Fiery Trials

Christianity in India Standing Strong Despite Growing Persecution

After some strange turbulent weather, it has made me reflect on life’s unexpected and strange moments. Sometimes, if you know you are going into a challenging season, you can get prepared for it. You can make sure you are mentally ready. But what about the strange and the difficult situations that we don’t see coming? The unexpected crisis that catches you off-guard? Sometimes, it can seem so overwhelming. 

In Scripture we are told not to be surprised by fiery trials. That’s because the forces of darkness would not be fighting against you if they didn’t know that God has something amazing in your future! Sometimes, those unexpected difficulties are just a sign that you’re on the right track. The enemy always fights the hardest when you are closest to your breakthrough. Stay on course, keep the faith and leave the fighting to God. 

Today, if you’re in the difficult times, keep your joy and declare God’s Word over your trial. God has promised that you will overcome every obstacle. You will defeat every enemy, and you will embrace the blessings and victories God has in store for you! 

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12–13, NIV) 

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank You for walking with me in my strange and difficult trials. Father, I cast all of my cares on You. God, I give You all of my difficulties, all of my questions, and all of my concerns. Thank You for working all things out for my good, in Christ’s Name! Amen.

Dealing With The Unexpected

Dealing With The Unexpected

When you start serving God with your whole heart, don’t be surprised when you find yourself a target for the enemy. If you know you are going into a challenging season, you can get prepared for it. You can make sure you are mentally ready. But what about the difficulties that we don’t see coming? The unexpected crisis that catches you off-guard? Sometimes, it can seem so overwhelming that it almost knocks the wind right out of you, and leaves you at times questioning God. 

According to God’s Word we shouldn’t be surprised by those unexpected fiery trials. That’s because the forces of darkness would not be fighting against you if they didn’t know that God has something amazing in store for your life! Sometimes, those unexpected difficulties are just a sign that you’re on the right track. It’s always darkest just before the dawn. The enemy always fights the hardest when you are closest to your breakthrough. The key is to stay the course and keep fighting the good fight of faith. 

Today, in these difficult times, keep your joy and keep declaring God’s Word over your future. God has promised that you will overcome every obstacle – even the unexpected ones. You will defeat every enemy, and you will embrace the blessing and victory He has in for you! Hallelujah! 

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12–13, NIV) 

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank You for walking with me in every season of my life. Father, today I cast all of my cares on You. I cast all of my difficulties, all of my questions, and all of my concerns on You. God, teach me how to handle the unexpected fiery trials. Thank You for working all things out for my good, in Christ’s Name! Amen. 

More Hope Than Optimism

Talking to some of the youth at school yesterday, amidst their optimism, there also seems to be a lot of hopelessness. It’s time to set our hope on God so we are not easily swayed by the trials of life.

Setting our hope on God means we set our lives in the right direction. One translation of today’s verse says, “look forward to more and more of God’s favour.” God wants to pour out His goodness and grace on you. He wants to help you get ahead in this life. He wants to lead you to the right job. He wants to lead you to the right relationship. But here’s the key: we have to be on the lookout for more and more of God’s favour. More and more of God’s hope. More and more of God’s grace. That tells me that we can’t get stagnant.

Today, meditate on the truth that God wants to do more than you can even ask or think. It says in Ephesians that He wants to show us the immeasurable, limitless, surpassing greatness of His free favour. In other words, God wants to go above and beyond what we’re used to! He wants to show you favour in unusual and extraordinary ways. Set your hopes dynamically higher today, and increase your expectations of what God will do in your life!

“…set your hope wholly and unchangeably on the grace (divine favour) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.”

(1 Peter 1:13, AMP)

Pray With Me
Yahweh, thank You for Your abundance in every area of my life today. Father, I will set my hope on You, knowing that You want to do more in my life than I can ever imagine. God, by faith I receive more of Your favour, grace and hope. God, teach me to be a vessel used by You, in Christ’s Name! Amen.

The Devil Does Not Shoot Blanks

The Devil Does Not Shoot BlanksThe Devil Does Not Shoot Blanks

Being Christian is like living in an action movie- there is never a dull moment. You’re either being chased or standing your ground against the enemy, dodging spiritual bullets, fighting evil spirits, all while living your life in the physical realm. However, some Christians are not aware that they are even in the fight, so they are naturally confused as to why so many things are going wrong in their lives. Broken marriages, rebellious children, sudden conflict at work, bullying at school, sickness, financial loss, accidents… Where is GOD in all of this? GOD is right where He said He would be, but we’re the ones who are foolish to think that the devil is not doing all that he can to take us down.

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.

1 Peter 4:12

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;

1 Peter 5:8?

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through GOD to the pulling down of strong holds;)

2 Corinthians 10: 3-4

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

?John 15:19

Imagine yourself with a target on your person that people and evil spirits are trying to hit, or picture yourself in a dangerous war with the enemy firing shots at you. However, when you take a hit, don’t think of it as guts and gore, but losses. Think of your health worsening, losing your job, losing a child, your spouse filing for divorce, unexplainable hatred towards you, suffering huge financial losses, your house going up in flames, getting arrested for no reason, your family turning their backs on you- you get the picture, right? You might say “Oh, that’s just life! You can’t expect everything to go well all the time. Just pray that everything works out. It could be GOD testing you, you know.” I am well aware that GOD can sometimes take certain things away from us, but it is never to harm us but to bring us under His will and into the purpose He created us for. When I lost my job a few years ago, I knew that there had to be a lesson in it. I already knew that it was not the work of the devil because I had prayed and fasted about it. I had peace concerning my jobless state, although there were times that I allowed myself to become stressed when it seemed that none of my job applications was coming up fruitful. It took nearly a year before I was working well again, but during those hard months, GOD still provided for me, and I grew closer to Him. You need to be able to know if something is from GOD or Satan, and the only way is through prayer.

