Sharon Tunley

Never to Old to Learn New Tricks

2018-08-05_12-52-09

Firstly, the CSC journey became very real in this past week:

I received my e-tickets to San Francisco, so it is all go for a 7 September departure
we received our Statement of Works (SoWs) for the organisations that we have been aligned to. When I read each of them, part of me was very excited about what each of these organisations provide in the San Francisco Bay Area Communities, the other was wow, the learnings, the possibilities, all the goodness that each of these organisations will do by up-scaling, and how we can help and contribute for them to achieve this. To find out more on these organisations, reference a previous blog.

Thought I would mix it up and share an experience, and how I was able to think about the relevance of life experiences, what crosses your path in the way of knowledge, and to what we are about to do as part of CSC.

This past weekend has been an eye opener as I spent time with friends whom have retired, but still eager to learn. Funny timing really … nothing is ever by chance. Through my CSC work and reading for this week and partly over the weekend, one of the links I was reading through was on social responsibility where one paragraph caught my eye that I thought was quite relevant to the past couple of days.

One company (which I won’t name here) has been developing new products and services geared to customers over the age of 60. To help overcome what the company calls a “knowledge barrier,” it has collaborated with sociations for older people in an effort to introduce retired men and women to the benefits of new technologies—for example, teaching them to communicate with grandchildren living abroad. The company meets a social need by helping this population use modern technologies and services while building a customer base in an underpenetrated market.

This past weekend was an opportunity of 4 days away, being time out with some friends, a reunion of sorts. Through my own passions of photography and adventurous outlook on life, being the youngest of the group, I soon became the popular one when they were watching the sort of things I was doing on social media such as collages and sharing the adventure to friends and family. So out came all the phones and ipads, and soon every few minutes was “Sharon, can you please show me that, how do you do that, how do i set up my device”. It was like a new lease on life for them, seeing the possibilities, an opportunity had opened up to be creative, something that they could see themselves doing. Being in Lake Cathie, NSW, there were plenty of spots to explore, so with phones in hand, the group started following me around asking questions on how to improve and use their phone cameras. Getting back to the accommodation, they were eager to begin making their own collages on the new app that they had dowloaded.

It was lovely to see and watch the twinkle in their eyes as they had found someone that is patient, willing to show them how to do something new, they were off with their new found skills, notes in hand. And it did not stop there, throughout the weekend, their world opened up as we had different discussions, they found out about the different apps that are out there that can help them in their daily lives.

38462417_10157695559955550_4676074402897461248_n

So when I think about age, and no matter how old one is, I started to think about United Way Bay Area being nearly 100 years old young. This organisation is still out there wanting to make a difference, has a willingness to learn, reaching out to make that happen. Their passion and commitment strong, they are wanting to understand how to upscale their projects in ways that will help many more people, with particular focus on the youth. UWBA has a core mission of uniting individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and government partners to fight for the education, basic needs, and financial stability of each and every person in the Bay Area.

So next time you think you are to old to learn new skills, think again! No matter the age, if you have a willingness to learn, there is so much you can do for yourself, and for others .. young or old! In fact, when I think about it, even IBM, with one of the 9 practices we have is Restlessly reinvent our company and ourselves. IBMs first century is a tale of continuous transformation written by men and women willing to challenge their own thinking and reimagine themselves as professionals. We are always pushed to keep finding ways to make IBM and ourselves as IBMers better.

So how will you or what are you doing to continuously grow, learn, re-invent? Love to hear your thoughts!

Learnings and Whom have we been aligned to?

learn grow flourish #IBMCSCUSA2 This week was another big week! A few things were achieved or discovered. If nothing else, learning does not stop at High School or University. If you are open to improving your skills, there is so much out there. You are the only person that can make that decision as to whether you want to grow and learn. Any decision you make about your life is perfect, there is no right or wrong! You are in control always, and there are no mistakes or wrongs, only flearning (failure from learning), growth, improvements of me, myself and I! If an opportunity is presented, then take a leap of faith, and go for it!

