Jump on the boat when it comes…

I was asked during the week what I am going to do next year and the honest answer was – I don’t really know.

While there are several possible opportunities on the horizon, there is also a chance that none of them at all will actually transfer into something positive for me.

When I thought about that for a while, I realised how important it is to remain positive and to carry the self-belief that, if those opportunities do not work out, others will come instead and I just have to try to make the most of them.

Making the most of them is hugely important, but it’s also imperative that I don’t sit around waiting for the ‘perfect opportunity’ and then realise though inaction, that I may have actually already let it slip by.

I was reminded of a story I heard years ago about a flood that swept through a town causing widespread devastation.

The flood waters were rising steadily and as they began to seep into houses, a rescue boat pulled up outside a house where a man was standing on the ground floor watching the water rise higher and higer and begin to seep under the door.

When asked by the rescue workers to hop in the boat, the man replied that he was ok, he would be safe and that he had great faith in God and God would save him.

The waters continued to rise and the man had to move upstairs where he watched from a bedroom window as another rescue boat pulled up and offered to take him to a safe place.

Again he turned down the offer, saying he would be fine and that God would save him.

The waters kept rising and the man eventually had to climb onto the roof of the house where, after a short while a rescue helicopter spotted him, offered to winch him away, and again he refused, saying God would save him.

An hour later the man had drowned in the rising waters and when he reached heaven he was a bit peeved and asked God why he hadn’t saved him?

To which God replied: “I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more did you want from me?”

To me that story has always been one that says, when opportunities arise then go ahead and try to take them if you can.

Don’t wait until you are ‘ready’ because how do you even know if you are if you don’t try?

Of course nobody knows how things will ever pan out, but waiting around and doing nothing, thinking that everything will somehow come good by magic, is not the way to go.

Jump on the boat when it comes and enjoy the voyage of discovery it takes you on.

Because the only thing worse than wishing for opportunities, is wishing you hadn’t missed the boat when one had come your way…

When being good makes all the difference

My mother, wise woman that she was, used to say that, rather than trying to be different – to instead, just be good.

 

“In the world we have now,” she would say, “being good is different enough.”

 

I was thinking on that on Saturday night last when her anniversary Mass was on at home in Donegal and I was sitting in the Accident and Emergency Department in Cork’s Mercy Hospital after my daughter had taken ill. Thankfully, she has since been discharged and is feeling a lot better.

 

However my mother’s saying sprang to mind as I sat in the A&E Department with my daughter for 24 hours and watched the night, then day and then following night unfold.

 

During that time I watched the staff there with a sense of real admiration. From the security guards on duty outside, to the nurses and doctors we spoke to over the weekend, everyone got on with what is certainly a difficult job, with a real sense of pride in their work.

 

I couldn’t help but be impressed. The pressure for beds, the stress that patients and visitors are under, not to mention being a city centre hospital and having to deal with patients who are brought in, but don’t want to be there – those all combined would be enough to crack many people.

 

But I have to say, I thought the staff I saw all weekend were magnificent. Good humoured, friendly, compassionate and truly professional in everything that they did.

 

Over the course of the week I wondered how often I might let things get on top of me to the point that they have an adverse impact on my work.

 

We all have bad days after all. Most people have lists upon lists of things to do and a feeling that there is not enough time to do them.

 

I certainly am no different on that front, but the more I thought on it, the more I realised that while I don’t always succeed, I genuinely do try to apply that idea of being good – to everything that I do.

 

In fact, not just to be good, but to really make a conscious effort to give of my best to every task.

 

That does require some semblance of organisation (you would not think that if you saw the office I sit in as I type this) that allows things to get ticked off a list only after they have been completed with a full sense of care and attention.

 

In an e.mail I received this week came the line: “The point of the work isn’t simply to get it done. It’s to be proud of the way you’ve done it.”

 

I know each and ever member of Mercy Hospital A&E staff could go home filled with pride last weekend.

 

They didn’t try to be different – just to be good; really good, at what they do.

 

And if that meant it was different enough to be noteworthy, then maybe my mother was on to something after all.

