Craffies Coaching

Most probably 90% of all problems can be traced back to trust. The oxford dictionary describe trust as follow:

• noun 1 firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. 2 acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation. 3 the state of being responsible for someone or something.

Personally I do believe trust is like the old story of what comes first the egg or the chicken, meaning that trust starts with own trustworthiness.

Know what must I do to be trustworthy, I do believe firstly one must be consistent, secondly one must be dependable and lastly competent.

Consistent: There must be congruence between one’s personality and personality, so what people see everyday will be authentic to how we feel inside our bodies. That will lead to us to be consistent in our behavior.

Dependable: What we say and what we do is the same thing. We would rather say no, than yes, and never do it. This also reflects a part of really caring for people and also respecting other.

The above talks for me to character, I do believe in abundance, I want to serve other, I want to contribute to other with my gifts. I can offer something unique to the world.

Competence: I can not do something, if I do not have the skill, ability or the resources.

Just click on the link:
When -
You are sad, phone John 14
You have sinned, phone Psalm 51
You are facing danger, phone Psalm 91
People have failed you, phone Psalm 27< /A>
It feels as though God is far from you, phone Psalm 139
Your faith needs stimulation, phone < /B>Hebrews 11
You are alone and scared, phone Psalm 23
You are worried, phone Matthew 8:19-34
You are hurt and critical, phone 1 Corinthians 13
You wonder about Christianity, phone 2 Corinthians 5:15-18
You feel like an outcast, phone Romans 8:31-39
You are seeking peace, phone Matthew 11:25-30
It feels as if the world is b igger than God, phone Psalm 90
You need Christ like insurance, phone Romans 8:1-30
You are leaving home for a trip , phone < /I>Psalm 121
You are praying for yourself, phone Psalm 87
You require courage for a task, phone Joshua 1
Inflation’s and investments are hogging your thoughts, phone M ark 10:17-31
You are depressive, phone Psalm 27
Your bank account is empty, phone Psalm 37
You lose faith in mankind, phone 1 Corinthians 13
It looks like people are unfriendly, phone John 15
You are losing hope, phone Psalm 126
You feel the world is small comp ared to you, phone Psalm 19
You want to carry fruit, phone John 15
Paul’s secret for happiness, phone Colossians 3:12-17
With big opportunity/ discovery, phone Isaiah 55
To get along with other people, phone Romans 12
ALTERNATE NUMBERS For dealing with fear, call Psalm 47
For security, call Psalm 121:3
For assurance, call Mark 8:35
For reassurance, call Psalm 145:18

ALL THESE NUMBERS MAY BE PHONED DIRECTLY. NO OPERATOR ASSISTANCE IS NECESSARY. ALL LINES TO HEAVEN ARE AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY. FEED YOUR FAITH, AND DOUBT WILL STARVE TO DEATH

If I look around me in the world, people are seeking to fill the emptiness in their lives in different ways.

Some seek to know what will happen in the future by visiting palm readers and other forms of what does life hold for me….

Other will engage in busyness, always on the run… is it running away from what really hurt or is it running away from pain?

Is the emptiness not perhaps due to vacuum in the human sole, which can only be filled by The Creator?

Sin creates emptiness. God create abundant life.

So I must ask myself?
Do I make enough time for Jesus?
Do I listen to what the Lord say to me?
Does my daily life reflect me praising the Lord?

Enjoy your weekend.

The following a few thoughts on retirement planning. A recent study that was done in South Africa showed that the average South African will only have 28% of his last years salary as pension after retirement. Compared to 58% in the US and 47% in the UK.

Meaning that should you retire with an annual salary of R 100 000 you would only receive a pension of R 28 000 per annum. A big reason for this is that the average South African do not invest there money when they move between jobs but use it on “non-retirement” stuff.

Another study that was done by a company in the UK looked at the factors that was important for a successful retirement plan and listed the following:
Decide to draw up a plan for retirement
Decide how much you can contribute towards your plan
Review the plan from time to time
Decide on the “Vehicle” you will use for your investment, and the asset allocation.

Now the interesting part what contributed to a more successful plan and to better retirement provision?
Time, so the earlier you start, even with a smaller contribution is better?
Regular review of your plan, increase in contribution. Discipline.

The above process was enhanced by engaging with a trusted advisor to facilitate the process, and keep one accountable to the plan.

The above is not to give advice, but just too engage some thoughts…..

Eric Liddell, Olympic athlete, better known for the story in Chariots of fire said the following words:

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.

I was pondering on these words and the following thoughts came to mind:
To be able to live life with passion I must be living life to the fullest. To be able to do that I must be contributing to the world by sharing my gifts.
However I must trust God and not myself to be able to this.
I must be grateful, also for the so called small things. As that will create mindfulness and gratitude.
It will also create more energy as I will then be living integrated and I will be in a performance zone to perform and share.

