Positive Inspirational Stories

Featured Inspirational Story - August and September 2016

Giving Back

All your life you are learning, exploring and building new life experiences.  It's a never-ending process, feeding your natural hunger to increase your understanding of the world. Now in my seventies, the world continues to give me so many opportunities to learn and use my talents. Not that I was always aware of my abilities.  Sometimes it takes an unexpected event to become aware of your latent talents.

 I had meandered through my first 34 years of life when, on a 1975 winter's day in Canberra, my life changed forever at a public seminar on the topic of leisure as an emerging social issue.  A voracious hunger overwhelmed every part of my mind and spirit to fight a then seemingly hopeless cause - the public recognition of the personal growth benefits of leisure in a world dominated by the work ethic.

Like any passionately-pursued cause, my newly-energized life opened for me much more than new learning, new people and new places. More importantly it was the unleashing of the real me, the confident, self-believing, assertive me that nature intended.  I had an important role to play, presenting an excitingly vital new perspective on the links between leisure, personal growth and mental fitness.  

Little did I foresee the rapid changes to come - a 21st century world of bewildering technology, a pace of life like humankind has never known, a lifestyle generating constant excessive stress. A society crying out for the resilience that leisure interests can do so much to sustain.  Today the cause of leisure as nature's stress manager continues and the battles to convince society are no less intensive. Over the years teachers have appeared each time I, the student, was ready. I have learned so much that the world will need to know after I am gone.

We are not above nature . . . we are part of it.  A tree takes from the earth its natural energy, beauty and grace to become the magnificent creation we all adore. To survive and grow the tree must give back to the earth from which it draws its strength.  I too have begun to feel that demand.  The pages of my latest book, 'The Hunger to Grow', are packed with stories of my experiences and what I have learned from the thousands of people who have influenced my life and my learning.

We each have a responsibility to make the most of our unique natural-born talents and passions, that express our human nature and make each of us different. That difference also demands that we give back what we learn so that, like the tree, we can build a society of natural beauty, grace and dignity.

Written by Peter Nicholls

Peter Nicholls is Australia's People Gardener (Growing better people) and lives in Adelaide, Australia. He is a lifestyle mentor with a difference, seeing human nature as the positive expression of our natural talents and passions. You can learn more of Peter and his book 'The Hunger to Grow' at . . . Australia's People Gardener >>>

Top of page