The devil can make his bullets seem like ordinary life issues designed to take your focus off GOD or even to shake your fist at Him. One minute everything seems fine, but then problem after problem take place in your life, leaving you exhausted. Such a thing happened in my family when I was sick or in pain for several months (first an abscess in my mouth, then chicken pox, then flu that affected my breathing, balance, and hearing). My older sister had her tonsils become so inflamed and swollen that she could no longer swallow anything, could hardly talk, and her breathing was compromised. My mother’s legs started swelling for no medical reason, and painful lumps started appearing that looked bruised. My younger sister was having trouble at work for no good reason, it was although her colleagues had turned on her overnight, my father had difficulty finding work (he’s in construction), my nephew was having trouble at school, and my niece became more rebellious. All of this happened around the same time, leaving us all stressed and tense. I was so consumed with what was going on that I neglected my time with GOD, and when I did speak to Him, I asked Him why all of this was happening when I had done nothing wrong. I had no doorways open in my life, and I was already in active warfare against the witches in my area. It took a while for me to realise that this was the work of the devil, so I began to stand on GOD’S Word and rebuke everything that was being sent to my family. In just a matter of days, everything returned to normal.

You don’t have to do anything wrong for an attack to happen. The level of warfare on Christians has increased immensely, and we need to be aware of this. People are astral projecting into our homes to harm us, demons are entering our dreams, curses and spells are being cast against us, however, so much more is yet to come. Our fights take place on a spiritual plane but expect to see the results in the physical realm. Do you know that there are specially trained forces walking among us whose assignment is to bring Christians down? We’re talking about demonically enhanced people who will usher in the anti-Christ when the time comes. They exist just to bring death, destruction, and persecution to all Christians in the world. There is no sitting on the fence here, people, we must all fight. When you see that a fellow brother or sister is being attacked and they cannot stand on their own, then you need to step into that gap and fight for them, do not let them fall when you are right there.  

Put on your armour of GOD every day, remain obedient to Him, pray always and fast as much as the Holy Spirit moves you to. Praise GOD even in the midst of a trial, and stay in His Word daily. These are your weapons, and when used together with the name of Jesus, nothing will bring you down.

What Should Be Different about a Christian Marriage?

What should be different about a Christian marriage?

You get a lot of advice before you get married.

“Never go to bed angry.”

“Keep dating.”

“Make your partner your first priority.”

“Don’t walk out during an argument.”

“It’s all about communication.”

So why on earth do so many marriages fail?

Reasons Why Couples Break Up

Marriage has gotten quite a bad reputation over the years. The butt of a seemingly infinite number of jokes, matrimony is a source of endless social commentary, gender politics, and governmental debate.  

According to recent University of Maryland divorce research, you’ve got about a 50/50 chance of growing old with your spouse. If the statistic did not shock you, the reasons many couples decide to separate will not either.

 “The relationship was built more on lust than a true partnership.”

“I wasn’t present.”

“We were together 15 years, I was unhappy for 11 of them.”

“We were co-parents, not lovers.”

“We didn’t choose to work on the marriage, day in and day out.”

“It was like we were on opposite teams.”

“Married too fast”

“Bedroom boredom”

I was a full-time manager in the marriage.  

“There was no respect.”

“There was no real intimacy.”

Many people mistakenly believe that most marriages end almost exclusively because of infidelity, however, while this certainly is a major factor, the decision to terminate a marriage is much more complicated.

“Conventional wisdom tells us that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”

A marriage is a lot like buying a new car. Driving it out of the showroom is bliss. As you cruise off you can hardly believe your luck. Everything feels,  sounds, smells and looks perfect. You coast through many months—sometimes even years— of happy driving before the car needs an MOT or service. But like a car, when a relationship eventually breaks down, it’s flabbergasting; you’re left stuck on the side of the road trying to figure out what on earth went wrong and realise that no car or relationship comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Christ-centred Marriage

“Our culture still shapes our thinking and conduct regarding marriage to an incredible degree.”

It’s easy to think that only “other people” get divorced. That your own marriage is somehow immune to heartache, infidelity and fights over who gets the house, car and dog. After all, how many of us would walk down the aisle if we knew for sure that our relationships would end up in divorce court.

Viewing Marriage Realistically

Christian or not, marriage is difficult for any couple to sustain over a lifetime. Life’s trials—the pressure of making a living, of parenting, of resisting temptations to unfaithfulness or selfishness.  But Christian marriage offers hope.  

“We have to stop asking of marriage what God never designed it to give — perfect happiness, conflict-free living, and idolatrous obsession.”

Christians marriages should be shaped by the cross of Christ, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God.

“Above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins’ ” (1 Peter 4:8).

“Her husband ”¦ praises her” (Proverbs 31:28).

“She who is married cares ”¦ how she may please her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:34).

“Be kindly affectionate to one another ”¦ in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10).

“Pray for one another” (James 5:16).

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself” (1 Corinthians 13:4).

Successful marriages don’t just happen; they must be developed.

Serving Our Spouse

Another key component in a Christian marriage is selflessness, as described in Philippians 2:3-4. The principle of humility outlined in these verses is crucial to a strong Christian marriage. If happiness is our primary goal, we’ll get a divorce as soon as happiness seems to wane.  With greater awareness of the principle of thought, many marriages can be saved and even strengthened.

Becoming “one” is about more than sex. It requires a level of vulnerability that opens the door for deep hurt. Both husband and wife must consider their partner’s needs before their own, which requires a selflessness that is only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells them.

