Tim Dowling writing in The Guardian about the passing of his 102 year-old father (my emphasis):
I can’t tell you all the things I learned from my father, over my life and his, but I can tell you a few: that you can always make people happy with a story told against yourself; that self-esteem is great, but possibly overrated; that character is not your reputation, but a thing you do every day; that your only real enemy is fear, unless it’s a fear of heights, which is really just a specific form of common sense. And that as you age, a little caution is no bad thing.
I’m hoping my own dad, who turns 75 this year, will be around for a long time yet. But the reason for sharing the quotation is Dowling’s channelling of Aristotle, who can be translated as saying something like:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
One of the things I’m really appreciating on this holiday is the chance to reflect on my life. While my daily habits are productive and healthy for me personally, and helpful for my family, they’re very much focused on the short-term. I need to think bigger. Life is short.
I’m typing this on my laptop while half-sitting, half-lying on my bed. I’m surrounded by clothes, toiletries, and suitcases. Fink is playing via Plex connected to one of our many Google Home devices. Tomorrow, we head down to a hotel near Stansted before flying to the island of São Miguel in the Azores. I said I’d never fly Ryanair again, but a) they’re the only airline that fly there direct from the UK, and b) the flights were so cheap I couldn’t really refuse.
Since my last weeknote I’ve published 14 blog posts and handed in my latest assessment for my MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice. This is largely thanks to taking a social media break. I really dislike the fact that LinkedIn has become the de facto professional social network. It’s a joyless digital environment and it irks me that I have to spend any time there at all. Taking a break from it feels like it good for my mental health.
This last week has been the second of the user research and evaluation project for the Job Readiness Credential that IRC are piloting. Laura’s taking over as the point person while I’m away, and so I wanted to ensure that it was reasonably low-maintenance. That meant a lot of finessing of the stakeholder surveys and user research guide, with feedback from JFF and IRC. I do like an organised Trello board.
Although I haven’t yet had official confirmation, I saw that my sessions were featured on the ePIC programme, so I went ahead and booked flights and accommodation to go to the event in Paris in November. I figured that there would be more demand post-Olympics, and that would mean that prices would go up!
Other than that, we ran a retrospective (using the sailboat retro template, obvs) with Kerri and Gillian from the Digital Credential Consortium. We got loads done during our nine months working with them, including a communications strategy and knowledge base. Budgets permitting, we’re hoping to do some more in the new year.
I’m looking forward to walking, kayaking, canyoning, swimming, and other more active things on holiday. I can’t abide just sitting around doing nothing; it feels like a waste of my life when there’s so much to see and experience. The only limiting factor is likely to be my daughter’s knee. She went to see a physio at Sunderland’s Academy of Light, who confirmed that she’s injured her medial collateral ligament (MCL). Although she doesn’t appear to have torn anything, MCL strains and associate bone bruising can take a few weeks to heal.
Hopefully the knee brace my daughter is wearing will mean that she can participate in most of the things we do. Ironically enough, last year she was also injured on a school trip and couldn’t partake in any watersports activities when we went to Center Parcs in the Netherlands. She should be OK for the new football season, though.
Next week’s update might just be a bunch of photos as I’m not taking my laptop…
Screenshot of progress towards my yearly target of running 1,000km. For the first time I’m behind, because of a combination of the medication I was on, and buying an exercise bike.
I’m a big fan of metaphors. I find them useful in all sorts of situation; they can be extremely generative and motivational (when they’re not dead).
Activity P4.24 (The Open University, 2020) is an interesting one:
Ask yourself ‘When I am at my best, I am like what?’, and launch out into your own choice of metaphor. […]
What aspects of yourself are captured in the metaphor?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of being your choice of metaphor? What can it do? What can’t it do?
What aspects of the ‘metaphorical you’ do other people see? What is helpful about that? What could be different?
Seeing your life from the point of view of your metaphor, are there any changes you might like to make?
A flowing river
I had a bit of a think about this, and decided that, when I am at my best, I feel like a flowing river. A river is constantly moving, never static, which aligns with my tendency to keep going from one thing to the next, preventing me from ruminating and overthinking various aspects of life.
Rivers are adaptable and resilient. They can be calm and meandering or fierce and turbulent, reflecting the different states of my thoughts and emotions. I tend to cite the famous saying by Heraclitus about not being able to step into the same river twice quite a lot, which I think helps demonstrate both the ever-changing nature of river — and my own experiences and perceptions.
There are advantages and disadvantages to this metaphor:
Advantages of the metaphor
The river’s ability to navigate around obstacles mirrors my capacity to adjust to new situations and overcome challenges. This kind of adaptability allows me to be resilient, finding new paths when necessary and continuously moving forward. The constant movement of a river signifies growth and progress, which aligns with my drive for personal development. As Taylor and other characters would say on the TV show Billions “forward momentum, always.”
Disadvantages of the metaphor
However, this continuous movement can also be a disadvantage. I can find turbulent times overwhelming, much like a river during a storm or flood. Continuous rumination, which we might liken to stagnant pools or the river’s erosion, can lead to mental fatigue. Additionally, a river that disperses widely might lose its strength, similar to how I sometimes feel when taking on too much at once.
Aspects of the metaphorical me seen by others
I think that others see my energy and enthusiasm, notice that I tend to come up with a lot of new ideas, appreciate that I can deal with ambiguity, and can handle diverse situations. My adaptability is evident to those around me, and people observe both my moments of clarity and times of deep rumination. I’d hope that my resilience (which I have to work on continuously!) helps to inspire others to embrace change and persist through challenges.
Being visible, in my work, on this blog, and elsewhere, while often positive, can have its downsides. My intensity and constant motion can sometimes overwhelm others or make me appear unpredictable.
Life from the point of view of the metaphor
Viewing my life through the lens of a flowing river, I see several changes I might like to make. I need to reduce my overall levels of stress, which from a metaphorical point of view would be the ‘rapids’ of my life. Perhaps some kind of meditation practice could help with this, although to be quite honest the idea of sitting with my thoughts for any length of time terrifies me.
Rivers tend to follow the path of least resistance which, while meaning that there is always forward momentum, isn’t very strategic. Defining clear goals might help channel my energy more effectively, ensuring my efforts lead to tangible outcomes.
One thing that I definitely do already do is to prioritise self-care to ensure my mental and physical wellbeing. Preventing the negative effects of constant change is something I’ve had to learn through experience. So, for example, while I’m always moving onto the next thing intellectually, my home environment is usually very ordered and unchanging (when we’re not moving house!) and I’m pretty fastidious about my three pillars of productivity (sleep, exercise, nutrition).
Conclusion
By embracing the metaphor of a flowing river, I can gain a deeper appreciation of my strengths and challenges. This metaphor provides a framework for understanding my forward-thinking nature and the importance of balance and direction in personal growth and my interactions with others. This has actually been a useful activity. I think I might use the river metaphor a bit more when thinking, planning, and discussing plans with others!
