The Internationally-renowned Gifts of Inspiration website has just published my article (below) as their feature article for February 2019 and distributed it world-wide in their February 2019 issue of InspirEmails:
I was waiting at a coffee shop to meet a client for the first time. She was late and after about fifteen minutes I sent her a text message asking if there was any problem. Almost immediately she responded 'oh my gosh I have just realized I am at the wrong coffee shop' (about a block away). She apologized profusely and said she would come straight down. No problem I thought and sure enough she soon appeared coming towards me very hurriedly. Her first words on arrival however were most unexpected.
'Peter I was so flustered about my silly mistake and hurried to where you are. But the moment I saw you I felt at ease. You were more than calm and untroubled by my mistake. You had an aura that put me immediately at ease'. I could have decided this was just one of those alternative thoughts we so often hear . . . except for one thing. She was not the first person to say so. Only weeks before my personal branding adviser simply said 'Peter I can sum up your branding in one word - ease'.
I am telling you this not to puff my ego but to convey what I believe is a powerful way we can all look at life. I don't particularly like the word happiness or the suggestion that we all want to be 'happy'. I had preferred the word 'content'. Content with where I am in life, what I am learning and my way of contributing to human progress. Then along came this word 'ease'.
Professor Michelle Simmons, Australian of the Year 2018, recently said . . . 'Learn about yourself, what you are good at, what you enjoy and then push the boundaries of that to find out where you can excel'. To me that encapsulates living life with ease. It's very different to living 'the easy life' - something that is in fact very unsatisfying and unstimulating. It also accepts that we all have our ups and downs. Ease is more the way we can describe a satisfaction that we are at our right place, at our right time, doing our right thing.
Wherever you are along your life journey, Professor Simmons' words give you and me a sound and positive basis on how to live today and in planning the next phase of life. You don't have to be the best at what you do, or even be wealthy. It's enough to be you, to learn about yourself, what you enjoy, what you are good at and to keep pushing your boundaries to excel in your way within your resources. That, to me, is living life with a sense of ease.