“Focus on your spouse’s strengths rather than their weaknesses.”

“Encourage rather than criticize.”

“Pray for your spouse instead of gossiping about them.”

“Learn and live what Christ teaches about relating to and loving others.”

It is a partnership of love, made richer and deeper through sex.  Continue—or revive—your courtship into your married life.

Marriage isn’t always easy and the sad reality is that not all “I dos” end with a happily ever after. However, the primary difference between a Christian marriage and a non-Christian marriage should be that Christ is the centre of the marriage. With a Christ-centered relationship, an other-centered attitude and an unwavering commitment to making it work, your marriage can flourish — just as God designed.

Which of these reasons is most true in your marriage? Please share with me below.

If You Want to Make Enemies, Try to Change Something: 17 Inspiring Change Quotes to Live By

"God supplies everything you need for successful change, and when you make changes with his help, it says changed." - Unknown
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.  Change, no matter what scale it is on, can be a source of stress and anxiety for many. However, it’s common for change management practitioners to view resistance to change as an irrational barrier to progress. Another school of thought is that resistance to change is a social process that can strengthen changes and help to eliminate undesirable change.
The fact remains that change is necessary in all organizations. But, it is the way change is initiated which can so greatly vary. It can be forced upon companies by outside forces or just come from a realization that the company may be falling behind the times. In this way, change management might be quite beneficial to an organization. Organizations that have learned how to transform themselves through effective leadership and strategic control are more likely to survive and prosper. The dilemma is that most people hate change and love it at the same time and what they really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
The good news is that God has a plan for your life to prosper.    If we trust in God and allow the change to grow us to become more like Jesus Christ in how we respond and act, then we are promised that all things will work together for good for those who love Him and keep His commandments!
The following thought-provoking quotes relate to change management including resistance to change, acceptance and change strategy.
  1. “One of the reasons so many celebrities keep going in and out of rehab is that they leave out the critical element to lasting change: God.” – Unknown
  2. “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” — Niccolo Machiavelli
  3. “Change has its enemies.” — Robert Kennedy
  4. “He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” — Harold Wilson
  5. “Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” — Samuel Johnson
  6. “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” — Charles Kettering
  7. “God supplies everything you need for successful change, and when you make changes with his help, it says changed.” – Unknown
  8. “It is always easier to talk about change than to make it.” — Alvin Toffler
  9. “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.” — Machiavelli
  10. “The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.” — H. G. Wells
  11. “When you feel weak in the face of change, God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” the Bible says. (Romans 8:31, NIV) Knowing the invincible God is on your side gives you tremendous confidence.” – Unknown
  12. “Paralyze resistance with persistence.” — Woody Hayes
  13. “Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.” — Frances Hesselbein
  14. “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic – Peter Drucker
  15. “The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.” — John P. Kotter
  16. “Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business.” — Mark Sanborn
  17. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” — Woodrow Wilson

Don’t make change harder than it has to be. Do it the right way. Ask God for help.

The New Day: How Should I Think About My Failures?

Gratitude Attitude 2017 #22

Everyone wants to be a success. I have never met anyone who purposely set out to be a failure. Undoubtedly, this is why so much has been written on the topic “How to be a Success” and why these books are so popular.

However, The New Day daily newspaper closed just nine weeks after launching, Trinity Mirror confirms.

The New Day was a British compact daily newspaper published by Trinity Mirror, launched on 29 February 2016. It was aimed at a middle-aged female audience and was politically neutral. The editor, Alison Phillips, intended readers to get through the newspaper in under 30 minutes.

The new paper was initially available for 25p for two weeks, then rising to 50p.  Two million copies of the New Day was  given away on the first day, as the turquoise-branded upstart attempted to spark a revival in readership and gain ground against the mid-market Mail and Express offline.

Arrogance about their own ability to rescue a situation can prevent leaders from changing course

The New Day had no leading articles, no website, and columnists  and believed it could successfully  drag readers back to print?  The sad truth is that it did not attract enough attention and  failed to create  a daily newspaper that could  co-exist in the  digital age, especially as tabloids and broadsheets continue to  suffer a significant circulation decline.

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Shareholders at Trinity Mirror’s annual meeting called the failure “demoralising”. Analysts said it was “embarrassing”.

Assume for a moment that the leaders of The New Day  had no idea  about the changes swamping the print media as a result of the digital revolution,  and carelessly  decided to invest  millions into the venture without undertaking a risk assessment and  also decided to  ignore every indication that the paper was failing.  That would have been embarrassing and demoralising.

However, the leaders decided to fail quickly and  shut down the project they  started.

Abandonment is a rare, difficult and a valuable management skill. The natural instinct of most people is to persist, particularly  when the project is a collective commitment, as most corporate ventures are,  but then  it becomes even harder to hit the red “stop” button.

The New Day’s editor, Alison Phillips, said in a statement posted on Facebook that the team “tried everything we could” but were unable to reach the figures needed to make it work financially.

We dread failure. We don’t like talking about it. Some of us will internalise and rethink our failures in our heads time and time again. Others will swipe them away, moving onto the next thing immediately. In the public, we prefer sweeping our failures under the rug, silently, while nobody is watching.

While this might save our feelings momentarily, this is not the way learn and innovate.

the new day

According to Albert Savoia – ex Googler and innovation expert,  most project innovations will fail.

“Most New Things Will Fail – Even If They Are Flawlessly Executed.” – Albert Savoia – Ex Googler

Does this mean you should stay away from trying new things (and failing in the process)? Certainly not. It just means you need to accept failure will inevitably be a part of the process.

In most cases, however, a combination of arrogance about personal ability to rescue the situation and blindness to the lengthening odds of success stops  leaders from changing course.

