The view from upside down

In interviews, I sometimes ask candidates what gets them out of bed in the morning. For me on this particular Thursday morning when my iPhone alarm went off at 6am, it was the prospect of running while watching the season premiere of Prison Break. Not the grandest of ambitions, but it got me out of bed.

But the highlight of the morning turned out to be something totally different -- I finally managed a tripod headstand, something I've been wanting to do ever since I started doing yoga, which seems like ages. I was still hesitating as of yesterday's lunch hour class with Wendy. I had even updated my status on Facebook to read: "Winnie is still struggling with handstands but making some progress with tripod headstand. Need more practice...". So after my treadmill run, I decided to give it a go. Once, twice, three times...I was still stuck only half way up. Then I just sat on my heels, stared into the harbour, and just tried to focus on my breathing while listening to BEP. Slowly, I went up again. Slowly, with a bit of hesitation, I started to unbed my legs. Before I knew it, my legs were up in the air! I was so surprised, I fell out of it. I had two more goes and it felt great! It was a wonderful reminder of the truthfulness of all those cliches that now sound really lame when someone says them to you in half-hearted encouragement. I know this will sound like yoga fluff, but it seems the trick sometimes is to keep trying while not getting the mind wrapped up in expectations of failure or success. I guess that's why meditation is such a useful part of yoga (it's something that I haven't really explored yet). I can see the power of being able to make each attempt at something (no matter how many previous attempts have been made) as though each attempt were a brand new attempt, a clean slate every time. Quite incredible really. And in fact, this reminds me of what HB had told me about The Energy Project, something her boss at Barclays was encouraging his management team to listen to. She explained that someone had studied the behaviour of top seeded tennis players. What set the top few from the rest of the field was their ability to quickly reset and recharge their mind. When they hit a bad shot, they don't get frustrated. Instead, they turn their back on the net, play with the strings on the racket or anythings else that helps them to wipe out the bad shot from their mind and get back into a state of mental, and hence physical, freshness.

Sometimes, we just waste so much energy dwelling on inconsequential details, like when I was so distraught over my iPhone last week or when DA told me last night that she had lost her Cartier watch at the spa. To make her feel better, I told her the story of my lost Malo gloves. I had bought a beautiful pair of orange gloves from the Malo shop in Venice this past Chinese New Year. A little over a week later, I left them at Tate Modern. I was a bit sad that I had lost them so soon, but at the same time, I somehow felt that it was a good omen (For some reason, I've always had this silly belief that when I lose something, I also gain something in return). Sure enough, that night, I met MG who turned out to a friend of Mary Lester, the wife of Williams-Sonoma chairman Howard Lester. MG passed a set of Little Cream Book to Mary, who then passed them on to the buyers at Williams-Sonoma Home. Nearly seven months later, we're about to ship their first order to their shops for the upcoming holiday season. All that from one chance encounter after I lost a beautiful pair of orange gloves.

So that's what gets me out of bed each morning -- wanting to see what surprises are in store for the day.