Tag: mental-health
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Finding My Voice
What’s something you’ve done that you never thought you could? As a child, I was shy and sensitive. I didn’t particularly enjoy being the centre of attention. I was more comfortable observing what was happening around me than drawing attention to myself. I certainly never imagined that I would spend much of my adult life…
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The Problem May Be the Same, But I’m Not
How do you manage stress? Stress is an inevitable part of life. I’ve learned that managing stress isn’t necessarily about eliminating the things that cause it. Sometimes it’s about finding a better way to live with them. Over the years, I’ve developed three simple practices that help me: Walk it off. Sleep on it. Talk…
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Conversations I Keep Having
If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice,what would it be? If I could go back in time and give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to spend less time thinking about the past, unless it helps you move forward. I’ve spent far too much time…
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A Hope That Has Survived
What’s something you’ve done that your past self would be proud of? I have always been an idealist. I hold strong convictions about life and I try to embody them in the way I live. Sometimes my idealism has been a little naive. At other times, my convictions needed time and experience to mature. But…
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The University I Never Visited
What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken? Years ago, I completed a Master of Professional Education and Training through Deakin University in Victoria, about a thousand kilometres from where I lived. To this day, I have never set foot on the campus. Not for an intensive, not even for graduation. But it was one…
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Writing for Discovery
What are your strategies for SEO? SEO is one of those things I understand in principle but have never really thought about in relation to my blog. In my professional life, we certainly use it. We want to connect people who have particular needs with the services we provide. It makes good sense. But my…
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The Advice I Wish I’d Taken
What’s one thing you know now that would havesaved your younger self a lot of pain? If I could go back and give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to get some good financial advice early in life. We’ve lived a rather unconventional life. For most of our married life, we’ve…
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Very Small, But Never More Alive
What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive? This is me in my happy place, standing on an ice floe in the Southern Ocean. It was day one of our expedition to Antarctica. The air was cold, but not unbearably so. Around us, ice, ocean and sky seemed to stretch forever.…
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My Anti-Life-Hacks
What are some life hacks that you practice? Most life hacks are designed to make life easier. Mine often do the opposite. I don’t have a bin in my office. This occasionally surprises people, especially new cleaners. It isn’t an oversight. It is deliberate. If I want to throw something away, I have to get…
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The Myth of the Maintenance-Free Life
How do you make time for self-care? When I was younger, I did not really understand the importance of maintaining a car. At the time I was a student and had very little money. I put petrol in the car, checked the oil and water every so often, and more or less assumed the rest…
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When the Work Is Done
What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you? I was strangely moved by a story our minister told recently. He had spoken with a 97-year-old man who had lived an extraordinary public life. He was a highly decorated naval officer, had served in several wars, and had eventually risen to senior leadership.…
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When Courage Becomes Contagious
What’s the most annoying trope in books or movies? I must admit that I am conflicted. When I was younger, I enjoyed the Dirty Harry movies. Harry Callahan is the lone, morally certain cop who sees what the system cannot or will not see. Bureaucrats, courts, procedures and superiors get in the way. Harry acts.…
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Brave or Foolish?
What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done when no one was watching? I don’t know whether it was the bravest thing I’ve done or one of the silliest. I was walking along the main street of an inner-city suburb when I heard someone yell, “Stop!” I turned and saw a man running towards us, with…
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A Miniature Philosophy of Justice
What’s the best thing you’ve ever found randomly on the street? When I was eight, a friend and I were walking to school when we found a banknote lying on the ground. In today’s money it would probably be worth about $30. Not exactly a fortune. But when you are eight, $30 is enormous. It…
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Work Worth Giving Yourself To
If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why? If the salary were the same, what job would I be doing right now? The same one. That answer is easy for me because money has never been the main reason I have chosen a job. Of course salary…
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The Week Someone Else Became Me
What’s the weirdest coincidence you’ve ever experienced? I have always had a fairly naïve faith that if you tell the truth, things will eventually sort themselves out. One small and stupid episode from many years ago shook that confidence. I received a court summons for fare evasion. Apparently, I had caught a train into the…
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When You Realise You’re the Adult
What’s a moment when you realized you were officially an adult? Adulthood is a series of progressions. You get your driver’s licence and discover a new freedom. You vote for the first time. You start work and begin finding your way in the world. You move out of home, get married, perhaps buy your first…
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Trust the Hunch
If you had a time machine and could send just one messageto your past self, what would it say? If I had a time machine and could send just one message to my younger self, it would be: Trust the hunch. Not because every instinct is right, or because careful thought does not matter. But…
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Where Do You See Grace?
Which author would you love to have dinner with? If I could have dinner with an author, I would choose Tim Winton. But not in a restaurant. I imagine fish and chips somewhere on the Western Australian coast, sitting outside with the ocean stretching away in front of us. And there would be one condition:…
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People Were the Point
If your future self could send you one sentence,what do you hope it would say? If my future self could send me one sentence, I hope it might say: “The people mattered more than the projects.” My mother often told me that I took on too much and needed to do less. She was probably…