The natural lifespan of most projects is finite, and the rarities are companies that survive.

The Art of “strategic Quitting” Will Become More Important as Careers Fragment and Companies Exert More Discipline

So if an idea is doomed, organisations usually treat the person who pulled the plug  early on as a hero right? Not exactly, it’s complicated.

Roy Greenslade, Professor of Journalism at City University London, wrote a report in The Guardian explaining how The New Day had failed. He pinpointed the error of marketing a newspaper to people who inherently despise  newspapers, and the short period of time  between the announcement and launch, leaving  no  time to advertise the product. It was also published early in the evening  thus missing out on late-night breaking news such as Leicester City F.C.’s shock win of the Premier League.

“Nothing so powerfully concentrates a man’s mind on innovation as the knowledge that the present product or service will be abandoned in the foreseeable future.” – Peter Drucker

The first thing the Bible wants to say is that all of us have failed. None is without failure. If you think you haven’t failed, two things are true of you. One is you are blind to your failures and the other is you probably haven’t taken enough risks to try enough hard things so that you would be aware of your failures.

Peter Drucker’s influence on business management is legendary.  Peter  realised  that “systematic abandonment”   a regular, unsentimental spring-clean is critical to the fostering of new business ideas.

Conclusion,  every organization needs to have a regular “rummage sale” to determine which products, services, and programs are worth keeping and which ones must be abandoned.

 

You Were Never Made to Be ‘Productive’

Compared to people in other industrialized nations, Americans work longer hours, take fewer vacation days, and retire later in life. Busyness, once seen as the curse of the disadvantaged, has become equated with status and importance. Our work increasingly defines who we are.

“Godly rest (distinct from play, relaxation, or sleep) is inextricably tied to our identity as children of God.”

The solution perhaps is to be “Lazy Intelligent”?  That sounds like something an unsuccessful, lazy slacker would say, isn’t it? Actually, it’s the opposite. One of America’s most influential and controversial science fiction authors Robert Heinlein uttered these words during his time. Despite his nod to laziness, Heinlein went on to pen hit titles such as Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land.

Productive laziness is not about doing absolutely nothing at all. It’s not about just sitting around and drinking coffee or engaging in idle gossip while watching the non-delivered project milestones disappear into the horizon. In fact, this behavior would lead to a very short-lived project management career.

Laziness Is Not Synonymous with Stupidity

Instead, productive laziness should be viewed as a more focused approach to management. Adopting this mindset means concentrating efforts where it really matters, rather than spreading yourself thing over unimportant, non-critical activities that in some cases don’t need to be addressed at all.

According to the Pareto Principle — Also Known as the “80/20 Rule” — 80 Percent of the Consequences Stem from 20 Percent of the Causes.

While the idea has a rule-of-thumb application, it’s also commonly misused. For example, just because one solution fits 80 percent of cases, that doesn’t mean it only requires 20 percent of the resources needed to solve all cases.

The principle, suggested by management thinker Joseph M. Juran, was named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80 percent of property in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population. As a result, it was assumed that most of the result in any situation was determined by a small number of causes.

Rest Is at the Center of God’s Design

Every smart but lazy person should consider the 80/20 Rule each day. For managers, the principle is a reminder to concentrate on the 20 percent of work that really matters.

Contrary to belief, 80 percent of success is not just showing up. In fact, only 20 percent of what you do during the day will produce 80 percent of your results. Therefore, it is important to identify and focus on that 20 percent during the working day.

Project Journal5

When genius and laziness meet, the results can be magical. Being just the right combination of smart and lazy can bring you to have a real edge over others. Interestingly enough, smart lazy people are generally better suited for leadership roles in organizations.  These people make great strategic thinkers and leaders. They do things in a smart way in order to expend the least effort. They don’t rush into things, taking that little bit of extra time to think and find the shortest, best path.

They  question, contradict, and show dissent against inefficient methods or unnecessary tasks.

“Whenever There Is a Hard Job to Be Done, I Assign It to a Lazy Man; He Is Sure to Find an Easy Way of Doing It. — Bill Gates”

Bill’s not the only guy, who believes that laziness doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.  German Generalfeldmarschall Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke was the chief of staff for the Prussian Army for 30 years. He is regarded as one of the greatest strategists of the latter 1800s among historical scholars and is the creator of the more modern method of directing armies in the field.

Moltke observed his troops and categorized them based on their intelligence, diligence and laziness. If soldiers proved to be both lazy and smart, they were promoted to leadership because they knew how to be successful with efficiency. If soldiers were smart and diligent, they were deployed into a staff function, focusing on the details. Soldiers who were not smart and lazy were left alone in hopes they would come up with a great idea someday. Finally, soldiers who were not smart but diligent were removed from ranks.

Like Moltke’s army, the lazy manager is all about applying these principles in the delivery and management of work. You’re likely not stupid since you’ve landed the management position, but how are your lazy skills? Applying smart-lazy tactics will not only allow your work to be more successful, but you will also be seen as a successful individual and a top candidate for future leadership roles.

Think return on investment (time spent versus money earned ratio) rather than busy work and  don’t restrict yourself to a certain way  of doing things just for the sake of the status quo.

These people make great strategic thinkers and leaders. They do things in a smart way in order to expend the least effort. They don’t rush into things, taking that little bit of extra time to think and find the shortest, best path.

In the wise words of Bill Gate’s and American automotive industrialist Walter Chrysler, “Whenever there is a hard job to be done, assign it to a lazy man or woman for that matter; as he or she is sure to find an easy way of doing it.”

For an overachieving people-pleaser like me, thinking of rest as an innate part of who we were created to be—not as a discipline or something to be earned—is compelling. It is yet another form of God’s infinite grace, one that’s needed today more than ever.

