It Was The Worst Of Times And Then It Got Even Worse, But It Did In Time Get Better

Is It Ever Too Late Or Too Difficult For Your Next Work Life Chapter?

Photo by Lachlan Ross from Pexels

One year ago I wrote this:

We’re living in very difficult times right now, with countries throughout the world introducing the toughest measures affecting how we go about our daily lives, ever seen in peacetime. We’re anxious and fearful for vulnerable loved ones. Almost overnight our lives have slowed down dramatically, nearly to the point of standstill.

We’ve all become more observant of what’s happening around us. Through the stories being shared we have learnt we need to take Covid-19 seriously, and that we need to take responsibility for our own behaviour, because we’re all key players in fighting this as an army of individuals.

Through our observation and the stories being shared we have also learnt about the greatness of humanity through the care and kindness being shown towards fellow human beings. And through our observation and the stories being shared we are also seeing hope and recovery.

It is the worst of times, and it will get even worse, but it will also in time get better. And when this time comes, we’ll need to focus on our next WorkLife chapters, for now we can use this present time to learn through observation to help guide us in knowing what we want the next chapters of our WorkLife to be.

I had revisited and revised a blog post I wrote some years ago, based on the TV series The Waltons, which I included in my book Your WorkLife Your Way. The chapter is titled:

Is It Ever Too Late Or Too Difficult For Your Next WorkLife Chapter?

I’ll begin with a little:

Book Wisdom

The book Good Night John-Boy by Earl Hamner & Ralph Giffin. A celebration of an American family and the values that have sustained us through good times and bad.

The book includes a description of each episode of the TV series, which combined wonderful stories and “teachable moments” in which adults and children alike learned the importance of honesty, hard work, respect, responsibility, self-sacrifice, kindness, compassion and humility. As is true in most families, the Waltons faced many challenges, occasionally stumbled along the way, but they struggled to live their lives within the framework of the values they believed and taught.

The book introduces readers to the Hamner family members who later became characters on The Waltons. Richard Thomas who played John-Boy said: “It’s significant that the Waltons celebrated familism and healing during the tough times of the Great Depression.”

The Story Of The Waltons In The Most Difficult Of Times. Is It Ever Too Late Or Too Difficult For Your Next WorkLife Chapter? Case Study:

There have been many difficult times throughout history, perhaps none more so than the Great Depression followed closely by WWII. The Waltons TV series set during these times demonstrated how the family navigated their WorkLives during these difficult times.

When The Waltons first came to our screens it was set in the time of the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce, companies were closing down, and people needed to be creative in their thinking when it came to finding themselves a job or set up in business. Not so different to how it is now, really.

Then the storyline moved to World War II, which deeply affected the family. Their WorkLives became very different. It forced them to put aspects of their WorkLives aside or on hold. They had to diversify in line with the demands of the time. It was also formative in charting their immediate and pursuing WorkLife chapters.

What might have made it even more difficult for the Waltons was that they lived in a very small community, and so perhaps there wasn’t a lot of scope for enterprise. However when they did venture further afield to the bigger towns, there may have been more opportunities, but there was also more competition, again not so different to how things are now.

And yet they all managed to find work when they needed to. They were quite inventive about it really and managed to utilise, embrace and nurture their unique talents, skills and attributes, whether that was in their small community or when up against the competition in the bigger towns and cities.

The grandparents and parents instilled strong values in the children, along with a strong belief that they could achieve their heart’s desire. They recognised and encouraged the unique talents, skills and attributes within each child and gave them a supportive push in striving towards their goals.

They didn’t have the financial capacity to fund their education, but the belief they instilled in each child provided a greater capability to achieve the WorkLife they aspired to, far more than funding their education would ever have done. Each one worked hard for what they wanted, which resulted in even greater appreciation and gratification. I think the old adage of “give a man a fish and he’ll eat well today, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat well for the rest of his life” is appropriate here.

The grandparents, parents and in turn the siblings were a great support to each other along their WorkLife journeys. They were, I think, both mentors and mentees at various stages as they all supported each other in their learning, growth and development. As much as we’ve evolved since the time of the great depression, and WWII, and organisations are becoming more international and global, many things remain the same.

