Presentations: Sorting the Complexity Beforehand

At a recent conference I attended it became clear to me that some presenters hit the mark quickly and stayed on it, finishing with a crescendo, whilst others meandered around their topics in an aimless way successfully disengaging the baited audience.

On reflection, it seemed to me that the key to the success of each good presentation was the presenter had explored deeply, from the receiver’s viewpoint, and boiled down the vastness in the information they were presenting to a single salient message, or at most a few powerful points. And they stuck with them, embellishing them, but within the realm of simplicity. They first created a roadmap and from there ventured into it.

It’s recognition that highly technical sets of data need to be counterbalanced with an approach to simplicity—and this adds power and punch.

It’s a message that speaks of ‘more with less’ and a process that whets the appetite and doesn’t bore people senseless, encouraging inappropriate audience response behaviours which are, in the mix of things, disrespectful.

Beginning with the End in Mind

The presenters who got it right seemed to have started with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey would put it, relating to his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. They seemed to have asked themselves the question, ‘If I was in the audience, what would I want to take away from this?’

It’s a customer-focused angle where the person receiving the information is front of mind for the presenter in his or her own planning and delivery. The presenter starts boldly, they build with needed fact and relevance, and conclude with the take home value that has the receiver quickly scribbling down notes of takeaway benefit.

They keep it simple and audience directed. They’re attentive to audience response, having planned for unexpected nuances of both support and disinterest, for we’re all surprised by what people actually find most interesting—being blind somewhat to what we actually deliver in the context of a completely different person to ourselves, personally.

Does your presentation pass the ‘simplicity test’ packing a valuable and memorable punch for the receiver?

Knives in the Back - A Way of Life?

Hurt seems to be a necessary component of life. It’s inescapable. I had a phone discussion with a manager recently and he mentioned things said about me by a particular person and queried our relationship. I was somewhat surprised in that I’d had no overt conflict with this guy yet there was a stated infraction.

It got me thinking that there are issues in all spheres of life where we potentially upset people, and whilst we might deal with these things appropriately to the point where they may be forgotten in advance of a ‘fresh day,’ others don’t share the same passion for getting on with life and they harbour a resentment—it anchors them to a damaging part-worldview.

It reminds me also of a definition I saw of “Interdependence,” from the Powertech Corporation:

“Interdependence is the natural state of a group of people when resentments and other barriers are removed.”

This company has built their whole operating ethos on this premise. By intervening both proactively and reactively with the personal care of mentoring and conciliation they’re facilitating the ‘removal of excess baggage’ and the purging of emotional relief valves from time to time.

And we too must do this, if we’re interested in our (and others’) wellbeing.

I’ve said it more times than I care to remember, and written on it several times—the truth “hurt people hurt people”—and it seems this is another example where perhaps our actions do hurt others and we unknowingly don’t even realise and therefore we can’t assist them with the reformation of the relationship. Who knows the extent of the damage this does.

The proverbial knife in the back does occur, more than we like, and I’m grateful to know that ignorance, whilst blissful, is not the best state.

I love being in a situation where I can give particular relationships extra special attention (i.e. love) without the other person even knowing. Everyone is special and everyone has reasonable views about life that make sense to them.

By embracing people who feel hurt by us in a spirit of friendship, no matter how they might initially respond, means we can only advance the purposes of interdependence as it has been defined.

By taking away every known barrier, to the potential healing of resentments, we open the way to a newer, better relationship. And this has to be the goal if we desire effective teamwork.

A Parent’s No.1 Fear

This is really a no-brainer, yet parents don’t think in these terms in a front-of-mind sort of way; yet, we’re supremely and eternally aware in a subconscious way regarding what can happen to our kids. The parents’ number one fear is a maiming or fatal illness or injury to their children.

Most Australian mums and dads have heard of Sophie Delezio. In 2003 she was burned over 85 percent of her body in a childcare incident and in 2006 she was hit by a car when being pushed across a pedestrian crossing by a caregiver.[1] Both times she could have easily died. These were both close calls.

