Opportunity and possibility… the promise of 2008

January 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

Happy New Year from all of us here at The Calm Space. We hope the promise of 2008 is fresh and alive in your heart throughout the year, and wish you a year of miracles and magic.

Endings and beginnings… As one year ends, another dawns - fresh and crisp and full of opportunity! I love how the new year gives us a real sense of a new beginning, with boundless opportunities waiting for us.

As we step out into the freshly dawned 2008, can we take the time to engage with those opportunities, to notice them so that we make the most of every moment ahead of us. Our contributors all offer different ways to do just that this month.

This month our special prize is simply divine - don’t forget to register to be in the draw to win this gorgeous jewellery courtesy of Anne Maybus of Beauty Banquet.

Happy New Year!

Káren ♥

A purse full of gifts to take with you into 2008

See that door?

It’s the door of opportunity.

Your door.

All you need do is step up, grasp the handle and open.

Are you ready?

See that door?

What lies on the other side is the rest of your life.

The possibilities of your life from this moment on.

Beyond lie the endless opportunities that are yours for the taking.

If we consider the vast number of options available to us, we’d freeze in overwhelm.

Luckily, all we need is to take one step. Make one decision. Put one foot in front of the other. Choose a path and see where it leads.

As you choose your path, remember the immortal words of Robert Frost…

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

~Robert Frost

See that door?

Beyond it is your path. Your first step of the rest of your life.

Only you can open the door.

Now, before you go rushing off to open the door and start running down that yellow brick road on the other side, I’ve a little something I’d like to give you.

Call it my New Year gift to you.

It’s a small gift, but it comes straight from my heart to yours. Something to make your steps a little lighter. A gift to make your choices clearer.

Your gift is a little ‘travel pack’ to take with you. Just a few bits and pieces I have put together for you to help chart your course - small enough to pop in your pocket.

In this gorgeous black velvet purse you’ll find:

A packet of possibilities. Tied up with a beautiful satin ribbon you’ll find all those wonderful things you could do, be and have in 2008.

A cup of hope. You’ll know a sense of optimism and faith that all will be well in your world.

A spray bottle of action. To use in measured doses, punctuated by periods of rest. Without action, possibilities will not turn into realities.

A tube of courage. Enough to fill your heart and make the right decisions - for taking action when you must.

A tin of curiosity. Open up for the ability to ask ‘why?’. And to ask ‘why not?’

A spoonful of challenge. A small dose of tension and darkness to overcome, so that you may better appreciate and recognise the good times.

A crystal decanter of love. Fill your soul to overflowing anytime you need it with love, laughter and joy - life is for living.

take the path less travelled See that door?

Go.

Open.

Explore.

Relish the opportunity to create your new year, just how you like it…

I wish you a safe and wondrous journey through 2008. May your path be strewn with rainbows and your pocket full of opportunities.

Posted by karen | Filed Under January 08, The Space

2008 - A Year of Learning Challenges

January 1, 2008 | 3 Comments

Digital Space - Learning Technology Welcome to 2008! If you don’t believe that 2008 puts you smack bang in the middle of the digital age then think again. All you need to do is to read articles like the one that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning (10 Things That Will Change Your Future)

It all might sound a little far fetched, or even something that you don’t need to concern yourself with but as each new year ticks over the children that are fluent speakers of “technology” (and think technology like a native of the digital land) are getting one year old and one year closer to being the major influencers not just in technology but also in the business landscape.

So if you feel that you are a little behind in the digital landscape then 2008 is the year for you to learn more. What do you really have to loose?

Here are some easy to do monthly technology challenges for you to take on. If you already feel comfortable with the challenge then just take that topic to the next level. I can guarantee you that even after more than 20 years in technology industries I’m still learning a huge amount of new things each year.

January
Do something more with all the great photos that you took over Christmas. Learn to resize them, manage and file them on the computer in a better way or how to be creative with photo editing software.