Co-Author Peter Taylor

Described as “perhaps the most entertaining and inspiring speaker in the project management world today”, Peter Taylor is the author of two best-selling books on ‘Productive Laziness’ – ‘The Lazy Winner’ and ‘The Lazy Project Manager’.

 

Axelos CEO Peter Hepworth in the Spotlight

Project Journal had the privilege of interviewing AXELOS previous CEO Peter Hepworth. Peter provided us with an insight into his role and AXELOS as a whole in October 2015.

AXELOS CEO Peter Hepworth

Peter joined AEXLOS as CEO in July 2013 and was previously Managing Director for Activision Blizzard  a $400 million turnover and $150million EBIT business.   In 2014, Activision Blizzard was the fifth largest gaming company in the world by revenue.

Peter is an economics graduate, chartered accountant, with an M.B.A. from Cranfield and A.M.P. from INSEAD.

What is AXELOS?

AXELOS is a joint venture set up in 2014 by the Government of the United Kingdom and Capita, to develop, manage and operate qualifications in best practice, in methodologies formerly owned by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

AXELOS promotes best practice frameworks such as PRINCE2 and ITIL and is developing a cyber resilience best practice portfolio later in 2015.

How does  AXELOS  differ from APM?

AXELOS is an independent organisation, allowing the user community to focus more on the content of frameworks and guidance without much interference. The firm puts a heavy focus on the guidance given, ensuring the content is fuelled by good ideas to keep the ITIL structure up to date. But while the business has a combination of access to one of Britain’s largest corporations and the UK government, more than 75% of publication sales and Prince2 certification is sold outside of the UK, a trend that is growing faster due to emerging markets.

The company varies its training approach. Its Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3), for example, encourages users to assess their performance against benchmarks. Mike Acaster, PPM portfolio manager, says: “PRINCE2 is applicable to many sizes of organisation, but sometimes it’s better to be a bit more specific. It’s about tailoring advice for that context. In some cases it has been tailored, and people don’t realise it’s PRINCE2 – you have to scratch the surface.

How do you view the future of project management?

After years of being associated with large engineering and construction projects, project management has moved beyond infrastructure. Firms across different countries and sectors now acknowledge the need to manage their processes and keep costs and timing under control. As businesses begin to recognise the importance of project management worldwide, questions are being asked about the standards required. AXELOS is focusing on how these can apply to different staff and situations, as well as how workers can develop a career path in project management.

Is AXELOS popular aboard?

“It’s hard to measure the adoption of our products, but if you look at the number of exams taken, you can see strong growth outside the UK, as well as in the UK,” he says. “In the US there’s a lot of interest, and the biggest international user of PRINCE2 is the UN, to make sure their aid development is correctly managed.

“Our Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) product was used to deliver the Olympic Games. I was in Tokyo after they had won the right to host Tokyo 2020 and the focus was ‘When can we have MSP?’ They want to see the same success as London has had.”

What are  the future priorities for AXELOS?

“Career path. For the individual, it’s about how your career can develop. There’s a different skill set between project and portfolio management, and no linear route. It comes to modularisation. We have been able to offer different dimensions.

Cyber Resilience is next. Companies need to put more emphasis on improving their reactions to cyber attacks rather than continuing to focus on prevent. Although there are a number of standards and best practices in place to prevent cyber attacks, firms are still falling foul, and this is usually due to the internal attitude and people, rather than technology.

New products launched in 2015 include PRINCE2 Agile; Cyber Resilience Best Practice and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

What’s next?

Young people are learning things online and changing how it is done. We want our members to feel proud about having AXELOS qualifications and have launched digital badges so that project professionals can display their mark of professionalism across popular social networks.

Digital badges are tokens that appear as icons and are awarded to signify learning achievements in a way that can be easily verified and shared online. Our members digital badge’s will hold and display information about their professional development activity as well as the issue date and an expiry date.

Individual workers, organisations and entire industries can benefit from badges. Badges are a new form of currency – a more transparent and efficient way to communicate the acquisition and development of workplace skills.

From AXELOS to Microsoft, IBM to Oracle, many leading companies have adopted digital badges as a form of recognition for continuing professional development and certifications. The individuals who earn these badges enthusiastically share them to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other online destinations. Once shared, anyone can verify the authenticity of and learn more about the individual’s abilities. That shareability and verification can make all the difference in a competitive job market, whether an individual aspires to move ahead in her current position or move into a different job.

We also want continued openness from AXELOS, even more community collaboration and specific actions to further increase the relevance of AXELOS in the future.

Where do you believe project management is heading?

Anyone can benefit from project management guidance. “We are all project managers now,” he says.

 

Pocket Living in London: Micro-flats Gain Favour as the Answer to Big City Urban Density

Young Londoners have revealed that they would rather rent a tiny studio flat than a large property in a less desirable area.

We Haven’t Reached the Density of Hong Kong. But We’re Heading That Way

London’s population is expected to reach 10m by 2031 from its current 8.3m. London needs an estimated 49,000 new homes a year. This is not a new phenomenon, architects have confronted population growth and social changes before.

Obvious solutions include rental and shared ownership, while community building is also gaining ground in the UK. But there are other solutions out there, adding to the bigger picture. One of these is Pocket Living  micro-flats, backed by Mayor Boris Johnson.

Micro-apartments Are in Vogue Today. But in Japan, People Have Been Living in the Nakagin Capsule Tower’s 100-square-foot Housing for Decades

Some 45% of 18-24-year-olds in London said they would consider living in  a micro-flat  if that was in the “perfect” location. A  micro-apartment, also known as a micro-flat, is a one-room, self-contained living space, usually purpose-built, designed to accommodate a sitting space, sleeping space, bathroom and kitchenette with a size of 4-10 square meters.

