Woody Wonders

I've spent the last two weeks fully immersed in an Olympics bubble, and despite the fact I'll be glad to sleep at a normal time again, it will leave me feeling bereft when it finally ends, which it will have by the time I post this blog. There's been some amazing performances and jaw dropping stories of what the athletes have been through on their journey to Tokyo.  The lucky few have realised a lifetime's dream and experienced a high like nothing else. Sadly, the other side of the story is those athletes who are left battered, bruised and disappointed, their Olympics dream in tatters.    It got me thinking about disappointment, we've all been there but when things go wrong in full view of the eyes of the world, that's a whole new level of disappointment to contend with.  At the Olympics you have varying degrees of disappointment, there's those athletes who are disappointed with Silver and Bronze, because in their eyes only Gold was good enough (jeez I'd...

Forget networking, you need to chatwork! I'm kicking off 'Optimistic October' with a positive story and showing how one simple thing can lead to a whole chain of events. This weekend me and Mr Bob have been mad for it ar kid in the great northern powerhouse city that is Manchester. Way back in July of this year I attended a PA conference and was lucky enough to win a two night stay in a boutique hotel, which also happened to be in Manchester.  All I had to do to enter the competition was to leave my email address and phone number. Well done me for getting both of them correct!    This happy little story came about simply by me plucking up the courage to go to my boss and say, “I don’t suppose I could attend this conference by any chance could I?   I think it would be really good.”   It turned out to be a fabulous two day conference where I not only learnt so much but won this amazing competition to boot!   I'd stopped to c...

A grand day (two actually) out of the office When you're a PA you don't get let out of the office very often, in fact I barely make it past the boundaries of the third floor before my electronic tag goes off.  So when the opportunity does come along, you grab it with both hands.  Not only was I let out of the office for two whole days last week but I went to a conference / training event purely for PA's so everyone there 'got me'.  We all shared the same challenges and there were many sympathetic nods and "hmm, I know what you mean" throughout the course of the two days. Joking aside, it's so important to make the time to attend such events.  I'm very lucky in that both the company, and the directors I work for, are very supportive when it comes to learning and development.  Although your ego will lead you to think differently on occasions, the office won't fall apart if you're not there.  Not only that, but when you do return to t...