I am sitting in Amsterdam Airport at 6am, or was it 5am? Well it was 10am where I was coming from, so needless to say, I was a little disorientated. Armed with a strong coffee and a muffin, I began to do some work. Something caught my attention. It sounded like a bird, could there be a bird in Schiphol airport? Did it get trapped?
Sure enough, as I squinted up, there was a Sparrow sitting high above me (I was a little concerned about my exposed coffee and muffin, so closed my mouth). The sparrow swooped down just as a family left a table in the restaurant, much to the delight of others sitting nearby, a welcome distraction after their overnight flights and disturbed sleep.
The LBB (Little Brown Bird) began to clean the table and surrounding floor of crumbs, to be promptly joined by another LBB. They polished off what had been left behind and returned to their nest. My pity quickly turned to admiration.
As we all know, the interior of an airport has never experienced fresh air, I marvelled at how these feathered creatures, not only survived being caught in an enclosed area, but settled, produced a family, and are now thriving in a hostile environment.
It is adaptation to perfection. It got me thinking that it is exactly what we need to do as business owners in today’s harsh reality, as economies and banking systems collapse under our noses. In times of adversity, lives diversity. Every entrepreneur and business owner needs to rethink the environment they find themselves in, and adapt, just like the hardy Sparrow.
I learned a lesson this morning, have you learned how to diversify?
Well it’s that time of month again!!! (no ladies, not THAT time of month)
Friday 13th is a normal day for some but for others it can mean not going outside the front door. It is right up there on the scale of superstition with April Fool’s Day and Murphy’s Law. I am not at all superstitious but do believe in Karma, so do something good for yourself on Friday 13th.
Here are some facts according to WIKI:
“The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (meaning fear). This is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen, and is also known as friggatriskaidekaphobia.”
What a mouthful!
Here is a suspicious little story for you:
Do you know how to determine if a mirror is 2-way or not? Read the rest of this entry »
“No, it has to be three weeks” I compromised with my husband as he expressed his wishes to drive across Europe to Germany, then down to southern France and back to Ireland, covering 4500km in 2 weeks. To my horror, he was actually calling this a holiday!
So we settled on 3 weeks and one day, including the ferry trips. The Germany part was attending a birthday party, but the Southern France part was for more obvious reasons – sun, sights and food (ok, maybe the wine too).
I was so looking forward to warming up my bones after a disastrous winter here in Ireland. Our garden was still reeling from the adverse weather conditions earlier in the year. We packed our bathing suits, sunscreen, blankets for sunbathing, and summer clothes. Getting off the Oscar Wilde in Roscoff and feeling the warm sunshine on our faces, we were just about ready for a good break, a good rest, great food, and plenty of sight-seeing.
Our first week involved a lot of driving. In fact, the majority of the overall journey was done in the first 2 days. Arriving into the Alsace area of France from Germany, we were ready for the famous “Massif Central”, an area well known for Read the rest of this entry »
A beautiful lady, Frederique Murphy, told me of a Coaching Blog Awards a few months ago. I decided to enter my blog, knowing that I would be away for 3 weeks, and not have the chance to actively promote my entry.
Having said that, I sent out a “few” e-mails, asking friends and colleagues to vote, but more importantly comment to promote my blog in the rankings.
Then I headed off on my well earned break, and on my return found that I had made the Top 10 entries based on votes. What surprised me more, were the comments. It truly touched my heart, that I had not only touched these people, but that they “understood” my unusual approach to blog writing.
As most of you know, I don’t write conventional blog posts about enhancing your personal development or actively get your business increased or improved. Rather, I seem to be drawn to things and ideas based on the very things that happen around me in my personal and professional life.
Hence, the odd analogies, and strange comparisons 
Read the rest of this entry »
I was watching a Song Thrush recently collecting twigs and grass for its nest. I was thinking it was quite late for her to start, but I am sure she will catch up lost time, and speed up the process of having and raising a family before the summer is over. In fact, she could have 2-4 clutches of eggs.
Why was this song bird so picky about her pickings? It’s all to do with foundations. If we do not built a strong foundation, then the structure on which it stands, will not stand the test of time.
We have seen this in Ireland over the past two years. The structure that was our economy and public services was all built on a promise, not exactly a sound foundation on which to survive.
We know now that it would never last. We seemed to think that it would. So as I manage my business, I think of the initial work I put into the foundations laid down. It takes time to set up a business, that time varying depending on the type, size, shape and location – just like a nest!
So what needs to be in place, for the business to stand the test of time? Read the rest of this entry »
I was recently introduced to a great band called Mumford & Sons. They sing an interesting song called ‘The Cave’. The scenes of the video that accompanies the song uses themes and content from two famous bands of old: The Beatles (Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and The WHO (Quadrophenia). The video continues with a connection between the new band and the old favourites.
I am also reading a book called ‘Made to Stick’ by Chip & Dan Heath. The books discusses how to make ideas stick, and how some ideas stick more than others.
The fascinating thing about both the song and the book, is that a great idea does not need to be an absolute original. The Heath brothers discuss the meaning of experience, Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, April 30th 2010. I was in the mid-sentence with a client during a coaching session when a waiter came up to us to collect our empty glasses. He informed us that Gerry Ryan, the much-loved Irish radio broadcaster, had died. He then continued with his hypothesis, when I had to say “Thank you for telling us”. He promptly left us alone again. It brought back memories of Michael Jackson’s death, Lady Diana and Rory Gallagher.
Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when the Omagh bomb blew the street apart on 23 June 1985? Or Lockerbie on 21 December 1988? What about when the Air India flight blew up over Ireland on 23 June 1985?
Gerry Ryan will be buried today after 11.30 Mass as the country continues to mourn. This day will be etched in many people’s memory and some will struggle to remember.
I was just admiring my garden yesterday morning while having an espresso. I was noticing the devastation that challenged me for the “Big clean up” after the adverse weather conditions we had experienced over the past 6 weeks. A blackbird caught my eye – he was busily upturning leaves, looking for breakfast.
“Ah”, I thought, “things are back to normal.” The air is calm, the garden is green, and the temperature reads a satisfying 9o. Read the rest of this entry »
There is a lot of misunderstanding and confusion out there about Coaching and what it actually is. If you Wiki Life Coaching (“Life Coaching is a future-focused practice with the aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals”), Personal Coaching (“Personal Coaching is a relationship which is designed and defined in a relationship agreement between a client and a coach. It is based on the client’s expressed interests, goals and objectives”) or Business Coaching (“Business coaching is the practice of providing positive support and positive feedback while offering occasional advice to an individual or group in order to help them recognize ways in which they can improve the effectiveness of their business”), the explanations are nothing to be desired, as Coaching will mean many different things to many different people, and it is completely subjective.
Let me clarify. Read the rest of this entry »
This year, Mother’s Day falls on Sunday March 14th. In some countries, it follows the old traditions of Mothering Sunday which is a Christian festival celebrating the mother church throughout Europe. It generally falls on the 4th Sunday of Lent. Secularly, Mothering Sunday became a celebration of motherhood. Eventually, the two more or less combined, along with other celebrations (Simnel Sunday, Refreshment Sunday, Rose Sunday) into Mother’s Day. As we are well aware, it has become very Read the rest of this entry »
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