Hello to you all and it’s that time of the year where most of the people I know, including myself, are bogged down in work. Meaning … We are swamped. Think swamp, … think wetlands. Why do we associate wetlands with being swamped ie having too much to do?

Having loads of work waiting for you, makes you feel muddy and dirty, like when you step into a mud puddle and it soaks into your sock. You need a shower. You’ll take that shower and then you’ll get to work. That is, unless you suddenly realise you can do something else instead. Oooooo no!?

Today, (being Workers Day), I made a list of all the work I had to do, in order of deadline. Then I looked at the list for a while and thought about it. It was hard to hear myself think over the noise of all my anxiety in all that I had to do, but I still managed to realise something important. After I created a list, I suddenly had a neat arrangement of specific tasks, each one a small fraction of the whole load. Instead of the weight of all this stuff crushing me at once, I just had to do each specific, smaller task. Once!! Then it would be done forever.

Thinking about it, …there is something else…. . I am not suggesting only that if you feel stressed out by responsibilities that you break it down into manageable pieces, there is more ….. When you make a list, or when you take even the smallest step forward to start chipping away at your workload, you begin to take control. Fear of failure and of being overwhelmed is often rooted in a lack of control and so you become unable to do anything. So when you name your opponent (at least one of those overwhelming tasks) and begin to push back against it, you begin to make yourself its master.

I live in Wetlands - and there are hippos - I want to live among the hippos in hippiness, You get my drift? Ie “Swamped” is ok .. if:

1)     We approach it with the right attitude

2)     We list tasks so we have order

3)     Keep ticking tasks off the list each day and you will see that you are a hippy hippo in control!

You can be in control,  … really!!

Much love, Your Contented Cow Coach

I’ve decided to let Mum off training today. She is cross with me because I chewed her hat. Mum smacked me. I know she hurt her hand more than she hurt my backside, but I felt bad. So I did not eat my supper. I just lay there with my face on my paws and my ears down. Mum left me alone for a bit, but when it was time for me to go to my kennel, I still felt bad, so I did not move. Mum asked me if I felt sick. So I rolled over to look sick. Mum then said I could sleep on her bed tonight. I climbed the stairs and jumped on. I LOVE SLEEPING IN Mum’s soft, warm bed.

Hmm … I have just thought of a new way of training Mum …… (I will just have to somehow sneak in some sort of supper on the days we practice this trick)

(Again, …. you have to be sooo aware of how people receive your message!!)

With Love, Your Contented Cow Coach

Dee www.workinsolutions.co.za

 Hot Shaka Dawg signing in again!

I love Mum so much. But I really need to protect her from those 2 wheeled monsters that come to attack her on our runs. When she opened the car door today I jumped out and sniffed around. I saw a big sign showing a 2-wheeled monster with a red line through it. So I know that there would be no 2-wheelers on this run. So I relaxed and explored the bush whilst we were running. Then, unbelievably, I spied a monster coming up behind Mum. She hadn’t seen it and she was over on the other side of the path. The monster came up fast toward her, so I had to jump into action. I managed to get close to Mum, just as the monster got close to her. I had to stop it from taking her out. So I leapt up to the saddle of the 2-wheeler and bit the bottom sitting on top. That stopped the monster. It also stopped Mum. She clipped me on lead and pulled me close. I knew that she needed help so I gristled and growled. The 2 wheel monster started pointing & shouting at Mum. She got brave. She told it to “shut up – no bicycles allowed!” The 2-wheeler disappeared fast. I thought Mum might bark at me but she knelt down and whispered in my ear: “Clever Dawg”! - I have now decided that I must try to bite all bottoms sitting on top of 2-wheelers, just to keep making Mum whisper magic into my ears.

(Its probably a good idea to be very clear on exactly what lessons you want your trainee to learn!)

 This is Hot Shaka Dog - continuing with my training journal:

The other day Mum was eating some cashew nuts while she was working. She always does that and she never offers me any. I don’t mind coz I love Mum and I know that she needs to eat. But this time she did leave some for me. When Mum went to answer the doorbell, she left her packet of nuts on her desk next to the computer, so when she was talking to her visitor, I jumped on to her chair and then on to her desk and fetched the packet and emptied it on to the grass. It was such a nice snack. I licked my lips with delight. When Mum found the bits of packet on the lawn, she changed colour again and called my name. Loudly! I decided not to go and find her coz she seemed quite excited and anyway I was feeling too full after those yummy nuts.

Training Mum is always interesting - I hope she now knows that if she wants to try to be the Boss, she must share her food with all of us!!