 

 

How organised are you?

I got to thinking this week on how organised – or otherwise – I might actually be. 

To be honest, I wouldn’t say that I am super-organised. But, at the same time I’d say that I am pretty ok at getting things done when they need to be.

Years of working to deadlines has probably helped in that respect, but I was wondering if somebody had to pick up the pieces of something I had suddenly left – how easy would that be?

Those thoughts came after a Friday evening of work – that had included an outline for a blog that was different to this one – had all to be suddenly shelved due to unexpected circumstances.

As I set off on a road trip that hadn’t been planned, I got to thinking about all the stuff left sitting. Wondering when I’d get to it?

I came to the conclusion somewhere along the road that, it was bad enough to feel that I wasn’t organised enough for somebody else to pick up the pieces, but even worse to think that I might not be able to pick up somebody else’s pieces if they were suddenly no longer around.

That I might not have paid enough attention to what they do, or how they do it, to be able to step in on a short or even longer term capacity to help pick up where they left off. 

The more I thought about it, the more I realised that being organised isn’t just about having your own ducks in a row.

It is about paying attention to everything that can have an impact on you and your life.

It is about communication and listening, about asking questions and amassing knowledge that you might just need to store away until such time as you need it. 

So then I wondered, how organised am I really?

And it’s a question worth asking.

How organised are you? 

Really….
 

Bridge the gap…

I was interviewed recently on a community Radio Station about my involvement with my local football club, Raphoe Town FC and while I didn’t hear the broadcast, they sent me a podcast link earlier this week to listen back.

For a number of days I didn’t click on the link, to be honest I didn’t really want to hear the sound of my own voice, but eventually I did click and listen.

Part of the reason was just wondering – and hoping – that I didn’t make any blunders during what was almost an hour-long interview.

The sound of my own voice aside, I was quite pleased with how it went – most especially since I think I managed to get in what I felt were several key points on numerous occasions.

Away from work, I like to volunteer in my local community when I possibly can. I am firmly of the opinion that volunteers are seriously undervalued – but any community is only ever as good as the people who contribute to it.

That’s why, during that radio piece I listened back to this week, I mentioned that I am full of admiration for my fellow coaches and committee members at the club.

What’s more, I suggested that people should try to strive to give something back to their community, reminding them that pretty much every local club and voluntary group would always welcome more help.

During the interview, I also mentioned how much I have learned over the years and yet there is not a day that goes by that I don’t feel the need to try and learn something more.

I was given a lifetime achievement award by the league for my contribution to the club this year – (I’m only 48 but have been doing this for over 30 years) and yet I never feel that I know it all or that I cannot learn something new from somebody just starting out.

Yes, I would love to think that they can sometimes learn from my experiences – but, because I have been open to learning I readily admit that I have often benefited immensely from the fresh ideas and enthusiasm of others.

In an interview with Jim McGuinness a few years back, he mentioned that he didn’t listen to the radio or music even when he was driving, he just used the quiet to process.

I thought that was brilliant and will often now use my time in the car to do just that.

As I pondered over that whole concept of being open to new learning – being smart enough to realise that you cannot know it all, but determined always to try to bridge that gap anyway – I was also reminded of a talk to businesses by Geoff Ramm when he visited Donegal last year.

He mentioned the whole idea of celebrity service – asked people to consider if they would do anything differently for a celebrity than they would for their ordinary customer – and then understand that there was the gap they would need to try to bridge.

I thought on some of the businesses I have met who want always to hear the story but never to act to try and bridge the gap – and those who are not always open to learning, feel as if they know all there is to know on a given topic so therefore at times feel they don’t need to listen.

What I learned from volunteering in sport is that there will always be a better player, a better team, a better coach – someone who at any particular moment is ahead of where you are.

So you look to see who they are, to see what they do, how they do it and how you can work to get to that level.

Even if it’s where you might be at that moment – you never concede to average being the acceptable norm.

If there is a gap – and there undoubtedly always is.

Be forever on a quest to bridge it.