I used to work regularly over the Christmas break. Not this time. Back in the saddle after a lovely extended rest and I’m wondering what to write about. Recent posts from others all seem to be about resolutions v no resolutions, the economy is screwed v the economy is recovering, and a few angry rants to kick the new year off. This stuff isn’t sitting too well with me, I’m feeling all cheerful after a great break. Thankfully I’m not all alone. In no particular order, here are three things I’ve caught up on today which I think are interesting and motivating. Hope you like them:
1 – Happy New Moment by Alison Ashford. With all the planning and preparing to fail going on, don’t forget to live right now. Alison puts it much better than me and when you visit her site you’ll see she has a lovely smile too.
2 – Death to the CV by Sukh Pabial. With LinkedIn, Twitter and all that jazz who needs a CV any more? Truth be told I was asked for mine last week and duly obliged. But is there a better way?
3 – Just Coach by Trish McFarlane. A lovely short piece on the importance of coaching and feedback.
So that’s it then, job done eh? Well….kind of. I had another Three experience today which is related to the above only in so far as it made me feel good. So what happened? Over the festive period I bought an iphone 4 and a new sim only contract, both with mobile operator Three. The sim only contract is going in my personal phone and the flashy new thing is for work. I haven’t made many phone calls yet but I’m totally addicted to Angry Birds. Anyway, I was in town today walking along and whining to the long suffering Carole about how I was going to have to enter all the numbers from the old phone to the new one manually (on account of me having broken the data lead and generally not being very good at that kind of thing). Carole suggested we pop into the Three shop nearby to see what advice they might offer. My heart sank. A phone shop offering advice when there isn’t even the remotest danger of a sale…you gotta be kidding in.
In we went, me all geared up for disappointment. How disappointing – I didn’t get any. Disappointment that is. The woman in the shop was great. Friendly and helpful even when it became obvious that an earlier attempt of mine to copy the numbers from sim to phone clearly hadn’t worked (see earlier excuse). Everything was checked, and double checked to make sure we were happy. We were delighted and left the shop feeling very positive about the great service we’d just been on the receiving end of. My only embarrassment is that in all the euphoria I forgot to ask the woman’s name so I can’t give her the recognition she deserves. I’ll have to go back and find out.
I’ve read some great blogs today, and had a great customer experience, and there are loads of interesting opportunities arising all around me (of which more later). I feel refreshed after some quality time away, raring to go with plenty to be done.
How are you finding these first few days of the new year?
Hi Doug, what a great smile-raising post to read on this damp and dark January afternoon! And certainly not just because you mention me – although that is nice and very much appreciated 😉
It raises a smile because it reminds me that we can be cheered up in the smallest and most unexpected ways if we’re open to it. You’ve cheered me up today. Cheers to you! Alison
Well said Alison – being open to opportunities is fun and something I practice a lot. I make a lot of mistakes of course, and yet the more I practice, the more smiles and other appreciation is generated all round. Thanks for popping by.
Hi Doug
Glad you are back Tweeting and blogging. I’ve only been back 2 days and was missing your writings. Isn’t good customer experience great. I took the two ladies that run the local ironing service a Christmas card and some home made biscuits and they were overcome by the gesture. They know they’re great but guess they aren’t used to someone demonstrating it with a gesture of thanks.
If you want more fun with your – i-phone download Talking Tom. A friend’s kids introduced me to it. It’s fab but at least you have the excuse of downloading it for Keira!
As for CV’s – I’m sure you can learn far more about someone’s personality and skills from their blog than a formally written CV. Dare you to try it.
Have fun in 2011!
Cheers Sarah
Hi Sarah, thanks for dropping by again. I bet your ironing has extra sharp creases in it now eh? And thanks for the app recommendation and the CV idea – yes I should be bolder and follow your suggestion. I’ll keep you posted as always.
Cheers – Doug