The Rest Of Me
My Mission Statement
I am a big fan of '7 Habits of Highly Successful People' and wrote a mission statement as it recommends.
My mission is informed by my faith.
Since I love to write succinctly, I translated
my mission statement to a haiku.
Later on, of course, I had to add a second one!
Hover over the hidden haiku to see it!
strive always to spread
smiles, laughter and a sense
of possibility
enhance my senses
with a sense of wonder and
curiosity
Immigrant
I visited the USA on a working visa quite a few years ago. The visa allowed me to live and work here for
7 years.
My intention, though, was just to stay a year. I planned to travel the 7 continents in 7 years.
However, within a few weeks I had unexpectedly fallen in love! Eventually I married, and applied for a
Green Card.
I am still married to the sweetheart who stole my heart in those early days, and now I am a dual citizen
of the UK and the USA.
People often ask me if I miss Scotland-the country of my youth and early adulthood. I do miss the people,
and the annual
Hogmanay (Scottish New Year) celebration which, in my old home-town,
features genuine balls of fire!
Runner
I am a keen runner, frequently taking part in 5K and 10K races.
I try to run a destination half-marathon each year- my favourite being the Key West Half Marathon.
I'm not particularly fast (~9 minute miles), but I get there!
Recently I decided I'd try for a 25 minute 5K run-which I did once when I was much, much younger.
I'm getting closer! I managed 25:25 at one race.
Lynn, the love of my life (and, luckily, also my wife) shares my passion, but she runs more frequently on
the
coldest winter days than I do!
Devil Sticking
I know it sounds strange for a committed Christian to play with something called a Devil Stick as a
hobby!
It's a form of juggling, and it can be combined with fire (more of that later).
I started juggling in my days living in Edinburgh between my student dats and my first real job. Money
was tight at the time, so I
started off juggling potatoes! I had to swap them out every couple of weeks as they grew soft and were
converted to
stovies (a Scottish staple food).
Eventually I found 3 golf balls in a second hand shop, and I started juggling these instead. They last
longer, but cause
more damage when you throw them in the wrong direction!
My flatmate, probably bored of the golf balls flying in random trajectories, told me about a local circus
skills club
and I started to attend.
It was brilliant!
I met such interesting people, doing a variety of interesting stunts.
There were many professional buskers and folks training for the circus. And I never knew what I would see
next.
While 1 person stood for hours spinning a tray on his fingers and toes, another performer would balance
on a 10-foot ladder, trading
juggling clubs with a partner on a 12-foot unicycle.
Meanwhile people tried the weird stuff like the spinning bolas or trapping 3 cigar boxes
And there were so many difficult 3-7 ball juggling tricks with exotic names like the Mills Mess
Outside is where the fiery stuff happened!
Other than the fire, I tried most of the equipment, and settled on the Devil Stick as my go-to toy.
It's a center stick that you toss from one hand stick to another and throw in the odd spin around or
balance trick
If you do it right, it's a lot harder than it looks! I'm not sure I ever do it right though.
I promised you fire. I tried it once. It was fun but terrifying. Every instinct is to get as far away
from
the flames as possible.
This isn't me but you get the idea!
DON'T TRY THIS YOURSELF.
It is at least as dangerous as it looks!
Paper Shirts
One of my many wee hobbies over the years was Origami-the art of paper folding.
Not the best folder in the world, I did the normal array of asymmetrical cranes, dive bombing airplanes,
inside-out newspaper hats and boats that were guaranteed to sink along with a few more adventurous
projects like lopsided giraffes and crooked elephants
Then one day I discovered dollar bill Origami! I managed to perfect a model I saw in a book-a
dress shirt worth
a dollar!
I was off to the races! For years I added one to tips in restaurants.
You should try it-it's easy, fun, and apparently impressive.
Jam Berries
I know what you're thinking. What on earth are jam berries. Read on!
I use storytelling a lot to help explain concepts to teams.
Because I grew up in a rural area, I worked for farmers over most holidays. In fact, in Scotland
we even have a set of holidays called the Tattie Holidays. 'Tattie' is Scots for potato, and we spent
these holidays
picking potatoes for farmers for a pittance.
Other work we did was daffodil harvesting and strawberry picking.
So, this is where jam berries come in!
So often, people tell us they want one thing and then incentivize the opposite. Like the customer help
desk
that is measured by the number of calls per hour. The managers of the desk can emphasize the importance
of
individualized customer service all they want, but idf employees are rewarded for dealing with customers
fast,
then that is what will happen!
The way I bring this concept to life is through jam berries.
The farmers who paid us pennies to pick strawberries didn't want waste. There are a certain amount of
berries which
are not good enough for the punnet. They may be bruised, or been carelessly picked where they were
squished or lost their
green foliage. So, the berry pickers are given 2 buckets-1one for good berries and one for the damaged
berries which,
I am sure you guessed are used to make jam-the jam berries.
At the end of the first day of picking the farmer would line the pickers up, and check our buckets.
If we had a higher jam-berry to regular berry proportion, (s)he would assume we were being careless and
dock our pay or even fire us on the spot-telling us not to darken these hallowed berry fields again.
So, what did the pickers do with damaged berries the next day? Personally, I ate them. Others used them
as missiles
to throw at their friends and enemies. None of us put them in the jam bucket!
What did the farmer want? No wasted berries!
What did (s)he incentivize? Very few jam berries
What did (s)he get? Wasted berries!
I always wonder whether the jam factories wondered what happened to their dwindling supplies!
That is one of my favourite stories, but I have many others. Each to illustrate some point in a way
people won't easily forget.
I o get a kick when I see desired behavious being disincentivized and someone on a team I serve pointing
out
'That's another case of jam berries!'
Snowshoeing Next?
I think sowshoeing might be my next thing. I just sent away for an awesome pair, and this year
I get to look forward to snow! Let's see how I go
Wish me luck
