You’ve probably heard all these motivational sorts talk about finding your purpose.
But a purpose is not to be found … just by being born, we’ve already found and fulfilled our purpose.
We tend to confuse purpose with an outcome. You’ve probably heard things like:
– My family is my purpose.
– My purpose is to make a difference.
– My purpose is to help the destitute find loving homes.
– My purpose is to be a good person so that I can get to heaven.
You catch my drift. It’s all outcomes based.
When we open our eyes, we see everything coming at us. We are central to everything. We are essentially the point of the whole exercise.
This story that we are in was written to enchant and enthral us. We were created to witness this magnificent play that was crafted for us.
When we witness a beautiful piece of art, listen to an entrancing piece of music or see a majestic mountain range, it’s appropriate to be in awe of it all.
Our purpose is to enjoy everything that has been written for us. We are the point. We are the outcome. Our purpose is not to get an outcome.
Blog
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The Point Of Purpose
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Casanova’s LinkedIn Profile
Summary
I get disinterested husbands to wake up, grow up and shape up so that they can treat their wives like the goddesses they are.
About
My fluffing service helps reignite passion, romance and exhilaration in any flagging, stagnating and dysfunctional relationship.
My name is Giacomo Casanova, a former lover of more than 1000 women, turned fluffer.Is your partner slovenly, slothful and unavailable when it comes to your needs?
Is he more interested in sitting on the couch, with a beer resting on his boep, biltong in fleshy fingers and ogling 30 sweaty men playing rugby on the television, than giving you the attention you deserve?
Do you wish that he was still as romantic, passionate and considerate as he was when he first started dating you and trying to get you into his bed?
If you said yes to everything above, I may be able to help you.
I know my way around women. I know what they like. I know what they need. I know what their dreams are.
Just for the record, I probably didn’t bed more than 1000 women. It was more like 927 (I don’t know why I kept those statistics?)Women don’t like to be ignored, and why should they be?
They want to be treated like goddesses all the time.
They want their partners to love, respect and cherish them all the time.
I can help with this. You’ve seen me, right? I’m Johnny Depp hot. I’m smouldering, sparkling and sexy. I make women tremble at the knees, and men wish they were me.
Here’s how it works
I start showing you attention, and use my considerable charm to make you feel alive, gorgeous and wanted.
Men have an acutely accurate radar when it comes to competition on their turf. Your partner will quickly pick up that something is afoot, and that a competitor is making a move on you.
Here’s where the magic happens.He suddenly wakes up to the fact that you’re desirable to someone else, and that he’d better do something about it if he wants to keep you.
He grows a pair, grows up and realises that the gift that is you is right in front of him … he mans up, stands up and fights for you.
He shapes up and shakes off his slovenly, indolent and slothful ways and spruces up a bit. Lots of trimming, lots of gym and lots of loving.
There’ll come a day when he says, “Darling, just bring your toothbrush. We’re going somewhere fabulous for the weekend. I’ve sorted everything.” Swoon … finally he is taking charge. Now that’s a rush, isn’t it?
When that day comes, my job is done. You’re welcome.
My name is Casanova, and if you need your relationship fluffed, you can reach me ℅ Venice. Just ask for me by name, someone will know whose boudoir I’m in, and will call me. I’m at your service.Let me help you write a LinkedIn profile that turns visitors into prospects, prospects into customers and customers into superfans. Find out the details and the investment, here.
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How Chris Barnard Became A Pathetic Spectacle
The Content of Our Character is what Counts in the Final Analysis
I’ve just finished reading Every Second Counts by Donald McRae about the race to transplant the first human heart.
As you know, Chris Barnard (undeservedly as it turns out) won the race, when in the early hours of 3 December 1967, he transplanted 25-year-old Denise Darvall’s heart into 53-year-old Louis Washkansky.
I have a passing interest in this because my uncle, the late professor Raoul de Villiers worked alongside Barnard at the Groote Schuur research lab for many years.
