Optimum Trajectory!

This is from George Clooney in the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009): "Optimum trajectory. Your life is like a river. If you're aiming for a goal that isn't your destiny you're always going to be swimming against the current. Find out what your destiny is and the river will carry you. Sometimes events in their life give an individual clues as to where their destiny lies".

What are the clues in your life?

Decision Apps for a Wiser World!

Well, it's taken 2 years of research in collaboration with the University of Wollongong, but we're finally ready! We're delighted to announce the first workshops using our refined DPS (Decision Processing Survey) and other University-trialed tools to help you and your clients make wiser decisions! This could be the edge you're looking for in coaching, leadership, strategic thinking, innovation, organisation change, or professional development in 2012.

We invite you to attend the one-day workshop "Decision Apps for a Wiser World" in Sydney, January 18, or in Melbourne, February 24, 2012 (includes completing the DPS online and debriefing your report at the workshop).

Find out more and register here.
Download the flyer here.

Hope you can make it! Visit the Decision Apps website here.

Kind Regards,
Peter Webb & Dr Barry Partridge

Hallelujah!

Nobody should be allowed to sing Leonard Cohen's anthem "Hallelujah" except K.D. Lang! Saw her live at the State Theatre in Sydney last night and she pierced our hearts with that song. How is it that music can be such a powerful channel for human emotion?

Be Happy!

Saw a screening of "Happy!" the movie at the Randwick Ritz last night with 600 of our closest friends, sponsored by Wake Up Sydney! Such beautiful imagery, and such a moving affirmation of how happiness is accessible to all of us, no matter where we are or what happens to us.

See the Trailer here:

Over Thinking!

Overly using intellect causes the mind to become busy and fragmented. According to Tibetan Medicine, every state of mind is associated with its own energy, so that the subtle nervous system can become busy vibrating with various conflicting energies. This can lead to a painful condition the Tibetans call 'lung', meaning frustrated energy at the heart. It is important to know when to relax, put aside intellect, and let the mind settle into its natural state of clarity.

Stardust!

"Life is debris" according to cosmologists. The building blocks of life come from nucleo-synthesis, the process of heavy element creation from deep within stars. When these stars exhaust their fuel, they blast their material out into space to begin the generation of new stars. And from generation to generation an abundance of heavy elements forms the planets, comets, asteroids, and the things we human beings are made of. Nucleo-synthesis suggest that all life is merely a product of natural processes and not unusual to our world. We are all made of stardust!

The Tree of Life!

Saw the movie, "The Tree of Life" yesterday. What a frustrating, yet wonderful experience! A haunting metaphor on the search for God. And how the Universe and all creation can be found in the intricate dynamics of a single family. "Where were you?" whispers the voice-over. Wherever love is, seems to be the answer.

Running Your Own Race!

Just me and 85,000 of my closest friends at the end of the 2011 City2Surf 14Km run from Hyde Park to Bondi Beach yesterday! I realized that no matter how much you compare yourself with others around you, you are always running your own race. We are, each of us, alone with our own narrative, even in a sea of people!

Time and Space!

Flying from Sydney to Dubbo the other evening I was reflecting on our perceptions of time and space. I define my space by the seat I am sitting in and the physical parameters of the aircraft cabin. Time passes within this dimension. Yet outside I can see a limitless horizon. I am experiencing time and space there too. I realize that when I am caught by the demands of "inside" time, I fail to notice the limitless availability of "outside" time!

Immunity to Change!

What's going on when you find yourself actively preventing the very change you want to make? Bob Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (2009) call this our "immunity to change" and it's made up of three dimensions: Our change-prevention system (thwarting challenging aspirations), our feeling system (managing anxiety), and our knowing system (organising reality). How you manage change depends on your "healthy adult" grasp of these three systems.

Why Worry?

As the 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar, Shantideva said: "If you can do something about the problem, why worry about it? If you can't do anything about it, why worry about it?"

Attachment!

Attachment is when you exaggerate the positive qualities of something, like the happiness you expect to feel when you get your hands on those new shoes! Attachment is also when you exaggerate the aversion to something unwanted, such as "life will be so much better if I could only get rid of these headaches!" In either case, you're not seeing these things as they really are.

Moral Disarmament!

At the public talk in Melbourne over the Long Weekend with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and 5,000 of our closest friends! We need a secular moral ethics based on affection and respect, he said. There is too much emphasis on "we/they" when the new reality is that all the world is part of "me". He expressed the hope and desire that we could build the latter part of the 21st Century into a "happy Century", but only if we practice "moral disarmament" and introduce ethics free of religion.

Many Perspectives!

