True North

Helping you unleash your real potential

How to show up and be yourself

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I love the quote of Oscar Wilde: Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.

A friend described she was tired of holding herself back. She felt most of the time she was trying to please others, putting herself down, was afraid of failing. As a result, she felt she was far from creating a fulfilling life.

If you feel this way at times, the biggest favour you can do yourself is showing up. Here some suggestions on how to do so and be yourself.

Be authentically you

Don’t try to be anyone else but yourself as others will undoubtfully see through that game and fail to connect meaningfully to you.

Instead connect to your powerful self, that wise voice inside you who knows you and believes in you and act from that energy.

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9 Lessons from our dog

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I was never what one calls a ‘dog person’. I love cats. Having been bitten by a dog as a child, which I am sure was an accident, I was always afraid of dogs. When our pup came into our lives, things changed. Though I am still not comfortable with all dogs, I look at them differently. I have come to love those creatures.

With time, I have learned from Karu, our Labrador Retriever. I would like to share some of the lessons.

Live in the now

Dogs are very intense creatures. Whatever they do, be it running, sniffing, playing; they are going at it wholeheartedly. Karu doesn’t think of the future. He is subject, object, past, present and future rolled into one. He stays in the present.

Enjoy whatever you have, whatever you are doing, now.

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The bold request

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I recently attended an advanced coaching workshop in London focussing on the mindset required to make important shifts in life. The training was mostly experiential so involved numerous exercises – some fun, others less because they took us out of our comfort zones. One such exercise was ‘The Bold Request’.  We were asked to go out on the street and make at least three bold requests in 25 minutes.  The instructions were: 1) Be bold, stretch yourself; 2) Be specific, articulate what you want exactly; 3) Be authentic, let it come from the heart; 4) State why, explain the rationale; 5) Be time-bound; 6) Be detached of the outcome, whether you get a yes or no is irrelevant.

Talk about stretching our comfort zones! We all went out feeling small but we completed the mission. Our bold requests included making your own coffee in a coffee shop, helping someone pack shelves, stepping into a shop and asking for something for free, asking people to join in a song or a dance, giving a hug, and many more. Most of us got yesses and the occasional no was fine because we were detached from the outcome.

The lessons drawn from this exercise were multiple: [Read more…]

Lessons on a leash

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Our puppy Karu continues giving me fabulous insights into life.  Although, still very much a puppy, he is growing fast. A couple of weeks ago, he taught me something about visions, action plans, engagement, and perseverance.

When we got Karu, back in October, I had visions of my son playing for hours with the dog, and us going for long walks on the fabulous Guincho beach close to where we live. The dog would run, have fun in the water, play with other dogs, and retrieve balls for hours on end as every Labrador Retriever loves doing.  A dreamy, energetic yet peaceful picture. As the weeks passed, reality hit me: before such visions came anywhere near reality, there would be a lot of learning – about dogs, about training dogs and about training our son to train a dog. Not to mention learning how to manage all these learning processes. Clearly, I needed an action plan, otherwise this vision would turn into a nightmare. I started seeing an unruly dog ignoring my instructions, attacking children, running into the street, getting hit by cars, eating books, and chewing up sofas. No dog of mine would be like this!

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Lessons on Life from our Puppy

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After two years of deliberation, a month ago, we finally decided to give in to our son’s wish for a dog. A puppy, actually. I admit to being more of a cat person. Also, to saying that I would never have a dog because I am frightened of them. I was bitten as a child and have never quite got over it. Until, now. Besides slowly getting over my fear, this puppy has opened a new world to me – the puppy world! It is a bigger investment than I had expected but so are my returns, in the form of reminders of how simple and beautiful life can be. I would like to share these with you.

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  1. Living in the NOW

It is amazing how puppies live in the now and enjoy every moment. He invites us to concentrate on what we are doing – not doing one thing and thinking of another. There are consequences to this. For him, when you play, you play. Since his play still involves biting, we feel it when we’re absent-minded! [Read more…]

Reset the button!

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Sunset at Guincho

Sunset at Guincho

End of summer is special. Whether you travel or not during summer, this time of year has a different rhythm, light and activity, a different mood altogether. The end of this special time deserves attention.

Living at an offbeat pace allows you to reconnect with others and yourself in a different energy, whether consciously or not. It is a time where you allow yourself to do more of the things you enjoy and to reflect on various aspects of your life. Yet, when summer ends, the danger of reverting back into the pre-summer mode lurks.

Let’s pause here and [Read more…]

Top 5 Reasons Why You Need to Know Your Talents

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Be yourselfThere are many reasons why you need to know your talents but these are the main ones I would like to share with you.

1, Energy

It’s very simple. Your talents give you energy, mental energy. When you are doing something where you use your talents, you will feel invigorated, mentally alert and energized. You might feel physically tired but you will still deliver.

Can you remember an occasion when, despite a bad night’s sleep, you not only enjoyed and had fun doing but you delivered? You were definitely using some of your talents!

2, Excellence

When you love doing something, excellence comes easily. And when you excel, success follows. Although you may achieve success, even when you don’t work with your talents, due to hard work, luck or circumstances, success comes more easily when you do use your talents.

[Read more…]

7 Ways to Find Your Tribe

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Connecting to your tribe, or tribes, contributes to your overall well-being and can even lead you to or keep you on your path. You might love what you do, but if you are not surrounded by people you connect with, you will find something is lacking. Human beings are social. You need social contact, but you need to attract the right kind of social interactions for them to be meaningful to you. It is about being social and feeling connected. You need your tribe.

system-825314_1280 (2)What is a tribe? Here, it is defined as a group of people sharing the same passions, interests and values. A tribe can be big or small, and in today’s world, it can be a group you meet in person, or virtually, via social media. You can connect at a professional or a personal level, across geographical and cultural boundaries. You can have different tribes simultaneously and throughout time your tribes are likely to change as you evolve.

Here are 7 ways to find your tribe:

1. Set your intention
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A simple way to bring more energy into your life

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Having a clear view and understanding of your talents, helps you bring more energy to your life. Talents are not about what you are able to do – talents are all about what you LOVE doing. How energized you feel at the end of the day, depends on which talents you give attention to.
Our individual mix of talents comprises of strong, half and small talents. Your strong talents are the activities you really love doing. The small talents are the tasks you would prefer to leave to someone else.

To make this clear, let me use the analogy of balloons. Huhh? Yes.
Imagine your body full of balloons. You have a number of big balloons in you, which represent your strong talents. Dying to find expression, these talents are fighting insight your body for a way out. You can release those balloons, by using them, being your strong talents. When you do so, there is a sense of liberation, relief and lightness. You literally bubble with energy.

You also have small talents, [Read more…]

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