Their relationship floundered when Barnard persisted in trying to bed my aunt Suegnet, who at the time was a nurse, and was engaged to Raoul. Barnard only conceded defeat when Suegnet repeatedly rebuffed him. Suegnet and Raoul pitied Barnard’s wife Louwtjie, when he resorted to chasing a more amenable nurse.
Whilst Barnard was undoubtably a risk-taking genius, his legacy was in tatters because of his weak character.
- We know that he stole many of the techniques he used in the first human heart transplant from the eminent surgeons who he worked with: Norman Shumway at Stanford; Richard Lower in Virginia; and Adrian Kantrowitz in New York.
- We know that he was a modern-day Casanova bedding countless women, including the famous Italian actress, Gina Lollobrigida.
- We know that he didn’t credit any of the giants he worked, and whose techniques he used. Most unsporting of him.
- We know that he a medical huckster pushing a face cream called Glycel, saying that, “It can make older skin behave and look like younger skin. Perhaps he is the father of the current crop of South African influencers today.
- We know that for all his achievements (he did many wonderful things besides the first human heart transplant and saved countless lives), he was shunned by practically the entire medical community of his peers.
What’s the point of this entire story?
- If you are going to admire anyone for their achievements, realise that if you scratch ever-so-slightly under the surface, things are not as rosy as they seem.
- Don’t judge your achievements against that of others.
- Don’t hero-worship anyone, no matter how rich, famous or thin.
- If you’re going to play the comparison game, at least level the playing field by judging the content of their character. You may be pleasantly surprised how well you stack up.
Go and be a masterpiece today because the world needs you.
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Turn Problems Into Projects
“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.” Mike TysonI don’t know about you, but everyday I have a plan to be productive, and every day that plan goes tits up.
I think the phrase ‘Man plans and God laughs’ is so apt.
Yesterday I wanted to edit a massive 110 000-word text for a client when I got a message from Celia saying there is something wrong with her website. For those of you who know the dynamics between Celia and me, know that saying no to her is not an option ⊙﹏⊙. The day went south from there as I tried to remedy the situation.
God 1 : Jacques 0
If it’s not a website, it’s a burst geyser, an unpaid fine, a licence that has to be updated, children that have to be picked up from school or something mundane that can scupper the ship. I don’t know if you have the same problems with the banal and mundane as I do?
It occurs to me that we are beset with problems every day. Big ones and small ones. All of them distract us from our mission.
Here’s a thought (,,-`_●-)
- What if problems are the mission?
- What if problems are part of the process to shape us into the humans we are meant to become?
- What if there’s a grand design, and problems are part of that design?
How can we reframe problems so that they become part of the process to attaining pleasure? I don’t know, but let me give it a shot.
You’ve probably heard about this thing called dopamine that the hedonist engineers tout as the pleasure and reward chemical.
I think it is a klomp kak, but who can argue with the science. Seriously, who gets excited by someone liking your post on Facebook or goes into a depression if they don’t? Who cares how many followers you have, unless you’re a modern-day snake oil salesperson called an influencer.
- Let’s say that it’s true … that our ego, pleasure and happiness hinges on whether someone likes the mind-numbing minutiae that we put out into the world.
- Let’s say that it’s true, that we like giving away our power to others to make us feel complete.
- Let’s say it’s true that we are slaves to our hedonistic nature.
If we see these as truths, then let’s not waste our dopamine on inconsequential small hits of pleasure. Let’s save it for a big win.
I don’t know about you, but being in pleasure all the time is its own pain. If you’re in paradise every waking second, how can you possibly appreciate it?
Perhaps you will think that I’m a masochist for saying this, but I like a bit of struggle, failure and pain … it makes the achievement so much sweeter, and the dopamine hit so much better.
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” Bruce Lee
I prefer to gnaw on something and work through it and come up with a solution. That gives me satisfaction. I don’t like things handed to be on a plate. That feels like cheating. In case you think I’m being sanctimonious, I have had lots of things handed to me on a plate. I have been given more than is my due and have been blessed beyond my wildest expectations. On the face of it, it should make me happy when things are easy. It doesn’t.
I feel cheated that I didn’t have the opportunity to do it for myself.
That’s why I’ve become (even more) selfish these days and I turn problems into projects.