I was fascinated watching Professor Anatol Lieven respond to a question at the Lowy Institute for International Policy lunch yesterday: "Should we be concerned about Pakistan?" I could actually see the "ripple" of multiple perspectives play across his face as he struggled with historical, political, strategic, geographic, and ethnic considerations. After what seemed a full minute his reply was distilled into a simple "Yes!"

The wisest people I know find it difficult to contemplate issues in simple black and white terms. Life is inherently complex and unpredictable. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you something!

Decisions, Decisions!

It's hard to make decisions. For most of us, making decisions is influenced by attachment. Ensuring security of our attachment to some-thing or some-one. Or protecting against loss of some-thing or some-one we are attached to! But what are the consequences of our decisions? Who is impacted? And what do our decisions say about striving to maximise the common good for every-one?

After the End of the World!

We are all still here! Explanation: 21 May was something like a dress rehearsal for the real show on 21 October!

In the USA, a group called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets has been offering to take care of the household pets of Christians who are taken to heaven in the Rapture. A payment of just $135.00 can save one animal per residence! Furthermore, Eternal Earth-Bound Pets representatives guarantee that they'll stay around because they can't be raptured: they are "atheists, do not believe in God / Jesus, and ...have blasphemed in accordance with Mark 3:29, negating any chance of salvation."

Apparently, they have been receiving bookings.... Only in America!

Dreamboat Willie!

I remember being called "Dreamboat Wille" in grade 4 for not paying attention in class. The teacher led me around the classroom by my ear as an example! At that time daydreaming was a way for me to imagine possibilities and futures. Now, daydreaming is understood as an essential prelude to inspirational ideas. Perhaps it was my teacher who should have been led around by the ear for failing to recognise and support creativity!

The Shamatha Project!

After a one-week Shamatha meditation retreat with B. Alan Wallace, March 25-31, I realize I have an "ordinary mind" when it comes to focus of attention! Shamatha is the cultivation of attention, and research from the Shamatha Project shows that practicing Shamatha meditation: Enhances attention skills; enhances emotional balance; allows you to sleep less with more energy; and may even decrease the rate of telomere shortening which is a marker for longevity!

The GFC - Where to from Here?

Columbia University Professor Frederic Mishkin is a renowned expert on banking, finance and monetary policy. I heard him present to the Lowy Institute for International Policy yesterday about the GFC and its aftermath. "It was actually much more of a shock than the Great Depression", he said. "Only the active involvement of central banks to the limits of their authority prevented a catastrophe!"

Australia, Chile, and China were the only countries to come through relatively unscathed. Compared to the U.S., Australia didn't have to make sub-standard loans, we had fewer financial institutions, the right commodities, and principles-based supervision by our central bank which worked!

Mishkin says the future now depends on the "path of fiscal debt in the U.S., particularly around promises we can't keep", and "whether the Europeans get it!" Weakened independence of central banks, and lack of discipline in debt-restructuring will mean recovery will be slow.

The Big Shift!

What does it feel like when you can no longer trust the security of the ground beneath your feet? Japan has shifted 8 feet to the left of where it once was. Tens of thousands have been swept aside. Impossible images on our TV screens. Nuclear reactors melting down. It must surely seem like the end of the world in Sendai Prefecture right now. Is this the act of a jealous god? No, rather the cause and effect of dynamic geo-tectonic forces. Our planet is still forming. Certainty changes in the blink of an eye.

Cracking Up!

Has anyone noticed how the recent uprisings in the Middle East seemed to correlate with the Christchurch earthquake at exactly the opposite side of the planet? Could this be the Gaia hypothesis at work - the idea that Earth acts to maintain its homeostasis in response to our collective consciousness?

Schemas!

Here's a picture of me at age 6, loaded with schemas and ready to fly! Schemas are important beliefs and feelings about yourself and the environment which you accept without question. They are self-perpetuating, and are very resistant to change. The schema fights for its own survival, and, usually, quite successfully. Success in life is often still not enough to change the schema. The schema usually does not go away without therapy.

Keep on Running!

This is me after completing the Inaugural Sydney Morning Herald Sun Run from Dee Why to Manly (7 KM) early this month. Just happened to be one of the hottest days on record! But, as in life, no matter what the circumstances it's important to keep on running. Continuous movement towards a desired goal is one of the hallmarks of living a positive life.

After the Flood!

After the devastating floods in Queensland last week comes the clean up. A useful metaphor at the moment - after the inundation of the GFC comes the recovery. Time to clear out what is no longer useful and prepare for the new. But of course it can never be fully restored to the way it was. Recovery represents a new kind of normal. Yet, it also presents new opportunities to see life differently, perhaps even better than before.

Therapy IS the Therapist!

"The King's Speech" - What a beautiful and eloquent movie! Colin Firth deserves an Oscar for his role. But more significantly, this is an exquisite depiction of the true meaning of therapy. It's not what the therapist does so much as who the therapist is! What did you think of the film?