You could say that I worked every minute of my life, or you could say with equal precision that I never worked a day. I have always subscribed to the expression, "Thank God it's Friday," because to me Friday means I can work the next two days without interruption.
John Hope Franklin, historian
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  You are here: John Clark Online > Ezine > E-zine: Beyond the Gravy E-zine: Beyond the GravyBeyond the Gravy was a free e-zine for business people and professionals who are seeking something more from life. It was often light-hearted, but its underlying purpose was serious: to enlarge your sense of who you are and who you might become. PAST ISSUES: February 22, 2006 This will be the last issue of BEYOND THE GRAVY. After nearly three years, it's time for me to close this chapter of my life and start a new one. Read more... November 2, 2005 A wonderful New Zealand tradition is called OE, which stands for Overseas Experience. Read more... October 12, 2005 Real, live, just-like-you-and-me people have done all these things. Well, not quite like you and me. Read more... September 28, 2005 You know that business hero you read about recently? The fabulously wealthy CEO, revered by his staff, who is happily married, coaches a little league baseball team, has a golf handicap of two, paints like Cézanne, serves at the soup kitchen, and never has bad breath? Read more... September 14, 2005 Can you maximise your career success, and have a great family life, and give generously to the community, and invest in yourself? Or is this an absurd pipe-dream? Read more... August 31, 2005 Who, I wondered, would come to my funeral with tears in their eyes? What is success and who was successful, me or my father? Read more... August 17, 2005 Joseph Campbell once said, "You've got to say yes to life." Say yes to carport demolition too. Say yes while you have the chance. Or widower's remorse may come to afflict you too. Read more... July 27, 2005 Maybe happiness doesn't matter to you. In that case - just keep chasing the bucks. Read more... July 13, 2005 If Brigitte Bardot had had triplets, I would have been the one on the bottle. Read more... June 22, 2005 Do you remember Eddie the Eagle? An inept skier, he represented Britain in a jumping event at the 1988 Calgary Olympics and came, predictably, last. Well, when it comes to ineptitude, I am to golf as Eddie is to skiing. Read more... June 8, 2005 A large desk stretched out before me. Respectful staff jumped at my whim. Dollops of income funded unnecessary baubles. I had arrived. Read more... May 25, 2005But for the past decade, I have tried to live a balanced life. I no longer cherish busy-ness. So now, when someone asks me, "Are you busy?", I should answer, "No," and thrust out my chest with pride. But usually I don't. Why not? Read more... May 11, 2005Becoming "less able to accomplish and more able to enjoy" - that's the challenge. Read more... April 27, 2005I haven't cured AIDS. Or been elected Pope. Or solved any of life's enduring mysteries, such as why people eat Brussels sprouts. Read more... April 13, 2005Suddenly I thought, I'm the greatest tennis player who ever lived - why am I so empty inside? Read more... March 23, 2005Are you an unhappy civil servant or lawyer or banker? The solution is crystal-clear: Become a hairdresser! Read more... March 2, 2005Of course, when you do your career exploring, you will have one source of life-sustaining nourishment that the Polynesians lacked. Somehow, they got by without regular updates on Brad and Jennifer (gasp). Read more... February 16, 2005Gotta feel sorry for these poor folk. No-one ever told them that happiness is impossible without a 42" plasma TV. Read more... February 2, 2005All spiritual paths have four steps: show up, pay attention, tell the truth, and don't be attached to the results. I think the great danger in life is not showing up. Read more... December 15, 2004A week ago, my beautiful sister Judith learned that she had leukemia. Yesterday afternoon she died peacefully. Read more... November 24, 2004It's OK for the self basket to contain the fewest eggs. But fewest shouldn't mean practically none at all. Read more... November 10, 2004Some of their colleagues allocate a lot more eggs to the RELATIONSHIP and SELF baskets. These guys are no less successful in their careers - indeed they are often more successful. And they are far happier. Read more... October 20, 2004Someone said once to Yogi Berra, "Hey Yogi, I think we're lost." His reply: "Yeah, but we're making great time." Hmmm, sounds like the apprentices. Read more... October 6, 2004If you are an INFP, do anything - clean sewers, truck uranium, become a congressman, even - but do not - repeat, NOT - become a commercial lawyer. Read more... September 22, 2004Are you bright? Did you do well at school? Are you excelling in your career? That's too bad. Read more... September 8, 2004Maybe Dr Seuss had it right: adults are obsolescent kids. Or maybe success - TRUE success - is being able, at least sometimes, to bring the freshness of a kid to the adventure of adult living. Read more... August 25, 2004Hmm, I wonder what happens when you hang a mom from a ceiling fan...) Read more... August 11, 2004The trouble is that we don't take the time to work out for ourselves what really matters - so we spend a good part of our lives striving to succeed mightily in areas where good enough would do just fine. Read more... July 28, 2004The simplest questions are always the hardest, dammit. Like these two, put to me on Monday by Jo: What is it that prompts us to start making changes in our lives? How do we get from merely existing to actually living? Read more... July 14, 2004As a career mentor, I often come across executives, doctors, lawyers and other professionals who, after years of high incomes, have all the trappings of wealth but virtually no savings. Does this matter? Read