GOAL SETTING

​My good friend, David Hyner
says ‘SMART’ goals don’t work.
You know, 'Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic, with a Target'.

You see, there’s nothing here
to get us excited. David says
​'what we all really need are
Big, Fat, Hairy goals!'

We need goals that make
us smile, fire up our energy,
and blast us forward with a
renewed sense of purpose. 

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Go on! Write down some Big, Fat, Hairy goals - for the rest of you life, your work, your passion, your relationships, your wellbeing - and everything that is important to you.
2. Do these make you smile, fire up your energy and blast you forward with a
renewed sense of purpose?  Great!!​

BREAKFAST SERIAL

I want you to be excited
about the work
you are about to do.
For the opportunities
that are waiting for you.
For the friends
who will support you and
for the new beginnings,
that we share each day.

​​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What script do you write for yourself each morning over breakfast?
2. How can you create an amazing plot - of projects, opportinities and friendships to be played out today? 
3. Imagine it's breakfast time - and create the next episode in your serial. 

​PARADOX
 
You do what you do,
because it’s what you must do
You do what you do,
because you are only here once.
And you do what you do,
knowing that, none of this matters.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write down how the paradox of life applies to you.

​TOOTHBRUSH

When we go on holiday
or stay in a hotel room,
we make it like home,
and place our toothbrush
where it should be.
We create a cognitive map
for where all our things
now are, in our new room.

When we move house
it’s a much bigger map.
And it takes time for us
to work out where to put
everything, and to remember
where everything is.
It’s the cognitive map
for our new home.

We create our cognitive maps
by walking around and doing things
We work out the layout
of the rooms, and try to
remember where all those
personal essentials,
and practical items
are now located.

When I was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s and moved
into a care home,
it took me a bit longer to
get used to the place,
and to work out
where everything was,
including my toothbrush.

And now, when I want to
make a cup of coffee
they tell me 'it’s okay', and
that they will do it for me.
They stop me walking around
and building my cognitive map.
It then appears to others that
I am ‘getting worse’.

You see, my brain now works
in a different way.
It isn’t just forgetfulness.
It’s the skill of remembering
that I need to practice.
So, let me go and clean my teeth,
make a cup of coffee and
wander around and do things.

And when you visit,
please don't sit there talking,
Walk around with me.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Where do you put your tootbrush when you go into a hotel room?
​2. Write down 'step by step' the exact steps a new visitor should take to make a cup of coffee in your house.

​WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Popularity is not
a measure of value.
Success is not
a measure of happiness.
Knowledge is not
a measure of understanding.

​FALSE POSITIVE

Numbers that add up
do not always give
the right answer.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write down the three numbers that are most significant for you.
2. What are the events/places/times that these represent?
3. How do you feel about these?
4. In a perfect world, would you like to have a different answer?

HAMSTER

I want to escape
but there is no escape.
This is it.

This is the price of freedom,
to be captured now.

All seems so pointless
and meaningless.
Here on this hamster wheel.

More stuff comes around
but it’s the same stuff.
Again and again.

If I can’t
get off the hamster wheel,
how can I move forward?

All is faith
and trust,
for there is nothing else.

So we go on,
round and round,
going nowhere on the wheel.

We are simply doing
what we should
to find the freedom we crave.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Are you doing the same stuff -going round and round? 
2. What is the freedom that you crave?​

MIRROR IMAGE

We are made
in the image of God.
This does not necessarily mean
that God looks like a human.

But if we look closely
at each other,
we can see that God, (or love),
exists in each of us.

And when we look
at everyone,
we can see that, together,
we are all in God. 

For we are not apart from God,
but part of God.
Each one of us and all of us,
together, forever, as one.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL

With a pen
and a notebook,
you will write.
​
What is hidden
will be found,
and be seen.

​WEALTH MANAGEMENT
 
If we give to those in need,
we will always
have more than enough.
 
If we continually try to build wealth,
we will always
have less than we want.

THE FOG

The fog always lifts.
It always clears eventually.

But how do I cope
when I am in the fog?
Any progress I try to make
is so painfully slow.

Perhaps I should just sit
and be in the fog.
For there’s nothing to see or do
when the fog is in my head.

The fog always lifts.
It always clears eventually.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Some people live in the fog. Other live with the fog. What is the fog in your head?

​DUAL ASPECT

This is a special place,
a room with windows
on two adjoining walls.
Dual aspect they call it,
because we have two perspectives
all the time,
as we look out from here.

Our life, too, is a special place,
for it also has a dual aspect.
Our worldly responsibilies and
our presence with God,
are the two windows of our life.
We can switch between the two
as we look out from here.

This is our dual aspect,
our two windows,
our two ever present perspectives,
of God and neighbour,
of life and love,
of doing and being,
as one.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What do you see at the moment when you look out of your two windows?​

​Day 511 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

​HOURGLASS

They tell us that
our time is running out,
that our life is slipping away.
Like the sand
in an hourglass.

What they don’t know
is that we have learnt
to turn the hourglass
upside down,
and begin over again.

