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Well, I can think of plenty of uses. Perhaps you’d like to share one nifty use that you can think of, for one matchstick, here ? I’ll start,...
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It was 2am. I was wide awake. Eric had made an offer a few days ago, but I couldn't see how it would work. A few months back in March I...
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
I might only have one match...
Rachel Platten's Fight song:
and I specifically love this line:
"I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion".It reflects a sentiment and invitation I often share with my audiences, when I give talks about my journey to date.
This line also sums up the impact I am trying to create as I work on my business plan for what I want to do during my time in the onematchstick office (when I get it, of course!), besides sharing the space with some startup entrepreneurs.
Slow work, lots of thinking, and researching... but one step at a time and I am progressing.
(PS- Thank you Carey for introducing me to this song!)
An Inspirational Talk on offer
Want to end off the year on a positive note for your team?
Or start 2011 with a spash of inspiration and possibility thinking?
How about having the international speaker Sonja Kruse come and give one of her inspirational talks about her year long adventure as the Ubuntu Girl? All it will cost you is R 402 before the talk– the cost of two of my springleap T-shirts- plus giving a short testimonial after the talk!
Sonja has offered me a three-way trade opportunity: one of her hour long talks for just two T-shirts. Yip. She will inspire the audience, and that audience can be anywhere, but this offer excludes travel expenses.
More about Sonja:
Sonja Kruse is an extraordinary woman, blessed with a well developed sense of
adventure and enormous faith in humanity. She has recently completed a year long
solo trip around South-Africa on foot and by thumb. She set out with a 33lt
backpack, a camera and a R100 in Oct 2009 with an open heart and an open mind.
Her aim was to follow her dream; to remind South-Africans of the
good things that also happen in this country on a daily basis; to bring to light
the stories of hope and love that is omitted from our newspaper headlines; to
show the other side of the coin.
Without means of supporting herself, she depended on her fellow South-Africans for all her daily needs. She reached her goal through the kindness and hospitality of her fellow South-Africans: Staying with 150 families of 16 different cultures, spanning 114 towns across all 9 provinces.
Sonja is busy writing a book about this Epic adventure, to spread the message of goodwill. Whilst on the journey, Sonja discovered that people are hungry for such messages, as she was approached by several companies, charities, schools organizations etc who requested that she share her experiences. She discovered that by sharing the story of hope and love, others can be inspired as she was. She also realised that the nature of her adventure was so varied, that she could cover a range of topics with ease, engaging the audiences with her warm and witty approach. Invariably allowing them to relax and relate in her company.
Topics covered in talks:Audiences to date:
- Taking the first step: Following the dream
- South-Africa positive
- Ubuntu- myth or reality?
- Creating our own reality
- Focusing intention (what is it that I'm trying to achieve)
- Falling in love with Einstein (possibility bar pushing)
- Return on Investment (mentally, spiritually and emotionally)
- The power of visualisation (seeing the end result before you
begin)- Smashing preconceived ideas.
- FEAR- It's a choice
Forum at the COP16 in Mexico, Old Mutual; Department of Correctional Services; Joe Public Advertising Agency; The University of Johannesburg and numerous schools around South-Africa
So CALL ME on 0837302979 to book Sonja for your end of year function, teambuilding event, charity event, seminar or wherever there is a need for some uplifting.
- You'll get an hour long talk by an International Inspirational Speaker for just R402
- Sonja, the speaker, will get two Tshirts
- I'll have traded some more Tshirts
matchstick girl+ubuntu girl=motivational talk for a Tshirt
Last year my friend Adin- the No Money Man- (and he's still living without money) was telling me about Sonja Kruse. I've been following her journey ever since, as she has moved around South Africa from East London, around the Cape, through the Freestate and now to Gauteng. When I heard she was in Johannesburg, I got in touch with her and had the fortune to spend my Sunday with her.
What a bundle of energy, love and inspiration Sonja is! She stored away her belongings in October last year, packed a few clothes and her camera into her backpack, gave away her car and with just R100 in her pocket started walking. It was finally time for her to act on her vision she had 4 years earlier.
She has story to tell which will be shared through a book, about ubuntu in South Africa. It’s about the generosity and spirit of our nation and it's people, and how very ALIVE it is!
Reading what Archbishop Desmond Tutu has to say about Ubuntu, and Shari Cohen's atrticle about the abundance of ubuntu she experienced during the 2010 World Cup, I realised that Sonja is actually a wonderful example of ubuntu herself! She is open and available to people and generous in so many beautiful ways! And yet she is exploring our country looking for ubuntu- and she is finding it over and over again in the most amazing places and situations!
