Writing
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Learning From Rain
Staying at the beach this weekend and it rained in biblical proportions last night. It caught me by surprise and I was left stranded at the beach hut with a short walk to go to get to our holiday home. Determined to get home as dry as possible I began to run along the seaside… Read more
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Got to Do, Get to Do
I had some great questions on my blog this week. Someone asked if posting every day is hard to do or a burden. I considered it for a while and then replied “reflecting on a subject of interest. Writing a thoughtful post that is easy enough to be read and understood in 2 minutes or… Read more
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If Content Is King Then Story Is the Emperor
Writing a brief thoughtful post in this blog everyday is fun. The posts that resonated most all mentioned or contained an element of a story. The best stories have been personal experiences or stories relayed from a point of view. That invites others to share in it with us. I have applied this to my… Read more
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Walking to Think
I have been walking a lot recently, walking to think, walking to get healthier, just walking anywhere with whoever will walk with me. I observed something that happened when I was walking with different people and I thought it had only been me who noticed this. What I noticed was that, I walked with tall… Read more
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Social Dilemma
2020 we can all agree is best forgotten but I am pleased with one thing. I have removed myself from social media and now since last month have not visited certain online news sites either. I read the guardian in paper form or iPad and if I go online it would be the BBC. If… Read more
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Hanlon’s Razor Found on the Beach
Who would have knew I would find Hanlon’s Razor on the beach this weekend. I am joking of course, Hanlon’s Razor is a mental model but learning this has helped me understand better some of the insensitivities you see around everyday life and for sure you see them at the beach also. Put most simply,… Read more
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Your Experience Is Just That, Yours!
How many shops and stores do you have close to you? I was on a zoom call with a colleague the other day and we were talking about a new bit of tech which we both liked. I suggested to my colleague could go buy it at weekend. I then learned that where they live… Read more
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Seeing Others’ Perspective
Not sure why I remember this but it just came back to me this morning on hearing someone talking about the problems in our country at the moment with Covid-19. I remember travelling to Scotland over 10 years ago, right up to the Northern most tip of our beautiful island. Where I had driven for… Read more
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My Podcast Episode: Mentoring
I had the pleasure of appearing on the Grasp.hr Podcast a few weeks ago and the episode just dropped. Click on the link above to listen. I talked about my earliest mentoring experience as a caddy to businessmen at 13, my life at Eli Lilly and my eventual move to Veeva Systems. We discussed the… Read more
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Knowledge vs Execution
When you push into areas that are totally new for you there is a perfectly natural tendency to to feel like you cannot be effective without the full information or knowledge that you are missing. That something which will help you be effective. Knowledge is great, it is key and you must seek it and… Read more
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Seen It All Before
I think we can all agree age is a very high price to pay for maturity, but what maturity teaches you is the feeling so often that you have seen that before, heard that debate before, experienced that moment before. Being married to a historian just cements this assertion. My wife reminds me that we… Read more
action, advice, aphorism, Beach, beaches, blog, Blue mind, books, carpe diem, choices, endeavour, failure, fate, first lines, hard work, hardwork, heat, ideas, just do it, just keep swimming, knowledge, lancing, learning, lessons, life, loss, narrative, newspapers, people, philosophy, quotes, Reading, Sea, seas, seaside, sharing, ships, Shoerham-by-sea, Story, storytelling, sussex, swimming, water, waves, wisdom, Writing -
Fish and Chips by the Sea While Reading Books About the Sea
Some weekends the pleasure of being alive is just within reach and the warmness of the moment is understandable also. It’s a gift to be alive. And each moment, each breathe we take is literally the chance of a lifetime. Read more
Beach, beaches, blog, Blue mind, books, carpe diem, experiences, heat, ideas, just do it, just keep swimming, lancing, lessons, life, mentoring, newspapers, philosophy, quotes, Reading, Sea, seas, seaside, ships, Shoerham-by-sea, Shoreham-by-sea, sussex, swimming, water, waves, wisdom, wordpress, Writing -
No Crabby Pants Allowed, Only Happy Clams
As I write this post the bank holiday weekend still has half of Monday left but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it has been one of my best long weekends for ages. I am at peace with ‘the me’ down at the beach. Whether it be short walks on the… Read more
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Travels With Charley: John Steinbeck
In Spanish there is a word for which I can’t find a counterword in English. It is the verb vacilar, present participle vacilando. It does not mean vacillating at all. If one is vacilando, he is going somewhere but doesn’t greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction. John Steinbeck (1962) Read more
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No Man Is an Island
Learning of friends losing loved ones and relatives always leaves me a little sad, even if they were not direct friends it effects us all. More than ever this poem by John Donne says how I feel right now. (excuse the use of noun ‘Man’ it was written in 1624) ((Spot the Hemingway title… ))… Read more
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Thinking Near the Sea
A two week break from work at our holiday home next to the beach has been awesome, there is no better place to reflect than to sit and think in, near or on water. I don’t know why but I think better near a body of water. It fires the imagination, it provides a landscape… Read more
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Vision Needs Venture
During my days on vacation, my wife Melanie and I walked round ancient english towns. It was just before starting a new role at work. I was exploring this beautiful town and still thinking about starting my new role, (so much for being mindful) I turned a corner and looked at a magical set of… Read more
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UK Beach Sunset August 2020
I return to this spot so often to photograph as it has for me all that is wonderful about a British beach sunset. A pebble beach, a calm tranquil blue ocean, slowly lapping white waves juxtapose to the most glorious reds and oranges. I cannot see a sunset now with out thinking of the A.E.… Read more
AE housman, aphorism, Beach, beaches, Blue mind, books, carpe diem, endeavour, failure, first lines, Housman, just do it, just keep swimming, knowledge, life, loss, morse, poem, poetry, quotes, Reading, Sea, seaside, ships, Shoerham-by-sea, sussex, water, wisdom -
Your Star Sign Is Wrong, Probably
This is not new news, this story comes up every now and then. However I am using it to illustrate a point so forgive the click bait. Google it yourself if you are into that. I write this partly in jest as I don’t believe in astrology, however humanity has always clung to labels as… Read more
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Carpe Diem
I offer this quote as a lesson we all know but often fail to appreciate until its too late: “don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of” Charles Richards Read more
