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Archive For: Work Life Balance
Happy Valentines Day (Or Week!)
Time to Look Ahead (but not too far!)
It’s December! For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere it means we are getting into full Summer mode. (The forecast for Sydney today is 42C – so its hot!)
Experience has also shown that often, business get into a phase down approach. Not sure if this year will be any different. COVID and 2020 in general has been a kick in the pants for many. So what usually happens is not longer what is going to happen.
But it is time to take time. Time to consider your plans for 2021. Time to consider how to finish 2020 in a strong position (or as strong as possible).
2021 will still be a bit weird and flexibility will be paramount. There is no “going back to normal” as this is the new normal. What this means is that it is not worth considering too far ahead, but it is time to at the very least plan some time for planning.
To help you, I have a one pager called a Regular Results Review. Click on the link and download it and spend an hour or so considering how far you have come this year and what next year may hold.
Here’s to a cracking time ahead!
What Can You Celebrate?
It’s Friyay! – time to Celebrate the Good Things
I have had a huge week. I produced/hosted a three day online summit. So many moving parts! At the end, my client said “I could not have done this without you”. The delegates said, “I loved the energy, engagement and humour that Warwick brought.”
Add to that my monthly planning session with The Forge Mastermind (highly recommend this!), virtual choir practice, some video editing, tech support for my brother, a pre-recorded live stream, and almost finished the OnlinePresenterPro series and all while my gorgeous wife is doing night shift so I have to keep it quiet when I can!
2 new clients also signed up this week so I have a couple of online award ceremonies to plan/host/produce.
I am happy! Exhausted … but happy and looking forward to a quiet weekend (due to more night shift!)
How was your week?
What fabulous things did you get up to?
One Simple Thing to Becoming an Expert
I spent the weekend working with some old hardwood timber I got from pulling down an old picket fence. My gorgeous wife wanted a narrow table to go behind one of the couches at the shed and who am I to not give her what she wants!! (Plus it was awesome to spend time away from the computer).
As with all things, if it isn’t on social media then it hasn’t happened. So I popped a couple of images there once I finished building it. (The oiling happens next weekend.)
Many people commented on how talented I am. Let me be frank, I am not a talented woodworker! I am a “competent” woodworker and I have spent a bit of money on some tools to help make things easier (thicknesser, table saw, electric sander and so on). Nearly everything I have learnt has come from YouTube and conversations with others who are more skilled than I.
The one simple thing to becoming an expert (or at the very least getting better) is to have a go at it. Step out with confidence and give it a try. At nearly every stage along the way as I was building this I was thinking, “I hope I don’t stuff this next bit up!” But I didn’t let it stop me.
Oh and there were some stuff ups along the way. But that is how you learn. It is part of the “Fail Faster” approach. At the end I have a nice bit of furniture my wife loves, made from upcycled materials and that I can be proud of (plus I have had 2 people ask me to make them one!)
So what do you want to be an expert at?
What are you doing to build those skills?
How can you “Fail Faster?”
I have a Severe Case of Kummerspeck
German is a fantastic language. It gives us wonderful words, that for the non-native German speakers, can sound harsh, guttural and slightly ridiculous.
But they express a situation so well.
Schadenfreude (which means getting pleasure from the pain of others) is the basis of so many tv series and YouTube channels. It is the guilty pleasure of many of us, myself included!
Zeitgeist means the mood of the culture or the spirit of the times and is now commonly used in English conversations.
But the word that best sums up what seems to be happening in my life and those around us is Kummerspeck. Literally this means Grief Bacon.
Many around me are talking about Corona Kilos added from excess eating during lock down or feeling out of control so eating over it. Surely this is grief bacon!
The pandemic has shattered our illusion of control and so we do what we can to feel more in control or to use the time we have as productively as possible. For me that means making cinnamon scrolls, brownies and other yummy treats and then giving most of what I made away.