February
Get your email under control. If you thought that your email exploded last year then just wait for the overflow this year. Make sure you understand and are taking advantage of the email software you use, get a “public” email address (eg. gmail, yahoo) for all those things you subscribe to and keep your main inbox spam to a minimum or even use an application like SpeedFiler to help keep your inbox under control.

March
Learn more about RSS (Really Simple Syndication). If you have little or no idea about RSS and need a starting point then have a look at this video.

If you already use RSS to subscribe to updates, news and information then take this task to the next level. Maybe learn about how you can share the interesting things that you read with others.

April
Find out what all the buzz is about with “social networking” (it will get more broadly spread in the coming year). Find out more about LinkedIn, Facebook or any of the other many social networking sites. Get in there and have a play around and make up your own mind if connecting online is for you. As you do this remember that you can give away a little too much about yourself at times with these sites. Just as you would be careful who you invite into you home, be wary of who you are sharing personal information with.

May
Start a blog! Many of you will roll your eyes about this being an old idea or one that just isn’t for you but just hear me out. A blog is one of the easiest ways I know to share information or your ideas amoung a group of people. Those people may be your target market, current clients, your family, friends or community group. It doesn’t even need to be public - maybe a departmental information sharing tool, or a family roster or what’s been happening. The ability to quickly and easily publish information is fast becoming one of the major communication tools of the digital age. Are you skilled up for this one or not?

June
Learn more about the ever-growing repository of digital media being provided by the ABC (Australia’s national broadcaster). For a couple of years now various ABC radio and television programs have been making it possible for you to listen/view extracts of your favourite shows at times that worked for you, and recently they launched ABC Now.

Digital media being presented to you to to listen/watch at a time that suits you will be one of the big movers in the next couple of years. This is just the low definition version of the high-definition (HD) TV that is here (for the early adopters) or just around the corner (for most people).

July
Learn some basic HTML coding. Now I know that this will be stretch for some people but HTML (and CSS) is more and more becoming the language that makes the online world look pretty. This is what gives your HTML emails, blogs posts and web pages their good looks. You don’t need to become a full blown programmer but by understanding the basics you can have more control over the look and feel of the information that you put online.

August
Get into digital music. In 1979 when British band The Buggles sang “video killed the radio star” video and CDs were the new technology - they were the move from analogue records to digital media. These days the need to even produce a physical CD is not required for a “record” to be success (Radiohead’s latest release “In Rainbows” is a case in point).

You don’t need to have an MP3 digital music player - you can do that straight from your computer. I find iTunes a great way to put my CDs into digital form and organise them in a manageable way. By using iTunes to play the music that normally just sits in the cabinet in the living room via my computer my work day is much more enjoyable.

September
Have a conversation with someone under 20 and ask them to show you their favourite piece of technology. Ask them why it is great and why it is important in their life. Don’t dismiss their answer as just stuff for young people. These are the people that will be making decisions about how we live our lives in the next 20 years. What they do, know and like now is an important guide to the future.

October
Get a little more jargon under your belt. Now I’m the first to admit the technology jargon can get a little out of hand with all those acronyms. But when does it stop being jargon and start being everyday language? Set yourself the task to unconver the true meaning of technology jargon. Depending on you level of understanding, time available or inclination, set yourself a target of one new word/acronym every day or week.

November and December
Don’t let the year finish up with you still wondering about how to better use a piece of technology you already own or wanting to know more about something that you’ve heard about. Set yourself a learning plan over these last 8 weeks and get up to scratch.

I promise that if you follow even 50% of these challenges you will be in a more confident place with technology at the end of 2008 than you are today, at the beginning of a new year filled with opportunities for learning.

Posted by leah | Filed Under Digital Space, January 08

A Time for Opportunity

January 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

Time for 2008 Ahh! The New Year! Full of possibility and opportunity. I welcome it with open arms and a hopeful heart.

