DESOLATION
 
Yesterday I beat
myself up repeatedly.
It was a vicious onslaught.
I just lay helpless
as the blows landed.

Today I survey
the prize-fighter,
sitting quietly,
after the night before,
bruised and serene.

I’ve seen it all before
but yesterday’s fight
laid bare
how desolate I really am,
and how precious today is.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  Do you ever beat yourself up?
​2.  What might you do to be kinder to yourself?
3.  How might you celebrate how precious this day is for you?

BENEATH THE BLANKET 
 
Subconscious sitting is
when we slip beneath
the blanket of thinking,
where there is nothing.
 
We sit and wait unexpectedly.
Just sit beneath
the blanket of thinking
and wait.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. Sit quietly and slip beneath the blanket of thinking.
2. Can you sit and wait for nothing to happen – and be content?
3. When will you repeat this process?
 

DAILY BREAD 
 
My brain is fresh this morning.
Like early morning bread.
Straight from the oven.
This is my daily bread.
To take and eat.
Fresh every morning within me.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. How is your brain first thing in the morning?
​2. What sustains your thinking and focus each day?

MARRIAGE GUIDANCE​
 
The secret of making a marriage work
we’re told, is ‘not to see too much
of each other and to live
independent lives, with each other.
 
The thing is not to try and
do everything together, or to lose
all that brought you together
in the first place.
 
Marriage should bring something
additional and still enable
each of you to become more
as you grow with each other’.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What do you think of this piece of marriage guidance advice?
​2.  What’s your secret for making a marriage work?
 

COACHING SKILLS
 
I work as a coach and mentor,
as a licensing or strategy person,
helping others to build their business
and develop their purpose.
 
But the reality is that my colleagues
are helping and inspiring me,
with their drive, their expertise
and their friendship.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What did you learn today (or this week), from the people you are working with?
2.  How do the people you work with help and/or encourage you?
 

​
PROPHECY 
 
The chair is empty.
The desk is clear.
The computer is closed.
There is silence now.
 
What was started
has now finished.
Incomplete, unsatisfactory,
unfulfilled and unread.
 
The greatest of plans.
The biggest of hopes.
The widest of ambition.
Have all come to nothing.
 
And this is how it is.
And how it should be.
For all else is vanity.
All else is foolish.
 
To see the future
is a gift of prophecy,
and to accept the present
is a gift of love.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What will your office be like when you close the door for the last time?
​2. What will be left unfinished?
3. How do you feel about this?

NEW WAY 
 
We have taken the wrong path.
We’ve gone off in the wrong direction.
We are making the wrong decisions.
We are going the wrong way.
 
The evidence is all around us
in our lives and in our world.
And yet we keep going
as if we have to keep moving
in this direction and continue
making the same mistakes.
 
It’s time to take a different path,
go in a new direction,
make decisions based on love
and find a new way.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. Are there any areas of your life, work, or relationships where you have gone off track?
​2. How might you use a different compass to find a better way forward?
3. Is yours a compass of service, or forgiveness, or gratitude, or kindness, or love?

THE RED CAR 
 
The red car is gone.
It was started by you and
driven by three generations.
 
The red car is gone,
just like that.
It is no longer in our lives.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. Is there anything that has been in your family for more than a generation?
2. Has (or will) anything be passed on to you?
3. What will you pass on to the next generation?

MEMORY 
 
I attended a memory service
last night in a church
beside the old family graveyard
I knew in my youth.
 
I thought I would be on my own,
in the busy congregation but
one by one, I saw all those I knew.
They were all there.
 
But they were different.
All previous angst, sorrow
and resentment had gone.
They were all transformed.
 
They reached out to me with
love, joy and laughter.
It should always have been like this,
but other things got in the way.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. How do you remember family and friends who have died?
2. What is the one event that you would like to re-write with love, joy and laughter?

TRIBUTE
 
I met Celine Dion tonight.
I sat chatting with her
in her dressing room,
before she went on stage.
 
