Gandhi at ESI, Ahmedabad. A photograph I took during my visit in Dec 2025.
I still remember crying as I watched Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi in a cinema in Leicester Square.
We had made a special trip to London, just days after the film’s release. Watching it became a defining moment in my life, and I have returned to it many times since.
Gandhi had been one of my heroes from a young age. My father collected a huge library of his teachings, and his enthusiasm helped spark my own interest.
I wish we could talk about it together now.
In 2009, on Gandhi’s 140th birthday, I wrote an article sharing six lessons I had drawn from his life and teachings. My father had already passed away, but I remember thinking how much he would have loved it.
The 157th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, on 2 October 2026, prompted me to return to those six lessons.
Seventeen years! So much has happened since then. People I love have died. Friendships have deepened, others have faded, and new people have arrived in my life. My work has evolved, along with my understanding of what I want to contribute.
Yet the question at the heart of that old article still speaks to me:
Is your life the message you want to give the world?
Reading it now, I recognise so much of what I still believe. I also find myself asking how I could live those beliefs more fully in this next chapter of my life.
Six Lessons Worth Returning To
In my original article, I shared six lessons I drew from Gandhi’s life and teachings:
- Be the change you wish to see. Put your beliefs into practice through your own actions.
- Reduce, reuse and recycle. Remember that how we consume affects the world we share.
- Live simply. Make room for what matters by letting go of some of what doesn’t.
- Be willing to walk alone. Begin the journey you believe in, even when others have yet to join you.
- Find strength through humility. Be clear about what you stand for while remaining willing to listen and learn.
- Start today. Trust that you already have something worthwhile to contribute.
As I make plans for the coming months, three of these lessons feel especially personal.
Have the Courage to Begin
Most of us know what it is to have an idea that matters to us before we can explain it properly to anyone else. We feel drawn towards a different way of working, a creative project, a cause or a new chapter in our lives.
Then the questions begin. Who am I to do this? What if nobody is interested? What if I put my heart into it and it doesn’t work?
I recognise those questions. They can keep us waiting a very long time for reassurance that nobody else can give us.
The Connection Revolution grows out of something I care about deeply: helping people feel more connected to themselves, to one another and to the lives they want to live.
Giving that work a name was one step. Committing to it means starting conversations and sharing ideas before I know where they will lead. Some people will be interested. Others won’t. I want to keep going with an open heart.
Being willing to walk alone can simply mean being willing to go first. Someone has to suggest the gathering or say, “I think we could do something worthwhile together.”
Once we begin, we may discover that others have been hoping for something similar.
What have you been waiting for someone else to encourage you to do?
Perhaps it is time to take your own longing seriously and give it a chance.
Make Space for the Life You Want
Simplicity feels especially relevant as I look ahead.
I want to help more people, grow my business and bring more of my ideas into the world. I also want love, friendship, health, adventure and enormous fun.
There is a lot I want to say yes to! And that means being thoughtful about what already fills my days.
A diary can be full of perfectly reasonable commitments and still leave us with too little time for the people we love and the things we most want to do.
A walk with a friend deserves time. So does looking after my body, being open to love and having an unhurried conversation. These things belong in the life I am creating now.
I know how easily something important becomes something we intend to get round to. We assume there will be another weekend, another invitation, another chance to call.
Losing people I love has made me much more aware that those opportunities are precious.
Who or what would have more space in your life if your diary reflected what matters most to you?
There might be a call to make, an afternoon to protect or a commitment you are ready to reconsider.
Let People Experience What You Believe
The lesson about being the change brings all of this into daily life.
I can write about human connection every week. What matters is whether someone feels heard when we talk, welcomed at a gathering or supported through a difficult moment.
In a recent article about creating miracles for one another, I shared an encounter on a train that began with helping a woman lift her pram into the carriage. We ended up chatting for forty minutes. There was something useful I could do, and the conversation grew from there.
We already have so much to offer: our attention, experience, encouragement, curiosity and willingness to help. An introduction can bring two people together. An invitation can give someone who feels isolated somewhere to belong.
We can live in ways that make extraordinary possibilities more likely for one another.
There is courage in this everyday practice too. Sometimes love asks us to have an honest conversation. Sometimes integrity asks us to acknowledge a mistake. Sometimes connection begins with listening to someone whose experience differs from our own.
I am learning as I go. There are days when I am distracted, impatient or too caught up in my own concerns. When I notice, I can pause, listen properly and begin again.
That feels like a practice worth continuing for the rest of my life.
What Would You Love Your Life to Express?
My dad whose love of Gandhi’s teachings helped shape my own.
Thinking about my father’s interest in Gandhi, I am struck by how something that mattered to him became part of my own life. He could not have known every way that influence would continue.
People may remember our warmth, our courage or the fact that we believed in them when they were struggling to believe in themselves. Something we do today may stay with another person for years.
As I return to these six lessons, I feel a renewed desire to contribute: to be bolder about my work, make room for the life I want to live and keep bringing love into the way I meet people.
This week, choose one of those lessons and make it personal. Begin something you have been postponing. Create space for someone you love. Offer a little of what you know to someone who could use it.
What would you love your life to say—and how could you begin living that message this week?
I would love to hear your answer in the comments below.
And if you are wondering what comes next in your own life, I would love to offer you a coaching conversation. We can explore what matters to you, what you want to change and what you would love to create from here.
Get in touch, and we can arrange a time to talk.