We all have the capacity to be both mentors and mentees, to share our knowledge, wisdom and expertise, along with our kindness, compassion and humility; and even among the international and global organisations there is space for the values and beliefs demonstrated in the Walton family. Simple perhaps, but as I think many of us have come to realise in an increasingly complex world ‘simplicity’ is becoming a key value.

Earl Hamner Jr. based the characters in The Waltons off his own family.

John-Boy: From a young boy he had a passion to become a writer, and began by recording his thoughts about his family, friends and circumstances, writing stories in a journal. He wrote and published his community and college newspaper. On graduating he moved to New York to fulfil his dream of becoming an author. After the attack on Pearl Harbour he enlisted in the military and wrote as a war correspondent for the U.S. Army’s newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war ended, he returned to New York and turned his attention to reporting news. He went on to become a novelist.

Jason: Enjoyed composing music for harmonica, guitar and piano. He attended the Kleinberg Conservatory of Music. He joined the National Guard, and during the war became a sergeant in the army. He landed a job playing honkytonk piano at a local tavern, which he later came to own.

Mary Ellen: Followed her ambition to go into medicine, gained an education as a medical worker and became a nurse. Ending up taking care of people out in the country by herself, she concluded they needed more medical expertise than she could offer, and so she continued studying medicine until she succeeded in becoming a doctor.

Ben: Had an entrepreneurial spirit and embarked on various schemes, some more successful than others. He too fought in the war and was taken prisoner by the Japanese. Between times he ran the family sawmill in partnership with his father.

Erin: Worked as a telephone operator while finishing school. She struggled to find her place, as she wasn’t an academic like John-Boy, or musical like Jason, interested in medicine like Mary-Ellen, or entrepreneurial like Ben. She took a part-time job at a business college. When the owner saw her helping out at the unattended front desk answering and assisting callers, he allowed her to work her way through the business school. She went on to become an executive secretary, then personnel manager, going on to become the plant’s assistant manager. Later in life she earned a teaching certificate, leading her to become a school principal.

Jim-Bob: Was fascinated by aeroplanes and aspired to become a pilot. However increasingly poor eyesight forced him to give up this dream. He went on to become a mechanic and opened his own business.

Elizabeth: Had an inquisitive mind and a talent for writing. She joined the Peace Corp. A free spirit, she struggled to settle down and travelled the globe looking for adventure.

Like the Waltons, we will come through this difficult time, not unscathed, not without sadness and not without loss, but hopefully with a strong resolve to appreciate the simple things in life: spending time with family and friends; being involved in our local communities; passing the time of day with strangers; walking in the great outdoors; appreciating the beauty of what’s around us; and everything good that remains with us.

Sage Wisdom

1. Remember you will get through this, and things will be alright again. No matter how difficult and uncertain everything is right now, darkness never prevails;
2. Be kind, look out for each other. You won’t be the only one worried. Talking will help, sharing will help. Look out for your friends, your neighbours, people you hardly know, family, because in the end we’re all family;
3. Stay strong, stay positive, you’ve got this.

During this enforced active WorkLife pause be open to experiences that require deeper thinking, let this guide your self-feedback to learning what you need to learn, and to knowing what you can do with the learning you already have within you, in a new and different context. Being observant will allow you to know what to do next to make the most of this WorkLife experience. Ask yourself:

What do I already know that I can adapt to this WorkLife experience?

What parts of this WorkLife experience are best suited to teach me what I want and need to learn?

Words of Wisdom

You are the author of your WorkLife story. This is not the end, it’s just the beginning.

One year on: I’m struggling to know what to add. I’m thankful that I and those close to me have come through it safely, but yet I’m anxious in writing that, I feel we’re not out of the woods yet, and I don’t want to tempt fate. So, for now, I don’t have anything to add … for now …

Instead, I leave you with the same poem from last year, which still feels relevant.

Epilogue

I leave you today with a poem by Laura Ding-Edwards

It feels like things are not ok

And this “thing” will never go away

Like all around is caving in

And no-one knows where to begin

What-ifs and fears are on the rise

And nobody’s able to disguise

The sadness of this sudden change

To life, routine; it’s very strange

But sit a moment with that thought

Forget the things that you’ve been taught

For a while there’s no rat race

A slower life put in its place

We suddenly have the space to stop

Appreciate the things we’ve got

The cusp of spring still breaks its sleep

Our birds return to trill & cheep

And hope and kindness start to bloom

And we find ways to life the gloom

And so in this uncertain time

Take stock, reflect and redefine

Keep in mind it’s not forever

We’ll make it through with love, together

Today’s featured book is: Good Night John-Boy by Earl Hamner & Ralph Giffin.

