Dear friends,
A sincere say thank you for the opportunity you have given me to work with you, your team, your company or for being a great mentor, a wonderful friend, an impactful coach to me.
As I am rounding up my fifth year running QURIOUSLIFE, I feel blessed and energised to step into 2018. There’s many ways to express gratitude; in journals, meditation, prayer or by just saying thank you. Gratitude is the quality of being thankful and readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. In this note, looking back on 2017, I am sharing my gratitude to you in the form of the lessons I have learned this year and hope you find some value in these as well:
BE PROUD
Recently at an event, a client complimented me on the impact I have made on her a few years back. I coached her on further developing her career and advised her “if you can visualise taking on the job of your boss’s boss…then be confident you can do this at the right time in your career”. She was recently promoted in that senior executive role and told me to not brush her feedback aside and really listen to her compliments she expressed to me. “Stand still as I can’t shoot a moving target. Be proud of what you do as you create a positive impact on people”. She helped me in return to realise that I should allow myself to be proud of my work as a teacher helping so many people to improve their personal direction or career in life.
ASK FOR HELP
I have the tendency to just get on with things and do them my way. Often this works, however equally often I miss out on other ways to look at opportunities and situations alike. Asking for help means putting aside your ego and express your vulnerable side. This year I have been so fortunate to have Ethan working with me side-by-side. He was putting a fresh lens on how we approach our projects and created tremendous value. There’s many people around you to help, sometimes the only thing you have to do is: ask.
OBSERVE
This year I have done a lot of work with the Enneagram personality types for group coaching and the ‘Inside Out’ program. My type is ‘Enthusiast’ and my area of growth is to be more of an ‘Observer’ (no surprise to people who know me well..). In our world today, with so many people expressing their opinion left-right-center in (social) media, being an ‘Enthusiast’ can be exhausting as our natural intention is to participate fully with all the chatter and opinions, however becoming more of an ‘Observer’ gives me a reminder to just be quiet, let others take the lead sometimes. No kidding, it’s not easy for me, however it gives me a wonderful self-reflection and openness to truly listen.
SMILE
Being based in Bangkok has taught me a lot about the effect a genuine smile has on people. In this city of over 6 million, still each day I am amazed how people move around by foot, motor cycle or stand still in traffic without all the stress and shuffle experienced in other cities I have lived in. There’s very little pushing, shoving or car honking here. My personal view is that the Thai people believe in karma, don’t take things too personal; we’re all in this together and we have to make it work somehow. And, like I witnessed just the other day again, when our taxi driver was accidentally cutting off a scooter when stopping, the scooter driver looked up, raised his shoulders and gave us a big smile. A smile puts things back in perspective. I now make it a daily goal to make a few strangers smile, it’s quite amazing what this does to your mood. PS: of course not always successful. But hey, some people choose to be grumpy!
CHRISTMAS EACH DAY
Finally, my mother always says, don’t come around to my place all at once just because it’s Christmas and you feel you have to do this. You are welcome to come over, but don’t forget to make each day of the year a little bit like Christmas and tell each other the things which need to be told. Don’t save it just for Christmas, otherwise that will be a waste of time.
Thank you…have a wonderful happy festive time and I wish you a very good 2018 with a little spark of Christmas every day!
Jos
My weekend video suggestion:
The one thing all humans have in common is that each of us wants to be happy, says Brother David Steindl-Rast, a monk and interfaith scholar. And happiness, he suggests, is born from gratitude. An inspiring lesson in slowing down, looking where you’re going, and above all, being grateful. Here’s the 12min video. Enjoy.
A final thought:
Enjoy the little things,
for one day you may look back and realise..
they were the big things.