Welcome to week two, Freedom Fridays with me, Pete Clark, The Whispers Guy.
Well, that was an interesting week. So I recorded the first podcast as a one off, I didn't do any changes. And I was terrified. Absolutely terrified. But I'll share with you in a second all the things I went through. On reflection. As a quick reminder, I'm sharing these podcasts to inform you of the challenges and the journey that I take in, seeking to take Friday's off not from life, but from work so that I can add more life to my years. And whether I succeed or fail, I'm hoping that you can use it as a lesson, a roadmap to help you make some of the changes that you'd be interested in making for yourselves. So last Friday, I would probably give myself a C plus. In that I ended up working for most of the afternoon, which is not untypical. I did do something with my morning for a long bike ride, the longest have been for a while. So that was good. So I felt in some ways, I was adding life to my years, but then got sucked into the inevitable calls and emails and things that I felt oh, I couldn't leave till Monday.
But prior to that was probably the biggest lesson for me in in that once I had decided to publish it, even the thought of it and letting people hear it, the first lesson that I was reminded of is just how big a judgement I make on myself. You know, I had running through my head. So often in such a low screaming voice, you know, who wants to listen to a middle aged white guy, living a previous life on the Northern Beaches in Australia with a Scottish accent. who would really want to listen to that? You know, how dare he, how dare he and think of living the dream and how lucky and privileged to see that he can even think about taking Friday's off work. And that was just a constant commentary running through my head. There were times when I thought about not posting it and not letting you know, it was available and not doing it. And the only way I really push through was partly ignoring those comments and, you know, still pushing through and pressing publish. I also thought that once I published that the Earth would, would open up and swallow me. And so I took, I took the chance that with my intention set, which is really positive and vulnerable and sharing to allow you to watch and observe from the sidelines about somebody making some difficult choices and big changes, that that's what hopefully would would shine through. And yet, I've remembered how much I judge myself based on ridiculous comparisons, but how much I judge myself in, what I do, especially when I'm doing something new. And so a couple of things that got me through that where, I remember reading somewhere that if you're going to do something worthwhile, then you may as well be bad at it at the start. And I'm hoping that you know, in 12 months time once I've done a number of these, that I'll look back and laugh and enjoy and kind of smile. And you know, hold myself in, you know, good for you. The first few that I did, they'll probably sound very different. But that helped me through that. It is okay to be bad and not so good at something when you first start just getting started, is what changes things. The second thing that helped me was, again, with my intention said that I'm trying in different ways in as many different ways to help others to model what I would love to teach and see others do. I'm willing to be the I guess the guinea pig and do the experiments myself.
The second lesson that I learned, and I've often said this with the world that I live in, it's a blessing and a curse. That the blessing is I've learnt so many things and got so many insights and aspirations and inspirations from so many things that I've read and seen and observed and been part of. The Curse of course is sometimes that that heaps a whole lot of pressure. And I have found I've felt a lot more pressure. And even in this podcast, not even timing it, I'm already thinking in this moment, you know, I better say something significant, I better say something that's worthwhile. Otherwise no one will listen. And I don't even know how many of you are going to listen and I'm not even going to check that. So there's that that constant polarity of balancing, you know, something that's good for us, but you know, over egging, it becomes a bit of a curse. And so I've been playing with that, and watching and observing and trying to put it in the metaphorical passenger seat, not the driver's seat. So it's still a bit of a voice and a check in but it doesn't, it doesn't cause me to freeze and not do anything. One of the biggest things that I've learned over the last 12 months and this was spurred by a good buddy of mine, Colin Hails is he dared me to write 50 shitty articles on LinkedIn. And just that catalyst got me started and where I am now with my writing, and, you know, little 60 second videos, is so different to a year ago. So I'm projecting that in a year's time, these podcasts and these ways of helping will be will be very different, hopefully better. And my commitment is at least to do it for the totality of the experiment I'm doing. And then I've got an idea, but all my second experiment will be.
The third lesson that I've learned is having committed to try and do less on Friday with regard to work and more with regard to putting life into my years. I found myself thinking more through time, not in time. So thinking through time is when you project ahead, what's required, and you plan and get things ready for when that happens. Thinking in time is being spontaneous and doing it off the cuff. You know, sometimes I know people will run out of petrol and then go and get petrol, whereas others will plan what they're doing the following being good at the night before. So I have found that with regard to Fridays, Mondays, Tuesdays that we've been thinking, right, we don't need to do Wednesday, Thursday to make sure I've gotten the opportunity that Friday is free. Last week, for example, I had the planning that I would normally do in a Friday for the following week I had to do on Thursday. And I was off site on this week, Monday, Tuesday. And so I had to make sure it was all packed. I tend to try and like to take a lot of stimulation to these off sites. And I was packed on pretty much ready to go on Thursday, which is unusual. Normally, I'm not last minute. But before I can solidify, and be certain about what I'm going to do, I normally leave it till the end until I'm really ready. I feel like I'm really ready. So that's been a little bit of a shift. As I think about Friday, on Monday or Tuesday, I'm starting to cram into those days, all of the things that I would normally leave. So it's hopefully starting to build that muscle. Which was one of the reasons I started this to, you know, maximise our infinite resource of time. Work expands the time we give it. So if I only give it four days, can I get done in four days? What would normally take five. And so so far, there has been some wins. There's been some fails definitely. Now at this stage, my next Friday is clear. Yeah, there's nothing there. No work in it. There's no meetings. And I haven't, to be fair to myself and to fair to you. I haven't really been tested yet. I haven't had a client or an important thing come up or someone's requested a Friday time slot that I've had to then say either yes or no. So we'll see what happens when that happens.
But for now, that's the end of podcast number two, about Freedom Fridays. Look forward to tuning in next week. Cheers.
