Welcome to 2010!

Welcome to the first post of 2010. There have been many thoughts/ideas/concepts pass through my head since New Year's Day, but I haven't been able to jot them down, even though I carry a notebook for that purpose.

Rather than try to catch up and write a small blog post for each of these things, I thought I'd summarise each in a one-liner so you can see where my brain was going. Sometimes, I wonder myself!

Being Healthy

This train of thought is a common one, and accompanies me to work most days. It follows patterns such as, how can I get more energy to exercise more (A: exercise more!), where can I find a good Yoga class, the fact that my waistline hasn't changed despite changing diet and exercise habits, how alcohol is bad and good and bad all at the same time, how I should try to give up alcohol (hence FebFast - see later post), wondering how much good liposculpture costs (for the 'muffin top') etc.

The purpose of money and working, hierarchy, and a bit of communism.

This train of thought happened one day on the way to work, after I'd bought a coffee and began thinking about the Star Trek universe where money is more-or-less obsolete, and we "buy" things on a sort of bartering for what we do or what we contribute to society. For example, "in exchange for a coffee, I'll give you some workplace counselling and business process engineering help".

Why a lot of bad/careless drivers seem to be women with children in the car.

This one is a bit of a conundrum, in that wouldn't one drive more carefully when one's children are in the car, but at the same time, because the children are in the car, it's probably why one drives erratically, fast, and takes risks, probably to get home quicker.

Cynicism and love

Let's just leave that one, and put on "What is Love?" by Haddaway instead.

What if I was to look for a new job?

This one is a tough one. I have been here for 17 years this year, and while I often think about whether it's time to move on "just because" I can never think of a job or workplace situation that would interest me. Other than being paid to stay home of course. Suffice to stay that the people with whom I work are all far to good to leave, and the work is kinda fun too.

Random BlackBerry thoughts

I am happy with the decision to go back to a BlackBerry/CrackBerry as my primary phone/smart phone. As a corporate user, it suits my lifestyle a bit more, however I do often still carry the iPhone for music, games, twitter at home etc. A big influencing factor was buying the BlackBerry Bold 9700 which is a really nice piece of hardware, even though the OS is fairly similar to the other BBs I own/have owned. There are also some cool accessories coming out, such as the Bluetooth Music Gateway (got it - pretty cool), and Bluetooth presenter (which I will have to avail myself of).

How much I love my car

Yes, the age-old phenomenon where a man forms an emotional relationship with a four-wheeled conveyance, with due acknowledgement that some women suffer the same.

How cool is that blue sky, wow, that house went up/down quickly, where is that swimming pool again

Just some random ADD moments!



There were a lot more, and I even contemplated carrying a voice recorder with me (wait, I do, it's next to that notebook), but have forgotten them. Perhaps I'll do a summary post like this occasionally when there's enough to blog about.

Mindfulness etc

I've just been doing a bit of bin-diving to rescue my copy of last week's Sunday Life magazine from the recycle bin. Sarah Wilson of Masterchef Australia writes a column and last week's was on the subject of mindfulness; a take on the 'living in the present' and 'being present' perspective. It's a good article because it did get me thinking again about the way I live my life and indeed the way I live each minute.

Sitting here in the kitchen after reading the article again, I looked at the clock and thought "three hours until I have to leave for the Osteopath - that will go in no time." As the thought had rattled through my conscious brain, I then thought "actually, no, that's heaps of time, three hours worth of cleaning or ironing (as an example)." In case you're wondering, I'm not a clean or ironing freak. The article, like many we often read throughout our lifetime did good to reset the tought patterns, as we seem to need occasionally.

Several years ago, I worked with an inspiring Project Manager who had studied human behaviour and some psycho-analysis over the years. She would often say things that at the time seems a bit cliched but years later we find ourselves quoting this person as we realise that did actually mean something at the time. To clarify, we did think they were good at the time too! Three of these 'phrases-of-wisdom' that I still try to remember are:

• Be present
• What's the purpose
• When the lift door opens in the morning, I'm at work, and home is left at home (and vice versa)

In many a meeting, I remind myself to "be present" which in a way is a take on the mindfulness. The aim is to put all other thoughts away, stop thinking about what's for dinner, or what life might be like if xyz had happened, and concentrate on the meeting. It's amazing that when I do this, as simple as it sounds, the meeting seems to go much better and both the other attendees and myself get the most of out of.

Relevant to my line of work, but possibly can be used elsewhere is the response "what's the purpose?" In the my world, when working with a client replacing an old, ageing Health IT system with a new and current one, we get asked (or told) that the new system must do this, that, or the other. The same can be said for business process. One of the responses we were taught was to ask back "what's the purpose?" because often the person requiring whatever they require cannot articulate exactly why. It sometimes comes down to "because we've always done it this way" and no thought has been given to exactly why or whether it's still needed.

Driving to work is a good thinking time, even when the drive is only about 15 minutes (sorry, too far to walk in the morning!). Once I get work work, lock the car and walk up the stairs, I force myself to leave non-work stuff in the carpark, and concentrate on work. While that's often easier said than done, because calls and emails come through during the day, the aim is that while I'm at work, I concentrate on work, and when I leave work, work stuff is left behind for the next day. It's about being mindful, or present at work. I've had people work with me and for me in my team who quite obviously don't understand this, some even after discussing it in team meetings. Calls are made, bills are paid, fellow colleagues are distracted by these, or what they're packing to go on holiday. It doesn't just affect yourself, it affects those around you, allowing others to be mindful and present as well. Training family members to call between 8 and 8:30am or after 6pm unless it's urgent also helped me here too.

The mindfulness lark can apply in so many different situations, both professional and personal, and it's been tough, and in a couple of cases, just about impossible to get others at work thinking the same way, but the biggest challenge is one's self. Start working the change at home and see how different the day becomes.