Something fizzy in the sunshine

It could be a new idea, an aspiration or a glass of sparkling water or perhaps a glass of Champagne, although it’s always better when the sun shines.  It’s Saturday midday and I’ve just come inside from the garden, where I sat chatting with a friend over a cuppa in the warm sunshine.  After she went back home, I stayed put and took a stroll around my thoughts – plants, yesterday’s lunch with friends (delicious), today’s Saturday Kitchen and work.  Now there’s a combination and a half.

I love words like zing and zest (no surprise there) and now a colleague has introduced fizz to this vibrant collection.  It seems that I bring fizz and fun to my work. Inspiring positivity has always been my thing.  It’s what spurred me on to create a blog and publish more than eighty stories.  I often sit in the garden and let my thoughts roam.  Today was no exception – Jubilee lemon trifle, Jubilee lunch, even putting fizz into Resourcing.  It’s certainly a buoyant recruitment market right now and that means a lot of work for those of us who love to crack the code and get it right.  But sometimes when you’re “doing the doing”, there’s too little time to think.

Who remembers those expensive Time Management workshops of the late 80s and the heyday of the Filofax?  The focus was on organising your work life and having everything you needed in one place – now it’s called a mobile device. And it’s our life, not just at work.  Despite these advances in technology, how many of us really commit to blocking out time to think?  There’s something about working remotely – we’re less inclined to get up and walk over to chat to a colleague (because we’re working on our own) or go sit in a breakout space to think through a challenge.  Instead, we commit to endless video meetings and occasionally clear time for writing, yet both are “doing”, rather than thinking opportunities.

I suppose that’s why I love my time in the garden, alone with my thoughts, the distant woodpecker and the blackbirds.  It’s where I do my best thinking and consider my week.  Yes, my garden is where I reflect and recharge – it’s where I get my good ideas and top up my fizz.  So why don’t I do this during the week?  Put simply, I’ve no idea.  Maybe it’s the notion that I should be on-line and active, and “doing” rather than thinking. Does this resonate with you?

This afternoon I’m challenging myself to get better at making thinking time an integral part of my working day and I’m challenging you to do the same. How about it?

Here are my top tips for creating a little fizz:

·       Think quality solution rather than any solution

·       Remember to own the challenge if it’s yours and leave it where it is, if it’s not

·       Consider all the options and commit to the best without hesitation

·       Take people on the journey with you and show them what’s possible

·       Remember to draw a line under what didn’t work out and jump over it

·       Try new things at every opportunity and remember to learn as you go

·       Encourage others and acknowledge their contribution – it’s collaboration

·       When you’re running to catch up, sit down with a cuppa and begin again

·       Sing like there’s nobody listening or Salsa in the sunshine

·       And in the words of Eric Idle, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” (1979)

Where do you get your fizz?  Why not try out a few of my suggestions and let me know how you get on?  Let’s talk.

Something fizzy in the sunshine