Liberated!

Today I had a therapeutic massage. It did more than make me feel relaxed. The word that came into my mind was "liberated". To me that means much more than just feeling free, lucky though I am to enjoy feeling free. It brings in elements of allowing my creative self to fly, opening doors to greater self belief, self confidence and self-assurance. I am proud to be the person I am and I believe in my power to help others. Not a sense of arrogance or self importance but a sense of peace that I am doing what I was put on this earth to do.

Try a massage sometime. It offers a wonderful opportunity to meditate.

Leisure actively benefits work productivity

My efforts to promote the benefits of leisure to sustained high quality work productivity, including stress management, have to be fought against the generations-old work ethic. I don't have any problem with the importance of work - it takes up a fair bit of my own life too.

Where I do have a problem is the age-old belief that leisure is a waste of time - particularly 'good working time'. Ok that's starting to break down in various ways. The latest interesting stats are that Australian workers voted work life balance ahead of salary increases. What they are really saying is they want to enjoy life.

But when it comes to discussing hard dollars, ensuring a healthy profit, shareholders pressures, etc, the term leisure is still a non-word. It's not until I have a client well and truly interested in using me that I even introduce the word leisure (other than in my business name).

They do start listening however when I start talking about job satisfaction, reducing unauthorised use of sick leave, reducing the number of hours spent by staff and management alike in unproductive effort (staff conflicts etc). The facts are that absorbing, interesting, passionate interests pursued away from work and unconnected with work interests have a massive impact on work productivity, staff communication, commitment, workforce stability...the list goes on.

Yep, there is indeed a big link between work and leisure...its just that it's going to take a long time before the work ethic image of leisure is erased and replaced by what I call a Life Ethic.

Workplace Stress Statistics

This a "blow my own trumpet" blog, borne out of my frustration about the inability of organisations to even accept they have a responsibility for minimizing the risk of staff stress claims, let alone take any stress risk management action.

Graham Yemm, a UK consultant, has come up with some alarming stats which are in line with other stats I have seen over the last couple of years regarding stress in the workplace. His information is that :

• 65% of workers believe their stress is due to work-related issues
• only 29% of people believe their bosses are doing anything about stress...49% believed their stress levels were worse because they had lack of confidence in management
• 45% of managers do not believe there is any issue or problem with staff mental health, but
  
• 97% of them recognize there is a link between people's health and productivity and
  
• 86% say they want their workforce to be more productive
  
• 62% of employers feel that investing in people's health is a luxury they cannot afford
• it's estimated fewer than 10% of organisations have a mental health policy and only 14% of them believe it is any good.

Other stats I have found elsewhere say that stress related OHS claims are on the rise - something over 8% of all claims and stress claims take much longer to resolve and are more costly. Talk about 'head buried in the sand' stuff.

I see my energy management program (go to www.workleisure.com) as not only having real stress management benefits, but also they offer value for risk management programs designed to show workcover bodies that the organisation is actively doing something to minimize the risk of stress claims.

I could go on for pages on this but it won't mean much until managers start to believe:

• there is a stress management problem in their organisation specifically
• they have an OHS responsibility to actively do something to minimise the risk of stress claims
• there are good options around - like the energy management program that I offer - that can demonstrate to workcover bodies they are actively doing something to minimize stress, enough to help keep OHS levy contributions down.

There...got that off my chest!! :)

The People Gardener

Because I have 30 years planning experience in the field of parks and recreation, I have come to see the links between the growth of nature and the growth of people. Why not! After all we are part of nature (not separate to or above nature). We start from a seed that contains everything the mature plant requires, provided it is planted in fertile soil and nurtured with water and nutritious food. And my business is one of cultivating strong new growth.

People are starting to liken me to a People Gardener. And I thought to myself - that's not a bad image to have. The typical gardener is a gentle soul who is warm, caring, nurturing and sincere and they say that just about sums me up as a personal growth mentor.

A gardener doesn't tell nature how to grow, he/she simply helps it by ensuring it has the nourishment it needs to naturally blossom to its full maturity (or potential). That fits very well with my approach to helping people blossom to their full potential. Talking nicely to a plant also helps it grow!

Yeah I like the image of a People Gardener. I hope you do too.

Easing My Own Pressure

We are told that most pressure is self-imposed. I have moved from Adelaide (less than 1 m) to Sydney (more than 5m) and saw this as the opportunity to expand my business. What I forgot was that I am still only a one person business and that Sydney was going to require a whole new marketing exercise. I increased the pressure on myself. My natural passion palled. I got down on myself. In short, I went against all my own principles of enjoying being me.

