Blog
Awareness
Teaching children who is in charge
When I was at the school the other day, a little boy was crying outside his classroom. His teacher was with him but the boy could not talk he was so distraught. The teacher hugged him tightly, then looked him right in the eyes and said very firmly,
‘Who is in charge of your mind?’
The boy was startled out of his sobs. He didn’t know what to say at first. And then cautiously said,
‘I am?’
She nodded. ‘Yes you are.’
Her question had taken him away from what ever had upset him and brought him right into…
‘Who is in charge of your mind?’
The boy was startled out of his sobs. He didn’t know what to say at first. And then cautiously said,
‘I am?’
She nodded. ‘Yes you are.’
Her question had taken him away from what ever had upset him and brought him right into…
Living in the present
Years ago, I had a phone call to say that one division of our business was in crisis and that in ten minutes the general manager of the market where it had taken place would brief us. It had serious implications for my boss. It looked likely that, as a result of this issue, a programme he had been working on for over a year would not see the light of day. I went over to tell him. He listened carefully, took in everything I was telling him. As soon as I had finished telling him about the issue a…
To buy or not to buy
Several years ago I worked in the luxury brand industry, developing marketing campaigns for Johnnie Walker Blue and Gold Label. I went to a seminar on luxury marketing in London and got chatting to a Italian luxury shoe designer. We played a game to test his knowledge. He could tell the brand of shoe that every woman was wearing just from the quickest glance. He worked out that every single woman in that room was wearing a pair of shoes that would have cost over £300. Apart from me.
I started to …
I started to …
beware of the Trojan horses
For ten long years the Greeks had been trying to conquer the city of Troy but they could find no way through the high, thick walls. One day, the Greek General, Odysseus, had a clever idea. ‘Let’s pretend that we admit defeat and that we are sailing away. we will leave a gift to announce the end of the war. It will be a magnificent, fantastic horse. A work of art which the Trojans will accept into their city. But inside the horse we will hide 30 men’. The Greeks thought it was a brilliant idea. T…
The ultimate freedom - cut loose from the ‘Self’
There is an old Japanese story about a tea ceremony master who unintentionally insulted a samurai swordsman and was immediately challenged to a duel the next day. The tea master was terrified. ‘I am going to die’ he thought. His wife persuaded him to find someone who could help. He sought the help of an expert swordsman to teach him. All through the night the expert tried to instruct his pupil in the art of swordsmanship but the tea master couldn’t get any of the motions right. As dawn was break…
Question 'reality'
To have my two children I went through three rounds of IVF and 10 attempts at re-implanting frozen embryos. I did the final round in a controversial London clinic which had a reputation for the ferocious intensity of the treatment. For over a month I had daily blood tests and ultrasound which the clinicians used to prescribe specific amounts of hormones to be injected - usually two or three different injections a day in the stomach and bottom.
I remember one day, half way through the treatment m…
I remember one day, half way through the treatment m…
Who is in the car with you?
When I was a relatively junior consultant in a PR agency, I was responsible for running a specific meeting with a very volatile client and it soon became clear that his view of the purpose of the meeting was not at all the same as the one I had planned for. Within 30 minutes of it starting he stormed out of the room, shouting to my boss at the other at the office that this was the worst meeting he had ever been in. I spent the whole afternoon crying in the toilets. Eventually I made it out, cr…
We live in the map not the world
Neurolinguistic programming distinguishes between the ‘map’ and the ‘territory’. The map is the representation of the world that we have in our minds. The map is our reality but it is not the ‘territory’, which is the vast flux of space and atoms that make up the world., the universe and beyond. We live our lives through this map, our own version of reality.
The important thing to constantly remember is that it is just a map, our own creation which we have the power to change and evolve into th…