Welcome to Freedom Fridays with your host, Pete Clark, The Whispers Guy. It's been another interesting week. It was the first full week that I've had, where I didn't have any scheduled client meetings or delivery or anything scheduled in my diary other than hold it free. It felt a little bit scary to be to be honest again, however, I got through it, you'll be glad to know. And one thing is, I've never really appreciated, what this would do something seemingly so, you know, big for me, but perhaps simple. Finding a way to have Friday off has raised all sorts of challenges and fears and stuff, I'd never appreciated how much it would bring up. So I'm enjoying that I'm enjoying the reflection. And what it's bringing up for me, as well as what I'm doing on Fridays is really enjoying too. So a little bit of feedback that I had, was that some of you were enjoying the structure in there, it's not quite just a rambling from me but there's two or three points that I share. I don't want to turn it into a presentation. But if that's helpful, that's what I'll continue to do.
So there's probably four, three and a half things I'll share with you this week. The first one is, and this happened to my my son as well. He's a manager of fast food outlet, and they attract a younger crowd. And one of his responsibilities was to film his day, his normal day, whatever he does at home and at work and what he does with his hobbies in his life, etc, etc, and then put it onto Instagram, onto Instagram stories. And he was reflecting on afterwards. And he said, I actually hated it. He hated it, because he'd happily stand up in front of an audience into it. But there was something about, you know, publicly recording some of the stuff that he was doing, and then posting it. And so there was kind of kindred spirit between us that we both we both felt what we're doing, albeit he was only doing one day I'm doing it every week, we both felt that there was there was something in that that you know, just exposing your weakest parts and all your idiosyncrasies and imperfections was quite challenging. And what it raised for me was this isn't about Friday's, as I said last time, it's really about fears, hopes, dreams and concerns. What are my fears and concerns about doing this, then what am I thinking I'm being exposed to? And on the other side? What are my hopes and dreams? And what's fascinating about it is because it's public, any one of you can, you know, contact me and say, Hey, Pete, you're not doing this, you're doing that this was good, this was bad, which I quite enjoy, because I enjoy the the public accountability, because I'm very happy with that. But somebody did raise something with me. And they said, I noticed that you are doing some client work. But she was part of that on a particular Friday, just trying to keep you honest, which I thought was really great. And the distinction I made back was it's it started with a sense of how do I get Friday's off, but really freedom Fridays, now, in a short space of time has become more about freedom from I have to, to freedom to choose to. So in the past, I would have gone well, that's a day of the week, I have to work I have to learn more I have to read I have to keep prepping and designing and have to keep filling my sales pipeline, I have to keep designing product I have to keep on keeping on because that's what I have to do. And I don't mind that there's a blessing in that. The curse was I didn't feel like I had any choice despite it being my own business. And so that switch from have to choose to freedom to choose to do it means I can I can comply with my sense of loyalty to clients who say that's the only time we can do and I'm happy with that and take other time to to fill my own cup. So that was an interesting distinction for me. It's about our fears, my hopes, my dreams and concerns. And really freedom Fridays as a metaphor for moving from I have to, to I choose to. Which gives me self-authorship, It gives me control. it gives me my influence over how I design my life as opposed to, you know, despite things happening. So that was the first thing.
The second thing that I did this week that was different was, you may remember, if you listen to the other podcasts, I were trying to fill my days with stuff on a Friday, and I would feel a little bit guilty about not working. This week, I tried something a little bit different and at the beginning of the week, I set up ahead of time, my definition of a great week. What would a really good week, what would a win week look like so that I can look back at the end of the week, whether it's a Friday or not, and determined whether, did I get some good things done? Did I get what I wanted to get done? And I hear so many people, clients, colleagues, friends, talk about, they've been so busy, you know, I'm run off my feet this week but I feel like I've gotten nothing done. And one of my concerns was that I would use the Friday as a day and I wouldn't really do anything. And so if I could then describe to myself, what was a great week, from Monday to whenever, then maybe I could be finished by Wednesday and crack on with some other stuff. Maybe I need to do some stuff on Saturday, because that's really important for me setting up the next week. So that was really helpful actually, the description and the definition for me of what a great week was. As I was going through the week, I was able to tick some of those off. And I would say I got about, you know, 80-90% of what I wanted. Of course that then kicked in the my own judgement of well, you obviously didn't set your goals high enough Pete Did you? Because if they're easy to achieve, you obviously you fell down a little bit. So I know I'll have that little monster playing on me at the same time. But that was a really good win for me just setting up a win week, so that I can get to the end of and going, you know, minimally I got those things done.
The third thing I'll share with you is I felt really selfish. More as I got into it in that I was using the Friday for me. And I think that's quite important. I'm always a big believer in yourself with my family and friends, I'll look after me for you. As long as you look after you for me. So there's a responsibility and an ownership there about me being at my best for others. And and definitely the first few weeks I was thinking I was doing things for myself, I would go for a swim or I'd go for a bike ride, or I would have lunch or or with with my wife for I'd go and see mates. So I would do something predominately from a selfish perspective. And obviously, being selfish to be selfless. What has switched for me is I've got a couple of ideas about how I can actually, having filled my own cup up a little bit, I can no do stuff for other people. So I've got in touch with a couple of charities that need, you know, I can't necessarily commit to every Friday, but certainly, on the odd occasion when I'm free. I can rock up and help other people. And so I'll be reporting more on that in the cut in the coming weeks, depending on what happens. So that was a really good thing about that.
And the fourth little insight that I got, which again, I would never have gotten, had I not done this was I went for a swim at our local pool in Sydney. And I was really surprised, it was the middle of the day and I was really surprised about how many dads were there with kids. Pleasantly surprised, I have to say, you know, that's great. And maybe because of it is COVID in, but I don't know, I'm hoping that maybe there's been a little bit of a turn that there was that kind of dual parenting or dual mum and dad situation going on where it's okay for dads to take some time out in the middle of the day and take the kids for a swim. I hope that's a good sign of things to come.
So that that's it for me. Episode Number four. I'll see you next week. Cheers.
