Seize the Day: Life According to my Dictionary

Life gives us brief moments with another…

But sometimes, in those brief moments
We get memories that last a life time.

 Some people keep a diary, I keep a dictionary. Yes, a dictionary.  Don’t ask me how this happened because I couldn’t tell you but my dictionary is full of memories and mementos of years gone by. My dictionary isn’t a particularly expensive book and it’s somewhat battered around the edges now, but the memories stored in it are priceless.

These memories represent the passing thirty years in different schools and small and big moments in my personal life. The first page includes my name and under it is written, “Carpe diem – Seize the day”, which is something that stirs me and motivates me, to always make the most of every moment.

There are happy holiday snaps, postcards from exotic places that I or good friends have travelled to over the years, funny cartoons that make me laugh out loud. The Far Side collection is my favourite. 

A man is sitting on an airplane looking out at the clouds drifting by in the sky. There is a panel at his right hand, which has all the usual buttons: volume, channel, light switch, steward alert and on the left side is a button that reads: ‘wings stay on’ and below this: ‘wings fall off’. The caption reads:

            “Fumbling for his recline button,

              Ted unwittingly instigates a disaster.”
             (Okay, maybe this is a ‘location’ joke.)

Photos of family events feature in the dictionary, which record moments of absolute bliss and success with my family – everything from learning to sailboard, floating on Blue Lake at Straddie in a dinghy, children playing netball, rugby and cricket, accepting awards at Speech Night, graduating from university and most of all, just enjoying family events.

Photos and notes from good friends who make me smile, fill my dictionary. Good friends are like diamonds that sparkle in any light and even in darkness. Good friends are the ones who know all about you and like you anyway. The gift of their friendship calls out to me from the pages, reminding me that even on the darkest of days, there can still be a reason to smile and to hope for a better future.

There are thank you cards from parents, students and colleagues. Beautiful Valentine’s Day cards, special Christmas cards also kept for reflection, including a lovely Christmas card written by Riordon, David and Natarsha Turner at the end of my first year at CCPS, which I treasure.

A potpourri of photos of school related events like Anzac Day marches, graduations, formals, semi-formals, Foundation Days;  photos of Professor Ian Frazer, and who can forget his description of going to a ‘pirate school’?  Who can forget superstar, John Newcombe and the amazingly ‘young’, grand Dame Elisabeth Murdoch?

Poignant photos found in my dictionary, remind me of generous people in my life, like that of the School’s Patrons – Judy Henzell and the late Joan Ford, Cec and the late Noelene Munns – all people who have given so much to Caloundra City Private School. How can we ever repay their kindness?

Perhaps the saddest of these mementos are those that mark the death of someone very young. It reminds me of how fragile life can be and the transiency of all that is precious to us. One that always makes me pause to consider this fragility is of a past Year 11 student who died tragically in a car accident in 2001. Her beautiful face smiles out from the pages and the inscription below written by her grieving parents reads:

            “Gone from our sight

               But never our memories
               Gone from our touch
                But never our hearts.”

 

We really can’t take too much in life for granted, can we? Nothing lasts forever. All things come to an end and in my mind, it is all the more reason to ‘seize the day’ and make the very most of every moment. With this in mind I will be embarking on a new journey in 2013 and look forward to this new chapter in my life.

 I take with me many wonderful memories of CCPS – mainly of the people that I have been fortunate enough to know:  wonderful teachers, fabulous administrative and auxiliary staff,  amazing students (past and present), and supportive and caring parents. To the outstanding executive team of Ms Stuart, Mr Maguire, Mrs Frisby and Mrs Short I thank you for your amazing skills, talents, loyalty and leadership of the School.

 My creed, (also found in my dictionary), is very simple and this creed is one that I borrowed from George Bernard Shaw and would like to share:

            This is the true joy in life,

             The being used for a purpose
            Recognized by yourself as a mighty one.
            The Being a force of nature
              Instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments
              And grievances, complaining that the world
               Will not devote itself to making you happy.

 I am of the opinion that my life belongs to 

           The whole community and as long as I live,
            It is my privilege to do for it what I can.
            I want to be thoroughly used up when I die,
             For the harder I work, the more I live.
            I rejoice in life for its own sake.
            Life is no brief candle to me.
            It is a sort of splendid torch
            Which I have got hold of for the moment
            And I want to make it burn as brightly
            As possible before handing it on to future generations.

 

Thank you to everyone who has been part of my journey at Caloundra City Private School. I am leaving you now, but you will always be a part of who I am and part of you will always live in my heart. I wish you all the very best for the future.

Thank you for all of the wonderful experiences I have shared with you on this journey.

Karon Graham

Celebrate Life!

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.(Oprah Winfrey)

Celebrate life!  Don’t let the moment pass without celebrating that special event, that special success, or that special milestone. Life should be full of celebrations of the big moments as well as the little moments of personal significance.

It’s so easy to get caught up in all ‘that’s not right’ in the world rather than what is right. It’s so easy to not see the forest for the trees. I use to watch the news but I rarely do these days. Some comic once quipped that the evening news always commences with ‘Good Evening’ and then the presenter proceeds to tell you why it’s not. So now I get my news over the internet and choose what news stories I read. Isn’t it better to do as Barbara Hoffman suggests?

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey!

In my mind there are lots of things that we can celebrate every day and maybe some of these you may already celebrate too.

Celebrate our families and the ones we love.

Celebrate good friendships and the joy of friends in our lives.

Celebrate the beautiful part of the world in which we live.

Celebrate the weather – how lucky are we to have warm, sunny weather most of the year?

Celebrate good health or the recovery to good health.

Celebrate our freedom and the lifestyle that we sometimes take for granted.

Celebrate this great School and all who share it with us.

Celebrate every blessing that comes our way.

Celebrate life!

 

Life is a celebration of awakenings, of new beginnings,
and wonderful surprises that enlighten the soul.

