Life
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- Written by Catherine Moore
THIS IS AN ACTUAL INCIDENT
This was sent in to me by Catherine Moore
Or so I am lead to believe. Even if it’s not, it is a very poignant story that should make all drivers think. If you don't get a lump in your throat when you read it, your heart is made of stone!
On the last day before Christmas, I hurried to go to the supermarket to buy the remaining of the gift I didn`t manage to buy earlier.
When I saw all the people there, I started to complain to myself:
"It is going to take forever here and I still have so many other places to go..."
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Don't think about it too hard
A blind man had been waiting a while at a busy road for someone to offer to guide him across, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
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- Written by Paul Mooney
The Art of Making People Uncomfortable
Imagine this. Standard hospital practice pre-1950 was to minimize or forbid parents to visit their infants and children while they were in hospital. In some hospitals parents were completely forbidden to visit their kids, while others allowed visits but parents could only view children through a glass partition inserted into the ward doors. Now, it’s not what you might think. This wasn’t an effort to contain some raging airborne disease – these were ‘ordinary’ hospital cases and patients. A psychologist called John Bowlby, who was particularly interested in ‘attachment’ (how a child psychologically attaches to the main caregiver) eventually changed this practice through a huge body of research which demonstrated the damage that such separations can cause to a child: “…the prolonged deprivation of a young child of maternal care may have grave and far reaching effects on his character and so on the whole of his future life” (report to World Health Organization, 1952).
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- Written by Paul Mooney
The story of two concerts
It’s fine for a manager to be grumpy – as long as they are ‘genius’.
I recently attended two concerts in Dublin’s 02. The first sojourn was to hear the Eagles. Even if you’re not an Eagles fan, the concert was stunning. More than the music, they told the ‘story’ of how the band developed and the staging (audio visuals etc.) was excellent. The concert ran for almost 3 hours, a tour de force of musicianship and entertainment. How they survived those ‘Hotel California’ days is a medical miracle (Bill Clinton is so lucky that he didn’t inhale!).
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- Written by Paul Mooney
Many years ago, a friend of mine lived in an inner-city corporation flats complex. The family scrimped and saved, eventually accumulating enough money to buy a house on a newly built estate in the suburbs. Understandably, they were excited about the move and focused on getting the house furnished. While the garden was left in a sorry state by the builder, this was not on the immediate ‘worry list’ as they got to grips with paying a mortgage for the first time.
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- Written by Paul Mooney
We were invited to a house party in Clontarf. Bring along the Tiramisu, have a few beers, play a bit of music. All good clean fun. Somewhere during the evening the talk turned to obsession. People we know who are compulsive, who go to extremes (I know tons about this topic, recognizing many of the traits in myself).
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- Written by Paul Mooney
We sat at an outdoor restaurant, looking out over the Atlantic. A cool breeze tempered the Easter sunshine. The same breeze that makes Portugal a great (biased opinion) destination for Irish people, avoiding the intensive heat common in some other parts of southern Europe.
Read more: Do you avoid making hard decisions? Risking Failure or Staying Safe
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- Written by Paul Mooney
The Holy Grail for consultants is to understand change
How organizations and individuals make progress. While most consultants are happy to chat freely about success stories, poster boys and girls who’ve successfully made the journey, they may be reluctant to highlight cases where progress has been less than stellar. Because the reality is that some clients get ‘stuck’. God, if only someone would write a book and decipher all this complex psychology stuff. Well, now that you mention it…the book Immunity to Change, written by Professor Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey of Harvard University fame covers this topic. It’s hard to do justice to their thesis in a short blog, but here’s the skinny.
Read more: Are You Immune to Change? Hidden Bahaviours and Unlimited Possibilities.
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- Written by Paul Mooney
Not Every Relationship is ‘fixable’
“If you don’t break your ropes while you’re alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?”