Life lessons Archives - INSPIRING MAX

Fresh Eyes

October 29, 2014October 29, 2014 inspiringmax

Yesterday on my daily commute to work, I had a life changing experience. This experience was also shared with a retired couple sitting next to me. I was minding my own business blogging away, when as the train arrived at Central—Sydney’s largest train station—my eyes were suddenly and for no reason diverted to the open doors. A large group of school children and teachers got on in an excited, orderly fashion. The older Australian woman who looked old for her years, gently guided one young lady who had the most intense smile and a pretty face to sit on the side seats with her. I wondered to myself, why she was singled out to sit with the teacher, when the others were allowed to sit in the upper carriages. The girl didn’t look like trouble and the teacher obviously trusted her as she left her bag with her while she tended to some of the other children.

Five minutes into the short journey we shared—all was revealed. The teacher was taking a photo of the young girl and a smaller, energetic male student who briefly sat with her. She began chatting to the retired couple and I. The students who all looked eastern European or Asian were from an Intensive Language School in Sydney’s south west and were on an excursion to walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, around Circular Quay and up the stairs to the Sydney Opera House all for the first time. Every student was a new arrival to Australia—the young girl sitting with the teacher, had in fact only been in Australia from Iran for 14 days. The teacher had kept her close to show her a good view of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House from the train.

The older couple and myself smiled at each other. We too were excited to be a part of this girls special moment. The teacher said she had been doing this excursion for 30 years and never tired of it. She loved working at the school helping these young children settle into and adjust to living in their new home—Australia.

Train line is on the bridge.

The train moved closer to Milson’s Point station were the children would be getting off. The teacher prepared the girl by standing her in middle of the side train carriage where she could see out each of the side windows. She was excited. The teacher was directed to the left and she got her first ever glimpse of Sydney Harbour. It was a precious moment.

“Oh wow” she said quietly, as her smile become even bigger—something I didn’t think was possible. We told her to look out the other where she saw the Sydney Opera House in all her glory, the ferries and the busy beauty that is Sydney Harbour—that we all know and love. Her response was again even louder.

“Oh wow”

After the children and teachers got off the train, the couple and I began chatting about how special that moment was and how it gives a different perspective to immigration—kids coming to Australia and seeing things through their new fresh eyes.

It was a great way to start the working day.

The Butterfly Effect

October 24, 2014 inspiringmax

The Butterfly has unknown origins but has strong learning for each of us to consider about what we need to fly—sometimes things are not as they seem.

A man finds a butterfly cocoon, which develops a small hole. Over several hours, he notices the butterfly struggling to force its body through the small hole.

After a period, the man noticed that the butterfly appeared stop progressing. In an attempt to be helpful, the man decides to cut the cocoon open. The butterfly emerged easily however its body was swollen and it had small-shrivelled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly expecting at any moment the wings to enlarge and expand enough to support the body.

Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around the ground. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not realise was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle by the butterfly to break free was nature’s way of forcing the fluid out of the butterfly’s body and into its wings so that it is ready for flight when the butterfly emerged.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. They allow us to overcome obstacles that would otherwise cripple us. Without them, we are unable to fly. We can get impatient when we think nothing is changing and begin to lose hope. This is the time to look back at how far we have come and remember a firm foundation takes time to build. Everyone’s journeys is a unique experience, and there are no maps.

Like the butterfly’s journey out of the cocoon, the struggles, we overcome in life, develop the strengths we need. Life has an odd way of putting the challenges we require in our path. It is important to notice what we learn from each experience—the good, the bad and the ugly. This is true for all areas of everyone’s life.

This butterfly effect has come into play since I began my blogging journey. I started my blog back in May and followed the advice of a blog builder to set it up. This worked really well except—I didn’t understand what I was doing. I actually didn’t even understand that I had set up a self-hosted blog or the struggles it would create for me. In the long term, a self-hosted blog was my goal, but not necessarily in the beginning, before I had an audience.

Now is the time my blog is squeezed through the hole and I figure out what I need to do to get it working. Originally, I couldn’t get any stats as my Jetpack wasn’t working, which was frustrating. I was definitely growing as a writer but had no audience, so life got busy and I stopped blogging for six weeks.

In August, I returned to my blog and was able to restart my Jetpack account only to realise—surprise, surprise—I had followers from Writing 101. Inspiring Max was developing its own online voice and I was beginning to fly. I have learnt a lot through my struggles to develop my blog and they have made me a stronger, more confident beginner blogger.

Welcome to my world.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_writing_challenge/the-butterfly-effect/

Without Fear

October 21, 2014 inspiringmax

At what age did you realize you were not immortal? How did you react to that discovery?

Immortality is a funny thing. I don’t think I ever thought I was immortal, however, when I was young fear was not something I considered before doing anything. I don’t see this as a bad thing either. Before being a teenager, I can clearly remember playing with snakes, jumping of the 10 metre diving platform without any care or training—just for fun and swinging on the swings so high that I nearly went the whole way around. It was a feeling of freedom.

Somewhere in my teenage years fear crept into my life—or maybe it was just an understanding that things can go wrong. This was confirmed in my senior years of high school when I was affected by two fatal car accidents. One involved other school students and the second, a personal family friend. They were all my age. Death suddenly became a reality—not something to focus on, but a reality. This same year, my beloved grandfather also suddenly died while on holidays—unfortunately I never got to tell him that I became a nurse.