 

Karon Graham

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

“The secret of health for both mind and body is
not to mourn for the past,
worry about the future, or anticipate troubles,
but to live in the present moment,
wisely and earnestly.”
(Buddha)

Live for the moment. It sounds reckless doesn’t it? If we think about this proposition a little more though, life is really a continuum of moments, a series of decisions that we make, most of them seemingly insignificant, but in the course of our personal history, the collective decisions we make lead us to our destiny. Why should we live for the moment?

Many years ago, there was a popular song written by Bobby McFerrin, called “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. The very simple lyrics struck a chord with many people. We are not able to change the past, so let it go. We are not able to predict or know with certainty the future, so there’s no point stressing too much about that either. Yes we can make plans for the future, but remember that events can often conspire against our best laid plans. So maybe there is something to McFerrin’s lyrics, ‘don’t worry, be happy’.

In Andy Andrews’ book, The Butterfly Effect, based on the theory of Edward Lorenz, he explains how one decision, one small act or one change can have a ripple effect elsewhere. When the disaster of 9/11 struck the World Trade Centre, some people, who would normally be at work there, had made a decision a week ago, or the day before, or even on the day to do something that meant they were not on the upper floors of the World Trade Centre when the planes struck.

One man decided that he would take his daughter to her first day of school and another, Larry Silverstein, had made a doctor’s appointment, which his wife insisted that morning that he should keep rather than rescheduling. Chef Michael Lomonaco decided to drop in at the optometrist in the lobby of the World Trade Centre to see if he could change his appointment time, instead of travelling up the lift to the 106th floor to his restaurant, where he would normally be preparing for the day ahead. All of these people were spared almost certain death by the decisions they had made the week before or because of spur of the moment decisions made that day.

Not all decisions take on such significance though. According to a survey by Columbia University decision researcher, Sheena Iyengar, the average person makes approximately 70 conscious decisions every day. That’s a lot of decision making happening in our lives. Multiply 70 decisions by 365 days and that means, on average, we are making around 25,550 every year! It’s no wonder that these decisions collectively determine our destiny and the destiny of other people in our lives.

What influences our decisions is quite interesting too. Arnaldo Oliveira, an expert in decision making process, argues that the essence of decision making integrates both the beliefs about specific events and peo¬ple’s subjective reactions to those events. He identifies three factors influencing our decision making. Firstly there may be more than one possible course of action possible for us to consider. Secondly, decision makers form expectations concerning future events based on degrees of confidence and probabilities for the future. Thirdly, we consider the consequences associated with possible outcomes, which reflects our own personal values and current goals.

Author, John Hunt has an interesting theory about people, which may influence how they make decisions and what decision they make. He writes about people either being a ‘sunset’ person or a ‘sunrise’ person and he believes that everyone falls into one of these two categories. Hunt explains:

“A ‘sunriser’ gives out energy; a ‘sunsetter’ sucks it away.
A ‘sunriser’ goes through life open to the idea that the best may still be coming. A ‘sunset’ person is heavy in the knowledge that the best is past. For him or her, the future is in a calibrated decline.”

In essence, beliefs influence our actions and often can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy where our decisions influence eventual outcomes. In other words, what you believe will come true because you will subconsciously and consciously act in ways that cause the event to happen. Self-fulfilling prophecies are powerful, and real.

A simple decision about whether to let your child learn a musical instrument, or learn to sing or dance or paint can significantly influence the course of their life. A young child who struggles to learn, to speak or write, may benefit greatly by learning to play a musical instrument or play chess or to learn to draw or to play a particular sport. Not only does it open a whole new world of opportunities for your child, but it may very well be the one thing, in which they excel and experience success in their life. We never know where such a decision will lead.

There’s no escaping it, the more opportunities we give our child at the youngest possible age, the more likely they are to excel, not just at school but in life in general. A small decision can have an untold impact on the future. We never know where the decisions of today will lead; ultimately, it may very well depend on our beliefs and expectations and (maybe) on whether we are a ‘sunsetter’ or ‘sunriser’. I will let Theodore Roosevelt have the last word on decision making:

“In any moment of decision
the best thing you can do
Is the right thing, the
next best thing is the
wrong thing, and
the worst thing
you can do is
nothing.”

Karon Graham

Teachers Create the Future

A teacher affects eternity;
he or she can never tell
where his or her influence stops. ~
(Henry Brooks Adams)

There is a saying, that every good teacher is a student of students. Understanding young people (as many a parent will testify) is not an easy or straightforward task. Good teachers get to know their students very well indeed – they learn as much as they can about their students - their interests, passions, hobbies, their family, likes and dislikes and what they love to do, how they like to learn and what they like to learn. Good teachers make learning fun.

I read a funny quote the other day by Donald Quinn, who wrote that if a doctor, or lawyer, or dentist had thirty people in their office at one time, all of them asking questions, all of whom had different learning needs, and some of whom, didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, some of whom were questioning the advice given, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he or she might have some conception of the work, the stresses and life of the classroom teacher.

Apart from the humour, this anecdote is quite thought provoking. If we think about this idea a little more, teachers actually teach the people who will become all the other professions we know. Teachers around the world are now teaching, the future prime ministers, the future doctors, lawyers, dentists, politicians, CEOs, the future innovators, artists, musicians, scientists, builders, the future business leaders, architects, writers, researchers and the future humanitarians of the world. Our future and the future of humankind, actually lies in the very hands of our teachers today.

Teachers create the future by their very being a teacher. Most great ideas come from unexpected places and gifted teachers seize and opportunity to create the ‘teachable moment’ whatever the circumstances. Teaching young people to think creatively about problems, helps them later in life to be creative in their thinking, to look at the world differently, and see a solution or idea that has not occurred before that moment. As Albert Einstein, brilliant creative thinker and scientist once wrote:

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken
joy in creative expression and knowledge.

A gifted teacher inspires all of their students, (not just the clever ones), by tapping into their natural curiosity, by engaging them in conversations around an interesting topic or theme. They make learning come to life in the minds and hearts of their students. A gifted teacher makes learning fun in many creative ways and ignites in his or her students a passion for learning, an interest in the world in which they live, of times gone by, and a thirst for learning that can be sustained their whole life through.