There’s something special about the beginning of a new year, like the smell of a new car. After the rush of December it’s a good time to reflect on the year that’s passed and look forward to the one to come. We start with a brand new calendar, unmarked by prior commitments. We have a wonderful opportunity to assess our goals and priorities. It’s an opportunity to evaluate the way we use our time.

Time? “What does time have to do with goals?” you may ask. “Everything” is my answer.

Time is the one thing that will make the most difference to how successfully we achieve our goals. We can’t earn more of it, or bank time for a rainy day. Each of us receives the same amount of time every day. How we use our precious allocation will determine how effectively we reach our goals for 2008 and beyond.

For example, if my goal is to lose weight, I may choose to allocate time to exercise daily and plan meals. If my goal is to be a good parent, I may choose to play board games with my children twice a week. If my goal is to earn a degree, I may choose to study every Saturday. You get the idea.

I’ll leave you with some key tips to ensure success –

set goals for each area of your life
get specific
then get specific about how you’ll achieve those goals
realistically allocate time to achieving each of those goals
regularly review your commitments to ensure your time is spent achieving your goals, not someone else’s

I hope you’ll take the opportunity to review your goals, and use your time making 2008 a wonderful year for you.

Posted by angela | Filed Under January 08, Organising Space

Spiritual Opportunity

January 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.” ~Joan Borysenko

I love this quote and it started me thinking (and feeling!), once we have decided to take the spiritual plunge, there will of course be some tension since we will probably have too high an expectation of ourselves; that we should therefore be better than others or special in God’s eyes. Of course this is not the case – God knows we’re all special, but none of us will ever be perfect!

Spiritual Opportunity Disappointment need not follow when we have let ourselves down in some way. Rather we could forgive ourselves and quietly get on with looking for other opportunities to love, to forgive and to serve.

Here’s an example: reflect on a situation you have experienced with a loved one where you know your ego was full throttle. Whatever the situation, you felt you were right and they were wrong and an argument ensued. Then perhaps you could reflect on what Love would have done here. Was there an opportunity to “be kind not right”? (thank you Wayne Dyer). Even if your point was valid and strong, was there an opportunity to say your piece with less anger and more love?

If you prefer a microeconomic perspective – what was the opportunity cost of sticking to your ego-driven point of view? How was the relationship damaged? How much ground then had to be made up? Where there is ego, Love cannot be = opportunity lost!

We are all given the most wonderful of opportunities: to live the rest of our lives getting to know God rather than know about Him/Her (thank you Frederick Bailes).

The Oxford Concise English dictionary defines opportunity as: “A favourable time or set of circumstances for doing something.” When will that be for you? In a year, a month, tomorrow, or right this minute?

Love, peace and wisdom

Posted by annie | Filed Under January 08, Spiritual Space

Can you hear opportunity knocking?

January 1, 2008 | 6 Comments

Relationship Opportunities After the flurry of Christmas and the endless conversations about whether you’ve “finished your shopping”, it’s a great relief to have a new conversation topic – New Year Resolutions.

The concept of setting goals/resolutions/intentions often appeals to something in our human core. It engages that inner voice which murmurs to us, disturbing us. We become connected to our thinly-papered disenchantments, disillusionments, and dissatisfactions. After hearing that ghostly inner voice, a New Year Resolution can seem like “just the go” to calm our doubts, fears, or guilt.

Some people love to talk about Resolutions, sometimes bragging about the array of good behaviour we’ll notice from them in the New Year.

Others quietly sneak away to the bar for another drink when the conversation turns to matters “Resolution”. The mere thought of New Year Resolutions gives them a feeling of horror.

There are those who don’t believe in them and will tell you so bluntly. (I personally admire that – at least they’re honest!)

Some do the talk on December 31, but don’t walk their talk from January 1 (or maybe January 11) onwards.

But the reality is that no-one will see significant differences in their lives until the pain of their current choices outweighs the risks and fears associated with changing.

That’s what makes a Resolution into a Reality. The timing is of no consequence!

All that the New Year invites us to do is look at the opportunities to reflect, review, evaluate, and generally connect with our sense of personal satisfaction.

