It Can Be Difficult In Today’s Economy to Know Where You’re Going to Be In the Next Five Months, Let Alone the Next Five Years!
Photo by Sindre Strom from Pexels
What do you say when you’re asked that ever-recurring and somewhat annoying question: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” We’ve come to expect it at interviews, but what if it comes up in conversation at a networking event or a cocktail party?
It can be difficult in today’s economy to know where you’re going to be in the next five months, let alone the next five years and even if you do know, it’s a challenge to communicate your worklife goal, and if it comes up in a social setting, it’s up there in the annoying category of questions along with ‘What do you do?’
Is our worklife really defining us? And is that such a bad thing anyway? I suppose not if it’s deemed to be interesting, but what if you find your work uninspiring and you’re not motivated to talk about it.
And just how honest can you be? What if your five-year plan is to be semi-retired and living in the south of France with a little consultancy work to keep your hand in, and your real goal is to spend the next five years building a good network of contacts to facilitate this. Hmmm, perhaps it might not be such a good idea being completely honest in this instance, or you might be suspected of intending to run off with the company clients!
However, all that said, sometimes it does pay to be honest. For example, take a person working in the operations department of an Investment Bank. She’s finding the work completely mundane and goes nowhere to fulfil her creative spirit. Does she share this at appraisal time?
This did actually happen to Moira, and she choose to share in the knowledge that it could be the beginning of the end in terms of her career– but no, her faith in humankind was completely redeemed, if not blown out of the water when her manager suggested setting up a meeting with the head of Marketing and long story short she’s now planning a side step within her organisation. They’re even funding some of her training.
I expect now more than ever; organisations want to keep their good people, and giving them what they want will instil loyalty — the old adage of by giving you’ll receive eh!
It’s also worth noting if you are considering a change into something new and you can effect that change within an organisation where you’re known and respected, it’s a lot easier than getting your foot in another door.
And the moral of the story, well, I guess honesty can be rewarded, and it may even be the best policy!
I first shared this story some years ago on my original, now-defunct blog: Evolving Careers. I’m sharing it again because I believe it’s as relevant today, and it was all those years ago.
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Matt, A Man of Few Words at the Best Of Time, Was At a Total Loss of Words on Hearing This.
Photo by Alex Litvin on Unsplash
Have There Been Times in Your WorkLife When You’ve Had to Pitch Yourself or Your Ideas, When There Was a Lot Riding on It, Maybe It Was in an Interview, or Presentation, or You Had to Sell Your Idea to Your Team, Your Board or an Investor …
Everything Is Riding On This … We’re Relying On You … people’s stories of when they had to deliver the pitch of their life, when their worklives and their future depended on it. When the stakes were high, and there was a lot to win or to lose …
The Future Of The Company Is Hanging On This, You’ve Got Three Minutes To Win Them Over Matt …
Matt, a man of few words at the best of time, was at a total loss of words on hearing this.
But let’s back up a little to Matt’s Story:Everything Is Riding On This … We’re Relying On You … Case Study:
Matt worked in accounting at an advertising agency. In the last year he had somehow gone from reluctant speaker to the key speaker at this sales pitch.
Through a process of self-coaching, self-directing and self-leadership he had transformed his presentations from boring snoring to interesting and engaging. This was no mean feat considering his subject matter was numbers, doubled with the fact that Matt had begun from a place where people’s eyes would glaze over, followed by the earliest possible exits as soon as he began his presentation. He had gone from being invisible to suddenly being in the spotlight — or rather about to be under the spotlight!
SAGE WISDOM
Being an accountant Matt was quite a logical thinker. He was also quite wise, and so he turned to his inner sage for wisdom, posing the question: What do I need to know and what do I need to do in this situation?
The self-feedback that came to him was:
I need to create the experience in people’s minds of the experience I’m trying to share;
I need them to know why it matters;
I need them to know the powerful impact this can have.
BOOK WISDOM
Although Matt was a man of few words, he did have a love of words, and a passion for reading. Books were his go to place when he needed stimulation for his ideas, his thinking and his challenges. Matt’s search for the book to help him in this situation brought him to: Ted Talks by Chris Anderson.
The guidance he received was:
When tackling tough topics, the structure of these is typically to lay out a series of facts that illustrate how awful a situation is and why something must be done to fix it — that can be emotionally exhausting — route around that — first step is to think of your talk not as being about an issue, but about an idea;
an issue-based talk leads with morality, an idea-based talk leads with curiosity;
an issue exposes a problem, an idea proposes a solution;
an issue says isn’t this terrible, an idea says isn’t this interesting;
it’s much easier to pull in an audience by framing the talk as an attempt to solve an intriguing idea, rather than as a plea for them to care. The first feels like a gift is being offered the second feels like an ask.
This is Matt’s Pitch:
“There’s an old myth about Picasso sitting at a cafe in Paris when a woman recognised him and asked him if he would draw up a quick piece on a napkin for her. Humouring her, he agreed.
“That would be $1 million,” he told her, once he was done. Confused and taken aback, she pointed out that it had taken him only 30 seconds to draw. He responded: “No, my dear woman, you are mistaken. It took me 30 years to draw that in 30 seconds.”
Imagine, if you will, hanging out in a cafe where the world’s most accomplished people converge, influential artists, thought leaders, experts in their fields. I’d like you to picture it in your mind, as you sit over coffee observing, watching the masters at work. As they converse, you capture their wisdom, through the knowledge they’re sharing, the stories they’re telling of their work-life experiences, the skills they’re teaching — learnt through years of blood, sweat, and maybe even tears. You watch 30-second demonstrations of work that has taken 30 years to master.
Now imagine, if you will, a gift. I’d like you to picture it in your mind, it’s quite abstract. So, envision what it looks like all wrapped up. But before I show you what’s inside, I will tell you, it’s the gift that has the power to do incredible things for everyone who opens it. It’s the gift that has the power to challenge, inspire and motivate. It’s the gift that has the power to bring new meaning to life, and to change lives.
You see, this is the gift of knowledge, the gift of the most brilliant of minds coming together.
Why? Because these brilliant people believe in the power of the gift of knowledge. They believe in the power of knowledge sharing. They believe in the potential of this gift, the potential to reach millions of people throughout the cafes of the world.
By now I know you’re dying to know where these cafes are, and is there a waiting list to get in? And how much does it cost people to drink coffee at such elite establishments?
The Answer:
These cafes are wherever people want them to be:
Their own homes, their workplaces, their local cafes, or a cafe in Paris, indeed a cafe from wherever they are in the world.
You see, the power of technology is bringing these brilliant people together to a cafe in cyber space. A cafe where people can go, at any time, when they want to hang out in a place where the world’s most accomplished people converge.
And is there a waiting list?
No, there’s no waiting list, instead there’s a membership that allows people access to this elite establishment.
And the cost to people?
£15 monthly membership — much less than the cost of a coffee a day.
How much will it cost you?
The seed-capital investment we need to bring this cafe to millions of people is £250,000.
