To a great 2012 full of great events, bliss and, of course, great music!
You can follow Rachel Flowers on Facebook: Long Live Rachel Flowers
Michael Thallium
Global & Greatness Coach
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 Dr Amit Nagpal is a consultant and coach whose primary interest lies in providing Personal Branding Consultancy specially in digital space. He is also known as a passionate Blogger, Motivational speaker and Trainer (in Life skills and Digital Marketing). He is a Leadership Mentor for IAYSCP (International Association of Young Supply Chain Professionals), USA and is also a member of the Global Mentoring Committee for Entrepreneurship Incubation, 3E Innovative Foundation, Delhi NCR, India. His blog, “The Joys of Teaching” (A Blog on Life Mantras for Sustainable Success) is read in 100 plus countries and the numbers continue to rise as the words spread day by day. Music makes us great. Sounds funny! If music makes us great, then all of us are already great. Most of us like some form of music; instrumental or vocal, playing or listening to a instrument, singing or dancing to the tunes of music, don’t we all have some association with music? Firstly we all are great, but we need to bring out that greatness. We all have some skill, something special about us in which we all are world class. It is our own inner beliefs which limit us, it is our own foolishness that we do not have even time to think and discover our life purpose. Now you must be thinking, “What Amit, you sound contradictory? Are we foolish and great at the same time?” Yes ladies and gentlemen, we are. We are a bundle of contradictions; we have a wise subconscious mind covered with foolish conscious mind. We are great yet we refuse to accept and recognize our very greatness. In fact, Michael Thallium has brought a slight shift in my thinking. Earlier I used to believe we can become great, now I believe we are already great, we only need to uncover it. What better way to uncover our hidden greatness than through music and the arts. If God is the Creator, all creative people must be godly. Can we create something better than music which is beyond language, something which stirs our very souls? I may have a personal bias towards music and cartooning because they are beyond language and connect us human beings so well. If it were not so, why did the song ‘Kolaveri Di’ get world famous in such a short span? This Tamil language song from Tamil Nadu state of India, whose lyrics are fully understood only in one state, partially understood in Southern India and hardly understood in Northern India has got 17 million Youtube hits and is making the world tap its feet. Music is truly something global and great and so are the people who create it. Music can heal, it can inspire, it can make you laugh and cry, it can give companionship, and to me music is God, omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Music is present in the sweet laughter of the babies, it knows and represents all our emotions, it is all powerful and can make the most heartless person shed tears. Music can move mountains or in other words bring people who have become mental, physical and emotional rocks, out of their hard shells. I can’t write more, music is ringing too hard in my ears. Here is my all time favorite Hindi song, “Yeh Dooriyaan” (The rough translation of the song’s chorus, “These distances, the distances of the roads, the distances between the life partners, the distances between the eyes, may these distances come to an end!” So you are already missing your loved one, please don’t cry, I can feel your vibes.) Dr Amit Nagpal
I thought that writing from the skies was the perfect occasion to openly state that music makes us great and elevates us to great heights. Music, in each of its multiple forms, is a universal language. I use it a lot in my talks, in the courses I give, in my coaching sessions, in my language teaching. To me, for instance, a symphonic orchestra is a paradigm of team work and a great metaphor to explain what happens in the brain, in our daily lives, in the different organizations in which we work, live or relate to each other. Every musician with his own instrument wants to express his voice in this orchestra. Antonio Damasio, in his book When Self Comes To Mind, uses a beautiful symphonic metaphor to explain how consciousness emerges in the human brain. Consciousness, the conscious mind, is the result of the work of many different areas of the brain, not just one. And the same thing happens with the performance of a symphonic work: it is not the result of one musician or instrument, not even the result of a whole instrumental section, it is the result of a whole orchestra. However, it is interesting to see that, in the early stages of the interpreting of consciousness, the conductor is missing before the concert starts. But as the concert develops, then the conductor comes to life. The conductor conducts the orchestra, but it is the concert that created the conductor -the subject, the Self-. The conductor himself improvises through the emotions, feelings and the story telling of the brain. Creating a mind which is able to remember its past and to anticipate its future and, moreover, that has the ability to reflect, is like interpreting a Gustav Mahler’s symphony. The 8th Symphony by Mahler, “Of a Thousand”, cannot be performed by just one musician, neither by a bunch of soloists. You require a multitude. The contribution of each of the parts is important, but only the whole of the instruments produces that great result. And there is something similar about the conscious mind, the Self.
That is why, among many other reasons, I think music makes us great and bonds us all. I am talking about music as a language, not as a business where egos and fashions come into play. I have already mentioned Rachel Flowers in some other articles. To me, she is a paradigm of greatness and how to overcome limitations through music:
Michelle van Min, another very young singer and song writer from Holland, captivated me when I discovered via Internet her song “The Middle Path”. Recently, Michelle has also written a song for this 2011 Christmas and you can watch it on Youtube if you like: Love on Christmas. And here her last song When I look back. Great!
