If you can’t do the job you love...

... love the job you’re in?

How important is it to do something you love? If you could put a number on it, how would you rate it? You know the score - 1 being the least important and 10 being the most. How many of us are living our dream-job and dream-life? I watched a Livestream event a couple of weeks ago (‘Learning Without Frontiers’) featuring Sir Ken Robinson and in amongst his inspired and legendary views he spoke passionately about this subject.. “Do something that speaks to your spirit” he proclaimed.

I am sure we can take something from this without necessarily having to sack the job off and flee to the Himalayas to chant to the mountains. What we can do is take a moment to ask ourselves what makes us happy and if we are being true to ourselves.

I have just returned from a ‘girls’ weekend away (I say ‘girls’, we are all in our 40’s, not sure when we should migrate to the title of ‘ladies’ or if we would ever qualify). Amongst us were a diverse range of vocations from a midwife, a bio-chemist, an interior designer, a college lecturer, marketer and various business type roles. It struck me that out of all of us, the midwife had been truest to her ‘calling’. She is a natural carer, a nurturing, warm, loving person who on a daily basis is in awe of the miracle of new life, even after 20+ years of doing the job. She marvelled at the new lambs on our country walks (in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales) as if she had never seen a new-born-anything before! Can you imagine a car sales person driving past a showroom on his day off and being literally blown away by the arrival of parking sensors!

I am not meaning to be derisory to car sales people, merely using this vocation to illustrate the point that not all of us are in a position to have this level of passion in what we do. I guess there has to be ‘shades’ of loving what you do. Maybe it is OK to like what you do especially if circumstances prevent you from making any radical changes (usually this boils down to money – it can be extremely disruptive to do a U-turn when in a successful and established career). But I do believe that you must do something that speaks to your spirit. This can be out of the workplace. It could be that gardening makes your soul sing or having coffee with friends, playing sport or helping at an animal sanctuary. Perhaps abandoning your 5-day-a-week business suit and becoming a weekend Hell’s Angel floats your boat and frees your mind. (We saw many of these in Hawes, a regular meeting point for fanatical motorcyclists and many I observed upon removing their helmets were indeed middle aged, middle class corporate types – free from their daily shackles and at one with their dream machine).

I also had the rare chance this weekend to read an array of wonderfully trashy magazines and read an article that stated that only a very small percentage of people surveyed are happy in their jobs and that a few minutes a day on Youtube watching comedy and silly clips helped brighten their day and made the job more enjoyable.

So, go on. Find something you love that makes you happy. Commit some time to it – 10 minutes on Youtube or selling your family heirlooms to buy a Harley! To use another Sir Ken Robinson quote “Make the most of whatever it is that floats your boat…”

And finally to sign off, I couldn’t resist this gem from another inspirational influence in my life, Steve Jobs:

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

On Top Of The World ...

Having just come back from my annual ski trip I feel like a week off!  After carting 3 suitcases, 2 ski boot bags and a double set of skis to the airport, standing in a queue for an age, the non arrival of an ordered veggie meal and an aborted landing ( during which time I literally ripped chunks out of the seat in front of me) and not to mention a sickly coach journey, we finally got to resort at 11pm. 

The next day and for the rest of the week for that matter we were up at 7.30am! Yes 7.30am every day then breakfast, searching for ski clobber, dragging the child out of bed and on the ski bus for 8.55am, boot room to don all our ski equipment, in the gondola and just about managing to meet my sons ski school by 9.30am!  I mean come on ... we are supposed to be on holiday! Why can’t ski lessons run a little bit later?  You know 10.30 would be great, at least by that time we would have all woken up and be raring to go!  There is one plus point though I get to drink brandy at 10am in the morning!  I mean it would be unthinkable at home but for some unknown reason I won’t even go skiing if my little hip flask is not brimming with neat brandy! I am also one of those people who doesn’t find it too natural to throw myself over a steep edge of a mountain so the brandy does it for me!  And after a full day on the 'piste' it then continues with the après ski ... a tradition they say.  Straight after skiing into the nearest bar still in all your ski stuff, people dancing in their ski boots (mainly Germans actually!)  looking like they are in a dance off at a ‘Robocop’ convention.  Let’s face it there is only one dance you can do in ski boots and that’s the side to side two step, anything more adventurous would undoubtedly land you on your backside ... boarders of course are the exception, they get to wear comfy boots and are used to being on their backsides most of the time anyway! (Now, now boarders out there don’t get tetchy you know it’s true!).

