Top 10 Tips for Resilience

As most of you know I nominated this year as the 2012 International Year of Resilience because frankly, that’s what I reckon large chunks of the world need right now. The twitter feed is #2012YearofResilience. I sent a few of these tips out at the start of the year and have seen a few of them already pop up in the writing of other people which is great. If you find them of value please share them around. Here then are my Top 10 Tips for Resilience: Tip 1 – Be productive, not busy – you cannot be both: Tip 2 – Understand that variations to your expected timelines are likely; Tip 3 – If you haven’t thought about a preferred outcome, you have no right to complain when you don’t like the outcome you end up with.

 

Tip 4 – Planning is not execution!  But without it, don’t execute;  Tip 5 – Are your expectations realistic?  If so, you’ll rarely be disappointed.  If not…;  Tip 6 – Resilience means the ability to bounce back.  From what? From unrealistic expectations and occasional surprises;  Tip 7 – Your Future is a negotiation with yourself and others.  It will almost NEVER arrive in a smooth straight line;  Tip 8 – It might be frustrating but it’s probably not really a disaster – think options and then ACT!;  Tip 9 – Feel stuck?  Know that you probably can overcome your current challenge.  It may require persistence and will almost always require a different approach (& remember tip 7);  Tip 10 – Ask for help and then allow others to help in the way they know how to help.  Often our biggest barrier is not asking for help or accepting the assistance that is offered in the way it is offered.
Best of luck
Marcus Barber 🙂

 


The Melbourne Cup and a Futurist’s view

Nov 4, 2012

Okay the time has come again where people ask me, as a professional futurist, for my tips for the Melbourne Cup. As always I advise them that my area of expertise does not reside with horse racing so really, I have as much chance as anyone and their own system, of selecting a winner. That…

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Make your own teeth? Should parents have a ‘licence to parent’? and more on ABC Darwin

Oct 31, 2012

ABC Darwin’s Vicki Kerrigan and I chat about the future of dentistry – is it possible to grow you own teeth? Are dentist visits going to become a thing of the past? And in the second of today’s updates, we also chatted about the Future of Parenting – is it time that you needed a…

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Time to combine Life Cycle design & penalties for environmental waste to solve a ballooning problem

Oct 21, 2012

Organisations like CleanUp Australia and Take3.org have (along with many others) taken a leading role at identifying and removing waste that has entered our environment. Their efforts are fantastic yet have one clear problem – they rely on volunteers to clean up the mess of others, after the fact – it’s a ‘playing catch-up’ strategy.…

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Selective Consumption and the Retail sector

Oct 13, 2012

The Retail sector in Australia is slowing coming to grips with the fact that for the past 50 years, they’ve had a captured market and enormous profit margins. and that now, the times have changed. Whilst many point to the internet as a cause of their woes, others are pointing out the apparent high cost…

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Strategic Agility and the Art of Paying Attention

Sep 24, 2012

he many people who’ve been through one of The Australian Strategic Planning Institute’s workshops over the past six years, will know how much emphasis is placed on the need to pay attention to things going on around you. In particular as part of the idea of tracking your progress toward your desired future (your Vision).…

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How to Build an Effective Twitter Group

Sep 18, 2012

As a Futurist I’m often asked what I think about certain social media tools (and most technology for that matter). My answer is always aligned to the thought that ‘if the technology is working for you, and not against you, it’s probably a good thing. Here then are my thoughts about building up a useful…

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The Future of Beer (and alcohol)

Sep 11, 2012

Will alcohol have a legitimate place in societies in the years to come? As we slowly awaken to the horrendous impact of alcohol related harm and it’s social and financial costs, will Australia’s widely held acceptance of alcohol consumption begin to wane? This MP3 of my chat with Vicki Kerrigan on   ABC Darwin drew…

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The Top 3 Questions and Answers for the Future

Aug 28, 2012

Well as I’ve discovered them! These three questions (and my normal answers) are based on what I get asked consistently when I’m presenting or facilitating a session about Strategic Planning, ‘the future of…’, and how societies might look five, ten or twenty years from now: Question One – ‘What is the most important thing to…

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Heading down the drain with the ‘4 Minute Shower’.

Aug 16, 2012

Every now and again what sounds like a really good idea turns out to be less beneficial than what was hoped for.  Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber wonders whether or not the Victorian Government’s ‘4 Minute Shower’ idea is a current example? For those of you that have read my paper ‘A Drop in the Ocean’…

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Mars on Earth – is the red planet an indicator of things to come?

Aug 5, 2012

There’s a lot to like about Mars. For centuries the name given to the Roman God of War (in honour of its blood stained hue) it has given us an opportunity and point of focus to think beyond our own planet. There’s been some vast mythologies about the deep channels (interpreted as canals meant signs…

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