FRIENDSHIP
 
We don’t try to
sell stuff to our friends.
We help them,
without asking for money.
 
We don’t try to
make money from our friends.
We share what we have,
for free.
 
Friendship is a mindset,
with activities  that  offer
and share all that we have,
 for the benefit of others.
 
Friendship is that joyful space
of playing together and
growing with others,
where money is not the driver.
 
For friendship is a gift where,
we quietly receive more
than we could ever imagine,
for free.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1.   Where is 'money the driver' in your  relationships  with others?
2.   Do you look  to build friendships first or to sell stuff first?

TEENAGE YEARS

When I was fifteen,
the teachers shouted at me,
for daydreaming and  looking out
of the window.  I only scraped
a pass  in a few subjects.
 
Every day now,
I sit quietly
and daydream.
 
When I was sixteen,
I wrote a book of song lyrics.
Teenage love and
aspirational words.
I never shared them.
 
Every day now,
I write  new words
for all to see.
 
When I was seventeen,
I created my first business idea
and bought a candle making kit
which came in a box.
It never got off the kitchen table.
 
Every day now,
I light a candle
which sits on a little table.
 
When I was eighteen,
I decided to become a priest
and go off to Africa
and help the poor.
I never made it.
 
Every day now,
I try to build
a world of kindness.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1.  Think back to your teenage years.   Where   are those  activities, dreams and ideas happening now in your life?
2. Look after our teenagers  - for they are already living their future right now.

​Day 389 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

BOOKSHELF

​What book are you reading today?
How are you growing and nourishing
all that interests you?
How are you taking some time
to escape the world, and
to be with yourself?

What book will you pick up today?
To sit for just a few minutes,
perhaps  with a cup of coffee.
A chance to imagine, to explore,
to smile and to revive you.
What book are you reading today?

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1.  Choose a book from your bookshelf - perhaps one you  haven't opened in a while or one you never got around to reading.
2. Find a quiet corner ....

​Day 388 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

LIVE  YOUR LIFE BACKWARDS

​To live our lives backwards frees us
from the expectation of our past.
It lifts the burden of
everything that we are carrying.
It allows us to start afresh from
a position of where we end up,
not where we are now.
 
Living our life backwards takes us
out of ‘cumulative thinking’
where we keep asking ourselves
‘what comes next?’
For all of  our current options are
created   from our experience,
expectations   and learning to date.
 
However, if we start at the end
 and live our lives backwards
we begin from a completely new place,
one of no history or expectation.
 It means that we can
completely and freely design
the rest of our life.

FUTURE STORY
 
Write down your future story!
State exactly what will happen.
Read your story every morning.
Read your story every evening.
 
Put your story on your phone.
Put it beside your computer.
Put it inside your notebook.
Put in your wallet or purse.
 
Put your story on your fridge.
Put it on your office wall.
Put it on your bathroom mirror.
Put it on your bedside table.

Read your story now.
Watch your future unfold
every moment, every day,
everywhere.

​Day 386 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

IMPOSSIBLE AND UNIMAGINABLE
 
Leave some space every day
for the impossible
to happen for you,
or it won’t.
 
Leave some space every day
for the unimaginable
to happen for you,
or it can’t.
 
We cannot transform our lives
by expecting more of the same,
or repeating
what we’ve already done.
 
So, every day take a moment
for the impossible and   the
unimaginable to happen  for you, 
and it will.

​Day 385 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

QUALITATIVE EASING
 
There is talk of slowly
getting back to normal.
But this is much more
than a call to gradually
ease back, into the way that
 we used to work and live.
 
We have been given the
opportunity to reposition
exactly who we are.
We have been given an
amazing moment of choice
and the time to make it happen.
 
This is a call to lift our lives
from where it was
and to place ourselves
where we want to be.
This is the life-changing moment
of our real new normal.

IDENTITY   PARADE
 
It’s not that I don’t care anymore,
about what others think of me.
 
It’s that I care more than ever,
about who I am.

​ PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How would you describe how others see you?
2. How close is this image to the real you?
​3.   What is stopping you being  open with others about who you really are? 

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Where are you at this stage of your life on the 'business-monk' scale?​

​Day 382 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

PAST PRESENT 

We can train our brains
to help us to achieve all
that is important to us, including
relationships, money, career,
health, home, happiness,
lifestyle, and so much more.
 
Simply write down your
Past Present statements
for exactly what you want to see
in every aspect of your life.
Be as detailed as you can and  imagine 
what each one means for you.
 
Past Present statements are written
in the past tense, such as
I created, I built, or I developed.
Or your statements can be written
in the present tense, such as
I am, I have or I own.
 
If we write our statements
 in the future tense, such as
I will or I am going to have,
then we are telling our brain
that this is not for today.
This is never going to happen.
 
Now read your top five
Past Present statements
first thing each morning
and last thing every night.
They will enable you to  become
the you, that you already are.