Meaningful living is not a fixed or static state. It is a journey to a meaningful destination. We  have clearly not arrived at any state of perfection. We, as well as everything around us, are in constant change. And the question is: change to what? As we make our choices in response to ever-changing situations, our lives evolve. Are we in the process slipping further into meaninglessness or are we progressing towards more meaning?

Meaninful living is to strive for meaning. Striving for meaning requires nothing less than ceaseless work on oneself and refining of one’s personal vision.

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As fulfilling, exciting and creative as work sometimes can be, it can also make us intense, stressed, deeply fearful and self-absorbed. This would typically happen when we see everything from the perspective of competition for scarce resources and opportunities. We want desperately to be recognised but we don’t recognise others. We want praise but don’t praise others. Read More

Are you coping and managing or growing and leading? If you ask me, after sixty odd years in this life, I concur with Scott Peck (The road less travelled) that life is difficult. Every now and then we experience turbulence, curve balls or wrong ‘uns, major disappointments, high expectations, stressful situations, fear, anxiety, loneliness and confusion … if not devastating tragedies. This being so, the question is how we respond to these experiences. In essence there are three ways of responding: we succumb and give up hope; we find a way to cope; we grow. Read More

Cornerstones of authentic leadership

Talking leadership and corruption – Is there a relationship between the two?

How to coach leaders – Dr Gerhard van Rensburg

When do we refer to a person as a person of character? Is it not when we see consistency of good qualities in such a person. The more exceptional we feel the person is, the more it is based on inner qualities that shine through in how the person acts, especially in difficult times and especially in the face of temptations.   Read More

To have limitless choices is naturally something that we as human beings, born with a free will, will see as the ideal situation. But is it ideal? Read More

To the degree that dreams of personal success, more recognition, more money, more power and more freedom, become the driver of people’s actions, community considerations become less important. For many of us, community life in villages and suburbs has become a vague memory of yester-year. Those get-togethers at townhalls, schools and churches were characterised by warm feelings of belonging and a general sense of goodwill, children running around playing with freedom and lots of laughter. Already, more than half the word’s population live in cities and the trend will continue. As a consequence, community life as we knew it, is on the decline.

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What do people aspire to in the workplace? Is it not typically to first make a living (earn a salary), then try to make a good impression (especially on senior management) and then the higher aspiration to make progress to the next level of income and status? There is of course nothing odd or negative about career path development. The idea that, as a young adult, one needs to start somewhere, learn from experience and grow one’s competence and value, makes good sense. Read More