This long weekend Australians celebrate our nation’s birthday. The 26th January was chosen from the date from which we were settled—January 26th, 1788. Over the years we have developed into a multicultural nation. Because of this the 26th January,sees people from all nations gather to celebrate being and living in Australia. Today I would like to share with you three songs that make me proud to be Australian. They stir emotion in me wherever I am.
John Williamson is an Australian icon and this song reminds me of my time living in country New South Wales connecting with the land and its people.
This song describes the development of our multicultural nation. I remember it being acted out as a play when my children were in kindergarten and it was even more powerful.
I can still remember clearly 30 years ago when we were arriving back to Sydney from a South Pacific cruise, how stirring it was when “I still call Australia home” played through the air—bringing a smile to everyone’s face.
It is now more than half way through the first month of 2015. How are your New Years resolutions or goals going? One way to help them happen is to take control and create a plan.
The more one understands and is guided by the above George Bernard Shaw quote, the easier success will be. Let’s look at difference between the two key words—find and create.
According to dictionary.com Find means
to come upon by chance
to locate or recover
to discover or perceive after consideration
Create however means
to cause to come into being
to cause to happen to evolve from one’s thought or imagination as in a work of art or invention
The way I see it, using the word create infers that you are empowered, taking control and ensuring your New Year’s resolution or goal happens. The word find has a more hit and miss feel. While the result may be the same, I believe the more direction one puts into achieving goals—the greater the chance of success.
For me—I plan 2015 to be the year I complete my dream of becoming a published author. To achieve this goal I decided to follow George Bernard Shaw’s advice. I created opportunities to write. I also created opportunities:
to find my voice
to learn my craft
to connect with others writers
to receive feedback
to understand the process
It is both exciting and scary to see the creation of my dream come together. Are your currently finding or creating yourself? How is it working for you? If it’s not working for you, change the steps you are taking and make your dream happen.
When was the last time you wrote something substantive — a letter, a story, a journal entry, etc. — by hand? Could you ever imagine returning to a pre-keyboard era?
I hand write my first draft of just about everything. I find it helps my flow and connects better with my thinking. When I was editing my book, I would rewrite sections from scratch to help my clarity. From this exercise, I discovered I would often write the same information twice—without realising it. I would use the same words, in the same order and in the same place in the paragraph. This confirmed to me they were correct. I have attempted this same exercise typing it instead of writing the second time and I get stuck. I didn’t know what I want to say. For me there definitely is a hand brain connect.
As a Toastmaster, I hand write my speeches—both initially and as a way to learn them. Once again this helps with my flow, but I think in this case it also helps me—write like I speak. Once I am happy with my hand written first draft, I type my speech and make any necessary changes. After I have my completed my speech, I learn it by writing it out by hand several times. It works for me. This process helps me to remember the main points in the correct order.
Today I learnt why this is so. In our brain is a collection of cells called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). They act as a link between our sub conscious and conscious mind. The RAS’s job is to filter all the information the world has to give us on a second by second basis, only drawing our attention to what we want to focus on. By writing things down we trigger the RAS into action. It begins to focus on the topic we are writing about. This definitely helps to explain why for me hand writing before I type gets the job done much quicker than staring at the computer screen.
Personally, I would never want to go back to a pre-keyboard era. Today with the keyboard comes many new options like the internet and self-publishing. But I am not voting hand writing off the island any time soon either. Variety is the spice of life—I’m using both to get the best result.
Let’s assume we do, in fact, use only 10% of our brain. If you could unlock the remaining 90%, what would you do with it?
I am unsure I could cope with using 100% of my brain, although I do believe I use more than 10%. I have images of it constantly going and not giving me time to catch up. My brain sometimes seems full now, so how would using more of it change my life. Irrespective, I am up for the challenge and would like to further develop skills using the left and right sides of my brain as they are responsible for different things.
Left Side Brain
Right Side Brain
Analytical
Believes
Classic Music
Big Picture
Control
Can Be Absentminded
Critical Thinking
Cat Lovers
Details Oriented
Colour
Dog Lovers
Creative Storyteller
Facts
Creativity
Language
Dreamer
Logic
Emotions
Mathematics
Fantasy & Mystery
Order
Good at Arts
Organised
Good at Sports
Past & Present
Images
Patterns
Imagination
Perception
Intuition
Practical
Listen to Music /TV While Studying
Prefers Verbal Instructions
Passion
Rarely Absentminded
Prefers Visual Instructions
Rational
Present & Future
Reason
Recognises Faces
Safe
Risk Taking
Science
Rock Music
Study In Silence
Spatial Awareness
Structure
Spontaneous & Unpredictable
Write Non-Fiction
Thinks Better Lying Down
Write Fiction
Going through these lists, makes me realise I do use both sides of my brain. I am mostly a right brain person however, I use more of my left than I first thought. My goal is to develop my current skills further and see where they takes me. Afterall,
You’re given unlimited funds to plan one day full of any and all luxuries you normally can’t afford. Tell us about your extravagant day with as much detail as possible.
