Save-the-World Sunday: WSPA / Sam the Koala / Hotels Charity offer

Supporting WSPA - Sydney's City2Surf is TODAY
(...it's not too late to donate!!)

Today I'll do my first City2Surf race for charity here in Sydney, 14km from Hyde Park to Bondi Beach. My goal has been to raise as much money as I can for my chosen charity, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), in support of their efforts to help protect animals around the world from cruelty.

Thanks to the generosity of more than 20 donors worldwide, I have hit my target of AUD$1,000. Of course, when it comes to funding for charity more is always better and so I'm still encouraging donations. Any amount is gratefully accepted - even $10 donations add up - and you can donate from wherever you are in the world at my fundraising page by credit card (Visa/MC) or PayPal

As an incentive to last-minute donors, I've sweetened the deal: for each sponsorship of my race-for-charity in the value AUD$50.00* or more, my company tmc will offer you a complimentary 90-minute coaching session. No further obligation is required - just make a donation and we'll book you a coaching session at your convenience. That's it!

*that's about £25 / €28 / SEK310 / HK$300 / S$57 / CAD$45 / US$40

To learn about this special coaching offer I encourge you to read more here.

So the deal is: support a worthwhile global charity, get a tax receipt issued directly to you, and get a coaching session as well. Easy, huh?

I'm proud to be associated with the WSPA, which has a tremendous track record of helping animals in need and preventing cruelty. Below are two short video clips that describe their good work.

2008 achievements

2007 Tsunami relief

Remembering Sam the Koala: September is "Save the Koala" Month

You have probably heard by now that Sam the Koala, the iconic Australian critter whom I wrote about earlier this year and who gained international fame by surviving February's horrific Victorian bushfires, has died. She fell victim to chlamydia, the debilitating illness that affects 50% of Australia's koala population.

Disease is not the only threat to the koala population, however: widespread land development puts koala habitat under continual threat. Koalas are so at risk that September has been named Save the Koala Month.

To honour Sam's memory, why not consider adopting a koala and supporting the "No Tree, No Me" campaign to preserve the trees and bush areas where koalas live.

Koalas continue to be at serious risk from loss of habitat.

Campaign for Charity

Australian company Hotels Combined is running what I think is a really smart viral marketing campaign, and what I love most about it is that it combines two of my favourite things: travel and protecting animals.

The deal: mention Hotels Combined on your blog, on twitter, or become a fan on Facebook and the company will donate to one of three charities (your choice which one - mine's the WWF).

It costs you nothing and the charity wins. So what are you waiting for - do it today!

Since the WWF (the World Wildlife Fund for nature) is already one of the chosen charities for tmc's "1% for the planet" charitable contribution commitment this year, this has been an easy way to add to that contribution in support of a worthwhile cause. The WWF is a global conservation charity dedicated to stopping the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and building a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

Hotels Combined is a search engine that searches over 900,000 hotel deals worldwide for the best price possible. The hotel deals are retrieved from multiple hotel reservation websites around the world, enabling you to compare prices and availability across all major accommodation providers on a single screen. Based in Sydney, Australia, Hotels Combined is committed to seeking ethical and environmentally-friendly ways of doing business.

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How to celebrate the Buddha's birthday

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
- President Nelson Mandela, in his inauguration speech (quoting Marianne Williamson)

Minor enlightenment - the view from the back deck

I've spent this weekend at my brother's place in Cambridge, Canada taking some time out of a hectic travel schedule. Today while we had a BBQ I sat on the back deck in the late spring sunshine and listened to the radio. I noticed that every song crooned about how happiness is found, lost, or lost then found again in the form of another person.

Songs with lyrics like I can see forever in your eyes and Everybody wants to know they're not alone and You're everything I need repeatedly made the point: we're all incomplete as we are and need someone else to "make us whole". In fact the only song that didn't offer solace and happiness in external sources pleaded Chuck me in the shallow water before I get too deep...

Now perhaps I'm insufficiently taking on board the warning offered by that last chorus, but I'd like to offer an interesting point of contrast.

Happy Birthday Buddha

This weekend in east Asia is the date when the Buddha's birthday is celebrated in 2009.

About 2400 years ago (give or take a few decades) Siddhattha Gotama was born and was destined to live the luxourious life accorded him as prince of his people.

Various accounts suggest that he had his fill of earthly pleasures and was certainly shielded from the harsh realities of the world by his protective father the king.

Perhaps he became tired of a life in which his every material was fulfilled, perhaps his pampered upbringing resulted in greater shock when he was finally confronted with the realities of illness, old age and death - whatever the combination of factors, the rest of his story is well known.

He escaped the palace, lived an ascetic life in his quest for Truth and, after long meditation under the Bodhi Tree, he achieved Enlightenment.