And that’s an incredible deal. Why? Because this is the gift that keeps on giving.
What do you get in return?
20% share in this venture, together with the sense of accomplishment that comes from enabling the greatest gift that exists, to be shared. The gift of knowledge.
Thank you.”
EPILOGUE
Matt’s pitch was good enough to pique people’s interest. There were questions, which he and the rest of his team answered. Offers were made, which led to discussions and negotiations, which resulted in the partnership the company needed being formed, to ultimately bring their idea to life, and to the lives of people in cafes throughout the world.
WORDS OF WISDOM
When presenting an idea, flesh out each point with real examples, stories and facts. This is how ideas that you cherish can be built in someone else’s mind.
This story has been adapted from Matt’s origin story: His Journey To and his Discovery of his Ability to Self Coach, Direct and Lead from chapter 12 of my book: Your WorkLife Your Way.
Today’s Featured Book is: Ted Talks.
WorkLife Book Wisdom Stories:
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their worklife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their worklife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their worklife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your worklife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
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Being In the Right Place In Your Worklife Goes to the Heart of Your Identity: To the Heart of Who You Are and to What Is Important to You
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James’s Story — Finding His Vision and Motivated Abilities at His Later Stage of WorkLife: A Case Study:
James enjoyed his work and his industry, but he was at a stage in his life where his family had grown and had flown the nest. He had seen them through university, and they were no longer dependent on him. He was also fortunate to no longer have a mortgage on his home, and so all in all was in a good place from a financial perspective.
He did, however, have a bucket list of things he wanted to achieve in his life, which included travelling to wonderfully exotic and interesting destinations with his wife. He also wanted to give something back to society, and in some way make a difference.
He wanted to continue working, just not in the same vein as before. It was important for him to remain intellectually stimulated through his work. He also wanted to retain the social aspect it provided, and he needed it to fund his bucket list.
James explored and considered ways he could design his work to allow him to live his life to achieve these things. He had an extensive network with contacts throughout the UK and Europe, including Russia, one of the destinations he aspired to travel to.
Being sociable he began connecting with people and discovered various projects in the pipeline throughout Europe. He was known and respected in his industry, and once people knew he was available for work they were more than happy to meet with him; and very soon offers began to come through for consultancy work, including work with his old organisation and a piece of work in Russia.
To facilitate his travel aspirations, and the ability to give back at a social level, James decided he wanted to take on assignments that would demand a commitment of several months at a time.
Once each piece of work was completed, he would take one to three months off, during which time he would travel to a destination on his bucket list. He also identified a social enterprise in South Africa, where he and his wife spent time; and he contributed his business acumen in helping them develop their vision and strategy.
Develop Your WorkLife Story
Whatever stage you’re at in your WorkLife, understanding your core motivations to living your best WorkLife will give you the vision you need, from which you can plan and do what you need in order to make this happen, so that the choices you make will bring about the satisfaction you seek.
Understanding Your Vision and Motivated Abilities Assignment
This assignment is to help you understand your vision and motivated abilities. Those specific WorkLife moments, events or experiences when you were fully engaged.
We are all stimulated by different things. What may seem like the smallest, insignificant experience to one person can provide real meaning and inspiration to another.
The aim here is to help you notice what factors contribute towards you feeling completely motivated, engaged and great about your WorkLife. When you have this clarity, you can take action to ensure you are incorporating these motivated abilities into your WorkLife to drive your vision.
Begin by identifying three specific moments, events or experiences when you felt any of the following:
A Buzz. Able to Be your True Self. At Ease. At Your Best. Able to Shine
Inspired. In the Flow. In your Element. Life is Good On Top of the World
Totally Absorbed. Touched. Truly Motivated
NB Please feel free to add words and phrases that are especially meaningful to you.
Next develop your chosen words or phrases into a short story. For example:
James’s word was ‘Fulfilled’
To put your word in context, follow these 3 steps:
IDENTIFY A SPECIFIC WORKLIFE MOMENT, EVENT OR EXPERIENCE
e.g. For James it was working alongside his wife, at the social enterprise in South Africa.
2. HOW DID YOU FEEL?
e.g. James felt fulfilled because he felt he was making a difference.
3. WHAT CONTRIBUTED TO YOU FEELING THIS WAY?
i.e. Your particular role, the skills used or the tasks involved, the outcome or type of people or environment.
e.g. For James it was contributing his business acumen to help people in a developing community. The outcome helped strengthen their strategy to achieve their vision.
Next note down the common factors and themes emerging. For example: for James it was helping to develop people
Develop a Practice of Continuous Self-Feedback
Now that you’ve begun to pay attention to specific WorkLife moments, events or experiences when you were fully engaged, make a note in your journal of any observations you have of what was going on during those times.
Develop a Practice of Insightful Self-Questioning
Continue and maintain this practice by asking yourself the following questions:
What was I doing when I was completely engaged? How did this make me feel? What contributed to me feeling this way?
Words of Wisdom
There will most likely be times in you WorkLife when you will need to discover or rediscover your WorkLife vision. You may also stray from living your days true to your motivated abilities, lose sight of what these actually are for you, or actually struggle to know what they are in the first place. This simple exercise will allow you to navigate through these times.
This story is one of the stories featured in my book: How To Drive Your Vision And Motivated Abilities. From The School Of WorkLife Book Series.
The stories I write are based on real WorkLife challenges, obstacles and successes. In some stories I share my own experiences, and with permission stories of people I’ve worked with, whose names have been changed to protect their anonymity. Other persons and companies portrayed in the stories are not based on real people or entities.
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Three Simple Yet Profound Signs That Got Me Back on the Path of Health and Happiness That I Hadn’t Been Fully Aware I’d Strayed From
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Oftentimes the most simple of things are also the most beautiful of things, and it’s this combination that has the power to bring and maintain health and happiness to our everyday WorkLife.
I’d found the last, long, what seemed like a never-ending lockdown in the UK hard going. I coped by spending my days writing, learning and creating — easily whiling the hours away from early morning till late night. I love writing, learning and creating, and as a writer and WorkLife learning practitioner, that’s great — right?
Well, YES and NO.
YES — Because I’d been spending my days creating resources to help people manage their own WorkLife learning. Over the years, I’ve supported many people through times of change and uncertainty brought about by external influences — in the past, it was economic crashes; in the present, it’s the pandemic.
During these times, many people who find themselves losing their jobs, through no fault of their own, also find they have to diversify their skills and experience to get back into an ever-changing world of work.
And those who find themselves surviving the culling of jobs also find they too have to diversity their skills and experience to survive the demands of their role as they are expected to step up and step in to take on the responsibilities of their departed colleagues in an ever-changing work environment.
The people who lost their job also lost the learning and development programmes that were one of the benefits of their job.
The people who remained in their job (or a version of it) oftentimes also find that they too have lost the learning and development programmes that were one of the benefits of their job. This is because, often, one of the first things to be taken away, or frozen as companies struggle to survive economic downturns, are training budgets.