So my learning this week …

Topics I learned was on Theory of Change / Project Impact Analysis (understand the input, output, outcome and impact) and being an Effective Consultant (trust being key). All great skills to learn, to refresh on some that I do today, others I can implement in my day-to-day work and life in general.
IBM has a variety of courses we can select from, so additional learning for me was attending a Balancing Time and Energy course which I thought sounded interesting and relevant as I balance my work life with preparing for CSC. I wondered what additional tips I could learn, or be reminded of, so out of curiosity I attended this one during the week, and found it to be a refresher and learned additional tips on
- how to stay focused even through those challenging tasks and how to deal with procrastination.
- meditation and breathing techniques to help quieten and de-clutter the mind – this i found interesting listening and learning from someone how you can bring this topic into a course. Meditation and Breathing techniques I have taken the time to do as self development courses outside of IBM over the years, so it was great to see how this is brought into the corporate world!
- listening to music can help with completion of tasks – regardless of the type of music, people do well when we listen to the music, it triggers a part of the brain for concentration.
- time management and blocking time on your calendar, using your email tool to effectively add tasks and reviewing our email more effectively, and were given tools/methods on how to prioritize requests and work ensuring that we are doing the right things at the right time, that they are relevant, and on time and with quality.
- how eating right and exercising should be considered high on your priority to be more effective in balancing your time and energy.
- … and so much more. Anyone from IBM reading this blog, highly recommend that you take the time to attend this course, worth taking a couple of afternoons out of your week!

And the BIG news for this week …. We found out whom we have been aligned to, whom the 4 organizations are that benefit from this extraordinary process. So let me introduce

Firstly, I am very excited to share that I have been aligned to UWBA – United Way Bay Area with 3 other CSC team members and a Fellow. UWBA has been around since 1922 helping to unite individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and government partners to fight for the education, basic needs, and financial stability of each and every person in the San Francisco Bay Area focusing on Youth Development, Adult Empowerment, Community Development and Basic Needs. They are an incubator of innovative programs to improve and provide educational opportunities such as Youth Jobs Plus where they have connected nearly 8K youths with jobs, internships, and job training. Other core programs they have are Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, SparkPoint Centers, 211 Bay Area call centers, Emergency Food and Shelter Program, Labor Community Services, and Rise Together Bay Area.

The other 3 organizations where the rest of my CSC teams have been aligned to are:

Women’s Alliance for Knowledge Exchange (WAKE) – They work closely with their partners to provide women’s rights leaders tools, products, advisors and resources such as one of their main programs – Tech2Empower. Over the past 3 years alone, WAKE has trained 700+ leaders from 135 organizations in 10 countries. Activists and their organizations are leading change for their communities. With the latest tech tools and expertise they are able to scale and accelerate their work.
San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium (SFCCC) – formed in 1982, they form partnerships of non-profit health centers which promote and improve quality community health for under served people in the San Francisco area. With 27 Partner Clinics sites they provide care for over 112K patients being around 13% of the San Francisco population.
Mission Economic Development Agency – MEDA – With over 45 years of experience, MEDA’s mission is to strengthen low-and moderate-income Latino families by promoting economic equity and social justice through asset building and community development. They provide and serve over 7K people annually providing services such as financial capability/education, business technical assistance, affordable housing counseling, to name just a couple of what they do for people.

So all in all, this week was huge. Who am I kidding, every week is huge! But you know what, no regrets! Only surprise, excitement, and lots and lots of learning! Next week tune in to find out what our SoW (Statement of Work) will be, how we will be supporting these organizations, what do they need our help with to grow their organization; and what learning I have completed that I can share and hope inspire you with! If you have any comments, then I would really appreciate your sharing, love to hear from you! Until next week’s blog, have a truly magic week yourself!

