Have you ever stopped to consider how many people are saying "hello" to each other today, and in how many different languages? If you want to say "hello" to everyone on the planet, you would have to learn at least 2,796 languages and greet at least 6,500,000,000 people. Here are some of the ways of saying "hello" around the world. Hola in Spanish, Ciao in Italian or bonjour/salut among peers in France, and many more! 


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Source: wikihow.com

We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale.

Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved. Visit website

I came across this poem written by Lisa Bloom, a Story Coach. It is so full of metaphor and beautifully represents the world many of us live in. Enjoy.......

t’s late, really late.

I was thrown out of my home.

The technician promised that everything was
working when he left. 

By the evening, slowly but surely it all fell
apart.

The phones. Internet.  The lot.

I have a deadline.  So, I’m a refugee.
Happily only to the local cafי where I can get my
usual great coffee and a wireless connection.

Oh how I love technology!
Actually, I really do love technology.

I love that we have so many resources at the tips
of our fingers.

I love that my business could not have existed 10
years ago because the systems and technology I
rely upon did not exist then.

I love that I can connect with colleagues and
clients all over the world.

I love that I can work from home!

I was trying to explain to the kids this week
what it was like when you had to buy a record to
read the lyrics of a song (we’d just found lyrics
on our cell phone while listening to the radio –
and before the song ended!).

I was trying to paint the picture of a childhood
without internet, computer games and the memory of
my father all excited by this new-fangled
technology, the fax machine!

To remember a time when apple and blackberry were
just fruit and on-line meant your handwriting was
neat!

Laughing at the absurdity of hours spent in the
university library researching where now you can
have billions of documents available on your
mobile device in an instant.

Yes, I love technology.
But technology is useless without a story.
You see you can’t connect unless there’s a story
in there somewhere.

No amount of tools or resources can replace the
simple, heartfelt connection through narrative.
Every successful person and every successful
business tells a great story, have you noticed.

Think about it, what story are you telling?  How
are you showing up with or without technology?

The technology will continue to evolve probably
faster than you or I can follow.  So we’ll
struggle on trying to catch up with our kids.  But
the story, the story always remains.

So, yes, go for the technology.  Learn it.  Use
it.  Enjoy it.
But don’t forget your story.

When you’re present in your life and your
business by discovering and using your authentic,
compelling story, it’s magic.

I don’t mean the whoo- whoo, abstract kind of
nice-to-have magic.  I mean more clients, more
success, better relationships and enormous
clarity.

It’s all about the story.  What’s yours?

Visit Lisa to continue the conversation at Story Coach Inc

While chatting with a friend the other day, I was struggling to identify a metaphor that would create a shift in the way the she viewed her recurring and overwhelming fear of social situations. She is intelligent, very well read, and knows everything there is to know about fear. 

Knowing that fear is just "False Evidence Appearing Real" doesn't change the very real emotional and physiological processes that occur in the body when we perceive a fearful event or situation. This anticipation of impending negative consequences has exactly the same  effect as the fear that comes from being faced with events that threaten our well being. These external things are outside of our control and require that split second response that pumps our veins full adrenalin. 

Our subconscious treats both perceived and real events in the same way. If you think it, your subconscious creates a very real state. So the answer is simple, eh! All the research and literature out there creates a clear pathway to banishing fear for ever! 

Goolge 'overcoming fear' and the tidal wave of websites and solutions all center around identifying the cause of your fear, bringing it into the light of day, seeing it for what it actually is, and then transforming the fear into positive action.

My question, knowing all that I do about the psychology of fear, is-- is it possible to overcome fear when you can not separate perceived from real?. 

This takes me back to the metaphor of the Boggart in Harry Potter. I really like the metaphor of facing your fear, with support of others, and transforming it into something ridiculous. It is about seeing fear for the bully it really is.

Over the next six months I will be embarking on creating a down to earth, practical guide to identifying and transforming natural goals that are already present in our life. For many people identifying goals is a daunting task. It is one thing to set goals at work, however when it comes to our personal lives we prefer to react to life as it occurs in front of us. Why is this? This is a personal question that is best drawn out in coaching, if you are not clear of the reasons already.

So what are the steps that have come out of hours of researching  personal breakthrough goals. The success formula for achieving goals  is simple in theory. It requires certainty that what you want is actually what you want. It requires daily focus on where you see yourself when you have achieved your goal. There needs to be commitment and persistence, even when it feels that the goal is unattainable, even when your limiting beliefs want you to quit.

