I recently spoke with a mid-level executive who told me they fall asleep on their laptop every night, usually around midnight. They then get up to conduct the day’s business starting around 5:00 AM. By any measure, this is chronic short sleeping. It made me wonder, what has gone so wrong with our understanding of the importance of a good night’s sleep?
Continue reading “Sleep like your life depends on it (it might)”Be intentional to be fulfilled.
What a challenging, enjoyable, wonderful time to be alive. Distractions constantly bombard us. We are living through a global pandemic, a European war, and economic uncertainty and have a constant overload of technology, social media, and the daily grind. It is so easy for us to be reactive always – to drift from one thing to another. In my experience, and in that of my coachees, this can lead to a feeling of dissatisfaction, of being out of control. So what can we do to address this? We can be intentional in our actions, thoughts and decisions.
Continue reading “Be intentional to be fulfilled.”The journey of life is to find Purpose
What a massive topic this is. I’m a recent addition to the Congregation unconference, but it has been so thought-provoking for me, and this year’s theme is no exception. It is a bit daunting to take on such a broad subject. Do I write about corporate purposes? The broader meaning of life? About porpoise, through a Monty-Pythonesque misunderstanding? (That would probably constitute a cross-purpose.)
To narrow the scope, I’ve been thinking about the articulated purpose of my life. And how long it has taken me to arrive at what I want to achieve with my time.
Continue reading “The journey of life is to find Purpose”Cloud Security is Simple
Cloud Security principles appear simple, but execution becomes incredibly complex at scale.
If you are working in Cloud Security in any area (or Cloud assurance or Governance), the title of this post probably caught your attention. You may have thought to yourself, “ah, clickbait!”. While this is a somewhat attention-grabbing statement, I don’t intend it to be clickbait. Instead, I hope to spark some discussion about why something simple on its face is simultaneously very difficult to get right.
Continue reading “Cloud Security is Simple”Care enough to be constant
Life is a peculiar mix of the constant and inconstant. Our days are filled with variability, and yet, some things seem to remain the same. Our life span is such that the pace of change of certain things seems almost immeasurable. Despite this, as constant as certain things seem, deep down, we know nothing lasts forever.
Continue reading “Care enough to be constant”Setting expectations
Life is full of interactions with others. We meet new colleagues at work, we build new relationships in our neighbourhoods, and we might be in a personal relationship that results in opportunities to set and meet expectations on a regular basis every day. Each of those interactions is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken the relationship with the other person. In many of the coaching and mentoring conversations that I have, it is clear that the ability to set and manage expectations successfully is a skill that many of us need to work on.
Continue reading “Setting expectations”On Listening to Experts
I recently did something I’ve never done before. I moved a thermostat from one point on my hot water tank to another. I did this based on the advice of a plumber, an “expert” in these matters. Five minutes after I had done the work, my brain started to function, and I wondered why I had done it in the first place.
Continue reading “On Listening to Experts”