Busy life working what about play?

A busy time in my family life means that posting here has been rather reduced. However whilst contemplating how things were last night I realised that the modern notion of "work/life balance" was completely wrong.

If you enjoy working it's not the negative that it is often supposed to be. So my perspective is that we should have a better work/play balance.

In that equation I'm doing too much working and not enough playing. How about you?

November 14th-Life

I seem to have loaded myself with more work than seems reasonable for one man. However promises have been made and deadlines are not very flexible, so reading, TV and similar activities will be off the agenda for the next couple of weeks.

My evening appointments calendar continues to get busier, it's nice to be able to work with new people every few weeks, it challenges my abilities in a very constructive way.

A former Hypnotherapy student of mine got in touch this week. After a couple of years of doing other things, he has set himself up in practice and crafted a new web site to go with it. If you are in the Swindon area then take a look at the site www.zen-hypno.co.uk which belongs to Tim Butt. Good luck Tim.

One of my sons took himself off to the USA this week. When he wanted to extend his stay by a few days he suddenly became aware of the bizarre world of airline ticket pricing; a world where a single ticket to somewhere can cost more than the return to the same destination. I think it may have been an expensive learning process for him.

David Walliams on depression

BBC Radio 4 carries a long running program called Desert Islands Discs. The program invites the guest to take away their favourite recordings to an imaginary desert island.

Comedian David Walliams recently featured on the show and as well as talking about the music he spoke candidly about is struggles with depression and self esteem.

The depression has been a feature of his life since childhood and comedy was one way of attempting to deal with it. Perhaps what is even more interesting is that in spite of sometimes severe depression he has been spectacularly successful in his career with the hit show Little Britain which also stars Matt Lucas.

Depression and its compatibility with the workplace is a hot topic at the moment with TV adverts in the UK reminding viewers that nursing legend Florence Nightingale suffered with depression; and still made huge changes to the practice of nursing.

Although depression may be compatible with a sucessful career it seems that many employers would prefer not to take the risk. On the Desert Island Discs show Walliams was asked what luxury item he would take with him, he replied he would take a gun to shoot himself in case he got too lonely. Perhaps it's easy to understand why employers are reluctant to take the chance when each job opening has so many applicants; but that still does not necessarily make it the right decision.

Do you keep a diary?

Keeping a diary is something that many people do in their teen years as they transition through those turbulent and emotional times.

In adult years however, few keep a diary and it can be so useful as a way of understanding our own growth and personal development. Often the diary is a repository of unresolved feelings but what if you use it for your work or business life.

This post comes from the 4N business networking site:

As a resolution for 2009 I decided to keep a diary but instead of chatting to myself about life I decided to use it as a business diary.

So now I get out the fabbo pad I chose and my fountain pen and 'talk' through how i am feeling about business stuff - things i need to do, things that have gone well etc

It has lead to a lot more getting done, even sometimes putting down the pen and going and doing them right away as well as ideas germinating or getting thoughly pulled apart.

Won't work for everyone but my be worth a try especially if you are a sole trader.

Would be interested in hearing what happens if anyone else gives it a go

You can read the full post by following this link.

What a great idea, use a diary to reflect on your work life as a way of understanding where your personal and business barriers are. It will give you the perspective to deal more effectively with the challenging times that we live in at present.