The educational journey, which we share with our students for a relatively short time in their lives, is a journey of discovery – a journey of self discovery, as much as the, ‘getting of wisdom’ and a discovery of the world we live in and our place in that world. No journey is without its twists and turns and ups and downs. Teachers can help students through these difficulties and move them forward to a better place. Gifted teachers show how adversity can become an opportunity. Gifted teachers show students how one’s mind is capable of great feats, complex thinking, wonderful accomplishments, creative problem solving and insightful and inspiring thoughts.

Teachers who inspire realize there will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how we use them.
(Author unknown)

In appreciation of International Teacher’s Day celebrated on Friday, 26 October in Australia, students have put together a collage of thank you notes for their teachers. Here is just a small sample of some of the thank you messages from our students to their teachers at CCPS.


“I love all the teachers who teach me and I want to keep them forever! (Skye)

“I love how you always have fun and exciting lessons; you are a great teacher and I love having you teach me.”

“You are the best teacher because every day we have with you is fun.” (Celeste)

“ You are awesome; you teach us awesome stuff and I really, really like the Go Figure.” (Briana)

“”Thank you for helping me in class and for telling me, what’s right and what’s wrong.” (Lauren)

“I love how you teach me about things I didn’t know.”

“You’re the best teacher ever because you’re cheerful every day.” (Ruby)

“Thank you. I enjoy coming to school because you make it fun for me to learn.”


The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth." (Dan Rather, American anchorman CBS News)

Thank you to all the dedicated and caring teachers everywhere - you really do affect eternity!

Karon Graham

Ordinary People Achieve Extraordinary Things - Why aren't you?

“The greatest results in life are
usually attained by simple means and
the exercise of ordinary qualities.
These may be for the most part
summed up in these two:
commonsense and perseverance.”
(Owen Feltham, English writer)

If I was to ask you to name the five wealthiest people in the world, or to name three people who have won the Nobel or Archibald Prize, or to name the last five winners of the Brownlow Medal or the Dally M Medal or the last five winners of Best Actor in the Academy Awards, would you struggle? How did you go? Many of us would have trouble answering one of these, let alone all of these questions. (Okay, there may be a trivia savant out there, who scored 100%, but it’s not me and it’s probably not you.)

Even though it’s interesting or important to us at the time, as life moves on, we care little, and remember less of the past successes of these great people. Their successes eventually fade into oblivion, the applause evaporates into the ether and their achievements and awards are often forgotten altogether.

If on the other hand I was to ask you to name three teachers who helped you through school, or three friends who have stood by you through a difficult time, or five people who have taught you something worthwhile, or to name five people who have made you feel special and appreciated, or five people you enjoy spending time with, then the challenge is much easier, isn’t it?

As Charles Schulz, creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip (one of my favourites) muses: the lesson here is that the people who make a real difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards; they are the ones who care about you. They are ordinary people, who have affected your life in an extraordinary way.

Perseverance, persistence, and patience are qualities that ultimately can affect our destiny. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of a life built on these three qualities is that of the great American President, Abraham Lincoln. If ever there was a lesson in not giving up, it is the story of Abraham Lincoln. His perseverance, his persistence and patience is both inspirational and legendary.

Lincoln was born into poverty, was beset by personal tragedy, (when his fiancée died), suffered a nervous breakdown, experienced multiple business failures and bankruptcy, and lost eight elections before rising to the highest possible office in the country as the President of the United States in 1860. Lincoln never gave up; he persisted when many others would have given up in the face of such heartbreaking obstacles.

Yes, most of us, who consider ourselves to be, just ordinary people, can achieve extraordinary things if we have a mind to, and if the circumstances unfold in a way, to allow us to seize the opportunity in front of us. It’s not only about what we achieve ourselves, but it’s also, how we might make a significant difference in the life of another person, or lots of people for that matter. English theologian, Julies Hare wrote:

“Be what you are.
This is the first step towards becoming
better than you are.”

There are many people who don’t see themselves as ‘talented or gifted’ and it’s to these people, I say ‘go for it’. Each of us is unique and each person has different skills, interests and talents. Find your passion and pursue it. You will never know what you’re capable of, until you give it your very best shot. Perseverance, persistence, patience and practice will see you improve, and over time, achieve what it is that you want in life. Ordinary people really do achieve extraordinary things!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUT1ADtIHQU)

“Our imagination is the only limit
to what we can hope
to have in the future.”
(Charles Kettering, American inventor, engineer, and businessman)

Karon Graham

Are You Okay?

“You never know when a moment
and a few sincere words
can have an impact on life.”
(Zig Ziglar)

There’s no doubt how busy we are these days, particularly with family, children, work and all the other activities that seem to consume our time day in, day out. It’s not surprising then, that we sometimes overlook small warning signs that signal that someone we know is not well, or is troubled emotionally, or may be suffering from depression.

Most of us fall into the trap of the ‘passing pleasantries” outside our door, in the shopping centre or walking by an acquaintance or colleague. The exchange usually goes something like this:

“How are you?”
“Well thanks and you?”

Unfortunately we don’t always stop to even listen to the response. Before too long, we have moved onto the very next ‘to do’ task on our list and the conversation is forgotten. Sadly, all too many of our conversations, end up being like this, and the opportunity to touch someone else emotionally, in a real and meaningful way, has passed. Too often, though, we can express regret later, “If only, I had stopped and listened.” “If only I had taken more time to make sure that they were okay.”

Yes, everybody can have a bad day – but sometimes it’s more than just a bad day, it’s prolonged and debilitating – it’s what we call depression. R.E.M.’s lyrics speak of these emotions and ‘holding on’ when all seems lost:

“When your day is long and the night
The night is yours alone
When you’re sure you’ve had enough of this life, well hang on
Don’t let yourself go
Everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes…..
Sometimes everything is wrong……"
(Lyrics by R.E.M. and drummer, Bill Berry, 1992)

About six percent of Australians are diagnosed with depressive illness every year and surprisingly close to 20 percent of Australians are affected at some stage by depression. Some people manage to hide their depression from family and friends for years before they seek medical help. Many sufferers are so good at concealing their illness that they are able to smile and appear quite happy when out in public.