Soon after I arrived in Sydney, I was told 'the bigger the market, the tighter your focus needs to be'. The wider I spread myself, the greater the competition I face for work. Sure I help with work life harmony and retirement planning and stress in the workplace...but what in all of these my core skill is in helping people (re)identify their passions, what they really enjoy doing, what brings the best out of them. They not only grow, they achieve greater work life harmony, and do a better job of planning their future.

So I made a big decision: to focus on what I loved doing - helping people use the power of enjoyable interests as the means to increased personal growth and development. I took the pressure off myself. And you know what? its getting amazing results. My passion is back, my energy restored and my focus significantly tightened.

I am now officially a Personal Growth and Development Mentor who helps people re-discover the interests that increase their self esteem, self confidence, self belief and sense of self worth. I am the best there is at it and I am enjoying being me.

Roll on Sydney! and watch this space :)

I'm tired of the gloom and doom feeding that's feeding the economic downturn

Like most positive thinking people, I am getting tired of constantly hearing and reading about the gloom and doom that is feeding the current global economic downturn. It's like a virus that preys on the minds of fearful people - people fearing the loss of their money, job, security, quality of life and so on. Dont get me wrong, there are plenty of real problems out there. It's just that this pandemic of fear is making things worse. What is an 'economy' anyway that can do so much damage to our daily lives? Have you ever seen or touched one? It's a mental thing and it requires positive mental action to turn it around.

From this I came up with the idea of a Butterfly Wings campaign aimed at starting a new virus that might become so infectious that - like the butterfly wings that we are told can start a breeze that can lead to a tornado somewhere - it might just start a tornado of economic recovery.

I think my idea is so hair-brained that it just might work. And like butterfly wings, the exercise I ask people to do - and pass on to everyone they know - is a simple two minute enjoyable Enjoyment Boost questionnaire that doesn't require you to tell anyone your answers. If someone hasn't sent you one, go to www.workleisure.com and download a copy. Then email it to everyone you know.

If you want to know more, go to http://www.workleisure.com/ButterflyWings.htm

Let's go change the world! :)

Walking My Talk

One of the great things about providing a lifestyle management service is that I can give myself free advice and assistance at any time with my own life. I am taking advantage of this offer right now as Carol and I go through what many people regard as one of the most stressful lifestyle change experiences of all - moving interstate, especially from a city of under 1 million to one of over 5 million. Sydney is one of the great cities of the world. We have been here for three weeks as I write. At times it seems like three months.

I will be totally honest with you, it hasn't been easy. Even at this early stage, we have nearly spat the dummy more than once and thought it was all too hard. The pace and the in-your-face constancy of life can be daunting. Sydney was never planned - it just exploded in all directions. There is no logic to the massive road system and any excursion is a major exercise in planning, navigating and finding your way back from being lost.

So hectic was life at first that I had little or no time for my business. Then I realized I was forgetting some of my own professional advice on how best to handle this major life transition project. So, you might say, I sat down and gave myself a free consultation.

Very quickly I realized I was letting the new situation run me rather than me take charge of my response. I took a good hard look at who I really am, what excites me, the opportunities that Sydney was presenting - and they are vast and incredibly diverse - and the need to start giving those positive factors some priority.

There was still plenty that Carol and I needed to do together to make the transition work for both of us. A key factor in ensuring the success of our move was that we support and encourage each other all the time. That meant spending a lot of time together in our explorations and in constantly discussing how we are going, how we each are feeling and what we want to do each day.

Quickly we both began to realize that the move is proving incredibly valuable for both of us. Not necessarily that we want or don't to stay in Sydney at the end of the six months trial, but in growing together as a couple and sharing a strange, often tough, but never dull adventure. This move is bringing a fabulous new sense of sharing and support to our relationship.

The other great positive is that we are each exploring new ways we can express our individuality - sometimes apart, sometimes together. We are meeting new people and learning new things at a blindingly fast pace. We are well and truly out of our comfort zones but after three weeks we are now seeing the many positives in being 'uncomfortable'.

As for Work Leisure International, the key words that have loomed large in my mind since arriving in Sydney have been "radical thinking". I can't begin to tell you here how excited I am now about the changes already in my thinking and attitudes towards my business. I am meeting totally different people with very different ideas and U am doing a lot of listening. The different environment means I am describing my business to them in radically different ways and finding that they love what I have to tell them. There is a new pep in my business step. You will see those thoughts rapidly emerge over the coming weeks. starting with what I have called my "Butterfly Wings project".

My self consultation has proved extremely valuable and worthwhile. I am off and running again, embracing and no longer fighting my big lifestyle change. I am learning many things that will help me to help you too whenever we get to work together.

More soon.