There I was talking with our daughter about or plans for the future and admitting that we were a long way from achieving them? She then came back, quick as a flash with something I’d taught her years ago.In essence what she suggested was:
- Know where you are starting from
- Find out where you want to end up
- Develop a strategy to get you there
So don’t forget to put into practice what you taught (or teach others). Go back and re-evaluate your learning and growing processes. Teach yourself as well as others.
While walking the dog this morning I had a moment to ponder why was I walking the dog? It gets her out and gets her some exercise. I get some fresh air and some exercise, not as much as she does, but it helps me to maintain my levels of fitness or even improve them.
Point 2 for today is “exercise is not a luxury – it is a vital necessity“. I we don’t use a muscle and stretch it then it will wither and die. If we don’t exercise we will lose the ability to do so. You don’t get fit or healthy overnight and conversely you don’t get unfit or unhealthy overnight either. The process is the cumulative effect of lots of small steps and choices that add up to one or other of those options. The best book on the subject is one by Jeff Olson called the Slight Edge. Well worth a read as it will add to your understanding but remember knowledge without action is fruitless.
Point 3 comes from a long held passion of mine – to keep developing. So what new skill have I learnt this week, what new hobby have I taken up, what do I now do better than I did at the beginning of the week. So what new skill or ability am I going to learn this week.
A short but interesting note I hope on healthy living. Our youngest daughter has Down syndrome, and she is now 12 years old. Over the last 12 years I have tried to watch her diet and tried to give her good healthy food. This is not always the case as children have their own minds as to what they like to eat, and one of her problems is crisps.
I don’t want to go into a lot of details about her diet, but what I wanted to draw your attention to is healthy eating . Children with down syndrome has an extra lot of free radical being produced, but we all have free radical which can cause a lot of damage to our bodies.
Looking at Doctor Steve Nugent recent flyer he draws our attention to the fact how fruit and vegetables have declined dramatically over the years in nutrients. Today we would need to eat 53 peaches to 2 peaches in 1951. Wow ! That is where vitamins and mineral supplements come into being.
Please add you comments and we can have a chat about it in our call on Monday.
See you then Hazel (one of the team)
Whilst on holiday – a rare fine day in a wet summer – I came across something that I’ve know for years but had forgotten. How nice it is to receive a handwritten letter or postcard? When was the last time you made the effort to hand-write a letter? I used to write almost every day to my wife and children and some years I was away for 200 + days/year. Those letters are treasured and often re read and often bring about a smile or tears but the still produce a response.
Text messages and e mails and twitter don’t have the same effect. E mails bring me to tears sadly but all for the wrong reasons.
One company leading the swing back to letter writing is Papernation and the blog that goes with the site is always worth a peek.
As always these posts come with a challenge – who are we going to write to today or this week? Tell us what happened as a result. Go on encourage someone today!
Walking, listening, hearing, reading, understanding: they are all part of the process of communication and if one goes awry then the whole process breaks down.
Although we’ve been bombarded with new methods of communication in the last few years (e mails, websites, twitter, facebook etc) the essence of communication is still a 2 way communication – an exchange.
Now looking at the process, it seems so simple but it contains many places where the flow of information can and does break down.
However, lets look at the crafting of the initial or outgoing message.
- it has to be in the right language -
- ever tried to talk with someone who doesn’t speak your language or for that matter different cultures. In Jamaica they speak a dialect very close to English but to the untrained ear it is gibberish – it is called Patwa (apologies to Jamaicans).
- many elderly people think that twitter is what some birds do when sitting on a wire.
- The message has to be clearly expressed
- mumbled speech is almost impossible to understand
- words without a logical sequence don’t often mean much
- The message needs to be understandable by the person its intended for.
- all to frequently I’ve said something that I think conveys what I mean but the person hearing it might infer or understand something way different from my intended meaning.
- sadly this is often a feature of communication within relationships that are struggling
Our entire fabric of social interaction involves communication. Governments, families, friends, lovers, all depend upon some form of communication and the noise of aimless communication in the world right now is a symptom of the breakdown of the fabric of society itself. We need to become better communicators, better listeners and better at hearing.
I’d appreciate your views on the whole communication subject.
In our weekly team call we talked about what is important to each of us and the resultant discussion was profound in many ways. So what follows is a discussion around what keeps you “ON MESSAGE” AND “WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF BED ON A COLD WINTER MORNING”?
Here are a few questions to prompt the discussions:
- What is it that you are in the process of creating and why?
- Who are you looking to add value to and why?
