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Your Vision REQUIRES The Three Resolutions

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Vision is often a beautiful product of an individual’s creative imagination, but it is achieved through application of that same individual’s independent will, allied to the faithful assistance of those whose sense of purpose complement that of the dreamer.

This means that while the former is a function of identity, experience and desire, it is nothing at all unless and until it is given life through conscious activity. Performance of that activity at a higher level brings with it an expectation that the individual directing that activity is, or becomes, competent in whatever skills are used in order to achieve the outcome, including those skills that engender, empower and enable the contribution of others in the enterprise. For everything we do well and for ourselves in pursuit of a dream, we do with, for and because of other people.

That is the motivation behind application of The Three Resolutions. Whether you use those three words or prefer to use different conceptual tropes, or are even just ‘winging it’ in the sense that you are ‘doing without thinking’, all successful endeavours rely on faithful application of The Three Resolutions.

The Three Resolutions are at the heart of any success. They state:

First Resolution – “To overcome the restraining forces of appetites and passions, I resolve to exercise self-discipline and self-denial.”

Second Resolution – “To overcome the restraining forces of pride and pretension, I resolve to work on character and competence.”

 Third Resolution -“To overcome the restraining forces of unbridled aspiration and ambition, I resolve to dedicate my talents and resources to noble purposes and to provide service to others.”

The primary message of each of these statements needs little explanation – they are all self-evidently true. No success would argue that they are not.

Yet people will actively argue that they are not, that there are nuanced rationales as to where and when they do not strictly apply. And even as they make those arguments they seem unaware that any success they have is the result of focused effort, industry competence, knuckling down when they’d really rather not, and providing sufficient service to others so that those others help them as they are themselves helped in a synergistic relationship.

At the same time as they argue against the timeless wisdom of philosophies that parallel The Three Resolutions, these people discover that their success is fleeting – they spark brilliantly for just a few moments before indiscipline, incompetence, a lack of character or a burgeoning, overwhelming self-interest grips them and casts them down – often very publicly.

Those who argue against such concepts as The Three Resolutions are hopeful that they won’t need to be disciplined; that they don’t need to have character; that they need serve only themselves.

For the most of us, however: we don’t argue against them. We acknowledge them, even as we wish they weren’t true!

So be in no doubt. Writing the book was and remains easier than complying with it. But well worth the effort.

Look at YOUR Vision. Will it/did it happen without application of The Three Resolutions?

If you find that you did apply them in order to achieve success in terms of your Vision – tell someone else. They need to know, too. So that they can work on their own.

Self-publishing. A Case, and a Plea.

11 Wednesday Nov 2020

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Let’s be frank. If you search Amazon for a book by subject you will come across some plainly self-published books, and you might wince. I see ‘summaries’ of other writers’ works and ask, “Why not just buy the original!?” Many such books also come across as having only a few pages (with HUGE fonts) and that makes you question the value you’ll get as a purchaser.

However, I have read some very deep, well-written books that have been self-published via Amazon. The quality of the binding is fine if not spectacular, the authors have clearly considered their content and, occasional grammar and spelling goofs aside, they have been a pleasure to read. A good example is Tim Brownson’s “The Clarity Method” (although the © he insists on using for ‘his’ name for a values-based coaching method that has been around for 40 years irks a little.) Another fine book is Unified Power by Charles R. Hobbs and Greg  W. Allison – relatively short, but a deep exploration and description of how the principles of Integrity, (secular) Faith, Love and Purpose underpin our best work. So here’s the case for my efforts.

First of all, my books are 150 to 300+ pages, and I recently amended one because a purchaser said that the 130 pages of The Way had too small a font. It’s now 150 pages. My revision of Police Time Management will be well over 300 in A4, 12-font. MASSIVE. The Three Resolutions is also in a small font and 300 pages long. (Might have to make that bigger for the age-related squint.) In a nutshell, you get lots of paper and words for your buck.

Second, they are original. I’ll rephrase that. While any thought that gave rise to them arose from my own studies and experiences, they aren’t merely summaries of someone else’s efforts with little or no input from me. The Three Resolutions is a broad self-development  philosophy and approach to life based on a three page article by Stephen Covey, and brings broader self-help advice into a three step developmental process or paradigm. Police Time Management takes a lot of what I have learned and applied over 25 years and directs it specifically at policing and at the professional and personal lives of those with whom I was proud to serve. And The Way is a book in which I provide a progressive approach to identifying your own – not mine – approach to a congruent life. Yes, they have derived from my studies, but they aren’t in any way ‘just’ a summary of other works. (I was tempted to amalgamate them into one big book but you’d get a hernia carrying it.)