 And so it continues, what’s the weather going to be like today, is it sunglasses or ski goggles, base layers or not, what are the snow conditions ...  pretty much the same routine every day ... until you have to pack all your stuff and return home.  Why do it I hear you say, why put yourself through all that?  Well the answer is quite simple really ... nothing compares to the beauty of the mountains in the winter, the way it makes you feel alive and how you feel on top of the world, not to mention the sense of achievement as your skills improve.  The other question I hear you ask is what has this all got to do with business? ... well it’s the same thing really (stick with me for a moment), In business there are lots of elements to consider, things to do, plans to organise, decisions to make, tools to help you achieve your goals, lessons to learn, adapting to change,  tiring and thankless but when it all comes together, when all your hard work pays dividends and you see the results, that’s when it’s all worth it, when you feel on top of the world, proud and alive! 

Blog created by Michele Bentham from The Launchpad

So for me the two are the same ... you sometimes have to scare yourself in order to reach the top of the mountain but when you make it nothing compares to how it makes you feel ... so keep climbing, go as high as you can and then enjoy the view whilst you are there!

And like ski lessons if you need a bit of help to get there, then seek it out ... the rewards will far outweigh the investment http://www.thelaunchpad.org.uk/  

Netiquette - Tweet others as you wish to be Tweeted!

Netiquette

What is and isn’t acceptable? How far do you go before you cross the line? Most forms of etiquette aren’t written down, they are simply ‘understood’ by those it concerns. To make matters more complicated, we all have slightly different parameters. But even so, surely there will always be a core set of principles that most people agree upon and this boils down to common sense.. doesn’t it?

Take golf (not that I do as it happens), the etiquette can feel quite overbearing to newcomers… greet certain people in a certain way, don’t stand there, watch your shadow – it may put other plays off (seriously). Of course some of these rules do apply to safety and enjoyment of the game but some are a test of extreme manners and protocol. At least for golfers they don’t need to use their judgement, it’s all written down in the handbook.

With every new method of communication comes a new set of self-imposed (and you hope generally understood by others) rules of etiquette. Don’t send hundreds of internal emails every day – no-one wants an inbox invasion. Is it ever acceptable to put a kiss at the end of a business email? Do you CC or BCC?

How do you achieve good ‘Twitter hygiene’? Should you ever USE CAPITALS or is this just shouting at people? I have a certain issue with bad news or negative Tweets. I know that stuff is going on, unless it’s an urgent breaking news story that your Twitter peeps may have missed, I would really rather not have a torrent of that stuff. I don’t need to know it’s another grey day in a grey city and the weekend is miles off. How about DM’s? This topic makes me feel immediately uncomfortable, like someone raising a taboo subject at a dinner party and your toes curl a little. How often should you send DM’s? Monthly? Weekly? Deep breath… Daily? Think that was the line back there. How much transactional content is OK? Surely every now and then you do want to say ‘Hey, look at my stuff. You can buy it!’ How many tweets a day is too many? Does anyone use automated messages successfully? Does it just turn people off?

I have heard the ‘dinner party’ analogy before in that you should treat social media as if you are at a dinner party, keep it conversational, interesting and be interested in others. However, my dinner parties are not an ideal barometer for me. They tend to have lots of stuff in capitals, far too many direct messages, a few controversial subjects (although not much spam) and plenty of low grade, rambling content.

Please enlighten me. Point me to the comprehensive ‘Twitter Etiquette for Dummies’. Until then, let’s get back out there in the social mediasphere. And remember to ‘Tweet others as you wish to be Tweeted.’

FORE!

The straw which broke the camels back!

I woke up this morning full of the joys of spring, the sun is out, the sky is blue, the birds are tweeting ... no I mean literally tweeting ... straight out of my PC with the aid of tweetdeck!  Tweetdeck, surely the best invention to help us social media types keep up to date with all that’s going on in the world? However ... is it me or is it starting to have that ‘blackberry buzz’ effect? You know what I mean ... no longer a blackberry owner (thank god) but when I did have one the buzz seemed to echo around the whole house every time I got an email or missed call... and no matter how hard I tried I could never manage to ignore it ... you know sitting down to tea ...buzzzzz ... going to bed ...buzzzzz ... playing with the kids ...buzzzzz ... and there is something about that buzz that makes you immediately jump up as if it’s a life or death situation and frantically follow the sound of the buzz until you find it in the depths of your handbag (if you’re a girl that is!) and after all that you effort and frowns from family members it turns out to be some spam mail ... yes that was certainly one device I was glad to see the back of!