They are  essentially modern versions of the British bedsit and are becoming popular in urban centers in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and North America, as  they represent a seemingly straightforward antidote to persistent affordable housing shortages in dense growing cities.

In fact, some micro-apartments are  being marketed as  cost-effective  fashionable lifestyle products.

Hogarth Architects transformed another large one-room flat in London into a stylish apartment using a wood insert that creates a separated kitchen and loft. It’s essentially one big piece of furniture custom-made for the space.
Large one-room flat in London

Hogarth Architects transformed another large one-room flat in London into a stylish apartment using a wood insert that creates a separated kitchen and loft. It’s essentially one big piece of furniture custom-made for the space.
Large one-room flat in London

Hogarth Architects transformed a large one-room flat in London into a stylish apartment using a wood insert that creates a separated kitchen and loft. It’s essentially one big piece of furniture custom-made for the space.

Micro-Apartments-Sloped-Roof-1

Micro-Apartments-Paris-Storage-2Curved  surfaces can make a small space even smaller. The ability to organise the rooms vertically is reduced. But Dutch architects Queeste Architecten have managed to give this 320-square-foot micro-flat a spacious feel using lots of white, with built-in furniture and storage.

Guide price  £8,000: the prototype of Ecodom's portable micro house is set to go to auction on 30 July
Guide price £8,000: the prototype of Ecodom’s portable micro house went to auction on 30 July

That oh-so-unfunny joke about moving into the garden shed is  now a reality for young Londoners.

The prototype of a portable  130sq ft  eco-friendly micro house that comes with a fold-down bed, kitchenette and shower room.

The micro houses, by Ecodom, will be constructed off-site and delivered fully made within two months of ordering, so it couldn’t be simpler to drop it into place and move straight in.

Oak Tube Apartment in Moscow
Oak Tube Apartment in Moscow

Architect Peter Kostelov turned a small flat  into a oak-lined tube. Kostelov removed all the walls from the center of the apartment and replaced them with glass so light could get from windows on one side to the balcony on the other.

Micro-Apartments-NYC-Loft-2

Specht Harpman Architects have turned a penthouse with a high ceiling into a two-level apartment and even managed to fit in a small grassy terrace.

Housing Complex in Slovenia is a Series of Honeycomb Modular Apartments
Honeycomb Modular Apartments

Housing Complex in Slovenia is a Series of Honeycomb Modular Apartments
Honeycomb Modular Apartments

Housing Complex in Slovenia is a Series of Honeycomb Modular Apartments

Japan’s famed Capsule Tower (and its scheduled demolition!), an iconic structure and unique archetype for contemporary prefab architecture. Designed by Kisho Kurokawa
Japan’s famed Capsule Tower

When it was built in 1972, architect Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower was meant to be the housing structure of the future.  Now in 2013, his “masterpiece” stands dilapidated and virtually empty.

21 Rooms in One Creative Condo
21 Rooms in One Creative Condo

Now here’s a solution that could revolutionize tiny spaces  a  slide-out system that turns a 350-square-foot space into 21 different rooms with bed, washing machine, entertainment, a bath covered by the bed when not in use, shelves, cabinets and more.

Do you believe higher density housing  is the  answer to London’s housing crisis as some believe  or will it turn the city into Hong Kong and Shanghai?  

50 Quotes to Inspire Successful Leadership

Most people  believe  that the key to successful leadership is influence, not authority. Do you agree? The answer to that question, it seems, lies in whether the goal is to get others to work from a place of compliance or from a place of commitment  which underlines the difference between influential leadership and authoritative leadership.

Working within an influential leadership model, committed employees will give up discretionary time to solve problems, serve customers, and think creatively. On the other hand, people working under command and control, as we more commonly know it will only work to achieve compliance, doing only what needs to be done to get by.

As a  leader  you  must realise that every  decision  you  make  influences your  next five decisions.  Fortunately, great leaders are made, not born.

Maximise your effectiveness by emulating these words of wisdom that will motivate you in  achieving your goals  and  overcoming your fears:

  1. Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs — Farrah Gray
  2. Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence — Unknown
  3. proverb is to speech what salt is to food — Arabic Proverb
  4. Hold fast to dreams,  For if dreams die  Life is a broken-winged bird,  That cannot fly — Langston Hughes
  5. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent — Eleanor Roosevelt
  6. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light — Plato
  7. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run — Babe Ruth
  8. If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe — Abraham Lincoln
  9. If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough — Oprah Winfrey
  10. I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination — Jimmy Dean
  11. Believe you can and you’re halfway there — Theodore Roosevelt
  12. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover — Mark Twain
  13. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart — Eleanor Roosevelt
  14. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears — Les Brown
  15. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve —  Unknown
  16. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions — Stephen Covey
  17. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it — Henry Ford
  18. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any — Unknown
  19. It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light — Unknown
  20. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant — Robert Louis Stevenson
  21. The only way to do great work is to love what you do — Steve Jobs
  22. Change your thoughts and you change your world — Unknown
  23. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me — Ayn Rand
  24. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck — Dalai Lama
  25. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have — Maya Angelou
  26. I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear — Rosa Parks
  27. I would rather die of passion than of boredom — Vincent Van Gogh
  28. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new — Unknown
  29. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else — Booker T. Washington
  30. Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless — Unknown
  31. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart — Ancient Indian Proverb
  32. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world — Unknown
  33. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  34. We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone — Ronald Reagan
  35. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear — George Addair
  36. Nothing will work unless you do — Maya Angelou
  37. I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples — Mother Teresa
  38. What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality — Plutarch
  39. Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway — John Wayne
  40. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm — Winston Churchill
  41. It always seems impossible until it’s done — Nelson Mandela
  42. Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential — John Maxwell
  43. Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  44. There are no traffic jams along the extra mile — Roger Staubach
  45. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning — Gloria Steinem
  46. Stealing someone else’s words frequently spares the embarrassment of eating your own — Peter Anderson
  47. The Book of Proverbs are the cream of a nation’s thought — Unknown
  48. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it — Charles Swindoll
  49. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity — Amelia Earhart
  50. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life — John Lennon

 

 

10 Motivational Quotes to Get You Through Your Procurement Woes

10 Motivational Quotes to Get You Through Your Procurement Woes

Is your procurement project stuck in a rut?  

