Successful Blog

Beach Notes: Stuck

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stuck

This huge log washed up on the rocks in a big storm a couple of years ago on the southern end of the beach at Rainbow Bay. It has been fascinating to see it weather and change color and texture over that time. Obviously there have not been big enough seas since then to wash it back out to sea.

It would be wonderful know it’s story from when it got dislodged somewhere up the river. We think it has probably come down the nearby Tweed River, into the bay, out into the sea before the force of the sea rolled it onto the rocks.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Playing With Unpredictability

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At the Swell sculpture festival at nearby Currumbin Beach we saw, and loved, this work, titled Fiddle Sticks, by Col Henry.

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We think the name might not translate universally. The “sticks” relate to a game Suzie says is called Pick Up Sticks and Des recalls being Fiddlesticks. This is a game where you throw down a bunch of colored sticks and then use the black stick to lift other sticks off the pile successively. When in the process you make another stick move you lose. Points are scored on the basis of the colors of the sticks you have retrieved.

The term “fiddlesticks!” was sometimes used by our parents’ generation as a socially acceptable expression of disbelief in some other person’s utterance with which they disagreed strongly: nicer than “what unmitigated rubbish!” or some other, more vulgar expression that might spring to mind. That usage seems to go back to at least the 18th century – http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-fid1.htm

The artist of the sculpture, Col Henry, clearly has the game in mind. He says the sculpture “plays with the concept of unpredictability”.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Sandgroper

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“It is not always an east task to create a piece of artwork to look enjoyably simple. But there’s enjoyment in task”- Verner Neilsen the artist of Sangdgroper

sandgroper

This sculpture is part of the annual Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin Beach. This is an ironic play on words: a sandgroper is aburrowing insect found in Western Australia and the term is used by other Australians as a nickname for people from Western Australia.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

5 Ways to Take the Work Out of Work and Connect with Life

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Some Folks Have All Fun

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Ever notice that some of us live, some of work to live, some of us live to work … and one or two of us seem to BE a piece of work?

Other living species don’t think their way into this problem. Why should we?

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Once upon a time there was a moment when the idea of work didn’t exist. Life was life and we lived it. Some of us only experience that in early childhood. Some of keep that secret with us and carry it through every moment we’re here.

5 Ways to Take the Work Out of Work and Connect with Life

It’s no secret that we’ve added negative connotations that bend the word work to define only some energy we invest or that work is often described as the opposite of play. And it’s fairly obvious to most of us that we often invest as much or more of our energy in things that we call something other than work … love, passion, sports, games, hobbies … life.

We’ve managed to disconnect what we call “work” from our life.

We frame it inside the idea of work-life balance — as if we could separate the working part from the living part and put each on the other side of a scale. Even if we could segment our lives so dicretely, each of us seems have a different definition of which exertion belongs in which category on which day.

The “who” of “Who puts the work in work?” is us. It follows that we’re the ones who, in the same way, can take the “work” out of work and get on to being fully connected to every breath that we take.

Here are five ways that I connect with life.

  • Connect to the passionate you who likes being alive. Many people say that difference between working for a living and a labor of love is passion. Find your passion for life, your joy at humor, your original curiosity and the thrill at knowing that not all is in what we see. Keep positive knowing that the only time and behavior that you can master or change is your own. Whatever happens is life. We can we see it as work or some fabulous puzzle that will improve our skills, bring new ideas, and unlock possibilities.
  • Connect with the passion of people who add positive energy to your life. When we’re passionate about what we’re doing, what we do seems worth every bit of energy it takes. We attract people who see the upside of what they’re doing too, even when what we’re all trudging through the mud in the rain. Notice the positive people. Connect with them in ways that bring more positivity into whatever you’re doing.
  • Connect to the “want to” of everything. If what you see is work, change the way you’re seeing it. Create a new view. Look to the outcome that is the payoff for what you’re about to do. It may not be fun to mow the lawn or pay the bills, but the feeling of accomplishment when it’s done is one worth savoring. Go for the gold and enjoy what that it takes to find it.
  • Connect to your ability to move when enough is enough. If the situation or is more work than it’s worth, move it out of your life. What we’re doing right now is what we want to be doing or we wouldn’t be doing it. Just as nature abhors a a vacuum — we don’t stay in situations that don’t payoff in some way. When the work gets to be higher than whatever used to be the payoff, we stop talking and move on. If you’re bored, uncomfortable, or feeling like it’s work to be you, move. Do something, one thing every day to move a little closer on where you’re going.
  • Connect with the power to experience and respond to humanity with humanity and life with life. Be a beginner constantly improving your “life in progress.” Joy, peace, anger, sadness, illness, and disastrous events — none of these are work — but the way we respond to them and hold on to them sure can be. Humans are hard-wired to be deeply inspired. It will draw people to you who want to do the the same. Make it your quest to be on a mission to improve things and to leave people who’d rather complain talking to themselves.

It’s the way we connect to our life that determines what we value, who we give ourselves and our time to, and what we consider work or fun. Connect to your life. Aspire (breathe toward) with intention to get closer to the people and ideas that invigorate and energize you.

As we live for the people and the moments that fuel us, life becomes simpler, easier, more fun — even when it’s not. We connect more deeply to the people we value, to the world, to ourselves and to our dreams.

Suddenly we find it’s never been a problem of finding a balance between work and life, but simply a problem of connecting and savoring the time of our lives.

How do you take the work out of work and connect with life?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Related:
The Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life
How to Be Alive and 10 Ways to Celebrate It!

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Beach Notes: Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

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Ambition + Skill = Success
by Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

This ambitious bird ( a darter) we saw this week while walking at Rainbow Bay. It looked like it was about to bite off more than it could chew (swallow). The fish it scooped into it’s mouth initially we thought the bird had no possibility of swallowing. The photos show that both skill and persistence do pay off and give success and satisfaction.

How do you turn your ambition and skill into success?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Thanks to Week 254 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss