What is the meaning of Life?
Many people will have asked themselves why we are here and what is the point of it all and for millennia, people have looked to religion for the answer. Evolutionary theory would suggest that the purpose of any organism is to survive and to reproduce which would reduce meaning solely to the production of offspring. The continuing development of consciousness in humans will surely result in religion being recognised as a delusional attempt to outsource personal responsibility to a magical supernatural being and the very existence of our developed consciousness means that there is more to life than the urge [...]
Leadership in Social Housing
Housing is now near the top of the political agenda and solving the ‘housing crisis’ is possibly the biggest challenge for housing organisations in the coming years. Do those organisations have the leaders to meet that challenge and what about the leaders of tomorrow, what are we doing to develop them? What follows came from a series of one to one interviews with Housing Association Chief Executives. It is not intended to be a representation of views across the housing sector but it does present some of the thoughts that are around within the sector. What is your view of [...]
Purpose drives Success and Happiness
What’s the point? It’s a seemingly simple question that can have several different meanings. It can be an expression of hopelessness, a seeking of clarification, the start of an argument or a search for purpose. The Japanese have another word for purpose – ‘ikigai’, a concept meaning ‘a reason for being’ and according to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self. Such a search is regarded as being very important, since it is believed that discovery of one's ikigai brings satisfaction and meaning to life – Wikipedia. This is often [...]
How to build your Self-Belief?
Self-Belief is one of the 8 key qualities of REAL Leaders (ABC of REAL Leadership). It is extremely important in almost every aspect of our lives and especially for leaders but many people struggle to maintain a strong sense of self-belief. Sadly, this can be a vicious circle as people who lack self-belief can find it adversely affecting their performance which in turn reduces their level of self-belief making it difficult to become successful. What do we mean by Self-belief? In contrast to the vicious circle that reduces of Self-Belief there is also a virtuous circle generated by the [...]
What is the Meaning of Your Life?
To ask "What is the meaning of my life?" is more than just a philosophical or intellectual exercise, it is the key to living a life that is fulfilling, satisfying and happy though meaning and happiness do not always go hand in hand. “There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.” - Anaïs Nin, (from The Diary of Anaïs Nin) Many people reach a point in their life at which they ask themselves [...]
Two Simple Steps to Self-Awareness
Self-Awareness gives us the chance to act in ways that maximise our own performance and get the best out of those we lead by removing the ‘interference’ that would otherwise get in the way. We already have a level of self-awareness and in some of us it could be quite well developed while in others it will be less so. There will also be things that other people know about us that we may or may not know and the Johari Window is a useful way to understand what this means. For more on the Johari Window click here. The [...]