It's not always easy to know how to help someone who may be experiencing depression. It can be hard to know what to say or do. Here are some tips from ‘Beyondblue’ – the national initiative to help those suffering from depression and anxiety:

• talk to the person about how they're feeling;

• listen to what they're saying - sometimes, when a person wants to talk, they're not always seeking advice, but just need to talk about their concerns;

• make it clear they have your full attention and you are listening properly - you may like to save any suggestions for a later discussion;

• maintain eye contact and sit in a relaxed position - positive body language will help you both feel more comfortable;

• use open-ended questions such as 'So tell me about...?', which require more than a 'yes' or 'no' answer. (This is often a good way of starting a conversation);

• if your conversation becomes difficult or the person you're talking to gets angry: stay calm; be firm, fair and consistent; admit if you are wrong and don't lose control;

• often, just spending time with the person lets them know you care and can help you understand what they're going through;

• encourage the person to seek professional help from their family doctor or a mental health worker; and

• take good care of yourself too, because supporting someone with depression can be demanding, so make sure you take some 'time out' to look after yourself.

Helping someone else can be a simple as listening to them tell his or her story. Finding time to listen to other people can be a challenge, but it's one of the most important things we can do in life, that is, to reach out to others. There’s no need to give advice. There’s no need to offer our own story, because the conversation twists and becomes more about our own story than the person who needs our understanding.

Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of “Kitchen Table Wisdom”, makes the point that when we interrupt someone, even if what we are saying is to let them know that we understand, we move the focus of attention to ourselves. She suggests that when we listen without speaking, people know we care. Seems contradictory doesn’t it? Yet as a doctor who works with terminally ill patients, Remen has found that a loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well intentioned words.

"How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world."
(William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice)

So take a little extra time to have those important conversations with people we know, with people in our own family who we love or with a complete stranger who has no one else to confide in or share his or her burden. Just by listening and showing we care, we make a difference to someone else’s life, and sometimes that difference might be life itself.

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
(Leo Buscaglia, American author)

Don't ever hesitate to ask, "Are you okay?" Just ask.

Karon Graham

Getting of Wisdom

“Is it so important to get somewhere in a big hurry, or isn’t it better to take your time, one step at a time and methodically reach the destination in a more efficient way? There is an attraction…….to say, “How fast can I get there?” … Well it took Columbus, a long time to sail across the ocean. It took Magellan half a year to travel around the world, maybe even longer.” (Buzz Aldrin, p22, “Wisdom”)


It was US President John F. Kennedy in 1961 who first announced that America would send men to the moon. In July 1969, three astronauts blasted off into space: Neil Armstrong, (who sadly died recently), Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, (former second lieutenant and Rhodes scholar) and Michael Collins. The landing of Apollo 11 on the moon had a profound impact on human psyche; the last frontier was at last within our grasp. Humans could now travel further, and at greater speed, than in any other time in the history of humankind.

Maybe it’s because of Aldrin’s travel into outer space that has put his perspective on life, in a much longer time frame and in a bigger picture. His views on the world, our thirst for knowledge and time, are insightful. So why are we in so much of a hurry these days? Why don’t we enjoy the journey as much as the destination?

“Are we there yet?” still echoes in my mind, as we travelled with our children on long road trips. Any attempts to distract them with cows, mountains, books or signs failed miserably. If you have been on a road trip to north Queensland recently, you may have noticed some funny road signs, that a council worker with a great sense of humour , has had erected along a particularly boring stretch of highway that read, “Are we there Yet?”, and twenty kilometres further, “Nearly there Kids.”

It seems that when we are very young, time stretches on for eternity and no more so than when trapped in a car hurtling towards some unknown destination. What is it though that makes us want to be in such a hurry? Is it in our DNA to be so impatient? Why is it that we want to ‘be there’ now, rather than in two weeks time or an hour? What’s our big hurry?

When we’re young, we’re in a hurry to grow up, to learn to drive, to get a car, to leave home and become more independent. (Though latest observations show that young people are living at home well into their thirties now, but that’s another story.) Time is relative, isn’t it? Well ‘yes’ according to Einstein, yet it doesn’t take a genius, to figure out that a month as a proportion of your life as a five year old is way larger than that of a thirty year old.

As we grow older, we realise that time is not infinite. Indeed, time seems to speed up. We realise too, that we still have so much to learn about people, places and life. Even though each of us has been on a long personal journey, we are still learning about life and we are still learning about wisdom. Life throws at us, lots of ‘curved balls’, obstacles, challenges as well as good helpings of happiness and heartache along the way. The ‘getting of wisdom’ is not a simple or easy thing. As French author, Marcel Proust, wrote:

“We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”
Like the chrysalis that must fight its way out of its cocoon, to be transformed into a beautiful butterfly, it seems too, that we humans must fight our own way out of the cocoon of protection that our family provides for us as children. Either speeding the process up or down is not necessarily a good thing. Nor will the outcome be better for our children if we ‘hover and intervene’ on their behalf for too long. Like the caterpillar that shrivels and dies, if it is pulled out of its cocoon without doing the battle itself, so too will our children lack the resilience and the independence to prosper along the journey of life, if we act too hastily to intervene by trying to protect our children from life’s lessons. Where is the wisdom learnt?

“There is such a thing as communication time of travel” (Buzz Aldrin)

What would the world be like if President John F. Kennedy had lived? What would a person’s life be like if they had not lived through a personal tragedy? These imponderable questions are the theme of Stephen King’s book, “11.22.63”. The plot centres on the possibilities of travelling back in time – to change the course of history to see what different outcomes may have resulted by an intervention by a person to prevent President Kennedy from being assassinated or to prevent a family tragedy.

Would the world be a better place? Would a person be happier for not having to live through a personal tragedy? Would they be a better person or a more successful person? Philosophically we can only speculate. We can’t say with any certainty whether the outcome would be better or worse and like the old Chinese proverb says, “Maybe so, Maybe not.”

