Woody Wonders

I've been thinking about ageism quite a lot recently and how it can affect us, and no, before you accuse ME of being ageist, I'm also referring to how it affects young people too.  In fact, it can affect many age groups - children, teenagers, adults, senior citizens.  Obviously, most of this blog will feature on ageism from my point of view and the age I am now because that's simply where I'm at right now. Think back to when you first started out in your career, no doubt you were anxious, nervous, self-conscious and worried that you wouldn't be taken seriously and that other people would think you had no experience or knowledge As you get older, you start to experience very similar feelings, anxious, nervous, self-conscious and worried that people will also be thinking you've lost your drive and ambition and that you're not up-to-speed with how fast technology is moving and such like. Before I started in my current role, I went for an interview at another co...

Do we ever really fail at anything?   No, I’m not sure we do.   Things may not go to plan, you may be disappointed that you haven’t achieved what you set out to do, but we always learn from our so called ‘failures’ so where does this idea of 'failure' being a ‘bad’ thing come from? In a workout situation you train to ‘failure’ but that never feels like you’ve ‘failed’ does it?   No!   In fact, it makes you feel damn proud that you’ve pushed your body and mind to your absolute limit.   It’s a good thing, you’re growing stronger every time you train to ‘failure’ .  When I run in races, and especially marathons, I take something from each race so I'm stronger and better the next time.  I don't feel like I've failed if things haven't quite gone to plan.  So why do we treat 'failure' so differently in other situations? Two of my most memorable so-called failures were just after I left school and these two events quite literally shaped my whole workin...

Optimistic October As we are in the throes of 'Optimistic October', I thought I'd share some thoughts on how we can learn to be more optimistic, because I do truly believe it's something we can learn.   We usually get pigeon-holed into being either optimistic or pessimistic.  How many times have you heard "oh you always look on the bright side, you're such an optimistic", or likewise, "god you always think the worst, you're such a pessimist".  As with most things in life, I believe our feelings can swing between the two.  Especially when things aren't quite going to plan, I often immediately think the worst before reality takes a hold and I can then start thinking logically on how to remedy the situation. According to studies, around 25% of our optimism/pessimism is inherited so that's a massive 75% we can work on.  Let's make a start by doing the following: 1.  Put your optimistic goggles on Don't let o...

You've learnt something new so what next? If you read my blog last week (If not, why not?  I'll be round later) you'll know that I had the excitement of being out of the office for two days at a conference.  So what next?  We've all been there, done something similar, come back from an event armed with new skills and ideas, absolutely buzzing and then we get back to the office and end up changing nothing because "ooh I haven't got the time to set up my new processes and put into practice what I've learnt".   This time I was determined not to let this happen.  I'd promised my bosses I would come back armed with new ideas so there's an incentive for a start!  So Monday morning, despite the temptation to read through all my emails, faff around a bit, get distracted by something else and then read through them all again, I started to work through them a bit more logically and put my newfound skills into practice.  I started creating filt...