And we ourselves, as parents, know about those close calls. How many of us have narrowly missed potentially fatal car accidents, or perhaps even been involved directly in car roll-overs, T-bones or head-ons—and survived? The average adult injures themselves once or twice a month. For children it’s actually about 25 times a month.

It’s true; we all survive on way too much luck! When talking to some people with paraplegia recently they confirmed to me... they thought too, ‘It’s never going to happen to me.’ Theirs were life-changing injuries.

The parents’ number one fear is that phone call or knock at the door ‘at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.’[2] It’s the police officer standing there or perhaps even a doctor at his or her surgery, or in a hospital. It’s never seeing their children again—it’s never saying goodbye; and who could?!

The Problem – For Us and Our Kids

Did you know? Rushing, frustration, fatigue and complacency can cause or contribute to these critical errors...

1. The eyes not on the task;

2. The mind not aware of the environment around us or task at hand;

3. Putting ourselves in harm’s way; or,

4. Loss of balance.[3]

We’ve just created the circumstances for injury and only “luck” stands between.

Why do most accidents happen? We get into this autopilot behaviour after more than a few repetitions of any activity—we stop paying attention to the things that might hurt us.

One Possible Solution that could Help – Teaching Safety

We must somehow instil in our kids some basic safety skills of self-awareness and increase their environmental-awareness (not the ‘greeny’ type of ‘environment’). We can’t underwrite their entire lives or guarantee their safety but we can actually do a lot to teach our kids important life messages to protect their safety.

Getting our kids to understand how important it is to keep their eyes and mind on the task and their environment, watching like hawks, is not easy. Perhaps it’s easier for the younger ones (i.e. 2–6 years) to model the behaviour and actually get them to do it. For instance, when crossing roads:

1. Force them to look ultra-carefully.

2. Reinforce in them a clear mind to look for and be cognisant of hazards.

3. Play them “what-if” scenarios. Test them to teach them.

Of course, supervision is probably the number one thing we can do to protect our kids’ safety during their pre-school years.

For older kids (7–14 years) get into their psyches a little more explaining the “why’s” and play out in them scenarios to encourage the formation of hazard awareness. The ability to foresee dangerous events can be learned.

For us as parents, we also need to be aware of our kids’ No.1 fear. That is loss of you, their parent(s). This is even more reason to keep:

1. Our eyes on task.

2. Our mind on task.

3. Out of the line-of-fire.

4. Balanced—ensuring footing and stability.

Let’s not choose “luck” as the predominate safety choice, that ‘wing-and-a-prayer’ life. We never know when our luck will run out and find the consequences are too difficult for us to bear.

One close call is one too many, yet they’ll always be there to remind us how “lucky” most of us are. Let’s just not push our luck.

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[1] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Delezio

[2] Google the “Sunscreen Song.”

[3] See more at www.safetrain.com.au.

Why Do We Do The Things We Do?

We always find time for the things we want to do. And if people challenge this, not thinking it correct to say that, they should take a more introspective look at their lives. If our lives are full of pressure, and we feel disempowered to choice, chances are we designed our lives that way. Nobody else did.

Probably one of the most important questions we can continually ask ourselves, in humility, is ‘What makes me consider and decide what I do?’ Or in other words, what influences us and impacts upon the final decisions we make?

It is a healthy person who routinely searches themselves through these sorts of questions, yet can we truly call ourselves one of these? The spiritually healthy person is at least aware of the motives of their actions.

It is easy, of course, to reverse this technique and focus only (or mostly) on our attributions of why others do the things they do. (I am still surprised at the numbers and sort of people who do this—they never seem to realise their folly. Yet we all fall for this trap to some extent.)

But this doesn’t help us at all—it only hinders us, for it blinds us to perhaps our own poor or inadequate motives and it sets us up as “better” than the other person—and, that’s a trap in anyone’s language.

What helps us most positively in the entire context of our global lives is self-honesty and an undivided commitment, or dedication, to truth.

