Monthly Archives: November 2012

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Were You Promised A Rose Garden?

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Sometimes life just does not go your way. I know I’m not the only one who can attest to this fact. When it does not go as planned do you accept defeat or do you brush yourself off and carry on? Did someone promise you that life would be a rose garden?

iStock 000022085288 Small Wild Rose

When Lynn Anderson recorded Joe South’s song ‘Rose Garden’ in 1970 it shot straight to number one on country hit charts around the world. It even got to number three on the Billboard Hot 100. Why?

I think it is because the song, if you will pardon the pun, struck a chord with so many people. It still does. Just read these lyrics.

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3 Discoveries From My One Year Water Photography Project

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A couple of years ago I was searching for a project that would be simple to do daily but challenging to keep up with for a whole year. Nothing at all like this blog, right? What I settled on in the closing days of 2009 was to take up the theme ‘water’ and post a photograph to Facebook every day for a year. My discoveries went much beyond just taking photographs.

Final Water Shot – Dec 31 – 2010

The concept is simple enough and there are no end of these 365 type concepts out there. I dreamt this one up on my own and really was doing it just for me. The only rule was that the photograph had to have water in it. Easy right? No, but more on that later as it relates to third of my discoveries.

But first, why water? Honestly I am not sure if consciously thought of the many reasons that later became evident, but four I can highlight are:

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5 Things I Learned About Leadership as President of the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce

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We learn leadership in school and college, through life lessons and mentors, and through reading and example. In this post I want to share with you five leadership lessons I learned (or had reinforced) while President of the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce.

This past week I completed a year as President of the Chamber here in Grand Cayman. I was given the trust and opportunity provide my leadership to the organisation in its 47th year and worked to ensure that everything I did honoured and built on the leadership legacy framed by the many presidents before me. Basically (and sometimes basic, direct language is the best) I did not want to muck it up!

The record of accomplishment for the year is available on the Cayman Chamber website (the Annual Report will be posted shortly). This post, however, is less about the Chamber and the past year’s activity. It is, rather, five key leadership learnings I gained, or had reinforced, over the past year, and in particular leadership of a voluntary or not-for-profit organisation. The Chamber council (board) and executive leadership is 100% volunteer and non-paid, and the day-to-day activity is run by a paid CEO and staff of four. I believe these learnings translate well into other volunteer and not-for profit groups, and indeed, commercial business leadership.

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6 Tips To Get Things Done & Achieve Your Life Objectives

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You can achieve your life objectives by following these 6 tips.

The other night a friend asked me this question. “How do I get so much done?” I did not have a good answer. I’m involved with several of my own businesses. I’m active in civic groups. I serve on a local government board. Monday nights I host a mens bible study group at my home. I have an incredible relationship with my wife, Christina, and our two kids, Ryan and Taylor. I’m a coach on my son’s First Lego League robotics team. I guess while doing these things the one thing that I had never really considered was how exactly I manage to cram all this activity in while moving towards my life objectives, having a good balance and not feeling completely overwhelmed. I did not have a good answer to give my friend on Friday night. That got me thinking. What leads some people to get a lot done while others have challenges in this area?

Looking at my experience I can relate 6 areas that can improve the ability to get more done.

1. Time Management T he secret in my case is not being a time management guru. I am not someone to study if you intend to learn about my time management techniques. Its not that I don’t think time management would not help me get more done. Quite the opposite. I think if one studies effective time management techniques, and applies them in their life consistently, they will be far more productive than the average person. I have done the ‘student’ bit, reading up on practically every time management method out there. Unfortunately, for me its the consistently and applying that I seem to have trouble with. What I can attest to is that there is nothing I have read that I have not learned something from in this subject area.

photo by: this lyre lark
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Remembrance Day Lest We Forget

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Take a moment to remember on this remembrance day.

In 1897, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, Rudyard Kipling composed ‘The White Man’s Burden’. He put that poem aside, to use it almost two years later after the Spanish-American War, and replaced it instead with “Recessional“, which contains the refrain ‘Lest We Forget‘. It took until after World War 1 for the phrase to come into common usage on war memorials. It is so profound and sets the stage for later development of the commemoration of remembrance day.

God of our fathers, known of old—
Lord of our far-flung battle line—
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies—
The Captains and the Kings depart—
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!