21st century, someone would set up a beauty parlour in the jungle. A chilled little place with a gym, a spa and an on-site laser tattooist. The beasts could come there for stripe adjustment and spot removal. The Elephants could wear their trunks, the leopards, their leotards! Actually, I don't even think we need to go to Africa to fill such a gap in the market. Right on our doorstep there are creatures of habit, insisting that they can do things differently from everyone else!! ummm...I shall say no more...can't give away too much now can I?!!!

Monday, April 28, 2003

Desires are expensive things to have. If we can only manage to persuade ourselves that we want nothing, we can save ourselves a great deal of money, time and "emotional investment."All business people know that it is much easier to drive a hard bargain when you feel dispassionate – and conversely, that you can soon be taken advantage of if you deeply yearn to take possession of something... or someone. That is going a bit too far I guess, the problem is we can't really own people...or can we? We can't change them to our likings… can we? It is like the cars and elephant metaphor; Cars, like elephants, have two distinctly different ends. Go round the front and they seem very appealing. Go round the back and you had better be wearing a clothes peg over your nose. Hey, that's life. Two sides to every coin. If you are hoping to persuade elephants to stop doing what it is that elephants do several times a day, you are not going to get far. Nor are you likely to find a combustion engine without an exhaust. So does that mean that no matter how possessive we may be, it is not easy to change things the way we want them to be? Especially if the so called "things" in question are the people closed to us? I guess we do occasionally get the option to position ourselves where we can enjoy the advantages of a certain situation without having to look so closely at what's wrong with it. But hey that is tough too!!!

Sunday, April 27, 2003

"Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try... " Ah, but is it? Most of us find it difficult to envisage a world without a heaven. We may try hard to seem cynical but deep within, we are all idealists. Not only do we like to dream of an ever-after that is always happy, we also like to feel that heaven is a place on Earth. We keep hoping that any moment now we are going to enter it. ya right?!! Wake up... The "ever-after" bit I am not qualified to comment on. I have very mixed feelings at the moment of whether there is any truth on such a thing...or what the people who came up with that concept were actually thinking!!! My power of cynicism extends only to now ! And all I can think of is "when will I get a little taste of the heaven" they keep promising us?!