This throws a curveball for people, they’re trying to adapt to the situation they find themselves in, but their learning and development support that helped them in the past has been taken away.
But my work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from us is our learning. Because WorkLife learning doesn’t need a training budget, because it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, there’s so much we can learn that costs little or no money. And as importantly, there’s also so much we already have within us — knowledge, attributes, skills and experience that we can utilise to navigate through times of change and uncertainty.
It was this learning that deepened my WorkLife purpose: “To help people pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride, by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.”
So, a lot to be said in favour of YES to whiling away my days writing and learning and creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes to help people manage their own WorkLife learning.
So that’s all OK then, right?
Well, NO, it’s not, because it’s not all good. Let’s hear why it’s also a NO.
NO — Because those days spent writing, learning and creating were spent sitting. From early morning till late night, while on the one hand, I was very productive; on the other hand, I was living a very sedentary lifestyle.
I had also stopped taking my daily walks, and I love walking. But somewhere along the way of this last, long, what seemed like never-ending lockdown, I’d stopped walking. Initially, I told myself it’s winter, it’s too cold, too wet, too windy, too icy, too dark, too this, too that, whatever the excuse of the day was. But these were just excuses. I love walking before sunrise and after sunset. I love the change of seasons, and walking in all weathers has never stopped me before.
As the days drifted into weeks, then months, before I knew it, March was upon us, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been for a walk. Add that to sitting for hours on end each day, and things began to take their toll because I hadn’t been spending time taking care of my health or my happiness.
It wasn’t big drastic warning signs, but the signs were there. I had no energy or motivation, not only for walking but for anything else other than writing, learning and creating. I’d tell myself I’m in the flow, and I don’t want to interrupt that because it’s important — writing, learning and creating is my work; my livelihood, I need to do this. That’s all true, of course, but my health and happiness are important too, and for some reason, I’d justified interrupting that as being OK.
I began to feel lethargic, but I just couldn’t seem to push through it. Going for a walk should be so simple; after all, it just takes putting one foot in front of the other. Also, I know the amazing mental and physical health benefits walking has always given me. But regardless of all of this, I was fighting pushing through to get back on a better path of health and happiness with every fibre of my being.
Image supplied by author
Then one day, a promotional image of a standing desk popped up on my Instagram page, out of seemingly nowhere. It wasn’t something I’d been googling or looking for, but it was something that had crossed my mind before. I remembered hearing or reading good things about them.
This was the first sign.
I was curious, and so, I had a look to see what the benefits are.
My research led me to juststand.org and to a shocking discovery. There’s such a thing as a ‘Sitting Disease’!, “a term coined by the scientific community, commonly used when referring to metabolic syndrome and the ill-effects of an overly sedentary lifestyle.” Yikes!
Thankfully having gotten that bad news out of the way, the site quickly got to the good news: “standing up, sitting less and moving more, are the simple lifestyle changes to get back on track to better wellbeing for our minds and bodies.” Phew!
I was sold. I ordered my standing desk.
Image supplied by author
On the first day I set out to use it, I set it up ready to go — complete with laptop, a cup of coffee, a colourful glass filled with water and a pot of flowers. I took a photo and posted it on Instagram. In the post, I mentioned how flowers make me happy.
The WorkLife posts I make on Instagram are set up to go to my Facebook business page directly, and I always check they’ve gone OK. When I did this, I saw the above photo memory had popped up on my personal page — My mum standing next to flowers. I re-shared the photo, and my niece Elaine commented that they had those flowers in their garden, that my dad, her grandad, had planted them. My dad passed away in 1992. I was touched that he lived on through the flowers he took great pride in growing and nurturing — hydrangeas. I shared this with my niece, telling her having planted them outside his and my mum’s bedroom window, how when he passed, they were the first thing my mum saw each morning as she pulled across the curtains. My dad’s hydrangeas were one of the ways he remained with her. These flowers made my mum happy.
The photograph of my mum standing next to the flowers was my second sign. — although I didn’t know it yet.
Image supplied by author
At this point, lunchtime was fast approaching. My lack of energy or motivation for doing anything other than writing, learning and creating included food shopping and cooking. Instead, I was nipping out to pick up some takeaway or other every day as soon as the hunger pangs began to kick in. My rumbling tummy was my cue to walk the five minutes to my nearest supermarket to pick up something to satisfy those pangs.
The walk was a familiar one, one I took most days. But that day, for the first time, I saw something unfamiliar. I saw this window box of flowers. Had they just appeared, or had they been there before? I actually didn’t know. All I knew was I had never seen them before. I took a photo.
The window box of flowers was to be my third sign.
They reminded me of an assignment I’d given myself when we entered the first lockdown in the UK, pretty much to the day, one year earlier. That assignment was to capture the beauty of everyday WorkLife on my daily walks — the days when I did walk every day.
Image supplied by author
As soon as I got home, I looked through my camera roll and discovered one of the first photos I took when I began capturing the beauty in everyday WorkLife on my daily walks was a window box of flowers. OK, it’s springtime, so that in itself is not so extraordinary, and that’s the whole point, window boxes filled with flowers are an ordinary, yet simple and beautiful thing.
And that simple thing opened my eyes to the beauty that surrounds us in our everyday WorkLife.
That beauty of the flowers I had placed on my standing desk, the photograph of my mum, that reminded me of the beauty of the flowers that my dad had grown, the beauty of the window boxes of flowers, they all had one thing in common, they all had the superpower to bring happiness into people’s lives.
In that moment, I knew I wanted to have that beauty as a constant in my WorkLife because it made me happy. I also knew in that moment that by making endless excuses to myself to justify the interruption to my daily walks, I had been depriving myself of something that had helped me maintain good health and happiness.
It was time to get back to my daily WorkLife walks and to recommence my assignment to capture the beauty in everyday WorkLife. My daily walks to health and happiness, capturing the beauty of flowers and so much more along the way.
As with so many areas of our WorkLife, health and happiness are so intrinsically linked, they cannot be separated, nor should they. I believe we need to take a holistic approach to our WorkLife because therein lies the secret to good health and happiness.
I’ve always believed health and happiness are superpowers, and I’ve also always believed it’s the simple yet beautiful things that help us maintain good health and make us happy. I just had to follow the signs to get back on track to my path of health and happiness.
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And How It Helped Me: First to Have Clarity on My Worklife Purpose, and Then to Become My Driving Force
Image supplied by author (Pictured: me)
My love of the arts goes back a long way. Even further than this photo — and that’s close to 40 years!
I can attribute it to my dad and his love of Irish music and community theatre, and to my mum, who loved singalongs, live theatre, classic films, and was also an avid Miss Marple, Murder She Wrote and Columbo fan.
I can also attribute it to growing up in a small community where everyone came together to fill the village hall in support of every show performed, including the Pantomime this photo is from … (drumroll) … Cinderella.
