Tag: Reflections

The Jaguar XK120 Motor Car

You’ll never feel this way about a modern car!

A few weeks ago I attended a 70th Birthday celebration for a cousin.

70! Hey this chap has been riding bicycles at competition level, and running marathons for many years, so the surprise party was very upbeat, with two bands keeping everybody dancing. Everything from the Shadows to Roy Orbison.

It was a lovely day so I took my old XK120 Roadster, mainly because another cousin was going along, and he had helped rebuild this car 30 years previously. Actually we arrived together. The XK was running beautifully, but my cousin’s Mercedes had burst a water pipe, and the car park was flooded with coloured radiator water. We laughed that it was the new car that had broken down.

Read more about the XK120

What really matters – to you!

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves what is really important.

We went to a funeral last Monday. It was special in that a friend of ours had died and her husband had phoned to tell us.

They had emigrated to Spain 12 years before to become self sufficient in growing their own food, putting on workshops and working with ‘holistic management’ techniques. I have the feeling that it was quite tough as the climate was becoming more and more arid in the mountain area that had moved to.

She had decided to come home to Totnes (Devon, SW England) to die and had obviously planned the whole thing.
The service was lovely and relatives and friends had written poems and the vicar had been briefed on her life which was quite amazing. Born in Africa, boarding school in the UK, rose to be high up in a large company and then had decided with her husband to follow a completely different holistic route to self fulfilment.

The vicar had asked her how she wanted to prepare for her death and he she had answered that she wanted to saviour every moment whilst she was still alive and had asked him to recount this tale at the service.

A man who was being chased by a tiger and had fled up a tree to escape. He looked down to see the tiger pacing up and down, looking longingly up at him. After many hours, the man must have fallen to sleep and awoke as he found himself falling towards the tiger, waiting eagerly below. As he dropped, he noticed a beautiful fruit and grabbed at it focussing intently on every fine detail of it.

After the church service we retired to a nearby woodland where we all took it in turns to carry her wicker coffin up a hill, into the woods and after music and a blessing, we buried her.

It was a truly beautiful day and one that had echoes back through the millennium. It touched me deeply, not because of sadness but about putting things into perspective – what’s important and what isn’t.

By Jon Lavin

Wolf meets Man

An amazing true story of a relationship between a wild wolf and a man.

This is a story of a particular event in the life of Tim Woods told to me by his brother, DR.  It revolves around the coming together of a man sleeping rough, with his dog, on Mingus Mountain, and a fully grown female Gray or Grey Wolf. Mingus is in the Black Hills mountain range between Cottonwood and Prescott in Arizona, USA

DR and his brother, Tim, belong to a large family; there are 7 sons and 2 daughters.  Tim had a twin brother, Tom, and DR knew from an early age that Tim was different.

As DR explained,

Tim was much more enlightened than the rest of us.  I remember that Tim and Tom, as twin brothers, could feel each other in almost a mystical manner.  I witnessed Tom grabbing his hand in pain when Tim stuck the point of his knife into his (Tim’s) palm.  Stuff like that!  Tim just saw more of life than most other people.

Read more of this fascination story

Postscript to Luna, the wolf.

The story of Luna has some interesting connections.

The person taking the picture in the Post about Tim Woods was Willie Prescott.  He just happens to be the grandson of William H. Prescott from whom the town of Prescott is named.  Here’s that picture again.

Luna, the wild wolf, taken in 2006.
Luna, the wild wolf, taken in 2006.

Read more this postscript

The swimming pool, a story and a metaphor.

Most of us have been here but the ‘message’ is worth a ponder.

Last year as a friend and I were about to leave the heat of the United Arab Emirates, he announced that he was going to buy an above ground swimming pool to take back to England. I don’t know where he bought his, but I bought a similar

From this ...?
From this ...?

one which for some reason cost nearly twice as much.

What with one thing and another I never got round to erecting the pool, partly because the children seemed quite happy with the small plastic baby pool that they could jump in and out of.

This year I vowed to get the have the swimming pool up and running.

Read more of this Post

More on that ‘passion’ word!