So they are self-published. I haven’t got a huge company behind me, just a life very much like those of most people. But when you first picked up a book by Sinek, Robbins, Covey or anyone else – did you know or care who they were or did you look at the description and contents page and think, “I must read this”?

Okay, that’s my pitch finished. But what about you?Is there a book in you? Do you have a philosophy, a story to tell, a standpoint that needs to be strongly promoted? Do you want to make a story up? Well – what’s stopping you?

You can write and self-publish at no cost via kdp.amazon.com, like many do. It’s easy and, as in the case of The Way font, you can immediately edit any errors in time for the next order! What’s more you can paperback AND Kindle your book, although there is an art to that.

You may only sell copies to yourself. But here’s the kicker. If you put enough thought and effort into your work you might find, as I did, that your cognitive and reasoning abilities, your understanding of what’s happening around you (and how you’re being played!) and possibly even your IQ, will be enhanced. You’ be better – ‘all round’ better. And you’ll feel a greater sense of self-esteem just for having done the writing.

So I’d ask you to do two things. First, write a book. Second, don’t dismiss a self-published book without at least using the ‘Look Inside’ facility that Amazon provides so that you can get a sense of the content of the book, the author’s style and the effort that was – or wasn’t – put into it.

We amateur wordsmiths thank you for the few minutes you give to us when you do that.

Two perspectives on Goal Setting

02 Monday Nov 2020

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Goal setting. The subject of many a seminar, book and audio presentation. Look it up on YouTube and you’ll be overwhelmed with responses. The ‘accepted’ mnemonic is SMART and, to be frank, this is as good a memory-prompt as any when it comes to this subject. BUT.

SMART applies only after you’ve identified a goal, at least in a general sense. You want ‘X’, so apply SMART to ‘X’. Or you can take the versions developed by those with sufficient ego to feel the need to add irrelevancies and try SMARTEST or SMARTER as your setter’s guide. W’evah. But to identify the goal, you first need a context for it.

I’m not all that athletic. I do want to be adequately healthy, though. I value health and ‘enough’ fitness. So I could set a goal of running a marathon if I wanted to address those values, but as I have no desire to run that far I’d set that goal in the knowledge that I was completely wasting my mental effort unless I had a context for its achievement. I cold SMART-ify it all I liked, and still not achieve it.

In my favourite books on the subject, written by different people who all ‘start on the same page’, as it were, there are two solutions to the challenge that lies between between setting a SMART goal for the sake of it, and achieving the sought outcome. Authors Charles R. Hobbs and his partner (and later court opponent) Hyrum W. Smith wrote the ‘same book by different titles’ (long story). Both opine that goals should reflect our personal values and both seem to suggest that knowing our values should direct the identification of our goals. Stephen Covey differed in his approach, suggesting that goals should relate to our life roles, which include professional but also private roles.

I have tried both approaches and discovered that Hobbs/Smith’s suggestion about setting a goal related to a personal value is difficult. Values tend to be intangible. They provide a motive behind a goal – a WHY – but ‘Excellence’ is hard to achieve unless you have a context in which to apply it. Excellent at what? With whom? ‘Integrity’ is a nice value to possess, but integrity where? Without challenge, how can you experience integrity?

In comes Covey, with a suggestion that in setting a goal we can use the context provided by careful identification and consideration of our roles. I was a police officer, so my goals related to promotion, specialisation, community-projects, specific investigations, and whatever else came to mind. I set a goal – and then I applied excellence towards that goal. I had other roles – public speaker, trainer, writer, family – and setting goals in those roles was easier than trying to ‘Be frugal’ with money. It’s easy to Be Frugal – don’t spend any money. Hardly a SMART-able goal, is it?

But having a context goals then allows you to apply your values to it. Study for a promotion exam? Then be excellent, be disciplined, be organised. Want a sports car? Then be frugal, work planned overtime. Want to specialise within your profession? Then do the study, join the Associations, meet the people.

Context goals. ‘What do you want?’, ‘what role will it serve or support?’ – and then ‘why do you want it?’

Make your goals real by knowing the context in which it needs to be sought, even if your first goal is to obtain the role itself.

On Corporate (and Personal) Integrity

22 Thursday Oct 2020

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“People attempting to write a mission statement for the first time often write to please or impress someone else. They don’t go the distance or pay the price to create a deep inner connection. Their mission statements become a series of platitudes, a ‘to-do’ checked off the list and filed somewhere for occasional inspiration.” So wrote Stephen Covey, A Roger Merrill and Barbara Merrill in the 1994 book, First Things First.

