Friday 31 October 2014

GIVING THANKS

I think there may be a good argument that the root of immorality is wanting what you do not have. Conversely the appreciation of what you have leads to moral behaviour.

This is quite apart from the obvious and simple spiritual truth that appreciating what you have makes you happier than anguishing over what you don't. What you have is always, always greater than you first think.

An implication of this is that a daily practice of appreciation has a moral as well as a spiritual dimension.

It keeps you right in both senses.

For the religious, it redefines prayer away from a shopping list, and towards that for which it was more probably intended. Giving thanks.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

TODAY'S BRANDS

  • Handpicked Hotels
  • Molton and Brown
  • Colgate Sensitive
  • Gillette
  • Renu
  • Bleu de Chanel
  • Lonsdale
  • Loakes
  • Gieves
  • Levis
  • Charles Tyrwhitt
  • Dell
  • I phone
  • Range Rover
  • Muji
  • Barbour
  • Parker
  • Moleskine
  • MasterCard
  • Shell
  • Yachting Monthly
  • BBC
  • Old Speckled Hen

THE SUNNE RISING

Will whoever it was
Who took the top off the orange day glow paint
And spilled it all over this morning's black board,
Dazzling our pupils,
And causing shock and awe,
Please own up?

However clever you think you are,
Perhaps you can explain
To us mere mortals
What game you are playing?
Is this what you call beauty?
Is this what you call art?

Sunday 19 October 2014

ZEN TODAY

If pull, push.

If push, pull.

PURPLE LOVE

Big up my mate Sid's band.

Saturday 18 October 2014

POWER OF EMPATHY


Friday 17 October 2014

FAVOURITE AD OF ALL TIME?


ZEN TODAY

"It hurts whenever I think about it."

"So, why think about it?"

Wednesday 15 October 2014

NPD

Mini Madam: "You know how we have ice cream in the summer?"

"Yes."

"Well,why don't we have lava cream in the winter?"

Obvious really.

Wednesday 8 October 2014

...............................................................

In Sanskrit, the same word means sage and silent one.

SO TRUE?


Tuesday 7 October 2014

CONSTITUTIONAL

Rain. I get emotional about delicate natural items.
Lavender was the first thing to affect me this way, years ago now.
Today it is acorns.
Acorns. Yes, they are heroes. From tiny ones, great oaks. This we know. Acorns are natural celebrities.
But what about the cup that holds them? It has a name. The cupule.
Whereas acorns go on and do mighty things, the humble cupule just carries the acorn to the playing field, letting the glory go to its passenger. Nature's taxi driver. The parent who ferries kids to and fro, endlessly, thanklessly, but with pride in the act of giving.
The cupule sets me tearful for its own amazing beauty. The way it perfectly holds its acorn. The sheen of its dish. Perfect in form, and beautiful therefore. And miraculous. Water and sunshine made this thing. Millions of them form and fall. Forgotten things. Unnoticed. Supporters. The cupules on the wet tarmac set me appreciating all the world's supporters. Those gentle beings supporting the glories of others. I feel quite emotional about this.
I remember and give thanks for those who have held me, supported me, stood aside for my growth and progress. I stand, holding a single cupule. Tears and rain run down my face.

Friday 3 October 2014

A CUSTOMER SERVICE MANIFESTO

  • By customer, mean person.
  • A living, breathing person whose greatest need is always love.
  • Love can be given in any job, but none more readily than customer service roles.
  • The world closes functional benefit gaps - what is left is emotional. Hence -
  • Love is the ultimate propositional differentiator.
  • When love is given, love is also received
  • What better job could there be?
  • Thus there is a reciprocity of benefits for customers and staff in giving extraordinary service.
  • The free flow of love can happen but not when censored.
  • The very people organizations struggle to get to deliver extraordinary service are the very people capable of huge, extraordinary, world enhancing acts of love, expressed outside the work place.
  • Leaders, go figure.
  • To obtain extraordinary service, a leader must remove the censorship which an organization places in the way of the free flow of love.
  • The greater the removal, the more extraordinary the experience.
  • The greater the pressures censoring free, loving expression, the drabber the experience.
  • Design can happen momentarily and individually. Routines and consistency are forms of censorship.
  • So are systems, soft and hard - but where they are essential the dwellers should be the builders.
  • Money is the greatest censorship of all.
  • The truly great service leader will keep money out of it as far as humanly possible.
  • Expert guidance in these matters is impossible. Only hearts that will open can guide what censorship can be tolerated. Expertise, professionalism, consultancy and advice are themselves all forms of censorship.
  • Amor vincit Omnia.