There’s an underlying truth in the Greek philosopher Heraclitus’ observation from c.500BC, that:

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”

There it is. Even if we were to change the course of our own personal history (yes, we all have a few regrets and things that we wish we could change), there are no guarantees that the outcome would be better, or we would be happier or that life somehow would become magically more perfect. Perhaps this is why so many philosophers and poets write about the journey of life. Isn’t it really a question about how we view life’s journey and what our attitude is to what happens to us along the way that is more important than any ultimate destination?

Some adversity makes us stronger than we could ever imagine we could be. Some challenges make us more resilient and better able to cope with the ‘small speed bumps’ in life. Some tragedies can transform us into a better person than we might have been otherwise. Overcoming these challenges can motivate and inspire us to become the best we can be.

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”

(Don Williams Jr., American novelist and poet)

Life’s journey is never straightforward is it? Isn’t it in the twists and turns though that true wisdom is learned?

Karon Graham

Secrets of Success Shared

“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.” (James Allen)


What a wonderful notion that great possibilities or achievements lie dormant in all of us? For some people the dream becomes a reality but unfortunately for others, the dream or aspiration is never realised. Why? Hundreds of books have been written about achieving success and back-stories and histories of successful people and not surprisingly, there is no one single factor that brings about their ultimate success or why others fail.

Malcolm Gladwell suggests in his 2008 book “Outliers: The Story of Success” that it has more to do with good luck and circumstance than anything else. Success is a serendipitous event where a person is born in the right place at the right time with the right resources. Think, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs living in Silicon Valley, California in the early sixties. Gladwell does note though, that practice in a skill is all important to later success.

Other authors like Sir Ken Robinson argue that some people have innate talents that are unleashed by their passion and ‘being in the flow’ amongst similarly talented and creative people. In his 2009 book, ”The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything”, Robinson shares many stories of famous people who only started on the path of great achievement through finding their ‘element’ which he describes as ‘the point at which natural talent meets personal passion’.

Dr. Kerry Spackman,(2009), author of “The Winner’s Bible: Rewire Your Brain for Permanent Change”, discusses how ‘rewiring your brain’ for success can ultimately bring about a powerful belief – an unshakeable self belief - that results in a person having the confidence and unshakeable certainty about his or her ultimate success. Familiarising yourself with a daily review of your goals, aspirations and plan of attack, accompanied by a self-made subliminal cd has worked on many a famous and elite Olympic sportspersons, coaches, or musicians that Spackman has worked with over the years.

In many scientific and educational research projects, success has been measured in lots of different ways. The great performers or sportspeople of our time have often claimed that they are not geniuses or people of superior talent but are simply hard workers. Doesn’t sound very romantic does it? The truth of the matter is that great artists, sportspeople, musicians, chess players, and academics put in thousands of regular and specific hours of practice. “What is the secret number of hours?” I hear you ask. Ten thousand hours. Yes, ten thousand hours.

Dr. Anders Ericsson’s research (2000), “Expert Performance and Deliberate Practice” underlines the point that successful people are often experts in their field who have through their relentless training and practice achieved this expertise. However, when scientists began measuring the experts' supposedly superior powers of speed, memory and intelligence with psychometric tests, no general superiority was found, in fact, the demonstrated superiority was domain specific.

For example, the superiority of the chess experts' memory was constrained to regular chess positions and did not generalize to other types of materials (Djakow, Petrowski & Rudik, 1927). Not even IQ could distinguish the best among chess players (Doll & Mayr, 1987) nor the most successful and creative among artists and scientists (Taylor, 1975).

In a recent review, Ericsson and Lehmann (1996) found that (1) measures of general basic capacities do not predict success in a domain, (2) the superior performance of experts is often very domain specific and transfer outside their narrow area of expertise is surprisingly limited and (3) systematic differences between experts and less proficient individuals nearly always reflect attributes acquired by the experts during their lengthy training.

So given this extensive research on expertise and successful people, how does this information help our students and teachers better understand what they need to do to learn at a superior level, achieve better and ultimately achieve success? Eminent educator and researcher, John Hattie who is Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, notes in his book, “Visible Learning for Teachers”,(2012, p14) notes:

“Visible teaching and learning occurs when there is deliberate practice aimed at attaining mastery of the goal, when there is feedback given and sought, and when there are active, passionate, and engaging people (teacher, students, peers) participating in the act of learning.”

What can we glean from the research about how to achieve and succeed? It doesn’t really matter if your desire is to be a great musician, artist, singer, sportsperson, business person, academic, teacher, student or parent, these are the ‘take-outs’ for great achievement and future success:

• Passion – we must believe ardently in what we do or what we want to achieve in this life

• Belief in yourself – your skills, your talents, your knowledge, you are unique

• Plan of action – building success requires a plan of action, not just goals

• Practice – 10,000 hours - there is no success without practice, think ‘no pain, no gain’

• Learn from your mistakes – mistakes are powerful lessons on what not to do next time you try

• Seek specific feedback on how to improve on your knowledge, skills and performance; and

• Remind yourself daily of your goals, plan of action and dreams – write them down and read them every single day.

Anything is possible. Remember we all have to start somewhere. As Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:

"Everyone who got where he is has had to begin where he was."

Karon Graham

Look! A Book!

“Look , a Book!....

Let’s hold it close…….
And then we can read it,
Again, and again, and again.”
(From "Look, a Book! by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood)

“Look, A Book!” shouts the title of one of the delightful books shortlisted by the Children’s Book Council of Australia for 2012. Somehow, this simple exclamation captures the excitement, the wonder, and the joy of discovering a book to read.

While naysayers suggest that the shelf life of books, that is of physical books, is limited with the advent of eBooks, no one who has read a beautifully illustrated book to a child lately, or picked up a glossy covered book will doubt the joy of reading a real book. Long live books!

Yes I admit I’m biased. Call me old-fashioned, but I am a product of my upbringing after all. Opening the first page of a real life book is still as exciting an experience, as it was when I was a child. Books come in all shapes and sizes and while I appreciate the ease of opening and reading a book on a tablet or kindle, I enjoy far more the reading experience of a real life book.

I love the fact that books come in all shapes and sizes, as messy as this might be for those of us who collect books, but isn’t that the real beauty of books? As John Hunt suggests in “The Art of the Idea”, logic can be kryptonite because it carries with it, terrifying weight and can stop dreamers dead in their tracks. Real books live and breathe for those of us who read them. Don’t you just love the colourfully illustrated books where the characters seem to jump out off the page and enter your own world?

