“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.”
Clarence Budington Kelland
Thursday thought…
The best advice my dad gave me: Robyn Papworth, Move4Health
Robyn Papworth shares her dad’s wise words in our latest installment of The best advice my dad gave me.
“My dad’s greatest piece of advice was how to change a flat tyre and restart my old Volkswagen Beetle.
This came in handy a few times when my poor little bug decided it didn’t have the energy to go up a large hill or keep up with the traffic on the freeway.
I still hear my dad’s voice in my head when I drive my old beetle out on a day trip.”
Robyn is an Exercise Physiologist, mother of twins, entrepreneur, and supportive wife. Robyn says, “I love being a mum, wife, and behavioral therapist for children with learning difficulties and I hope that my wisdom can help my kids keep out of trouble when they need to later in life.” Learn more about what Robyn does here: www.move4health.com.au
Thursday thought…
“When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son”
The Talmud
The best advice my dad gave me: Katherine Vaughn, Milk Tooth
Katherine Vaughn shares her dad’s wise words in our latest installment of The best advice me dad gave me.
“The best thing my dad taught me was how to be savvy with money. This has helped to get me into a position where I can pursue my entrepreneurial streak and spend more time with my young family.”
Katherine Vaughn is the owner of Milk Tooth, an online store full of beautiful design, decor and toys for babies and children. View the range at www.milktooth.com.au.
What do you most admire about your dad?
We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…
The best advice my dad gave me: Barry Maher
There’s just over a month to go until Father’s Day. If there’s one time of the year we can help people with gifts for men, it’s for Father’s Day. This month, we’ve dedicated our blog posts to everything for Father’s Day – gift ideas, cards, quotes, inspirational stories, recipes and more.
This post is the first in our series, The best advice my dad gave me. We look forward to sharing more of these stories, gift ideas and Father’s Day goodness throughout the month…
In our first post, speaker and author Barry Maher shares some of his Father’s wisdom: “The best advice I ever got from my father took me awhile to absorb. But, eventually, while standing in a pool of sewage, holding a sewer rooter with a badly frayed chord, I realized the value of my father’s advice that “You’ve got to have a profession, one where you can make a comfortable living comfortably.” And I understood just exactly why he’d worked so hard to put me and my brothers and sisters through college.
Barry Maher, speaker and author – www.barrymaher.com
The lesson seems obvious. But my father understood it in a way that, growing up with far more advantages, I really didn’t. Because he’d watched his mother clean houses to support her family, and to manage to send him to college. Eventually he worked his way through Harvard Law and built a successful law practice. He tried to tell me repeatedly about the importance of having a good career and later, once it finally dawned on me that he had a point, his example taught me as well. Once it finally did sink in, I did everything I could to develop that kind of career, first building my own business, then working my way through the corporate world and eventually writing and speaking. Now I talk for a living, which I guess is the definition of making a comfortable living comfortably. It certainly beats unplugging toilets.”
Barry Maher is a speaker and author, who is frequently featured in publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the London Times, Business Week and USA Today. For more info visit www.barrymaher.com.
What was the best advice your father ever gave you?
We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…
How to run a fast 10km race: Ali Cavill’s top tips
The Australian Running Festival (Canberra) is just over three weeks away. I have registered to do the 10km race and am feeling pretty excited. Apart from a head-cold, training has been going pretty well. Having run a few 10km races before, I am familiar with the distance, but I’ve plateaued. I’m at the point where I keep running the same time and not improving my time as much as I would like.
So my big question is: How do I run a faster 10km race?
I went on the hunt for some expert advice, and Ali Cavill (Head Trainer and Owner of Fit Fantastic) kindly shared some of her wisdom below…
“My two favourite exercises to boost your strength and running skills, for myself as well as a Personal Trainer, are the squat and plyometric exercises. I use these exercises to train my clients for better running fitness and ability and they are an ideal exercise to add to your preparation and training schedule for any upcoming obstacle style running races, such as Greatest Athlete race!” says Ali.
Ali Cavill from Fit Fantastic
1) Leg press or squat
Attempt to lower the weight in a slow and controlled manner. A heavy weight used should be used, and only 2 sets of each exercise should be completed, with a long rest between each. The number of reps should not exceed 12, and like the strength endurance training, single leg exercises are advised where possible.
