John has graduated with a Law Degree from Trinity and gone on to qualify as a solicitor. John was thrilled to get a good position in a small law firm doing conveyancing. Things were going really well initially and he loved the feeling of having money and going for drinks with his colleagues in Temple Bar on a Friday evening. Only six months into the job, John was let go due to the downturn in property market. He was gutted as he had just bought a new BMW on hire purchase. He didn’t know how he would ever make the repayments.
Author: Ken Robinson
Penguin Books 2009, 260 pages
This book is aimed at anyone interested exploring their own potential and the potential of those around them. It is about how passion, imagination, creativity, values and luck influence on career decision-making. Sir Ken Robinson is one of the world’s leading speakers on the development of education, creativity and innovation. In his book he shares a wide range of stories of how people such as Paul McCartney, Paolo Coelho, Meg Ryan, dancer Gillian Lynne and screenwriter, Matt Groening found their ‘element’. He describes ‘ the element ‘ as ‘the place where the things you love to do and the things you are good at come together’.
An ‘attitude of gratitude’ can raise our happiness index and sense of well-being. A few months ago, I made a decision to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, to count my blessings and keep a written record of them. The act of gratitude allowed me to savour the present moment and things such as:
When meeting a group of adult learners on the first day of their return to education, I give them this piece of writing to read:
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.
War of Art on Resistance by Steven Pressfield
In the last few months many of the people I have met have had a close brush with death . . . heart attacks, strokes, cancer, traffic accidents. Meeting people who have stared death in the face brought to mind Buddha’s saying: “Of all mindfulness meditations, that on death is supreme”. Steve Jobs put it well when he said “Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent….”