Becoming who we were always designed to be, from the beginning, is the only real goal of life—from this comes all other goals of veracity.

We cannot become who we were always designed to be without being ruthlessly honest with ourselves—this is the truth that sets us spiritually free.

I’ve known several people who’ve found themselves trapped in a whirlwind life of their own making. Huge mortgages, expensive cars and other assets bring pressure to bear and no wonder they’re exhausted at the end of the week! No wonder there’s a living resemblance to the movie, Groundhog Day.

Why do we do the things we do? What makes me consider and decide what I do? These are poignant life questions that can only help us realise our actual values so we don’t waste our short lives on the transient ventures and actions that’ll prove futile in the long run.

“A Failure To Learn” - Texas City Refinery Disaster 2005

BP suffered from an all-too-common “learning disability” which was the fundamental and underlying cause of the Texas City Refinery disaster on 23 March, 2005 which killed 15 and seriously injured two hundred, according to Professor of Sociology, Andrew Hopkins, of Australian National University.

Direct costs incurred by BP well exceeded $3 billion as $2 billion and $1 billion respectively went on compensation for the victims families and the subsequent recovery and overhaul of the Texas City site and Refinery. Reputational and share price costs are probably immeasurable.

It is easy to ask why the operators simply didn’t allow the liquid distillate to be released from the distillation column with the 9ft high level exceeded many times before the liquid eventually purged into the atmosphere some 158ft later. All it took was an idling work vehicle to set off the massive explosion and resultant fire.

The reasoning for an apparent strange set of actions was actually sound. There were no warning alarms to indicate the exceeding of safe liquid distillate levels; there was no process HAZOP identifying the criticality of the hazard; and finally, there was no corrective action taken as a result of the chronic overfills of the column that had become an operational norm. The focus on process safety took a very distant seat to that of occupational safety.

According to Professor Hopkins the lessons from Esso Longford (1998), the NASA Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003) disasters and the Texas City disaster are so similar it’s striking--they failed to learn from previous mistakes. BP was so attentive to the ‘high frequency-low consequence’ events of lost time injuries they were found to be inept and “systematically inattentive” to the risks associated with the ‘low frequency-high consequence’ events relating to process safety incidents.

There are many lessons out of this disaster, all tabled in detail in Professor Hopkins’ book, Failure to Learn: the BP Texas Refinery Disaster.[1] But the key lesson for all organisations is to actually commit to taking action from the learnings from related incidents.

It is no good to know intimately about what’s happened within other companies--the lessons must be personalised.

A parting thought: ‘Lost time injuries tell us nothing about how safe we are in high hazard environments.’

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[1] Andrew Hopkins, Failure to Learn: the BP Texas Refinery Disaster (North Ryde, Sydney: CCH Australia Limited, 2009).

Got a “System” Problem? No Confusion... Just Start!

Systems don’t just reside in the working environment--we have them at home too. Every couple has their systems ‘of work’ that help them operate the family in a way that’s palatable to all. These range from what chores each does, to how and when the shopping and washing’s done.

The world runs on systems. When one system, or a part of a system, falls down it affects other things and tends to bring chaos. Systems are hence there to establish and support order. If the public transport system falls over, for instance, and everyone is late for where they’re going it sends numerous systems and plans into disarray.

The point is systems can not only fail in small ways (producing disarray) they can also be impacted and affected positively in small ways. It’s about ‘joining the dots,’ i.e. joining a few unrelated dots has the circle completed in other, seemingly unrelated, areas and ways.

I learned this quite some time ago using a facilitated method for safety improvement. Improve safety training, for instance, and then we get opportunities to improve the design of work for safety and we encourage communications as well.

Or structure the approach to setting chores for children means they’re not only helping you, their parent, but they’re also not playing as many computer games or ‘getting bored.’ There’s a knock-on effect. These are but a sample of positive spin-offs.

When we attend to issues and problems in one part of any system we’ll inevitably (and inadvertently) raise the profile or attend to issues and problems in areas that were not in sharp focus.

The final point is, just start.