Hardly a week ago, through a friend of mine (she is a pianist), I happened to learn about a 12 year old boy from New York, who likes to call himself “Blue Jay”. He is another musical prodigy and has already composed several symphonies. Great!
Since I live in Madrid, I cannot help talking about an event that takes place every Wednesday at Café Teatro Arenal. This is another example of greatness. My friend Shahar Rosenthal organizes what he calls the “Wednesdays of Chamber Music”. If most of the people living in or visiting Madrid knew that they can enjoy artists such as Joshua Bell just for 10 €, I am sure they would attend this place every week en masse.
But it is also true that without awareness, without our conscious minds knowing that, greatness can be unnoticed, too. Yes, music makes us great. When I started writing this article, I was in a plane. That was three days ago. Now that I am finishing it, I must confess, dear reader, that I find myself in a room surrounded by the toys of a 10 year old child. It is 06:00 am here in Oxnard, California. The other three people in the house are sleeping. The toys belong to Vaughan, who is sleeping in another room close to his mum. In the other room, there is another person sleeping. This is the person who made Steve Brant, David Presley and myself among others feel great yesterday: Rachel Flowers! And yes, I came all the way down from Spain to feel myself really great! Oxnard, 19th December, 2011. Michael Thallium Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. Text by Antonio Damasio for Bruce Adolphe (composer) and Yo-Yo Ma (musician). For more information on Self Comes To Mind, please visit: www.thelearningmaestros.com Brain scanner image by Hanna Damasio I. When Mind First (in the Body Bloomed)Mind first bloomed quietly Each mind bloomed quietly, But no one knew that minds existed Once minds began blooming II. Self Came to MindWhen knowing began Each mind composed a portrait of This first story had no words, just images. Thus self came to mind, The conscious mind was timid, at first, From its simple beginnings, the conscious mind Those were glory days. III. DiscoveryWhat conscious human minds first discovered Consciousness had revealed joy Were it not for the conscious mind, But drama is not necessarily tragedy When sorrow could no longer hide Nature, ever blind, did not care Drama is not necessarily tragedy Antonio Damasio Yesterday, Friday 9th December 2011, the 11.ª Coachtulia (coaching + tertulia; tertulia is the Spanish word for “gathering”) was held at Ateneo de Madrid. The topic of discussion was ”Emotional intelligence and coaching?”. This time, we had the contribution of Carmen Cayuela, PCC coach, coaching mentor and specialist in Emotional Intelligence. We discussed the lack of emotional intelligence in most of bussiness companies nowadays. The business world is far too rational and the EI coaching approach can be an invaluable contribution for the business companies to shift from effectiveness to efficiency.  Standing: Paco Torres, Carmen Cayuela, Carla Franco y Ana Arribas. Sitting: Michael Thallium, Rosa García-Zarcos y Edith. As Carmen Cayuela says: “Blaise Pascal said the heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of… and I add that the reason has its reasons that the heart will not follow.” Our next Coachtulia will be held on January 13th 2012 at Ateneo de Madrid. See you next year! Michael Thallium
And here a beautiful video created by Loui Schwartzberg: GRATEFULNESS Michael Thallium
You have to feel passion for what you are and for what you do, because when you do so, the others will see that passion on your face and that is infectious! Sometimes we do not realise how encouraging or discouraging our words and actions can be. So, I decided to play my instrument in an encouraging way rather than discouraging. And that instrument is my “voice”. But my voice is not only a sound. My “voice” is me! My voice is how I speak, how I move, how I feel, how I think and, above all, how I relate to the others. It is how I am relating to your voice now. However, it took me time to realised what my voice is -I dare to say that I am still tuning it up- and I also had doubts on my way. I had to struggle with some personal blocks and beliefs which were preventing me from developing my voice. After some travelling and working around the World, I decided to do something which would integrate four of my passions in life: communication (passion for people), languages (passion for words), music (passion for sounds) and globalisation (passion for culture). The result of it was to become a global and greatness coach. That was my dream: to have a global voice to blow the embers of greatness in people’s inner fires. Leonardo Wolk, an Argentinian coach who, as he usually says, always felt passion for learning and vocation for teaching, explains this metaphor with mastery in his fantastic book entitled “Coaching: El arte de soplar brasas” (which I could translate into English as “Coaching: The Art of Blowing Embers”): “A coach is someone who blows embers…” We all have a fire within. We do not need that someone brings in the wood and the fuel to burn. Most of times we just need that blow which revives our flames. This is why I think it is very enriching to get to know “great” people and be surrounded by them and disseminate their greatness. Sometimes it could be just a book. As simple as that! Let me give you an example. One year and a half ago, I finished reading a book by Oliver Sacks called “Musicophilia”. This reading led me to learn, among other things, about Clive Wearing -the man without a memory-, about Bianca Saez -a girl who suffered from one of the worst cases of Tourette syndrome ever known and she recovered after