End of Week 5 …

forgiveness

#IBMCSCUSA2 … Ohh what to talk about .. from a CSC perspective, last week was a little quiet with my work week being quite crazy (or productive if I think positively!). However, over the weekend I did begin the stages of learning about Theory of Change and Project Impact Analysis. So let me start there …

Firstly, let’s position one of the principal goals of IBM’s Business Model which is to help “enterprise clients to become more innovative, efficient & competitive through the application of business insight & IT solutions.”

Let me more put that more simply. How to move a client, or a person from being given the fish, to providing guidance and teaching them how to fish to provide for themselves.

“Change” is the world I am in every day, every week with my corporate role, even through to my personal life. Over the years I have learned that change management is an important topic in many areas, from corporate down to even in my own family unit. As humans, some of us are great at handling change well, and there are a lot of others, not so well. So when you think through change, there is some planning that needs to happen to ensure that it is well executed through effective ways of communicating and educating people. We want people to feel comfortable in moving through change, that they are well informed! There is a skill in this, an art even! So learning any new skills to help with people and companies to be able to fish for themselves will definitely be a plus and over the next couple of weeks is a focus which I will share.

What I did learn about this week was more about myself! Why?

In this path of learning to be a leader both at work and in life, is recognising my strengths and weaknesses, accepting them, and then taking steps to work through anything that I have recognised. Also as part of this process is having the ability to apologize, accept ownership, and then gratitude for the experience.

Over the past few years I have done many self development courses and training, so I am very grateful that when I do put myself under pressure, that I am able to work through it fairly quickly, learn and move on. And that I did!

I had put myself under pressure for a meeting, had certain expectations that were my own, and when something changed, I snapped! What that did was quickly show me a couple of things

that I did not want to be that person!
that it is ok to have my moment of ego explosion as long as I took personal responsibility for my actions, and that I took steps to rectify.

It made me think about things that I have learned over the years, so this was a wake up and reminder of the following:

saying sorry is one of the hardest words in the English language and not enough people say it
judgement – can be a cruel harsh emotion whether it is on our self or on others and that I do strive to be aware of when I do it, so that I can correct myself
expectations – when something happens, people can set expectations that others should change, when in fact, it should be all about “self” that changes if the behaviour is not liked. If we change ourselves, people are more likely to observe, and maybe you even become a light for others so that they themselves may want to change too.
acknowledgement and forgiveness to one self and taking steps to correct it such as time out, a walk, meditation, definitely helps you to re-group, to re-think on how you could have handled such a thing better in the future!
Know that I have this! That if for whatever reason I do not, then ask for help, or let people know that you will get back to them if you do not know the answers to their questions. It is OK to not know everything!
To treat myself by taking some much needed time such as walk by the river

Re-group, learn from it, and make some changes!

Week 4 …

Month 1 tick

Wow, Month 1 – tick! It was a huge week in all aspects of my life. Taking a few moments of quiet time in between all the craziness has been needed to keep the sanity in check.

I look back on what I have achieved so far, and it was a big fist in the air as I just finished tonight the prep activities as part of the first 4 weeks. Not sure about everyone else, but for me, it was a mammoth effort as I have

read lots
listened and watched many interesting videos
finished the last of meeting my team members
networked with different people from past CSC assignments

This week I met the last of my team mates – Yen from Vietnam. When I saw Yen’s introduction profile I knew that her and I would hit it off and was looking forward to the chat. Not only very similar passions such as photography, loves to travel, music and yoga, but also in our spirituality and way of life in thinking. Sure enough, an hour went by very quickly as we compared stories, beliefs, and experiences, and I was fascinated to listen to her stories about her belly dancing competition days, and her love of cats.