By simply starting and keeping the flow going in a positive sense we engender more and more improvement. And, we know, don’t we, the sky’s the limit.

What Motivates Your Delegation?

All good managers are good delegaters, yes? Not necessarily. There’s a fundamental pre-requisite motive behind the good delegater. They carry with it a certain diligence that supports the person who’s actually been given the task or work to do.

Whenever anyone suggests someone is a good delegater I subconsciously put them through this test. “What’s in it for them?” I think. What is the person who’s doing the delegation getting out of it? And, what are they offering the person delegated the work?

If they’re getting all the benefit and can bask in a sense of laziness, and the person doing the task has to do it all without appropriate levels of support, I don’t see that as “delegation.” That’s more like insubordination as they’re not delivering their boss with the sort of service, and therefore attention, they deserve.

Good delegation carries with it the willingness to mentor and support via encouragement and feedback. It’s active to the extent that it’s required. Good delegation is about quietly monitoring a situation and always being prepared to ‘pitch in’ at whatever level is appropriate for the need at hand, and also relating to the person or people involved. Delegation, after all, is not abrogation of responsibility--accountability doesn’t shift to the person who’s been delegated the task.

If there’s little or no mentoring or support via encouragement and feedback required i.e. the person doing the task is perfectly competent to do it, then it’s no longer a case of delegation unless the task simply cannot be re-allocated in responsibility. Some tasks we do on behalf of another. If this is a regular thing one person is responsible for it, the one above, accountable.

The key searching point is this: when we delegate some or all of the components of the tasks we’re accountable for, what is our motive?

Is it to give someone else exposure and opportunity--therefore challenging and growing them, or is it simply that we like others to do our dirty work? The good leader will always seek to do a good amount of their own dirty work and in this they model what true team work and selflessness is.

The people below us know in any event what our motives are. We’re not fooling anyone.

Handling Life’s Little Surprises With Aplomb

One of the most indispensable items on the face of the earth I find is the humble pen. I just never know when a gem of inspiration or a great story will come across my bow. Then I write it down, even a few words to prompt my memory and to engage my subconscious mind.

Just recently, as I was opening a risk assessment workshop I was facilitating, one of the marine safety boffins shared a helicopter story. He’d apparently been involved in the salvage operation where a ship was stranded off the coast, and he and his team had been ferried back and forth on a chopper.

One of these times the chopper hit some ‘dirty air’ and without any warning it spun a full 360 degrees in mid-flight before lurching head-long into a dive toward the water. The pilot recovered the situation about 15 metres from the surface of the water.

He remarked that what he found was the most fascinating thing in reflection was the range of different responses from the people on the helicopter that day. They experienced everything from sheer panic to exhilarated excitement--a whole range of responses, probably due to varying experience with helicopter flight, and perhaps it was also a reflection of individual personality to some extent.

The helicopter spin is quite a gorgeous image for the things that occur to us in life, is it not? We never really know when we’ll be affected by ‘dirty air’ or turbulence. And we’ll also never quite be able to predict how we’ll deal with each situation.

We can only hope that our responses to the situations of life will be acceptable and appropriate. And we can only hope that as we grow and mature our responses will be less marginal and more resilient with each passing year.

Watch for ‘dirty air’ and expect it when you least expect it!

Sometimes Goodbye is a Second Chance

I have a training consultancy named “Second Chance Training” but it is something that I’ve not had the opportunity to sow into in the last few years. It’s not part of the present call of my life. I named it thus because, like many, I’ve been touched by, and therefore believe in, the theology of the ‘second chance.’

The song by Shinedown, Second Chance, is all about goodbyes and the life afterwards. It recognises very transparently the tension involved in trying to please a parent and gain their approval for the things we choose to do in life. It’s going beyond this, however, onto a place of respected rejection for the overbearing parent’s wishes i.e. those wishes that have gone wrong.

It’s the resolution made by an adult person to take responsibility for their own life, beyond the control of parents and other individuals with influence over their lives. It’s a tough decision to stand in the breech, to defend one’s call--to follow the dream vocation contrary to the behest of others.

