Walking My Talk

Given my business is about the benefits of enjoyment, people wonder if I'm one of those sickly people who is always telling everyone how happy he is. The answer I always give is that the only way to really appreciate the highs of life is to also experience the lows. People close to me in my life get to hear about those times of course. But you don't want to hear about my problems - I am sure you have enough of your own.

It's just that after more than 30 years of observing what people are like when they are doing something just for the hell of it, seeing the looks in their eyes and the spring in their step, it has become deeply instilled in me that there's a powerful lot of good in enjoyment, far beyond simply having a good time.

So I try to keep a happy look at least publicly and I will always emphasize the positives of life in my writings and business. There's enough said about life's problems and stresses. I like to enjoy being the real me whenever possible and I want you to do the same.

A Dream Realized through Business Expert Webinars

When I started my present business back in 2003, I was told a big goal took no more thinking effort than a small goal. I decided to think internationally in achieving my goal of making people in business and in personal life more aware of the powerful benefits of the right leisure interests for work and personal life success. So I started by calling my business Work Leisure International.

In the 4+ years since then, I have managed to achieve a great deal - mainly in my home city of Adelaide but also elsewhere in Australia and to a reasonable extent, given my limited resources, internationally.

But I wanted to be an international speaker and to do this I had previously imagined I would have to travel to other countries. Australia is a long way from anywhere so I felt it would probably cost me a lot of money to get me started. So I focused my attention on putting articles into Article Directories (see examples on the right hand of this page)

The beauty of articles online is not only you get known widely but you overcome one of the great issues in doing business on the internet - establishing credibility and trust. Print consistently popular articles and people start to say "hey this guy knows his stuff!"

Turns out my articles had attracted the interest of Lee Salz the creator of Business Expert Webinars and his invitation to me to speak internationally through his Webinar program. Suddenly a longer-term dream of international speaking had become a reality without me having to even leave home! I won't spell out the details here. You can to find out the rest by going to http://www.businessexpertwebinars.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=128&Itemid=29

I am excited and I know my presentations will be great! Please think about registering for the call of any of my 12 Business Expert Webinars, the first one being on 22 May 2008 (US EDT) on the topic of Transitioning from Work to Retirement.

Review of Australia's Health System

Australia's National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission has called for submissions on the future of the Australian Health System. I have put in a submission entitled "Enjoying Good Health". I have focused on (quoting from my submission) " the mutually-beneficial links between good health, enjoyment and the 'ripple effect' of enjoyable experiences, positively affecting everything that develops, nurtures and promotes good health."

Always good to at least give people in high places something to think about. Who knows? they might even like it! If you would like a copy of my submission (6 pages total), email me at peter@workleisure.com

Managing 21st Century Business by 19th Century Principles

Life changes fast – so fast we can’t keep pace. We haven’t any choice but to move with the times because we know if we don’t we’re sunk. And when we decide to make the most of it we often find it can be fun.

For some reason it all stops when people become a boss in business. It seems business is expected to change with the times in product development and sales but not in how it manages people. Recently I looked at the Taylor Principles of Management written in the 19^th Century and its scary how little they differ from the way bosses manage people today.

The bigger the organization the worse it is. The corporate kings (not too many queens yet) still:

• love starched white shirts, grey suits and ties
• promote bosses for their product knowledge ahead of people knowledge
• only trust staff to be working when they can see the whites of their eyes
• believe the longer you’re at the office the smarter you are
• step over a workaholic's dead body, looking for somebody to meet the next deadline
• see minimum movement as maximum efficiency
• think they know better than the workers.

Is it any wonder business management is one big mess?

Staff are kept in some sort of straight jacket and told “this is the way I (not we) do things here. You can like it or lump it.” In the next breath he (not too often she) is asking "why is the organization having trouble attracting and keeping good staff?”

When are the big bosses going to run business like people (including themselves) run their personal lives? Set goals and let 'em loose to do it their way, in their chosen place, using their own ideas. Give them the right to laugh or even to cry. Give them help when they ask for it, give them respect, because they love it.

The system wouldn’t be perfect but, like we say about life, it sure beats the hell out of the alternative.

I Wanna Be a Kid again! and become the me I wanted to be

Gee I loved being a kid. Living for the moment, laughing for the sheer joy of doing so, letting my imagination run wild, not trying to be someone I wasn't, saying "yes I can do that" to everything I wanted to try, even if I wasn't any good at it. I didn't have to worry about getting a job, a relationship, or pay off a mortgage. Nor did I realize that, while I was playing, I was also learning all the basics of life - how to talk, read, write, make my arms, legs and eyes work together, play by the rules that my friends and I made up on the spot and - best of all - negotiation skills, learned by convincing my parents to buy sweets and toys. Problems were resolved by a motherly kiss or going without dessert. Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end.