Am I suggesting this is the path for everyone to take and that Enlightenment should be your single and only goal? Not exactly. Let me share with you the insight I had while sitting on the deck today.

What if I told you that you were inadequate?

If I told you that you were incomplete, inadequate, and in need of propping up in order to function in life and be a whole person...well, you might justifiably have a variety of responses to offer me - and I bet none of them would be very pleasant!

Yet we are continually bombarded with these very messages - you are incomplete until you have the product or person that will help make you complete - not just in the lyrics of pop songs but throughout the media and marketing machines that surround us every waking hour.

What these messages represent is a superficial answer to a deep and fundamental truth about human beings, namely: we are all born whole and complete, then in the course of our early life development and interaction with the world we learn to devalue or disown those parts of ourselves that don't seem to "fit in" or fail to get us what we want.

Each of us is like a complete picture which then has a few puzzle pieces removed. It's important to remember, however, that those pieces don't go away forever; they're still within our reach. Sitting under his tree, the Buddha realized this fundamental Truth: we are all complete just as we are and have access to all the means we require to take care of ourselves.

Through the effective application of what Buddhists call the Middle Way, we can steer our lives along a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. 

What that means is: rather than cloistering yourself up to gain spiritual awareness, you can still hold down a job and function in the world - though by paying some attention to certain fundamental questions, and by rejecting as false the empty lyrics and marketing messages preaching your inadequacy, you can find a path leading to greater personal satisfaction, happiness and achievement of what's important to you.

Turning the Middle Way into the everyday

Practically speaking, in my work I frequently help people in all kinds of fields to dissolve the crises and tensions that arise from this constantly-reinforced message that they are not OK as they are. I do this, I hasten to add, not by fostering dependency on me as yet another external "quick-fix" but by enabling them to locate those helpful energies and resources that already exist within them. In this way they can continue their own personal journey long after our work together has tapered off or ended entirely.

So think about how you will choose to celebrate the birthday of this extraordinary individual, the Buddha, not just this weekend but in the days and weeks to come as you continue your own life's journey. And remember: you already have within you everything it takes to be just as extraordinary, if you'll just let yourself be so.

With apologies to the pop music industry, I'd suggest that learning to dance to your own tune may change the course of your whole life for the better. It will help you to engage with others not in a needy and dependent "please complete me!" way but as a productive and independent person who's capable of entering and sustaining an equitable relationship for the long term. Worth thinking over, under a tree or by the BBQ on the back deck...
TM

Surviving vs Thriving - insights from the Lion City

Singapore has long been a strategic nexus of commerce and trade. Here you have "instant Asia" - Indians, Chinese, Malay, Japanese - along with masses of Western and other expats and the multinational firms that employ them. Today Singapore offers many useful insights into what is happening in the region of Southeast Asia and also globally.

Out of this mix of cultures and worldviews, a particularly Singaporean view has emerged. Here the business culture is fostered on a deeply pragmatic view of the world...and yet it is not all short-term practicality. The government is strongly focused on Singapore's future wellbeing, with carefully laid-out strategies geared to the long-term objective of ensuring the city-state's place on the world map of commerce and business.

Certainly on the surface of it, with construction sites and container ports running literally 24/7/365, it seems the Lion City is poised to roar ahead through the current economic turmoil and beyond.

In my previous post I mentioned the difference in the US presidential election between McCain's politics of fear and Obama's politics of hope. During my visit over the past few days here in Singapore I've been listening to the insights of local executives and the thoughts expressed at the first Singapore Human Capital Summit. It seems as though there are two prevailing mentalities, similar in nature to the themes of fear and hope.

Let's call them surviving vs. thriving.

Surviving
This mentality is focused almost exclusively on the short-term: let's hit next month's numbers and then take it from there. It's a reactive strategy, designed to do the bare minimium required to ensure economic (and, hopefully, individual job) survival. It's therefore also bereft of long-term strategic focus, considered thought, and high-level awareness of consequences - the intended and the unintended.

Thriving
The other mentality is practical, yet future-focused. As one executive argued,

Right now I'm not putting money in marketing because who knows what the market will be doing in 6 months time. But I think it's important to invest in my people. If things don't get so bad, it means I've got a team that's ready to perform and I'll eat the lunch of my more reactive, fearful competitors who haven't similarly invested. But even if I have to shed some staff, they'll still have the skills when it comes time to hire them back later on. At worst, there's a relationship to be strengthened by developing their skills - and that relationship can also be the competitive advantage I need over other companies in a tight labour market!

Both styles, short-term and long-term, may be valid depending on context and a host of other variables. Looking at the above two philosophies, I know which company I'd like to work for. (And wasn't it an exclusive focus on the short-term that got the world into the current economic crisis in the first place...?)

Maybe here at the crossroads of Asia, the combination that Singapore has woven of "pragmatic long-termism" has some valuable insights. Straight from the lion's mouth.
TM