In our work and careers, the focus and goals are largely defined by the nature of the business or organisation we are employed with. Whether it is increasing sales,  delivering services or creating resources, setting goals is less complex because we have already defined the outcome through strategic planning, management plans and sales targets. Why is it that we are often unable to apply the same principles in our lives? 

For many people the inability to identify and achieve goals in their personal life is what holds them back from achieving personal success, authentic happiness, greater contentment, and certainty of their life purpose.

One thing I have learnt while gaining my international coaching qualification, is that everybody needs somebody to support them and encourage them, to hold them accountable and focused on their goals. Think about it for a minute, why do so many entrepreneurs,  business owners, executives, CEO's, have personal coaches?   

So here's my challenge over the next 6 months. 

It's that time again and the end of the year is approaching way to quickly. Wow! what a year. I can honestly say that it has been a game changing year for me.
Over the course of the year I have had the opportunity to chat about the state of the world with a number of post World War II baby boomers. I remember growing up in the 1970's and 80's, being reminded that my generation was privileged and soft, not really knowing what real hardship was. I admit it I was lucky enough to be the son of an immigrant who endured great challenges in post war Italy, and racial prejudice upon settling in Aotearoa. The poverty, uncertainty and struggle of my parents generation, remind me of where I am now. I have never known war, hunger or real struggle. I am after all a tertiary educated middle class son of an immigrant. Pretty privileged in today's world.

I heard a saying the other day that austerity is the new norm. The world has changed profoundly. Less of everything is the mantra moving forward. What is most interesting to me, is the reality that my parents and grandparents generation have seen this all before. It's a recurring theme across history where one generation overcomes struggle, their children reap the benefits ofthat struggle, and as a result live in a time of unprecedented prosperty and growth. We become complacent believing that progress and technology will ensure that the old days of scarcity are gone forever. Until that is our complacency and fairy tale belief that the halcion days of prosperity will be endless.

Boy was 2008 a game changing year. This is the conversation that is on everybodies tongues. For many in the western world, it is the first real test of our inate ability to take on adversity, reconnect with reality, and regain that perspective and cathartic change that occured after world war II. For the first time in my generation, our lives have truely converged with the lives of our parents and grandparents.

You may be asking yourself, what the hell is Gino going on about? Well my point is this, we are three years into a new reality. It is great opportunity, as with our parents and grandparents, to redifine ourselves and our lives, in order to successfully transition and thrive in the unfolding historical period we live in.  It requires bold steps, creative risks and a transformational vision.

So my question to you is, what will you do next year to adapt and thrive in the new "norm"? do you have clear goals and a vision for your life in this new world? do you have a plan for your life?

Does this sound familiar. "I just don't have enough time in the day to get everything done that I need to! "

We often say we don't have time and there's always plenty that we don't get round to.  Even when we have a task to do, we often get distracted and end up wasting time. So many people that I talk to, including myself, struggle with staying motivated and on task. It seems that the intention to do a task is enough an excuse to avoid it.

So how would you like to do something different?  A simple yet effective startegy is the 10 minute rule.

Set an alarm or timer on your smart phone for just 10 minutes.  Stay focused, you know the clock is ticking, so there's no time to waste and you'll be less inclined to waste time.

In just 10 minutes a day you could:

• Create your action list.
• Plan your day.
• Tidy a room.
• Do the laundry. 
• Clear things away.
• Do some filing.
• Tidy the garden.
• Start a report.
• Skim read a magazine.
• Enjoy a cup of coffee.
• update your social media
• Do some paperwork. 
• Go for a brisk walk.
• Meditate.
• Make a phone call.
• ... 

The first two will make your whole day more productive, so definitely worth spending time on them if you don't already.  See how much you can do in 10 minutes.  You might not finish the task in 10 minutes but you'll be 10 minutes closer. 

Set a goal you'd like to achieve and allocate just 10 minutes a day to it.  See what a difference you can make. You could even have more than one goal - two or three sets of 10 minutes throughout the day.
Adapted from CLARE EVANS - PERSONAL AND BUSINESS COACH. Author of Time Management For Dummies. 


To really kick procrastination once and for all visit  http://activate28.com/get-active/free-webinars, and take their free online webinar.

Some other resources that I have found useful

Stop Procrastination--Now! http://depression.about.com/cs/selfhelp/a/procrastination_2.htm
Why Inspiration Mattershttp://madmoments.blogspot.com/2009/10/10-minutes-at-time.html
The Top 10 Success Pitfalls
http://www.sparkintolife.com/uncategorized/the-top-10-success-pitfalls/