The pleasure is in the doing, not in the result. For me the dopamine hit comes from the doing and finishing (the result is irrelevant [to pleasure]).
You know as well as I do, that achieving a result is not all it’s cut out to be, is it? When we achieve a goal, it doesn’t always give us that elated feeling does it? Achievement doesn’t always play out how we want it to. Sometimes it leaves us disillusioned and disappointed because it didn’t quite turn out how we wanted it to.
And worse, sometimes our victories are pyrrhic. For example, we may achieve financial success but lose our family in the process (I pray that you’re not in that hell).
So we strive for the next goal and the next and the next trying to fill that hole in our heart called insecurity. The more we strive for security the more we become insecure.
It took me a while to assimilate that one into my psyche. The more stuff we have the more insecure we feel because we could lose it. I think that Covid has highlighted this in a macabrely, merciless and magnificent way.
I’m going to go all Dr. Phil on your ass and ask you, “How’s that working out for you?” That marriage, those children, that job and this life? If you’re like most of us, they’re a total bloody mess of disillusionment and disappointment, aren’t they? The things that we strive for and think are important, are generally not.
“All paths lead to nowhere … so find a path with heart.” Carlos Castaneda
If you’re like me: God 11 : Jacques 0, then things are working out just as they should because ultimately it is not really in my control.
The only thing in my control is to turn a problem into a project, and to work through it. I may achieve the result (I think) I want, or I may not … it’s all good.
Look, I’ve got to get back to this edit and hide |д･) from Celia (the website is not fixed yet). I’m sure you have stuff to do as well.
Let me leave you with this. If you have problems it means that you are still alive, doesn’t it? That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Some have already been called home, perhaps too early for our liking. Their opportunity to live a blessed life of problems is over. Hopefully, they’re reaping every blessing on the other side. One day we’ll be called home and our problems will be over. But in the meantime, let’s be in awe and gratitude that we still have an opportunity to experience problems, fuck up, fail, live and love.
God 12 : Jacques 0
You’re the job. Make it a good one.
I love you.
Jacques
PS. “A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you.” Carlos Castaneda
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Wake Up. Grow Up. Show Up.
When I write a LinkedIn profile, there’s quite a bit that goes into it before I put pen to paper. I send out a questionnaire (you’re welcome to use it to get your LinkedIn profile on track) to clarify the client’s contribution, interview the client and her clients.
The idea is to get a feel for her. I try to tease out the exact words that will describe her and find out how others see her. I’m building a profile so that I really get the essence of her.
Once I’ve done this, I craft a piece that I believe captures how she appears to her ideal customer and how she can show up in the world.
Here’s where the problem comes in, however. She’s bewildered by the feedback. She can’t believe how positively her clients speak about her, she can’t see the value they see in her, and she can’t see her real contribution to the world.
That’s when my real work begins. I have to show her how she can grow into her profile. I have to convince her how she can be that person.
In essence, I have to help her clarify her contribution to the world.
What’s your view of your place in the world? You don’t need me to tell you what a difference you are making to the world. Just by being alive, sentient and contributing, you are creating your magnum opus.
{{contact.first_name}}, you are the creator’s greatest work. You are valuable. You have purpose. That you are still here is an indication that you are not done, you still have great work to do.
Wake up, grow up and show up because you are needed now, more than ever before.
- Wake up to the fact that you are magnificent.
- Grow up and realise that there is a place at the table for you and that you don’t have to feed off the scraps.
- Show up as pure potential every day … make something of this amazing journey you’re on.
You’re the job.
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Kintsugi Queen LinkedIn Profile for Yoke van Dam
I join, grow and transform leaders and teams into something quite wonderful.
Yoke van Dam has been called the Kintsugi queen* because of her ability to join, grow and transform teams into something quite wonderful.
She’s staked her hard-won reputation on the premise that all poor performing teams can be turned around to become collaborative, committed and cohesive superstars of the organisations they serve.
As a qualified behavioural change coach with verifiable in-the-field experience (2000+ team members, 2 300+ hours training and 350+ coaching hours) she’s eminently suited to uncover the real issues holding teams back.
