Yesterday I was at my desk feeling a little tired and aimless scrolling through my in-box when I saw an email from my dear friend Angela Raspass on choosing the hard things in life wisely. Sometimes we receive a message just at the right moment and just as we need it, right? She shared a quote that had sucker-punched her, and now me. “Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your … [Read more...]
The story of the Golden Buddha.
In 1957 an entire Monastery in Thailand was being relocated by a group of monks. One day they were moving a giant clay Buddha when one of the monks noticed a large crack in the clay. On closer investigation he saw there was a golden light emanating from the crack. The monk used a hammer and a chisel to chip away at the clay exterior until he revealed that the statue was in fact made of solid … [Read more...]
From Provence to Purpose + 2019: The Year of Purpose.
This is me on the 31st of December 2010. It was the last day of a six-month sabbatical in beautiful Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. I’d just typed the last word of a 68,000-word manuscript which would later become my travel memoir, Unstuck in Provence. This sabbatical came at the end of a 20-year corporate career at Westpac and Merrill Lynch followed by 10 years in my own marketing … [Read more...]
Preparing for Purpose Success. You only get one shot.
Over the last few weeks I’ve had a number of calls with leaders within large companies who are either well underway with their purpose programs or who are considering rolling one out. I was struck by the words of one leader who’s started exploring a purpose initiative for their company of 4000+ people, “You only get one shot at this ‘purpose’ thing. If we roll something out and it fails, it’s … [Read more...]
Zara’s Story: To Retrench or ‘Repurpose & Redeploy’
Recently I was sitting in a Sydney coffee shop busy on my laptop when a woman looked over at me and said “I know you! You’re Carolyn Tate. I listened to your podcast about purpose at work and I just bought your book.” In seconds, we were up hugging and chatting. “After 30 years in IT with the same company, I’ve just been retrenched,” said Zara. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do next. There’s … [Read more...]