Thoughts

OK. So the other night I had a very strange dream. It was my birthday, and I was in the middle of hosting a big party. In the middle of it all, I got a message saying I had to go and see my new GP. So I dutifully left my own party and tootled […]

  Fear does not stop death. It stops life. Anon.   Fear. It’s part of who we are, yet it can stop us from becoming who we want to be. It keeps us safe, yet merely staying safe is no way to live.  Fear can shrink us. And it can liberate us. Fear lies behind […]

If you’re anything like me, you’ll often feel like there’s never enough time in the day to get done what you want to get done. I reckon there are three ‘isms’ that lead us to feel more hurried than we’d like: Short-term-ism If the story we tell ourselves is that how much we get done […]

There’s a woman I know who has brilliant ideas for how to transform the New Zealand economy so it leads the world in societal and environmental wellbeing. She’s smart. She’s visionary. Yet she’s not getting traction. Why not? She’s a lone voice. Her industry has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Her ideas […]

I’ve just polled the Change Makers community about how they feel about the latest Covid lockdown in New Zealand. Here are the preliminary results: This picture shows a fairly strong leaning towards ‘amazing opportunity’. In people’s comments below the poll, most people reported that they had somewhat mixed feelings. That’s how I’m feeling too. I’m […]

There’s a saying: “you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I really like that as an idea. Yet I think it can go further. What if those five people were all of the same type? Wouldn’t that just be just one person multiplied by five? How useful would that […]

“Priority is a function of context” Steven Covey I used to scuba dive. If you’ve ever done it, you’ll know the peace and tranquillity you feel when you sink beneath the surface into another world. It’s quite amazing.  That underwater world forces you to slow down. Compared to being on dry land, surrounded by air, […]

How can we be more ‘unhurriedly productive?’ That’s a question I’ve been exploring for a couple of years now. Here’s why I think it’s so important: Burnout levels are high, and on the rise. Here in New Zealand, workers work longer hours and for less reward than workers in most other OECD countries. We work harder rather than smarter. […]

  “Learn how to see” – Leonardo Da Vinci   The other day I was checking out guitars online. I’m a bit of a guitar freak, and I was with a friend who doesn’t know much about them. As I was geeking out, explaining the different body shapes and configurations, she said “I just see […]

  “Don’t change your behaviour. Change what shapes your behaviour, and watch your behaviour change.”   Got a gnarly problem? Most of the time, we try to solve problems by changing what we do. Faced with a challenge, we ask what can we do differently? For simple problems, that’s usually sufficient. Light bulb blown? Replace […]