Building your future – day by day.

Building your future – day by day.


Life has a way of slipping away on a daily basis. Perhaps one of the ironic truisms is ones youth is perceived as eternal and the future never comes. In stark contrast to reality, the future does come and usually quicker than we think.

Each day I meet individuals who are “trapped” in the mundane aspects of their life, and struggle to find a sense of purpose in their jobs. The fact that we refer to our daily work as “a job” is the first indication that we are trapped. So how can we build a future in which we would prefer to live?

Here are some helpful keys that will empower your future.

1. The future is where we live

The future is not as far away as one thinks! I remember well, sitting in the career guidance office at high school, worrying about the next phase of my life. As I pondered the career options, leaving home, friendships, and the sports teams that had provided the network and assurance of who I was. All these would change, and the future was less than clear to me.

How important were those decisions made in ignorance? The quote “youthfulness is wasted on youth” has a ring of truth to it. As a young person, my thoughts rarely ventured into the mundane issues of life or responsibilities beyond my future needs, let alone considering another’s needs. On reflection, I think I should have thought.

Each day we fashion our future out of the daily habits we accumulate. Some will prepare us for life, but few will initiate our success in the future.

2. The strongest prison is in the confines of one’s mind

Our attitude is a huge factor in determining our future. A positive attitude can make an intellectually inferior person superior and a superior person inferior, that’s the power of attitude. To assume we need unlimited resources to be successful in life is as foolish as believing things will change without us taking responsibility. Whether we can or cannot, we are absolutely right!

The wild salmon’s survival is dependent on its capacity to swim against the tide. Were it to choose a life of ease and to take the path of least resistance, it would be extinct in one generation. If we are to build the future in which we prefer to live, one must accept the inevitable:

a) We will meet with daily resistance of all kinds. Prepare your mind for it

b) Every preferable future starts with the seed of hope. It does not come fully formed

c) If your thinking isn’t open to growth and change, your future is limited

d) The hardest thing to open is a closed mind. Seek out dream builders in print

e) Minimise your options. An option mentality always leaves the back door open.


3. Our future is purposed by our daily activities

We are creatures of habit. Part of our security lays in the way we control the variables in life. Recently I was speaking at a meeting regarding change management. I made the statement, “Who likes change” and the response was overwhelming. Almost all the participants raised their hands. I asked each person to look around the room and see the response. I then talked about, removing parking privileges, open plan offices replacing individual ones and moving the 9-5 working day to three shifts which included weekend rotation. I asked again, “who likes change now?” The response was again overwhelming, but this time negatively. The point being, we all like change as long as it affects us positively.

Change is the way of life. From the moment of our conception, our life is given to change. Some things are within our ability to change, others are not. However, the things we do on a daily basis can guarantee our success or failure.

I believe there are some important habits that we must include in our day to be facilitate the future in which we prefer to life:

a) Think and act constructively. (Enter each day prepared ahead of time)

b) Find creative solutions to mundane problems. (boredom is a curse)

c) Never ever, let someone paint your horizon (it will always be too dull)

d) Give at least one hour per day to the pursuit of your future development

e) Take the time to help someone else out. Give, share, encourage, support, acknowledge)

f) Always be kind to the cleaner (janitor) and treat them with equal respect.

g) Remember God’s gift to you was life, what you do with it, is your gift to Him.


4. Boldness is the tool that shapes our world

For every great breakthrough that humanity enjoys today, some individual has paid the price to bring it into reality. Boldness is not arrogance! Today people are more focused on having an “attitude” than they are a “character.” Boldness is one of the missing links in many a life today. One can be bold without imposing ones boldness upon another, but boldness is infectious and without such people, the world is captive to a monotone existence that lacks the rallying call of creativity and daring.

“People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress”. Dale Turner

Why not act bold. If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you always got. Idiocy is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

I recall playing a play station golf game that required me to synchronize two moving scales of strength and direction simultaneously in order to drive the ball down the course. Try as I did, the ball kept hurling off to the left. After hours of total frustration, I gave up. One of my children picked it up and with one click landed the ball smack centre of the fairway! After “being educated” in the process, I am able to place the ball at will around the course.

In order to create a culture and a character of boldness, one must position oneself in a place of potential failure, for without the possibility of failure we will never experience the thrill of success. Living a beige life restricts us from living in the spectrum of colour. Why not be bold and take a risk in a new career, a promotion, in a new business venture, in a relationship, in an investment, in a new country, or simply in the way that you have always thought. Open your mind to the creative genius of a bold new life. That’s what visionaries do.