And I can attribute it to being Irish — the arts are a big part of our identity — we are the only country in the world that has a musical instrument — the Harp, as our national emblem — having a musical instrument as a symbol to represent our country is pretty unique, and cool, in my book.
Looking at this photo, I know it was taken side of stage. I know this because I can see the look of relief on my face. Because as much as I loved being part of the shows, I was always more comfortable as part of the chorus line or behind the scenes. Playing the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella was my one and only speaking role, and I can still remember how nervous I was ahead of each performance. Seeing myself with a bunch of flowers means it was the final performance, and that I had gotten through it, I had gotten through my crippling stage-fright — I can still feel the relief of that moment, all these years later.
Fast forward from when that photo was taken to when in my 40’s, I left Investment Banking to become a WorkLife Learning Practitioner, having gained my degree in Career Coaching and Management. On beginning my new WorkLife, the one-to-one coaching work came easily to me. Group training and presentations didn’t. I was so incredibly nervous talking in front of people that I wouldn’t sleep ahead of an event, and I would be physically ill on the day.
I shared this with my dear friend Norma, who suggested an acting class to help me overcome my nerves. So, I took a class, actually, because my nervousness was so bad; I took several classes, including a year-long foundation in drama course, which demanded extreme vulnerability in portraying the characteristics of the roles we played.
Having done everything that was required to make those performances real, I felt I could do anything, and the thought of delivering group training sessions or presentations no longer freaked me out.
But the experience, skills and learning I gained in those classes went much further beyond helping me overcome my stage-fright. The acting classes helped me portray more emotion, and through this greater understanding of the different topics I spoke about; the movement classes gave me much more presence and freedom in my movement when on stage; the voice classes helped me develop a range that made what I had to say more interesting, in a way that drew in my audiences.
All of this allowed me to know that if the techniques and skills I’d gained through the classes had helped me not only overcome my crippling fear of speaking in public but had also helped to enhance my delivery, it could also help many more people in their WorkLife learning and development.
It was from here the idea of bringing the arts to WorkLife learning germinated. Over time I gained more clarity on how I could do this. This clarity gave me my WorkLife purpose: To bring the world of arts to the world of WorkLife learning and has been my driving force ever since.
My love of the arts and learning have been passions for as long as I can remember. Passions that I brought together, which combined have driven my WorkLife purpose.
Do you have a love, a passion, that has first given you clarity on your WorkLife purpose, which has then become your driving force?
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Through Personal Off-Sites and a Joie De Vivre List of Places To Go, People to Be With, and Things to Do
Photo by Josh Hild from Pexels
On a cold snowy night at the beginning of January, Aisling boarded the Night Riviera sleeper train at Paddington, London, on her way to St. Ives in Cornwall. It was exactly one year since her original intended trip. One she had planned to go on with her closest friend Norma; but sadly and unexpectedly, Norma passed away a few weeks before their trip. Feeling unable to take the trip without her dear friend, so soon after her death, Aisling vowed to take it in her memory, and to do the things they’d planned to do by way of remembering and celebrating the joy that Norma brought to life, her own and other people’s. Norma had a joy of living, and indeed had a Joie De Vivre list of places she wanted to go to, people she wanted to be with, and things she wanted to do. Aisling also had a list, and they’d cross reference joys they both wanted to experience, then plan and scheme to make them happen.
Together with remembering and celebrating the joy that Norma brought to life, Aisling was also going to take time on her trip to think about what she wanted in her future. Her intention was to create space to think long term about what really matters in the greater scheme of things, then work backwards from that to make it happen. She was embarking on the first of what she planned would be ongoing quarterly off-sites with herself. Time and space to work on her Go, Be, Do list, her Joie De Vivre for all areas of her WorkLife.
Look to the Future with Confidence and Optimism by Taking Control of Your Own WorkLife Learning, Growth and Development Through Personal Off-Sites, and a Joie De Vivre List of Places to Go, People to Be With, and Things to Do. A Case Study:
Book Wisdom
Aisling had brought the book Your WorkLife Your Way: Make Your WorkLife Work For You by Carmel O’ Reilly on her trip to work through.
Having already completed Part I: Getting To Know Yourself and Part II: Your Superpowers, Aisling picked up at Part III: Setting Your Intentions, and began from where she’d left off on Chapter 10: Creating Your Shorter and Longer Term WorkLife Plan.
Words of Wisdom
“You can’t predict. You can prepare.” Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance.
Because of everything that happened over the previous year, first losing her friend Norma, then the pandemic hitting, and the impact that had to Aisling’s WorkLife and way of living, this quote at the beginning of the chapter resonated with her. And it reminded her of the:
Sage Wisdom
“You live only once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Joe Lewis
Aisling started with the Creating Your Longer Term WorkLife Assignment by beginning to think about her dreams and aspirations. She did this by asking herself: What she will be doing at the pinnacle of her WorkLife — when she’s feeling challenged, engaged and not wanting anything else.
Her answer was that she wanted to be making a living from her writing, and she wanted to achieve this by following her dream: “To spread the power of WorkLives lived with Passion, Purpose and Pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning, development and growth programmes that are accessible to everyone, everywhere, at all times.” As well as the books and online programmes she wrote, she also had ideas for films and TV shows she wanted to write. This is what she believed would give her the sense of feeling challenged, engaged and not wanting anything else.
To help her understand her dream, her aspirations, her bigger picture, she asked herself:
What size company do I imagine working for?
There was a time when Aisling thought she would grow her business into something big, but that had changed over time. She now knew she wanted to keep it small, to work independently, and to collaborate as needed with other independent workers or small businesses in their fields. It wasn’t that Aisling was against working with big companies, she just didn’t want to grow her own company big. And she wanted to create books and programmes that were accessible to individuals who managed their own learning, development and growth, which of course companies of all sizes could offer to the individuals that made up their workforce. The key was to keep her products — books, and services — online courses, and in time (hopefully) live-streaming films and TV shows, affordable. So that even in the hardest of times, through downturns in the economy, individuals could still afford to access them, and companies could still offer them to their individual employees, without draining their learning and development budgets, because they were still affordable.
What industry do I want to be in?
That was easy — Education.
Do I want to be in a very individual contributor type role or a management-type role?
Definitely a very individual contributor-type role. That was the role Aisling had always navigated towards. In recent years her work had demanded a more management-type role in some aspects, and Aisling really didn’t like it. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it, or that she was bad at it, she simply didn’t enjoy it, and it would at times cause her to be slightly anxious at best, and totally stressed out at worst. However, she did enjoy collaborating with people on various aspects of her work — just as long as they self-managed their work.
Aisling then moved on to the next assignment: Create Your WorkLife Action Plan
As directed, as she went about her daily WorkLife, she continued to reflect on what all of this means through the self-feedback she gave herself. She began her outline from the key points she’d gleaned from answering these questions, then she took whatever clarity that came to her over the remaining days of her short-break, her off-site with herself to add more details to her outline.
