Thursday 24 March 2011

And I said "No, no, no"...

This afternoon I had to do some things which don't come easily to me. I had to say "no", I had to tell someone I didn't like them (though I did like their top) and I had to walk away from someone. No, I didn't have a bad day at the office. Quite the contrary. A great day - thanks in no small part to the seminar which I took part in this afternoon - which these exercises were part of. Along with learning to channel our Inner Bond Girls of course.

Designed to help the participants become more charismatic, the seminar gave me real insight into how our behaviours can really impact those around us. I found it strangely liberating to say "no" and not feel bad about it; I rather relished being able to apologise and not cringe in shame, and there was even a strange pleasure in being able to practice not caring if people liked me. More importantly, I learned real and usable techniques to re-train my brain and change my behaviours. Even more importantly, I had fun while doing it. Enjoyable and real learning. Now that's powerful stuff.

So if you  hear the word "no" pass my lips more often, or you see me walking away and not looking back; well, that will just be me getting my charisma on.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Seeing the stepping stones

So here's the thing. Most days I muddle on through, using only the part of my brain I need to get through the particular task on hand, whether that's putting together a paper at work, doing the ironing, or even updating facebook. I'm ashamed to admit it, but what I don't do enough of, is think. Really think. In the deep and meaningful life-examining sense, not the hmm wonder what I can make for dinner sense.

Today was an exception. Eye-openingly thought-provoking. And no, no-one was waving a big sign saying "Erm life to Jules, time to think!" But they might as well have been. So many things are happening to so many of my friends, and I didn't really put it all together in my mind until today..
...like one of my favourite people in the world ever leaving my team to take up a new fabulous opportunity
...like another of my PressGang gang going off to have an adventure in far flung exotic location
...like a close friend soon to go off on maternity leave
...and another who's starting her own business soon...

You get the picture. Everyone is doing big stuff. They're all moving on to the next stepping stone. And I'm not. Not yet anyway. But that's probably because I've been waiting for someone else to do something that impacts me, something to happen that will make a change, just waiting. No more waiting for a passing tide to carry me on. Time to jump onto the next stepping stone all by myself.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Pancakes, pain, poshness and pjs

Today is a day of celebration - in many ways. In no particular order, it's the birthday of a few of my friends, it's Shrove Tuesday, and it's International Women's Day - so Happy Birthday, Happy Pnacake Eating, and - and- what is the appropriate greeting for IWD, exactly?!

But for me, the celebration came in the form of a much smaller, unnoticeable to others, but so meaningful to me event. Having had the worst run of luck health/accident -wise since just before Christmas, I've pretty much woken up in pain every morning. Thankfully of late, that pain was more of an annoying twinge than the agony of a few months ago. However, this morning I woke up, and no pain. Looks like the recovery predicted as end of March by the Docs, is on track. Love that.

The pain-free day wasn't all that made me smile today. On train home, I was speaking on phone to a work colleague, and as I was putting the phone away in my bag, the young girl sitting across from me looked up and said, "Ah hope ye don't mind me sayin, bit you're dead posh bit, in't ye?"  Erm, no? Surely the fact I'm from Larkhall automatically means I couldn't ever be posh?! Anyway, it turns out she'd been for an interview and her broad Larkhall accent had proved a hindrance as far as the would-be employers were concerned. It worries me that these kids are not being taught in school that they need to learn to adjust their speech to the situation. No one is saying they have to pretend to be what they're not, but they should be able to articulate more clearly and adopt a more neutral tone when it's needed. So they can text, IM, tweet, email and facebook all they like but they're soon not going to be able to speak at all. Ok,rant over and teacher Jules put back in her box now.

Last thing to celebrate today - pjs. For this girl, there is little that compares to the feeling of getting in from a long day, out of horrid dark cold weather, to get into cosy pjs. To me, they represent home and freedom from worries. All praise for the pjs.