The second chance is breathing space. It’s a moratorium for those close encounters; them that are too close to predict... the volatile situations.

Chances are that the person who’s taken the bit between their teeth will eventually achieve the respect and acknowledgement of loved ones who find their decisions so hard. There’s a second chance in life. Many have realised these outcomes, but not without short-term costs to the relationship.

It is a long road, life. We really must know what we’re about, and then, commit to it. If it’s a good thing we’re trying to do, we must back ourselves and believe. Sometimes goodbye is a second chance, but always remain open to the changing of the heart; always. Let grace be your guide.

Evading 5 Common Follies

According to respected Seventeenth Century sage, Balthasar Gracian, there are five examples of the types of folly (the extreme other end of wisdom) we’re best to avoid, for they’re eternally common, meaning these have the uncanny ability to trip up every generation.

These follies are:

Satisfaction with Personal Fortune

Trusting in our own riches or assets is a common trap; many have fallen when they’ve taken their own ‘wealth’ too seriously, as if they’ve already ‘made it.’ I recall a time like this perhaps nine months before I lost everything. I almost gloated about how materially well I was going that blind I was to how transient things of cash and possession truly are.

Dissatisfaction with Personal Intellect

Enter the intellectual snob, for they put everyone smarter than them up for special praise, whilst deploring with contempt anyone with an iota or less sense than they. In this they shoot everyone to the upper and lower reaches for they can’t see past smarts.

This person sees themselves through a scholarly microscope and what they get back for their viewing puts them under intense pressure to meet standards no one ever could.

Discontent with Own Lot, Envy at Others’

Such a common trap. Everyone has more than we ourselves have… well, if we choose that worldview, that is. What about the equally true worldview that everyone has less than we do? Did I mention yet the Global Food Crisis?

Those inclined to chronically look over the other side of the fence can only ever see others’ folly or see that which is prized above--in their own skewed estimation--what they currently have. Arrogance and envy are hence the predictable and pervasive attitudes. These are never far from the pit.

Praising Things of Yesteryear or Those Far Off

This is the easy way out for the lazy thinker. Of course yesterday was better and things connected with other people (not those in present company) superior. It makes the person saying such things more elevated.

To not see the positive things in the present situation is a rank folly and a giving up of influence. It does us no good to have all our eggs in a basket too far off to reach. Besides, it’s not fair or the truth.

Laughing at All, Weeping at All

Not everything can be funny just as not everything can take us to the abyss of sorrow. We do well to remain aware of this, laughing with those who laugh, weeping with those who weep. Appropriate to the time, we respond in like.

So, what’s the common denominator amongst these five?

Balance, in one word, or lack thereof.

Balancing satisfaction and dissatisfaction regarding personal wealth and intellect, becoming appropriately content with our own lots, praising things both of today and yesterday, and keeping a balance to our emotions all pave the way to leading a more wise existence.

Don’t Hold Your Views Too Firmly

Let’s take this advice on realising release from the ignominy of stubbornness from the master, Balthasar Gracian, in two chunks:

"Every fool is fully convinced, and every one fully persuaded is a fool: the more erroneous his judgment the more firmly he holds it. Even in cases of obvious certainty, it is fine to yield: our reasons for holding the view cannot escape notice, our courtesy in yielding must be the more recognised."

We are not apt to think of people as fools if we’re honest. It’s just not good copy. But someone who stubbornly holds the wrong or even a slightly incorrect view is behaving foolishly. Likewise, if you can be talked around by simple rhetoric and not be contained by fact, it doesn’t look good. Truth can’t be contested. That’s why it is called ‘fact’. Why be talked around the truth to conform to a lie?

