Holiday Season

It's holiday season here. The schools are closed for the long summer holidays and most people have time off work from Christmas Eve through to early January, and many take more time off to kick back and enjoy the sunshine and glorious beaches.

Yesterday we took a trip to Rangitoto, the volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf. When I think of Auckland, Rangitoto always comes to mind. 

It's about a 30 minute ferry ride from the central city and dominates the views from the city and North Shore coasts. The island is about 5km wide and rises about 260 metres. It's a relatively recent landmark to the area being about 600 years old. I can only imagine how the locals felt during the eruptions.

It was a hot, sunny day and we were glad of the shade from the Pohutukawa trees as we walked along the tracks, but the views from the volcanic cone are definitely worth the effort. From the top there are views back to the city and North Shore, and over many of the other islands in the Hauraki Gulf.

 
Given the history there are an amazing amount of trees, shrubs and flowers growing on the island, but the lava fields are a reminder of the violent beginnings.

Perhaps it was because the tracks were steep in parts or rough so you had to take care, or perhaps because most people were in groups, or maybe it was because we've had a week or so away from work and everyday stress, but I didn't notice many people absorbed in phones and other technology - other than people taking photos at the cone and lookout points along the way.

One of the things I've noticed is that we do get sucked into making sure we're recording what we're doing and then linking to social media so everyone else knows what we're doing, that we forget to enjoy 'the now'.

Yes, it's great to have photos of family, friends and places we've visited, but we shouldn't forget to actually enjoy and appreciate the moment. Take the photo, and then enjoy the sunset, or the meal, or the group of people we're with. Uploading it to wherever can happen later.

Happy holidays and a wonderful 2015.

Time Goes By...

Little people view time very differently to taller people. 

'Are we nearly there yet? How long will it be?' 

'Half an hour.' 

'How long's half an hour?'

Another conversation.

'Can we get on the plane yet?' 

Once on the plane. 'When it's taking off?' 

Once in the air. 'When will we be there?' 

'An hour.' 

'How long's an hour?'   

And so it goes.

I'm mostly an organised person, and was born with, or acquired at a very early age, an aversion to being late for appointments, meetings, planes, trains or similar. I have no problem turning up late(ish) for informal social gatherings, though my husband has difficulty with even the possibility of lateness for anything *sigh.* 

Time is a very fluid substance - holidays fly by, a job you dislike doing takes ages. The little people think that December goes by soooo slowly, while adults feel the opposite.

Truth is we each have 24 hours in every day, minus the 6-8 hours we spend in bed. It's how we allocate and use our waking hours that makes the difference.

Years ago I used to teach a time management, clean desk/office course so I know all the talk, though that doesn't necessarily correlate to perfect actions. 

I wouldn't win a gold medal for procrastination, but I'd be a good contender for bronze. There are good days when productivity is high, and there are those, let's just call them, not so good days.

What's the difference between them? 

A plan and some goals. They can make the difference between activity and productivity.

Daydreaming

If you don't like sport, you'll probably be finding it difficult to divorce yourself entirely from the Olympics. Even in our distant part of the world, where the time difference means that most events are on overnight, there are repeats, the internet, and of course recording the bits you do want to see.

I wasn't particularly gifted at sports as a child. I've always been tall, and the sports teacher spent most of my school life telling me I should be good at high jump/long jump, running and whatever else we were doing, because I was tall. Telling me didn't make it so, but I did love watching those athletes stand on the podium clutching their medals

I only started running a few years ago, tricked into it by a friend and the guy doing the training. Much to my surprise I found I liked it, though I'm not sure 'like' is the right word. I don't leap out of bed thinking, oh goody time for a run. It never gets any easier, and while I'm running my brain keeps asking me what the hell I'm doing. I've not yet come up with an answer. What I do know is that I keep running, and as I've given up other sporting activities I don't enjoy, I guess that somewhere, well hidden, I enjoy running.

I'm not a fast runner, and I would hazard a guess that I'm not one of those elegant, athletic people that appear born to run, but I keep on dreaming that maybe I am.

I’ll be watching the marathon, though my longest distance so far is around 8km, with the dreams of childhood still in my head. Well, that's what writer's do; we think up the impossible and make it happen.

Who Changed That...

I'm busy at the moment with various learning and development projects, but one thing that never seems to change is the sudden about-turn that's required when one project goes quiet for whatever reason, and another suddenly becomes vitally important with a deadline of yesterday.

I've often joked about the saying 'the only constant is change', but it's so true.  How many industries and jobs are there now, that didn't exist 10 years ago?

This reminded me of a book I read a number of years ago - Who Moved My Cheese. If you haven't read it, then get a copy.  It's a small book and doesn't take long to read.  

Here are a couple of the points that resonated with me.  

Change happens: Whether we want it to, or dread it.  Whether we go with it or bury our heads, change happens.

The biggest inhibitor to change is you. Oh no it's not, we say, but it is comfortable here, and things are very nice.  Why can't they stay the same? 

When you move beyond your fear you feel free.  This is an interesting one.  I tend to think of fear as terror or horror, but fear is also something that stops us doing things.  So when we push ourselves to get beyond it, we feel an amazing exhilaration.  It's a great feeling, and there's nothing quite like it.  We should all do it more often.

There's a difference between activity and productivity.  Even knowing this, I still find myself busy, but not always productive.  It's so easy to spend time on blog posts, emails, Twitter etc. and not actually produce the all-important word-count. 

It also has a lot to do with making goals, and prioritising what's important.  

Most of us don't have control over every hour of our day.  We have work, families and other committments, but what about the hours we do have control over?  What do we do in that time? 

Do we spend it watching TV or on activities that contribute to our goals?  Putting it like that makes it sound virtuous, but dreary.  Ultimately we have to decide for ourselves.  At the moment I'm very aware of time, and that we don't always have the endless supply of it we often imagine.  

Change happens - embrace it, or at least deal with it.

Get busy and don't wait to live the life you've been dreaming.