Archive For: Work Life Balance

When is the Best Time To Invest in Your Future?

I love big old trees like this one. It is one of the many old gum is on our property in central Victoria. But for me to appreciate this tree today, something had to happen many years ago.

It is the same with our future. A bright and prosperous future depends on us doing great things today. While in the world of social media, some people become rich, famous, celebrities, influencers and fabulous overnight, I can tell you (particularly in my case) that is not the norm.

Many years ago, the band The Presidents of the United States of America released an album which had a few songs about peaches. In one, there were millions of peaches, in another they were eating peaches on the back porch. The concept of eating your own home grown fruit has always appealed to my gorgeous wife and I – so to make that happen, we had to do something today (well a couple of days ago actually).

I know I have mentioned before the saying, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the second best time is today.” So we have chosen to embody that saying, peaches and all!

On Saturday we had 43 people and 5 dogs come and help us plant about 60 fruit trees and about 20 Golden Ash trees on our block with a Shed on it. We had done the hard work prior to fence off the area and protect the trees from the horses, kangaroos and anything else venturing in the paddock as well as setting up an automated irrigation system and pretreating the soil (there is a bit of clay there!)

It was a magical day and a pure delight to have family and friends helping build a better future for us all to share. Yes it was cold. Yes it had a bit of rain. Yes one of the dogs (naughty Molly) thought the trees were sticks to play with and tried to run off with them, but having that many people meant that it wasn’t a great deal of work but there was a lot of celebration. Check out the photos below.

Dear Reader, I am sure you are thinking, “well that’s nice but I don’t have a block or want fruit trees.” That’s ok. Everyone is different.

So what DO you want in your future? What do you need to do NOW to make it happen? Who can you get to help you start or progress your dream NOW?

Let me know if I can help.

 

The Golden Ash

 

The Orchard

 

Some Workers

 

A Big Feed

 

Staying Warm

 

Even Horses Love Selfie

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What Is Success?

Recently I took part in the 10 Tips in 10 Days challenge. That’s where I had to create 10 short videos to be published once a day. Each video had to give some kind of tip or advice on an area in which I had expertise.

In a coming post I will like to all 10 tips for you, but today is all about the first tip. That tip is to understand for you What is Success.

As host of the Get More Success show, I have asked almost 100 people how they define success. Everyone has a different definition but a recurring theme is that of Freedom. Click on the image above to see the short video about it.

Famously, Ralph Waldo Emerson had this to say about success:

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give of one’s self;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived

This is to have succeeded.

So as you consider your future, how do you define success for you?

It could be in money, it could be in experiences, it may even be how you related to those in your life. The key thing is to know that there is NO wrong answer, and no answer to be embarrassed about as long you have something you are aiming for.

It is interesting that many people have no idea what success it. They still work hard and and continue moving forward but don’t know what they are aiming for.

So Dear Reader, what are you aiming for? How will you define success? What is it that you focus your energy toward?

Only by knowing what Success is will you know where to best focus your attention.

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Put Your Poo in the Post

Image: ShutterStock

Bowel Cancer is the second deadliest cancer in Australia. Approximately 80 people a week die from it.

That is shitty to say the least!

June is Bowel Cancer Awareness month and Bowel Cancer Australia are doing great things to help for the early detection and treatment of bowel cancer.

The great news is that bowel cancer is one of the most treatable cancers if detected early. The even better news is that when you turn 50, the Australian Government sends you a free kit for Bowel Cancer Screening. In theory, it shouldn’t be an issue.

That’s where people come in!

One study shows that less than 46% of people returned the kit (less than 44% for men!) A more recent study has that down to just 41% (39% for men – what is it with us men!)

Here is my theory, the first kit arrives when you turn 50. No one likes to be reminded they are getting older. A female friend of mine had her kit arrive on her actual 50th birthday. She was annoyed so put the kit in the cupboard – out of sight, out of mind.

Also, people don’t like talking about poo. It is ok if you are travelling as you can go on endlessly about the different toilets, plumbing set ups and the gastro which meant you were not getting off the toilet for a few days. But people don’t want to talk about their own poo, whether they call it poo, poop, shit, faeces or doody.

So you know who is the best person to encourage the poo conversation? A five year old!

They will play with it, bathe with it, run with it, show it to you, take pictures of it … you name it, they will do it.

So let me be serious for a second, if you are older than 50 or know someone that it, can I encourage you to Put Your Poo in the Post?

Get a test kit from Bowel Cancer Australia, go to the toilet, channel your inner 5 year old, poke your poo with a stick, and then put your poo in the post. You could very well save your own life.

Dear reader, you are too important to those around you to postpone this because you are too embarrassed, too busy (it takes less time than it takes to make a coffee) or too scared to poke your poo with a stick. Check the video below for a bit more information.

At the very least you get to send your poo to someone. Haven’t you always wanted to Put Your Poo in the Post?

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Dance to My Tune

This is the background of the Salon at the Melbourne Recital Centre. I was fortunate enough to attend a performance by the Ensemble Gombert there this week.

Now I must confess, it is not the kind of performance I would usually attend but one of my fellow members of the Ice Haloes performs with them so I thought it would be a good opportunity to see what the sophisticated people do.

Oh my lawks a lordy! It was stunning. While the entire performance was in German, it didn’t matter. The harmonies and the emotion of the music jumped out and grabbed you. I had the translation of the piece but I just listened and enjoyed it without trying to work out what it meant at the time.

They performed two pieces. Hugo Distler’s Totentanz and Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude.

While the Bach was great, the Distler was a production of it’s own. It is a Motet, which Wikipedia defines as a mainly vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from the late medieval era to the present. 

They had kindly provided an English translation of the piece, which was about when Death comes to us all, how will we be seen. The first dialogue from Death was very powerful.

To the dance, line up for the dance:
emperor, bishop, burgher, farmer,
poor and rich, great and small,
come to me! Mourning will not help.
Lucky is the one who mindfully
did good things during his life,
thereby detaching himself from sin –
Today I say: Dance to my tune!

The motet showed how different people meet death. Life has shown us that no-one is spared death. Yet many live as if Death will never come.

I am so grateful to my friend Vic for introducing me to this piece. Listening to how Distler felt people would meet death reinforced that life is to be lived and to be lived well.

To try new experiences, treat all people well, to give what you can, to not be blinded by ambition or be arrogant with any authority we may hold. We will all Dance to Death’s Tune one day so let’s make today as good as possible for those around us. By doing so we will make life, and death, good for ourselves.

Yes, this piece is old. It is based on text written in the 17th and 19th centuries. But the message still holds true.

So dear reader, if I may be a bit dark and somber, before you need to Dance to Death’s Tune, how will you live so that you may die well?

PS You can listen to an unrelated but lovely piece by Ensemble Gombert here
PPS Vic is fourth from the left

 

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Celebrating 50

It has finally happened. I turned 50 last week.

I am a firm believer in celebrating success and that if you make celebrating success a habit, you will make success a habit. So naturally I celebrated.

We had a huge party at a fabulous venue (The Riversdale Golf Club who were just fantastic) and I had family and friends from across the spectrum of my life come and help celebrate.

It has often been said that it takes a village to raise a child, so I had my village come and celebrate with me. Naturally the chief of that village, my gorgeous wife, was a key driver behind the celebration but that is as it should be.

You dear reader are also part of that village. Your regular feedback, requests for information and sharing of your life successes continue to help shape me and my business.

So as a small gift for you, please enjoy the performance of the choir I belong to, Mood Swing. They were there and did a few songs, this being the finale.

I am half way to my Happy Healthy Hundred and I wanted to thank you for your company and support on my journey.

 

 

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Time Is Money

It is commonly said that Time is Money. Well this month, I get to be $50!

I have strong memories of looking at statues of explorers like Burke and Wills and calculating that they died when they were 40 and 27 respectively. At the time I remember thinking, “wow, they weren’t that old.” Now I am definitely thinking they were very young!

Time changes things.

It is not just the passing of time that changes things, it is what you do with that time.

Even though I am turning 50 this month, I really don’t think I have started to mature yet. In talking with 70 year olds, they still feel 18 on the inside.

Time is money, and while it is good to save money, that is not what it is for. Money is to invest, to spend and to share. The same is to be said for time.

Time is to be invested in acquiring new skills. It is to be spent doing fun, foolish or even worthwhile things. It is to be shared with those who need it, who you love or simply who you want to.

My personal mantra is Happy Healthy Hundred, so this means that this month I am half way. I am ready to spend more time with people I love and doing things that I love.

If your time is money, how are you spending it? How are you investing it and how are you sharing it?

 

Image: Shutterstock

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Do You Serve?

Image: ShutterStock

I was lucky enough to spend Sunday in beautiful Adelaide, one of Australia’s prettiest cities. The City of Churches as it’s known.