brain stimulation surgery-, about the savants and Rex Lewis Clack -an autistic child transformed by music-. I remember I was watching a video about Rex on Youtube where a little blind girl appeared in one of the scenes. I immediately became captivated by her greatness and passion for music. I was determined to get in touch with her… And I made it thanks to the Internet and social media, which enabled me to go global looking for greatness. That girl is Rachel Flowers, and one year an a half later I will be going to the USA for her 18th birthday party and spend Christmas with her family this year. Not bad just for reading a book, isn’t it? (not to mention all the new friends I have made on the way). Another example. A couple of days ago, I finished reading “In Praise of Imperfection” a great book by the neuroscientist Rita Levy-Montalcini, where she shows her passion for science and her perseverance on the research of NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) -she was awarded Nobel Prize of Medicine along with Stanley Cohen in 1986. In case you have never heard of Rita, let me tell you that she was born in 1909 and that she is still alive. Make your own calculations: she is now 103 years old!! What is fascinating about her is that, despite her age now, she is still a passionate activist for women rights in the World. Rita says that the saga of NGF -all the ups and downs along the years of research- shows that humans act with imperfection. And I add: you do not need to be perfect to be great! “I tell young people: Do not think of yourself, think of others. Think of the future that awaits you, think about what you can do and do not fear anything. Do not fear the difficulties: I’ve had many in the past and I crossed without fear, with total indifference for myself.” This is a quote from Rita that I posted recently on Facebook. I do not know if I will have the time to meet her before she passes away, but, so far, her book helped me connect the knots. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with Lou Marinoff while he was presenting his book “The Power of Tao” in Madrid. Having dinner with him, we were talking about conciousness and the brain. Then I mentioned to him about Rita’s discoveries and he said “send me some information about it because I find it interesting”. Then he said he had just written a book with Daisaku Ikeda and… Eureka!! To make it short: I am friends with American author and coach Jennifer Sertl and, through her, I got to know Dr Amit Nagpal, whose mentor is, have a guess… Daisaku Ikeda! So, connecting Italy (Rita), Canada (Lou), USA (Jennifer), India (Amit), Japan (Daisaku) and Spain (me). Is not that global and great? I suggest you make an experiment, for instance. Do not read, watch or listen to the news for a while. (In the end, the news is a subjective creation from other human beings like you and me and in many occassions, it is discouraging. It is another kind of voice which tells you what is relevant for you, for your town, your country, your continent, for the World today.) Instead, make your voice be the news today. I am not saying you should ignore what is happening around you -believe me, the Earth will not stop spinning if you do not read the news-. What I am saying is that you can influence on what is happening to you and to others from the very moment when you become aware that your voice is the news today. And this may even improve your relationships. Remember: if you want to know what the news media say, you only have to ask people around you and they will tell you. By asking others you will have the great chance to know new people. Find your passion, be great, be global. Are you ready to let your passionate voice be the “infectious” news today? Michael Thallium (article written by Dr Amit Nagpal) Passion makes us great. Albert Einstein says, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” But many of us will doubt our inner genius and question, if everyone is a genius, why do very few people succeed?  Dr Amit Nagpal is a consultant and coach whose primary interest lies in providing Personal Branding Consultancy specially in digital space. He is also known as a passionate Blogger, Motivational speaker and Trainer (in Life skills and Digital Marketing). He is a Leadership Mentor for IAYSCP (International Association of Young Supply Chain Professionals), USA and is also a member of the Global Mentoring Committee for Entrepreneurship Incubation, 3E Innovative Foundation, Delhi NCR, India. His blog, “The Joys of Teaching” (A Blog on Life Mantras for Sustainable Success) is read in 100 plus countries and the numbers continue to rise as the words spread day by day. The answer is very simple: most of us spend or rather waste our lives because we fail to discover our deepest passion or life purpose. I was speaking to a friend of mine (Deepak Goel) yesterday and he quoted something which touched me, “Are you in a career which is in fashion or in a career which is your passion?” Success comes from perseverance and perseverance requires high energy. The high energy and hard work can only come from passion. So in simple words, it is passion only which makes us great and makes our work a source of joy. Many of you may be wondering why very few people are able to discover their deepest passion. The mental block which most of us have is that some people are born lucky. But very few people realize that we can write our own destinies and create luck in our lives. I will give a simple example of commando training. The main tool used in commando training is to break mental barriers and beliefs. When the commando trainee says, “I can jump a maximum of 7 feet” the trainer tells him, “No you can jump 15 feet.” After that he is given training