Author Archives: gmjc1966

I am a godfather. My niece, my goddaughter, turned 32 today. I think back to when my sister asked me to be a godparent and remember being absolutely stoked to be given the honour, and of being seen as someone who could be a role model for her as she grew up. Looking up theContinue reading “A guiding light”

Attitude. What is it? The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as a settled opinion or way of thinking, ie. an attitude of the mind. An example of this is your self-esteem. If you have a positive self-esteem – that is, a positive attitude – you will develop a good opinion of yourself. Conversely, ifContinue reading “To improve your mood, you’ve gotta upturn the ‘tude!”

For as long as I can remember, I have been very hard on myself. Since I was a teenager I have developed and lived with a lack of self-esteem that at times has been crippling. I am not sure of the trigger for this from my adolescent days but I saw myself as lesser inContinue reading “I must be doing something right”

“The real bravery in today’s world is doing for each other what is right and proper.” This is a quote from the character Billy O’Shannassy in Bryce Courtenay’s novel “Matthew Flinders’ cat.” In the book, Billy is a once-upon-a-time successful barrister whose marriage falls apart when he takes to the bottle. Billy had demons fromContinue reading “A Brave Life”

We go through life having interactions with others in many different situations. From all of these interactions we can learn something new, things that can help guide us through our increasingly complicated lives. All of these interactions – what I call “life events” – have the ability, possibility and potential to be life CHANGING events.Continue reading “Friendship”

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted and there’s been a bit going on. Life presents each of us with many a challenge, and it is how we face these and come through scarred but stronger on the other side that makes the pain seem worthwhile. For me, themmain thing is the debilitating stressContinue reading “What’s important”

As a great lot of us do, I was trawling through Facebook the other day and one of my FB friends had posted a link to one of those “try this and see what it says” kind of things. As a curious fellow – and with my search for self improvement never ending – IContinue reading “Get to know the real you … and embrace them”

Over the years, and especially in recent times, I have come to define my life as a crisis of confidence and a fear of failure. For whatever reason, I have invariably and inevitably devalued myself to the extent that I miss, sabotage or completely destroy any opportunities for success, happiness or anything good. I’ve alsoContinue reading “The cutting of noses and spiting of faces”

Well I guess it had to happen eventually. I finally tested positive to COVID yesterday morning! I could feel the aches and pains coming on the night before and thought “I’m getting the flu” but I was sadly mistaken. The kids had tested positive on Saturday evening and Monday morning respectively, so despite the isolationContinue reading “Da da da da dada, I’ve got ‘Rona!!”

Life can be and often is damn hard. We all have our bad times, misfortunes and sadly some absolute tragedies. These events test us to the limits of our human emotional, physical and psychological beings. They can break us. The secret to surviving these darkest of times is – as hard as it may beContinue reading “To struggle is to strengthen”