Posts Tagged ‘Truth’
Hope and optimism
One of the highlights of my week used to be a video blog called “Optimistic Monday” by my friend Phil Begnett . Phil had a loyal following of people like me who loved the random upbeat messages that he posted on the theme of “every Monday is a fresh start”.
He even entitles one post “CTRL+ALT+DEL” as a way to show that we can escape and start again!
Phil, like many other folk had been badly affected by terrible news of a devastating tsunami in Japan and thought it was inappropriate to goof around on his video blog so he just acknowledged how he was feeling and signed off.
Full marks to Phil for being true to his feelings but it left me feeling slightly let down and pondering the way we deal with terrible news and the role that hope, optimism and especially laughter play in helping us to deal with them.
Hope is THE most important emotion for human beings to have.
Without hope we can’t live for long. Optimism is closely related to hope and I believe that is why Phil’s Optimistic Monday video was so popular.
I don’t want to diminish the awful situation that survivors of tragedies have to cope with but the truth is that many people do more than just cope. It is only because they have hope and optimism that they can move forward and, in many cases, rebuild lives that are even more meaningful than the ones they had before.
Laughter is the currency of hope
Laughter is one of the most powerful healing experiences. It is contagious and relieves isolation and loneliness. It is impossible to laugh and feel afraid at the same time which is why I value people like Phil Begnett who have a natural ability to make people feel good.
We need to feel pity and sympathy for the survivors of tragedies and do everything in our power to help but it is even more important to bring hope, optimism and laughter.
What lifts your spirits and helps you to cope when things look bad?
Posted in Inspiration | 
Tags: Currency Of Hope, Devastating Tsunami, Emotion, Experiences, Feelings, Fresh Start, Friend Phil, Human Beings, Isolation, Japan, Laughter, Loneliness, Natural Ability, Nbsp, Optimism, Spirits, Survivors, Sympathy, Tragedies, Truth, Tsunami, Tsunami In Japan, Upbeat Messages, Wtv | 
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Clive Gott RIP
I heard today that Clive Gott died suddenly last night of a heart attack.
I’m stunned that such a larger than life man has just gone from our lives.
Clive was instrumental in me starting The Inspired Group (although he would always deny it) and his influence over the last six years has been at the root of what it has become.
I and thousands of other people whose lives he touched will miss him a lot.
RIP Clive. x
Clive’s Facebook page is where lots of people are leaving a tribute. If he touched your life you might want to add yours http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=563837159
This is my tribute to him:
Clive was an impressive guy.
His achievements were very impressive and his performances as a professional speaker were always impressive.
However, there are quite a few people out there who have done similar things and speak about them very well. What makes Clive different is that he walked his talk, not just for the sake of being able to tell a good story but in everything he did and said even when it got really uncomfortable.
There are lots of people who let people believe that they agree with things they don’t believe in or just keep quiet rather than rock the boat but that wasn’t Clive’s style.
If you asked for his opinion you’d get it (and he’d tell you that it was HIS opinion, HIS truth and no-one else’s)
If you said something he disagreed with, he’d tell you why. He was not a political animal, he was a genuine one. He didn’t play power games and this meant that some people didn’t like him.
In the six years I knew him, I saw him interact with a wide variety of people. Some were charmed, some were changed and some were challenged – no one was untouched and this was his strength and his value in other people’s lives.
There was no condescension, holier than thou message in Clive’s talks. He exposed himself as a fallible human being who made mistakes and was willing to make changes and was all the more inspiring because of it. He invited people to hold a mirror up to themselves and if they didn’t like what they saw, to have the courage to make changes for themselves. This is why Clive will be talked about for a long time to come and why his impact on thousands of people will be a lasting one.
If ever a man knew how to do the right thing rather than the done thing it was Clive.
If any of us can look back our lives and be as proud of our achievements as Clive can be of his we’ll know we’ve lived well.
I’ll miss him.
Posted in 12 Steps to Success, Inspiration | Tags: Condescension, Facebook, Heart Attack, Impressive Guy, Larger Than Life, Life Man, Lot, Mirror, Political Animal, Power Games, Professional Speaker, Rock The Boat, Sake, Six Years, Tribute, Truth | 5 Comments »