I must confess, it was a long day. Up at 5:30, off the airport, fly, get collected at the other end, drive to venue, setup the AV, run a five hour session, back to the airport, through security, straight to the plane, fly, airport, drive home, relaxing by 7:30pm. I did all this, gave away $500 worth of product, offered 15 hours of consulting/coaching services, and got paid $0, zero, zilch … nada.

Now I am not seeking praise or attention (ok… maybe a little attention) and I happily gave of myself and my products and services. This was done, not with the intent of commerce, but with the intent of service.

Currently I am the National President of Professional Speakers Australia. Over the years I have taken multiple roles within the organisation and will continue to do so into the future. The reason I serve is that it makes our association stronger, our industry more robust and it also creates great connections for me.

While I don’t approach a service position thinking “What can I get from this?” I have found that I will always get a return. For example, the workshop I ran on Sunday. Part of it was about creating a speaker “One Pager”. I had a vision for my one pager for some time but had procrastinated too much to actually do it. I couldn’t speak on the importance of having one with out actually having one, so running the workshop forced me to create my vision of a one pager, and I am very pleased with it.

Service pays in ways that you wouldn’t even dream of when you start to do it.

What about you?

In your industry, in your family, in your hobbies – do you serve?

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Fabulous Festivus!

Image: ShutterStock

It’s almost the end of the year. How ever you celebrate it, from our family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Jolly Hannuka, Fabulous Kwanzaa, Joyous Bohdi or at the very simplest, have a Cool Yule.

It’s funny that during this relaxing time of holidays, I have a lot to do. Website refresh, garden retaining wall to build (with corresponding dirt and mulch shovelling into the garden bed), shed walls to line and a host of other things. I am realistic enough to know that they won’t all get done by mid January.

One thing that I know will get done is the Annual Review that I do. This time of year is great to look back at what I learnt and achieved in the year gone and what plans I have for the year ahead. I have done it so frequently that I have created a two page template for it.

As my festive gift to you, I want you to have a copy as well. Feel free to share it with others who may find it useful. You can access it here.

It has been a weird year for me. The broken ankle in March really blew my plans out of the water and while I have pretty much recovered, it continues to have an impact and has helped me reassess a lot of what I am doing.

It has been a weird year for the world. While Brexit, Trump and North Korea continue to make head lines, fewer people live in extreme poverty, the number of people without access to electricity world wide fell to below 1.1 billion for the first time, measles has been eliminated in the UK, and many other fantastically positive things are happening (you just don’t hear about them much).

So here is to 2018. May it hold great joy, success and happiness for you and those you care about.

My focus for 2018 is to MC a lot more events, host different conversations and facilitate some great discussions. If you know of events, showcases or conversations that need a professionals touch, please let me know as I would be glad to assist.

What is your focus? What are you aiming for? How will you know that 2018 has been a success for you?

Until next year, enjoy the festivities!

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Are You Serious?

A recent event I was hosting for the Queensland Department of Communities was their Community Recovery Forum.

It was a serious day talking about serious topics. Financial resilience, community impact, infrastructure, economic impact, and much more.

Personally, I spent most of the day laughing and making sure the audience did too!

In fact many of the delegates, when they spoke to me, would comment about how boring the event could have been if I wasn’t continuing to brighten it up. From the Rock Star welcome for the Director General to throwing the microphone cube around the audience, the day was loaded with fun things.

My personal experience is that when something is fun, my mind is more open to learning about what is happening and being open to new ideas. When things are too serious or monotonous, it takes all my effort just to stay awake and focussed on what is supposed to be happening.

There is no doubt about it, life is serious. We make serious decisions with serious impacts and serious conditions exist all around the world.

But being serious takes so much effort and is so draining!

Let’s face it, no one gets out of life alive.

So can I encourage you to take serious situations seriously but having a laugh at them or during them?

It doesn’t mean you don’t treat them with the respect they deserve but it does mean you focus on the positive and fun elements of what you are facing.

Emergency Service personnel typically have very dark sense of humour. Patients with critical diseases can most often find something to laugh about. Fortunately most of my days are far less serious, so surely I can have a laugh?

So what have you got happening today that feels a little serious and how can you have some fun with it?

By the way, if you have a conference or event that you need to have more fun at (all while taking it seriously) don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will see how I can help.

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What Defines You?

Image: ShutterStock

While going to the Physiotherapist (some same Physioterrorist) isn’t fun, the outcomes have been good. But a recent encounter with another client got me thinking.