A well crafted quote, very much like good storytelling  and  can elucidate fuzzy concepts. For example, creativity” and “innovation” are not the first two words that come to mind when talking about procurement. However, According to Deloitte’s paper Charting the Course, this is where procurement’s destiny lies.

By transforming beyond today’s definition of “procurement as the sourcing of raw materials, and goods and services,” procurement can  reach new heights.

Here are 10  quotes to help you find motivation and inspiration to make a positive change.

  1. All models are wrong but some of them are useful – George Box (Statistician)
  2. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel – Maya Angelou (Writer)
  3. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them – Albert Einstein
  4. Opportunity arises for the prepared mind – Louis Pasteur (chemist and microbiologist)
  5. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Lao Tzu (Philosopher)
  6. What gets measured, gets managed – Peter Drucker
  7. Leonardo da Vinci’s Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication –  Dale Dauten
  8. Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength – Corrie ten Boom
  9. The best way to predict the future is to invent it – Alan Kay
  10. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value – Albert Einstein

What are some of your favorite inspirational quotes? Share in the comments

29 Awesome Quotes on Risk Management

29 Awesome Quotes on Risk Management
  1. If you treat risk management as a part-time job, you might soon find yourself looking for one ’- Deloitte white paper (Putting Risk in the Comfort Zone)
  2. I have learned that nothing is certain except for the need to have strong risk management, a lot of cash, the willingness to invest even when the future is unclear, and great people ’- Jeffrey R. Immelt
  3. Thoughtfully assessing and addressing enterprise risk and placing a high value on corporate transparency can protect the one thing we cannot afford to lose trust ’- Dale E. Jones, vice chairman and partner with Heidrick & Struggles
  4. We have no future because our present is to volatile. Will only have risk management ’- William Gibson
  5. Risk management is a culture, not a cult. It only works if everyone lives it, not if its practiced by a few high priests ’- Tom Wilson
  6. I think the rise of quantitative econometrics and a highly mathematical approach to risk management was the obverse of a decline in interest in financial history ’- Niall Ferguson
  7. There is no doubt that Formula 1 has the best risk management of any sport and any industry in the world ’- Jackie Stewart
  8. Stronger regulation and supervision aimed at problems with underwriting practices and lenders’ risk management would have been a more effective and surgical approach to constraining the housing bubble than a general increase in interest rates ’- Ben Bernanke
  9. If you don’t invest in risk management, it doesnt matter what business you’re in, it’s a risky business ’- Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn
  10. Adventure without risk is Disneyland ’- Douglas Coupland
  11. Risk and time are opposite sides of the same coin, for if there were no tomorrow there would be no risk. Time transforms risk, and the nature of risk is shaped by the time horizon: the future is the playing field ’- Peter Bernstein, Against the Gods
  12. As population susceptibilities are better understood, we will be in a better position than we are in today to make informed decisions about risk management ’- Samuel Wilson
  13. Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash ’- General George Patton
  14. All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger, but calculating risk and acting decisively ’- Niccolo Machiavelli
  15. Total enterprise risk management is critical, but implementing it is both expensive and easier said than done. Even the most sophisticated financial institutions are still basically silo risk managers ’- Danny Klinefelter, Professor and Extension Economist with Texas AgriLife Extension, Texas A&M University
  16. Playing it safe is the riskiest choice we can ever make ’- Sarah Ban
  17. The question of whether or to what extent human activities are causing global warming is not a matter of ideology, let alone of belief. The issue is simply one of risk management ’- Malcolm Turnbull
  18. Business people need to understand the psychology of risk more than the mathematics of risk  ’- Paul Gibbons,
  19. Risk comes from not knowing what your doing ’-Warren Buffett
  20. You have to take risks. You will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen ’- Paulo Coelho
  21. Risk is a function of how poorly a strategy will perform if the ‘wrong’ scenario occurs ’- Michael Porter, Competitive Advantage
  22. Risk management should be an enterprisewide exercise and engrained in the business culture of the organisation ’- OSFI Superintendent Julie Dickson, June 1, 2011 (courtesy Ethidex)
  23. Risk is our business ’- Oswald Grübel, CEO at UBS
  24. When our leaders accept the status quo, we run the risk of disaster ’- Max Bazerman from “Predictable Surprises”
  25. The concept of ‘inherent risk’ is impossible to measure or even define. The idea of looking at risk absent all hard controls, soft controls, or mitigations, provides little or no useful information in most cases ’- Todd Perkins (from Journal of Applied Corporate Finance – volume 19 number 4)
  26. It’s important to take risks but it’s idiotic to take them blindly ’- Terry Levine
  27. Fail to identify the strategic risks and you fail as a business, no matter how well you manage your operational and project risks ’- Keith Baxter
  28. Business as usual is business at risk ’- Deloitte white paper
  29. Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritisation of risks ’- Wikipedia

Project Manager or Scapegoat?