Aisling did this alongside remembering and celebrating the life of her dear friend Norma. She had re-booked Carbis Bay Hotel for her stay, which Norma had recommended one year earlier, because it was her favourite hotel. She had re-booked lunch at Porthminster Beach Cafe, another recommendation and favourite of Norma’s, and everyday she walked along the beaches of St. Ives and explored the galleries, museums and shops of the town, discovering cafes and pubs along the way. Everything she would have done with Norma, she did in her memory, to which she raised a cup or a glass at every watering hole she stopped at, before she caught the Night Rivera sleeper train back to London ready to look the future with confidence and optimism, determined to continue to take control of her own WorkLife learning, development and growth. She was already planning her next quarterly personal off-site, and until then she had her Joie De Vivre List of Places To Go, People To Be With, and Things To Do, to work (and play) through.
Epilogue
To remind her of what she wanted to achieve, and how she wanted to go about achieving this, every day Aisling recited the poem:
Don’t Just
Don’t just learn, experience.
Don’t just read, absorb.
Don’t just change, transform.
Don’t just relate, advocate.
Don’t just promise, prove.
Don’t just criticise, encourage.
Don’t just think, ponder.
Don’t just take, give.
Don’t just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don’t just hear, listen.
Don’t just talk, act.
Don’t just tell, show.
Don’t just exist, live.
Roy T. Bennett
Today’s feature book is my book: Your WorkLife Your Way: Make Your WorkLife Work for you.
WorkLife Book Wisdom Stories:
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their WorkLife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their WorkLife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their WorkLife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
If you enjoyed this, please hit the *Clap* 👏 button as many times as you wish.
Acts of Kindness and Generosity in Times of Crisis Are Transformational, Not Just for You as the Agent, but Also for Everyone Around You
Photo by Andrew Thornebrooke on Unsplash
Acts of kindness and generosity in times of crisis are transformational, not just for you as the agent, but also for everyone around you. Because they can cause the domino effect, that can lead to in the moment pivots, that make a real and meaningful difference to people’s WorkLives and well-being, while bringing individuals and communities together.
Acts of Kindness and Generosity, Transformations, Pivots and the Domino Effect A Case Study:
Sam Polk, co-founder of Everytable, being completely purpose-driven on the first day of lockdown, sent a message across social media saying: “Our mission is to bring affordable, healthy, nutritious food to whoever needs it. You can’t come to the restaurant, but if you need a meal let us know and we’ll deliver it. If you can pay great, if you can’t afford it, let us know and we’ll deliver it anyway, and if you can pay it forward so we can deliver this food to a family that needs it, here’s the link.”
Here is where acts of kindness and generosity in times of crisis are transformational not just for you as the agent, but for everyone around you. And here’s how this message brought about the domino effect, leading to a powerful pivot that made a meaningful difference to people’s WorkLives and well-being.
Within a few weeks of this message, people of LA had donated enough money that meant Everytable could deliver 160,000 meals.
Then the domino effect happened. The governor made a partnership between homeless people and hotels, and they partnered with Everytable; and so Everytable served that community, then they partnered with elderly homes and by the next month or so they were on track to deliver 1 million meals in LA.
So, when everyone else was having to cut jobs, Everytable was increasing jobs. More than that they were increasing a sense of purpose and possibility and changing their business model in the process. It really was a transformational pivot, that happened because of the power of acts of kindness and generosity. That is the spirit of social entrepreneurship.
Sam Polk and his Los Angeles-based team at the pioneering social enterprise Everytable had been quietly creating a revolutionary model: healthy nutritious food available for lower prices in underserved communities, subsidised by higher prices in more affluent communities.
Los Angeles is a deeply segregated and unequal society. There have been neighbourhoods that have been left out of the functioning economy, education system, and certainly the food system.
Until Everytable came along, there was a huge tidal wave of demand for healthy food, and no one to meet it. Their mission was formed to meet a need: to make healthy food affordable and accessible to every community. They sell incredibly high-level, delicious, fresh food, for basically less than the price of fast food. They provide their employees with opportunities for true economic ownership. As one of their employees puts it: “The more people get to know us and the community, I can see us expanding to every community. It’s exciting and we know we are making a difference. We are helping people improve their lives.”
This wasn’t the first transformational pivot Sam Polk had gone through in his life.
Book Wisdom
For The Love Of Money by Sam Polk is part coming of age, part recovery memoir and part exposé of a rotten, money-drenched Wall Street culture. Sam Polk’s unflinching account chronicles his fight to overcome the ghosts of his past — and the radical new way he now defines success.
At just thirty years old, Sam Polk was a senior trader for one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, on the verge of making it to the very top. When he was offered an annual bonus of $3.75 million, he grew angry because it was not enough. It was then he knew he had lost himself in his obsessive pursuit of money. And he had come to loathe the culture — the shallowness, the sexism, the crude machismo — and Wall Street’s use of wealth as the sole measure of a person’s worth. He decided to walk away from it all.
For Polk, becoming a Wall Street trader was the fulfilment of his dreams. But in reality it was just the culmination of a life of addictive and self-destructive behaviours, from overeating, to bulimia, to alcohol and drug abuse. His obsessive pursuit of money papered over years of insecurity and emotional abuse. Making money was just the latest attempt to fill the void left by his narcissistic and emotionally unavailable father.
“Vivid, picaresque…riveting” (NewYorker.com), For the Love of Money brings you into the rarefied world of Wall Street trading floors, capturing the modern frustrations of young graduates drawn to Wall Street. Polk’s “raw, honest and intimate take on one man’s journey in and out of the business…really gives readers something to think about” (CNBC.com). It is “compellingly written…unflinchingly honest…about the inner journey Polk undertakes to redefine success” (Forbes).
Words of Wisdom
“Over six months, I had written a book but no one would buy it. I started this new nonprofit and nobody really cared about it, and I would, every night before bed, close my eyes and say, ‘I am enough, and my life is enough.’ I then expressed gratitude for everything good I had in my life, which at that time was my wife and the baby we were expecting together. While in time, all of this led to numerous media and speaking opportunities, I still practice this ritual.” Sam Polk
Sage Wisdom
“My challenge has been to — instead of viewing my life as some deficit until I reach a bizarrely high level — my challenge is to accept with total gratitude the life I have already and how perfect everything is.” Sam Polk
Epilogue
In 2014, Sam and his wife Kirsten welcomed their daughter Eveline into their lives. Polk says: “This is what I know: I know of all the things I do in my life, the most important will be how I love Kirsten and Eveline. There is no higher aim, for me, than to become the father I never had, and the kind of husband I never saw. Hopefully Eveline will know in the depth of her being that she is loved unconditionally. And will pass that love on to her children, and they onto theirs, and so on and so on until that love is the only remaining vestige of our brief but meaningful lives.”
I leave you with a question to reflect upon, and to give yourself feedback on:
Of all that I know, of all the things that I do in my life, what will the most important thing be?
Today’s featured book is: For The Love Of Money by Sam Polk
Today’s story was featured in my book: How To Build Your WorkLife Around What Engages And Inspires You, from The School Of WorkLife book series.