The longer the pandemic goes on, the more of a challenge it will be for us. Personally, I suspect this pandemic will go until late 2021. There will continue to be rolling lock downs as we deal with trying to minimise the impact of the disease.
The Germans have a word for this too, Scheisse.
But in the mantra of 2020, “It is what it is”. So let’s continue on, grateful we are not dodging bullets, having bombs dropped on us, or suffering from something far worse than being forced to stay in our homes.
If you need to get out virtually, don’t forget to join my What’s Up Wednesday sessions that happen every Wednesday. Click here for more details. We just chat about what is going on and see what help everyone needs (and have a fair bit of fun along the way!)
Stay strong and love your Kummerspeck.
Do You Have Glorious Blooms that Make you Feel Good?
Let’s face it. This whole COVID thing sucks.
Having your life restricted, not being able to do what you want, business crumbling, let alone the health impact! It is also a major topic of conversation because we are all caught by it, impacted by it or influenced by it to some extent.
It is easy to get caught up in it – and that is perfectly natural.
What I try and do is focus on something glorious that makes me feel good. This image is of the tulips we have in the back yard. The kaffir lime tree is also laden and the jasmine smells fabulous. I can’t help but feel good when I see this.
I was fortunate to be in the audience of a show on Saturday night. The super talented Tash York put on a cabaret show that streamed on YouTube. It was a pay as much as you can and for 90 minutes I was entertained by her and also by the comments as the whole audience got into the show.
On Sunday, I was thrilled to be part of an Improv show, Virtually There, hosted by Paper Goat, a NZ based, world focused Improv collective. You can probably see the recording on Facebook.
Friday night I was having a Zoom call with a friend, solving the problems of the world.
Each of these things brought me some kind of joy and delight. Most of these things didn’t cost me any money. For the time I was present in those events, COVID and it’s impact were forgotten. It was an enjoyable escape.
I have found so many ways to shift my focus from the troubles and issues I am facing to something that makes me feel good, even if it is only a temporary reprieve.
What are you doing today to get your burst of feeling good?
(At the very least, check out these tulips!)
How To Deal With Being Out of Control
I was trying to get a shot with Winston the Wonder Poodle next to the almost blooming daffodils. I wanted him to look right down the barrel of the camera. As you can see, I failed. No matter what I said, promised, clicked, whistled, or did would get him where I wanted.
It feels like the same thing is happening in the world right now.
We are trying to get people to follow the rules and guidelines, yet they won’t. It is lock down in Melbourne and you are not allowed to have people visit, so one group of people decided to have a birthday party with 16 people. They got caught and now have over $26,000 in fines.
Another group of people lied about their prior whereabouts when entering Queensland and got fined $24,000. Some even tried to run from the car when they were being pursued.
So this poor behaviour means COVID19 case numbers are rising. More businesses are being locked down. Peoples lives are being put at risk. This means that they are even discussion a return to Level 4 lockdown in Melbourne.
Many people are feeling out of control, and rightly so.
So how do you deal with being out of control of so many important aspects of your life all at the one time?
One simple strategy is to be where your hands are. Our lack of control comes from thinking about the future and projecting how things will be in a time we are not even in yet.
Being where your hands are means considering, what can I do RIGHT NOW? What is my focus RIGHT NOW? What is one thing I can do RIGHT NOW that will benefit me, those around and me and move me closer to my goals.
Bringing that focus back to the here and now means you are not thinking about what could, should or would happen but on what IS happening.
I didn’t get the photo I wanted with Winston the Wonder Poodle, but I did get some fun shots. I could then move on and focus on the next thing on my list, which was to reward him for a good walk and then give him a big belly rub.
Now that made both of us happy!
Online Working, Studying, Supporting, Health, Education and … LIFE!
I have heard many people say during the pandemic that they ‘Can’t wait for things to get back to normal”. Let me save you some time.
It never will.
THIS is our new normal.