But they did.

Life became serious. Parents, friends and teachers carefully taught me what I had to do to succeed in the harsh world of reality. Having fun became a waste of time that could be much more usefully put into earning serious money. I was told to forget silly kid stuff, like jumping, drawing, singing, acting and doing roly-polies down a grassy hill. Instead, look around at what the adults are doing… copy them…don't be different or people will think you're dumb. Get a real job. Become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer - anything that makes people look at you in awe.

So I did.

I started taking courses I didn't want to do. I did degrees that were going to take me somewhere, but got me nowhere. I started getting assessed - for the right school, right friends, right sport, right university, right job, right partner…the right path to whatever other people told me would take me down that glorious road to success, fulfillment and happiness. And no, I didn't always get chosen. I often wasn't good enough, qualified enough, wealthy enough, talented enough, dressed well enough, intelligent enough, or trained enough.

Then I started to see the light.

What I was getting enough of was stressed, pressured, changed, controlled, confused, uncertain and misguided. The one life I had was slipping by fast. I was reaching each of "the big 0's" faster and faster. Finally I hit the big 6-0 - when bosses tell you: "you're too old to work anymore. Go find a nice pasture. Book into God's waiting room where you can pass the time until you die".

That's when I exploded.

"Enough is enough is enough!!!" It's time for me to be me - the me I always wanted to be when I was a child. It hit me that life in my 60's had much in common with life in my childhood. I didn't have to worry about a job (though I could work if I wanted to), or a mortgage (it was under control) or even a relationship (I was happily married). I could do anything I felt like doing - even if I wasn't any good at it. I could become a kid again. And this time it could be even better. I now had the benefit of a lifetime of experiences - good and bad - and even a little money on which to build my childhood dreams, skills, fun, interests and plans.

So I have become a kid again.

I am free to do as I please, when I want, with whom I want, for as long as I wish and at the pace I like. I don't have to be good at what I do. I just lose myself in the joy of the moment, laughing for the sheer pleasure of doing so, letting my imagination run wild, being the me I always wanted to be. I love it. I am learning, growing and blossoming into a truly successful person. I now know happiness is the journey, not the end and life is what you make of it, right this minute.

You wanna come out and play?

Welcome to work around the clock

One of the many unanticipated consequences of globalisation is that increasing numbers of people are working to a global schedule It means that people are working in different time zones and geographies, almost as a matter of course. (Weekend Australian Feb 16-17 2008).

This is a dramatic example of how life is now a 24/7 continuum with no clear distinction between work and personal life. Many of the people in these global jobs work from home which makes the distinction even more blurred.

It's also a good example of how people who love their job - as the various people interviewed in this article indicated - can allow the risk of burnout to go unnoticed until things go wrong. Bill Withers of Perth is quoted in the article as saying that "people can keep working to international hours only if their employers allow them some flexibility. You've got to make sure people have a life outside of business. I've been the President of the local footy club for 3 years".

I see my business as helping people to recognize the potential problems of today's 24/7 lifestyle and ensure that they get a life outside of work now, not when the health or relationship starts to crack. You wouldn't wait until you have a money problem before you develop a financial plan. Don't wait til you have a lifestyle problem before you plan to find what I call an "interest break" - a non-work interest that you enjoy so much that you forget your work and other problems for a while. Personal interests that you enjoy creating in your own time are not just fun, they could save your life.

Real enjoyment is a state of flow

You know that lovely feeling when you are so lost in an activity that time and space seem to stand still? I have been listening to a tape by a man with an unpronouncable name - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyl - on the subject of Flow. His explanation shows a clear connection between the feeling of enjoyment and the feeling of a state of flow. His views and mine have so much in common that I would love to meet and chat with him - once I can properly pronounce his name!

I often speak of the ripple effect of enjoyment flowing through into all aspects of life. Mihaly speaks of 8 characteristics of flow - a clear sense of achieving moment to moment goals, experiencing challenges that reasonably match your skills, being totally focused on the task at hand, having your mind relieved of all else around you for the time being, forgetting problems, experiencing a sense of spontaneous energy and experiencing a positive form of escape from reality. In my professional opinion, these sort of characteristics of flow are the characteristics of deep enjoyment experiences that trigger the ripple effect of enhancing all aspects of one's life. The outcomes are in the form of increased self esteem, self confidence, self belief and increased sense of self worth. They are feelings that don't go away the moment the enjoyable experience (state of flow) comes to an end. They flow on for an inestimable time, indeed for life.

When you think about it, the ripple effect that I speak of is, in fact, a process of heightened self esteem flowing through all aspects of life. I shall be adding this sort of thinking to my workshops, speaking and writings (with due acknowledgement to Mihaly).