The story was inspired by Jacqueline Novogratz, author and CEO of Acumen.
WorkLife Book Wisdom Stories:
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their WorkLife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their WorkLife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their WorkLife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
If you enjoyed this, please hit the *Clap* 👏 button as many times as you wish.
What’s Good For Many People, Isn’t Good For All People. Freedom of Choice Gives People Their Best Way of Doing What They Want and Need to Do
Photo by Vidar Nordii-Mathisen on Unsplash
This Is The Way It’s Always Been Done … are people’s stories of when they wanted to do things differently, not necessarily because they thought there was anything wrong with the way things had always been done, but because they wanted to try new and different ways of doing things, because they believed there are new and different ways of doing things.
They believed that the way of always doing things, while good for many people and situations isn’t necessarily good for all people or all situations. They believed in exploring and trying out new ways of doing things, and importantly they believed in choice. They believed in the freedom of choice to give people their best way of doing what they wanted and needed to do.
This Is The Way It’s Always Been Done: A Case Study:
I was in the queue for Richard II tickets at the Barbican London. The show starring David Tennant was completely sold-out, but as with many London theatres they hold back a small number of seats for on the day performances. People join the queue early, in the hope of successfully being able to buy a ticket. It’s actually a really good experience, because you get chatting to people who share an interest with you — anyone who’s willing to get up early to queue for theatre tickets has a love of theatre. Somebody will usually do a coffee run, and if you are successful in getting a ticket, you’ll be on first name terms with people in your row of seats.
Meg, the girl next to me, was Canadian. She was a teacher and had a love of both Shakespeare and David Tenant. My nephew Trevor, who has moved to Canada, had just shared a photo of his six-year old daughter, Jodi, who had received an award at school for reading her first one hundred books. I thought this was a pretty amazing achievement for Jodi, and a great way to encourage children to read. I shared this story and my thinking with Meg.
She had a different take on it. She said yes it’s really encouraging for children who love to learn through reading, but it actually discriminates against children who love to learn in other ways.
For example, she said a lot of children in Canada loved the outdoors and loved learning through nature, others loved singing, dancing and music and loved learning through the arts. She said while these were considered to be good, children weren’t recognised and rewarded in the same way for learning through nature and the arts, as they were for learning through reading. She said she felt there was a bias in favour of reading being the best way to learn, and as a result there was more recognition and reward for children who read more.
She had broached this with her school board, and she was told: “This is the way it’s always been done. Reading has always been an integral part of a child’s education, and their learning process, it should be recognised and rewarded.” She said her argument wasn’t that it shouldn’t be rewarded, but that other ways of learning should be rewarded in the same way. She really objected to the thinking or reasoning: “This is the way it’s always been done.” But she said her argument fell on deaf ears.
In a previous story: Knowing When To Say No More, I’ve Had Enough, It’s Time To Call It Quits, I shared some of the trials and tribulations Mo experienced as a volunteer at a non-profit organisation from his fellow committee members. The words: “This is the way it’s always been done,” can be added to what Mo had to endure.
Mo felt as a committee they were out of touch with what people attending the events they ran wanted. But when he tried to raise it, he was immediately shot down with the words: “This is the way it’s always been done. People know what to expect and that’s what we give them. There’s nothing wrong with that, it works just fine, people are fine with the way it’s always been done”
Mo’s argument wasn’t that there was anything wrong with what they were doing, or that there weren’t people who came because they knew what to expect, and that there were people who were fine with his. His point was that they could offer more of the same for the people who wanted that, and they could also offer something different for people who wanted that.
His belief was that the customer, or the member in this case, will always show you what’s next. Because he felt the committee were out of touch with what many of their members wanted, he began talking directly to the members, simply asking what they would like to see more or less of. He knew he would find the answers this way.
The majority of members did want something else, they did want something different. Mo shared the information he’d gathered with the rest of the committee, letting them know that there was more demand for new and different courses than the courses they had created and were offering. He said we’re trying to sell them something, but they want something else, they want something different. He was met with the response: “But that’s not our business goals.” He replied: “But we’re getting lots of enquires, maybe we need to expand our business goals.” The reply he received: “This is the way it’s always been done.” His argument had fallen on deaf ears.
Book Wisdom
In the book Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin, Martin throws the idea of: “This Is The Way It’s Always Been Done” on its head. He says: “With conventional joke telling, there’s a moment when the comedian delivers their punchline. What bothered me was the nature of the laugh it inspired, a vocal acknowledgement that a joke had been told, like automatic applause at the end of a song. A skilful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic or a slight body shift.” He noticed that even with unintelligible punch lines, audiences would laugh at nothing but the cue of a hand slap.”
“These notions stayed with me for months, until they formed an idea that revolutionised my comic direction: What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anti-climax? If I kept denying them the formality of a punchline, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh.”
He tested it out and it worked. People were falling around the place laughing, they were laughing their heads off, they were crying from laughter. Afterwards when these people were asked what was funny, they weren’t able to say exactly what it was, they simply said: “You had to be there.”
Now the punchline hasn’t gone away, and I expect we’ve all laughed at a good punchline. I expect there have also been times when we’ve all used the expression: “You had to be there” when something was really funny but we couldn’t explain exactly what it was.
Words of Wisdom
The great thing about exploring and trying out new ways of doing things, is that it gives us choice. It’s not about the way it’s always been done being wrong, no more than it’s about always doing things differently being right. It’s simply about what’s best for any one of us at any given time.
Sage Wisdom
What’s good for many people and situations, isn’t good for all people or all situations. Freedom of choice gives people their best way of doing what they want and need to do.
Reflect on the following questions through self-feedback to know what’s best for you:
Is this known and proven way the best way for me in this moment and situation?
If yes, great. If no, ask yourself:
What do I need to do differently to find the best way for me in this moment and situation?
Remember whenever you have a question or a problem, you also have the answer or solution within you. Remember also the power of What If? questions. If they can turn comedy on its head, imagine what they can do for you in finding your best way.
Epilogue
Meg and I were both successful in getting a ticket to see Richard II that evening. The history play by William Shakespeare was believed to have been written in approximately 1595.
I expect since then it’s been performed on stages throughout the world hundreds or more likely thousands of times. Each and every time I know that every single actor who has played this role will have played it differently, and every single director will have directed it differently. This is because actors and directors will always look for something new to bring to the role, and to the play.
They never come to a role or a play thinking this is the way it’s always been done, so this is the only way it can be done. Instead they look for nuances that will allow them to bring something new and different to the role and to the play. That’s not because there was anything wrong with how it was done before, it’s just that they believe that there’s always something new to learn and discover from a personal perspective. This is something that is encouraged within the arts, something that is recognised and rewarded.
Today’s Featured Book is: Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin
WorkLife Book Wisdom Stories:
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their WorkLife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their WorkLife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their WorkLife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
If you enjoyed this, please hit the *Clap* 👏 button as many times as you wish.