 Hot Shaka Dawg:

I discovered how to make Mum change colour. When she has visitors, I sneak up behind a lady with a shortish skirt and I do what Dawgs do. I put my cold nose under her skirt in greeting. The ladies always scream and Mum goes first pink then purple. Its so much fun seeing the colours in her face. She always swots at me after that and I jump out the way! Game is on – training Mum again!. 

 

I love my voice. I get attention every time I use it. Whenever Mum takes me in the car with her running shoes on, I bark at every 2 wheeled monster (Mum calls it a bicycle) that I can see. You should see how Mum then barks my name back at me. It works every time. I have been training Mum to bark for some time and now Mum is barking at the 2 wheelers almost as loud as me!

Good Day Friends!

This morning’s daily trot in the mountains was a most interesting experience. I got thinking about some of the great sayings we have coined in the English language. Here are a few:

·         Clouded judgement

·         Turning the corner

·         Right before my eyes

·         Passionate people are Motivated people

·         Nothing lost Nothing Gained

·         Adapt or die

Nature’s lessons are full of these little sayings! Let’s just look at these tips for all of us at work:

1)     If any of you live around mountains and the sea (yes – Cape Town), you will know that sometimes the wind can blow sea mist across the mountains, completely clouding them over. It’s the same as flying in an aeroplane through clouds. When you are in the clouds, you can’t see or hear anything clearly, because you are shrouded in the mist, but then suddenly, you rise above the clouds and the sun is shining brightly, you can see and hear clearly and you know immediately which direction to take in order to get to where you want to be.

This is what happened today. I was trotting along in the mist and suddenly I reached a point of clarity when I summited a little hill and found myself right out of the clouds. It happens all the time in business. So often our judgement gets clouded by a million issues and we then get misted over. Nature’s lesson is that - the answer is right there, but we just cannot see it. We should suspend judgement until we have travelled through the clouds. Only when the clouds have lifted should we then make decisions because then our direction will become clear.

2)     Trotting up a rocky path can be really trying at times. It feels like you will never get to your goal. You have to square your jaw and your backbone and pull in your stomach and force yourself to keep stepping over all the obstacles in your path. But then suddenly you get to a point where the path swings in a 90 degree direction and you can see you are nearly at the top of the path and all you have to do is finish on a gentle downhill. It’s called “turning the corner”. And it happens so often that our challenges just seem to be in front of us like a never ending rocky road, but persistence is key. Persist and you will turn the corner and achieve your goal.

3)     This morning, my head was down with the effort of propelling myself forward on the trail amongst all the fynbos on either side of me, when suddenly I stopped in my tracks! There right before my eyes was an enormous web, spun across my path fastened on either side to protea bushes. With a great big hunting spider perched in the middle. And lots of insects entangled.  I stopped for a moment to catch my breath from the fright of nearly, nearly becoming snared myself, chin first, and it struck me, at that second, that this is exactly what they mean when they say “Right before your eyes”! Sometimes, at work, we are so busy dealing with daily rocky roads that we do not see the answer is right before our eyes! So we really need to make sure that we are alive and alert at work in order to recognise when the answer to a challenge is right there!!

4)     Ok and then continuing from that moment when I almost fell into that web spun across my path, Spider did actually impact upon me, not to bite or hurt me, but, (together with Dog) to teach me a final lesson for this morning! What happened was that I then had to pass by this web without Spider landing on my face or torso. Before I could think of a clever way of dislodging the web without annoying Spider, Dog decided that I must have been up to some tricks (because I had stopped in the middle of the track), so he decided to join in my “game” and he joyously leapt past me, to lick my ear and take the lead in the path. In less than a second Spider’s fancy web was dislodged and Spider was nowhere to be seen.

What did I learn from all this action?

(a) that sometimes the most fearful looking obstacles in your path are easily dislodged if one approaches life with joy and passion. Dog showed me that Spider’s web was not actually an obstacle, nor was it actually frightening … that was all in my head! Passion motivates!

(b) Spider taught me that in order to get the best out of life; you have to take certain risks, like spinning your web across a path which has the possibility of being destroyed by oncoming traffic. Spider’s web had captured a fabulous meal of insects, but was shortly thereafter destroyed by exuberant Dog. Spider had, however, prepared for the risk and had adapted brilliantly by developing split-second reaction time to completely jump clear at the moment of impact. Spider had made a plan to overcome the dangers. Looking backwards after I too had passed, I realised that Spider could still eat all its food and just spin a web again. Adapt or Die - by preparing well before taking a risk, nothing was lost, but everything gained.

Perhaps we can all take a few pointers from Spider and Dog and Nature generally as we go out to the field every day? What do you think?

Your ever-there-for-you, Contented Cow Coach!