What Is Work/Life Balance Really?

With my husband considering taking another overseas job we have been talking a lot about what work/life balance means to us. So it seemed like fate when I stumbled across this video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=SXM7MpoVAD0

So true and so worth sharing!

June edition of Love Your Work

Hey There,

This month's edition of Love Your Work is focused on building emotional resilience (at work and in our personal lives). Funnily enough I have had plenty of opportunity to practice these skills this month - the usual challenges around sick kids and husband, very sick border collie (Honie Be), computer DYING, hubby heading off overseas again for a while and various other 'vexations'! Thank goodness I was really focused on building emotional resilience with clients this month, as boy did I need these skills for myself! I can laugh now and am spending time reflecting on ....'what did I learn'?

Check it out at
http://www.orgsuccess.com.au/images/stories/e-letters/Love_Your_Work__Issue_latest.pdf

Staying Happy When You Are Sick

Half my family are sick with colds this week and feeling pretty miserable! Isn't it true how much our physiology can affect our mindset? Unless we are in control of our own emotional state of course! Tips for maintaining a positive attitude when you are sick are:

• Take the time to sit and just 'be'. Since you can't do much else anyway, you might as well enjoy the 'down time'. I actually think its pretty good to catch up on the all daytime TV and just be a couch potatoe for a few days.
• Take the time to read. How wonderful to have an opportunity to catch up on some reading - even if it is only a page at a time between sleeps.
• Look around you and consciously think about all the amazing things in your life that you are grateful for. Think about people in your life who have helped you in some way and all of the people who love you. Think about all the joys you have in your life and at work.
• Take the time to have a mental break from work. It is sooo good to take all the work 'pressure' off and just let it all go. Your body is telling you it needs a break, so listen!
• Do everything you can to nourish your body, mind and soul. You need to look after yourself as much as you can as you totally deserve to get 100% well again.
• Think about how happy everyone at work must be feeling that you are considerate enough to NOT SHARE your germs with them by staying away. They should be very grateful (ha ha)!
• Be consciously aware that 'this too shall pass' and you'll be back better than every before you know it.

So stay at home, snuggle down, eat heaps of chicken soup and feel happy that its just a cold or whatever, and nothing too serious at all.

Stay happy

Lissa

Life is a Learning Journey

Emotional resilience seems to be the 'topic of the month'.

I believe that life is a learning journey through which we all experience purposeful ups and downs. The trick is recognizing how each of the events and situations that challenge us could equally serve us, depending on our thinking and actions. Think back to a time in your life that was an issue for you. What valuable skills, knowledge and internal resources did that experience give you? I bet you wouldn't be the person you are today if that event hadn't happened.

So when the next 'challenge' comes along, instead of worrying about it or going into an emotional tailspin, what would happen if you were to welcome it, feel grateful for it and begin to wonder how it can best help you learn and grow? Interesting....

What's Your Biggest Workplace Challenge?

As a workplace coach I obviously get to hear about a lot of issues within the workplace. Just wondering...what's your biggest workplace challenge right now?

Also...what's your biggest workplace success?

Send me an email (all responses will be kept anonymous of course) or post a comment.

Priorities Shock!

Well...I have had some amazing experiences over the last week or two - all to do with changing perspectives and priorities in life. The first happened when I was away with a friend over the Mother's Day weekend. I lost my very expensive diamond ring in the sand around the pool area where we were staying. My friend and I, and both our daughters, looked frantically through the sand totally focused on finding it. Next think I knew, my 2.5 year old son who was paddling in the pool had ventured out of his depth and had gone under. He recovered in a couple of minutes but needless to say that from that second on I really haven't been too concerned about the diamond!

Not co-incidentally (I suppose) most of my clients over the following week shared similar stories with me. These ranged from huge health scares to basic every-day frustrations...but each one had the same theme. Why do we focus on things that really aren't important SO MUCH MORE THAN we focus on the things that are???? How do our priorities get so stuffed up?

Let's face it, we all do it! We get caught up in work and choose long work hours and skipping lunch rather than going home for quality family time or looking after ourselves. We become so focused on achieving our goal rather than enjoying the journey! We insist that the house is tidy rather than getting in on the mess making fun with the kids! I'm sure you can think of even more examples. Have you heard the saying "Show me your diary and your cheque book and I'll tell you what you most value"? Scary thought isn't it.

We need to be conscious of what personal needs are driving us to make the choices we make. Anthony Robbins says we are driven by 6 core needs - certainty, variety, significance, belonging, growth and contribution. We can meet each of these needs in a healthy and ecological way or in a way that is not good for anyone. Which of these needs are your priorities satisfying? How happy are you with this answer?

Let me know what you think.



We

Love to Share

Sorry about that last post. Not sure what happened there.

I am really looking forward to sharing some of my Love Your Work Toolbox resources with a very special group of HR professional tomorrow. We are discussing the truth about learning and behaviour - we need to force ourselves outside of our comfort zone in order to learn and develop. Let's face it...if we stay in a place (physical, emotional, social) where we are comfortable and feeling good, where is the challenge? How will we reach our potential? Of course...life doesn't let us stay still for long, thank goodness, and neither do our employers. Organisations are incredibly dynamic...sometimes we like the changes and sometimes we donb't. As HR professionals what can we do to help people move out of their comfort zone and embrace unfamiliarity? If you are interested in finding out just how successfully this can be done, email me at orgsuccess@optusnet.com.au or join the Love Your Work Toolbox at www.orgsuccess.com.au

Love to Share

Nurse Betty

I had the unfortunate experience of a trip to hospital over the weekend - my 2.5 year old son couldn't breathe, so the ambulance was called and off we went at 3.30 am! It's all good now, but the experience has prompted me to reflect (again) on what makes some people happy at work and others miserable. Nursing must be a tough job, right? Well, my son had the happiest, loudest, most energetic, playful and entertaining nurse you could imagine! Not only that, but she was great with me, chatted away happily with the other staff, made heaps of time for every patient and was exceptionally competent! I was very surprised to experience such a happy soul in such a place at such a time of the day. When the shift changed however, one of the new nurses was the complete opposite. She was stooped over in appearance, overweight, grumpy with the other nurses, and she didn't once make eye contact with me, my son or any other patient that I could see. When she did speak to the others it was to complain. I wonder if their lives were so very different? I wonder how much difference their attitude and thinking and language has made to the quality of their lives? Interesting.

Check out the April Newsletter

April Love Your Work E-Letter 2010

Own It

Did you know that you are 100% capable of creating your ideal worklife? Taking responsibility for your experience of work is not only very empowering, it is essential!

We spend 1/3 of our life and 1/2 or more of our waking hours in the workplace - we might as well enjoy them! Also, happy and successful people at work:

• collaborate better with others
• are more creative
• are better problem solvers
• have more energy
• are more motivated
• are much healthier
• learn faster
• make fewer mistakes
• make better decisions.

Being happy at work is pretty much a no-brainer. However....easier said than done.

The workplace is dynamic - the personalities, changing work priorities, increasing workload, decreasing resources, expectations of various stakeholders; need I go on? There's no wonder it all gets too much at times.

But there are ways to manage all of these pressures successfully, that don't involve getting a better diary system or attending another time management workshop. Exciting ways to take back control of your worklife for good.

These strategies involve dealing with limiting beliefs once and for all, learning how to think, talk and focus resourcefully, and prioritising being of service to others, just for starters. Check out more at www.orgsuccess.com.au

I'll share more in my next post.