Highlights of Week 4:

my new passport arrived and that certainly made it all real.
began to learn about media and communications, the do’s and don’ts, and understanding what our key messages are about this wonderful CSC experience; how we can effectively blog and use social media.
read about photography tips that made me smile such as this article “Your Camera doesn’t matter” to which I agree with the points that were made. How many times people say to me “wow, you must have a great camera” and 9 times out of 10 I have taken that great pic using my phone. Like any artist, there are many tools you can use, but at the end of the day, it’s all about what is in your head and what you are seeing that you capture, all about the composition, having that eye for it.
I created a group chat which has provided an opportunity to talk to my CSC family on a regular basis, and to share pics as we build on that teaming which is a critical part of any project. There is no “I” in “Team”! So with that, you need to know whom you are working with. So what better way, but to bring everyone together in a group chat, and to just “chit chat”!
getting on good old Google to begin exploring places around San Fran that we as a team can explore while in the area. Through my interactions with the team, I have discovered a lot of us like the outdoors, adventure, travel and photography amongst the many talents and skills of each person. We have a long list which will require some voting on.

More sharing:

One of the TED videos I listened to this week was on “A Danger of a Single Story“. A fascinating talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A great speaker, and such a good topic that Chimamanda spoke of, that I thought I would share with you all.

Although I personally am aware that a person has many elements, often we hear one thing, and make up our mind that they fit into a certain mold. I, myself, am guilty of this. However, to change, it’s having knowledge, it’s having awareness of ourselves and our thinking, that we can, in turn, change!

One example of “a single story” that happened today … I heard someone say, “that little boy was not even Australian”. I enquired as to how they came to that conclusion when they didn’t even know the little boy. For them, it was looks and their accent sounding different. But by broadening that person’s mind, I simply said that being young, yes; whilst from a different family background, they may speak that language at home with their family and loved ones; but all this does not mean that little boy may not have been born in Australia, or maybe he has been here a while, and is now an Australian citizen.

So never assume anything, and do not box or label something or someone. It takes work, it takes awareness of our own thoughts, and what we are saying, but it can be done. Learn all you can, and if you are not able to, then try not to make a single story and make assumptions, keep an open mind!

Do you have any examples of a single story that you can share?

Week 3 …

valentin

#IBMCSCUSA2 – This photo cracks me up … meet one of my fellow CTC team members – Valentin from Romania. More about that later … first, sharing more on things I have learned as I continue to work through the preparation tasks, one that I revisited and explored in more detail, was on the topic of Emotional Intelligence (EI), and it was interesting how it set me down a path or 2 …

So in the spirit of one thing I learned from our CEO is that when starting something share a story, that’s how most remember what you are saying. So here are my stories:

After reading this paragraph in some of the activities I had to work on …

Be mindful of your body language. Just the simple act of pulling your shoulders back gives others the impression that you are a confident person. Smiling will not only make you feel better, but will make others feel more comfortable around you. Don’t forget to look at the person you are speaking to and speak slowly.

… it reminded me of the skills that I have picked up over the past year on this very topic. Did you know that up to 93% of what we say is through our body language … yes pretty high, but true. So what is Valentin saying in the photo above? Provide your thoughts in the comments below.

Body Language is thought provoking, and something that everyone should think about. When I switch into the Body Language Detective it is amazing what I “hear” when someone is talking! My question to you is how come we focus so much on our words, and no thought to our body signals when we are delivering the messages? Understanding body language can be a powerful tool to have. Here is a one minute video that shows how to use different body language movements in a job interview … how would you go?

So in my last blog I spoke of meeting of fellow team members, this week i had the privilege of meeting 5 more of them. Here is what I learned:

