2012 International Year of Resilience – top 10 Tips

In thinking about the year ahead I’ve decided to call it the International Year of Resilience. With everything that appears to be going on in the world there’s unlikely to be any quick fixes and so I provide for you here below, my Top 10 Tips for building more resilience into your lives. If you want to follow and contribute to the Twitter conversation, please use the following tag #2102YearofResilience. Tip 1: Be Productive, not ‘busy’ – you can’t be both.

 

From what I can tell, busy people are RARELY productive.  So stop doing all that stuff that makes no difference or even harms your productivity.

Tip 2: Understand that variations to your times-lines are likely.   This tip reminds us that what we expect might need to change because things might take longer or happen quicker than what we anticipate

Tip 3: If you haven’t thought about a preferred and realistic future outcome, you have no right to complain when you don’t like what you end up with.  Don’t think I need to explain that one further, though I know some people will complain all the same!

Tip 4: Planning is NOT execution.  But without it you might bet better off NOT executing at all.  So think and prepare is the key here because acting without thinking first might put you in a far deeper hole than you really want to be in!

Tip 5: Resilience means to have the ability to bounce back into shape.  From what?  From the ‘impact’ of unexpected outcomes and the occasional surprise.  The more you’ve thought about potential outcomes, the better prepared you are likely to be and the less need for resilience.

Tip 6: Make sure your expectations are realistic – base them on a wide array of information.  If your expectations are realistic you’ll rarely be disappointed but if not…

Tip 7: Your Future is a negotiation with yourself and with others.  It will almost NEVER arrive in a smooth & straight line Remember that there are stops and starts and diversions is every part of your life – that’s what makes your life interesting!

Tip 8: It might be frustrating but it’s probably not really a disaster.  This tip reminds us to take a breath remember tips two and seven, to then think about options and then act

Tip 9: Stuck? You can overcome your current challenges – It may need persistence and it might also require you to come up with a new plan.  Your future is about options.  People who lack resilience have often run out of options or (as is more likely) can’t think of alternatives.  Tip 10 can help here too

Tip 10: Ask for help and then ALLOW people to help you in ways that they know how.  One of the biggest hurdles we face is our belief that we have to do it alone.  For others they ask for help but then insist their ‘helpers’ do things the way they want them done.

So there’s my quick tips for 2012 International year of Resilience.  I’d love to find out your tips too so Twitter in at #rightfuture using the tag #2012YearofResilience

Surviving the Hoons

Apr 13, 2010

One of the current affairs TV programs did a story recently on the efforts by NSW police to crack down on ‘hoon’ drivers through a specific squad targeting them. The Victorian Police recently announced a similar project with the squad headed up by one of Victoria Police’s most effective senior officers, Inspector Bernie Rankin. Unusually…

Read More >

Hamilton Hoons and Five more die

Mar 28, 2010

Lewis Hamilton, the former automotive Formula One ‘number one’ had his car impounded on Friday night for alleged ‘hoon’ driving, having been spotted by police spinning his wheels at a busy intersection in St Kilda. Whilst many character witnesses have already jumped to his defence, with one interesting observation from Mark Webber suggesting we have…

Read More >

The Future of Australia’s Dairy Industry

Mar 9, 2010

Following on from the highly rated ‘Skimming the Cream’ forum in Brisbane on the 9th of February, members of the Young Dairy Network and SubTropical Dairy groups reconvened to consider the impacts of Climate Change on the dairy sector in Australia using the high-impact ‘Accelerated Scenarios process’. The ‘2030 Dairy Scenarios’ brought together the members…

Read More >

Thinking outside the cloud – a new tourism angle for Queensland

Feb 17, 2010

Queensland is one state that leverages its weather to the hilt – and the fact is the ‘Sunshine State’ earns its reputation. The odd thing is that in the past week I’ve spent in the Gold Coast experiencing the warm, humid and often wet weather it has occured to me that Queensland might be missing…

Read More >

Terrorism the Games wild card

Jan 31, 2010

In a recent article in The Age, Clive Williams of Macquarie University’s Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism suggested that athletes booked in to attend the Commonwealth games in India need to consider a terrorist attack as a potential wildcard. Whilst an interesting perspective, I’d like to suggest that a potential terrorist attack at…

Read More >

For Valentines Day, its Tigers all ’round

Jan 10, 2010

If my information is correct, the 14th of February is the start of the New Year and instead of the usual flowers and chocolates, you might be wise to invest in another gift for your heart’s desire Because Feb 14 is the start of the Chinese New Year – the year of the Tiger. So…

Read More >

What can we expect in the next decade?

Dec 28, 2009

Had any thoughts yet? I have – plenty and judging from the number of media inquiries it appears lots of other people are also curious to know what might lie ahead in the next year or next decade. I’m putting my thinking hat on so that we can consider what 2010-2019 might hold, the second…

Read More >

Copenhagen Consensus is likely – just not the type we want.

Dec 7, 2009

I’m tipping that Consensus will be reached at Copenhagen this week. Alas it will be a consensus for more talking, thinking and commitments to agree to a proposal to set a time for a discussion around more concrete targets. In otherwords, a commitment to not commit. The politicians waver whilst our planet is being poisoned.…

Read More >

Counter Mantra to Christmas Credit

Nov 30, 2009

The cycle of consumption rears its head as it has done for quite some time. Consumption is neither good, nor bad, it ‘just is’ and right now the majority of media exposed potential consumers are being lured, enticed and occasionally conned into parting with their hard earned money to satisfy needs and whims. Some consumers…

Read More >

What kids can teach us about Goal Directed futures

Nov 16, 2009

Our son has just celebrated his fifth birthday and although we don’t make a huge fuss about milestones (the kids get a party every second year), there’s no doubt that he is learning about desired future outcomes and goals. I doubt he is different from most kids in his ability to spot something and declare…

Read More >