Celine was in fact Leanne Love,
a tribute act from Shropshire.
She began singing as Celine
when she was nine years old.
 
Everything about Leanne
aligned to her other person.
She said that ‘All of us have
someone that we imitate.
 
We may not know it, or see it,
but deep within us is that role,
belonging to another,
that can set us free.’

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  If you had to own up, who are you a Tribute act for?
​2.  Who do you imitate the most?
3.  Have you found the right person yet the who can set you free?

Day 578 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
​

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT
 
My decorator Mick tells me
that ‘it’s easier to see
with the lights off.
 
The artificial light
causes a glare and
it’s hard to see
where I am or
what I have yet to do.’
 
We all need real light
to see where we are
And what we have yet to do.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What progress have you made on your priorities?
​2. What still needs to be done?
3. How might you view all of this in a different light?

 GO
  
To avoid cumulative thinking
restart your life.
 
Begin a new phase.
Reframe what you are doing,
Reposition who you are.
Have new objectives.
Create a plan.
Set some timescales.
Put the past in a box.
Fill your energy tank.
Be determined.
Focus on the next you.
Move on in a new way,
Grasp every moment.
Go, and go again, and
Go as often as you can.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. Pick three ways and detail these now.

Day 576 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
​

TESTIMONIAL
 
It’s hard to read the label
when you’re inside the bottle….
I need someone outside the bottle
to tell me what they see
 
That is one of the things you do for me.
And for all those you work with.
You help those like me who are
stuck inside their bottle.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  If you could get out of your bottle what would you see written on the label?
​2.  As your own mentor, what would you say to yourself?
3.  What then would you recommend as an action plan?

UPSIDE-DOWN TRIANGLE 
 
The logical extension
of our upside-down triangle
is that everybody in the world
is part of our personal community.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  Who in the world would you like to help or support or work with?
​2.  How can you build an upside network of connections to reach up and make this happen?
3.  What does your community look like now – and this time next year?

GROWN UP
 
The young tree sways
gently in the breeze.
Behind it the wooden fence
stands solid and secure,
protecting the little tree.
We all have a role to play
when we grow up.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  Who are you looking after today?
​2.  Who else might need your help, support, or advice at the moment?

POINTS OF COMPLETION
 
Life is not one continuous process.
It is a series of overlapping phases
that map out all that we do.
Each of these phases are marked
by a point of completion,
a realisation that we have
now gone beyond this.
That was a different time.
That was a different me.
 
Where are the points of
completion in your life?
Of course, nothing is ever
finished until it’s really over,
but there are stages
or steps or points
that we all pass through
that mark the completion
of that earlier time.
 
And sometimes it is only
when we go back there,
when we revisit,
when something happens,
that brings the past to life again,
It is then we realise that this
was a point of completion.
That phase is over.
We are now in a different place.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What are the main points of completion in your life?
​2. When do you think the next one will be?

Day 572 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
​

VOCATION
 
It is beyond your work and all you do.
It is behind who you are.
For before you were born,
you were chosen
for everlasting life.
 
For now is your work and all you do.
To be who you truly are.
You can see you were born,
and you were chosen
for everlasting life.
 
This changes your work and all you do.
So, search for who you are.
You know you were born,
and you were chosen,
for everlasting life.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What is your life’s work?
​2. At a deeply personal level, what do you know about yourself?
3. Why have you been chosen?
 

BACK AND FORWARD
 
There are two movements required
to sharpen our saw.
Pulling back and doing less
of what we shouldn’t do,
and pushing forward with more
of what we should do.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What do you need to do less of?
​2.  What do you need to do more of?
3.  What are you making with your saw?

RESERVED SEATS
 
It was packed on our 10am train this
morning. I ended up at a table seat.
The final place was politely requested
by a scruffy looking guy who clearly was
a bit the worse for wear. He was too chatty
for the middle class group he joined.
 
