One thing predominated my tweets last week. And there was more besides…
The main thing? Infectious, overwhelming, inspiring enthusiasm. And the opposite, which just serves to further prove the power of positive.
Lovely Looe!
Many self help books tell you ‘How to never work again’, or similar. The best merely say to do something you absolutely love doing is the way forward – so that working doesn’t feel like work. I’m lucky enough to be in that position. But I do become very excited when I see proof of it all around me whilst on holiday. Firstly, Pauline the conductor on the little one carriage train that tootles between Looe and Liskeard on the Looe Valley line in East Cornwall. First she traveled through the train asking if anyone wanted to get off at the Halts – request stops – as she had to inform the driver (another woman – Train Driver just sounds like a male preserve?). Then she took our fares and chatted. Half way through the journey, she has to jump out of the train to change the points as we travel slowly up hill, zig-zagging. I asked her about this as we arrived at Liskeard. “Yes. It is great fun. I’m just so lucky to be able to do this”. She didn’t call it ‘my job’. It was just an endless piece of fun to her. Then Richard of the Plough in Duloe. He told us excitedly of his plans for refurbishment of his restaurant pub. You just know it is going to succeed. And the food was great too (see @canmencook) . And then the opposite. A miserable barman in a pub in Cawsand. Everything was negative. Everything.
Some people are drains. Some are radiators. I know which I prefer. And research suggests that being so negative actually shortens life span. Smile – live longer?
Had a quote from Disraeli too – you can get your WILYs from TV! We were watching a serial from BBC, 1978 – Ian McShane as Disraeli (as far from Lovejoy as one can imagine). “Complete honesty is often mistaken for political cunning”. Isn’t that just fab?
Daffodil Festival at Mawgan In Meneage church showed the power of volunteers and gifting. 8200 donated daffodils arranged by an army of floristic arrangers – and making over £5000 in 3 days. Uplifting.
…plus 8119…
Soft Skills for Hard Times 
Hi Phil,
I think you have hit on one of the most fundamental differences between us and our parents’ generation – that we can actually afford to choose to do something we enjoy to earn a living. I can remember being very saddened in a conversation with my father, when he was about my age, and him saying that he had never enjoyed any of his working life!
I think the worry now though, is that many of the people in generations who are younger than us, are on a treadmill of earning to the level required by someone else’s definition of what success looks like!
Having decided (for various reasons J )not to continue a personal or business relationship with Shirley – I have had to re-evaluate where my income is going to come from. And it has been extraordinarily liberating to realise that I can get by quite nicely by assessing Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions, and guiding charity treks in addition to my team development work – and for me it will be a success to earn £120 per day for enjoying a walk in the countryside with Izzy, while making a difference to someone’s life.
Funny old world isn’t it, when we learn stuff in our 63rd year that would have been so useful in our 20s
Cheers
Jay
Thanks Jay. I remember your dad’s story. I bet a lot of folk feel like that. Some of our generation do too, I think. You do get to fundamentals like “Define Richness or Wealth”. And we will continue to hit nails on heads! (“If you only have a hammer, everything appears to be a nail”)