I’m someone, perhaps not too different to you, who is busy with a mixture of work life and personal life experiences. I have a job, a family, a car, a cat, a mountain bike, loads of responsibilities and lots of energy to give to them all!
I see myself as on a constant journey in life and, along the way, certain topics catch my attention and occupy my mind more than others. For me, these areas of natural passion include improving my personal productivity, my creativity and my understanding of myself & the people around me.
So, why have I decided to share my interest with you?
Well, life only ever seems to get busier, the demands on us seem to be ever escalating and it’s easy to start feeling that you’re not the one in control. And, if this site is about anything, its about encouraging you to think differently about things and to start taking back that feeling of control. Even the name of the site suggests this!
I have an analogy that often comes to mind that life feels like I’m paddling a kayak down a river. Some days the river is wide and the water is flowing slowly. I have time to look around, absorb my surroundings and think about the bigger picture of my life.
But on other days, I seem to have turned a bend in the river and now, suddenly, the river is narrower, the river banks are starting to tower around me and the water is flowing much faster. It takes everything in my power to keep that kayak upright and dodging life’s obstacles.
But wouldn’t it be nice if we had the ability to handle the rapids and retain a feeling of control despite the apparent chaos around us?
And that’s where I have found my touchstone areas of personal productivity, creativity and the development of an understanding of the people we share this journey with as being so crucial to retaining control.
Sure, there are days where everything seems to happen at once, where people are pushing you hard to get what they want and your To-Do List seems to have multiplied a dozen times all on its own but, to be honest, there are very few where I genuinely feel knocked out of that kayak.
Through this site I’d like to write about some of what I’ve learnt over time with a view to sharing that learning with others and, in the process, see a dialogue take place between the like-minded people that visit the site so we can all, collectively, learn from each other. And let’s hope we can all get some solid ‘Ahas’ along the way that help towards achieving that feeling of re-gaining control.
Initially on the site I have shared my love for ‘Brain Profiling’ and why I find it so useful in day to day life with family, friends and work colleagues. Please check the introductory articles under the ‘Brain Profiling’ link on the menu bar above and the link to ‘Get Yours’ where you can determine your own Brain Profile through an online assessment.
I have also developed a series of articles explaining my love for the area of ‘Personal Productivity’, again, accessible through the menu bar above. I share with you my take on the ‘Getting Things Done’ methodology of author David Allen and explain how I have implemented his system. His approach has helped me personally cope with the ever increasing demands of a constantly expanding To-Do List, giving me peace of mind that I am focussing on the right things and actually getting them done. Having lived off ‘inbox zero’ in my email since 2010 (with far less effort then it used to take me to maintain an inbox in the thousands) I can highly recommend a look at his approach.
In time, I plan to create a resource of what I have learnt and understand about the world of creativity.
Taken together, these three touchstone areas have helped me make better sense of the world around me and I hope they can make similar impact for you too.
So, let’s be ready to change the software in our brains, open our minds up to new ways of thinking and be ready to try out some new approaches … let’s see if we can keep those kayaks afloat on all stretches of the river of life 🙂
Best regards.
