People Matter ∴ Do Good

Lead a vivid life that does good

Month: January 2016

Does fear steal freedom?

22 January 2016 /

Fear takes freedomLast week I was out running with Jay tagging along on his bike. As I ran, a seagull became increasingly disturbed with my presence and finally started dive bombing me. We sought shelter under some trees and, once the bird was over it, we carried on.

It is fair to say Jay was freaked out by the bird. He was afraid or fearful.

Like all fear if it was left unchecked, it would steal his freedom. If he allowed himself to become afraid of all seagulls or even all birds then he could avoid beaches or places where there are a lot of birds. When that happens freedom is lost.

Ultimately that’s what Terrorism does. Makes us fear and give away freedom by avoiding travel or amazing experiences.

So does a fear of failure.

Or a fear of meeting new people.

Or even a fear of asking ‘dumb’ questions.

Fear is the opposite of freedom.

∴

Next time your stomach churns a little, your heart races and fear starts to set in. Stop and check that fear … is it something you should really be afraid of?

Or is it a call to step out.

To be bold.

Is it a call to freedom?

My 1000 day habit of taking photos.

19 January 2016 /

1000th Photo of the day
Today, I have taken my 1000th photo of the day in a row. It all started on 25th April 2013, having successfully completing one 365 project in 2009/10 and failing one in 2012, I decided I would give another year of photo of the day a go.

1000 days later, I’m still at it.

Some days choosing a photo means selecting from 100s of photos. Often it meant selecting from one. A couple of days I didn’t miss by sheer luck. I have one photo of the carpet at work that I accidentally took, and another is of Damian’s business card, which I took when I was demonstrating an app. On more than one occasion I got out of bed to take a photo of an inanimate object at home.

I haven’t personally taken every photo, but I was present at every one. Every photo hasn’t been taken on my camera. And on one occasion I had to get emailed a photo of a whiteboard image I asked someone to take in a meeting (riveting).

But I have 1000 photos.

And more importantly because it is my daily habit, I get to set the rules. And my rules from the outset were very loose. Any camera, any photographer so long as I was present, I wasn’t going to post to Facebook or social media each day, so no obligation to anyone else. I made it as easy as possible and as a result, it was tenfold easier than the first time round.

I would encourage everyone to take a photo a day for a year.

I love being able to look back on 1000 days and have an image for each one. Apart from these images I barely remember what I did 2 weeks ago.

I also love the habit.

Start anytime. Set a goal of 50 days. Tell no one. Just enjoy it.

∴

So now that I have hit 1000 days, the big question I’ve been asked is “will I stop?”

That’s actually a harder question than it seems…

Right now I’m on holiday, taking a photo a day is easy.

3 x 365 is just around the corner.

So is 4 x 365.

And 5.

I will stop eventually. But I now have an automatic habit of 1000 days. To stop, will require breaking the habit, and habit making or breaking takes a lot of energy and hard work.

‘Kinstugi’ the art of turning Brokenness into Beauty.

12 January 2016 /

Kinstugi Brokenness‘Kinstugi’ is the Japanese word that describes the art of repairing broken ceramics with gold.

This art form is wonderful in the way it takes something that is broken, destined to be rubbish.

And restores it.

With gold !

Once repaired, it is considered more beautiful for having been broken.

∴

Often brokenness from our past are considered ugly scars, that we need to hide, and never speak of again.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we took the art of Kinstugi and applied the thinking to our lives.

What if we understood that the times we feel smashed and broken are gold in the making?

What if our past brokenness was seen as gold lines that speak boldly of our journey and healing?

What if that was Jesus intention, to take our brokenness and use it to make us more beautiful?

Re-solving the New Years Resolution problem.

5 January 2016 /

Happy New Year!

By now a few of you are 5 days into your New Years Resolution. While others, like me, are yet to set some as we come back from our summer holidays.

Wherever you are on your resolution cycle here’s a thought …

resolve - new years resolutionResolution comes from Resolve.

Resolve means to have a determination to take a course of action. Like going to the gym, or learning french, or blogging.

Resolve comes from two words ‘re-‘, meaning to do again and again. And ‘solve‘, meaning to find a solution to a problem.

And so a big part of having resolve is to know what problem you are trying to solve. The goal of going to the gym is generally not going to the gym. Rather its Losing weight, getting fit or having rock hard abs. Knowing what you are trying to solve is the key to the story.

Once you have the story, and the power for self-discipline is in the story. Use the story to ‘re-‘mind yourself almost daily so that you have the ‘re-‘solve, the determination to actually head to the gym.

Or learn.

Or blog.

∴

Self discipline is hard. I believe for me personally it becomes almost impossible without ‘re-‘solve, without the story.

So when you start to struggle to meet your goal, and you will, don’t forget to remind yourself of the story of who you are trying to become, and remember …

You can and will achieve it!

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