The Hardest Thing About Growing In Your Worklife Is That No-One Is There to Tell You What to Do Next, You Have to Decide That for Yourself
Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash
Knowing when to say no more, I’ve had enough and calling it quits can be one of the hardest things you’ll do in your WorkLife. As a volunteer, an employee, or a business owner. You put so much time, energy and maybe even money into doing something, that you want to do everything to make it work. But that thing that doesn’t work ends up draining so much of your time, energy and maybe even money, and you look back and you think you should have cut it off sooner, but at the time you say to yourself: “I’m going to push through with all my grit,” and then somehow it doesn’t quite land. It takes guts to be able to say I decide not to do this, as opposed to I decided to keep pushing this along.
Knowing When to Say No More I’ve Had Enough And Calling It Quits: A Case Study:
Mo had become a volunteer at a non-profit organisation that ran coaching and training events designed to help people develop skills needed in the workplace. This ranged from soft skills training to include communication skills to technical skills, which included IT skills.
Mo had become a volunteer because he was someone who always liked to give, and to help others. His area of work is IT, and his intention was to freely give his time, sharing his expertise, knowledge and skills. In return, he hoped to meet really good people and to build his network.
This was important to him, because he’d recently moved from Pakistan to London for work. He had good work colleagues, but he wanted to meet people outside of his workplace too, and he thought the best way to do this was by becoming a volunteer. He also believed he could develop new skills by helping to organise the events.
This is not something he had ever done before, and he was willing to do whatever was needed of him. All of this honoured his values of giving and helping, meeting new people, and learning new skills.
The events were organised by a committee. Including Mo there were twelve members. They ran one or two events each month, and they met monthly to plan and prepare for these. The members were very different.
Some were somewhat welcoming to Mo, others were completely unwelcoming. There was no onboarding, and Mo wasn’t really sure what was expected of him. He wanted to do as much as he could, but he didn’t want to come across as too pushy. So, he put himself forward to do the things that no-one else was volunteering to do, while at the same time, observing how things seemed to operate.
Every meeting was really heated, with people arguing right, left and centre. There was very little consensus between the group. At the first meeting, Mo had somehow found himself in charge of communications. He soon discovered that this was because no-one else wanted to do it, and he very quickly came to realise why: people didn’t read or respond to communications. It was a complete shambles and no-one ever seemed to know what was going on.
It was the same at the events, nobody ever seemed to know who would be there to help out, resulting in either all twelve of the committee turning up or it just being one person. Even though it was agreed at every meeting that there needed to be three or four people helping out at each event, and people would promise to communicate their availability, this never happened, because people simply didn’t read or respond to emails. Yet they said emails were their preferred choice of communication, and objected to phone calls, texts or any other kind of communication platforms, because they said that would be too intrusive on their time.
Mo found the people who attended the events were always really lovely, but there just was never very many people turning up. This was because the events weren’t marketed very well.
Mo suggested setting up social media platforms by way of promoting the events, along with email campaigns, as they had email addresses for all members. He also suggested starting a newsletter by way of keeping members informed. Some of the members thought this was a good idea, others were a bit wary of it, questioning how much work this would involve for them. Mo said it was something that he could do, using his technical abilities. There was an immediate sigh of relief in the room, and a general consensus that if Mo would do it, then that was fine.
Mo asked if the other members could help with writing a brief description of the upcoming events, and get it to him to circulate. There was an immediate sense of drained energy in the room, as people mumbled that they’d get back to him, and let him know what they could do. Mo knew immediately this wouldn’t be forthcoming, and he was right.
These are just a few of the things to demonstrate the dysfunction of the committee. Although draining, it didn’t deter Mo, he really enjoyed the events, some of which he facilitated by way of sharing his expertise, knowledge and skills, and others which he helped out on, doing whatever was required of him — set-up, meet and greet, connecting people etc.
He enjoyed the various marketing campaigns he managed by way of communicating the events to members. He was honouring his values of giving and helping, meeting new people, and learning new skills.
It wasn’t long before his good work became noticed by the governing board of the non-profit. They had begun to receive great feedback from members about the events, and how great the new communication channels were in keeping them informed. Mo’s name would be mentioned time and time again, because of how giving and helpful he always was — at the events he ran and helped out on, and in his communication.
This led to Mo receiving a special achievement award in recognition of his good work at the Annual General Meeting. Mo wasn’t expecting it, he wasn’t even aware that such an award existed. He was really humbled and pleased to have been recognised.
But he soon came to wish he hadn’t been singled out, as he met with immediate resentment from his committee members, who were quite loud in saying: “Why is he getting an award? What had he done that none of the rest of us have done? He’s only been on the committee for a year, some of us have been on it for twenty years, we’ve never been given an award for anything we’ve done. What makes him so special?”
And it got much worse. Any new ideas he put forward for events or connecting with their members were shot down immediately. He didn’t think it was possible, but the meetings became even more draining. And the events that he had really enjoyed became less enjoyable. The committee decided he had run too many events, and he needed to give other people a turn.
The problem was no-one else wanted to run events, which meant there were less events. It was the same for the events that he wanted to help out on. He was told that he was always muscling in to help, and he needed to give other people a chance to help out. Again, the problem was that no-one else wanted to help out, which meant there wouldn’t be enough people on hand to do what was needed to be done — set-up, meet and greet and connecting people.
The members suffered as a result and they expressed that in their feedback. Mo no longer wanted to communicate these events to the members, because he was embarrassed by the lack of events now being run, and the disorganisation of the events that did actually run.
All of this was having a negative impact on Mo’s WorkLife. It was draining, demotivating and de-energising. He didn’t want to say no more, I’ve had enough and to call it quits, but for his own wellbeing he knew he needed to.
Mo was feeling really emotional about everything and because of this he wanted to be sure that his emotions weren’t clouding his judgement. To do this he considered how he could ensure his decision was rational.
He asked himself:
What is wrong that is making me want to leave?
Reflecting on this question, the self-feedback he received was:
There’s a temperament gap. They’re not treating me with respect. Respect is an important value to me, this is not being honoured.
There’s a quality gap. I want to do work that is high quality, that is helpful and valuable to our members. They want to push out work that is cheap, dumb and insulting to our members.
There’s a reputation gap. I don’t want to be associated with what they do or how they do it.
Sage Wisdom
The hardest thing about growing in your WorkLife is that no-one is there to tell you what to do next, you have to decide that for yourself. Whenever you get stuck with knowing what to do or where to go next, turn to your inner sage wisdom in the knowledge that whatever question you have, or problem you’re facing, you have the answer and the solution within you. Your inner sage will guide you and show you what to do next.
Words of Wisdom
‘Suffering Is Optional.” Haruki Murakami
Book Wisdom
Mo remembered these words from the introduction to the book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.
Running was something that helped Mo to switch his mind off when he faced difficulties in his WorkLife. There was a time when the situation he’d just experienced would have impacted his emotional wellbeing and would have caused him to suffer. He hadn’t been running since he’d arrived in London and he knew he needed to get back to it for both his emotional and physical well-being.