Yes, there are a lot of things that can happen—good and bad. But, if you focus on the bad you will never get to experience the good. It is for this reason that I decided years ago to always focus on the positive. Even in difficult situations there is always a silver lining—something to be learnt from it. This is how we grow through pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. Afterall, there are only two guarantees in life—death and taxes. And while my personal goal is to live to be 100 with a great quality of life, if I don’t get to achieve this goal, I want to look back on my life and say with confidence—fear didn’t stop me giving it a go.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/finite-creatures/

What About Me?

October 17, 2014 inspiringmax

Did you know today is Blog Action Day? Join bloggers from around the world and write a post about what inequality means to you. Have you ever encountered it in your daily life?

Inequality is everywhere. If you want to focus on it and not take action, you can find many reason to. But, does it help you grow? Sometimes, realising that life is unfair makes you a stronger person.

My experience of inequality came when I moved to country New South Wales. I was excited. I had never lived in the country—it looked so peaceful and they even had a psychiatric unit. I could work if I wanted to. In the country, few towns have mental health services—something I had never considered before my move.

I loved living in the country when I didn’t work. No traffic. Spending time with the kids and being in my own mum world. Then, I decided to return to work after 12 month and everything changed. Working in mental health in the country was very different to the city. It was the most negative experience of my life. And, to top it off, the other staff had no real psychiatric experience. Some had worked on the unit for many years, but this unit was not a good example of what psychiatric nursing should be.

Its problem was leadership and direction. There was no NUM (nurse unit manager) and we shared 5 fly-in psychiatrists from Sydney—one for each day of the week—with the community mental health team. This meant they each spent 1/2 day at each site. To me, the patients ruled and this was not conducive to recovery. For the first time in my life—my job and opinion was not respected and in the end, I choose to leave the unit and work supporting the chronic psychiatric patients in the community. This made me whole again—from a work prospective until we moved back to the city.

In hindsight, my experience has opened my eyes to how difficult life is, in country Australia. It gives Shannon Noll’s hit “What about me” new meaning.

“What about me

It isn’t fair

I’ve had enough now

I want my share

Can’t you see

I want to live

You just take more than you give.”

This video was filmed in his home town of Condobolin in western NSW and includes many of the towns people. Like in the song, the answer to inequality is us deciding how we can change it for ourselves. Afterall, we have to be the one who answers our own question—what about me?

http://youtu.be/kqyIwZpr5y0

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/unequal-terms/

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel-Themes

September 8, 2014 inspiringmax

Do you have movies that hold meaning for you from the first time you see them? What are the themes or life lessons of theses movie? Why do you enjoy it so much? One of these movies for me is the The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

The first time I saw this movie was at the cinemas when it was first released. I had free movie tickets I needed to use before their expiry and I thought it looked like it would be fun. To me however, it turned out to be much more and I wanted to know why.

Recently, it was on television so I planned my night around it to ensure I didn’t miss seeing it again. This time, whilst still enjoying it, I was able to pick out the themes and life lessons it addressed, which helped me to understand my connection. Which ones do you connect with or did you get something else from the movie?

1. Finding your individual way in a world that is changing around you.

2. Growing older.

3. Cultural diversity.

4. Knowing when a relationship is past its expiry date.

5. Finding lost love.

6. Loneliness.

7. Listening and responding to others.

8. Treating people with respect and dignity.

9. Sexual Identity.

10. Team Work.

11. Non-compromising Standards.

12. Caste system.

13. Living your dream.

14. Discrimination.

15. Trying to hold things together.

16. Acceptance and understanding.

17. Fatalism.

18. Breaking down barriers.

19. Honesty.

20. Independence.

21. Generation Gap.

22. Having a double set of rules.

23. Set in your ways.

24. Like father, like son.

25. Putting things right.

26. Controlling mother.

27. Letting go of the past.

28. Moving on.

The main quote used throughout the movie develops more power as the movie progresses. It is a good code to life by, don’t stop—keep going until you get to the gold at the end of your rainbow.

“Everything will be alright in the end, so if it is not yet alright, it is not yet the end.”

http://youtu.be/dDY89LYxK0w

Thrill A Minute

June 2, 2014March 26, 2015 inspiringmax

Have you ever been white water rafting? My husband and I went on the Tongariro River, New Zealand, to celebrate my 50th birthday. It was amazing. We were feeling brave, so we tackled the No.3 rapids—higher up the river.

I loved:

The exhilaration
Unpredictability
The rivers natural beauty
Silence—except our screams of course
Unknown challenge—would we fall out as we rode the waves
The twists and turns

Our guide told us the river is different everyday. He can never take the rapids for granted. They change constantly and if he isn’t focusing on the rapids, everyone’s life could be in danger—heads and rocks don’t mix well.

The mighty Tongariro River

All eight passengers on our boat were from different countries, so during our quiet times on the river, we were able to learn more about the world.

If ever you get the chance to go white water rafting—take the risk. It will change how you think about life. You have absolutely no control over what happens and it is the best. Handing over trust to the boat’s guide allows you to enjoy the ride and take notice of your surroundings.