Character requires Integrity. Integrity requires identifying, defining and complying with a set of personal values. Personal values are NOT copied without thought from someone else’s homework. For all the Codes of Ethics decreed and disseminated from Mount Olympus, an individual must do the work required to discover their own virtues. They may match the tablets of stone, or they may differ a little. But blind compliance with someone else’s dictated values system is no more an example of personal congruence than that shown by U2’s Bono, who demanded greenery from the world while sending his hat on a First Class flight across the Atlantic.

To be frank, I think I’m seeing that all over the world, now. For all the positive intent of the less violent anti-racism activists, the constant reporting of corporate self-flagellation is kind of wearing.

The companies who avoid paying tax despite billions in profits, telling me how socially aware they are? Platitudes.

People saying we should ‘have a conversation about’ an issue, whose meaning really is ‘you have to listen to and agree with me or you’re a …..’. False prophets.

Luvvies feigning shame over something they haven’t done or aren’t remotely responsible for? Bandwagon.

Companies introducing Unconscious Bias training and banging on about it? Marketing.

Character – true character – does not need explanation, marketing, or platitudes. It doesn’t have to be seen to join a movement – it is a movement all of its own. It sells itself, no budget required.

When an individual takes the time and puts in the effort to identify, define and then live by their values, they don’t need to make public statements. What they say, they do. What they believe, they are. There is no incongruence, no hypocrisy. One person, one set of values, one set of behaviours.

So I’ll admit that when I see Sainsbury’s, Ben and Jerry’s and the BBC’s efforts to enlighten me, I find the cynic in me asking, “Where were you before the 25th of May? Are you enlightened, or just pretending to be? If the latter – what are you afraid of?”

And since their errant hypocrisies are constantly being brought to light – Sainsbury’s admitting they have a racial pay gap, the BBC having a gender pay gap, Bono using up half the National Grid to light his face up on stage – I ask myself “Who the hell are you to preach to me?” I suspect many others feel the same.

God knows I am not perfect. But I don’t pretend to be. All I am doing with these posts and my books is trying to find, as much for myself as for others, how people could be better. I don’t tell people what to think – I invite them to ask themselves the questions to which they can find their own answers. Not what to think – but that they can think. For themselves.

Help me help others – and help me to help me.

Keep me honest, make me accountable. And find someone who can make you accountable, too. But for the right reasons and in the right Way.

Go to Amazon for a preview

The Only True Pride – is Pride in the Truth

14 Wednesday Oct 2020

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As we all sit at home obeying the advice, or sneak about defying the impositions placed upon us, we must all be wondering what the heck is going on at the top. We seem to be watching the Leader of the Opposition both supporting and attacking the Government in such a way as to be able to one day say, “See, I was right all along” because he’s playing both sides of the Lockdown argument while not being responsible in any way for the action that has to be taken. He’s a bit like the crowd of fat, XXXL team shirt-wearing, pie-eating experts in the stands at a Premiership football match, who all know they could’ve done better than the millionaire on the pitch while safely avoiding any exercise that reflects that expertise.

Which made me think about the Second Resolution as it relates to Competence and Character, and their opposites – the negatives of Pride and Pretension. On first seeing Pride as a negative you may be forgiven for thinking that Pride is a good thing, but in this context we are talking not about the sense of peace when we do a good job, but about excessive pride. This is the pride that prevents us acting with integrity when, having made a mistake, we refuse to acknowledge it. It is the pride that also makes us try to cover up that mistake, but that is outside the scope of this brief article.

What I see in politicians today is both disagreeable, and understandable at the same time. They exemplify ‘pride and pretension’ in the sense that they bluster and blather while insisting they have better ideas than the other side, while making sure that their position will not result in their being held to account. We know this to be true because the opposing ideologies are so obviously present – otherwise the parties wouldn’t ‘all’ be in agreement. But it’s understandable, if not forgiveable, because the minute any principled politician listens to advice and changes their policy – they’re slammed for being ‘forced into a u-turn’, as opposed to thanked for listening.

(Watching both sides of Congress debating the Supreme Court nomination is funny. Watching them arguing that the other side is wrong because the other side is doing what the first side did last time, after the other side opposed it, is quite funny. Attacking the other side for finally agreeing with you, while changing your own mind? Not at ALL partisan.)