Imagine giving all students an A4 page only and telling them that they can draw anything they like as long as it was A4 size? How limiting? How stifling? How unimaginative? How awful? Imagine shortlisted book, the Queensland Art Gallery’s “Surrealism for Kids” in A4 black and white pages, with no cute cut-outs or weird characters or iconography? Dull! Dull! Dull!

Imagine shortlisted “For All Creatures” written by Glenda Millard and Rebecca Cool, without wonderful coloured stylised images of all manner of creatures from the animal kingdom. Where’s the inspiration to engage our children’s mind without such creative images? Books are tactile, they are visual, and they are a window into another’s person’s creative mind of stories, colour and emotion.

Books make us think, they make us dream of possibilities and they engage in a way that is very personal. Each of us takes from the same story a different message. Some of us will think deeply about the subject while others will be quite dismissive and sceptical of the topic. Some will experience a real ‘aha’ moment and be forever changed by the words on a page. Books, whether positive or negative, leave an indelible mark on our psyche.

“Ailing am I,
In cage of twisty wire, cold concrete.
Mourn,
Ache,
Yearn….”
(From: "The Dream of theThylacine")

The lament of the Thylacine is palpable in the honourable mentioned book, ”The Dream of the Thylacine” by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks. The reader is left with a great sense of loss and sadness for the Tasmanian Tiger and what could have been. Books help us empathise with animals as well as humans too.

“As the pirates were leaving, one of them felt sorry for us, and threw us a bottle of water. It wasn’t much, but it saved our lives.”
(From: "The Little Refugee")

“The Little Refugee”, written by Anh Do and Suzanne Do is the inspiring true story of Australia’s Happiest Refugee, Anh Do and family, who made their way to Australia in a rickety boat of dubious seaworthiness. The authors are donating 100 per cent of their profits from the sale of this book to the Loreto Vietnam – Australia Program which was started by Loreto nun Sister Trish Franklin. This charity looks after extremely poor and disabled children in Vietnam. Not only is the story itself inspiring but the authors are making a real difference to other people’s lives by their generous donation back to those less fortunate in the villages of Vietnam.

Books are alive and the child's love of reading will only grow with parents reading more to them. As the back cover of the “Look, a Book” suggests……

“You never know where it might take you.”

Perhaps today is as good day as any to start reading a book ourselves and reading to our sons and daughters, in this week, of all weeks, Book Week.

Karon Graham

The Happiness of Giving

“You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.” (Winston Churchill)


How much are you willing to give? Yes, a difficult question to answer, because most of us would say, “It depends”. It depends on lots of things doesn’t it? Immediately racing through my mind would be the following questions: Who is it for? What does it involve? What commitment is required? How much time or money? When and where?

Yes, the answer to this question is not as simple as you might think. Everyone is different; some people seem to give endlessly while others give very rarely or not at all. Some people give unstintingly of their own time, while others prefer to give money. So what causes some people to ‘give’ more than others?

Volunteering has long been a common ethic in Australia, with people giving their time without any expectation of compensation. While these volunteer activities may be performed with the core intention of helping others, research (like that found in “The Health Benefits of Volunteering” by the American National and Community Service) indicates that there is a common wisdom that those who give of themselves also receive. As Gaylla LeMaire quipped:

“Volunteers are paid in six figures... S-M-I-L-E-S.”

Indeed there is a growing body of evidence that shows that people feel a rush of happiness when they help others (Gilbert 2006; William and Lee 2007). Recent research relying on MRIs demonstrates that reward centres in the brain are activated when people help a charity. Oprah Winfrey has been known to comment that her favourite moments were in her ‘give-away shows’, She says that “every gift I’ve ever given has brought at least as much happiness to me as it has to the person I’ve given it to.”

Research reveals also that those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer. Significantly, volunteering also provides individuals with a sense of purpose and life satisfaction. What could be better than having a sense of purpose and a sense of well being by helping someone else less fortunate or in need of our assistance?

American research carried out by Liu and Aaker, (The Happiness of Giving: The Time-Ask Effect, Journal of Consumer Research. 35 ,October), reveals that the focus on time versus money lead to two distinct mindsets that impact consumers’ willingness to donate to charitable causes. Interestingly Liu and Aaker found that thoughts of spending time for a charity or a good cause, appear to activate an emotional mind-set, resulting in a real connection between personal happiness and charitable giving – and possibly, according to the researchers, infecting the desire to achieve meaning and happiness in life.

Volunteering has other benefits too. It can assist people in making new friends and contacts, it can increase and improve social and relationship skills, it increases self-confidence, it can provide improved job skills and knowledge and ultimately help in some peoples’ career pathway. Don’t underestimate the power of volunteering.

“Noah's Ark was built by volunteers; the Titanic was built by professionals.”

“Mmmm, food for thought” ….. Many large scale projects, like hosting the Olympic Games for example, are dependent upon thousands of volunteers and in many respects owe its very success and efficiency to the work of willing volunteers. Remember the devastating Queensland floods of 2011? The massive cleanup would not have been achieved so quickly without the battalion of volunteers who came forward to help without a moments’ hesitation.

“Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls.” (David Thomas)

We can all make a greater effort to volunteer more generously of our time. After all, it seems to me that it would be a 'win-win' for all of society and think of the sense of well being and accomplishment that we would all feel in helping others. There are lots of ways that we can volunteer, consider some of the following:

• helping at your child's school
• volunteering for "Meals on Wheels" or some similar program that gives assistance to the elderly
• joining an organisation committed to helping others like: Rotary, Lions, and Zonta
• volunteer at some of LifeLine stores
• joining in designated days like: "Clean Up Australia" 
• volunteering to help in hospitals, reading or talking with elderly residents in nursing homes.

Let's face it, there are hundreds of organisations that could do with our help, our knowledge and expertise. Why not start with a simple project and see how you go? Not only will you make someone else feel better for your efforts but you will feel better about yourself too. You're never too young or old to start :)

“The world is hugged by the faithful arms of volunteers.”

