Category: Daily Prompt

Messy No More

inspiringmax

Write a letter to the personality trait you like least, convincing it to shape up or ship out. Be as threatening, theatrical, or thoroughly charming as is necessary to get the job done.

Dear Messiness,

You are an inherent trait with me since birth, definitely a direct descendant of both my mother and father. You are my automatic default particularly when I am busy or tired and to put it bluntly, in the end, you usually just create me more work. You are out of control and have to go. I am sick of even the small amounts of time you have taken from me, as I need to search through your mess to find what I want or need. One of the things I have noticed about you is that the busier and crazier my day is, the more out of control you get. You definitely can tell the state of my mind by the state of my desk.

WELL NO MORE.

We are parting ways. You sabotage my goals and steal my precious time. So, I have decided to be the change I want to see in the world or more importantly, my family. Over the next few months, I am going to mindfully work on eliminating you. It will take a while but you will lose. They say old habits die hard but I am looking forward to your death. You serve no positive purpose in my life and I will work hard to rebirth you using my monthly coffee catch-ups to share my success at changing my world.

From This

To This

 

Kind Regards

Max

Photo credits: Google

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/shape-up-or-ship-out/

Make Mine A Quirky World

inspiringmax

Which quirky habit annoys you the most, and what quirky habit do you love — in yourself, or others.

Our quirky habits are what makes us individuals. By being individual, our quirks and habits blend together to make an interesting eclectic mix full of high and low points. Without black and white you can’t appreciate colour and sometimes to get the full impact of a situation you need to see it in black and white to feel the emotion.

My greatest quirk is probably my ability to always find the positive in anything and work with it — even if to begin with, it is only a spark. I am its oxygen and over time the fire of positivity grows g bigger brighter and stronger. My goal in life is the same as Inspiring Max’s, “to inspire you—developing a spark of hope into a fire that warms you and lights your path.”

In my opinion, the opposite to my quirky world is a Stepford world. And whilst I enjoyed the movie for its entertainment value, I would hate to live in a world where everyone is the same. I love the uniqueness our quirks— good and bad — bring to our lives. They all teach us something, even if that something is what not to do.

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/quirk-of-habit/

Conversations

inspiringmax

If one of your late ancestors were to come back from the dead and join you for dinner, what things about your family would this person find the most shocking?

Back in the day, there was a saying that children should be seen and not heard. In our family all members are heard particularly around the dinner table. Our guests, particularly our children’s friends, frequently state that they can’t wait to see where the conversation at dinner goes to this time. There are many things that surprise them:

  1. That we eat together regularly
  2. The topics of our conversations—anything is possible
  3. How animated our conversations get and that everyone joins in
  4. The laughter created is very welcoming

Once they go over the shock of not having a nice quiet meal with the family, I think my ancestors would get involved with some horror stories form their own time to add to the eclectic mix of conversions on the day. It is common for us to continue our crazy conversations all night by staying around the table chatting or while we play cards together to finish the evening. The following acrostic poem describes our conversations well.

Connecting

Original

Non-conforming

Vocal

Entertaining

Real

Spontaneous

Acceptancing

Trusting

Interesting

Open

Natural

Stimulating

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/modern-families/

Sink Or Swim

inspiringmax

Tell us about a time when you were left on your own, to fend for yourself in an overwhelming situation — on the job, at home, at school. What was the outcome?

I believe learning by doing is the only way to grow—it teaches skills that are never forgotten. Initially the situation may appear overwhelming particularly if it is based on dealing with a sudden crisis, however by using St Francis of Assisi’s quote I have found a way through many tough times.

St Francis of Assisi quote

The whole idea of sink or swim to me bring to mind pictures of young children being forced into the water by their parents as an act of love. The parents need to make sure they learn to get back to the side of the pool and save their life, if they fall into a swimming pool without an adult watching to rescue them. Initially, there is a lot of screaming and protesting. Then as the young child listens to the instructions, they are rewarded by the freedom of moving unaided in the water. They can swim and they are so proud. Nobody remembers the fear—they remember the success.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/sink-or-swim/

Ageing Well

inspiringmax

What are your thoughts on aging? How will you stay young at heart as you get older?

I believe has two choices when it comes to ageing.

  1. Embrace it
  2. Succumb to it

Personally, I choose to embrace it.  My life has become my own since I turned 50. Suddenly I can do many things off limits before because the families priorities needed to be different. My time and money is my own so now I can:

  • Buy what I like when I like—not that I do but I can
  • Travel overseas
  • Go away for weekends with little notice
  • Eat out for meals without considering the cost
  • Spend hours blogging
  • Spend more hours writing my book
  • Cook when it suits me
  • Start planning my retirement
  • Have an I don’t want to do anything day whenever I need to
  • Control my own sleep

Yes this old body of mine can’t do everything it used to, but my mind can do a lot more. Over my 50+ years I have developed a lot of coping strategies and emotional intelligence that I plan on using to keep my body and mind as young and active as they can be for my next 50 years. As my brain like all of the muscles in my body needs to be used daily to keep it working I will continue to focus on the positive and follow Martha Stewart’s top 10 tips on how to age well.