When he took out a can of beer,
you could hear the comments in
people’s heads. ‘I’m going to a mate’s
funeral so it’s going to be a tough day.
You don’t mind?’ he gently asked.
I’m not sure the voices believed him.
 
The train stopped at the next station and as
more people got on, he offered his seat to
a little girl who was sitting on the floor beside
her Mum. The mother ignored his offer.
My man took a call on his phone to confirm
what time he would be at the funeral.
 
He opened another can as we pulled
into the next station. He offered his seat to a
dad with kids who said ‘I’m getting off at
the next stop. Thank you though. Top man!’
My man rolled a cigarette from a packet that
stated that ‘smoking can cause throat cancer’.
 
A young woman and her friend arrived and
claimed their reserved seats opposite me.
My man graciously packed up his battered laptop
and left without a farewell. The ‘two husbands’
then arrived. They insisted that I stay in my
seat. Then all four of them opened their cans.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What’s they key message in this story for you?
​2.  Why must we give up our seat?

ENOUGH SAID 
 
I have been given
more than enough,
more than I could expect.
 
If no more comes,
I already have had more
than I could ever hope for.
 
I have been given
what is unimaginable,
and yet real.
 
I have been given
more than enough.
Thank you.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What is enough for you?
2.  Have you been given enough?
3.  What do you still need?
 

DOG BLANKET
 
The dogs run to their blanket
and settle down
after their walk.
 
They will always go to sit
on the blanket, wherever it is
in the house.
 
They have learned
that this is their place,
where they belong.
 
And so, they ignore
all else around them,
and stay on their blanket.
 
We too live on our blanket
and miss all
that is around us.
 
But unlike the dogs,
there is no-one
to tell us to sit, but ourselves.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.

LIGHT SWITCH 
 
The world tells us that
we are powerless
to change anything,
to make an impact or
to shift things for the better.
For we are just one
trapped in the darkness.
 
And yet, we have
all the power and
resources that we need,
to make things better and
make right what is wrong.
For we are the one
who can switch on the light.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What change would you like to see in our world?
​2.  Where is your light switch (your starting point)?
3.  What will you see when you decide to switch on the light?

HONOUR THY MOTHER AND FATHER
 
I want to say thank you
to you both this morning.
Your love, guidance and
sacrifices made this moment.
I come here and honour you.
For without you
none of this would be possible.
 
And you would love
all that is happening now,
with your grandchildren
and your great grandchildren.
And with me.
For without you
none of this would be unfolding.
 
And I ask you
for help once again,
like I have always done.
So that we can finish
this piece that you started.
For without you
I cannot be complete.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What do you thank your parents for?
2. What is it that you are trying to complete?
​3. What advice would your parents give you, right now?
 

BEST JOB​
 
When I was in altar boy
I would light the candles
on the altar before mass.
And then,
blow them out afterwards.
This was one of the best jobs!
 
Now that I’m older
I light the candle
on the table each morning.
And then,
blow it out before bed.
This is still the best job.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What is the best job that you have each day?
​2. How do you start and end each day that you are given?

SKILLS SHORTAGES
 
‘There’s was a druggie in MacDonalds
who had thrown up over himself.
He was totally out of it. Really disgusting.
Police should have come and locked him up.’
This was the greeting from Andy who had arrived
early, to finish off a plastering job in my kitchen.
He could see from my lack of response
that I didn’t necessarily agree.
 
‘What if we created an environment
where we could help people to recover?
Punishment only makes us feel better.
It doesn’t necessarily change the behaviour
or help people to build a different future.
I think that we, as a society need to create
a different way forward.’ I suggested.
‘Like what, give me an alternative.’ said Andy.
 
‘Look after the person. Take away the drugs.
Find out what they are good at. Help them
to find meaningful work and to see a
different way forward. Enable them
to help others. The cost / benefit analysis in
financial terms is better than building and
staffing more prisons.’ Andy laughed
‘Makes sense, we need more plasterers.’

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. How do you think we should address the drugs problem?
2. How do you personally respond when you meet someone who is struggling?