Boggles - Mindfulness Videos Articles and Tips January 29 2018 No. 544

No... Don't Copy That!

Throughout our lives, we're looking for role models - we're taught to look up to the greats, to emulate them. But you're never going to be great yourself until you are yourself... for real.

 

Mindfulness Tip

Do something that you've been putting off.

It could be something you really don't want to do because it's a pain in the ass. It could be something that you're uncomfortable doing or, heaven forbid, something that you're actually afraid of doing.

I could be something that you really, really want to do - perhaps have always wanted to do - but it has always slipped down the list... you know important stuff that gets left behind because you're too busy doing urgent stuff that doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things.

Reflections on Mindfulness

I sometimes recollect a very good friend (and client) of mine who, for most of his working life, haroured the dream of setting up his own fishing lodge, running courses on fishing and providing a little piece of heaven for those who were really into the sport. On two separate occasions during his career in finance, through mergers and acquisitions, circumstance conspired to provide him with the seed capital to set him up... and on each occasion he took the soft option and took another job in finance.

After I moved to France I would only talk to him from time to time but, in time, I learned that he was suffering from an incurable cancer and, in his early forties, he passed away. By chance, I telephoned him the day before he left us and asked him if he had any regrets. His reply, some of his last words, are unprintable!

He was afraid of doing something different, something that would set him apart and something that might make him happy... he was afraid of having what he wanted! As someone else said to me recently, one of the worst fears in life is when we realize that what we want is within our grasp - the exact phrase used was "I feel like the dog who has just realized that he's about to catch up on the car!"

Fear is a strange thing. Some encourage us to face our fear (and do it anyway) or work around our fears - telling us that fear is just an emotion. That's giving fear too grand a title altogether. Fear is a thought or, more precisely, a gang of thoughts that get together and beat us up. Fear comes from only one place... inside. And that is good news indeed because, if we are the source of our own fear, we are the source of the solution.

Don't let your thoughts gang up on you. Don't let them waste another moment of your life or ounce of your precious energy. Whatever it is you really want to do or overcome, get up out of your fear zone (some people actually call this your comfort zone!) and take the first step... do it now, there's no time like the present.

Normal Crazy People - Mindlessness in Action

I've previously recounted stories about teachers who, on reflection, you wouldn't let look after your dog, let alone your child... teachers who bullied and taunted, teachers who slapped pupils in the face and got away with it. But the behaviour of those in whose care we place our children seems to have taken a turn for the utterly bizarre...

First, we have the Headmaster of a leading British boarding school who has banned romance! Yes, not only is he actively discouraging teenage boys and girls from becoming romantically involved, he's threatening them with expulsion. Apparently adolescents only need to learn academic stuff!

Then, we have the English primary school which has banned a parent from entering the premises after she complained that teachers were searching children's lunchboxes for unhealthy food and drink... and throwing anything that they deemed unhealthy away! This would be the same school whose canteen serves chips with everything!

   

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