Introducing "The Year Of Broken Pathways"

                                               
                                                    
                               THAT'S  LIFE


            "That's life, that's what all the people say,
             You're riding high in April, shot down in May....."


If you read too many motivation gurus and attend their high-priced seminars you'd believe perfection was easily within your grasp. You know:- "all your dreams can be realised, it's just up to you....(once you follow my system that is)" etc,etc. But we all know that isn't how life goes. It's not all a bed of roses. Honestly you should save your money and just buy a Frank Sinatra CD.

No, a good analogy for how life goes is a game of poker. Now I reckon I'm a pretty good local venue player and I've got a track record to prove it. Eight times end of season winner in 3 different poker leagues. I read the books, I watch it on TV. You'd think all I had to do was turn up and win. But that's not how it goes at all! I get long periods of no good cards. I get frustrated and then I explode internally when some lesser player outdraws my better hand. Oh the bad beats! They all hurt. Sometimes I swear I'm never going to play this stupid game again. Poker players can't remember their wins, but they can tell you all their bad luck stories.

Well I'm afraid that's life in general. Some wonderful highs and long periods of average and then a few moments we'd rather forget. A few meltdowns, a few run-ins, a few set-backs. We've all been there and it doesn't matter how stellar your overall performance may look. Now I want to take you back in time to when I sat across the desk and talked to people about their careers and lives. Thousands of people for almost 20 years when I ran my own management consulting practice. That's where 'Life Cycles' comes from. It's from real-life case history evidence. I didn't go to India to become enlightened or receive a special spiritual message. I can't tell you why 'Life Cycles' is so accurate. I can only tell you that it is. And my terminology isn't that mystical either. You know the 'Year of Revolution'  is so-called because that's exactly what I observed happens to people. It's a revolution in their lives once every 12 years. That's the first lesson.

OK, so now I'm ready to introduce the second major term used in 'Life Cycles' analysis. You see when I thought about all the observations I made on the 12 year upheaval, I also began to look closely at whether there was any other year that correlated with important change. What I observed was that one year stood out in many people's lives and that was the year seven years after the 'Year of Revolution'. This time I observed a major change in direction that represented a challenge in people's lives. No, this was not merely 'having a bad day or a bad run' or a one-out drama. This was more fundamental and usually required a lengthy response over the next several years to accomodate. Once again the feeling was that:- "we are not fully in control".

The theme for this was challenge (and that can be equally for good or ill) and a change of direction. I termed this year  the 'Year of Broken Pathways'. Once again it's not such a mystical notion, it says exactly what it is. OK, so the same applies to this year as to the 'Year of Revolution' :- "show us the evidence!" That is exactly what I aim to do in a series of articles, beginning with the life of John Lennon.

Lastly, I know you're all wondering what this year equates to in age (unless you're good at maths). It equates to the ages of 7 and 19 and 31 and 43 and 55 etc. It represents the second major plank of 'Life Cycles' theory. Don't worry you're going to get familiar with it. Until we meet again :- "may the cycles always bring you good fortune".