Breaking up constant
The year is coming to an end – our need to divide and break up constant is once again celebrated. I will join in the celebration and use this opportunity to reflect and learn from the past, hopefully enjoy a peaceful present, and find inspiration towards what I hope should be an amazing and incredible 2011!
Magical day – inspiration flowing through my body
Today is a magical day – I am in my flat in London and as I am looking out the window everything is white – it’s beautiful. I am inside, it is warm, I have lightened up candles – inspiration is flowing through my body. A light feeling of being here! I am also slightly nervousness about what this post will be about – I am currently writing within structuring my thinking about what to write – the theme is 2010 and 2011, that’s it! I am enjoying the journey! I feel slightly nervous seeing the beautiful snow as Majken is in NY and I hope to get her home! I am also keen to be flying out to Sthlm on Wednesday next week – I hope the things will have worked out until then. Hey – no need to worry about the future, when I instead can just appreciate and be amazed by this present moment.
Early days of 2010 – flawed thinking
In the beginning of 2010 I was obsessed by the idea that the year was supposed to be about doing what I do what I do better as opposed to introducing new elements and change in my life – I was thinking it would be a year of order, not chaos! Why the need? Not sure – but surprisingly the learning is something I thought I already knew – only putting up principles and goals that I can actually impact.
It started to love the my time when I realized that my year is about practices - not about ideal states that require things out of my control to converge – I deserve beauty when I attract it, but not when I am trying to control events or when events control how I feel about my life and overall situation – the early days was about flawed thinking, but it got better!
2010 in some key words
A year of practice…
I have had good practices in my life in 2010…
Regular physical practice– discovering that I enjoy jogging, ending up signing up for Copenhagen Marathon in 2011.
Regular spiritual practice – trying to focus on regularity instead of length, 5 min a day makes a difference for me to feel better equipped to be my best
Regular sleep, 6-8 hours a night – seeing the clear correlation between good sleep, performance, inspiration, willingness and drive my practices: physical and spiritual
Close relationship – discovering the power of a healthy energy giving relationship, where the whole is greater (sorry for cliché) than the sum of the parts…
Learning – the practice of learning is realizing that there is no end to learning, just learning and learning…
…reflecting on my leadership vision of clarity, compassion and choice, I conclude that I when I manage to practice my healthy practices I can stay true to my vision… a powerful realization and a comforting discovery for me!
I have also had some bad practices in 2010…
Drama – bringing in drama into my life on different levels; in my professional career, in some of my close relationships, in my mind, not always feeling comfortable about my abilities and overall direction…always convinced that I can be my best!
Tobacco – using my “snus” at times simply because I find it delicious, it is not a regular practice and a routine so I won’t punish myself for it, just trying to exchange the practice for a better practice…
At times being outside my integrity zone in some close relationships, without really shouldering the responsibility and really understanding my role
Powerful discovery – I have good and bad practices.
Challenge – not punish myself for my bad practices, just be aware of them, and try to exchange them for better practices…!
Temporary Conclusions – when life is about practices and the end goal is about learning, when I trust my discovery, I am accepting more what is and I can allow happiness for what it is…Running a marathon will be a good metaphor for the art of practice – I hope to practice the practice of capturing the experience, to further embody my discovery!
This is becoming a long post… doesn’t matter, I would love to be able to go back at it at the back end of 2011 and see how I feel then about how I feel now!
Thriving professionally…
I have had enormous support from my mentor and various coaches and leading thinkers within the field that I am in. I am humbled by my opportunity to learn and I feel so much gratitude for everyone playing a role in my development! Gratitude especially to my two managers that have guided my journey within the business during 2010 and gratitude towards my mentor!!! I find it hard to describe in words how important my mentor relationship has been for so many aspects of my life – helping me to stay positive, smile and thrive in areas I want to thrive!
Experiencing different places – travels I remember personally and professionally!
Personally I experienced the UK: Lake District, Wales, Bath, Devon and the south, beaches and surfing! I am growing to love the country. London is also growing in me the more time I spend in the city!
I also went to Sardinia and Turkey – both amazing trips that I absolutely enjoyed!
Easy to forget, but also very powerful – my trips to Bornholm and the Archipelago of Stockholm – my peaceful places in Scandinavia!
Professionally I went all over the place in Europe, mainly to Zurich and Vienna, but I also experienced Central and Eastern Europe, Boston and some other amazing places! All in all, exciting, but also a big stretch as all of these travels means a lot of preparation to deliver as per what I expect from myself!
Travel seems to be a constant in my life! As much as I love these experiences, it is also a big scarify to my life in London and also, travels makes it hard to practice some of my healthy practices…at the same time, there are new excuses, just good and bad practices, hence I need to exchange some of my bad practices while travelling to better practices!
My family and closest relationship
I feel an enormous gratitude for everyone in my family – they are all my biggest supporters, and it is hard to describe in words how much I love them!
My unique love to my closest relationship is growing, she inspires me and I am feeling so much respect for her and our love!
Friends
I feel so much gratitude for my close friends, some of which have celebrated their love, others entering the magical chronological age of 30, some thriving in their professions, some are physically very close to me, others are spiritually close, common for all – you are all very close to me and I give you so many thoughts all the time! I am very rarely around – but all of you means a lot to me.
2011
I feel very positive about the year ahead! I think magical things will happen! I open for what is.
2011 – I hope a year of more healthy than un-healthy practices!
I hope I will thrive my relationship – I will do everything I can be present in our space baby – I suggest a daily spiritual practice for us every time we are in our space!
I hope some of the themes of 2011 include…
…learning, both un-structured everyday learning and some more structured learning.
…professional surprise, excitement and fulfilment
…health and successful spiritual practice
…re-establishing late nights with leading thinkers...
…invest time to connect with leading thinkers influencing culture, trends and health of our society
2010 – a year of gratitude, thriving, practice and drama
2011 – a year of practice, gratitude, daring and of course clarity, compassion and choice!
__________________________
I just read this quote that I think is a nice way to conclude this post:
“If you create an act, you create a habit.
If you create a habit, you create character.
If you create a character, you create a destiny.”
André Maurois
Until next time
Emanuel
