Link4Change - Chris Ogle

This is a follow up post to the one the other day on how it was a bit of a struggle to ' be happy for others ' who were enjoying success. Having written that piece it then formed part of a meditation / reflection I had a day or two after. This revealed further thoughts about this 'being happy for others' that had been omitted from the last blog. This was also partially inspired by a podcast I was encouraged to listen to by Nikki Pepper which was about ' Anxiety and Depression ' with Johann Hari and Dr Rangan Chatterjee ( 2 hours but well worth it ). On deeper reflection I think when I am struggling to 'be happy' for others it is more to do with the intent or motive behind the success. If the motive is to 'be better' than others, to somehow be superior and 'show off' then this is where my difficulties begin to arise. This came up in the podcast, what Johann called 'Junk Values'; Money love, Materialism, Popularity or fame.

I've read quite a few posts over the last year complaining about supermarket self service checkouts. These posts have been anything from a simple: "Don't use them" to forcing supermarkets to reinstate the regular checkouts with actual people serving customers. The reason for this blog post is not just about supermarkets, but the trend it highlights regarding the unrelenting progress of technology and the inevitable contraction of 'jobs' and resultant decline in spending power of a population with less money. Differing perspectives Times are changing of that there is no argument. The checkout situation above of course is right in our face every week when we pick up groceries. But of course we are all participating in the same kind of decline in regular retail as we switch to Amazon and huge online companies. Who do you think is responsible for the reduced customer numbers on the high street? ... Although a number of factors involved, this is much les

There have been many challenges in my personal development that have been huge taken years to overcome. When I say overcome I don't mean that they have been consigned to the rubbish bin never to show their faces ever again either. What I have found is that with personal growth we become more adept at spotting what we want to improve, and through reflection faster and faster at identifying what has happened. That ego is a clever fellow, but very necessary, as our influencer and soul mate on the journey. Our ego knows us so well, perhaps when we truly make him / her our friend and not our "guide" we begin to see a different path. Some of the most difficult challenges I have faced are those when squaring up to the ego and looking him straight in the face... These include, comparing myself to others, trying to be better than those I associate with, "love" of money (not just the need, that is part of today's society as it stands) and proving how successfu

This is a saying that my father often spoke when we had some food that was left over or perhaps when food was a little bit substandard. My father was a keen gardener and when you have laboured with love over your vegetable patch loath are you to dispose of that food, if remotely edible! Lately I have been very fortunate to receive an abundance of food thank Steve Z. Skowyrski for that. It would appear that Xmas is a time of abundance in food stores, but so is the danger of stocking the wrong things. Carrots were a big over stocked item this year so it seems with literally 100's of kilo's finding their way into the "past sell by date" category. Now there are only so many carrots you can eat isn't there? ... well I have seen some impressive substitutions going including Carrots instead of tomatoes in chilli or spaghetti bolonaise. I've had my fill of carrot juice as well... I think I'm taking on an orange tinge now! ... substitute for tanning products?

Over the festive period I read a post about values. I must admit it's an interesting topic and it got me thinking about my own values (for my life) and what is important to me... and also about the things I am involved in, and perhaps what the values of those organisations might look like. Why would we bother with values? Well... I think deep down inside of us we do have a set of values that we believe in. They might be things that pop into our head and we confirm them to ourselves, or when we are being asked to make a decision we ponder what we believe is the right path even if we believe it might not be the best for us in the short term. To actually think about our values in the first place is a start. It's a bit like setting boundaries or a "modus operandi", something we won't be compromised on, or that gives us direction when the way forward is unclear. My own personal opinion following some internal reflection is that I believe I have some good v