26th November 2009
Have you ever fantasised about having an invisibility cloak? Then you could wrap yourself, Harry Potter style, and sneak unseen into privileged places. What secrets you could discover!
Of course you would want to take the cloak off sometimes - when you...
23rd November 2009
Can you remember a day when you noticed something for the first time that was actually there all along? Many people have this experience. It demonstrates the ability to create fresh perspectives of the familiar world. So when we want to be creative and in...
18th November 2009
Whatever the context, when we speak to a group of people it is tempting to devote too much attention to what we say and not enough to how we do it. If you want to be inspiring, here are some essential points:
1. Be yourself - you don't need to imitate ...
02nd November 2009
When autumn deepens, and the leaves are falling fast and the temperatures are dropping, you may notice that the changing season is also marked by the appearance of the domestic fuel tanker.
The natural habitat of these vehicles is the country road as t...
29th October 2009
Choosing your language carefully will have a big influence on your ability to inspire other people. Great orators and speech-makers know all about this and we can learn from them. We can also learn from psychology and how language works.
Let's be clear...
07th October 2009
It's funny how the mind works. It loves making connections, detecting patterns and creating stories.
It's the mind that generates inspiration - when the conditions are right. Looking at how we experience inspiration, there seem to be three levels. This...
05th October 2009
Recently I stayed in a house where the owner was a keen collector of clocks. There were two impressive grandfather clocks, several pendulum wall clocks and a number of mantle clocks. Most of them chimed every hour.
However, they did not all show the sa...
30th September 2009
It was when I was travelling in New Zealand that I saw the man fall off the bridge. Not any bridge, but a high suspension bridge spanning a deep gorge. For a moment I didn't believe what I was seeing. I held my breath as the figure fell as if in slow moti...
31st August 2009
It can be a steady source of amazement that other people believe what they do.
For example, have you ever been grappling with a problem when a well-meaning but annoying person pipes up with "there's no such thing as a problem, only an opportunity"?
...
27th August 2009
When you are aware of an unhelpful feeling or state of mind for the task(s) you have ahead, there is a powerful technique that you can use. Here's a real-life example (I've put a summary at the end).
A few days ago I was working with a group of custome...
20th July 2009
We can busy for the whole of our waking hours. This is particularly true in professional life when it seems there are not enough hours in the day. While it is important to get things done, it is counter-productive to just bash on regardless.
If you wer...
05th July 2009
Sometimes other people can be so frustrating. Whether it is the boss, a colleague or even a family member, you want them to change. You keep thinking "if only they would..." and you fill the blank with the behavior you prescribe.
Do you remember the an...
27th June 2009
It's a curious feature of human life that there are occasions when we clearly know the best thing to do and then we go and do something completely different! It can seem that part of us wants one thing and another part stops it.
This is obvious in the ...
15th June 2009
Early in my career I discovered a phenomenon which you may well recognize in your own area of work. It turned out to be a powerful way to lead and inspire.
My first job was a software developer and this entailed fixing bugs in programs. Sometimes a bug...
12th June 2009
When you're inspired you get a tremendous boost to your energy and motivation. This is a great way to get started towards your goal, yet you also need momentum to keep going to reach it.
You can find momentum literally in DETAIL - one factor for each l...