May you have a wonderful week and perform in the zone to the benefit of God. The wonder is then we will also reap the harvest.

For left brainers, like me, always busy analyzing the world and making decisions, lets take the brain to wild right side and think a little creative as the new world of work need whole brain thinkers for sure.

The ability to Developing and innovate new things that will make the world more effective but not hurting the environment and to do it cheaper with less resources. Exercise: Keep a journal and mind map some ideas on a daily basis, begin with the obvious and explore the territory of the unobvious. Look around you at new designs, even next generation designs.

The ability to engage in storytelling, our life’s is stories, as business unfolds it is a story; why not deal with stories instead of facts. Start blogging and share your stories, next time you want to give the facts share it in a story.

Ben Zander refer to life as a Symphony, “put together”, why not stop for a moment next time one want to analyze and rather look at it, to say how can I create a symphony out of what I see and feel. Exercise: Listen to great symphonies, create your own symphonies by putting pieces together, and remember there is no right or wrong. Brainstorm.

Shoes, develop the competency to really put yourself in somebody else’s shoes. To be able to show empathy, and I do believe it also relate to our ability to show compation.

Playfulness. Enough was said about this over the last few days.

Creating meaning out of live, connect with your spiritual and religious base. Exercise: Learn to be grateful, to something to somebody that cannot return the favor, get still for at least 10 min. a day. Think about what really give you joy in life.

Enjoy your evening.

I blogged on exercising the mind on Friday. One of the thoughts was on playfulness. The part of being like a child had me thinking…

As children can also be very cruel or is it honest with each other and the impact of that on their community and the productivity of the environment.

So I had a discussion with my kids and quickly a few themes emerged:
Negative kids draw negative kids.
Positive kids need to avoid this energy or they are drawn in.
Positive kids, make constant long term contributions on all levels.
Short-term illusions is sometimes created that the Negative kids get results, which the positive kids do not get. However how Steven Covey puts it, Principals will always rule over the long-term.

So in future if I refer to being playful like a kid, it is with reference to the pure form of being like a kid.

Regards.

This is the true joy of life.
The being used for a purpose
Recognized by yourself as a mighty one.
The being a force of nature Instead of a feverish, selfish
Little clod of ailments and grievances
Complaining that the world will not
Devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life
Belongs to the whole community
And as long as I live,
It is my privilege to do for it
Whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly
Used up when I die,
For the harder I work the more I live.
I rejoice in life for its own sake.
Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
Which I’ve got hold of
For the moment And I want to make it burn
As brightly as possible before
Handling it on to future generations

George Bernard Shaw

The following words are from the song of U2, one:
ONE
(U2 & Mary J Blight)
Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame
You say: one love, one life
When it’s one need in the night
One Love, we get to share it
Leaves you baby if you don’t care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without

Well it’s too late, tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We’re one, but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other

Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much – more than a lot
You gave me nothing – now it’s all I got

We’re one, but we’re not the same
Well we hurt each other, then we do it again

You say: love is a temple – Love a higher law
Love is a temple – love the higher law
You ask me to enter – then you make me crawl
And I can’t be holding on to what you got
When all you got is hurt

One love, one blood
One life- you got to do what you should
One life with each other
Sisters, brothers

One life, but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One – one

It always leave me with the questions in my own life:
How integrated and balanced are my life, do I life a life of one, or perhaps if fragmented what must be corrected?
Am I part of the universe and do I really have compation with other?

Enjoy your day.

Just a few thoughts on the mind and keeping it fit.

Thoughts about the future or the past have a definite impact on the brain. It was determined through research that one can gain skills through observation and indirect experience. So make sure: you’re thoughts is part of your brains exercise to learn positive skills.

Playfulness…. The philosopher Henri Bergson wrote; “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to create oneself endlessly.” The ways in which kids play have two beautiful skill building components to it to develop emotional and social skills. Through play they learn how to see the world out of different perspectives; they also learn how to interact with the world. Sometimes they get hurt, however they get back to the present and learn from the moment and enjoy it. To close on this Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge….I would agree with this, however I will add that dreams with out action/fun/playfulness is just dreams and we need to take action.

To read… it was discussed in this blog already, to be open to learn. This will help us to recognize the patterns of the world around us and to be able to act pro-actively to utilize the opportunities. It is also the learning of new languages to be able to describe new things in the world. (Right brain)

Expression of “language”, taking the new information and creating something new, being creative or innovative, expressing it in writing, art, what ever your natural or unnatural way of expressing, making food what ever. (Left Brain)

As a last thought…Yes, exercise is necessary to keep the body clock on the go but it is also good for the mind. The American Heart association currently recommends 30 min of moderate exercise a week. It rid the body of all the stress we toxic-ate it with.

Let’s do something playful, be a kid again, do some reading to stimulate our thinking and express ourselves in a wild way this weekend.