2) Plyomterics (lunges)
Explosive power improving endurance performance. For runners, explosive power developed primarily through plyometric exercises (jumps) and sprints, can help reduce ground contact time. Alternate leg lunges, jumping from one to the other with back knee close to the ground. Propulsion using front heel. Running arms to maintain stability and power.
The exercises should be added to your training regime in sets of 8-10 and repeated 2 or 3 times. 3 times a week in any athlete’s regime will see you adding explosion and spring in your step!
These running tips were kindly shared with us by Ali Cavill, Health & Wellness Expert and Owner, Fit Fantastic. Ali is Head Trainer and Owner of Fit Fantastic, a leading health and fitness company, and is a renowned “face” of health and fitness. She is a Fitness Ambassador for Centre for Health Brain Ageing (CHeBA) UNSW and Australian Sports Nutrition (ASN), Brand Ambassador for Rockwear Gym Clothing and a Warrior for Australian Institute of Fitness. Connect with Ali via her Facebook page, on Twitter or Instagram: alifitfantastic
How do you prepare for a fun run or improve your running time?
We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…
Today is…Check your Batteries Day
If you can’t remember the last time you checked the batteries in your smoke alarm, then today is the day! It only takes a few seconds and could save the lives of you and your family.
While you’re at it, it’s also a good idea to:
1. Check batteries in other appliances such as clocks, toys, remote controls, torches, etc.
2. Stock up on more batteries in the sizes you use the most.
3. Set a reminder with an alert in your phone to check your smoke alarm next time.
Random Acts of Kindness: 10 Ways to Make Someone’s Day
Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day – a day dedicated to showing others little gestures of kindness. Here are 10 little ideas of how you could make someone’s day:
1. Smile at five strangers
2. Say something nice about someone
3. Share your umbrella
4. Bring in your neighbour’s rubbish bins
5. Complain less – be the person you want to be around
6. Leave a book on public transport for someone else to enjoy
7. Pay a compliment – on something nice someone is wearing, or to a waiter/waitress who has given great service
8. Share a positive facebook or blog post
9. Make conversation with someone new – talk to someone you know, but don’t usually speak to at work, etc.
10. Bake – make a cake, some cookies or something tasty for your work colleagues or friends.
What is your favourite way to brighten someone’s day?
We’d love your thoughts – please comment below…
Happy Random Acts of Kindness Day
It was a scorching hot Canberra day, and I desperately needed fuel. After pulling into the nearest service station, I filled up, locked the car and went to pay. There was only one problem – I had my toddler and baby in the back seat.
I hate leaving the kids in the car when I go to pay for fuel (I’m actually pretty sure it’s illegal), and I usually try and fill the car up when they’re not with me. But on this occasion I had to fill up or we wouldn’t get home. The other option was to get them both out of the car and take them in with me, but my baby was asleep. There was already a queue of cars behind me waiting to fill up, so I thought it best if I ran in quickly – the queue inside didn’t look that long.
Once inside, I regreted my decision. There were only two other people in front of me, but the customer being served was taking an incredibly long time (choosing the chocolates that would give him an additional $5 off his fuel). The middle-aged man in front of me could see I was getting increasingly anxious as I kept looking at my car, hoping both children were ok. When the customer at the front of the line had finished, the man in front of me said “Please jump in front of me – I can see you have two little ones in the car you need to get back to”.
Normally I hate jumping queues, but on this occasion I gratefully accepted his offer. This small but incredibly kind gesture made my day. Not only had he sensed my tension, he had worked out what the problem was and offered a solution. The only thing it had cost him was time, but that and our health are our most precious resources these days.
I often find myself going about my day ‘blinkered’. I’m ashamed to say I don’t see the person who has dropped their shopping, or the person behind me in the supermarket queue with only one item (when I have a full trolley). I still think of the kindness this man showed me and it reminds me that we should never take these actions for granted, no matter how small.
One small act of kindness could just make someone’s day.
Tuesday 17 February is Random Acts of Kindness Day, so to honour this day we caught up with Karen Chaston from www.karenchaston.com.au, who shares her thoughts on random acts of kindness:
1. What was the last Random Act of Kindness shown to you?
Karen: Almost daily, I get a smile, a nod from total strangers, though the other day, I was at a coffee shop waiting and a lady started chatting to me and then said she would like to pay for my green tea.
