CHAMPAGNE CORKS
 
The cork that was once securely
set in a champagne bottle
is now bobbing along in the sea,
not fixed any more but floating
with a new energy, a new life.
 
The cork that is no longer needed
has found a new place
and a different way of living.
It’s free now, floating with joy
on the Sea of Love.
 
The cork that we discarded
now shows us the way, and how
we too can have a different life.
It’s time for us to ‘pop’ and
set ourselves free.
 
So, think not as a cork,
but see instead the
oceans of the world,
the sky and universe above you
and the lands you will journey to.
 
It’s time to celebrate,
to be filled with wonder,
and to journey today,
for you are no longer a cork
but at the centre of everything.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What new life can you imagine?
2. What do you need to do to set yourself free of what is holding you back?

GOING AND COMING 
 
Coming back is
always different to going,
although it is the same route.
 
For in the time between
arriving and departing,
we have changed.
 
We arrive back
to the place we started,
but not as we were.
 
No one can see any change
as they welcome us back.
But they look different to us.
 
All is seen through a new lens,
in the space, that is
between going and coming.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What are you planning to return to?
2. Where do you need to go back to?
3. How have you changed since you were last there?

PRICE INCREASE 
 
There is a price
that must be paid
if we are to do
what we should.
 
There is a price
that must be paid
if we are to be
ourselves.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What is the cost to you to be fully yourself?
​2.  What will you change?
3.  How will others view the new/different you?
4.  How will you know if this change is worth it?

SNOWBALL'S CHANCE 
 
Wednesday and Sunday nights
were bingo nights for my Ma
and her friends.
 
‘The snowball’s £60 for 58 balls.
So, there’s a good chance
it will go this week.’
 
Ma fastened her coat
and checked her hair
in the mirror.
 
‘I’ve got my lucky pen,’
she laughed, as she picked
up her handbag and left.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What’s the ‘snowball of life’ that you are hoping to win?
​2.  How can you show up as your best self every time?
3.  Who is accompanying you as you play?

PURPOSE 

Your core purpose is to promote
the love that God is,
especially to those
who do not understand
that God is love.
That is all.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  How are you promoting love in all that you do, in all that you say and in all that you are?
​2.  Do you accept that God is love or do you have a different definition?

JIGSAW

Work on the bits that
you have been given.
For these are the pieces of your jigsaw.
And they make the picture of what
you are to become.

And remember every piece counts.
Every piece is as valuable
as any other.
For your picture needs
all of your pieces in their place.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What does your complete jigsaw picture look like?
​2. What pieces do you need to work on?

THE NOTHING COURSE 
 
Our new training program
will change your life.
It will reveal the hidden depths
of who you really are,
and offer you happiness and
joy beyond your imagination.
 
There is no cost for this
program and you don’t need
a book or a download or a login.
To join, just sit in silence
and free your mind from all
of the noise in the world.
 
Just sit and empty your brain
of all the busyness that traps us.
Thoughts will rush to fill
this space but gently sit
without thinking. Just be.
For this is the nothing course.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. Just sit without thinking.

THE GREAT SADNESS 
 
The great sadness
comes upon me
when I realise that
you will no longer be here.
 
And all that we shared
will be gone forever.
And all that we are
will end.
 

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  How can we cherish and be joyful with all those we love today?
​2.  How can we continue to celebrate every moment that we have been given together?

GETTING THINGS DONE 
 
The relentless and frustrating
chase to get everything done,
eats away at our lives.
But in the end, whatever
is done, will be done.
 
So, cherish this day and
the wonders that it brings.
Grasp what will be revealed
and given to you,
for it is priceless.
 
Go with the flow, and
let all flow to and from you.
Do something every day
and all will be done,
as it is intended to be.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. What was your one key success from yesterday?
​2. What is your one key activity to do today?
3. What will be your one key to do tomorrow?

REALIGNMENT 

Realignment is a new start.
It is not more of the same.
It is not the continuation
of what we were doing

Realignment is a fresh start.
It is a complete reframing.
It is the repositioning
of who we are and what we do

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What does your fresh start look like?
​2.  How will you reposition all that you and all that you are?

SUBCONSCIOUS
 
Each day is new.
Each morning is different.
The conversation flows
through every part
of my consciousness,
without regard for expectations
or boundaries.
For the feeling arrives
separately from the message.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  What is your subconscious saying to you today?
​2.  How do you feel about this?
3.  What is your response?

HARVESTING
 
It is because you harvest
what has been given to you.
It is because you write every day.
 
This is why you see life
in a different way,
for as it is played out before you,
you seek to capture not just a
passing moment, but a lifetime
of treasure for everyone.
 
And because you see the process,
you break the activity down
into the various learning steps,
that others can remember.
 
You then take these pieces and
you re-shape and re-format them.
 
You are presenting new perspectives,
new models and new approaches
that cannot be seen, for
they are the fulfilment
of the harvesting, re-positioning
and re-presenting process.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1.  Are you an onlooker or a harvester?
2.  How can you capture all that you learn every day?

SMILE 
 
When is your first smile
of the day?
For when we smile
everything inside is well,
and everything outside is joy.
So, let us not be miserable.
 
Smiling helps us to live longer,
by reducing stress and
boosting our immune system.
Our smile is contagious and will
instantly lift the mood of others,
Smiling creates a happier world!

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS
1. Check out what happens what happens with neuropeptides, dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins when you smile.
​2. When was your first smile today?

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
​