Valentin … travels a lot, and was in Germany when we spoke. He was quite a happy person, loves to have a laugh, he is pretty flexible and loves snowboarding. In fact, he told of a story how snowboarding was a great way to break down the barriers of a team that he worked with, where they had traveled to Austria for a weekend together and just did snowboarding. The following week they were able to work together so much better after the teaming exercise which was an eye opener for Valentin after all the other teaming exercises that were done in the office, the snowboarding was the thing that broke down the barriers.
Lung .. lives in Malaysia. What I learned of Lung is he is the quiet one. His social presence I enquired about, and with a smile, his response was “I am not a social kind of guy” … I laughed, and said that CSC will certainly help change that with a little bit of encouragement from his fellow team members I am sure (namely me 🙂 ). Lung likes to go and explore archaeological sites, and would definitely give shopping a miss!
Abhay (a fellow Aussie), born in India, and has lived in Australia for the past 12 years. He works in Canberra and commutes between Adelaide and Canberra each week. He has been to Dubai and been in a Ferrari and got up to 180 km with a driver, his dream is to drive a high performance car like a Lamborghini and drive the Autobahn. That was when I was able to share with Abhay that I had driven on the autobahn last year getting up to speeds of 220km which was a phenomenal experience and a must if you like driving quick, with focus!
Benedicte is from Denmark and was an interesting person to listen too. She spoke about her travels to different locations around the world that were not of the most common of places you would think of. She has a background as a Journalist and Economist. Sometimes she is able to bring them together. Benedicte was a Journalist on national television channel .. news journalist and anchor woman presenting sporting activities such as the Olympics games in Atlantis in 1996 being the biggest highlight of her career. Benedicte shared that if she had a day to do anything she wanted, that would be to spend a few hours on her new paddle board learning how to use it.
Madlen, based in Switzerland, but was in Germany when we spoke. Having grown up in Germany, spent time in Ireland and is now based in Switzerland. One thing that stood out for me is that if Madlen could do something for one day, was to go to a country where things are not so easy, where food is hard to come by, water not easy to get, things are just that, things that we take for granted. She felt that by living somewhere like this for a period of time, that she would learn to appreciate things more so, life in general, instead of taking things for granted. Being a different person in a different country would expand and change outlook in life!

So to finish up, I have one last question to you which highlights another topic I covered on EI … how present were you reading this blog? Did you get distracted? Or did you get through it all and not multi-task? I know that I am one of those people that does a lot in a day, multi-task in fact, whether it is effective working, that is another story. So another skill I plan to work on is practicing doing nothing for 10 minutes, to give my mind a break; to practice mindfulness and being present. I will leave you with an interesting TEDtalk on this very topic that you might enjoy!

The Second Week …

2018-07-02_17-46-58

#CSCIBMUSA2 .. settling into the activities of Week 2.. I took time to reflect back and oh what a week it had been. So much goes through the mind with such a productive week on so many levels, so much happened, that it can be a challenge to pick out what would be interesting to read about.

Firstly, for those new to my blog .. what is CSC .. Corporate Service Corps (CSC) has provided pro bono consulting teams to communities worldwide since 2008. Inspired by the Peace Corps, CSC offers IBMers an immersive experience designed to benefit communities, enrich its participants culturally and professionally, and support IBM’s global leadership development.

The program deploys teams of 12–15 to work with governmental, not-for-profit and social organizations, healthcare providers and other civic leaders to help address high-priority issues in education, health, economic development and community resiliency no matter where in the world!

So a lot of preparation goes into it for people whom have been selected like me. There is 3 months of activities, the first 2 is understanding yourself and others, prep for travel, skills building, etc, the 3rd month you receive your assignment and you begin preparing.

So here goes what happened for this past week …

I met with an additional 7 team mates on an individual basis whom are on this journey with me, which now takes me up to 11 wonderful individuals over the past couple of weeks. I will elaborate on what I have learned about these fine people a little later.
I completed a skills assessment which was done in my weekly CSC catchups with my Manager whom very kindly worked with me as we went through the details.
I learnt about the importance of Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity. And that there is some interesting reading. I discovered a few things about myself on what I am doing naturally, and areas I need to work on.
I completed a cultural profile another interesting exercise which highlighted to me my strengths and weaknesses and how I measure up with other people from different countries. This started me on the path of researching into the different countries my fellow team mates live in and their cultural differences. One thing out of many that stood out for me is that if i learn the following phrase “jeitinho” that people in Brazil will understand that I am flexible, and that I occasionally “wing it”.

