“Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate. If the world had more ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children. This is God's dream.” - Desmond Tutu
This is a photo of Cheree at CBC. Her and hubby own the VW van. We were talking about how I felt I owned a bit of their van. He talked about community, and I took this pic and it reminded me of Ubuntu.
Author: Andrew (Page 27 of 43)
One of the things I love about the Internet is the opinion it offers. If you have a problem with just about anything, someone somewhere has experienced the same problem.
Today I pulled by DVD/HDD recorder to bits again. It’s a Phillips and it’s had 2 or 3 things go wrong with it since the warranty ended. Now it is not recording correctly and I tried replacing the hard drive with a newer larger hard drive. It didn’t work so I put the old one back in.
I searched the internet last night again, and have some other things to try today.
I would say also, that one of the things I dislike about the Internet is the opinion it offers. So often the “solutions” are not solutions at all and are advertising gimmicks to lead you to a certain website.
It takes a while to troll through them all to find real knowledge. But I have access to knowledge that I wouldn’t have just 5 – 10 years ago.
[150 | 365 – ‘DYI Technology’ – Inside an unreliable, practically useless Phillips DVDR3455H DVD/HDD recorder – I wont buy Phillips again]
Water.
Where I live it’s free, but we buy it. It’s clean, but we filter it. It’s readily available, but we take it for granted.
Water is a significant part of the poverty cycle. It takes hours out of a persons day. Imagine waking up today and having to go and find water to survive before you do anything else.
1 in 8 people in the world lack clean water. Will you make a difference?
[149 | 365 – ‘Clean Water’ – This is a shot of Kyla, my eldest daughter, drinking fresh, clean tap water.]
A roundabout. Have you ever been a passenger in car when they decide to just keep going around and around a roundabout? You fly past exit after exit and just end up in the same place. With each rotation you feel both fun and sickness.
A roundabout. That’s what life feels like sometimes. It feels like you work exceedingly hard on this one big project or problem and then end up right back where you started. Doing the same thing again and again.
And again.
There are exits for sure, opportunities to succeed, to love, to step out. Opportunities bring risk and danger, so most of the time we just stay on the roundabout of life, with this strange fun, sick feeling.
I’ve thought a lot about Carpe Diem in the last few weeks. ‘Seize the Day”. I’ve been trying to make something of relevance, of importance, happen every single day. It doesn’t matter how small it is, I make a change for the better. It’s hard, but it helps me feel like I am moving forward, not being stuck on the roundabout.
When we do something small each day, soon big things happen. And we look back on our days and see progress, not just more of the same.
I took this picture on my way home from a meeting at 10:30pm. I hadn’t taken a photo yet. But at least the day was NOT a roundabout day. It was a day of small steps.
140 | 365 – 'Flight Path'
Took this time exposure of the stars just as a light plane headed over the house to Hamilton airport. You can see the beacons alternating from one side of the plane to the next.
It was a moment of sheer intelligential brilliance. “Immovable Deadlines”, I pondered.
When an immovable deadline exists, it is easy to deliver. When I have to speak on Sunday, or deliver a presentation to a big client. The deadline is immovable, and I always meet the deadline. Always.
I have known this about myself for years of course, but now I have a term to define it. To be more successful, all I have to do is figure out a way to make movable deadlines, things I put off, IMMOVABLE.
Brilliant!
Dazzling, even if I do say so myself.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. My life is going to be so much better. I will be a better leader, husband, friend. I am sorted!
Then, by chance I read some notes I made from 2 years ago. Written across the note are these words “IMMOVABLE DEADLINES”
I cuss slightly in my head and am reminded again how hard change is.
Change takes thought.
Reflection.
Time.
Resolve.
Discipline.
Then it takes all of those things all over and over again. And again. And again.
Its hard work!
And that’s why YOU don’t change. And YOU need to sort it out. Work harder. Hold the goal before YOU. Don’t YOU give up.
I say YOU, because clearly I haven’t learnt.
I have often heard of a bucket or tank being used to describe energy in life.
At the bottom of the bucket are leaks, small drips that drain energy, reduce it. If my bucket gets to empty, completely empty, then my passion dies, drip.
I stop enjoying life, drip.
Or worse, I become a DRIP.
If the bucket is full, I bounce around the world. On fire. With passion.
If life is like a bucket of energy, it would be good to know what builds into it. And what reduces it.
So I started to focus on reducing the leaks, patching them up, stopping the drain of energy. With hindsight I see that it doesn’t solve the problem at all. If my energy is all but gone, stopping the leaks just slows the process of turning into one giant drip.
Of course, what a drip I am! So I focus on filling my bucket. I start searching for a tap, or a fire hose. A quick refill. Anything instant.
But it too is allusive.
Then today as I try to take pictures of water drops in the rain. I realise energy comes one drop at a time.
Drop,
Drop,
Drop.
Once you have more drops coming in, that drips leaking out, your bucket starts to fill, your energy rises.
I’m sorted now of course. Most lakes and rivers are filled one drop of water at a time, I just need to hunt for drops, not drips. I would prefer steady rain of course.
Then it hit me. As my energy drips away, as my bucket gets empty, I become more of a drip. Then, I can become a drip to other people. I start draining their energy.
I realised that I need drops of energy, so that I can give drops of energy.
And I need to give drops of energy, so that I can get drops of energy.
This week I resolve to go in search of drops of energy.
Playing around with a few tech toys recently and a couple of them are very cool.
Evernote
I used to use google notebook (which was in beta and they are no longer developing). Evernote is tool you can use for making notes about anything. You can be on a website and send a part of the text to evernote. You can email notes to it. I can take a photo from my phone of something I want to remember and it uploads. Or you can type a new note directly.
Whats more, there is a desktop version that syncs to the web version which syncs to my windows mobile (phone). Its free and very functional, or you can pay $45 US per year to have additional features and secure syncing.
Dual Monitors
Old technology, but have just set it up. I have been getting annoyed with the amount of paper I print out, just so I can compare to something else on the screen. This solves it and allows for much more.
Sure this looks really geeky, but it is awesome and don't know why I didn't do this a long time ago.
One small problem, I stole the second monitor off someone elses desk, will need to sort that first thing Monday.
iPod Nano
Watched my first video postcast on my Nano. Had it for a year and only listen ever listened to music, audiobooks and audio podcasts.
The quality was very cool and watched a podcast from TED. It was Jacqueline Novogratz from Acuman Fund talking about a third way to think about aid. Cool to see the images and the quality was remarkably good.
Was down by the river eating my lunch and took this photo with the very average camera on my phone.
I had heard about the 365 project, taking a photo every day for a year, and thought i couldn't do it because I dont have a camera with me all the time. Duh. I just don't have a great camera with me all the time.
Have made it easy to just email from my phone, so will give it a try and see what happens.
When I flew into Melbourne this week I knew broadly my hotel was in the Southbank area, so caught a bus, then the train, then walked around looking for it. Most people, I would assume, would actually look it up on a map.
When I went to the conference yesterday, I knew it was at the Tennis grounds. Again forgot to look it up, so just followed my nose.
Last night tried to lead some friends to a great place to eat. Failed completely, and got sore legs walking around the city, then ended up back near were we started.
Then I realised, that maybe the way I lead is a bit like that. I know the kind of area I need to head towards, but never really map out the way. I almost head there by trial and error without all the details worked out. Most times I succeed, sometimes I fail big-time.
Broadly knowing where I am going, but not really nailing down the best route.
Hmm
I'm not sure this is a great leadership trait.