So is the new generation of concentration attacking communication devices ...Tweetdeck? Is this application the application which will break the camel’s back or is it the best timesaving thing ever ...  Even as I’m writing this, tweets are popping up all the time in the corner of my screen and I’m starting to feel that if I don’t read every one then I’m bound to miss some amazing piece of information which will have a life changing impact on my business and life!  Is this app a hindrance then ... something else to break your concentration or is it one to be embraced and praised... I really can’t decide!  One thing is for sure ... I think I had better go as I have just missed about 20 updates which really does make me feel rather nervous!

Blog created by Michele Bentham from The Launchpad

Find my mojo!

Find my mojo...?

I think this thought crosses my mind at least once a day ... ‘what’s the vision?  What do I want to achieve? Tough question indeed ...often lost in the daily grind of the school run, work, mums taxi service, work, tea, tidy, sleep and repeat the next day, it is often difficult to focus on the overall vision of where I want to be both in life and work.  Ok, the immediate answer is an easy one ... win the lottery, hire nannies and spend my days at beauty salons trying to stop the sudden attack of ageing! ... but realistically that’s never going to happen so I guess its plan B ... but that is the problem, it’s difficult to peg down exactly where I see myself in 6 months let alone five years. There is nothing I can do about all the kid and home stuff but I have set myself some achievable goals such as spend more time as a family around the dinner table, get the kids to help more with the housework and spend at least 4 hours outside at the weekend either walking, biking or playing in the park, finish all the jobs in the house that need finishing ... oh and the hardest bit get my family to share my dream and contribute ideas of their own!  I have other family goals too such as more family holidays, spending more time alone with my husband (although if its watching football on TV then I might pass on that one) oh and to upgrade my faithful car to something more suited to weekends away and planned family road trips!  I just need to add here that the invention of the people carrier has revolutionised family travel but I also need to say that I won’t be getting one any time soon!

So that’s my family life sorted ... now how do I make this all happen?  More holidays means more money and new cars don’t come cheap and if I want a respectable hallway ... which currently embarrasses me every time I open the front door ... if I can actually open the front door that is due to the doorframe swelling over the years (summer is ok but in winter the postman passes parcels through the front window!!).  It seems the answer is to increase my income to provide me and my family with all these things in life which will transform our currently chaotic lifestyle (here’s hoping!)

So it’s down to my business (well that and my husband’s business but let’s leave him out of it ... this is about me not him!).  It has took a while for the penny to drop that in order to improve my life I need to improve or manage my business differently somehow.  I need to plan, set targets and run tight financial controls ... how hard can it be?  It’s actually not hard to do all these things and having had successful businesses over a long period of time then this stuff should come easy to me.  But one thing always remains the same and that is the difficulty of balancing working on the business with working in it and this is hard to do ... one thing is for sure and that is that it’s not just me, there are thousands of small businesses out there trying to do the same thing and all encountering the same problems.  The other problem is that it’s easy to set a goal,  let’s say that I want to achieve a 20% growth in 12 months ... but it’s more difficult to determine how to do it and how to manage the extra time and resources I will need to achieve this goal.   It’s also easy to say that in order to spend more time with my family then I might need to employ more staff ... but how would I pay them?  Every time a goal is set it creates a whole host of other questions which all require work, research and most importantly the thing I seem to have least of ...TIME and so the circle continues.   From experience the best way to achieve all of these things is to have someone to help you do it ...attend a course, employ an expert in creative businesses,  someone whom has been there and done it, someone who understands the bottom line, the way my business works and won’t charge me the earth ...

Hang on a minute I have just described myself ...  Well I suppose I could always go on my own course which I have developed with my business partner ... ‘Create your vision’ or employ myself as a ‘business mentor’ or attend one of my own ‘business surgeries’ ...  but you see that creates a further dilemma ... how can I earn money from myself and how can I be objective? Ummm I guess I haven’t really thought that one through properly!

http://www.thelaunchpad.org.uk/
http://visioncreate.eventbrite.com/