One thing that the pandemic has done is forced us to embrace the online life. Many companies were toying with it. Some were planning for it. Others had simply heard about it. But the pandemic made it happen.
This is not a bad thing!
Telehealth in Australia means that more people can be helped with reduced impact on their lives. A recent article on the ABC News website talked about how Telehealth is here to stay. It is cost effective, geographically independent and less time consuming for the client.
Online meetings and events are going great guns! They will never replace face to face meetings but they are not intended to. In many ways, online events are far better than face to face ones. Reduced travel, accomodation, cost, environmental impact and you get to have a more intimate experience that if you were physically there.
Think about it, you are no longer half way back in the room you are right up in the face of the presenter. You are connecting in a way that is not possible en masse. The right facilitators and speakers can make the experience MORE when it is online.
Working from home has become the norm. Good managers are not people watching, they are results watching. Finally, we are given the responsibility to do our tasks without someone looking over our shoulders. This means it is possible to manage all responsibilities while getting your work done and skipping a chunk of travel time and all is associated costs.
The online life is here to stay.
How will you take advantage of it?
Take the Time to Take the Time
What a strange world we now live in.
There are a lot of people in pain. Financial pain, pain from kids needing home school, pain from elderly parents who just won’t stay home, pain from spending as much time as you have been with all of your immediate family, pain of not having enough alone time, pain from not seeing or spending time with friends, pain of illness or even death of key people in your life… all sorts of pain.
The world has irrevocably changed for us.
We will never go back to how it was and I suspect we will horde toilet rolls for a long time to come!
So make sure you take the time to take the time.
Your kids won’t be schooled like they used to. Home schooling is different. Home schooling under lockdown is even more different. So teach them lessons they won’t get at school. Have fun with them. Play stupid games. Take the time to show them how important they are to you.
Take the time to look after yourself. Take time out in the bath. Sit on the balcony with a book. Put a do not disturb sign on your door and just spend some time with yourself.
Take the time to connect. My gorgeous wife and I are having quite a few Digital Drinks Parties. My friends 13 year old sent me a message the other day saying she missed seeing us. So tonight we are having a Digital Drinks Party. We have the technology so why wouldn’t we use it.
Take the time to potter around the place. Maybe you have a few odd jobs on the To Do list. It may be a good time to do that. Or not!
Whatever you do, you know as well as I “Life as Usual” has changed. It is more “Life as Unusual”. So take the time to consider your life. What do you want to change, what will you keep, what will you tweak.
I don’t think you need to be massively productive. I think it is important to process what is happening for you. To reach out to friends. To ask for help if you need it. To offer help if you can.
Whatever you choose to do, take the time to take the time. It’s important!
PS If you need some help taking time out, head over to Wednesday with Warwick and check out the free sessions where you can focus on you and connect with others.
Do You Really Need to Be A Good Speaker?
One of the guests on my podcast recently mentioned how he thought everyone needed to be a good speaker. I have been mulling over his comment and decided that, no, I don’t think everyone does need to be a good speaker.
While I agree with the intent behind his comment, I don’t agree with the modality. Let me explain. His thought is that if you can’t talk about who you are, what you do and how you add value then you may as well not do what you do as no one will discover you.
In the same way that there is little difference between someone who can’t read and someone who chooses not to, if you cannot communicate your thoughts and ideas, have you really had them?
Where I disagree with his thesis is that I don’t believe you need to be a speaker. Many introverts I know never speak but they get their message across (often better than introverts!)
I don’t think you need to be a good speaker but you do need to be a good communicator. You need to be able to convey your ideas in a manner that others can digest, understand and act upon.
Whether it is written, spoken, sung or done in sign language, the ability to communicate your thoughts, desires and ideas is important.
How well do you communicate?
What is your preferred modality?
How can you get better at it?
If I can help, please get in touch.
2020 Goals – Is it just more, More, MORE!?
I get tired of consultants, speakers, coaches and randoms telling me, “You got to have goals. You got to work harder. You got to have more!”
