Losing my bag with all my documents in it was a shameful, disempowering experience. When I was writing about loss of identity in a spiritual sense, this was not what I meant!

In the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes, there’s a beautiful passage which begins “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens”. In the past few weeks, I’ve learned a personal lesson in the importance of making time and space for all the necessary purposes of life, not just the work-based ones.

As the economic recession grinds to what we hope is a conclusion, many of us find ourselves materially poorer than we were in 2008. But do we fail to count our less-tangible inner reserves? Let’s remember some other kinds of wealth that no scheming banker can ever take away.

The latest crop of reality TV tells stories of people suffering because their homes are filled with useless junk and filth. But how many of us treat our time as badly as these people treat their spaces? You may be a “time hoarder” and not even know it.

I’ve been privileged to have worked with so many good people, wanting to grow, motivated to learn, willing to self-examine, and appreciative of the understanding and support I might provide.

Thinking of life as a sport comes naturally to many. As the new year begins, thoughts turn to “racking up points”, “the big score”, and “winning”. But unless you stop to figure out what kind of game you’re playing, winning may turn out to be losing. The good news is that whatever “game” you’ve decided to play, you can often change the rules.

In the process of starting a business, building a career, or some other large, audacious goal, you could do worse than to tap into the voices of experience around you. And yet even if you listen to the collected wisdom of your elders, their sage advice may fail to produce results. Here’s how “the experts” can steer you wrong.