(Terri Guillemets)

Karon Graham

Dealing with Disappointment

“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.” (Samuel Johnson)


Everyone has to deal with disappointment at some point in their lives. For some people this disappointment occurs on a world stage where it seems everyone is watching. For most of us mere mortals though it happens quietly and without fanfare and publicity.

Tom Slingsby was expected to win gold in the 2008 Olympics Laser class. Everyone from the selectors, the Australian Olympic Committee, the sports commentators and a legion of sailing fans knew that Tom had what it took to win gold in Beijing. But Tom didn’t win the gold medal, he came second. He was devastated, because he had spent the last eight years preparing for this Olympic event. He was so focused that it never entered his mind that he would not win gold. Slingsby spent many months trying to come to terms with his loss to Paul Goodison and in the end wrote down his thoughts and feelings in an account he called, “What Happened”. This was a significant turning point for Slingsby and his decision to work towards the 2012 Olympics.

Australian gold medal winner, Anna Meares is one of the most successful female track cyclists ever, winning the Olympic gold medal in the sprint after a 2-0 win against her English nemesis, Pendleton. Meares has been successful in the 500 m time trial, winning three world titles (2004, 2007, 2009), one Olympic title (2004) and two Commonwealth Games gold medals in 2006, and 2010. She also won two team sprint gold medals at the World Championships (2009-10), and won five silvers and five bronzes in all speed disciplines, including the sprint and keirin. Meares also gained two Olympic medals in the sprint, with silver in 2008 and bronze in 2004.

Anna Meares was a doubtful competitor for the 2008 Olympics though, after falling heavily from her bike in the January before the Games at the World Cup event in Los Angeles, fracturing her C2 vertebra as well as suffering other injuries. Meares went within a fraction of a centimetre of paralysis and yet in spite of this setback, she pulled herself through a torturous training regime to be ready for the 2008 Olympics; it was nothing short of a miracle.

Sometimes it is through such adversity, that people triumph most. As American writer Marsha Sinetar notes:

. “Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power - a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment. “

It was a sweet victory for both Slingsby and Meares to win a gold medal this week in the face of disappointments of the past Olympics, and in Meares’ case, in other cycling events during the London Olympics which she ‘bombed’. Had either of the athletes simply given in to their disappointment and not come back from the brink of leaving their beloved sports or competing for the Olympics again, they would not have savoured the glorious moments of victory in individual gold medals at this year’s Olympics.

It’s often difficult to see that in the moment of our greatest disappointment that good can come from such a bad situation. There are many lessons we learn through life that come from facing disappointments, failure and setbacks. Building resilience, tenacity and determination only come about through a desire to improve or succeed after a disappointment. The desire to overcome a past failure is indeed a powerful motivator towards changing patterns of behaviour, working harder and smarter and changing our perspective for the better.

Young people sometimes expect everything to fall into place and sometimes as a parent we want to protect our young people from disappointments of life. Yet talking through our son or daughter’s setback and helping them to see a way forward is a positive step towards building resilience and determination in our young boys and girls. We all learn through experience and particularly by experiencing defeat.

As author and psychologist ,Barton Goldsmith comments:

“Disappointment takes the wind out of your sails. You can sit, becalmed, in the middle of your regret, or you can choose to get out your paddle and start working your way to shore. Whether you end up on a deserted island or a tropical paradise I can’t say. But staying, where you will surely turn you into fish food, so the only real choice is to start rowing.”

So to all those who have suffered setbacks and disappointments, keep faith with your goals, dreams and aspirations, and continue to work steadfastly towards your ultimate goals. Perseverance and hard work is everything, when it comes to achieving success. There is rarely any success without some setback along the way. It’s what we do after the setback that determines our future success, whether it be in sport, music or academics. Determination and perseverance will win out in the end.

Karon Graham

Why Expectations Can Fail Us

Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits.

(William Shakespeare’s: “All’s Well That Ends Well”, Act Two: Scene 1)

The lead up to the ultimate international sporting competition, the London Olympic Games, has been a juggernaut for athletes, who have pushed themselves to the limit in preparation for the Games. The pressure on elite athletes competing in the London Olympics is gargantuan by any measure. Meeting the expectations of the media, the entire country, and the crowd of wild supporters at the event, let alone their own expectations, is unbelievably daunting. Is it any wonder then that more elite athletes don’t choke at the critical moment?

Consider how James Magnussen felt after the humbling 4x100metre freestyle relay result, when the team came fourth. Consider what emotions were raging through Emily Seebohm’s mind when she felt so much pressure to come first, that she broke down, cried and apologised for winning the silver medal in the 100metre backstroke final. Most of us would be deliriously happy at getting to compete at such a high level of competition, let alone win a medal, but not so, our elite athletes. Let’s face it, the build up by the media doesn’t help the situation, it just piles on the pressure.

Believe it or not, there is a ‘science of choking’ as reported in the latest “Time Magazine”, (July 30 – August 6, 2012). Psychology professor at University of Chicago, Sian Beilock, explains in her 2010 book, “Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To”, that often when athletes choke, they can tell you exactly what was going through their mind and what they were doing at the time.

Surprisingly it seems that athletes can ‘over-think’ the race or competition and because of the stress and worry, the athlete’s brain becomes ‘too busy’. The science behind ‘choking’ suggests that the prefrontal cortex of the brain – the part that houses informational memory – is flooded with too many thoughts.

Athletes who are more relaxed and not stressed are more likely to be drawing on their motor cortex, which controls the planning and execution of movements, according to Beilock. Winning athletes, who are ‘in the zone’ often can’t tell you a thing about what was going through their mind or what was happening when they won the event. Basically it seems that if top athletes start thinking about the details of their techniques instead of letting muscle memory naturally take control, then they ‘tend to mess up’ according to the scientists.