Relationship Building and Teaming … an important factor to success

IBM is not just a company and work to me … it is friendship, it’s opportunity, it is trust, it is respect, it is knowing whom you are working with on both a professional and personal level which has provided amazing results in projects over the years.
being a part of a team, it is so important to form more than just a working relationship, finding out what makes people tick, what are their passions, what do they like or don’t like
Relationship building breaks down the barriers
understanding personalities, getting to know a person, helps to build a strong team working to the strengths of everyone, understanding the weaknesses and using opportunities to build them up.

So what did I learn from those I have met with so far …with the diversity of locations that we are all from, I been to Brazil, UK, India, Japan, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Adelaide, Denmark as I got a snap shot of each person’s profile

Romano supports IBM communities and would love to race F1 Formula Race Car for a day
Suzannah does design thinking and working with clients to solve problems. She also is a very active woman, enjoying the outdoors, and loves food. One of her desires would be to go the Virgin Islands and lie on a beach with her bestie.
Tanujha works with technical professionals helping them to come up with new ideas that can help to grow the IBM business. She introduced me to her gorgeous dog Jazz, and I found her to be a very smiling and colourful person, speaking of her love for her plants, love of her family and spoke about her love for ghazals which sounded fascinating.
Noemi is a gentle soul, whom works with external clients. She has volunteered for kids with disabilities, and loves to travel and told me stories about losing her luggage which was often (hopefully not in San Francisco)
Hong has a passion for helping potential leaders to grow their skills and would love to watch a play in National Theatre in London
Alona loves being the cool Mum, figures if she gets it right at home with her own children, she has a better chance with the young talent coming through IBM that she helps to grow their skills
Suwidhi interacts with external clients, helps to design and build, disaster recoveries for many companies in his country. He has a passion for helping the local communities in things like building houses for the under privileged. He loves soccer, keen on the World Cup, and would love to play alongside Renaldo in the World Cup
Claudio works with some pretty diverse teams from hard core scientists to Designers to Domain Experts whom all have different values in research for AI and Conversations. He also spoke of his interactive art with one of his projects in one of the country’s museums on 19th Century characters, which sounded absolutely fascinating.
Abhay is living between 2 cities Adelaide and Canberra. Originally from India, been in Australia for 11-12 years. He works closely with the Government, and was excited about one of his projects he is on now. His dream is to drive a high performance car such as Lamborghini on the Autobahn.
Lung was the quiet one of the team, and admitted that he was not so social. So one of the things I encouraged him on was that maybe this was an area that he could work on as part of his learning experience and leadership skills that he was keen to learn that he spoke of. Lung has a love of exploring archaeological sites.
Benedicte was an interesting woman to speak with listening to her stories of the countries she had visited from Nairobi and Kenya to other equally as interesting countries. She spoke about the 6 months of helping the local people to present innovative ideas, and discovered how similar humor was between her country and these countries. She is very experienced in communications for her country and enjoys her role. If she could do one thing for a day, it was to take out her new paddle board out onto the water for a few hours to learn how to use it effectively.

This coming week, I have 3 more to get to know. These sessions have been great, and do look forward to the coming weeks as we get to learn more and more about each other as we interact over the different exercises coming up as part of this journey.

Yesterday I was talking to a young man from the US and was explaining about CSC and how I was going to San Francisco. Two things that struck me that he said .. “would you call US a developed country as it is not being perceived as that from people he knows whom have visited the country with the amount of social challenges with San Francisco being one of the top cities with many issues around homelessness.” Wow, certainly thought provoking. He went on to mention about a program that was going on in Texas that was providing jobs for the homeless to help them to get ahead that was also cleaning up the rubbish around the city. It was proving a success being a double edge sword, but still they required assistance. The other thing he said was “thank you for helping my country” which I was taken back by but also felt proud to be a part of something that potentially could make a difference somewhere for something in San Fran.

What a week! Stay tuned for Week 3 … and feel free to leave a comment, ask questions, or any feedback.

The first week …

Last week we all got to meet each other via Webex for our first #CSCIBMUSA2 get together, seeing each other for the first time. It was super exciting. There is 15 of us from all parts of the World taking the same journey, but each journey will be different, each experience will be unique for each of us!

