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99 years of achievement
Mai Tallent on her 99th Birthday with her daughter Ben
I’d like to wish a really Happy Birthday to my Aunt, Mai Tallent. Mai is in hospital in Kilkenny and is doing well. She has had a very full life over the past 99 years.
Mai was born Mai Gorey from Sheestown in County Kilkenny. She trained as a butter maker, spent two years in Ramsgate and then returned to Bennetsbridge Creamery. She married, “the Squire” of Sheestown, Jack Tallent, my uncle (my father’s older brother). Jack was one of 15 kids, a large family by any reckoning. She received many visitors yesterday and loads of cards and well wishes.
“If and When were planted, and Nothing grew.” Proverb
Written by Paul MooneyProcrastination is a form of self-torture. But, what lies beneath?
Call every half hourMany years ago, I was an enthusiastic (but poor) canoeist. At one point I knew every bend in the Liffey and Boyne rivers as we were out practicing most weekends. On these wide, fairly slow moving rivers, canoeing is relatively safe. But one of the dangers is getting caught in a ‘stopper’, the spot at the bottom of a Weir where the water churns back on itself. It’s possible for canoeists to get stuck in a stopper, upside down, underwater. When this happens it’s dark and disorientating and can be pretty dangerous. Thankfully, most canoeists make it out of the turbulence. Some don’t and die.
What’s your Party Piece? Being insanely good at something is the root of career success
Personal BrandMy Aunt Moya was a nun, a nursing sister who spent all her life taking care of old folks in a geriatric hospital just outside Paris. Moya was a formidable lady – having done a stint as the Mother Superior at one point. In her later years she didn’t hold any post of responsibility but continued to work as a nurse well into her 80’s. She had sort of adopted the 10 kids in our family and we were quite close, albeit because of travel restrictions in her community, we only met every couple of years.
Emotional Intelligence & 3 Dimensional Meetings
According to Nial O’Reilly who runs Ignite Coaching, we now live in a V.U.C.A. world (volatile, uncertain, challenging and ambiguous). Emotional intelligence helps us to navigate this changing terrain. The work day has lost definition. You check emails lying in bed when you wake up, over breakfast and during the commute. At night you send off brilliant missives, just before falling asleep. In between you try to get something productive done and reacquaint yourself with the kids. In all of the above ‘busyness’, the problems are seldom strategy or technology related, they are invariably interpersonal. Turns out that the soft stuff is the hard stuff. So, can you really learn the ‘soft stuff’ or are you born with this?
Executive Coaching: Does it Deliver?
Do you believe that your performance could be improved through coaching? Perhaps you’re somewhat skeptical, like the author of a US book called: “You go, girl! That’ll be $300” (Savage, 2006). I’ve been working in this particular space for 15+ years and have come to believe that the very best coaches are in the questions rather than the answers business. Let me demonstrate this by detailing a typical listing of questions.
Eureka! Do you know what you want to be when you Grow Up?
Dream it, Wish it, Do itI’ve never studied philosophy and don’t pretend to know anything about it. In times past, I was busier surviving life than surveying it. Philosophy always seemed overly conceptual (some of us learn more by doing and thinking about things afterwards). As I’ve become older, a serious U-turn on the importance of philosophy is under consideration.
Brilliance Vs. Persistence. Ambition is the path to success!
Written by Paul MooneyPersistence is the vehicle you arrive in
Persistence is better than BrillianceYesssss!
I was invited to play at a ‘retirement party’ in the city. Betty, a friend of my wife Linda, was finishing up with Dublin County Council. After long service, she wanted to mark the occasion by lining up some music on the night. A good ‘send off’ as they say (normally, at funerals). I agreed on one condition; there had to be at least one other person playing. For sure, it’s possible to do a 1-Man-Band and excite the crowd if you have talent like Christy Moore. My talent is more Homer Simpson-ish! So, Betty lined up two other people to play and the ‘band’ were set for the gig of the century.
14 Stories of people who only made it AFTER they were 60
Youre never too old to DreamI am 61 years of age. There I said it. My birthday was five weeks ago. Recently, I was talking to my orthopaedic surgeon who is 65 and he has no intention of retiring soon. He introduced me to a patient who was leaving. He is 88 and is going to Zambia next week to continue his missionary work. As part of what I do here in The Synergy Group and DPNlive, I carry out research. That got me looking at people who really only made it in business after they were 60.
THIS IS AN ACTUAL INCIDENT
Drink DrivingOr so I am lead to believe. Even if it’s not, it is a very poignant story that should make all drivers think. If you don't get a lump in your throat when you read it, your heart is made of stone!
This was sent in to me by Catherine Moore
My ‘affair’ with LinkedIn is in Rapid Decline
too-much-informationTMI (too much information). Backing off on communications can be more effective
This is a customer service story that reads like a southern states fairytale. As they say in Georgia: ‘Y’all ain’t gonna believe this shiiit’.