The story has been adapted from chapter 26 of Your WorkLife Your Way Is It Ever Too Late Or Too Difficult for Your Next WorkLife Chapter.

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.

Three Things I’m Taking From This Last Year and Bringing Forward: Daily Writing, Learning, Walking

I’m Going to Miss This Year We Had Off. I Enjoyed the Solitude and Having Time to Focus on Doing the Things I Really Wanted to Do

Photo by Social Cut on Unsplash

I love when I discover snippets of wisdom as I go about my daily WorkLife. I was listening to Don McLean, who was a guest on Cal Fussman’s podcast: Big Questions, when he mentioned: ’The Flexible Mind Concept’ He said: “Having a flexible mind is what makes a person happy, and is the difference between a happy and an unhappy person.”

He went on to say he could have spent all year bitching about the fact that he wasn’t on tour, but he didn’t. Instead, he said: “OK, this is going to last a long time, so I’m going to forget about touring; I’ve got things I really want to do, so I’ll focus on those instead.”

I really related to that. I had published my first book: Your WorkLife Your Way: Make Your WorkLife Work For You, in December 2019 and the accompanying workbook in February 2020. I created workshops on each of the chapters in the book, and I launched events to run these workshops, which I subsequently had to cancel when the pandemic hit, along with the talks, I had planned to promote my book.

Now I could have rushed to get on the online learning bandwagon and turn each chapter’s live workshop into an online workshop, but I didn’t. Instead, I focused on offline learning. I focused on writing stories. That’s because telling people’s powerful WorkLife stories of their challenges and successes are at the core of my work. 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.

As a WorkLife Learning Practitioner, I’ve helped many people through times of change and uncertainty brought about in the past by economic downturns. I never cease to be amazed how resilient people are in times of adversity. These are the stories I’ve always captured, and during this time of great uncertainty brought about by the pandemic, these are the stories I continued to capture.

Difficult times, situations and circumstances are where real learning takes place. This is where people surprise themselves when they discover how capable they are to come through what life has thrown at them through sheer grit and determination. This is where people realise they have so much within themselves to enable whatever is needed to happen to take place. This is where people have the realisation they need to have a flexible mindset to do what is needed to be done, to push through difficult times, situations and circumstances.

These are the stories that inspire so many more people to adopt a flexible mindset, to recognise and take ownership of their resilience and their abilities to do what is needed to survive times of great uncertainty and to come through with a renewed sense of belief in themselves.

So instead of jumping on the online learning bandwagon, I stopped where I was, and I began capturing people’s present-day stories of what they were doing to survive in these times of uncertainty. And I also went to the past to uncover what people did when they had faced times of uncertainty. In capturing these stories, I wrote them down, and I began sharing them.

Don McLean said: “I thought what can I do to write a beautiful song that someone would love and enjoy, rather than tell my troubles to everyone. I’m a performer; my job is, no matter how bad I feel, is to go out there and deliver the show to make people feel happy, turn them on, make them cry, whatever, get ideas out there.” Unknowingly I had followed the same practice. I had immediately begun writing down, then sharing the stories I had captured. I, too, had worked to get ideas out there.

As well as spending my days learning and writing, I was also walking. Walking is something I love, and when I’m learning and writing, walking really helps me to make sense of things, it helps me to have ideas, it helps me to allow those ideas to percolate, it helps me to have realisations, it helps me to connect things, it helps me to put things in perspective. Walking helps me in so many ways — my thinking and my mental wellbeing, as well as my physical wellbeing.

Now, all that said, I did have a period during lockdown where I wasn’t walking. I was so engaged in my learning and writing that I stopped making time for walking. I share how I got back to walking in my story:

Do You Believe in Signs That Can Save You From Yourself? I Do.

So, as lockdown restrictions are being lifted in the UK, and we’re able to do more with more people, I’m finding that I’m not rushing to get back to anything that remotely represents the hustle and bustle of everyday London life. If anything, I’m resisting it strongly.