Her hard-won experience (15 years) and tried and tested high performance processes have seen even the most fissured and fractured teams join together, become stronger and remarkable.
With her keen intelligence, empathetic energy and ‘can-do’ attitude, Yoke helps leaders co-create winning outcomes so that they can unleash their teams’ untapped potential.
She works with enthusiastic, selfless and empathetic leaders who want to create space to allow their teams to learn, grow and thrive.
She works with leaders who want to effectively articulate and communicate their vision so that their teams buy into it, and are prepared to follow them to hell and back to make sure that vision is achieved.
She works with new, untested leaders who need a strong foundational roadmap of how to work with and lead teams to successful outcomes.
If this is you (and it probably is) then you should seriously consider Yoke to help you Kinstsugi your team from fractured to fully functional, from selfish to selfless and from miserable to masterful.
Check out Yoke’s LinkedIn Profile
me help you write a LinkedIn profile that turns visitors into prospects, prospects into customers and customers into superfans. Find out the details and the investment, here.
Photo Credit: GetStencil
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Outsourced CFO LinkedIn Profile for Stephan Louw
Helping mission-driven entrepreneurs make sense of their numbers so that they can take control of their finances. I help you manage your risks, exploit opportunities and build on your strengths. Accountant | CFO
Here’s the link to Stephan’s LinkedIn profile.
Accountant. Chief Financial Officer. Outsourced CFO
Do you want to continue drowning in a deluge of data, crunching indecipherable numbers and feeling unmoored and out of control when it comes to the financial aspect of your business?
If you said “No more, that’s enough”, then perhaps you and I should chat.
First off, if your finances are in disarray, it’s not your fault, and you’re not alone.
In my experience, not one of my clients ever started their business so that they could spend all their time looking at spreadsheets.
They had other ideas … like building something magnificent, having fun and leaving a legacy for their family.
Unless you’re an accountant, reading numbers can’t be your thing.
I, on the other hand, love nothing more than spending my time reading spreadsheets. The numbers tell stories that intrigue me.
I read the stories in the numbers so that I can make sense of them for my clients so that we can figure out how to:
– Mitigate risks
– Make the most of opportunities
– Build on what’s working for them right nowThe numbers always tell the (objective) story and it is my job to unravel the puzzle, solve it and make it work for you and your business.
I have a particular set of skills that can make me an asset to you and your business.
– I’m a high functioning strategic thinker
– I’m diligent
– I’m deliberate, thorough and conscientious
– I’m great at identifying problems and reducing risks
– I have awesome anticipatory skills
– I’m an agile decision-makerIf your numbers are out of control right now, you probably need someone in your corner to give you a steadying hand so that you can focus on your mission.
Imagine if you could achieve your mission, what would that be like for you?
Numbers tell a story. Let me help you tell the right story.
Reach out to me on stephan@slaccountants.co.za
Let me help you write a LinkedIn profile that turns visitors into prospects, prospects into customers and customers into superfans. Find out the details and the investment, here.
Photo Credit. GetStencil
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LinkedIn Profile For Michele Thwaits
I thoroughly enjoyed crafting Michele’s LinkedIn profile.
As part of the process I managed to interview some of her clients so that I could get an idea of the words they use to describe her.
Clearly, she’s the real deal and a much respected VA who gets stuff done, judging by some of the comments made about her.
Michele is everything a VA should be and more. What has made a difference for me is the way she does things. Before she started with us, my agenda was a constant surprise. Missing an email here or there and clashes in appointments alone can be annoying for others but not least for me. When you can let go of the day-to-day administration (which she does amazingly well), you can focus on the core of why you have your business. For me, it was getting back to the people that work for us and to our clients—being able to give them my undivided attention. This has worked so well internally that every person we work with has complimented her and welcomed her. They now get to see more of me, and our working relationships have improved in leaps in bounds. This already started happening within the first two weeks of Michelle coming on board. I can also be a bit of a terrier at times. Michele always finds an approach that works for both of us. Her tenacity, curiosity and compassion, combine in a way that you know you can let go of whatever she has taken on. She will stick with it, figure it out, ask when she needs to and do it in a way that keeps everyone on board and engaged. Thank you, Michele, for making a real difference in our lives.
