Thoughts and resources meant to spark your curiosity about Yourself

For fresh weekly ideas and thought-provoking stuff, also check out my Facebook page.

 

Thu

24

Sep

2015

Bring Your Gifts to this World!

Whatever it may be that you're good at and that makes you come alive when you do it - go do it! Because that's your best recipe for living a life of joy, well-being, and maximum positive impact. 

 

In the talk below, held earlier this month at Ignite Zurich, I share a very personal story of how I experienced this truth first hand - in a very special setting...

 

Hope you'll enjoy it!

 

...and that you will follow suit  ;-)

Sat

14

Mar

2015

The Power of Being On Purpose


Over and over again, I’m blown away by the energy that’s released when my clients connect to their life purpose.

 

Last week I had a first session with a wonderful young entrepreneur who had gotten buried so deeply in the nuts and bolts of setting up her business and closing her first deals that she lost sight of her vision and got completely disconnected from her passion and creativity.  She felt blocked and disempowered; insecurity and fear were taking over. No good place to be – and definitely no great place from which to passionately engage with potential clients. -- What to do?


The good news was that the business she had chosen was in fact fully aligned with her purpose, her values, and her strengths – and so it took us as little as half an hour to have her connect back to her purpose and realize why this work is so meaningful to her. And from there, she could step into her best Self and unleash her unstoppable creative power – the very power she needed to amaze her future clients. And off she went, unstoppably courageous, on fire, on purpose. Her inner leader unleashed.

 

This world needs more people like her who come alive fully to serve their world through their gifts!

 

If you feel compelled to unearth your life purpose, or re-connect with it, write me a message. Or join us on April 11 in Zurich for our "Unleash Your Inner Leader" Workshop. --  More info at: http://bit.ly/1EcpP3p

 


"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

― Howard Thurman

Fri

28

Mar

2014

The Hapiness Advantage

Why are so many of us constantly overworked, never entirely satisfied with the level of success we’re achieving, and most of the time swinging between different levels of “being content” rather than feeling deeply fulfilled and happy? Even though we belong to the most privileged cohort in a world that provides us with anything we could possibly wish for? Something must be deeply flawed, doesn’t it?

Is it maybe that the way we set our goals, the way we measure success, and most importantly, our strategy to reach happiness are deceptive? If so, could we change the game completely only by changing those strategies? It seems so. Shawn Achor, a fervent advocate and leading teacher of Positive Psychology is convinced that by inverting our common assumption that happiness is a consequence of success, we will become not only happier, but also more productive and eventually more successfully.

I think he is spot-on. And he does not only explain why, he also provides a simple yet extremely powerful way to make that change happen in each and every one of us. If you are curious to learn how, watch his brilliantly funny and eye-opening TED talk (you’ll probably need to watch it a few times in a row, it’s soo rich!). And if you like what you see there, you might want to have a look at his book “The Happiness Advantage”, in which he goes into great detail on how to apply Positive Psychology to boost productivity, success, and well-being in the work place. Required reading for any Leader, I’d like to say.

 

 

Enjoy – and start maximizing your positive impact today!

 

Mon

10

Mar

2014

What Matters Most

I was sick in bed last week with the stomach flu. Just a bagatelle, actually - and how surprisingly profoundly terrible one feels! - And in those seemingly worst moments of gnawing pain in head and limbs, what was it that gave me most relief, most bliss? The smile of my baby girl, and the caressing hand of my woman. Nothing else could come even close.

That made me think: How much time and energy do we invest in those “things” in our lives that matter most when it really counts – and how much do we invest in others that matter much less…?

 

…and that also made me remember that talk I had seen years ago, by a man who had come so close to dying that he suddenly understood – in a matter of seconds – what really mattered most to him in his life – and who since then has committed – every day anew – to live his live accordingly.

 

I invite you to watch this 5 minute video. But beware: it might change your life. To the better.

 

 

What are your priorities in life? And do you live your life accordingly?

 

If your answer is not a clear "yes", then the question is: What are you waiting for?

 

Shalom.

 

Thu

20

Feb

2014

What's YOUR Definition of Success?

A lot of my clients – and friends – come to speak to me about their careers, often because they don’t feel quite fulfilled with what they are doing at the moment and are wondering what should come next. Usually, my first question to them is not what their dream career would look like, but, rather, what their dream LIFE would look like…

…and that quickly brings us to these questions: What do you REALLY want? What is it that REALLY matters to you? And what is YOUR definition of a successful life?

 

Only when we have clarity on these questions, we start to look at the career options that could best support this ideal life.

 

What makes it so difficult for us to know and follow our OWN definition of success is that there are so many voices around us that keep shouting at us what we are supposed to regard as important. And one thing that’s even more tragic than not knowing what our idea of success, is to follow one definition of success for a lifetime and only realize too late that it was in fact somebody else’s.

 

Philosopher, Author, and founder of The School Of Life, Alain de Botton, examines our society’s ideas of success and failure -- and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. And he advocates a kinder, gentler definition of success. Watch him in this witty and thought-provoking TED talk:

 

 

So, have YOU asked yourself lately what your OWN definition of a successful life looks like?

 

Here’s mine (that I adopted from author Christopher Morley):

 

“There is only one success: to spend my life in my own way.”

 

Cheers!

 

Sun

09

Feb

2014

Want to be happy? Be grateful!

I talked to a friend the other day, same age as me, who had suffered a stroke just a month ago. He was still working hard on his physical recovery, without guarantees for a complete one. His spirit, though, was full of peace, wisdom, love, and most of all: Gratitude. Gratitude for the clarity on his life this incident had brought to him. For him, his stroke was an incredible gift.

I was deeply moved. And it had me think about the power of perspectives – and about how we can choose to turn every moment, every event, into an opportunity – into a gift.

This also reminded me of a TED talk I had recently seen, given by a monk and interfaith scholar: David Steindl-Rast gracefully explains how – in contradiction to our intuition – gratefulness doesn’t come as a consequence of happiness, but that, it works the exact opposite way.

 

If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking you'll be grateful once you're just a little bit better off, think again!

 

 

So you might ask yourself: What am I grateful for in my life? What am I grateful for this week? This day? And who would you like to express your gratefulness to? …sharing between both of you a spark of this thing called happiness –

 

Thank you for listening.

 

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