Because I’ve enjoyed this time, I’ve had off. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent learning, writing and walking. I will slowly get back to life that will be somewhat representative of life before the pandemic, and when I do, the three things I’m going to take from this last year and bring forward are: Daily writing, learning and walking. Oh, and a flexible mindset too.

As Don McLean said of The Flexible Mind Concept when Cal Fussman asked him what would he say to people who maybe don’t think they practice this. He said: “You’ve had this experience, and now this is going forward, and you say what am I going to do with this week, and you say I’m going to learn something, I’m going to learn at least one thing every day.” He went on to say he learns lots of new things every day.

So do I.

Do you?

I leave you today with three questions:

What are some of the things that you learn as you go about your everyday WorkLife?

What has your experience of The Flexible Mind Concept been over the last year?

What are the things you’re going to take from this last year and bring forward?

If you enjoyed this, please hit the *Clap* 👏 button as many times as you wish.

How to Use Poetry to Communicate In a Way That Connects With Your Audience

Poetry Connects With Your Voice Because It Connects Your Head to Your Heart. This Is Key to Connecting With Your Audience

Photo by Alvaro Serrano on Unsplash

Poetry is a unique and dynamic way of getting back to the vocal pathway of instinctive expression through simple, practical actions that can empower you with the ability to communicate in a way that connects with your audience. Great communicators have always known the elemental role of communicating is connecting with their audience.

But are great communicators born with those inherent skills, or is it necessary to practice and develop techniques? The age-old nature versus nurture argument around trusting nature and acting by instinct as opposed to precision techniques and clear understanding to liberate hidden possibilities to learn the hard task of being true to the instinct of the moment.

The late Cicely Berry (renowned for her work as voice coach and director of the RSC) based her work on the conviction that while all is present in nature, our natural instincts have been crippled from birth by many external influences and society at large. She said: “That while there is no one right way to speak, there are a million wrong ways that constipate feeling, constrict activity, blunt expression, level out idiosyncrasy, generalise experience, and coarsen intimacy.”

So the work is about setting the voice free because life in the voice springs from emotion, and speaking is part of a whole: an expression of inner life and awakening deep experiences which are seldom evoked in everyday speech.

The voice is the means by which, in everyday life, you communicate, and through, of course, how you present yourself — while your posture, movement, dress and involuntary gesture — gives an impression of your personality, it is your voice, and the words you use that convey your precise thoughts and feelings.

Poetry in voice is an exciting way to explore moods in tone and voice to tell an emotional story and build confidence to speak in a way that connects more deeply with your audience. Poetry presents a wide range of learning opportunities to include:

Offering examples of mastery of language and stocking the mind with images and ideas expressed in unforgettable words and phrases;

Training and developing emotional intelligence;

Reminding us that language is holistic and that how something is said is part of what is being said: the literal meaning of words is only part of their whole meaning, which is also expressed through tone of voice, inflection, rhythm.

An Assignment To Help You Understand Poetry and the Poet:

1. Find passages in poems that you find striking or memorable;

2. Research when the poet wrote the poem and under what circumstances;

3. Read the poem over and over; this will help you to see more in the poem than you did at first reading;

4. Try to feel the emotions behind the poem: sad, happy, exciting, anxious etc. let it sink in your mind and your heart;

5. Try reading the poem from the poet’s eye and try to pick out key lines that express the poet’s message that they’re trying to get across and put yourself in their shoes.

A wonderful example is this short excerpt from The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde in which he poignantly contrasts the beauty and appreciation of everyday life and activities in the face of looming death:

“I never saw sad men who looked

With such a wistful eye

Upon that little tent of blue

We prisoners called the sky,

And at every careless cloud that passed

In happy freedom by.” The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde.

An Assignment To Help You Understand How You Can Use The Principles of Poetry in your Communication To Connect With Your Audience

1. Consider what mood is evoked in the poem that you find striking or memorable;

2. Consider how this is accomplished;

3. Consider the ways in which not only the meaning of words but also their sound and the poem’s rhythms help to create its mood:

4. Imagine situations in which those passages might be put to use, whether to console, encourage, taunt, flatter, or otherwise make an impact on the listener;

5. Write a short story, letter, or talk in which at least three passages can be quoted effectively to move another character or the listener/recipient;

6. Speak the words aloud, listen to the sound, like music, feel the rhythm and flow.

Remember, poetry is meant to talk about heart and feeling and uses language in an unusual way and may use unusual words. Savour this.

