The day after one client ‘retired’ he took all his business suits to the charity shop. For him they were a uniform and this marked a clear ‘transition’ – the end of his ‘first career’ and a first step forward to what comes next. Another took over a decade to discard the last business suit […]
I have noticed an increasing number of ads for on-line betting websites -and that worries me. Their level of cynicism is breath-taking. ‘Our app has built in ‘pauses’ to ensure you ‘take a break’ and ‘our app allows you to pre-set your spending limit’ alongside pictures of happy smiling users laughing together and celebrating their […]
When Bismark created the world’s first state pension scheme in the 1880s he never expected to pay out – it was simply a creative (and seemingly popular) tax raising exercise. Life expectancy in Germany at the time was 48, so 65 was selected for benefit payments to start, thus ensuring there were few, if any, […]
When reviewing your possessions – try this. Ask your close family what they would do with ‘your stuff’ if you were hit by the proverbial bus? Most likely their response will fall into one of a number of categories: – Items of value to be sold (house, car etc) – Items of personal value but […]
Visiting an elderly relative at their care home I was greeted by staff at the door – fully masked and gloved – saying that their outbreak of Covid was getting worse. I decided to go in, say hello and just carry out the essential work I had come to do. Having donned mask and gloves […]
If the old saying is that ‘a picture can tell 1000 words’ – just imagine what a collage can do! One of my long term clients found that with each successive year he is embracing new experiences while continuing with the things he loves. Looking to illustrate the huge variety of these many activities I […]
Have you ever thought ‘why do all the good things happen to them? – they are so lucky’?! The chances are they don’t feel quite to same way about their own ‘luck’. What they have learnt through experience is sometimes called to Rule of Large Numbers. Simply put, if you keep doing enough things, some […]
Yesterday we said farewell to a colleague who started with me 25 years ago. For them the time was right. Management did a nice presentation at the start of the day and her friends and colleagues put on a wonderful informal lunch. Inevitably the conversation turned to the parallel subjects of Why now? and What […]
Introducing change… When I worked in financial services we developed a computer simulation that allowed us to share experience of setting up a sales organisation with countries that were about to start the journey. In the simulation we included a genuine memo we had found while researching the exercise. It was from ‘senior management’ saying […]
When coaching others, I use an analogy of the decks of an old galleon where the lowest deck was called an orlop while the captain spent his time up on the bridge. In truth, when charting our way through life we all spend time on every deck – sometimes doing the reassuringly mundane chores of […]