5. Change your glasses; you may be surprised at the view.

Some years ago, I had a group of friends around whilst I was decorating the house. One of the majour tasks was the cathedral style vaulted ceilings of my home. Standing a considerable height from the floor, the only way they could be painted was with the brush attached to an extension pole. It was messy work and the constant dripping of the paint splattered my glasses and those of my friend. On noticing the state of his glasses, I couldn’t help but laugh. However, my glasses were in a worse state than his. How we had managed to continue with the painting with such a limitation in vision was amazing. The truth is, we live our life each day with our vision limited by our perception and circumstances. On cleaning the mess off the lenses, our field of vision was once again restored.

Here are some helpful keys to improve your vision of the future:

a) Take time out to review your perspective. Things do look different after a good night’s sleep.

b) Get your eyesight checked (all vision needs the support of other visionaries)

c) Adjust your focus (don’t micro manage your problems), step back and try to look at the big picture. A magnifying glass in the suns focus can set a corn field on fire, yet of little value in looking at the big picture.


On a final note; the only things that grow naturally in a garden are weeds. To construct a life with vision and purpose, one needs a plan. The roadway to success is paved with parking bays, and an original idea needs a systematic plan of activation. Why not start building your future, today?

Let them eat cake

“Let them eat cake”


Recently we have been bombarded by celebrity morals. What I mean by that, is those in the public eye, have decided to take cheap shots at their viewing public from what they consider to be a higher moral ground.

"Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", supposedly spoken by "Marie Antoinette," upon learning that the peasants had no bread. As brioche is luxury bread enriched with eggs and butter, it would reflect the princess's obliviousness to the nature of a famine. However, "Let them eat cake” was said 100 years before her by Marie-Thérèse, the wife of Louis XIV. It was a callous and ignorant statement and Marie Antoinette, was neither. Author Vincent Cronin also agrees that Marie-Thérese made the statement, and not Marie Antoinette.

The statement “Let them eat cake” was made amidst a tumultuous time in history when the common man was under financial and physical oppression by the systematic taxing and the enforced restrictions, heaped upon them by a privileged few. This resulted in the French revolution and the removal of heads (physically and metaphorically).

Over recent months, many a celebrity chef (Jamie Oliver, Mike King, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and a plethora of others), have decided to enlighten us from their privileged positions about the ethics (or lack of it) in food production. Whilst I recognize there is a valid point to be made, I find it difficult to imagine that whilst they make their prognosis on ethical farming practices from their exclusive ivory towers, they truly understand what it is to live like a peasant. If they do, recent comments allude me!

Recently, I heard Fearnely-Whittingstall say, “It shouldn’t be possible for someone to buy a chicken for two pounds”. This hallow statement reminded me of one made amidst a revolution not so long ago. “Let them eat cake”. It reminded me of how far he and other “specialists” have become removed from the average man and just how ill directed their prejudices have become.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." Matthew 25:35



Passion without wisdom is merely ignorance gone to seed! Whilst I consider oneself educated enough to understand ethical food production, I am wise enough to understand that a privileged lifestyle can build a wall of ignorance around the masses. I love quality foods, (ask my wife and she will concur), I am well able to blow the week’s supermarket bill on an evening’s meal. No one will convince me that factory produced meat is better than free range, organically fed products, but it is well beyond the average person’s capacity to buy. And here is the ethics dilemma; one has to BE a celebrity to financially afford the choices they espouse from their pulpits.

"According to our Christian ethics, we're supposed to love God, love each other and help take care of the poor. It is immoral to charge somebody making $5,000 an income tax". Bob Riley

At the time of Mary Antoinette reign, Marie Antoine (Antonin) Carême, (a celebrity chef) was producing meals for the Royalty that required a thousand swans tongues and pastry masterpieces that stood four feet high. Born destitute and abandoned, he rose to the most prestigious rank few chefs could ever lay claim to. Carême's impact on culinary matters ranged from trivial to theoretical. He is credited with creating the standard chef's hat, the toque; he designed new sauces and dishes, he published a classification of all sauces into groups, based on four mother sauces, and I frequently refer to many of his published works to keep my feet on the ground and enlighten the next generation of chefs.

Carême used his skills and position to influence world opinion on food methodology and consumption. Today’s celebrity chefs are no different, but one wonders whether their plight is ego driven or politically inspired. Were they to try living on unemployment, or a highly restrictive income and decide between a new pair of shoes for your child or a two pound chicken that will feed them, what would they choose?

“Let them eat cake?”

"Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique". James MacGregor Burns

Ethics cost much more than a conscience vote, it reaches far further than into the economic and the lifestyle choice. Lifestyle choice is for the privileged few. It eludes most good parents as they battle economic and commercial forces, aimed at widening the gap between rich and poor. In this world of “the user pays” mentality, I am beginning to wonder who actually pays and who avoids it?

"Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics". Jane Addams

Most of us live within a capitalistic world view and as such are pre-occupied with climbing atop the pile of our accumulated trophies, in stark contrast to the Christian ethos of giving, sharing and making the poor and widows a priority. Our catch phrase seems to be, “He who dies with the most toys, wins?”

"A people and their religion must be judged by social standards based on social ethics. No other standard would have any meaning if religion is held to be necessary good for the well-being of the people". B. R. Ambedkar


So please Mr. Celebrity chef, before you lecture me on the ethics of food production, take off your Louis-Vuitton glasses, switch off your Bang and Olufsen hi-fi, get out of your Maserati and with your porcelain veneers flashing, tell me what’s wrong with a two pound chicken?

"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do". Potter Stewart

Want to know what the Bible says about the poor?

Don't Stress - It solves nothing

It has been said that the first part of a man’s life is about accumulation and excess, where as the latter part is about quality and time well spent.


This year I became a grandparent for the first time in the history of the world. True! My advancing years have now afforded me the wisdom and experience to rear children, but with a reduced energy level that makes it a challenge to put it into practice. There is something about the ageing process that is essential in the development of acumen for life. If only we appreciated that in the days of our youth?

“Youth is wasted on the young” – George Bernard Shaw

I have quoted that saying since the days of my youth and now I think I understand it. One key attribute missing with youth, is patience. As a young person, one trust in health, strength, confidence and an attitude to life that believes it is fireproof and lasts forever. It is these qualities that both invigorate and infuriate at the same time.

“How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young”? ~Paul Sweeney

I made a new, New Year’s resolution this month and have added it to my outgoing correspondence signature as a reminder to self and reader alike. "Don't stress, it never solves anything, the best time to relax is when you don't have time for it".

I read an article recently, in which the researcher sited some horrific statistics of stress in the younger generations and in particular the under twelve’s in our society. Have we advanced so much that our children are experiencing stress long before they can spell it?

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness. ~Richard Carlson

My personal belief is that as parents, our role is to protect and prepare our children for situations in life that they are neither emotionally or physically unable to deal with. That consensus seems to be contrary to what’s common in today’s society and some would claim it old fashioned.

Society does change and with that change, so do community values. These values (that shape society) serve to make acceptable, things which a previous generation were unwilling to accept or tolerate.

Local society is now shaped (and often directed) by World values. Pressure is exerted upon us by subtle sources of influence way beyond ones personal values , such as Economic, Political, Educational, Technological, Environmental, Socially, and Legally. We live in an age where business does dictate decisions on the local and national level. Free trade agreements eventually influence decisi0ons made at a family level. Our society is shaped as much by what we DON’T do, as much as what we DO.

“To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects”. Margaret Thatcher.

I am fascinated by people and always have been. Nosey! My mother called me, as I was always to be found asking “inappropriate” questions beyond my years and peers. I have an inbuilt need to know why people think the way they do and what causes them to do what they do!

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a quote taken from a book by Neil Howe and William Strauss called; Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069. I did some research and added it to my “wish list” and later in the year received it as a gift.

The central tenet of the book is that generations don't age the same way, and when looking at generations through history, the correct way to look at them is by cohort - that is, by groups with similar birth years - rather than by age. In other words, if you're born in 1950 and grow up in the '60s and '70s, you'll be different at age 50 than you will if you're born in 1970 and grow up in the '80s and '90s. Strauss and Howe then trace a number of generational cohorts through American History, and find evidence of a cycle of generational types - usually a four part cycle, but in one case a three part cycle. For example, they liken Gen X (whom they call "13ers"), born in 1961-1980, to the "Lost" generation born in the late 1800s. The book makes some startling observations on the way society is shaped by generational values and furthermore seeks to pre-empt the likely scenarios ahead of us.

“We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country”. Thomas Jefferson

Stress is alive and well in this generation of ours. It seeks to invade our silence at every opportunity. The effect of stress upon one is found in the way one responds or reacts to it. An issue only has the power or pre-eminence one grants it. When all is said and done, it’s not what’s said that counts, but what’s done.

Quality of life is not about having all ones needs met, but being content with few needs. If ones wants serve to increase ones stress, it’s time to redefine ones needs.

“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life”. ~Muhammad Ali

"Don't stress, it never solves anything, the best time to relax is when you don't have time for it".

We live longer than our forefathers; but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued only the muscles, we exhaust the finer strength of the nerves. ~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

Signs of Stress