“It doesn’t matter what others are doing. It matters what YOU are doing.” – Unknown It was a beautiful morning with hardly anyone else in the pool. My swim the day before had felt really laboursome. This morning’s though saw me feeling strong and comfortable. I was a million blissful miles away when suddenly something caught my eye and shook me out of the joy I had been experiencing. A swimmer in the lane beside me swam past effortlessly. “Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt The quote above has been coming up a lot within our program days lately. In the moment described above I was experiencing exactly that. Comparison really is the thief of joy. So catching ourselves when
“Celebrate even small victories.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr. This past week has seen me achieve a few personal bests at the gym. They’re only small victories but as the quote above says you’ve got to celebrate them along the way. It got me thinking though about the journey towards these personal bests. Without a spotter I don’t think I’d be at this point right now. My friend’s encouragement and physical support has been crucial in building the confidence, amount of repetitions needed and strength to discover this new potential. “Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.” – Stephen Covey Interdependency and our journeys of potent
“Even if it’s a bit edgy, a bit out of your comfort zone, saying yes means that you will do something new, meet someone new and make a difference in your – and likely in others’ lives as well. Yes is what keeps us all young. It’s a tiny word that can do big things. Say it often.” – Eric Schmidt I love the video above that I watched last week. I can’t remember exactly what I was searching for at the time but I’m glad that I stumbled across such an inspiring short clip. For a while I’ve been interested in reading Shonda Rhimes’ book, ‘Year of Yes’, but haven’t got to it yet. Thinking about the power of yes and the taking on of a ’24 Hours of YES Challenge’ reminded me of why her book piqued my
“Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.” – Tom Peters Life can get so busy. Our personal and/or professional roles and responsibilities can see us experiencing feelings of being time poor while we juggle overcrowded schedules, expectations and deadlines. One of the areas that can slip away or be overlooked in the midst of all of this is effective communication with those within our spheres of influence. If time isn’t carved out within the busyness and the role of purposeful communication isn’t highly valued and practiced then opportunities to maximise our own and others engagement, wellbeing, contribution, growth and development may be
If you look online for a list of the top human fears it brings up a variety of search results. Most of the lists have similarities, it just depends on how that person or group has interpreted the ‘data’. One fear that comes up a lot in the lists and is also one that we’d all have experienced in our lives is the fear of speaking in front of others. On many lists it can sit right at the top at number 1 (higher than death – as Jay Leno famously said, “I guess we’d rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy.”) It’s not surprising then that many Year 5 and Year 6 students that we support put their hands up when asked towards the beginning of a program if they are discouraged from seeking
