2007 to 2008

It’s New Year’s Eve! Again. Strange that, we always seem to be shocked that the season has come upon us so quickly, as if it wasn’t going to come round again.

Where to begin? I have a brilliant Christmas in Kariba with a whole bunch of friends-old and new. Truly amazing time, no pictures yet, but there will be some soon.

Tonight I will celebrate New Years Eve with some other friends among a crowd of 3000 people. I’ve had a variety of New Years in the past, from the simple family ones to the sleep through, in crowds and with one or two people. Either way, tonight will be fun and exciting.

Despite the party, I tend to take this time of year to reflect on things past and to look to things ahead. I no longer make New Years resolutions. They tend not to work as they are generally set in the negative ( ‘I have to stop…, I must give up, I need to cut back on…). Rather I make affirmations, set in the first person, positive, present tense. This triggers positive pictures and emotions to help you achieve your end result. People may want to stop smoking, but can’t imagine what it looks like to stop, and until they do then there is little hope.

So crack out the champagne, have some great food and imagine all the positive the next year will bring. For me this year promises to be a year of travel, impact and expansion as I take my practice and other business interests to new levels. Enjoy the ride!

Cathedrals, Kariba and Vision

Came across a great quote on vision in the last week-'If people don't think they are building a cathedral, they will think they are cutting stone, and no one likes to think they are cutting stone.'

I'm in the process of building the vision for my life, the picture keeps growing and it is amazing to see the dreams inside me. It's even more amazing to see them begin to come to pass. I am off to Kariba for the week-5 days of doing nothing but fun, fish and spending time with friends. I will have plenty of time to relax in a tranquil environment and do some great thinking. Then its back to Harare for the new year. I encourage you, amidst the festivities of the next few days to spend some thime thinking about whats ahead, about the positive you want to achieve this year.

Merry Christmas!

Decisions in Zimbabwe

Decisions! You make a hundred a day, what to wear, what you eat, who you call, when you change lanes in the traffic, and most of the time you don't even think about them. You just make them. Then once in a while along comes one that forces you to sit back and think. There is that sinking feeling in your gut that cannot be mistaken for bad chicken. That 'if I make the wrong one on this one I'm better off as a stuffed turkey on thanksgiving' feeling that warns you that its crunch time. Well its crunch time at the practice. I've done the budget for next year, I've costed the business in a dozen ways and then I've looked at what we need to achieve as an organisation. I've compared regional prices and the bottom line is that my prices need to go up-drastically, without loosing any patients. Decisions. Before you all run off and book with someone else,which i suspect a lot of people may do, I have also looked at the impact this will have on our service delivery and what we can do to increase 'value for money'. The decision is do we go through with this and risk client loss, or do we keep going at an 'affordable' rate and sacrifice aspects of the business. This is Zimbabwe and there is no garuntee what could happen-some people have little income to spare on health care at the best of times.

I wish there was an easy way to do this, an easier way to know the best way to go. There are a few tips I've picked up. One is to look for all the green lights, when things start to line up one after the other you are probably on the right track. Weighing pros and cons is another, draw up a list with one side positive and the other negative. Ask others-this is a good option to help see different ways, but can be a way of procrastinating. Enough about me, I need to make this choice by the new year. For more useful ideas on weighing options try Mind Tools

Where does the Golden Compass point for you

I see the reviews for ‘The Golden Compass’ are out and about. Varied reports and box office success by the look of things. Surprisingly, considering the anti-theistic issues in the books, I have not received one single e-mail originating from the Christian right decrying the movie. Compare this to the weight of spam that flooded my inbox concerning a certain boy-wizard when HP hit the screens. Perhaps this is because Philip Pulman has been fairly open about his religious views, whereas the accusations levelled against Ms Rowling were largely unsubstantiated. Or possibly the fear of apostasy is less in this case when introduced to the concept of the parallel universe. Back to the idea of movie reviews. They are really someone’s opinion of a movie, hopefully backed up by a wealth of experience in the field. Opinion, however, does not always equate to truth. Have you ever disagreed with a review of a movie or a book-chances are probably.

Movie reviews are one thing, but what about the personal reviews of your life? Who is telling you ‘the truth’? What comments being made about you are not necessarily true and are holding you back? Some comments are probably relevant and should be taken seriously, but there are a number which should be thrown out with the garbage and burnt in some thought erasing incinerator. You alone are responsible for your life and the consequences of your actions. Who says you can’t have the career you want? Why can’t you try a new hobby because someone close to you says that ‘it’s just not you’?

At the end of the day though, is there somewhere you can find the ‘ultimate truth’ or do you just make your own? Is there a guideline to stop me killing someone because I think it is ‘ok’ and fits in with my ‘truth’? I would suggest that you could start by finding a basis in an ancient philosophical or religious text (I personally am a little fanatical about the Judeo-Christian Bible, but look into the Koran, Buddhist texts, writings of Plato etc.). That way you have some boundaries, otherwise the rest of the dream is up to you.