Fill Your Bucket – How to Make Life More Positive

January 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Hi there, how’s your week been?  Now think carefully before you answer that question because you might be emptying my bucket!  What on earth am I on about?

Well I had this book recommended to me recently called ‘How Full Is Your Bucket‘ by Tom Rath & Donald Clifton.  It’s all about positive strategies for life and work.  The theory is basically this;

“Everyone has an invisible bucket.  We are at our best when our buckets are overflowing – and at our worst when they are empty.

Everyone also has an invisible dipper.  In each interaction we can use our dipper either to fill or dip from others’ buckets.

Whenever we choose to fill others’ buckets we in turn fill our own”

So when you are interacting with someone in a positive way you are filling their bucket, when you’re being negative you’re draining it.  The fab thing is that when we fill up others’ buckets ours gets fuller too as a knock on effect.  I know which one I’m choosing!  

You all will probably have noticed by now that positivity is high on my list of priorities, in fact it’s my 4th top core value so of course I had to read the book.  It’s a lovely little book with lots of hints and tops and research to back it all up too – So in summary go and read it and then come back here and tell me how you fill people’s buckets.  Want to read more about it?  You can find out more at www.bucketbook.com.  You can even take the Postive Impact Test to get your bucket filling score! So the next time you have an interaction with someone ask yourself are you filling their bucket or dipping into it?

What else is news?

I have been working frantically in the background on a 3 month Group Coaching Programme called Live Your Life In Colour.  More to come on that next week.  

I set myself a challenge of reading 40 books this year as I have a bad habit of buying lots of books and reading them all at once because I can’t help myself.  I currently have about 10 on the go, eek!  This is my first completed one, I’m slowly working through my list, it’s kinda cheating though as it’s only short!  How many books will you read this year and what’s on your reading list?

So whose bucket will you fill this coming week? Feel free to fill mine by leaving me a wonderful comment below or by sharing this post!!

Don’t forget to join in Make It Happen Monday!  Have a great weekend.

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Filed Under: Book Review, Positive Language, Positive Thinking Tagged With: , ,

Book Review – The Purpose Paradigm

August 7, 2013 by 1 Comment

I love to read, so when I was given a copy of The Purpose Paradigm to review I was really excited.

‘The Purpose Paradigm’ is written by Career Coach, Laura Simms.  You may recall she did a guest post with me a while back.  I have been a follower of Laura’s work for a while. 

I have always loved to work, sad but true and having been in HR where careers were often a topic of conversation this book really intrigued me.

So what’s it like?  Well I won’t go through chapter and verse, there’s nothing worse than watching a film or reading a book and knowing the ending, not having had the experience yourself! I will share some of the things I love about it though…

The first thing you notice when you open this book is the beautiful presentation, the colours reflect a real sense of calm.  (Reading it on my iPad was bliss too as the pages fitted perfectly – no squinting or finger pinching required, just ease. (for those of you with iPads you will know what I mean, for those that don’t just think ease of reading!)

The pages aren’t text heavy, but laid out in such a way that it’s an easy read.  Don’t let that fool you though, the content is extremely thought provoking and tells what most of us career minded people/entrepreneurs know but don’t necessarily express – We want that meaningful career .. not just a hum-drum 9-5.  Laura calls this ‘The Ache’,  ‘There is a collective ache to do more purpose-driven work. It’s a longing to do something that matters’. Often we think that to do purpose-driven work it’s a choice of that or money.  Laura shows us that this doesn’t have to be the case.  You can have both – to create and earn.  

The ‘Dedication’ takes you straight to the heart of who the book is for.  Immediately you can identify with some of the ‘day on the run’ scenarios where life is all work and no play.  You know me, I’m all about Living Your Life in Colour, so being on that mundane hamster wheel day in day out is simply no fun.

Laura shares some statistics, some insights of where things have originated and discusses meaningless careers, ‘Career Homelessness’ and what that means.

The book lays out ‘The Elements’ – nine fundamental elements for purpose-driven careers.  You’ll have to read the book to find out what they are ;o) Laura explains why each of these elements is key to having a meaningful career and you get to loosely ‘score’ where you are right now.  Checking in as I call it is always a great way to test what you have now and then what you really want.

What unfolds is the ‘Paradigm Shift’ – the old paradigm vs the new.  When you see the two side by side Laura’s new paradigm just lifts you up and makes you realise what is actually achievable through this paradigm shift.  It’s a list of ideals to live by, living your career/life on purpose, not just letting it happen to you.

I’ve had various roles in my past, PA, Manager of a Residential Home, Head of HR and sometimes I have wondered what the connection is between them.  Does it matter?  Probably not.  Does it matter to me?  Yes, somehow it does.  I left a role in HR a few years back and from time to time have asked myself why I would leave and waste all that learning/knowledge to go in a completely different direction.  The biggest takeaway from this book for me was the ‘career through-line’, that thread that pulls all of your seemingly different careers together..

‘No matter how many different careers you’ve had, there is always a through-line, even if only apparent to you, or if not immediately apparent to you. Finding your through-line will help you feel as though there is some continuity between the seemingly disparate careers you’ve had (because there is).’

What I learnt from this is that it’s ok.  It may seem small but it was a great a-ha moment for me. All that learning wasn’t wasted and now as a result of having gone through all of those experiences I can now live my life with passion, with a meaningful career where I can create and give back.  
 
Final words.. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Often books on Career Coaching can be a bit grey (dull and boring).  This book really speaks to you, it’s like having a chat with an old friend who helps you see things differently; clearer somehow.

Laura has vast experience in Career Coaching and her book uses this experience to help us look at our careers/businesses from a new perspective.  I would highly recommend The Purpose Paradigm if you are wanting to figure out what a meaningful career/business means for you and want to take some action to create just that. 

 

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Filed Under: Book Review, Career, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,
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