Thanks to Roz Savage for pointing me in the direction of Colin Beavan who asks powerful questions and has made me examine the way I live my life.
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A reformed cynic speaks.
Posted on September 3, 2019 by Alun Rees
There is an old saying, “a cynic is what an idealist calls a realist”.
Peter Senge wrote, “Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist — someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations.”
Most of us start our businesses with high hopes and ideals of changing the world. I had dreams of ridding the world of dental diseases until someone said to me, “If you can’t get all doctors to stop smoking, what hope have you of getting everyone to floss?”
Once I had recovered from what I initially thought was an offensive comment, I soon realised that it is not only silly but a life shortening exercise, to want something for someone more than they want it themselves.
Once this simple life lesson had been inwardly digested and understood I was able to go back to being an idealist – but on my terms, nobody else’s.
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The Monday Morning Quote #569
Posted on September 2, 2019 by Alun Rees
“My formula for success was very simple: Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results.
Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself – because it was.”
Michael Singer
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A Builder’s Lesson
Posted on May 1, 2019 by Alun Rees
How shall I a habit break?
As you did that habit make.
As you gathered, you must lose;
As you yielded, now refuse.
Thread by thread the strands we twist
Till they bind us, neck and wrist.
Thread by thread the patient hand
Must untwine, ere free we stand.
As we builded, stone by stone,
We must toil, unhelped, alone,
Till the wall is overthrown.
- A Builder’s Lesson.
- John Boyle O’Reilly
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The Monday Morning Quote #521
Posted on February 18, 2019 by Alun Rees
The Monday Morning Quote #518
Posted on January 28, 2019 by Alun Rees
“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy.
Do what is great while it is small.”
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Is progress linear or cyclical?
Posted on November 29, 2018 by Alun Rees
“I thought all my life that progress was linear. Now it’s very clear at best it’s cyclical and it’s very hard to tell we are at the bottom of the wave or are we going to have an upswing.”
Louise Arbor (chief prosecutor of the Rwandan & Yugoslav war crimes tribunals) speaking to Alec Russell in the FT 24/25 November 2018
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