- What keeps you going when things get hard?
- What are the successes that you’ve had? Share them if appropriate.
- What does your journey look like and where do you see it taking you in the future?
To post a comment simply go to the post and scroll down and insert your thoughts and observations – and keep checking back to see what’s developing. The self portrait is in one of my more creative moments!!!
Imagine the scene ‘on holiday’ and popped into Starbucks in Hereford for a quick coffee and a chance to check e mail. Met a guy in there called Stuart Addis who turned out to be an enterprising businessman with a great offer. How about fixed price Accountancy services – we were so impressed that we’ve extended his offer to all our colleagues – click the following link to download his fixed price accounting offer. It all starts at £99 for a self employed sole trader. By the way not only is the coffee great but you can also get a free coffee when you buy a bag of coffee beans – ask when you order – you know me – can’t resist a bargain.
About 5 years ago i was reading a book by a well known author and came across a word that I didn’t know the meaning of. It was such an important word and so central to the writing that I had to stop and go and find out what the word really meant. The word was Maven and Malcolm Gladwell, in his book the tipping point uses it as a descriptor of someone who has an unusually detailed understanding of a particular subject. Mavens are relatively uncommon but well worth seeking out as they are the ones that are either early adopters or trend formers. They are not people who collect other people’s information and present it as their own but real visionaries.
If you are in business, running an organisation or in a position of influence my strong advice is to seek out Mavens.
Now about the book – it is all about people and events that start changes a bit like viruses. It is one of my top 10 books and well worth the £3 price. The Tipping Point is also available as an audiobook – great if you spend time driving – from £6.
A short but interesting note I hope on healthy living. Our youngest daughter has Down syndrome, and she is now 12 years old. Over the last 12 years I have tried to watch her diet and tried to give her good healthy food. This is not always the case as children have their own minds as to what they like to eat, and one of her problems is crisps.
I not wanting to go into a lot of details about her diet, but what I wanted to draw your attention to is healthy eating . Children with down syndrome have an lot of free radical being produced, but we all have free radical which can cause a lot of damage to our bodies.
Looking at Doctor Steve Nugent recent flyer he draws our attention to the fact how fruit and vegetables have declined dramatically over the years in nutrients. Today we would need to eat 53 peaches to 2 peaches in 1951. Wow ! That is where vitamins and mineral supplements come into being.
Please add you comments and we can have a chat about it in our call on Monday.
For more information about Down Syndrome and Nutrition click here
See you then Hazel (one of the team)
On this mornings weekly team call we talked about the concept of ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ and I used the examples of the Freedom Writers from Long Beach and the film Pay It forward.
In the Freedom Writer’s film Erin Gruwell, a newly qualified teacher, takes on a class of ‘no-hoper’s and in the course of 2 years begins a movement, the freedom writers Foundation, that is definitely changing the world they live in and the world much further away – This film is in my top 10 and is a must watch.
In the other film, Kevin Spacey, challenges his class to come up with an idea that will change the world. One student suggests that if they get the Chinese population to jump up and down at the same time that it would knock the world off its axis. While the star of the film, Haley Joel Osment, comes up with a concept where he would do something that would help 3 people (it was something they couldn’t do for themselves) and then hope that they in turn would pay it forward.
My challenge for the next few weeks is to exercise the idea of Random Acts of Kindness – do something for someone that is of no benefit to you but makes someone smile, helps them values them, inspires them.
It needn’t be large, often the small things are best, but see what you can come up with and post your experiences on the site.
Go on – make someone smile today!
Having rebuilt the aspexsoftware website and and posted it on-line we weren’t surprised to experience a few teething problems which needed quick attention. But one unexpected problem had us puzzling for hours and it’s remedy should be of interest to anybody who is using a Firefox or Chrome internet browser on their computer.
The Firefox and Chrome browsers are promoted by their makers as being safer, faster and easier to use, and these are compelling reasons to use them on your computer.
However, we’ve been disappointed with the quality of TEXT displayed within both these browsers and especially on the home page of our new website!
So how did we resolve the problem and start getting great quality text using the Firefox and Chrome browers?
The solution:
It turns out that there is a feature Windows XP that enables something called ClearType on your computer. I think Macs have been using this for years, but on Win XP the feature is switched off.
Of course, Microsoft get their Internet Explorer Browser to switch it on when you are surfing the web their browser!
So how can you switch activate the Clear Type feature on your computer and change your Firefox and Chrome text from ‘It’ll do’ to ‘amazing clear to look at and easy to read’? Continue Reading…
