I was sitting in the most wonderful place in the world – on the beach of Koh Samui in Thailand. My daughter was almost seven years old and my was just one yea old and was running on the beach naked. As the two of them were building sand castles, I learned the first thing I want my kids to know.
A 60 year-old man approached us and told us this story.
Every year since 1982, the 25th of December (Christmas Day) is a memorial day for me. One of the people who had the greatest influence on my life passed away that day. I remember the phone call early in the morning, telling me he was not with us anymore. He was the first person close to me who had ever died. I was just 18 and for a long time I thought about not having the opportunity to say goodbye.
Just before the holidays and the start of a new year, we went to Southbank Parklands in Brisbane to spread some real holiday cheer with free hugs and some good friends. Some truly touching stories were told to us, like a grandmother, whose grandson had been in an accident in the country and had been […]
Read FREE HUGS for Christmas 2007 »
My immediate answer is “I wish”. I really do. Think about it – how easy it would be if all we needed is to set a goal, write it down (to make sure we will not change it often, based on circumstances) and let the universe take care of it, right?
But I am a person of action. I believe in motion as the ultimate way to growth and I that action speaks louder than words. While the universe is taking care of some of your goals, just because you wanted them, your actions will help you with the rest. When you set a goal and wait for an external source to fulfil it, you fail to help yourself and miss the opportunity to grow.
My immediate answer is “I wish”. I really do. Think about it – how easy it would be if all we needed is to set a goal, write it down (to make sure we will not change it often, based on circumstances) and let the universe take care of it, right?
My Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) teacher did believe that it was enough. She said, “If you really, really want it, it will happen”, but I ask you, “How do you know if you really, really want something? When does your desire become ‘real’?”
When I want something, I can swear I really want it.
You see, some people set goals and do not achieve them, at least for a while, so they accept defeat by saying “Maybe I didn’t ‘really’ want this goal”.
Read Do You Really Believe That Setting a Goal Is Enough to Achieve It? »
Following the announcement of her book “In the Outback with Jasmine Banks”, here is an interview with Ronit Baras about this inspiring story of a young woman’s personal journey to freedom.
Read Interview with Ronit Baras on Her New Book "In the Outback with Jasmine Banks" »
As we prepared to hug the homeless, I happened to read about hugging and found a post where Carl Munson expressed his uncomfortable feelings about hugging. Here is my response.
Read Hugging Season »
Most of our coaching clients ask us, “How come I keep getting all the things I don’t want to have in my life?”
Oddly enough, the answer is hidden in the question. It’s all to do with … pink elephants.
Our brain is a very sophisticated machine, with its own way of interpreting the things around us. It turns out that one particular thing our brain can’t understand is negatives. Whenever we hear or use the words “no”, “not” or “don’t”, the brain simply ignores them and keeps the rest.
Read Beware of Pink Elephants »
We have many hopes for the holidays – we hope that something special will happen at midnight between when the year changes. We have hopes for the new year (even though in different places in the world, that moment happens at different times). The more frustrated we are with our current situation, the more hopes we have for magic to happen to us, just like that.
During the holidays, many people realise they are lonely just by looking around and seeing others travel to another country to be with their loved ones. Many people realise they are broke just looking around at the shops full of people buying like crazy. Many people realise they are still frustrated with their work, hearing about others getting bonuses for the holidays. Some people find out how troubled their relationships are just trying to decide where to celebrate the holidays.
It was psychologist Howard Gardner’s book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which first questioned the common psychological orthodoxy about intelligence, the intelligence quotient (IQ), and presented the revolutionary concept of Multiple Intelligences. At a time when a set of tests positioned children in a single spot on the bell curve and educators’ capacity to affect this position was seen as limited, the dawn of multiple intelligences shone a light at the end of a tunnel.
With this great recognition of our ability to enhance intelligence, the two extreme parts of the bell curve – the children with the learning difficulties and the gifted children – became the center of attention. Those two seemingly unrelated ranges of ability require the same type of attention and multiple intelligences brought hope for improvement for both.
A natural progression of that was the area of early diagnosis and early intervention. Should we diagnose learning difficulties during early childhood or will this put a label on them that is too hard to remove? Should we diagnose gifted children or will this doom them to isolation and social challenges? And once a special need is identified, should we intervene or just let nature take its course and allow the kids to “grow out of it”?
Each of the questions presents the choice between a reactive and a proactive approach. For government organizations, these questions are translated to the cost difference between the two, which then determines the approach. For teachers, however, critical time plays an important role in the choice.
Read Diagnosing Learning Difficulties and Gifted Children in the Early Years »
I read a lot about success and attend personal development and wealth creation seminars. It is very inspiring. Unfortunately, the more I do this, the more I hear about people who are making it big time overnight.
The overnight success factor works very well on people who are not successful. It really helps sell stuff. Look at some of the best overnight success promotions:
– Lose 14 kilos in 14 days!
– How to make $250,000 from property without using your own money!
– Use this drink and be blond and beautiful in just 4 days! (OK, so I made this one up myself ;))
I bet overnight success was invented by unsuccessful people to help them feel better about their lack of success.
Read Overnight Success »
Book your private life coaching with Ronit Baras and learn how to be happy in life