You Need to Stop Pointing That Finger

Big Project Failures Claim Their Victims in Spectacular Fashion

You’ve just been assigned a high visibility failing project  and  you’re working round-the-clock to get the work to the client on time, despite the fact that the job bears barely any resemblance to the project  you initially discussed. The  scope keeps creeping, the risk  and issue alerts are coming in thick and fast, the project is already  two months  past the original deadline, the clients are getting antsy even though they’re yet to provide you with various key pieces of information in order to baseline the project.  Is this your chance to shine  and showcase your skills?

If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You Will Probably End up Somewhere Else – Laurence J. Peter

If you manage to turn the project around and the project is successful, you will attract many fathers. However, if the project fails, you will probibly be  offered up as the  sacrificial lamb (scapegoat),  there is absolutely no way around it.  A  high percentage of projects fail to deliver useful results, that’s a  fact.

Project managers are  regularly blamed for schedule delays and cost overruns for projects they inherit by no fault of there own, however, in most cases, the fault for such issues rarely lies with just one person.

Sufficient data has been gathered to indicate that blockers such as unsupportive  management, senior sponsorship or low  resource availability are as much to blame for project failure as ineffective stakeholder management or poor communication.

Capture  all decisions

The only way to protect yourself is to ensure that you capture all decisions made in the project. In most cases  many of these decisions  will have been made by people above you. While you can influence decisions made by people under you. Get into the  habit  of building a dashboard early in the project and updating it each week with actuals.  Also consider using a  standard repeatable technique to analyse the health of your project.

Constrained resources

If you are in a project where resources are constrained, clearly outline the resources that you require to deliver the project in terms of time, scope, budget, risk  and  quality. If resources are pulled from your project, clearly articulate the affect of that in delivery terms and measure that to time delayed or cost added.

Risk and issues register

Operate  a strong risk and issue register,  ensure  it is both visible  and assessable so  your team can  actively participate in updating it.

Stop  the project

Always remember, cancelling the project is not always a failure. There can be many reasons why the project may no longer be desirable now. If you have done your job well, you can be really successful by ensuring a project does not continue to meander along, wasting time and money when there is no possibility of completing the project.

Organisational change management

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said when there are organisation change management issues.   While there are a  few project managers who feel their jurisdiction ends at the triple constraint, most now  understand the need to achieve the expected benefits from their projects.

So when is it fair to blame a project manager for poor implementation of a  project’s deliverables,  this is assuming that they were employed at the beginning of the project?

  1. If they didn’t perform good  stakeholder analysis during the project initiation stage as well as at regular intervals.
  2. If they turned a blind eye and deaf ear to factors that could impact value achievement
  3. If they didn’t insist on a clear communication strategy and progressive information sharing with relevant  stakeholder groups.
  4. If they didn’t engage influencers from key stakeholder groups throughout the project lifecycle.
  5. If the organisation management deliverables were not built into the project’s scope definition and work breakdown structure.

Assuming the project manager was appointed at the start of the project and had undertaken  all of the above, what are invalid reasons to blame the project manager  if the project failed?

  1. A lack of timely resource availability or commitment by the organisation
  2. Directives to the project manager to not engage certain stakeholder communities
  3. Ignorance by senior sponsors to management risks raised by the project team
  4. A management decision  that is too bitter a pill to swallow in spite of how much it has been sugar coated

Have any comments or stories that could help to expand this article?

34 Thought Provoking Change Management Quotes

Change is good. It’s also often hard. The status quo can be so much more comfortable. But to succeed in business, you must run toward change.  Companies most likely to be successful in making change work to their advantage are the ones that no longer view change as a discrete event to be managed, but as a constant opportunity to evolve the business

Here are 34 thought provoking change management quotes:

  1. It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change —  Charles Darwin
  2. One key to successful leadership is continuous personal change. Personal change is a reflection of our inner growth and empowerment — Robert E. Quinn
  3. Change before you have to — Jack Welch
  4. You must embrace change before change erases you.
    — Rob Liano
  5. Change before you have to — Jack Welch
  6. Too few leaders have the emotional fortitude to take responsibility for failure.
    — Paul Gibbons, The Science of Successful Organisational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behaviour, and Create an Agile Culture
  7. People don’t resist change. They resist being changed! — Peter Senge
  8. If you want to make enemies, try to change something — Woodrow Wilson
  9. The key to change is to let go of fear — Rosanne Cash
  10. The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress — Charles Kettering
  11. There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things — Niccolo Machiavelli
  12. Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future — John F. Kennedy
  13. Even those who fancy themselves the most progressive will fight against other kinds of progress, for each of us is convinced that our way is the best way.
    — Louis L’Amour
  14. Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times — Niccolo Machiavelli
  15. Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers and business — Mark Sanborn
  16. Change your thoughts and you change your world — Norman Vincent Peale
  17. If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less —  General Eric Shinseki (U.S. Army Chief of Staff, 1999-2003)
  18. We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn — Peter Drucker
  19. Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times
  20. — Niccolo Machiavelli
  21. All is connected, no one thing can change by itself
    — Paul Hawken
  22. Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you — William Frederick Book
  23. We would rather be ruined than change
  24. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment  and let our illusions die  — W. H. Auden
  25. Every generation needs a new revolution  — Thomas Jefferson
  26. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has  — Margaret Mead
  27. I’ll go anywhere as long as it’s forward  — David Livingstone
  28. Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself  — George Bernard Shaw
  29. Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win— Max McKeown
  30. You can’t build an adaptable organization without adaptable people–and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to — Gary Hamel
  31. People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours — Ken Hakuta
  32. A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it — Chinese Proverb
  33. The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change — Bill Clinton
  34. Each of us has the opportunity to change and grow until our very last breath. Happy creating — M.F. Ryan

Change or die? we  choose life! How about you?  

 

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