I have been given access to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But only for one day, so how will I spend it. I would wake up in a house on a private beach and begin my day by an early morning swim. Then a walk on the beach to a champagne brunch attended by my extended family. We enjoy the following brunch menu.
Brunch Menu
Chicken
Ham and cheese croissants
Bacon
Eggs Benedict
Waffles, maple syrup and ice-cream
Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries
Organic Muesli
Organic Greek yoghurt
French champagne
At the completion of brunch, a stretch Hummer will pick us up for a day at the day spa. After dropping the others off, my husband and kids will go shopping for a new outfit. But feeling so good after being pampered all day deserves to be shown off. I think a fancy six course dinner for two at a top restaurant with matching wines is in order. Special foods and wines to help celebrate my dream day.
Today, write a post about the topic of your choice — using only one-syllable words.
Life was not meant to be easy. But why is it so hard to keep it simple. How do we start? The answer may be to break it down. To stamp out the big words.
1. Write what you want to say. Use any number of syllables.
2. There will be many words with one syllable ignore them.
3. Circle the words that need to be cut down. Even three to two makes it simpler. Write a list of options and pick the best.
I wrote the first draft of my book in this style. The shorter the better. The easier it is to read. Stamp out big words. Keep it simple and see the power.
We’ve all been asked what five objects we’d take with us to a desert island. Now it’s your best friend’s (or close relative’s) turn to be stranded: what five objects would you send him/her off with?
The phone rang. It was my mother. She was letting me know that one of our relatives was stranded on a desert island. Being practical, I had been voted the family representative to send supplies. After careful consideration, I sent the following 5 items to help our loved one get through.
1. Large bag of flour – this can be used to make a damper ( flour, salt and water) cooked in a camp fire into a bread. This insures my relative can eat daily.
2. Billy – a metal tin or cooking pot complete with wire handle used to boil water or cook over a campfire. This allows water to be boiled ensuring it is clean and safe to drink.
3. Box of waterproof matches – to make sure a fire can be lit in all conditions.
4. Multi-purpose tool – a portable tool including a hammer, screwdriver, pliers, saw, knife and other associated tools that may come in handy. This tool would allow my loved one to build a shelter for protection.
5. Vegemite – no Australian should be stranded on a desert island without Vegemite, our national spread. It is an Aussie staple and full of vitamins. Uses for Vegemite include being spread on the damper or dissolved in water as an alternate hot drink.
I hope they get home safely soon. I would love to know how helpful my items were.
I am not a big list maker. Usually I have a handful of things I need to do everyday, which I can prioritise and organise in my head. However, when I have many things on my to-do-list and limited time—I create a list. The more things I need to do, the quicker I start my list.
When writing my list, I always add more things than I originally thought. Partly, I think that this is because I get on a role and partly it is because I want a few small things on my list I can tick off quickly.
I find this empowering. If I have 3-5 things I can complete in the first two days—I am more likely to focus on achieving my goal. Rather than only thinking about it with no follow through plans.
Adding some things I have already completed before writing my list, helps too as it shows my progress. Where possible I break big jobs down into smaller tasks. This allows them to be marked off quickly and helps my moving forward momentum.
If you are always forgetting things or need help prioritising, make lists of the tasks required—daily, weekly or monthly—whatever works for you.
How would you cope if you were unable to access social media on a daily basis. Your choice was taken away. It is an interesting experience, which forces you to re think your priorities.
For the last two years, my husband and I have spent a week living in regional China—a place where everyone lives under the same rules. Everything is controlled by the government. This means Facebook is blocked and Google appears more limited than usual. Suddenly I felt isolated even though I knew ahead of time that this was the situation. I wasn’t blogging at the time so do not know about access to WordPress.
My adjustment was quick and as I had no choice I decided to immerse myself in the quiet. No knowledge of the outside world for at least a week, maybe two. As we were travelling alone in parts of the world that few white people go, most Chinese speak limited if any English, and we were unable to understand Chinese TV our communication was limited. We only had each other. I loved the silence and started to realise the time media and social media wastes.
When we arrived at our international hotel in Ghangzhou, by accident my husband discovered that we had access to Facebook again. I was so excited that this become my status update. On Facebook in China, I can’t believe it. We suddenly were connected to our world again. It did feel like we were breaking rules and definitely changed our holiday. We could find out what was happening at home and could communicate with other people again. This was fun but I am glad we got to experience the forced silence—it taught me a lot.
