#17

Welcome to Weekly Whispers #17

What whisper did you hear from #16?

Did you think about your own birth(growth)day?

Did you hear any of Kevin Kelly’s whispers – what a list eh!

Have you been slowing down your sense-making?

Have you pondered on what you’ve come from?

Here's what's struck me this week?

1. Working 55 hours a week can be deadly

I’ve asked the question before “Is what you’re doing worth what it’s doing to you?”. It would appear not! Unless you value work over life of course 😊.

For some of us – me – work is often my life so I’m going to be careful here! There have been a few reports this week of previously conducted large-scale studies about the impact of working long hours.

Beyond 55 hours a week seems to be the threshold beyond which it has a detrimental effect. I’m wondering – referring to last week's whisper about the impact of our mindset on aging – if our mindset has an impact here? If I see work as ‘meaningless tasks, undervalued contribution, minimal impact, etc etc’ then I suspect a lot less than 55 hours would be harmful. If I see work as ‘meaningful tasks perhaps unseen, valued contribution by some, specific impact on a certain individual or cohort, etc etc’ then perhaps we might not need to be even counting the hours.

Further reading on the deadly 55+ hour week can be found here:

Fast Company

BBC News

Forbes

2. We're on a floating rock

My youngest daughter is going through her final year at school and working/studying as best she can.

Like a lot of her peers, she can become a little stressed about the enormity of what’s in front of her. Her strategy to minimise stress? Get perspective and remember we're on a floating rock.

I loved the simplicity and cut-through of her minimal word stress-reduction strategy. Everything falls into perspective when we remember context and where the current issue causing stress fits. So, when you feel stressed and overwhelmed remember that we’re on a floating rock.

3. Quote of the week: "Inspiration is free, application costs you"

There is so much available on the internet that provides inspiration, motivation and can spur us into action momentarily. The greater challenge isn’t the inspiring bit, it’s the follow-through bit.

Are you prepared to experiment with some changes in your life? Are you willing to invest the time to practice and apply what you now know? Are you prepared to do what it takes to get what you say you want?

The application bit comes with a cost – a cost of time, effort, attention, practice and mindset. Are you willing to pay?

4. Question of the Week: Are you living forward?

A conversation this week inspired me to share this question. I was chatting with a colleague who had recently lost his partner to ill health. As devasting as it was, he kept going partly because of his faith. Partly because of his young son. And partly because of a belief he picked up over the years about looking back but living forward.

I thought it was a very poignant question to consider given my post of last week.

5. Freedom Fridays - My weekly experiment with time and focus

My intention is to openly share a change I’m making within my life. I’m hoping you can take the lessons learnt and apply them to any change you want to make.

This week was predominantly invisible!

Check out Episode #15.

Feedback is my fuel so if you have any comments please hit reply and let me know your thoughts.That's all for this week and I hope you enjoyed Weekly Whisper #17.

Cheers

Pete