more... June 30, 2004To be somebody. We all want to be somebody. Consumer trappings are a way of displaying to the world that we deserve to be held in high esteem. Read more... June 16, 2004Today I'm going to talk about Dilbert and Al Haig. Not obvious bedfellows, I admit, but bear with me. Read more... May 26, 2004To paraphase Yogi Berra: Life is 90% micro, the other half is macro. Read more... May 12, 2004Are you a successful business or professional person? Have you found that success is good, but not enough? Maybe that's because you're filling the years of your life with pebbles and sand. Read more... April 28, 2004"Nothing but a brilliant future behind me. What is one to do?" You might guess that whoever made this despairing comment had failed in his or her working life. Well, you'd be wrong. Read more... April 14, 2004The New York Times Book Review described it as "a brave work of electrifying intelligence, optimistic and revolutionary." Be honest now - can you say the same for the last Grisham you read? Read more... March 31, 2004"We fear our highest possibility (as well as our lowest ones). We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments." Read more... March 17, 2004A tragedy like this prompts a new resolve in us to stop procrastinating and push ahead with the things that matter most to us. Yet we don't, do we? Something holds us back. What is it? Read more... March 3, 2004He was flying from San Francisco to Philadelphia. As was his custom, he curled up and faced the window to avoid the need for conversation. But the balding sixty-year-old businessman next to him would not take the hint. Read more... February 18, 2004For 140 years, kids growing up in the English village of Fair Oak have had their childhoods enriched by a churchyard yew tree. But no longer. The vicar, the Rev David Snuggs, has just had it felled. Read more... February 4, 2004I'll always remember sitting at dusk, drinking hot chocolate, watching the sun set on Mt Cook, and listening to a waitress called Bianca sing in a sublime Sarah Vaughan voice, "I'm so happy because I'm free." Read more... December 17, 2003 Me, courageous? Bill Clinton, celibate? Read more... December 3, 2003When God assembled me, he forgot to insert shopping genes. I don't find it hard to live a slightly minimalist lifestyle. Which is why I drive a 1987 car, my TV is devoid of plasma, and my wardrobe humiliates my 12-year-old daughter. Read more... November 5, 2003To find our calling, we need to open out, expand our sense of self. This takes patience as well as perseverance. There is a time to plant, but there is also a time to let the soil lie fallow. Read more... October 15, 2003Rugby union "is a 15-a-side game containing amorphous huddles of large, oblong men who step on each other. Rugby league, on the other hand, is a 13-a-side game, in which large, square men run full pelt into each other. As you can see, the differences are vital." Read more... October 1, 2003: Perpetually Pregnant In the last issue I revealed my callous indifference to Ben and Jen's troubles. But rest assured that I do have a soft, sensitive, feminine side. In fact - I'm pregnant. Read more... September 17, 2003: True Confessions
I have to fess up. J.Lo and Ben have split and .. I ... don't ... care. (Gasp.) Read more... August 20, 2003: The Power of Attention
Uri Geller can bend spoons with his mind. Yeah, right. And I'm Joan of Arc. Read more... July 23, 2003: What Really Matters
He had everything. A strong marriage, two precious daughters, and several close friends. A financial cushion. Publishers lining up to court him. The time to contribute usefully to his community, plus play tennis at least twice a week. And yet - something was missing. Read more... July 2, 2003: He Did It His Way A 25-year-old Filipino man has been stabbed dead for singing a Frank Sinatra classic out of tune during a birthday party. Read more... June 4, 2003: Just Do It?Since when was personal change a straightforward, logical, yes-no, on-off, 1-0, binary process? We are emotional creatures more than we are rational creatures. We are carbon-based, not silicon-based. Read more... May 21, 2003: The Beekeeper Who Followed His BlissEd Hillary shows that it's never too late to start. He climbed Everest in the first half of his life; but that was merely, as he put it, "a footstep on a mountain." It is only in this, the second half, that he has discovered the work that gives his life its meaning. Read more... May 7, 2003: Keeping Michael Dell in BusinessClients go to him because he's brilliant. When they're up against it, they can rely on him to chart the way forward with cool, calm, ruthlessly dispassionate logic. They don't realize he's a monitor-tosser. Only his colleagues and family have seen this side of him. Intellectually he's a Ferrari; emotionally he's a Ford Pinto. Read more... April 23, 2003: Do It While You Can
So far as we all knew, she was in perfect health: strong in body, buoyant in spirit. But two weeks ago, while out taking a quiet walk at dawn, she had a heart attack and died instantly. Read more.... April 9, 2003: What Should I Do With My Life?Their stories fill the book. Like the Dallas investment banker who changed course after his two-year-old son failed to recognize him one night. Or the White House fellow who became hooked on Brain Candy - intellectual stimulation that was fun but unnourishing. Read more.... March 26, 2003: Are You Awake?A decade ago, I thought meditation meant sitting cross-legged contemplating my navel. This I had no desire to do. Not that there's anything wrong with my navel; as navels go, it's right up there with Tom Cruise's. But as for sitting cross-legged .... gimme a break! Read more....
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This book is a true beacon of light for those struggling at the crossroads of life. Stephen R Covey 
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