The Physio has me doing hydrotherapy for my healing ankle. Usually there are two to five of us in the pool at once. As I was doing my weird stretches I said to one of the guys I had met before, “How are you doing?”

Now I was making polite conversation. I should have thought about the question I asked because he then took quite some time to tell me how he was doing. Yes, he is in an unpleasant situation and he has multiple injuries. Yes it has had an impact on his life and that of his family. But there has to be a good side somewhere doesn’t there?

Thinking about that interaction, I made the choice to not be defined by my injury.

The impact of my broken ankle is ever present in my life but I talk about it too much, give it credit too much, allow it to impact too much. The time has come for me to move on.

Sure, there will be a lasting impact but that is for me to manage. I don’t need to keep going on about it. I know there is a significant shift in mentality when I focus on what I CAN do rather than on what I CAN’T do.

Do you know people who are defined by what they think is holding them back?
By whatever event has occurred to them in their past that they can’t move past?
Are you one of those people?

Maybe it is time to focus on all the amazing things you can do, the experiences you can have, the relationships you can be part of.

Don’t be defined by events, thoughts and actions that are best left relegated to the past.

What defines you?

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What Are You Creating?

I spent a couple of days at The Shed last week doing a few things.

It is a beautiful place that helps me reset my brain when I am feeling frustrated.

Let’s face it, there is a lot to be frustrated about.

Politics, sexism, war, treatment of indigenous peoples, treatment of refugees, people who don’t return phone calls, internet trolls, people who get offended by everything, people who never get offended, traffic, public transport, bad service, business deals that fall through, prospects who are incredibly rude … the list goes on.

Victor Frankl famously wrote in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that there is a gap between stimulus and response.

So no matter what happens to you, you get to choose how you will respond to the stimulus rather than simply reacting to it.

What this means is rather than looking at how the world is and what we have to deal with to exist in it, we can ask, “What sort of world do we WANT to live in” and make choices to create that world.

Sometimes others may not support our choices but we have no control over that. All we can do is have control over our own decisions. To be frank, sometimes those choices are hard and the cost may be high, but they are almost always worth it.

The choices we make create our future. What kind of future do you want? What choices do you need to make to have that future come in to being? What can you start on today to make that happen?

In essence, what are you creating?

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Put It Down

Technology is amazing.

We now have devices that give you access to the knowledge of the world with a click of a few keys (granted, we only use it to watch cat videos but we COULD do other things with it!) These smart phones have more power and capacity than the computers that sent people to the moon.

It is starting to feel like the cost of this technology is our own humanity. What price are we willing to pay for all of it’s advantages?

Don’t get me wrong, I am part geek and I like my phone to be within arms reach at all times. I love technology and what it can do for us. But we have to keep our mind open and not just following it blindly.

Technology is like fire, a brilliant tool but a poor master.

Here are a few things you can do to make sure you are not at technologies beck and call:

  • My phone and computer have ALL notifications turned off. I choose to run my day rather than let my devices run it.
  • My gorgeous wife and I will often leave our devices at home when we go out so we can be present for each other.
  • I will turn my phone on to Aeroplane mode when going into a meeting so I won’t be disturbed.
  • When friends are over for dinner and the phone rings, I don’t answer it (I know!! Radical isn’t it!)
  • I use my calendar to plan times to NOT do things like – no email, no meetings, no phone calls.
  • When working on an important strategy or creative piece, I will turn my phone of to prevent distractions.

These ideas are not rocket science but they are necessary sometimes so I can be sure that I am using technology and it is not using me.

What do you do to make sure you are making the most of technology but it is not making the most of you? How do you “put it down?”

 

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The Other Side

I had the good fortune to hear Travis Bell, The Bucket List Guy recently.

He has some excellent processes and ideas on how to formalise creating and achieving bucket list items.

It is way more effective than that thought that “one day” you will achieve some dream.

The one key point of Trav’s that I really love is about the impact of achieving what is on your bucket list. Because it is not about the item. It is not about getting a photo of having achieved it. It is not about boosting your ego by achieving it. It is not even about bragging rights for having achieved it (let’s face it, most of our friends will say “that’s nice” and move the conversation on.)

What Trav says is that achieving your bucket list item is all about who you become on the other side of having achieved it.

Having proven to yourself that you CAN reach this goal, and having the inner satisfaction of knowing all the battles you have faced to get there. The internal reward of who you become on the other side of your achievement is what makes it all worth while.

So what do you need to put on your bucket list?

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YES – It’s a Sign of Love

Image: ShutterStock

For a country with three of the top ten most liveable cities, it is a shame that our politics don’t match. Particularly when it comes to Marriage Equality.

