More time for fun and play with your kids!
My practical experiences and learning to achieve goals in life and work using ideas from GTD® or Getting Things Done®. Enjoy the questions and fun of our discoveries in the game of work and the business of life.
At this time of the year we are all greeting with "Happy New Year!"
A very Happy New Year
How happy are you? And what difference does being happy make to you and your work? Or life with your children for that matter.
GTD helps give me more time for fun. GTD helps me to achieve a balance and meaning in life. GTD is about making the right choices for my life and work. At least that is what I am working towards when I sometimes fall off the wagon.
My resolution is to do more with GTD in 2009. To reach new heights (thanks Oliver) and greater happiness.
Martin Seligma is a positive psychologist who tells us more about what being positive can do for us (see TED talk and The BBC happiness formula).
I recommend taking a closer look at the Authentic Happiness testing center. Measure your overall happiness, your current level happiness and your approach to happiness. Test your own and your kids chracter strengths too—I found this particularly insightful—I am curious and have an interest in the world.
A fascinating book about the serious business of play is "The Red Rubber Ball at Work". Its all about play at work. Kevin Carroll reminds us of our childhood connections to play and of how often we have forgotten how. Forgotten how to play and the fun of it all.
Using a creative mix of book, internet, links and video, you are encouraged to discover your own game. Scoring in Business is like play. As in GTD like David Allen points out: its about "winning at the game of work and the business of life".
In this book we meet many successful people who have not forgotten how to play at work. I particularly enjoyed reading the different perspectives of play taken from different angles in peoples lives. Memories of childhood and how these childrens games and play went on to form the successes in adult life. Successes in every sense, part and walk of life.
Challenge yourself! And challenge your children to learn to play (with) music and share a lifetime of ways "to tap into imagination, be more inventive and discover new things" as Kevin Carroll discovered when he took up playing the Cello again.
At whatever age music and singing is a very creative way of learning. Like a recent school concert that my twins gave of Mozarts Requiem. Rehersals started several weeks ago. These were disciplined, repetitive and structured, teaching the children to listen to their own voice and that of the whole choir. I was taken by the enthusiasm with which this singing project was undertaken. Shown in little comments, like Thomas coming home from school one afternoon "I want to learn Latin!" "Why?" "So I can understand what I am singing!"
Singing in the adult choir, I was able to experience how everything came together with orchestra, choir and finally the concert. Mozart's Requiem is a powerfully moving piece many will remember from the Film Amadeus. Days later the twins are still singing parts of the Requiem.
The Red Rubber Ball at Work needs to be understood from a child's perspective. And remembering how I loved to play as a child, I share Kevin's belief that play is essential to growth and development of healthy children.
At a young age, more important than learning to read or write, is learning to play. Many educators (and researchers) of young children realize the need for more playtime in spite of some worrying trends by national Governments.
Play is many things at work and Kevin shares interviews with authors such as Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell and Paulo Coehlo:
