Dear Reader,

I do hope you like the new look for the newsletter.

On 29 April, we held the HKICC AGM and that was a huge success with a large turnout of members, despite the inclement weather. Mary Anne Voli reported on the details of the meeting, and Fanny Cheung provided a snapshot in Chinese, so please be sure to read their articles in this issue!

Today, I’d like to talk about appreciation, particularly about appreciating where we are in our own life right now. How many of us actually take the time to appreciate where we are in our life’s journey? Or are we too busy pursuing our goals?

This reminds me of a story that really brings this point home, and I’d like to share it with you.

A very successful and wealthy business owner of a huge global corporation wants to take a break from all his work and responsibilities, so he goes to a remote island where he is completely un-contactable via phone, email or blackberry. The island is a paradise, surrounded with golden sands and clear blue water, and clean air and filled with naturally uncontaminated organic food. He partakes in his favorite hobby, which is fishing. He sits on the side of the bay, relishing the beauty around him, enjoying the peacefulness away from the hustle and bustle of his business, when he notices an indigenous native of the island rowing a little boat out, and starts to fish. He watches as the native rows back a little while later, with his catch. In just a short span of time, the native has caught quite a lot of large fish, and he has now brought them back to shore, and distributes his catch among his family and friends. There's more than enough to go around, and then he throws whatever is left back into the ocean. The businessman continues to notice the man doing the same thing every day, and is impressed by his ability to catch so much in such a short time. He seems to have a gift for fishing. So he stops the man one day and starts chatting with him. "You're quite the fisherman! I'm impressed! But I have to ask, why do you throw all the extra fish back into the sea?" the businessman asks him. "Because it's more than I need. What would I do with them?" the native asks. "You could sell them in the market and make money!" the businessman says. "But what would I do with the money?" the native asks. "You could buy a bigger boat, and go further and catch more fish," the businessman says. "But what would I do with more fish?" the native asks. "You could make even more money!" the businessman says. "What would I do with even more money?" the native asks. "You could invest in more boats and hire people to go fishing, and catch even more fish!" the businessman says. "But what would I do with all that fish?" asks the native. "You would sell it in the market and make even more money, so that you could have even bigger boats with nets, and hire more people to catch even more fish!" says the businessman. "But that would be even more fish than anyone on the island needed! What would we do with the rest?" asks the native. "I will teach you what to do with it!" the businessman stated. "I will show you how start a seafood factory and ship the seafood all over the world!" "But what would I do with all that money?" the native asks again. "You could expand your food factory, and open sea food factories all over the world, with buying offices in every major city! You would be very rich!!" the businessman says excitedly. "But for what purpose?" the native asks. "So that one day you could afford to get away from it all, and take idyllic holidays to remote islands like this one, and do nothing all day long except fish!" says the businessman.

I love this little story, as it really brings home some poignant issues, like: Are you appreciating where you are on your journey right now?  If you are busy pursuing your goals, how will you know when you have reached your goal? Or are you just in the habit of pursuing money for its own sake? Or, more profoundly, is it possible that you already are where you think you want to be?

Have a great month!
Anita

Anita Moorjani, President, HKICC
president@coachinghk.org