This element of Pride is the sin of ‘Being Right’ regardless of incoming data. It’s about blind following of your preferred ideology even when you know, inside, that what you are doing is incongruent and undermines any integrity you claim to possess.

When I imagine the parties discussing “We’ll say that, because it means they’ll have to do that, and then we can claim that….”, I cringe. That is playing both sides against the middle instead of clearly deciding – and declaring – what is right. Now the mind-blowing bit – that applies even if they ZRE right.

Truth serves itself – it doesn’t need deception to justify its existence.

The other thing about telling the truth is that you don’t have to make up defences. You don’t have to tell another lie to support or cover the first. Gary King (http://garykinglive.com/truth-challenge/) talks about how research suggests that for every lie told, you have to tell seven more to cover it. And as per the Siphonaptera and its fleas, each of the seven lies has seven more little lies on its back to bite ‘em.

Exercising excessive pride to the extent that you lie – and ‘lie’ includes exaggeration and ‘being disingenuous’ to use the politicians’ obfuscation against them – is not good debating, positive strategy or justifiable in the (any) moment.

So stop playing games – we can see right through you, Mr/Madam Representative.

When over-focusing won’t work.

08 Thursday Oct 2020

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“The key to meeting an unmet need is in addressing, not ignoring the other needs.” Stephen R Covey.

It is widely acknowledged that we humans have four needs. Various writers have jiggled with them, added some, changed the terminology and so on, but for the purpose of this article I’ll use Covey’s four – the physical (food, drink, rest, exercise), the social-emotional (relationships), the mental (intellectual growth) and the spiritual (meaning). Covey opines that so often, when one of these needs is unmet we tend to address that gap it by only focusing on that area – for example, by exercising passionately when we need to lose weight. This can work, of course it can, but what about the other needs that are being minimised or even ignored while you sit and sweat on the exercise bike? Are you ignoring your spouse? Are you moving forward on your other, important goals? Are you ignoring professional development? Are all these areas suffering because of your manic focus on the ‘one problem’ you have identified? The answer is often Yes.

To the same degree, I decided to explore The Three Resolutions. In my book I describe how they present a progressive self-development from self-discipline and self-denial, through competence and character, to the achievement of a self-identified purpose through service to others.

I consider they confirm Covey’s thinking. My life’s experience is full of examples of people who focus in one or two areas identified in the Resolutions, and yet remain oblivious to the fact that their singular focus in one area prevents them becoming the best that they could be. (Of course, I also have examples of great successes who, coincidentally, demonstrate compliance with all three.) Athletes who excel – and then we find they used performance enhancing drugs. Amazing singers – whose hypocrisy about green issues gets laid bare when they buy a plane ticket for their hat. Dedicated politicians – whose expense claims render them untrustworthy.

For me, as for Covey – and I’ll be candid and say I ain’t no perfect example either – the finest expression of greatness is seen when all Three Resolutions are addressed, and when all three are addressed simultaneously. When we utilise our self-discipline to empower our competence, which is founded in great personal character, and serve others for a worthwhile purpose.

You can train in each area separately, but success in each enables success in all of the others.

So, just as Covey suggests with his needs, consider this: when you have a problem or personal challenge, don’t just think which ONE of the Three Resolutions you need to address: think how you could address that issue with all three.

Not fit enough? Don’t just hit the bricks (discipline) – research fitness (competence), train with and help others (service), and do so with dedication (character).

Don’t know enough? Don’t ‘just’ study (discipline) – carefully identify what you need to learn and set about it (competence), resist others’ invitations to take unnecessary breaks (character), and teach as you learn (service), which enhances that learning.

Want to serve others but don’t know how? Consider and understand your needs, capacities and competencies (character/competence), identify what service you can provide (purpose) and then learn ways of using that before allotting time (discipline) to providing the optimum service to the best effect.

You can be the buffest, prettiest, strongest, fittest, shiniest narcissist in the gym – but you won’t get the respect you’ll get if it’s all about you.

Exercise all the Resolutions. The best among us have shown you this works.

Why you should share this post.

30 Wednesday Sep 2020

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The challenge with LinkedIn and the Coaching Industry is this: I believe that most of the people on LinkedIn are, judging by their posts, pretty much where they want to be. They have the jobs they want in the fields that pull them. The posts I read are often swollen with justifiable pride at an Award, ‘delight’ at obtaining a new role, and gratitude for having experienced an old one as they moved on. That underpins the professionalism that LinkedIn is expected to reflect, surely?

