Leisure is As Important As Work

I have been asked a number of times over the years, "Do you have a big hairy audacious goal(BHAG), a goal so big that others might think it is totally outrageous?

Having professionally observed human behaviour in leisure for almost 40 years, my BHAG has long been:

As many people in the world as possible to realize and apply the fact that leisure is as important as work in maximizing one's personal growth, development and potential.

I sense it isn't as outrageous a goal as it was when I first established Work Leisure International in 2003.

What is 'leisure'? First, it is not simply 'free time'. Leisure is a positive state of mind, produced from enjoying any freely-chosen interest - physical, mental, or spiritual - pursued purely for its intrinsic benefits, that makes you feel good about yourself.

For those who say their work is their leisure, no matter how much you enjoy your work it is driven by economic demands. While I love my work, my main leisure interest is singing (see http://www.workleisure.com/resources/ChoirArticle.html). The benefits that singing has given to my total wellbeing, work productivity, stress management, work/life harmony and self esteem are positively incalculable.

It also demonstrates why I believe in work life harmony rather than work life balance. It's not a matter of how much time you give to leisure but the effects of a passionate leisure interest. A short time each week of experiencing this sort of interest can drive the rest of the week.

For generations now, the traditional work ethic has driven human development. Managers saw leisure as a waste of good productive effort and even a competitor to work. Five major factors have altered that attitude:
1) the social revolution of recent decades,
2) the new workforce generated by that revolution, who work to live rather than live for work,
3) rising burnout as a result of prolonged excessive business stress and pressure,
4) the change from centralized knowledge in the hands of top management to decentralized knowledge and expertise across the organisation/the globe, and
5) the disappearance of the principle of the employer providing "a job for life".

People now make their own minds up about the nature of work and leisure. Leisure is again back in vogue as a valued feature of life.

I call it the new Life Ethic, accentuating the fact that work and leisure are both important in maximizing personal growth and potential.

Everything I do in my business is geared to pursuing my Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

If you think this is a great Goal, you can help by sharing this message with others in your network.

Invest In Your Most Valuable Asset - You

It's important to make money to live and maximise your financial worth. It's equally important to maximise your self worth by investing in being your true self, not in being someone you think others expect you to be. Make the most of your unique potential, by investing your personal energies in your natural-born talents, skills and passions. Only then will you achieve the sort of life success reserved solely for you.

I have over 20 000 testimonials to my integrity

I am delighted to report that readership of my online articles on the Best Management Articles site alone has this week passed 20 000 visits and the number continues to grow daily. Seven of the articles have each so far attracted in excess of 1000 readers. The most read article - "Why Work Life Harmony is Better Than Work Life Balance" is in the list of Most Read Articles of All Time on that site, with 2080 visitors to that page as of today. Go to http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com/DisplayAuthor.aspx?Peter_Nicholls=&id=554

Those statistics do not of course include visits to the various articles on my own website at http://www.workleisure.com/resources/articles.html the statistics of which are not so clear to me. Nor do they include statistics on various other article directories at which my articles appear, or numerous general business sites who have seen fit to pick up and publish various of my articles.

The reason I tell you these statistics is only partly to feel good about myself (and I do! :) ).

More importantly it's to make you aware that there can be no better testimonial than the fact of having well over 20 000 readers of my numerous articles to date - only a handful of whom I would know and fewer still who would know me. Integrity is very hard to win on the internet and I believe I can claim to have achieved online integrity.

One final point. The articles present not so much new information as they do insight. If I can help you in any way - no matter where you are in the world - send me a message at peter@workleisure.com

From the mouths of babes

"I am not a hero.I am simply an ordinary person who had a dream and with hard work I achieved it". Nelson Mandella? Gandhi? No...16 year-old Jessica Watson of Australia, who today arrived safely in Sydney having become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo by yacht.

What an inspiration to us all...including this 70 year old guy (me). Jessica has given me renewed inspiration and hope to achieve my own dreams.

A Wealthy Life

You invest your money carefully to maximize your financial wealth. Are you investing just as carefully in your natural talents to maximize your potential? Spend a little time this week enjoying a freely-chosen interest you love doing just for the hell of it. You may be surprised at the extent to which you develop your natural talents - known, unknown, latent, or forgotten - for work, home and play.

Unlearn your Limits

Follow a passion and unlearn your limits

The Value of a Park

A park is an outside area providing inner peace.

A Thought for Thought Leaders

The seemingly infinite growth of Information technology is creating a need for entrepreneurs to go beyond being infopreneurs (providers of information) and become what I call insightpreneurs (providers of insight).

In trying to define insight, I was reminded of a time I saw a person being taught to karate-chop a piece of timber bare-handed. The secret was in focusing her mind on an impact point beyond the piece of timber. She split the timber as though it were paper.

Insight is much like karate – focusing the mind intuitively beyond the issue to the bigger picture of causes and effects within which the issue finds its being. The changed perception of the issue opens up a whole new dimension of unexplored options for its resolution.

The world desperately needs insightpreneurs. Thought leaders who can perceptively comprehend and discern issues in new, unexplored ways. Without them our thought processes are likely to be crushed under the exponentially-increasing weight of information overload.