It is fine, however, to yield even when we’re in the right. If someone won’t let go of the issue what point would there be in maintaining your (truth-filled) view? In these cases, no matter how right we are, we can still relent to protect a relationship--if we choose. It all depends on our reasons, for they will be more memorable to onlookers than whether we were wrong or right. We can be 100 percent right and still look like a villain. For trying to ‘champion truth’ leads too easily to ‘rudeness’ instead…

"Our obstinacy loses more than our victory yields: that is not to champion truth but rather rudeness. There be some heads of iron most difficult to turn: add caprice to obstinacy and the sum is a wearisome fool. Steadfastness should be for the will, not for the mind. Yet there are exceptions where one would fail twice, owning oneself wrong both in judgment and in the execution of it."

Quirkiness is fine for a change and even adds to the humour of a funny situation; folk would not be ‘folk’ without being quirky. Yet, add quirkiness to pigheadedness and inflexibility and it drives people nuts. We’re right in being steadfast when it is right, when ‘all the planets are in alignment,’ but a fixed mind for the sake of it is a solution to no problem.

There are times when we’ll inevitably get it wrong, either from the way we judge a situation or via our handling of it. We need not give up. We do need to be flexible in our approach and perception of things. Being changeable is a great wisdom.

How do YOU See Yourself? And, Is It True?

This is about the most personally thought-provoking question anyone can ask: “How do I see myself?” How we see ourselves dictates how we approach life, our relationships, our jobs, our families, and comprehensively our lives--all to a very large extent. We reflect how we feel about ourselves directly onto our relationships with others; yes, it’s true!

And the answer to this above question--if it lines up with the reality, that is, other people’s perceptions--can be a key to inner happiness. In it we achieve congruence, and therefore peace.

The greatest disservice anyone can bring to themselves is to have an inaccurate self-image. Regarding our happiness, the alignment of our goals, dreams and desires with our actual abilities and capacities in achieving these should be obvious but it isn’t to most people. No wonder there’s so many disappointed people in life! Life never quite measures up to their lofty (but misaligned) self-images.

For instance, if someone sees themselves as a leader yet they don’t act like a leader i.e. they don’t realise much, if any, influence, they’ll naturally become disappointed--the results regarding the outcomes of life need to be reconciled and any significant gap can only produce dissonance. When the image we produce for ourselves is inconsistent with what we experience in life we’ll yearn for a better match.

Fact is fact and the cold hard facts of life are difficult to refute. Sooner or later the person who thinks they’re especially gifted for the leadership role, for example, will discover that perhaps, in reality, they’re not. Or at least they’re not as far along the development curve as they’d like to be. It’s a humbling truth.

The sooner denial is dealt with (as part of the normal process of grieving) the sooner the person can adapt their self-image to the manifest truth before them. Embracing the truth births a freeing foundation where both a stabilising peace and an emergent growth can commence simultaneously.

If an inaccurate self-image is a grievous missing-of-the-mark for one’s life, surely an accurate self-image (in humility) is a great blessing.

This person is always seeking feedback, and more than that, they actually listen because they’re fervently (even aggressively toward themselves) seeking to reach continual self-image alignment with other peoples’ perceptions i.e. the evident reality.

How we see ourselves is huge in life. The better the alignment we have regarding our natural desires at good compared with our actual delivery in real terms, the happier and more blessed we’ll actually be.

Making the Seemingly Impossible, Possible

Have you worked out yet that life actually starts when things get hard? Pressure brings us opportunities to succeed or fail. Everything else is but the blowing of wind in the overall scheme of things. Merely practice and dress rehearsal. It’s impossible to tell a person’s true character unless/until they’re under pressure. Pressure brings opportunities. It’s ‘game time’ so to speak.

How many times have you been daunted at something only to find that when you got stuck into it, it wasn’t so hard after all? Approaching the hard things as if they’re easy, just by simply starting them, makes a liar out of our oft-erroneous pre-conceptions. We hence surprise and inspire ourselves.

And when the pressure comes on, and the performance begins, all the practise time is over and we’re onto the real thing, finally, butterflies and all. I recall a cricket captain of mine imploring us to expect, and even seek that the ball would be hit to us so we could field it. Thinking like this embraces with courage notions of success and failure within expectation, and the tension between both. We should be seeking in life, not avoiding.