I feel exhausted just listening to that.
There is another approach. Watch the video and see what you think.
Let me know your focus for 2020!
Simple Actions to Immediately Help Maintain Momentum
The beard has to go!
I had special dispensation from my gorgeous wife to grow a beard over the festive break. It is a symbolic element that shows me I am on a break. (Truth be told, it is also a symbolic element that shows me I am getting old. Loooads of silver hair in there!)
The promise I made to myself is that when I get back into it, the beard goes.
Today is the day.
I am a big believer in symbolic acts. They serve as anchor points that remind me of decisions I have made, positions I have taken, values I have upheld or times I want to celebrate. They reinforce the positive message I am giving myself and act as a reminder or “lock nut” to help ensure I stay the course.
One of these symbolic acts is to choose a theme for the year. A higher ideal or purpose to look up to. For 2020, my theme is “More Love”.
Sometimes it will be tough love, sometimes it may be generosity, sometimes it will be holding back. I see too much negativity in the world and with many of the problems we are facing in Australia, it is easy to sit back, complain and be negative about the future.
My challenge and focus for the year is to approach 2020 with More Love.
So I would LOVE it if you would accept this 2020 gift from me. It is a simple two page work sheet I use to learn from the past, plan for the future and create some action items. You can click here to get your copy.
I am interested, what actions will you take today to start your momentum for 2020?
What Will Your 2020 Be Made Of?
Here’s to a magical festive season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Bhodi, Geeta Jayanti, Chrisnukkah or some other festive day, just know that I am wishing you the best.
2019 was an interesting year. So many good things happened. So many bizarre things happened. I achieved some of my goals, missed others and accomplished some things that were not even on my radar!!
So what does 2020 hold for you? What is it made of?
I created this poster for you. I wanted to share with you some of the things that will go into my 2020 and some of the things that could go into yours. Note that it is based on loads of love.
It feels to me like we need more love in the world. Love in the form of tolerance, respect, caring, generosity, hugs, hand holding, conversations, books, music, big picture thinking.
Governments and corporations don’t seem to care or love their people or customers anymore.
So my theme for 2020 is MORE LOVE. I invite you to join me in my quest to make the world a better place by loving more: when I can, where I can and how I can.
Here is to an amazing 2020 for you!
With Love
Warwick xxx
Hope Is Not Enough. Success Needs Action.
It’s been a hell of a week.
A good friend has lost one of his best friends (who simply didn’t wake up), and then one of his daughters friends committed suicide. Someone close to me went into hospital for a few days and still needs more tests. Another freind got retrenched after working at a job and company he loves for 10 years due to a “restructure.” It seems like half of Australia is on fire and as a consequence, Koalas are in more danger of dying out. We are heading into Summer and most of Australia needs rain.
Don’t even get me started on politics. No matter where you are in the world, it seems like either the wrong people are in power or that their focus is not on the people or issues that need it.
In my conversations with people, there is a lot of talk about Hope. Hope is something powerful. It is something that keeps you sane because you can look towards better days, better circumstance, a better life.
But Hope is not enough. Success need Action.
Now I don’t mean financial success or material success (even though this is still true). What I mean is, however you define success. In terms of the country you want, the environment you want, the future you want, or more importantly, the NOW that you want.
What can you do? Is it:
- Educate you kids, friends, family?
- Use less plastic
- Give more hugs
- Plant more trees
- Speak positively about others
- Use a journal to deal with your feelings and concerns
- Get a coach or a counsellor
- Bake a meal for a friend
- Invite a friend over for Netflix and Chill (however you interpret it)
- Pick up a hobby
- Write a letter to a politician
- Be a tourist in your own town
- Vote for the interest of the Future not for yourself
Whatever your concerns, whatever you HOPE, what can you do?
Thoughts and Prayers are nice but they are more to make you feel good than they are to solve a problem.
What tangible action can you take that will bring your hope to life?
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