I’m sitting here, conflicted, with what to share with you as I type…
I’ve been quiet for 3 weeks because I’ve been in Thailand with the family
Lovely holiday, and from that trip, there are lots of stories to share
Lessons, insights, cool cultural things
Whether it’s the elephant sanctuary, the remote islands, the warm people, and so much more,
But a different topic, and something that’s more prevalent in the time since being back, is the topic of “reframing”
Reframing: how to look at the same thing, differently, so you get a different outcome
There’s always silver linings in every experience, we just have to try to find it for our own sanity…
Here’s my example from today:
If I wanted to look at my day so far, in a negative way, here’s how I could share what’s happened so far:
- Had to wake up again at 615 today – I really like my sleep, so why do I keep doing this to myself??
- I watched a pretty boring 2 hour formula 1 race
- I then drove to two very distance cafes so I could write to you, only to find them both closed (staff shortages)
- Once I did find somewhere, that’s usually nice, I just ate a pretty average duck friend rice
- Which was handed to me just as I was getting into the flow of writing
- AND whilst I was eating the said average duck, my car alarm started going off outside
- And to top all of that off (it’s only 130pm at the moment), I’m going to have to be an uber tonight to kids for trick or treating (or I may have to be at home and keep answering the door, as kids try and take sweats out of my own sweet jar!@!) – either way, I likely won’t get a share of any of the chocolate…
If you read that, like that, it sounds like a pretty crappy day
And it’s all true too
And yes – Proper first world problems
(Which when you only need to work 1-2 hours each day, it seems your day is filled with first world problems!!)
But
I can reframe all of that,
Everything that’s happened so far today
and I almost always do,
Why?
Because choosing the right words for the conversation in our own mind is one of the very best self motivators we have
So here’s how I actually look at today:
- The radio show slot I do every day (at 645) went really well, and likely I entertained quite a few thousand people, even before my first coffee in my day
- It’s the first time in ages I got to watch the Formula 1, as normally the timezones don’t line up, so whilst there weren’t any crashes on the first corner (am I the only one who looks forward to that??), I still got to watch it!
- Remembering it’s a Monday for me (here in NZ), so my team and clients (mostly US) are taking the weekend to focus on themselves, so my day is just for me, and I get to choose what I do
- I chose to practice singing (signed up with a new vocal coach last week and he gave me a pretty hard song to practice – loads of learning there!!) – so an hour of practice as the F1 was finishing worked really nicely
- Whilst one of the cafes was closed, it was lakeside, and I’ll visit there a lot more in the future for when I feel like extra inspiration! (Love my water views)
- it also sucks for the cafe owners that they’re closed due to staff shortages, so empathising with them there
- Whilst the duck I’ve just eaten was average, I don’t want to talk ill of the duck, it gave its all
(and there was a big bunch of veggies with the meal, so that helps too!) - The car alarm going off: That showed me what my tech could do, as I got notified on my watch too, and all was ok (an over-sensitive Tesla perhaps?)
- The break in the flow with the food arriving actually helped me think through about the biggest takeaway from today (reframing) versus what I was going to share
- I’m going to use the next wee while to get another coffee, write a few more thoughts out (on how to leverage yourself more), with the aim of course to help more people
- And lets put thought to trick or treating tonight, and what can I wear to join in the with the kids (I think I’ve still got the killer chef outfit in the cupboard)…
Quite different isn’t it?
Both the exact same day, but you feel quite different after reading each of the lists
And that’s important
It’s what we need to do when it’s our job to drive ourselves forward,
likely each and every day,
And use this as a reminder: if you ever catch ourselves on the negative side of the ledger:
Remember,
you’re your biggest cheerleader
What you put in, you get out
Make sure you put good stuff in
And then the magic can really happen…
Keep being you, and keep on the positive side of the ledger…
Jamie
p.s. I’m still helping entrepreneurs, who are parents, work smarter in their days, so they can spend more time with their kids, and on things they love to do – if you want help with that, let me know, I’m just going to keep walking the talk, it’s the best way I know how, to show how it works…