Most life coaches will tell you that the people they see early in the year are those who are taking very positive and active steps to make a change – sometimes as a result of their New Year Resolutions.

Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be what couples do. Why doesn’t it occur to couples to reflect, review, evaluate, and gauge satisfaction?

Shining a light onto our couple life on an annual basis is something I do with my beloved SweetP.

We see it as a chance to understand our individual hopes and dreams, as well as our disappointments. For our relationship to run smoothly we need regular doses of insight. During the year they’ll be shared over a meal or a glass of wine, during a walk or as we sit in the sun.

But at this time of year we devote several hours, a couple of whiteboards, and several pages of butcher’s paper to digging deep. It’s an opportunity.

It’s an opportunity to celebrate what we’ve done, what battles we’ve shared and what battles have divided us. We both find personal victories and achievements that we need to get the other to view through our eyes.

We also find hurt spots in our selves and in the other that we didn’t realise were there. Bumping into that pain and hurt can be stressful and, in the moment, can seem FAR from an opportunity.

In fact, the squirmy feeling we get with those discoveries means it’s tempting to say “Ohhh, I’m sick of this, let’s watch TV.”

But what works better is putting down the whiteboard pens and hugging each other, and even more – asking questions and digging deeper. Yeah it’s scary! And it might mean a niggling of shame or guilt at our own failings. But if both of us understand and accept that loving someone comes with those hurts as the flipside of the blissful romantic coin, then you can listen, squirm, blush and be forgiven. It’s an opportunity for intimacy and connection like no other we know!

So have you ever sat down together and reviewed your relationship?

Have you ever sat down alone and reviewed your relationship?

What score out of 10 would you give to your overall satisfaction with your relationship?

When could you make time to sit and talk about how you’d like to see your relationship develop? (You do that for your career, why wouldn’t you do it for your relationship?)

And if you have a partner who you think would snort in ridicule at the suggestion then that may give you your first insights for your own review of the relationship.

Of course, the snort may actually never come, and if you asked you might get a big surprise. But even if you do get the snort then that’s a sign to start your own review.

But how?

That’s easy. We start it with a pleasant interlude like going out together for breakfast or a coffee, or even just going for a walk somewhere we both appreciate – beside the creek, across the paddock, along the beach.

We start talking about the positives and move on to the disappointments.

We allow ourselves to be infected by the others zest for a project or enthusiasm for an achievement. We let those s-o-o-a-k in deep into our souls.

We also have a deadline for finishing. If it’s getting close to finish time we know it’s time to spell out our intentions. We never finish without making the plans for the first step to achieving the first intention.

Finally there is ALWAYS a pleasant reward for our hard work! Do I need to give you examples? There’s always a dinner date, or a foot massage or a bath or shower together or …

Posted by chris | Filed Under January 08, Relationship Space

Opportunity through reading

January 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

As a Roman philosopher once said, and is often quoted by Oprah “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Preparation to me involves books as books provide knowledge. I give three selections below that could prepare you for the opportunity of luck finding you!

Being in Balance - Wayne Dyer

In this inspirational work, best-selling author and lecturer Wayne W. Dyer shows you how to restore balance in your life by offering nine principles for realigning your thoughts so that they correspond to your highest desires.

Imagine a balance scale with one end weighted down to the ground, and the other end–featuring the objects of your desires–sticking up precariously in the air. This scale is a measurement of your thoughts. To restore the same balance that characterizes everything in our universe, you have to take up the weighty thoughts so that they match up to your desires.

The seasons reflect the overall harmony of life. For example, winter passes and the blossoms emerge. This is balanced by a need to have the trees rest, so autumn arrives on time and helps the trees ready themselves for another period of repose. This book is dedicated to the idea that we’re a vital component of this creative process and have within ourselves the wherewithal to create all that we want if we recognize and revise out-of-balance thoughts.