Occasionally a poster seeks advice or help, but in the main they are marketing or they are demonstrating personal pride. Me too – there’s no judgement in that last sentence. So this is a message for all of our fellow professionals on LinkedIn.

What about your employees and peers that aren’t yet where they want to be? And what about your other roles? Do you need coaching/advice in their regard?

John Allan, architect at Stirling Castle, raised a stone upon which was inscribed the legend, “Whate’er thou art, act well they part.” It was widely thought this was a quote from Shakespeare but apparently not. It has inspired great leaders, regardless of where it was derived. But it isn’t about work alone. It is about all of your roles.

Back to the posters. Now and then, a post appears on my feed where someone has arrived at or pulled through a challenge that isn’t related to work. And that is the great leveller, isn’t it? Everyone on LinkedIn is a professional.

And everyone on LinkedIn has a life outside of their work. And everyone who works with or for a LinkedIn ‘name’ has the same challenges and issues as we members.

Allan’s quote reminds us that we play many roles in life, and that we should dedicate our ‘professionalism’ to all of them. We know of great actors and scientists and politicians whose personal lives were a mess – they played one role with aplomb, but bombed elsewhere.

One of your roles as a professional is your ‘job’. the other roles are trainer, mentor, team-mate, administrator. Your personal roles include brother, sister, son/daughter, spouse/partner, home-maintainer, finance manager – I give up, you make your own list.

And it pays us to be good at all of those individual roles, doesn’t it?

Going back to coaching – I know you might read posts such as mine and enjoy them. (Or not.) But your role as a mentor and colleague and yes, family member, behoves you to consider passing the content on to those you love, respect and empower. They may not be on LinkedIn: they may not feel as empowered and successful as you and may just appreciate the content of coaching posts because of that – and they may appreciate you for making it known to them.

Don’t look at a coaching post and think “I like that”, and/or “I don’t need it, though”, and stop there. Share it amongst your peers and hierarchy – sideways, up and down. Somebody might just see something they need at just the time they need it.

That is a service you can provide at the click of a button. Don’t just Like – SHARE.

You’ll be acting one of your roles very well indeed.

For more, go to threeresolutionsguy.com or visit HERE for the book, The Three Resolutions.

Here we go again? GREAT!!

23 Wednesday Sep 2020

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What have you achieved during the ‘first’ COVID Lockdown period?

How you define ‘achievements’ in the question I leave up to you. You may choose work-related successes, which will include how you adapted your working practices to address the restrictions and the (yuk) New Normal; you can list any charity or community efforts you undertook; you can rattle through the personal development you made.

Or.

You can consider the lack of initiative you might have displayed in any or all of those areas. You can now consider what you could have done. You can think ‘I could’ve’ (not could OF) and ‘I should’ve’ and ‘I might’ve’. And you can wallow in the self-pity that ensues if you did nothing to take advantage of the developmental opportunity that this pause could have provided.

But GREAT NEWS!

In my area, several local authorities have been re-locked down. (In fact, Cardiff is technically under siege as it is surrounded by locked down unitary authorities.) There are constant rumours, even expectations that another national lockdown is a-coming our way. A second pause-button that you can press and decide ‘What can I do in this period of change?’

I’m lucky. I have no formal occupation other than writing and blogging so I had massive amounts of discretionary time. Oddly, I still have a 9-5 mentality and regularly ‘pack in’ at tea-time. Weird.

But in the period since March I have:

  • Lost 35lbs.
  • Increased my cycling – time and distances travelled.
  • Attended umpteen free webinars to stay on top of my game.
  • Sorted out some home-environments.
  • Written The Way.
  • Edited Three Resolutions. (Okay, I finished that just before it started but it needed a proof read.)
  • Rewritten Police Time Management (still doing that).
  • Had two mini-breaks with the extended family during the eased-off hiatus in the Pandemic Panic.
  • Refocused my mind.

And here we find ourselves at the cusp of another, allegedly 6-month lockdown opportunity.

The Three Resolutions ‘commitments’ provide a framework for consideration of exactly what you can do to take advantage of the gap. You can reinforce your self-discipline by choosing to eat less and exercise more. You can redefine your personal values and your congruence or incongruence in terms of how you behave in their respect. You can learn new stuff, or you can study the old stuff you need to know in order to do an excellent job. You can revisit your sense of Purpose and decide if what you are doing is right for you, while simultaneously considering what service, or what better service you can provide to others – either through work or in a voluntary capacity.

Or you can just accept the entropy that doing nothing engenders. You can actively pursue the self-redundancy that ‘just doing enough’ causes.

