Captain’s Log 5 June 2022

Can you guess what I’ve been watching?

Yep. Janeway on Voyager. It’s been so long since I’ve watched it, it’s like I’m seeing it for the first time.

In the last episode ‘Year of Hell’ (it was a 2-parter), I thought if Janeway could update her log each day in the middle of Kremin airspace, surely I could manage a blog post each week! I guess the freedom she has that I don’t, is that mine is public whereas hers is an archive for her superiors and history.

Anyway, perhaps if I think of it more like a (b)log than any thing else maybe it will be easier.

This weekend went well. I spent some of it working. Yesterday I picked up printing and dropped it in the city for the trainers for the week. And today I finished off a report for a client that had been hanging around my to-do list 4 weeks longer than it should have done.

So yes I worked but I did sleep in so I think at least half counts as a weekend off. Maybe?

We also did day of our week 1 of our new running program. I keep typing in Deadly Runners! The new name is Mitchelton RAW (Runners and Walkers). We are training 3 times a week – Tuesday and Thursday 6.15am and Sunday 4.00pm.

It went well. I really did feel it on the second set though. That was a bit tough. But I’m lifting my feet a little higher now, and right at the end I remembered to move my hips more. Hopefully I’ll get used to it and my running will be improved.

Today Charlie said she couldn’t imagine running 5km. I know how she feels, but it most certainly is possible. My first full 5km run was at the Twilight Running Festival at UQ a few years back. I ran it with Toni and Helen. We trained so hard for that event. But running all the way felt like such an amazing achievement. I will always remember how hard it was and the different stages of running pain. I imagine it to be like the 7 stages of grieving. Only is more like

  1. Yay
  2. Oh crap.
  3. You’ve got to be kidding me
  4. I’m dying
  5. Whose f-ing idea was this anyway
  6. If I survive heads will roll
  7. I did it! When’s the next one!

lol. It makes me laugh everytime I think of it. I have started a mini- list of 2023 events I’d like to try. This year I was supposed to do the Simpson Desert (it was this weekend). But I think, if we can find a date for everyone, we will do the IMF Virtual Run in NAIDOC week. That will be fun. We’ll go from there then.

Here’s to weekends and plans. Half weekends, and out-thereb plans.

Note to self and readers: first post written on the phone in over a decade. Checking out all the features. Not bad but will need to fix up formatting later.

Image ID: A view of Brisbane’s City Hall and King George Square from Wesley Centre, Ann Street.

IndigenousX Anthology

For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.” Thomas King (2003)

Books are dangerous “to indigenous (sic) readers: 1) they do not reinforce our values, actions, customs, culture and identity; 2) when they tell us only about others they are saying that we do not exist; 3) they may be writing about us but are writign tings which are untrue; and 4) they are writing about us but saying negative and insensitive things which tell us that we are not good.” Patricia Grace quoted in Smith 1999 35

Ten years ago this month, Luke Pearson established IndigenousX. One of the first Twitter rotation curation accounts in the world, surely it’s one of the most successful in the world.

Continue reading IndigenousX Anthology

Building a business blog

I can’t possibly blog. I’ve got nothing to write about. What would I say? 

When I mention blogging (which I do quite frequently) these are the comments I generally get. But if you are already posting text, links, images and video on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter, then you’re already doing it! You’re blogging on micro-blogging platforms. And many of you have been doing it for a long time.

Continue reading Building a business blog

Why did it take so long to get to growth?

I want to get this out of my head. Sometimes in live events your brain decides to in a tangent you’ve not prepared for. Does anyone else experience that?

So I was on a panel yesterday and I’m not happy with my performance, multiple reasons. But the first one is one I consistently f-up, and need to get my head around it.

It’s about my business journey. I said something like – I started my first business in 1994, but wasn’t really ‘full-time’ in it until 2018 after my youngest finished school. Since 2018 it’s grown ten-fold. So really, the ‘growth’ phase is only 4 or 5 years old.

Continue reading Why did it take so long to get to growth?

Find the small spaces

This is not a post about scheduling every second of the day. It’s not about filling your day from the moment you wake up til when you sleep.

This is a post about how sometimes, the perfect chunk of time never comes, but don’t let that stop you.

In my last time management post I talked about how in an ideal world I would have full days to get things done, but that never happens in reality. In that post I talked about how breaking big jobs into bite-sized chunks, putting each stage into an Action Plan can help you get to your goals.

Continue reading Find the small spaces

A fresh blogging challenge – build a business blog.

I’m not sure who suggested it, but sometime late last year or earlier this year someone asked if we could look more at blogging for our Tuesday night sessions for One Business. OMGosh.

That one innocent request has been about, and I’m not overexaggerating here, about 30 solid hours of work for me. When they asked, I was like cool, have heaps of stuff already written, I know this topic, how hard can it be. Yeah right.

Continue reading A fresh blogging challenge – build a business blog.

Disaster-viewing (again) #QldFloods 2022

As I type this we are in the midst (middle?) of a major flood here in South East Queensland. The rain has been consistent and heavy.

I think it started Friday (today is Sunday), and it’s not let up since. We spent hours on Friday night prepping – digging trenches in the yard, and setting up buckets under the kitchen ceiling. We’ve used every towel, doona, blanket, and sheet to try to keep the leaks under contol. But thank goodness (at this stage) we still have power, internet, running water, and dry beds to sleep in.

Many people in the region have not been so lucky.

Continue reading Disaster-viewing (again) #QldFloods 2022

How do you eat an elephant?

At the start of the year in One Business, we looked at goal setting and time management. I created a Business Goals Action Plan Tool that involves dividing our year-long goals into quarters and months.

Starting the year off looking at business goals is reflective of my recent obsession with managing my time. With my increasing commitments, my time during the week is even more scarce and precious. And while I do have moments of OMFG! what on earth am I doing, I am just bloody doing it.

I’m not sure this is a universal truth, but I have been recently thinking:

If you don’t manage time, you will never have enough of it.

I see other people who do not manage time who have way fewer daily commitments than me really struggle to get what they want done. (And are stressed about it)

This is why I’ve begun to think about the importance of managing time.

Continue reading How do you eat an elephant?

Blog update

Do I do this once a year? It’s been over 24 months since I last posted and so much has happened. No room for a list of the high and low lights. I’m doing a session in a few weeks on blogging for business, so what better time to get back into it? No time like the present?

Can I just say? The new WordPress block thing – man that is going to take time to get used to.