Away Game - Luke Collins

Thousands of Australians have left their homeland to try their luck in the world’s richest country, where the rewards for succeeding are immense: multi-million dollar salaries, celebrity status, and tremendous professional fulfillment. Yet is it worth it?

In this book by the former New York Correspondent for The Australian Financial Review, our top professionals in the United States explain what makes them tick: why they left their homeland, the cultural shock of living in America, and their anguish about whether they will ever return to Australia. Career success, it seems, comes at a price.

8th Habit - Stephen Covey

The world has changed dramatically since the classic, internationally bestselling The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was published, influencing tens of millions. The challenges and complexity we all face in our relationships, families, professional lives and communities are of an entirely new order of magnitude. In order to thrive, innovate, excel and lead in what Covey calls the new Knowledge Worker Age, we must build on and move beyond effectiveness…to greatness.

Accessing the higher levels of human genius and motivation in today’s new reality requires a sea change of new thinking — a new mind-set, a new skill-set, a new tool-set — in short, a whole new habit.

Posted by marjorie | Filed Under January 08, Reading Space

Opportunity: the start of a new page

January 1, 2008 | 3 Comments

2008 an opportunity to write Starting to write is like the start of anything new – we’re never entirely sure where it’s going to take us. Sometimes the blankness of the page can get in the way of getting started, and we need some hints, some suggestions, some reminders, to get us underway.

At those times of stuckness I often turn to the dictionary to get me started, exploring the meanings and associations of a word to find a pathway through. This time was no different. “Opportunity” I typed. Opportune, the dictionary came back: a fitting time. A favourable combination of circumstances. A possibility.

Perfect.

Because January is a fitting time indeed. The start of a New Year, a time of resolutions, of new beginnings. A time when we look hard at the things we want to make happen in the months ahead.

And writing, our use of words, well that can help us to achieve those goals, make a reality of those dreams. Maybe that’s writing to promote our business, to make connections with new clients or business partners. Or maybe your writing will be the project – something you’ve been planning for a while, like starting a blog, or some travel writing, or a family memoir.

Building the space to write into your year ahead can help you achieve those goals.

But writing doesn’t just help us to make things happen – it helps to open up new possibilities. Because the more we write – expressing our ideas, our thoughts, values, dreams – the more we come to understand ourselves. We learn from what we write. Come to recognise what’s important to us.

And the more we know ourselves, well the more we open up the door to what might and will be possible.

Because as we write, so our words resonate with others. Make a connection. Our words intertwine. And people we might never have met and might never meet who will come to recognise the possibility of working, studying and learning together with us, of exploring new ideas, of creating new opportunities – and then making them happen.

Writing our way into a new set of possibilities.

The New Year offers the promise of a fresh start, a new chapter, a clean page.

In the words of poet Edith Lovejoy Pierce:

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

Enjoy the start of the New Year, and putting your words on that page.

Posted by joanna | Filed Under January 08, Writing Space

New Year Music

January 1, 2008 | 1 Comment

My children have been filling the house with the sounds of their music. And as we’re smack dab in the middle of summer holidays it pays to allow them to let their hair down every now and again. I also find their music (mostly) preferable to the bang bang of a shooting game or the yells of kids bickering… and since it has been raining (near cyclonic conditions) here, there is very little opportunity for me to shoo them out of the house.

So my ears have been ~~assulted~~ bombarded with the sounds of Maroon 5 (these, I like); Yellowcard (hmmm…) and other names I cannot remember (especially true of the 17-year-olds choice of music).

What to do? I bought them good earphones for Christmas, and I am sure these will be used in days to come. But right now, they’re hanging loose.

So today, I’m dreaming of peaceful, calming music. Music that doesn’t change the rhythm of your heartbeat or make your head pound out a beat of it’s own… I’m dreaming of playing beautiful classics - loud - and enjoying the feeling of it filling my heart and soul as it fills my home.

Here’s a selection of what I am looking forward to:

Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 Op 73 - The Emperor Concerto

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 1 in F Sharp Minor