Which is the right choice? You KNOW it.

Now DO it.

The Great Advantage

16 Wednesday Sep 2020

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“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom,” said Socrates. Wise fella.

But you should take into account that while knowing yourself is desirable, it is neither the sole objective of self-analysis, nor the sole result. You can know yourself but you have to want to do that for a reason (purpose, for example). And once you know yourself there is a kind of added benefit.

To identify that benefit, consider this question: “Unless I understand myself, how can I expect others to understand me – and to understand others, myself?” In my latest book, The Way, I describe a process for discovering your personal values and rules, those states of being and definitions of what is and isn’t ‘right’. Not ‘right’ in the legal or even moral sense – they are matters for you – but ‘right’ in your own mind and soul. These values and rules are the reasons why other people annoy you, and why you feel guilty when you act in a way that you know isn’t ‘right’.

Having discovered your own values, you also discover that other people have values and rules – and they can be (often and routinely ARE) different to yours. They may use the same words, but they define their values and set their own rules for interpreting when they are or aren’t, or someone else is or isn’t, ‘compliant’.

That’s why, for example, as a time management and personal organising nutcase I get absolutely tampin’ mad (serious tampin’ – no g) when my beloved wife doesn’t display quote the same levels of effort in their regard.

Look at your own personality conflicts at work or in the family – are they merely the result of seeing things differently – of placing different levels of importance on stuff, or playing by different rules?

Once you know you have values and rules and others do as well, you are most of the way to understanding others better, and to being able to communicate at a higher level. Instead of (as we all do) listening while rehearsing our pithy comeback or superior argument, we try to fully understand the meaning of what is being said – the hidden, unstated concerns and motives.

That’s the problem with Twitter. You have 240 characters on a digital page to express an opinion. People read what you write, think they understand you despite having never met you, and make a conclusion – but a conclusion based on their values, paradigms and conditioning. They don’t read what you mean – they read what they have decided you mean.

Good reason for not getting involved.

Take some time to consider what is important to you, and then define that exactly. Recognise as you do so that what is important to you is not necessarily as important to others, even if they say they value the same thing. They may define it differently, or they may place that value on a lower rung in preference for something that is more important – to them, if not to you.

Shameless plug – my book The Way deals with this in 150 pages of observation, explanation and encouragement for a reader interested in discovering exactly what it is they’re ‘about’. Which gives you an advantage over anyone who hasn’t the foggiest idea.

Hitting the Sweet Spot

25 Tuesday Aug 2020

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It’s been a while since my last blog entry, mainly because of a focus on a review of my time management book for former police colleagues. In the meantime I have made a few personal breakthroughs which reflect my own adherence to the philosophy of The Three Resolutions, as described and explained in my book of the same name.

I have lost over 35lbs in weight during the lockdown by dieting and using the infrequent good weather to cycle. The two efforts have synergised and now I can ride up hills a lot easier than I could at my baby elephant weight.

I completed my review of the aforementioned Three Resolutions, addressing a few edit errors and making some paragraphs a little easier to read. The fun part was re-organising the Contents page and paginating it, which will make it an easier ‘dip-and-read’ project for anyone who thinks they might benefit from a (relatively) simple but honestly hard to execute lifestyle philosophy.*

I also wrote and published The Way, a 150 page tome on identifying your personal values, and designing a life of integrity with purpose rather than one where you think you are (and might actually be) living with integrity but can’t be sure because you haven’t truly identified what you’re in integrity with.

And I went on a family holiday for a bit.

Now I am back at it, blogging, writing and teaching others who need input on what they have identified is, for them, a better way. And as I do that, I get better as well. Coaching/teaching/training is a mutually beneficial activity if it is done right. If it only serves the teacher, the motive is wrong. If it only serves the student, the teacher is in the wrong job. When both get better from the experience, a sweet spot is well and truly hit.

Where is your sweet spot? Are you doing the best job you can do, a job you truly love (even if bits of it cause neck ache), which serves others and is therefore, by definition, your Noble Purpose?

If you are – you’re already enacting the Second and Third Resolutions. Good on you. Now buy my book and understand why that is, and how you might be able to get even better at what you love.

It’s cheaper than 3 pints of cider and lasts longer. If you prefer the cider, you fail the First Resolution ‘test’.

Have a great week!

*Anyone who believes the words ‘simple’, ‘easy’ and ‘ultimate’ in a book title or description is probably also easily distracted by shiny things.

This book, here. Available at Amazon.