And we can continue
to do this forever.
For our repositioning
is not based on time, but on
 an understanding of who we are.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. If time wasn't the way that we measured our life, what would you put in its place?
2. What measure would never end, never run out? 

MONK

Away from everything,
the way of the monk,
is to find his way.
We too must discover our way,
in our way.

We uncover and cover,
what we find.
We enter and exit,
where we are.
We open and close,
what is here.

For we are all
part-time monks,
trying to find our way.

WORK RATE

If you were given $10 million,
would you still do
the work that you are doing?

If the answer is 'no', then
you're not doing,
the work that you should.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is the work that you really want to do?
2. How mught you begin to do this today? ​

JELLY

The jelly (Jell-O in the US) is
one flat splodge on my plate.
It didn’t set.
It needed a mould.
It needed time to chill.

My life is a bit like that,
one flat splodge on a plate.
I need a mould to help me
get set in the right way.
I too, need time to chill.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What mould would you pour your life into? 

PROBLEM SOLVING
 
We tend to think of shop assistants,
cleaners or bus drivers as
providing a service, when in fact
they are solving a problem,
or a need that we have.
 
It would be good if we could
recognise the impact that
they have made, providing us
with food, sorting out our house,
or getting us home safely.
 
Let us say 'thank you' each time,
to all of our problem solvers
and solution providers, who are
busy doing their job, and
making life a bit easier for all of us.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. When you think of the work that you do, what problem do you solve or what needs do you meet? 
2. What should your job/work title really be?​

​Day 506 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

​BUSINESS MODELS
 
In every business transaction
we choose to be helpful
and kind,
or not.
 
We choose
to smile and
say thank-you,
or not.
 
We choose
to try and make life easier
 for the other person,
or not.
 
In every business transaction
we choose a nicer way of
 of working together,
or not.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Which business model will you choose?
2. How will you change your interactions to create a nicer way of working? 

​

FACIAL RECOGNITION
 
Our face is a mirror
for all that we have found
in the world.
 
Our eyes are a window
for all that we are
still searching for.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What do you see when you look closely at your face in a mirror?
​2. What do you see in your eyes?

DEFICIT
 
Sin seems like an
old-fashioned word.
It’s not one we typically find
in our management training and
businesses processes
 .
Sin means absence.
Absence of love.
Absence of compassion.
Absence of gratitude.
Absence of giving.
 
This absence means
we are less than we can be.
It lessens our potential
to grow into what we should be.
Sin is a deficit.
 
Inclusion addresses this deficit
when we build love and 
compassion, gratitude and giving,
in our management training and
business processes.

​​​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How is inclusion made real in your management training amd business processes?
2. What is our personal deficit?

​Day 503 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

ANGEL INVESTOR

Little Beth never
made it into this world.
She died early in the womb.
 
That was 25 years ago,
and yet little Beth
is here with me today.
 
She arrived this morning
to guide and help me,
like an angel.
 
It’s just the two of us
here for breakfast.
Wonderful! 

​​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Who might be your angel?
​2. What age are they?

CIRCUS TENT
 
The clown, the juggler and
the ringmaster,
are taking down the Circus tent
in the big field.
 
All of the pieces are laid out,
like the contents
of flat pack furniture,
on the grass.
 
By mid-morning everyone has gone.
All that is left are
impressions on the grass.
Signs of a magic once here.
 
It’s the planned dismantling
of what we are, in a way
that enables us to begin again,
in another field.

​​​​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What are all of your pieces when they are laid out on the grass? Make a list.
2. How will you put them together, so that you can begin again?

​LOVE LETTER
 
Thank you for your faith in me.
Thank you for your trust in me.
Thank you for your unfailing ability
to see the best in me.
 
Thank you for being consistent
in your love for me.
Thank you for your unwavering loyalty
and support of me.
Thank you for cherishing my
ongoing mistakes, and accepting that
these are a vital part of me.
 
Thank you for being there.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for loving me.

​​​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write your letter and say thank-you to the one you love.

CATERPILLAR THINKING
​
The caterpillar is crawling
along the garden hose.
He has never seen or met
anyone like this before.

​So much stronger and longer,
than him,
stretching out for miles
across the lawn.

Our caterpillar wishes
that one day, he too, 
​might become a garden hose.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is your ambition for the next phase of your life?
2. Can you imagine something unimaginable? How will you fly?
3. How can we ensure that we do not limit our thinking to garden hoses? ​

​Day 499 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

SNOW GLOBE
 
Human life is such
a small part of all existence.
Of all that ever was,
and will be.
 
We know so little beyond
our thinking, and our world.
We are in a snow globe
shaking a few flakes.
 
But what if we were
the manufacturer of snow globes?
What sort of worlds
would we create?
 
And would we stop at snow globes?
For beyond us is thinking,
imagination and creativity
that is not limited to snow globes.
 
And now we understand why
snow globes are transparent.
To let the light in, and for us
to look outwards, beyond all we know

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Describe and draw a snow globe that contains your perfect world.