Looking At Life Through The Eyes Of A Child

My most favourite nephew in the world is staying with me this week from Glasgow. He also happens to be my only nephew in the world, but that makes him more, not less special. Suffice to say, we’ve been having a lot of fun.

As I wrote elsewhere, James has the smartest way of looking at the world of anybody I know. I’ve been paying attention to the things that define him in the hope I can learn a thing or two.

Excitement

The term “zest for life” sounds like a cliché around this wee guy. He whoops and whirls and has this take-your-breath-away enthusiasm for things that’s just so compelling. We’ll be chilling in the garden, or walking along our little countryside pathways, when he’ll spot something. A kite flying directly overhead. A rabbit darting into a hedge. The wild ponies on the hill. His entire being lights up as he sees it and stops in his tracks mesmerised.

His sense of wonder in things is so refreshing.

And it makes me consider how much we take for granted in our adult world. How retrieving a sense of awe would feed the child in us.

Fun

My living room currently resembles an art studio. I’ve got quirky hand drawn posters of my village in one corner and a cast of toys lined up in another. My iPhone, Mac and music library have been commandeered for video making purposes. Not kidding, but this child is teaching me how to use iMovie :)

He squeals out loud when he finds something funny. There’s no self-judgement or monitoring.

And he causes me to think about how much – or, indeed, how little – we allow ourselves to unreservedly indulge our playfulness. How we sometimes just need to relax and allow a belly-laugh to knock something crazy into shape.

Spontaneity

Can’t do something we imagined we might? No problem for James, there’s always some other exciting possibility of where to direct his attention. Can’t do that walking route you’d mapped out because it’s raining? Let’s make another video, or even go into town and watch Toy Story 3.

“Holidays are for chilling,” he told me the other day as I was obviously getting a little too structured in my planning of things to do. So I backed off and let him chill.

His approach made me reflect on how often, when things don’t work out as we imagined, we get caught up in our disappointment, instead of putting our attention where things can work out for us.

“Are you having fun?” I asked him today.

“Yes,” he said.

“More so than when you’re at school?” I asked. Perhaps I was looking for admiration. Perhaps putting onto him my expectations that school would be boring, holidays not. Whatever, his reply surprised me.

“No,” he said. Huh.

“So, you like school and holidays equally?” I said.

“Yes,” he said.

“You’re pretty happy with life in general, whatever you’re doing?” I said.

“Uh-huh.”

“What is it about life that you so enjoy, then?” I said.

He gave this question some serious thought. A flash of inspiration suddenly caught his face.

“Basically, I enjoy anything you can get yourself stuck into,” he said, smiling widely.

Flippin’ ten year old wisdom. You’ve got to love it!

If you found this post useful, and would like to know more about my work and about possibly working with me, just click here.

A Review Of A Different Kind Of Work – The #7 Links Challenge

Ben Lumley across at 6aliens drew my attention to the 7 Links Challenge that’s sweeping the blog world right now, thanks to Problogger.

The main aim of doing this challenge is to create a list post that highlights some of the posts in your archives to new readers (a sneeze page), that links out to another blog and that hopefully is a little fun (and not too much work) to do.

A Different Kind of Work just turned a year old, so what a great time to step back and look at things. I’ve really enjoyed putting this post together and would love your feedback on it.

My First Post

A Different Kind Of Blog

Can’t you just feel the euphoria in this post?! I know I certainly do as I read it back and connect with the part of me that had just cracked the technology involved in getting a WordPress blog set up. Now I smile at myself, of course, because it all feels so easy.

The Post I Enjoyed Writing The Most

How To Make Sure You Never Get Ahead

Michael Martine, who was fabulous in helping me get this blog off the tracks initially, told me that he thought I should use my wicked sense of humor on the blog. And so, I channeled it into this post, which I have to say was a complete blast to write.

A Post Which Had Great Discussion

Split Work-Life Personality? Join The Club

This was a fairly open and contentious post in which I shared some of the different bits of my own identity around work, not all of which are an obvious fit with one another by traditional or even logical standards. Lots of people resonated. Others saw professional compromise. All views were welcome.

A Post On Someone Else’s Blog I Wish I’d Written

Is Spiritual Business A Contradiction In Terms?

Written by the amazing Mark Silver this post appeared on Copyblogger. I’ve had the experience for years that a lot of work can be soulless. But how to get the spirit back into it without resorting to new age woo-woo language and completely disenfranchising the mainstream? Mark cracked that question here.

Your Most Helpful Post

10+1 Steps To Make Coaching Work For You

I think lots of people would like to do coaching, but as a client don’t really know how to navigate themselves through it. This post gave pretty concrete advice about being a powerful coaching consumer.

A Post With A Title You’re Proud Of

Unhappy At Work? A Different Look At This Weeks Job Satisfaction Statistics

I like this title because it summed up the post really well. Also, although it was written this January, it still drives most search traffic to the blog.

The Post I Wish More People Had Read

Work Detox: 5 Coaching Questions That’ll Change Your Life

This was one of my earliest posts and, although I’d sharpen up the style significantly now, I thought the content was better than the response indicated. Still, it’s all about learning!

So, some personal reflections and a bit of reading to get to off to a good start this week. Don’t forget to let me know what you think. And if there’s a topic you’d like to see me writing more about, let me know!

If you found this post useful, and would like to know more about my work and about possibly working with me, just click here.

Workshops: The Most Powerful Form Of Coaching?

This week I've been talking to a number of people who are attending the Work Life Balance Workshop I'm running on September 24th. Besides asking me about what to expect, the conversation has often moved into questions about my motivation for creating the event, and why I chose a workshop format at all. I decided ...

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The Last Summer Holiday You’ll Need?

Did you see the recent research that reckoned it takes only two days back at work for all of the benefits of being on holiday to disappear? How sad is that? Still, it echoes a lot of what I hear and see around me: people completely frazzled ahead of the school holidays, ...

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Getting Ahead By Not Being A Cliché

Meet Eduard Ezeanu. A regular commentor here on the blog, today he's giving us some fabulous, tangible advice on how we can be extraordinary. One thing which I find amusing is how most people expect to get out of the ordinary success and satisfaction in their careers, without doing or being themselves out ...

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Wanted: Smart Professionals Ready For Better Work Life Balance

Kickstart Your Life This Autumn Join me in London on the 24th of September for The Worklife Makeover Workshop, a serious power day, guaranteed to give more shape, focus and energy to your work and to your life. Perfect if you're heading into the summer ...

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Doing Your Real Work

Today I'm delighted to welcome the super-talented Tara Sophia Mohr. Her beautiful piece challenges us to consider what our real work is - and how we can do it, ...

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The Vocation Myth

Lots of people get sucked into the current new age wisdom that we all have one unique thing we're called to do in life. They spend years, not to mention thousands of pounds, on the ...

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Want To Learn Faster? Stand Next To The Master

On Saturday morning I went to my regular Bodypump class. I was a little later than usual in getting there. Walking into the studio to set up my equipment I couldn't help noticing that the other participants had already done so in a cluster ...

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The Purpose Of Doom And Gloom

I've had a curious experience this week that I wanted to share. It was all the more surprising as I'd just spent some deeply happy days unplugging and enjoying the successes of the first half of the year. And back ...

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