Looking Good
Good work is always recognised but it may take a long time(!) says Simon Terry in his post Looking Good. This resonated with me because the last week, I was left off our Organisation Chart and although I was curious about this action, the result was something I wasn’t expecting.
Lesson: Always do good work.
Leadership Skills Lacking
I’m currently reading Celine Schillinger’s book Dare to Un-Lead and I would add that there’s a lot of work to be done when it comes to leadership in this new world. We need new kind of leadership behaviours that challenge traditional business operating models.
I highly recommend her book and will do a video review of it once I finish – as I need to digest everything.
She’s written such a thought provoking book filled with tonnes of references (which I love) and it’s a read where you just need to stop, put it down, think of your own experiences, get angry as you recall what happened to you, pick it up and continue reading, then read some more then mutter, “hell yeah!”
The book is making me recall moments of my career where I was simply considered “the kook, or touchy feely” or passed over with promotions because my ideas were too radical. Or I didn’t follow what was considered standard traditional business practice. I seriously doubted myself because I never felt as if I was taken seriously because I was always someone to give things a go, roll up my sleeves, try something different. Others weren’t. I was someone who rocked the boat. They didn’t like that because it impacted their processes.
Anyway, read the book. If you haven’t seen her excellent video that explains the concepts in Celine’s book, here it is below.
Lesson: Be courageous and be the initiator for change because you have free will.
Those Who Read Literary Fiction Have a Complex Worldview
Better believe it. It messed with my head. It’s mostly of what I read and what my library at home consists of and short stories.
No wonder I’m always in angst. My wonderful books are at fault. ?
By introducing readers to difference, even if that difference is not expressed as a different cast of mind, we argue that fictional experience can nevertheless remind readers that the world is complex, not simple; with powerful psychological effects,” they write. “Fiction, in other words, does more than just give people social practice—by presenting difference, novelty, and even confusion, it underlines the idea of the world as a radically complicated place.”
Lesson: Try reading something light hearted once in a while for your mental health.
What Would Be In Your Identity Box?
This was a link from Stephen Downes and it got me thinking, “if I was to pull together some objects that personified my identity, what would they be?” You can see the Pause and Ponder Self Assessment here.
Certainly the following would make it into my box:
- My wedding ring
- Photo of my family
- A journal
- A skein of yummy yarn (preferably the good stuff like alpaca)
- Knitting needles
- Airline ticket
- The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
- A golf tee
- French grammar book
- Beret
- My flannelette pyjamas (the ones with the pockets)
Which all means that I spend my most time thinking about my own ‘Physical, Emotional and Developmental Ability over everything else based on how many objects above relate to this aspect. Wow, who would have guessed right?!)
At times, I think of my Age and Gender (more so now as a 53 year old woman with grey hair who has effectively become invisible and wgi had noticed more unfairness to women as they age – this was never the case in my younger years). I also think about my National Origin and Ethnicity at times because I feel it has shaped me as a person. The older I get the more I relate to my Hellenistic origins and the values that ancient Greeks held dear. Maybe that’s why I also relate with the French too because they value similar things like arts, culture, philosophy ?
Lesson: Carry the spirit of your ancestors, they’re all around you – they are part of you. Learn from where you came from so you understand more of yourself.
What Does It Mean to Be Yourself?
I don’t know I’m trying to figure it out.
What is your Identity?
Julian Stodd continues asking this question by looking at where you belong. What communities shape your identity?
Truth is for me, I’ve had a loss of one in recent times.
I don’t know if it’s going through the last couple of years that have shaken up my belief system, going grey and going through perimenopause where my entire body is going against me as a women in my early 50s and in some way grieving for a loss of youth, changes in work and a realisation that this same work doesn’t hold for me the same level of interest, motivation because I feel as if I cannot make positive change.
Everything seems to be a hard slog.
As if it’s not really important anymore to the grand scheme of things. At times, I don’t even feel like myself anymore.
So I’m trying to establish a new identity. I feel as if I’m in transition at the moment. I’m in limbo. I just have to wait it out.
Lesson: Keep searching.
Make your own Hello page
This was a great idea by Ton who created a Hello page for his blog on how people could contact him. I think I need to do one myself. Check it out here.
https://www.zylstra.org/blog/2022/07/21942/
Math Professor Fixes Projector Screen
Trust me, I spent AGES trying to figure out how he would have done this.
You should check out his other pranks that he uses on his students. Why weren’t my Maths professors like this? I would have certainly hung around – or at least passed, Maths at university (which to be fair was boring as bat shit – as the Aussies say).
The Lost Art of Miniature Golf Courses
Who doesn’t love mini golf? Here’s some photos of great courses. They’re a laugh.
[…] This is my primary source to keep up with everything. The only difference I’m noticing is that I find many articles of interest but I can’t ‘share’ them anywhere (in the past, I would have shared them to Twitter). Now, I take some time to read, learn, delve and then write curated posts of interesting finds. […]