2. What was the last Random Act of Kindness you showed someone else?
Karen: Just this morning I was walking back to my car and a teenage school girl was walking to school with her headphones on. I tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she reads. She said sometimes… I then said if it was a book about how you can have higher self-esteem, value yourself, understand your body bio-chemically and physiologically would you read it. She said yes, so I handed her a copy of my book, with a card and asked her to contact me with any feedback or questions
3. What are the best types of Random Acts of Kindness?
Karen: When you do something randomly – like give a total stranger a compliment, initially they may be taken back and then they’ll thank you saying ‘Wow you have just made my day, it was not going so well up until now!”
4. How do you think we can perform Random Acts of Kindness more frequently? What are some simple Random Act of Kindness we can incorporate into our daily life?
Karen: Smile at a stranger, give them a compliment, ask them how they are feeling, make them laugh, buy them a coffee, give them something, help them out, give a random “heart to heart” hug.
About Karen: Karen Chaston inspires women to become their own best friend, which allows them to be more aware, grateful, healthier, energised and live in Essence. www.karenchaston.com.au
What was the last last random act of kindness you showed or received? We’ love your thoughts – please comment below…
Why I do what I do: Chantal Imbach from Simply In Order
I’m a firm believer that ‘everyone has a story’. We often downplay our life experiences and think that other people lead much more interesting lives than us. But the truth is, it’s all the little experiences that make up our life journey that are the most interesting. Our latest blog series, Why I Do What I Do is a celebration of personal journeys (and an opportunity for me to indulge my interest in other people’s stories). We hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as we have.
This week we caught up with Chantal Imbach from Simply In Order…
Chantal Imbach from Simply In Order
1.Tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m a Swiss-Australian living in a beautifully green and hilly suburb of Melbourne, a wife and a mum to two lively primary-school aged boys, a professional organiser and business owner specialising in office organisation and time management. I love to read and to travel and can’t wait to see more of Australia.
2.What led you to doing what you do today?
Before I started a family I worked in the corporate world for about 20 years. Most of the time as a personal assistant, but also in project offices and as a financial controller. I went back to part-time work after I had the boys but it didn’t feel right anymore because my priorities had shifted. Very soon I knew that I wanted to be my own boss.
But what to do? I had many interests but I didn’t feel passionate enough about anything to start a business. In the meantime, I did a lot of volunteer work at our school, much of it was event management. Everyone suggested I should do this professionally but for me it didn’t tick all the boxes.
One day, a friend suggested to become a virtual assistant. I did some research on that and stumbled across professional organising. Wow! That was just totally me! Everything fell into place, I immediately started training and started my own business called Simply In Order.
3.What else would you be doing if you didn’t do what you do?
I would probably run a B&B.
4.What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
I think this would have to be that one never knows what is waiting around the corner (so better make the best of today). It can be good or bad and hit you out of the blue. The two main events in my life that taught me this was the sudden diagnosis that my dad had cancer and a month later he passed. A day before his 62nd birthday.
The other one was the relocation to Australia seven years ago. My husband received a job offer out of the blue and we kind of new from the first second that we were going to accept this challenge. We had travelled in Australia before but never looked or even thought about moving away from Switzerland. We had just bought a house and had two young boys aged 1 and 3.
The job was a chance in a lifetime and we have never regretted the move even though we of course do miss our loved ones a lot. In the meantime, our boys are more Australian than Swiss and we all became very proud Australian citizens last year.
This country has opened doors for us that we never even dreamt of and we’re so grateful for this. One of them is starting my own professional organising business. It’s still a very new industry and back in Switzerland or Europe it is even newer and I’m not sure whether I would have come across it at all. My hubby would probably say that one of his dreams came true when he finally has a big enough backyard to have a ride-on mower ;-).
5.What is your next must-do?
Professionally it’s definitely to get the accreditation as an Accomplished AAPO member (AAPO is the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers). On the personal side, it’s traveling the West coast and the Kimberly in one of the coming years with my family.
That’s where we spent our honeymoon and we’d love to take the boys to this absolutely wonderful part of Australia.