As I reviewed the schedule of the weeks ahead and what we have to do to prepare, I had mixed emotions. Among the excitement, and the good feel emotions, there were also hesitations, fear of the unknown, and then that old fear within asking myself “Am I good enough? Will I be able to contribute and be worthy of this experience?”

And then I am reminded by something that I wrote a while back that crossed my path.

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do, it comes from overcoming things you once thought you couldn’t.

Everything worth fighting for may seem hard, even difficult at the time … but changing that mindset, my thought patterns, looking at things and experiences differently, even seeking guidance and support from those around me, that once thought of whether I can do it, takes a different turn.

I can become a special kind of person whom now can overcome these obstacles, breaking them down! Taking a breath, smiling, stepping forward and taking one step at a time, and watch as the magic appears!

So as I am reminded by Universe by way of different messages, I know that I am going to be OK!

10462514_732777120097174_201197150903817183_n

Why San Francisco?

I had an interesting question posed of me the other day of my CSC assignment … Why San Francisco? What sort of issues does San Francisco have?

I listened to the question, and was interested in why they were asking … it was a very valid question … in my world no question is a silly question!

My response to this question was that every country in the world has social challenges. Every country has their challenges such as homeless, people battling depression, education systems that need improving, health systems that need support, elderly, disasters and so on. There are many Not For Profit Organisations all over the world doing fantastic work. Even here in Australia, and in NZ. When I put the answer in that context, it was understood!

Never limit your thinking on the good you can do in someone’s life no matter where they are in the World as there is always someone or something that needs your help!

2018-06-11_18-36-44

Adding Purpose to Each Day!

Whilst I continue to wait for more details on my CSC assignment, I prepare!

Since I was accepted into the program last year, I have been preparing myself mentally, physically, and spiritually to ensure that I am at my optimum. For the last 4 months, to help with this, I have taken up Yoga and Pilates 3 nights a week, and go to a meditation group one night a week. This commitment to myself has been wonderful so far. Changes are occurring, differences being made.

So what’s next, what can I do more to prepare I ask myself …

Today I saw this as it caught my eye .. a picture of Benjamin Franklin, with the words from one of our company leaders “Benjamin Franklin’s schedule. I think we should all think about addressing Powerful Goodness every day. “. Curiosity got the better of me and i clicked on the link … I read and I listened. It all made sense! So what will I take from this …

Add purpose to my day … so making what i do more accountable and real. So in a journal, upon rising, write what good shall i do today .. how do i improve the world by me being a better person. Think on it, meditate on it, and jot down whatever springs to mind.
Evaluate throughout the day, journal it.
At the end of each day, ask myself, what good have I done today, did I accomplish everything that I set out to do .. what didn’t I accomplish, why not, and what can be done the next day. If I have accomplished something, what impact did that have on me, and on the World!

Will you join me in adding purpose to your day?
Would love to hear your feedback in the comments section on how you went. I will share with you how I go!

2018-05-30_14-41-13

Just in … I have news on my destination!

Finally in, on 22 May I was sent an email with the title “CSC Assignment: Congratulations – You have been invited to …”. Needless to say, when i saw that email highlighted in Red to ensure that I did not miss the email in my busy inbox, my heart did a little skip, and a smile that grew as I saw the title. Talk about timing … I was having a conversation only the day before about another colleague had received her assignment, and I wondered when I might hear about mine before the year was out.

Can you guess where I am going? So whilst I have the dates, and the destination, I am still awaiting details on what my assignment will be and whom my team members are. So there is still more to come to keep the journey exciting, that unknown element still there!

The reason why I mentioned the date of 22 May .. as soon as I realised the date, I knew that there was an extra special meaning behind this particular date of 22 … Angel number 22 is a powerful sign from your angels that you are on purpose in life and about to turn your dreams into reality. How true could that be!

33470495_10157483235295550_2608631520612581376_n