Eksteen de Waal, President at Professional Speakers Association of NetherlandsI have used Michele as a VA for several months now, and it has been the best decision I have made. Using Michele’s administrative strengths has freed me up to do what I am good at.
Mphiwa Nombembe
Chief Executive Officer at Centreview Investment HoldingsThere’s more (23 recommendations). You can read them here if you are so inclined.
Here’s what we crafted for Michele.
Summary
I help overstretched, frazzled and overwhelmed executives take control back. Virtual Assistant | VA | Sounding board | Executive Assistant | Personal AssistantAbout
Do you want to keep feeling out of control, weighed down and unmoored by the deluge of work flooding into your life?
Are you happy fielding requests, meeting with people and managing mundane tasks that distract you from achieving your goals?
Are you satisfied with feeling like you’re working yourself into the ground, treading through mud and getting nowhere slowly?
If you gave a hard NO to these questions, then perhaps it’s time to consider the services of a virtual assistant who is obsessive, detail-oriented and driven to set you up to succeed.
I‘m Michele
I have a proven track record of 37 years’ experience as a personal assistant and I’m reliable, consistent, efficient and fast (not my words, but my clients’).
~ I bring a safe pair of hands to your table – I have your back and fight in your corner.
~ I stop surprises from catching you off guard, throwing you off kilter and derailing your efforts.
~ I ensure that you keep your promises every time.I’m known to my clients as a terrier because I stick with something until it has been worked out. My three key attributes that’ll make me a valuable resource and asset to you and your cause are:
~ I thrive on meeting and beating deadlines.
~ I eat complexity for breakfast and give you simplicity, ease and effectiveness.
~ I am thrilled when I’m turning chaos into control, disorder into order and inefficiency into efficiency.What I Do
- Diary management
- Proofreading
- Excel spreadsheet management
- Transcriptions
- Systems development and implementation
- General administration
Value Added Services
- Personal assistant training (If you have a current PA that needs some guidance, I’m ideally positioned to coach, mentor and train her/him)
- Time management training
- Administrative assistant training
- Professional business writing and communication
Let me help you simplify the complex, turn disorder into order and chaos into control. Reach out to me on michele@empowered4success.co.za
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I Refuse To Go To The Grave As A Character I Never Was
By the time that most of my clients appear to me, they’re worn down by compromise, beset with doubt and mired in chaos.
Because I come in the guise of a marketer, they come to me to fix the sales problems that plague them.
But when we dig below the surface, it becomes apparent that the questions that scratch at them are deeper than fixing a sales problem.
- Do I have the grit to ride out this current storm?
- Will I still be loved, even as I’m failing so spectacularly at this endeavour?
- What if I’ve miscalculated and the only thing ahead of me is catastrophe?
These are the deep concerns that my clients and I wrestle with every day.
- They are concerned with being found out to be worthless and destroyed.
- They are concerned with being unlovable and cast aside.
- They are concerned about misstepping and falling into the abyss of failure.
Maybe I’m projecting, and these are only my concerns? If I am, and this is not you, stop reading now … make time for something important.
I find it all rather bewildering, don’t you? Trying to navigate this life elegantly and eloquently isn’t easy, is it? Trying to control the outcome of our endeavour is a grail quest, and an exercise in futility, isn’t it?
On the current storm
One can never be sure that one has what it takes to ride out a storm, can one? What would be the fun in that, if we were always certain? We can only try our best to hang onto the life raft as tightly as possible as the wind and waves try their best to peel us away into the maelstrom.
On love
I’ve learned that there is not enough love in the world that can fill the hole in our hearts called insecurity. Regardless of how ‘successful’ we are, and how full our coffers are, we never can get enough love. And, when we do get it, we take it for granted. Striving for love is the dopamine disaster that keeps us in the shallows of our lives and stops us from plumbing the depths of our being. It stops us from taking the risk of being real in case we’re not accepted and loved.