So what can be done to calm the mind? According to Davis, a psychologist for the Canadian swimming team, reliving the failure through video, without discussion, triggered the same terrible emotions that the swimmers experienced in the ‘failed’ event. However, Davis found that when he used ‘cognitive intervention’, that requires the athletes to share their feelings about the race and discuss ways to correct their errors, that the athletes could then watch the video without reliving the stress of the race. The MRI showed that the athletes’ brains changed with the blood flow increasing in the motor areas and decreased in the prefrontal cortex. Davis reported that: “Watching the failure washed out the negative emotions.” It was as if the athletes saw the failure in a different light. “Now I can discuss it with you, and it’s no big deal.”

Maybe there’s a lesson here for all of us. The more we build up our own expectations, stressing and worrying about an event or situation, the more difficult it becomes to find a way to move forward. Overanalysing a bad situation doesn’t bring about a better outcome and in fact can hinder us when we are next faced with a similar situation. The secret seems to be, to talk through the bad situation or failure objectively with someone ‘in the know’ and talk about how we might be able to handle the situation better in the future.

Students often repeat the same mistakes at school and rather than seeking the help of their teachers, stress and worry unnecessarily. Talking through past failures and finding better strategies with their teachers and parents, is one sure way to move forward and to improve on previous performances. The teachers are only too happy to help students who ask for help and to assist them in improving on their results. As Patricia Neal once said:

A master can tell you what he or she expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.

Sometimes it’s a simple case of we don’t know what we don’t know until we do something about it. Some of the greatest procrastinators of this world suffer because of the desire to be perfect in what they do or achieve. History reveals that in fact, it is through the mistakes we make and then correct that moves us towards a better outcome – not perfection – but something that approximates perfection. Being less stressed and not worrying about a problem will certainly improve our chances of success, if we seek guidance and counsel from the people around us who know more and have experienced more that we have.

Hiding our heads in the sand is not a solution either. At some point we have to face our worst fears and our failures. It’s how we tackle these fears and failures that will determine our future success (or lack thereof). Take heart from the fact that many famous scientists and athletes failed many time before experiencing success but remember, that the success only came after analysing what went wrong and deciding on a new course of action or strategy.

Maybe we should all take a collective deep breath and take to heart the words of the well known song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”:

Don’t worry, be happy!...
In every life we have some trouble,
But when you worry, you make it double,
Don’t worry, be happy.
(Bobby McFerrin)

Maybe this is the solution we are looking for in our lives.
Karon Graham

Discovery Learning - Exploring New Ideas

“So, on beyond Zebra!

Explore!
Like Columbus!
Discover new letters!
Like WUM is for Wumbus,
My high-spouting whale who lives high on a hill
And who never comes down ‘til it’s time to refill.
So, on beyond Z! It’s high time you were shown
That you really don’t know all there is to be known.”
(By Dr Seuss, from “On Beyond Zebra”)

Remember what it was like to be a child discovering new things and going off to explore in your own backyard or local area with your friends? In times gone by, it was quite normal for parents to send children off to play for the day, calling out after them, “Be home before its dark.” Yes, I know many parents today would be shaking their heads in horror at this notion; it seems we have become very protective.

But back to Dr Seuss and discovering and learning for yourself, just like Christopher Columbus. For hundreds of years it was commonly believed by most people and even the wisest people before the fifteenth century that the world was flat. It was only through the courage and perseverance of Columbus and others (who lived to tell the tale) that one of the most rigid of ideas and truths was proved to be incorrect and this myth dispelled forever as a result. It makes you wonder how such major misconceptions can persist for so long, doesn’t it? Just goes to show that we ‘don’t know what we don’t know until we do what we don’t usually do’.

This revelation came to me only recently when I was given some prints of very rare maps of the world from 1500s and 1600s. What is amazing about these maps is that they clearly show the outline of Australia and yet even today we still hear people telling our young students that Australia was ‘discovered’ by Captain Cook in 1770. What of the indigenous people who arrived in Australia some 40,000 years before? What of the other explorers who mapped huge parts of our coastline but never received the same recognition as the English explorers?

What must it have been like to go exploring in these times? It must have been unbelievably difficult - battling the seas, battling a way forward in unchartered territory and battling the superstitions and fear of the men on the journey of discovery into the unknown.

In Gordon Livingston’s book, “The Thing You Think You Cannot Do”, there is a chapter titled, ‘Fear Springs from Ignorance’, where he points out:

“We are afraid of what we do not understand. If life is a process of discovery, we are in a constant search for guidance. Our imperfect maps of how the world works have many blank areas, and like the cartographers of old, we fill these spaces with dragons. We begin to control our fears in our battles against ignorance.”

If the truth be known, all of us have our own set of fears that require tending. In the absence of knowledge and understanding, we worry and fear more. Livingstone, a renowned author and psychiatrist, notes that the less information we have about something (or someone) the more threatened we are likely to feel about it (or them).

The good news though is that our mind and perceptions are not fixed in time but change and adapt according to our experiences and new learning. In his book, “The Art of the Idea” by John Hunt demonstrates how rapidly our mind can assimilate new information from the most cryptic of scripts:

“I cdnuol’t blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, mnaes taht it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the hmuan mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”

It’s hard to imagine that our mind is capable of translating such a mess and make sense of it, isn’t it? To think that we need only know the first and last letter to decipher the text is amazing. What are the implications for our thinking and learning?

According to Hunt, the tired an negative see the contents of their brain as a passive instrument with a dwindling capability while the energetic optimist actively rearranges this ‘storage facility’ – the brain – to increase its capacity. Hunt argues that the easiest way of achieving a positive mindset is to do things you don’t normally do. Breaking the ‘conformity-creep’ says Hunt, keeps you ‘battle ready’ because as much as we want an epiphany or some light bulb moment, the truth is, that often an idea just reveals itself. By keeping our minds ‘fertile’ even the smallest of thoughts have a chance of growing into something extraordinary.

He suggests that the easiest way to see this in action is to go on a holiday because it’s a different experience from the norm. Going on a holiday allows most of us to unwind, to relax and explore new things and experience new sights, food and people. As a result, most people return from a vacation feeling energised and more optimistic about the future. We think and see things differently and we are more open to new ideas and learn more, absorb more and assimilate information differently too.

So have a wonderful holiday and remember to enjoy different experiences and come back relaxed and energised!


Karon Graham