But let me not keep trying to explain it here in a few words typed on my blog- the best person to explain this- and she really does it justice in her story telling – is Sonja herself.
And she is willing to do just that: talk about how her many stories about ubuntu in our country have broken preconceived ideas, how they have touched not only her soul but many others, and how she has experienced generosity that many of us cannot even imagine exists in our world today. You cannot help but be touched from hearing her stories!
Sonja is willing to give a motivational talk in exchange for a T-shirt.
So- if you have a team you want to inspire, or a company you want to motivate, or a friend who needs to believe in the magic of ubuntu over a cup of coffee with Sonja, then this is an opportunity for you!
All you need to do is call me asap and say you want to experience some ubuntu magic, and all it will cost you is R183 (to get the t-shirt to Sonja as a trade with me!)
If you are in Johannesburg though you need to act VERY FAST- because she is only going to be here for a week to 10 days longer, before she moves on down to Natal.
So if you are interested- CALL ME! 083 730 2979
You'll be touched with Ubuntu magic to share!
Sonja will get a Springleap T-shirt
And I will have traded another of my T-shirts to get me to my goal!
One T-shirt, 60 books and 750 children
My friend Lewis Khoury and I met through Facebook. He's based in Cape Town, so isn't it amazing how technology has helped make this story happen? We probably would not have met if it weren't for Facebook, and on my next trip to Cape Town I'll get to meet him in person for the first time.
Lewis has a passion to make a difference to our youth, and is actively doing something to live his passion. He is the editor and tireless distributor of a book. This book is a very innovative idea, aimed at high school learners to give them career guidance and life skills in a most colourful and useful way. It's sole purpose is to educate, empower and uplift both the learners leaving school and the teachers who shape them. It is called the JumpStart Handbook.
Lewis contacted me and offered me 60 of these books for one Springleap T-shirt, hoping I could find a way to get the books into 60 children's hands. I was eager too, but had no idea how. Little did I know we'd reach even more than 60 children- way more!
Chris Dykes is a dear friend of mine, who happened to help make a bookshelf one day for a childcare centre in an informal settlement near Johannesburg. From this experience was born the Bookshelf Project, where Chris makes bookshelves and then proceeds to full them with books for the children. His vision is to facilitate a love of reading by making books available to children who would otherwise not have access to them. And his passion goes further too- he also empowers them with skills and the confidence to have academic careers: he helps them learn how to study, and to support each other and younger children with their studies.
He has had me in tears of amazement as he tells stories of the impact he is making, like of how he visited a Bookshelf Project and found an older child reading a story to over 20 younger children, or of how a child has for the first time not only passed her school year, but done well thanks to having access to books after school and the study skills support she got from Chris.
Chris and his Bookshelf Project seemed like the perfect match for Lewis's 60 JumpStart Handbooks. All I needed was someone to help out with the donation to make this trade happen.
So what was to be a simple three-way trade, turned into a four-way trade (Lewis, Chris, Angel and me) and then into a five-way trade when Lewis' Springleap T-shirt was delivered and his sister Tessa claimed it for herself.
*Sigh*
And to think it all started with one matchstick.
What's inspiring me lately?
People often ask me where I get my inspiration to keep going- it's almost 4 years now that I've been trading my matchstick into an office.
One of the places I look to for inspiration is other people. And I've been meeting some pretty inspirational people lately!
One of those people is Jolandie Rust. She was telling me recently about how she got into her cycling adventure she is on at the moment.
Jolandie was travelling a few years ago with her boyfriend in
At one point in their cycling trip they ended up in a camp where they had run out of money and food, and were trying to work out what their next step was. They overheard a family camping next to them, who had hamburgers for dinner but no tomato sauce, and the children were complaining that they wished they had some sauce to go with their burgers. Jolandie had some tomato sauce- that was all they had left actually - but they had no burgers to have the sauce with. So Jolandie went and bartered with her camping neighbours to get a burger in exchange for her tomato sauce.
Since then Jolandie has returned to
Jolandie is going to set a world record by cycling 40 000km around
She has just finished cycling for 100 days, covering 6000 km's, all on her own around
She's quoted to have said "Get out of the pool of fear and take a swim in the ocean of possibility" which is so up my alley! I believe that anything is possible, and she's showing again that this is true!
So, Jolandie Rust, I salute you on your big dream, and on taking the action to make it happen. You're striking that matchstick and lighting a bonfire with it, not a candle, and hence have become an inspiration to me!
Her website: http://jolandie.co.za
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jolandie.rust
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jorusty
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