On catastrophe
It all ends in catastrophe in the end, doesn’t it? All the striving, manipulating and manoeuvring is for nought when we are finally called home, as we all will be. It’s all going to be taken away from us; we can’t stop it. And, that’s exactly how it was set up. Every bit of adversity we face is preparing us to handle the ultimate catastrophe with grace, gratitude and awe. Catastrophe is the gymnasium that hones us into a perfect work of art.
What do we do in the meantime?
I don’t have any easy answers because my life is so broken that it’s actually something beautiful to watch. It’s beautiful to watch because even though I’m certain it will end in catastrophe, I still keep on going, I still keep on trying, and I still keep on hoping. This is the ultimate human condition. This is a work of art in the making. This life that you and I lead.
Here’s what I know and what I’ve chosen to do.
- I will never compromise who I am and settle for doing something that I’m not passionate about just to make a buck and hang onto some illusion of control and security. If I’m going to fail at this endeavour, I’d rather fail doing something that I love than doing something I settled for.
- I will keep on creating the way I am, and being who I am. I’ll take my chances of being loved for I really am.
- I’ve thought about killing who I really am, and giving the world an avatar that is more palatable to its version of what is politically and socially acceptable. I really have. It would make my life a lot simpler, I’d make a ton more money, and live more comfortably, that’s for sure. But I refuse to kill who I really am and one day fall into my grave grasping onto a character that I never was. That would be the ultimate catastrophe and a slap in the face of my architect.
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Bewilderment Coach – LinkedIn profile Jacques de Villiers
I’m a Bewilderment Coach who encourages seekers, teachers and creative humans who like solving interesting problems to wake up, grow up and show up. People just like us.
Talks about #writing, #marketing, #copywriting, and #spiritualityAre you bewildered that you … whip-smart, rotten with talent and pumped with potential … are struggling and failing to make a success of your entrepreneurial adventure?
Do you sometimes wake up in bed frozen with fear ⊙﹏⊙ that this endeavour you’ve embarked on is going to end up in the graveyard of failure?
Do you every once in a while feel like turning your back on your dream and quitting?
You’re not alone, I promise you. There are days that I just want to burn it all down, go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.
You are people just like us. Hard workers who want to make a difference in this world, find meaning in what we do whilst enrolling clients who respect us and pay us what we’re worth.
Sometimes it just takes an outside view to help you clarify your contribution, find your lane and discover your tribe. I might just be that guide … you get to decide.
I’m a Bewilderment Coach who shifts the people who shift the world. That’d be you. If you let me, I can help you remove all the bullshit you’ve clothed yourself with so that we can reveal the awesomeness, magnificence and pure potential that is you.
I help you to:
~ Wake up your potential.
~ Grow up so that you can take your rightful place at the table of success.
~ Show up so that can enrol a tribe of clients who appreciate you and pay you what you’re worth.If you want to show up on your entrepreneurial journey in a way that makes you proud, purposeful and prosperous, then reach out and connect with me on jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
σﾟﾛﾟ)σ What Jolene said: “So wowed! 15 minutes with Jacques and I feel like a rockstar. I’ve been feeling so insecure about what I’ll do after Unisa, about what marketable skills I really have. One short chat about the LinkedIn profile he’s doing for me, and I suddenly feel like I’ve got the talent, experience and knowledge to build not only a business, but a brand on.” Jolene Raison – Cognitive Linguistics Practitioner.
σﾟﾛﾟ)σ What Steve said: “My hell, Jacques … I liken your mind to that of the great, early atomic physicist, Frijof Capra, who wrote the original Turning Point and Uncommon Wisdom.” Steve Johnson – Scientist
Let’s set up a discovery call so that we can both do something that scares us: Murder mediocrity. Embrace excellence. Manifest our magnum opera. Leave an enduring legacy.
Don’t delay. The world needs you to wake up, grow up and show up ᕕ( ಠ‿ಠ)ᕗ.
I need you.
Who knows ¯_( ツ )_/¯, with a bit of luck, you can become my greatest work.
Check out Jacques’s LinkedIn Profile