Failure is not the end of the road, after all. It’s only practice that doesn’t work out as intended. It’s the fundamental learning ground. When failure can’t kill us, nothing really can. We become so much more functional and capable as the only thing that might disarm us truly becomes what it is, nothing.

At the time we’re most tempted to give up we shouldn’t. We should prepare for victory, finally! Like the enemy which sees its prey falling and commences the victory celebrations early; the tables are turned in a twist--a modicum of confidence flips the ensuing events. At the eleventh hour victory is secured against all odds.

When we learn this lesson, finally, nothing fears us except that which is always against us. The universal laws of life cannot be transgressed. We cannot hope to come against them, and who’d want to? We at last can stand in faith knowing that nothing can harm us in the spiritual sense.

It’s indeed a wonderful thing to know and continually implement: many of the things in this life that we might think are, or once thought were, impossible, are actually very much achievable.

We must, however, learn to test boundaries and challenge our fears to engage this truth. We’ll never know ‘til we give it a go.

At some point we must also distrust what our eyes see and our instincts feel, going on in confidence anyway. And in that mix, wisdom must be exercised.

Cooperating with Life - Going “With” not Against the Flow

“Always fall in with what you’re asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever’s going. Not against: with” –Robert Frost.

I had an instructor at technical college when I was a pre-apprentice, way back in 1983, who used to say in a thick and polished English accent regarding our interaction with the older apprentices, “You younger guys have got to learn to blend into the woodwork...”.

We all used to laugh ecstatically whenever this refrain of his would slink out. But, as I reflect now, he had a very good point. There’s a lot to be said in ‘quiet achieving,’ a la the old BP Oil Company by-line.

It reminds me a very good theological truth locked away in the rear of the Ezekiel (47:11-12). The prophet has a vision of the temple and the river flowing from under its threshold toward the east. As the prophet is led into the river by a man and he goes from walking ankle-deep to wading to swimming depth. As the two reach the side of the river they both survey the river, discussing its flow, interacting with the Dead Sea.

There is the gentle, rolling, ever-cascading flow of the river, and then there’s the swamps off to the sides of the river, which are not fed and kept alive as they should or could be; they’re disjointed from the flow of the river, disconnected somewhat.

And this is what occurs in our lives when we go against the prevailing flow of life--we get stuck down incongruous and cavernous spiritual swampy creeks. We go to the Meribah’s of our conflicted souls.

Going with the flow of life, accepting and not rejecting, and making things over to our way, no matter how they turn out, is simple flowing wisdom--a spiritual river teeming with life.

Blending into the woodwork in a compliant sort of way doesn’t have to be about submission at any cost. It is simply choosing the hill we’ll die on wisely. We can’t win, or even influence, every battle. Choosing our battles wisely, now that’s got to make sense.

Are You Missing Peace & Contentment in Life?

It seems a reasonable enough question, doesn’t it? Are you experiencing peace or does your life resemble chaos, or perhaps even chaotic order? Achieving the balance in life where we’re able to achieve all we need to and then have time left over to do the things we want to do should not be a distant panacea, for it’s the things we want to do that give us the zest to do the things we need to do, not the other way around.

Many of us live our whole lives forgetting or dismissing this important truth. We go on each day surging and searching forward, doing our tasks and errands, but ever forgetting to take and make the transformational time we need in being truly us--the very spiritual person inside.

I recently reflected, in the toilet of all places, that the adrenalin pumping through my arteries and veins was not good; not for a consistently long time anyway.

Where does peace and contentment come from anyway? I believe they come from deep within us, and certainly to a depth impossible to plumb if we’re not seeking a spiritual centre of life.
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I see spirituality and happiness (peace and contentment) as being mutually inclusive. One cannot truly exist without the other.

If you’ve been to the end of your tether lately and you’ve reached for a substance to sooth the aches and pains of your mind and heart i.e. you’ve been depressed, anxious, angry or withdrawn, take some time to re-acquaint with your spirit--no one knows you better.