  1. Eat well
  2. Maintain a healthy weight
  3. Be active
  4. Get quality sleep
  5. Wear sunscreen
  6. Collaborate with a good primary care doctor (GP) regularly
  7. Find a passion
  8. Connect with others
  9. Stop complaining
  10. Stay curious

What do you think is important to age well?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/young-at-heart/

Three Wishes

inspiringmax

Remember those lovely genies who grant wishes? Well, you’re one and you’ve just been emancipated from your restrictive lamp. You can give your three wishes to whomever you want. Who do you give your three wishes to, and why?

 

Wishes

Trust

Hope

Respect

Empathy

Encouragenment

Willingness

Integrity

Self-reliance

Harmony

Enthusiasm

Safety

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/generous-genies/

Oh The Places I’ll Go!

inspiringmax

Tell us about the top five places you’ve always wanted to visit.

When planning my holidays I like to divide my time between Australia as well as international travel. For this reason I am going to write a buckets list for each.

Australia

  • North Coast of Western Australia
  • North Queensland
  • Tasmanian Wilderness
  • Northern Territory
  • South Australia

International

  • Alaska
  • England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales
  • Iceland
  • More of Canada
  • More of New Zealand

Starting with the South Island of New Zealand early next year these places are the basis of our next 10 year travel plan. I love the planning and discovery stage of new adventures as I gather the information and start to think about what I will see when my day finally comes and I’m off to great places.

Photo Credit: Google

Photo Credit: Google

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/the-wanderer/

Supporting Others

inspiringmax

We all know how to do something well — write a post that teaches readers how to do something you know and/or love to do.

One of the main things I have a reputation for is support others. All my life—from the age of 9—I have been the person others come to when they needed a welcome ear to tell their problems to especially when they were fighting with their best friend.  With all the practice I had at school I think I was always destined to work in mental health.  Supporting others has developed into a passion for me and I find ways to do it regularly in my professional and person life. Below are some of the values I use when I support others.

Sincerity

Understanding

Passion

Professionalism

Optimism

Resilience

Teaching

Open-mindedness

Tolerance

Honesty

Empathy

Reasonableness

Strength

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/teach-your-bloggers-well/

A Tale of Two Cities

inspiringmax

If you could split your time evenly between two places, and two places only, which would these be?

For a period I would love to be able to spend 6 moths in Australia and 6 months in Canada. There is so much natural beauty, flora and fauna and history in both places, devoting time to exploring it would be amazing. The question I would struggle to answer is where to begin? Maybe I could use the following acrostic poems as a guide.

 

Adelaide

Uluru

Sydney

The Great Barrier Reef

Rottnest Island

ACT

Launceston

Illawarra

Albury – Wodonga

 

 

Charlottetown

Alberta

Newfoundland & Labrador

Algonquin Park

Drummondville

Arctic Bay

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/a-tale-of-two-cities/

One More Time

inspiringmax

If you were able to relive one day from the last 12 months, which day would it be — and why?

Given the chance I would relive 25th November 2014. The was the day my husband and I embarked on our 6 week Canadian adventure. We were so excited. However on arrival at Sydney Airport I became suspicious that our tickets were incorrect, so I asked at the check-in counter.

“Are these tickets correct, we are going to St John’s Newfoundland?”

“Yes they are correct they just used the abbreviation” replied the counter attendant.

So I settled and didn’t think about it again.

Then we arrived in Vancouver for some reason I became suspicious again. I checked with the baggage handler only to be given the same response,  so again I settled and we continued on our journey across Canada.

By the time our flight arrived in Toronto, we had been up for more than 24 hours and were exhausted. Being smart travelers we decided to check which gate our connecting flight went from before getting food or drinks. We wandered to the departures board where I discovered our flight number and destination didn’t match. Then I realised my gut instincts had been right.  The travel agent had booked us flights from Sydney to St John, New Brunswick and not our destination—St John’s, Newfoundland. We were devastated. The only good point was that we solved the problem before either our bags or we bordered the flight.

The gentleman at Air Canada’s service desk was excellent.  After about an hour he had made a plan to get us to St John’s as quickly as possible via Halifax arriving 24 hours later than we originally planned. To add humour to this difficult situation he told us this destination was a regular mix up for overseas visitors. The other common problem is people flying into Sydney, Nova Scotia when their destination was Sydney, Australia—a much bigger problem.

The moral of this story is mistakes are easily made and part of the journey.  Trust your gut instincts, triple check your airline tickets early and always pack your sense of humour when traveling.

Photo Credit: Google

Photo Credit: Google

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/one-more-time/