Poetry goes further than connecting with your voice because it connects your head to your heart. It’s a unique and dynamic way of getting back to the vocal pathway of instinctive expression through simple, practical actions that can empower you with the ability to communicate in a way that resonates with your audience.

Thoughts and lessons in this story have been adapted from and inspired by the work of Cecily Berry and Living Poetry /Poetry in Voice.

If you enjoyed this, please hit the *Clap* 👏 button as many times as you wish.

My Top Three Isolation Inspirations

How I Spent Lockdown, and How I Was Inspired In Isolation

Image supplied by author

In deciding what I was going to do in the strange time of lockdown and isolation I asked myself: How can I make the most of this time? The self-feedback I received in answer was that I wanted to do the following three things — which are actually six things, because well that’s what came to me, because they all seemed like good ideas, because they’re things I can combine, and because I can.

My Top Three Isolation Inspirations

1. READING/WATCHING TV

Embracing being at home and indulging in pure unadulterated me time, to my absolute delight I discovered all thirty-four of the previously screened episodes of Inspector Montalbano were available on iPlayer. I’m a huge fan, so of course I decided to work my way through them — there is a little work involved as it’s in Italian with English subtitles. As I’d watched them before I wanted to create a sense of purpose around re-watching them, and so I decided I’d read each book first, then watch the episode.

My reasoning behind this was two-fold:

1. I want to read more fiction, and mysteries are a life-long favourite genre. Beginning from a young age with Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven books, then moving on to Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple detective novels, and many, many more in-between.
2. I have an idea for a mystery book, but I have no idea how to go about writing it, and so I’m setting out to learn just that, and what better way to do it than by embracing my love of literature and film/tv.

2. LANGUAGE LEARNING/EXERCISING AT HOME

Before the pandemic hit, I’d planned a road-trip around Ireland along with exploring France by train. While this of course has to go on hold, I thought I could still prepare, and as this is something I could multi-task on, I thought the best combination would be with home-exercise. So, I got my Michel Thomas Irish and French Language CDs, along with my Jane Fonda and Callanetics DVDs off the shelf, dusted them off, put on my leg-warmers and got going.

Image supplied by author

3. PHOTOGRAPHY/WALKING

I decided I’d use this time to learn how to take better photographs. This is simply because I love photographs, but I’ve never been very good at taking them. This seemed like the perfect time to try out my new iPhone that I’d bought because of the camera function, which was reportedly good for both photos and videos. I created a project which I’ve called ‘Capturing The Beauty In Everyday WorkLife’, and as we’re allowed to exercise outside of home, I thought I’d combine both. How am I doing? I’ll let you judge – from the photos I’ve shared in this post.

Image supplied by author

Book Wisdom

So, what wisdom am I gleaning from reading mystery books and how could this be helpful in my WorkLife? Looking at the first book in the series of Inspector Montalbano (The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri), Donna Leon, an American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice, Italy, said: “The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humour, and the sense of despair that fill the air of Sicily. To read him is to be taken to that glorious, tortured island.”

Alongside exploring how to write a mystery book, I’m also working on my next book, called WorkLife Book Club. The setting for each chapter will be a different restaurant, as the group discuss WorkLife stories and featured books. I need to learn how to breathe out the sense of place for each setting — wish me luck!

Words of Wisdom

In the midst of times of uncertainty and disruption powerful shifts are going to come about, people are going to make big changes. You may not have the clarity on what you could, should, would do, if you only knew what that was, and that’s OK. Focus instead on how you should think about making decisions when the time is right for you.

Sage Wisdom

Down moments are sometimes when the greatest opportunities arise.

Epilogue

This chapter of my WorkLife has just begun. In time I’ll reflect what it meant for me, what I learnt from it, and what changes it effected in my WorkLife.

I leave you with a couple of questions for you to reflect on at whatever stage you’re at, at this chapter in your WorkLife.

What do/did you want to get out this strange, bizarre, challenging time?

What do you want to remember from this time?

Through reflection and self-feedback let the answers inform your isolation inspirations in whatever you choose to do.

In time should you choose to make changes in your WorkLife, ask yourself: How should I think about making these decisions?

Today’s featured book is: The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri

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.