Our politicians have decided not to do the job that we elected them to and get us to do an Australian Idol kind of vote that is non-binding (ie they don’t have to act on the results in any way) and could possibly be illegal (there is a case before the High Court as we speak). If politicians want to know what the public think, an opinion poll would be more statistically accurate and cost about $100 million less. (Polls show up to 72% of Australians support marriage equality)

Putting all that to one side, what we are talking about is legislating love. That has never worked and has never served the people when it has been tried. My gorgeous wife is of Sri Lankan descent. In a not too distant past, some governments would have stopped (or tried to stop) our “inter-racial” marriage.

Everyone has their own opinion and will vote how they choose. But I am not clear on what voting against marriage equality will gain.

Couples will still live together, will still love each other, will still raise families if they choose, still pay taxes, still go about their normal lives – regardless of the outcome.

But voting against it means that their spouse will not be recognised under law. So should their spouse die, they will be faced with reams of paperwork to access what current married spouses take for granted. This happened to Lara Ryan and I couldn’t imagine the turmoil. In a Facebook post she talks about how she had to:

  • Get police permission to write “Spouse” on incident reports
  • Cross out boxes for Husband and Father on the birth certificate of her newborn
  • Scream in an emergency room, “She’s my wife – I know it’s not legal but she’s my wife”

Because GLBTIQ marriage is not recognised in Australia, should you get married overseas, you cannot get divorced here (because we don’t believe you got married!) Recently the United Nations said that Australia is in breach of human rights because of this because one person had to apply to them to try and get some kind of closure on their marriage. Our government is still considering this breach.

A gay couple married in the UK came to Australia for their honeymoon. Tragically one of them died here. Under our law they were not considered married so the surviving partner could not sign next of kin documents or take the appropriate action at a time of great grief.

These are just a few of the issues that are faced by our lack of marriage equality. All because their committed relationships are not recognised by our laws.

Oh, and the impact on non-GLBTIQ people if GLBTIQ people get married? NONE. (Well except for missing out on some fantastic celebrations). According to the multiple other countries that allow everyone to get married, there has been no devastation, no corruption of the innocent, all that has happened is that anyone can now take the steps to get married.

Voting Yes on our non-binding plebiscite is a vote of love. It is a vote for other peoples love as well as your own. It is a vote for allowing basic rights to those that have been denied them. It is a vote of tolerance. It is a vote of consideration. It is a vote to allow people to show publicly what others already know. It is a vote for our country to move forward.

Some people will vote No for religious reasons but I don’t understand that. Most religions I know of are founded on love. Nearly every holy scripture, regardless of religion, will have a quote saying that love is the foundation of life (or something to that affect). While you may not agree with marriage equality, who are you to impose your will on another who will keep loving their partner regardless of what you think? Wouldn’t it be an act of love to contribute to their security, their happiness, their love?

Let’s be super honest, the sanctity of marriage has long past. We have TV shows where people get married without having met the person before. Celebrities get married for a matter of hours, not even days. It is not uncommon for people to have been married multiple times (I am up to my second but that’s where it ends for me!) It is a great institution and a display of commitment, but let’s not say it is something it is not.

In a world where we see hate in action on a daily basis, it is time for a strong act of love.

 

PS Shaun Micallef puts forward one of the best arguments on this subject. It’s worth watching.

 

 

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Sensation of Simplicity

Under the strict supervision of Winston the Wonder Poodle, my gorgeous wife and I spent the weekend at our shed doing a few more bits around the place with our good friends Danielle and David.

On Sunday when they left to go and volunteer for Rotary, we did a few more things and then had lunch in front of the fire.

I am the first to admit that our shed is “rustic”. We are slowly but surely adding the creature comforts, A recent addition has been the fireplace which came in handy since it was 2C overnight!

But a simple ploughman’s lunch (that’s posh for “whatever is in the fridge/cupboard on a plate”) in front of the fire with your loved one was sensational. There is something hypnotic about watching the flames, feeling toasty warm while you are eating yummy food at a warm drink.

There is a lot of pleasure in getting back to the simple things and not being reliant on technology or complex and sophisticated set ups.

In business, that may be a simple phone call, a direct conversation, a basic agreement or an understanding chat over coffee rather than some sophisticated communication strategy or complex legal contract. While there is a place for these things, never underestimate the power of simplicity.

Simplicity gives the feeling of effortlessness and connection, and that is simply sensational.

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