The book is quite like a memoir of writing and running. Murakami said, each time he wrote he’d ask himself: “What’s on my mind right now?” Mo modelled this each time he went for a run, and he also used the same question in journalling, a daily practice he did alongside running. Together the practice of running and journalling had also become a memoir for Mo. These combined actions had allowed Murakami to sort out what kind of life he wanted to lead. It did the same for Mo
Epilogue
All of this allowed Mo to know it was time to say, no more, I’ve had enough, and to call it quits: and he resigned from the committee. As he instinctively knew, getting back to running and journalling was exactly what he needed to do, to ensure he didn’t suffer emotionally from his experience.
He loved everything that this gave him, most importantly a calm sense of being and a clear mind. He enjoyed the solitude of running alone, but he also now had time on his hands. He still wanted to connect with new people, and so he joined a local running group.
This was an amazing experience. He met really good and interesting people. People who showed an interest in him and his work. This led to him being invited to community events to share his expertise, knowledge and skills. He worked with groups that varied from young people applying to college, to return to work mums, to people living in the community retirement home — all of whom greatly appreciated and valued Mo’s giving and helping nature.
He also became involved in his community choir. He’d never really sung before, so this was a new skill he was developing. He had happily returned to a place where he was honouring his values of giving and helping, meeting new people, and learning new skills.
Most importantly he was among people where there was mutual respect and appreciation for each other. He’d gotten here by saying, no more, I’ve had enough, and calling it quits.
Today’s Book of the Blog is: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.
Today’s story was featured in my book: How To Use Your Voice To Express and Protect Your Identity from The School Of WorkLife book series.
WorkLife Book Wisdom Stories:
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their WorkLife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their WorkLife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their WorkLife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
If you enjoyed this, please hit the *Clap* 👏 button as many times as you wish.
Change vs Constant The Argument in Favour of Constant:
Jeff Bezos said: “I very frequently get the question: What’s going to change in the next 10 years? And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one. I almost never get the question: What’s not going to change in the next 10 years? And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two — because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.”
Change vs Constant The Argument In Favour of Change:
In his talk about Finding Your Purpose, Tim Cook said: “As you go out into the world, don’t waste time on problems that have been solved, don’t get hung up on what other people say is practical. Instead, steer your ship into the choppy seas. Look for the rough spots, the problems that seem too big, the complexities that other people are content to work around. It’s in those places that you will find your purpose.”
Change vs Constant The Argument in Favour of Both: A Case Study:
Thestory that lead to the:
Book Wisdom
Of The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen
My first introduction to Steven Raichlen was as a man who is half historian and half chef. This is his story of how he earned that description, which I’ve adapted from his interview on the Big Questions podcast with Cal Fussman
in 1975, Steven Raichlen earned a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from Reed College. He received a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship to study medieval cooking in Europe, and was offered a Fulbright Scholarship to study comparative literature. He trained at Le Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools in Paris.
Raichlen said the beauty of the Watson Fellowships is that they can’t be academic: so he couldn’t’ say he was going off to Oxford to study medieval literature, instead he proposed to study medieval cooking in Europe. This was because he had written his thesis on a medieval poet, and he was into all things Middle Ages. When he was researching the poet, he found a medieval cookbook and thought that it was amazing people were handwriting recipes in cookbooks six-hundred years ago.
Each year the Watson Foundation looks for someone that burns with a passion, who has enough street smart and worldly wiseness to make it happen. He was given $7000 to eat and drink his way through Europe — in 1975 that was a lot of bucks. And so off he went to study medieval cookbooks in all the great libraries of Europe.
The language in the books would say: “Add a bit of this and a bit of that”, but he wasn’t sure how much of this and how much of that. So he figured he needed to go to cooking school and learn the grammar and vocabulary of cooking.
He enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools in Paris. He said to him cooking is a language and vocabulary needed grammar, and that was how he learnt what he needed to know; and with that he was able to go back to the medieval recipes and figure out how the stuff went together.
On his return to the US, he went on to become a food writer and a restaurant critic. It was, he said, a continuing education. Every time he went out, he learnt about food.
During his restaurant reviewing years he developed a cholesterol problem, so he developed a style of cooking that was low in fat. He said the barbecue idea just came to him, and that grilling is one of the oldest and most universal cooking methods; but that everywhere you go, in every country it’s done differently. And so he thought: “wouldn’t it be cool to travel around the world and document those differences.” His work eventually became the book: The Barbecue Bible.
Book Wisdom
The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen is big and it’s filled with recipes from all over the world, and that’s where the wisdom comes in. It takes you, your taste buds and your mind to different places, all the time nurturing your curiosity.
To give you a flavour of what to expect:
“… On the end of a barely inhabited island located a few miles off the Côte d’Azur. The lle de Porquerolles is where to go to escape the crowds and traffic of the Riviera. Immortalised by the mystery writer Georges Simenon …”
“… I’d heard that Sunda Kelapa was one of the best restaurants in Jakarta, but I would never have guessed it by the neighbourhood. The ride there took me through a dilapidated stretch of the port section of Batavia, past derelict warehouses, down trash-strewn streets lined with shanties …”
“… Duckling a l’orange … the traditional preparation calls for oranges, but I also like the exotic flavour you get with tangerines…”
Words of Wisdom
He became dedicated to one subject that he became a master in, devoting his whole life to barbecue, and to spreading all of his knowledge. He said that he writes recipes because that’s what sells the books, but that what really interests him is the history, the anthropology, the culture behind the food.
Sage Wisdom
“Some critics say they go into a restaurant with the thinking: prove to me that you’re not a terrible restaurant. I go in cup half full, my thinking is: I’m here, I’m excited, show me what you can do.” Steven Raichlen
Epilogue
Raichlen said he’s a big believer in lists, and so on posing the question to himself, “what else do I want to do with barbecue,” the self-feedback that came to him was:
He needed a website — check out stevenraichlen .com for recipes and programmes;
He could do a TV show — he’s done a few now, including: Barbecue University, Primal Grill and Project Smoke;
He could publish his work internationally — his books have been translated into 17 languages;
He could create products — you can check those out on his website;
He could speak about his work — he says he gets sent to nice places all around the world to speak;
He could start an international barbecue community — He’s the founder of Barbecue University, which offers courses on live fire cooking;
He could write more books — He’s written quite a few by now.
Eventually all of this became a business. He says: “the beauty about barbecue is that it’s a subject that is very broad and very deep and you can instantly form a bond with people over barbecue.”
As a man who is half historian and half chef, Raichlen recognises and appreciates what is good about ‘constant’ and ‘change’. His story demonstrates the argument in favour of both.
Today’s featured book is: The Barbecue Bible By Steven Raichlen
WorkLife Book Wisdom Stories:
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their WorkLife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their WorkLife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their WorkLife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
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Evolving Careers Players 