‘This isn’t learning a new way to knot your tie, use your smartphone or speak a new language’

Laurence Lord,

Director of corporate services

Years ago, my wife and I visited Iceland during November. I enjoyed that trip - some of the sights and experiences were just as expected, some mundane, some better than expected and some pleasantly and memorably surprising. But not all.

We took a bus tour to Þingvellir – seat of the ancient Icelandic parliament. I loved it – magnificent terrain, history coming alive, a clear crisp freezing day, deep compacted snow and ice in the rivers. I was first off the bus and had to be dragged back on – rigid with cold but exhilarated.

Then nature taught me a lesson. Five minutes into the journey back to Reykjavík, in the warm bus. my hands started to tingle, then to ache, then to hurt and then I was in sheer agony. I wriggled, sweated and silently blasphemed – barely succeeding in not making a holy show of myself. Thankfully – twenty minutes later, the episode passed. But I learnt the lesson.

Unfreezing can hurt!

I recently completed the first “un-freeze” module with Potentialife. The thumbnail sketch for this module is “try doing things differently”. Fine – but it’s a bit more than that. This isn’t learning a new way to knot your tie, use your smart-phone or speak a new language.

During that first module, I held what I do and more importantly, how I feel about it - up to the light. Some of it was as I expected, some mild surprises, some eye -openers, some validations and a couple of sharp unpleasant jolts.

So the analyst in me kicks in. If I was everything I aspire to be with no room or desire for learning and improvement, I wouldn't be doing this programme. But at the same time I've come a long way (Thank you Irish Times for publishing my age). I've also thankfully enjoyed some success. That's because I have a modus operandi that works for me. So why the jolts? Is it because my attitudes are conflicted or is the Potentialife programme flawed?

I have a very Irish instinct to take a defensive and sceptical stance when my attitudes are challenged.

There’s a little voice in me that could dismiss Potentialife as an opportunistic business model designed to feed off the insecurities of wannabe leaders and self-help addicts. But, change the channel and there’s another voice that says this is the kind of thinking, which translated into acting will lead to real positive change – albeit not without absorbing a few painful home truths.

The Potentialife model – as I honestly experienced it so far - is compelling. It’s also challenging and not always comfortable.

For now, I’m going to treat it like that trip to Iceland. I didn’t take the hump and go home because my hands hurt for twenty minutes. That wasn’t the defining point of the trip. My highpoint in Iceland came after that unpleasantness. Wading in your speedos in the Blue Lagoon on a winter Icelandic night is magical.