Passion may be the key to many, many areas of success.

Following John’s Post on Sunday about passion, two other items passed my virtual desk that seemed to resonate with the theme.

The first was my regular Sunday ‘newsletter’ from Philip Humbert.  Sometime it comes across as a bit too good to be true but that may be a little bit of cultural mismatch from an Englishman’s eyes. Philip describes himself as a “Personal Success Coach!” and offers a free weekly newsletter that is worth trying out.

Anyway, to the point of this Post.

Read more about Passion

Patrice Ayme, 9/11 anniversary thought

This is not comfortable reading.

Patrice published a Post on his Blog last September 11th.  Not being an American it felt wrong to echo that publication by linking to the Post on the 11th as well.  No logic, just the way it felt!

But it is so deeply interesting, that not to highlight the Post would be wrong.  This Blog, after all, is about integrity.  In that process, if the truth is uncomfortable, so be it.  And if others think that Patrice doesn’t speak truthfully then they must speak otherwise.  You see, integrity is really the pursuit of truth.

Patrice’s subject title is: Why France Is Bad: Profits Define Goodness.

Read an extract from Patrice’s Post

Positive mindsets.

Can a positive mindset achieve results? Yes, but only with positive actions.

On the 14th September I started this idea of thinking your way to success with this Post, Success is an Attitude.

I want to follow that up with a few words on positive thinking or mindset.

All you have to do is a Google search about ‘a positive mindset’ and you will be flooded with free information.

Although this seems great at first, you have the unfortunate task of working out which information you can trust.  I don’t mean to say that you will be supplied with incorrect information, I do however have my concerns about complete information.

I have spoken to numerous people who cannot understand why failure hits them when they have tried to be so positive.  I have also spoken to successful people who have a very positive outlook on life.

I am firmly of the opinion that a positive mind is essential.  If your mind is burdened, the likelihood is that you will worry and all your mental energy will be consumed.  You will fail then to pick up from your surroundings what you should and will not see the opportunities that are everywhere.

However, if you have a positive mindset, you will be more likely to ‘see’ and appreciate your surroundings.  Further, think_you_canyou will be able to identify and appreciate opportunities.

In reality, all a positive mindset does therefore is allow you to see opportunities.  But seeing is not enough.  If you do nothing but see, you must accept failure.  You must examine carefully the opportunities that present themselves and act upon those that merit action.  It is the action that will lead you to success.

In conclusion it is positive thought and positive action will lead you to fulfil your goals and ambitions.

By Dapinder Bains

Lehman – 1 year on.

Exactly a year ago, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

I shall avoid the temptation of pontificating on the subject as many, many others, far better qualified, will be doing so!Leyman

But two published articles seem to me to be worth visiting, one from October of 2008 from The Economist, and one from The New York Times.

Lastly, a personal comment from friend Dan that shows powerfully how the last year has affected him.

Read more of this Post

Success is an attitude.

You are, or become, what you think!

On the 12th August I published a Post about the Law of Attraction.

Let me turn to succeeding – from a entrepreneurial point of view, but equally applicable for  whatever is important to you.

In business, simply knowing about the basics in a little detail is not enough to achieve any degree of success.

Actually you need to have a deep understanding of what you are about to embark upon to ensure that you place yourself correctly in the market and sell to people who actually want your product.

The success therefore is in the detail.  As is said, the devil is in the detail.

It will take you time to gain this understanding and, in most instances, will cost you money, but if you lack the belief that you will achieve your goals, you will not have the enthusiasm to learn and we learn most from our mistakes.  To use a cliché again, you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.

Perversely, if you have a very positive attitude without any desire to learn, you have even less chance of success.

The answer therefore has to be somewhere in-between.  It’s a fine balance and reaching it can be a challenge in itself.

It would be safe to say that most don’t ever achieve it.

A clear goal is critical in the process.  Having a clear goal helps you plan what you need to do to achieve that goal and lets you know when you have achieved it!

As is said, the only benefit of not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise!

Success therefore is a Mindset, but what exactly should your Mindset be?

By Dapinder Bains