Category: work-life balance

Some people are more sand than silk. They scrub you, take your edges off, teach you. So while it may be easier to be around silky people and smooth sailing, the speed bumps and rough edges can actually give you the opportunity to learn and explore other sides of yourself – and grow as a person. A good friend in sales shared with me once, how he – when he had had a really shitty customer – had come to learn to say Thank You (inside himself, self-talk – not to the perpetrator!!!). For giving him this opportunity to learn even more patience and forbearing. Learn from him: treasure the smooth rides – and appreciate the rough edges and the “sand people”, who are little litmus tests of how well you are managing your own reactions, thoughts and emotions in times of adversity – we can all be calm when it’s easy-going, right?! The more challenge and uncertainty you can handle (and still stay calm!), proves how far you have come! So celebrate silk and sand, we need them both.

You clever ones out there working 4 days a week. Can you do one for the team (that’s the rest of us, still working 5 days a week, or you poor ones out there working more!!)? Spend the 5th day intentionally on all the things that will create the future YOU. The things you need to learn more about, practice or push your comfort zone on (no, vacuuming does not count!). So, to become the person you really want to become, you MUST spend your day off preparing 100% for that, as if it was life or death! Ready? 3 rules apply: Rule #1: You have to do the vacuuming and washing during the 4 days you work, as if you were full time! When you really know what you want to change in you and your life, how wasted would it be after a month to have vacuumed your house 4 times? Versus having read, watched you tube videos or networked with people that already role model who you want to become – imagine the difference in you! Rule #2: Start today and do at least 4 weeks of thinking differently, pushing your comfort zone, going to a relevant … More That awesome 5th day?! »

Growing up in Denmark, I was very fortunate to never think of myself as a girl a such, or what girls could or should do. Denmark is so egalitarian (seen from the other side of the globe), both men and women drop off and pick up kids, they all work, they all cook, do the washing, become prime ministers or nurses. And kids grow up as kids, not as “girls” or “boys”. It had gone so far, that I started feeling sorry for the Danish men, having no turf left to be just men, having become so understanding of their women’s needs and thoughts, not taking space to be REAL men (what is that anyway?). But at the same time I admire them highly – for within generations to have morphed into a new species of understanding humans – not just understanding women, but understanding life and what’s important. I felt SO offended when moving to Australia and learning combinations of words I had hoped to never know: Class mum, Working mum, Soccer mum… And I nearly complained to the head master when we at Mother’s Day got a pre-printed Thank you card from our daughter from school, where she … More WORKING mums – why does that combination of words even exist?? »

Here’s a funny one for a rainy afternoon: Mentally hire a consulting group. Imagine them walking in your front door (these guys never come in the back), black suits and all, half your age and very serious. Embrace them. They’ll refuse the cup of tea you offer – their eyes are already set on the target. Let them. Now imagine them analysing bit by bit your whole life (freakingly scary, I know!!). Every action you take from you get out of bed on a Monday morning till you collapse on the same bed Sunday night, not knowing how another week passed by. They will check which things you are GREAT at doing yourself – and which tasks you should rather delegate (oh, I can feel your nervous ticks starting, a panic of letting go is moving through your body??!!). You will start explaining why ONLY you can do this and that, but these guys don’t care, it’s all excuses! Whisper to me the first thing that comes to mind that you are NOT good at and would love to let go of (be honest here!): cleaning, doing your taxes, baking that birthday cake, planning the next event at your club, … More OUTSOURCE!! No, you didn’t pick up a business magazine – this is for YOU! »