also to do that. But training is also possible if we are ready to break our mental barriers. Once I posted on Facebook, “People are busy constructing; I am busy destroying, one mental block after another.” Passion is the beginning, it inspires you for innovation, and it creates a desire to develop talent, knowledge / skills and to take necessary risks. Passion attracts the right people, circumstances, resources to you, the same way magnet attracts iron. Passion for your work fills your face with a charismatic energy and can even make you look beautiful and lustrous. Few moments of life lived with passion are sweeter than years of dull and drab routine living. We have many passions in life or many hobbies we feel passionate about, but it takes time to discover our true passion. Some people are lucky or blessed to discover their passion in a flash but every human being can discover his/her deepest passion provided there is a burning desire. People who have self-discipline and high IQ may read books, surf internet and move from good to great. But most of us need a coach/mentor to motivate and guide us on our journey. The coach can be our boss, parent, professional coach and so on. I feel passionate about travelling and meeting new people, playing chess, teaching, training, coaching, brand management, spirituality, life skills and inspiring people. Now I could not have pursued all my passions to make a living. So after a long self-reflection and guidance, I found my true passion lies in inspiring people to achieve their peak potential (which I could do through coaching, writing, training or at times by simply talking). When you have found your true passion you will get fully immersed in work, lose track of the world and time and the output which will come through such work shall be world class or outstanding. A student of mine wrote something similar on Facebook, so enlightening. “For living a life of worthiness, one doesn’t need to know what the world needs… One needs to know what is that one thing which makes you come alive and you just go do it. You will find the answer to what world needs i.e. it needs people who have come alive.” Passion is a powerful emotion, it can make you forget the world as you may even find God in work, and you may get lost in the same way when you are kissed by your beloved. If passion of love takes the body to the peak or orgasm, the passion for your work takes you to the orgasm of success, the orgasm of your potential and moves you up from good to great. Has the spark come or you have started burning already? Dr Amit Nagpal On 11th November 2011 (11/11/11), at the Ateneo de Madrid, we celebrated our 10th Coachtulia (coaching + tertulia; “tertulia” is the Spanish word for “gathering”) after one year since we first started. This is our first anniversary!! On this occasion, the matter of debate was: “On Kindness in Coaching”. We also had the participation of Jennifer Sertl in the distance, from the USA, who recorded a kind message for the participants in this coachtulia. We celebrated with kindness and good conversation, champagne and some “tejas”, typical Spanish sweets made out of almonds and orange.
Our next Coachtulia will be held on December 9th at Ateneo de Madrid. See you there! For those who could not attend this conversation, I leave you with Jennifer’s message : Michael Thallium |
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I had never written an article this way before. I am writing it at 35,239 feet high and about 7 hours from my final destination – this is at least what the screen says, while we are flying somewhere over Greenland. I would have liked to start writing it earlier, when we were crossing the skies over the Atlantic Ocean, but it has not been until now, that I opened my laptop and began to write. Anyway, it does not matter that much because while I am thinking what to write and looking around to observe the passengers around me in this Airbus heading for Los Angeles, the plane has come back to the skies over Atlantic waters, somewhere between Canada and Greenland.
Today is a special day. I will be very brief. Today is 20 years since Freddie Mercury passed away and today is also a very special day in the USA, the Thanksgiving Day, the day when families get together to celebrate and give thanks. So, I would like to take the chance to tell you about the origin of my name. Shortly after Freddie’s death, I remember I was in a chemistry lecture at the university and I had a periodic table in Latin with me. It is known that the given name of Freddie was Farrokh Bulsara, but he chose Freddie Mercury as his artistic name and this is how he became famous all over the world. Reflecting on that and coming back to that chemistry lecture, when I looked at the chemichal elements I thought: ”Aurum (gold), Mercurium (Mercury), Thallium… Hmmm, Freddie Mercury… Michael Thallium!!” This was my pseudonym or artistic name for a number of years until it was coined as my professional name. Now, celebrating this 20th Anniversary, I would like to thank the singer I listened to when I was a teen and the person who, somehow, is now part of me. Mr Mercury, a big “Thanks” from Mr Thallium. The rest is in the lap of the gods…
Yes, I know, I know. Many people in the World see globalisation as a threat. Not me, sorry. I think, for the first time in History, we have within hand’s reach the opportunity of going global and be great. More and more people have access to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google + (and I am sure many others will appear in the years to come). These are just great tools. And it is true that any tool can be used for doing good or bad, but what if we use them to go great? This is where passion comes into play.
