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Beach Notes: Sandimal 3 – Cedric The Crocodile

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

This is our third “Sandimal” post, this time with the sand sculpture of a crocodile we have dubbed Cedric.

cedric

The challenge we had with coming up with a few thoughts prompted by Cedric was that some of them were frankly scary. Although for Cedric it’s just about getting dinner on time.

Then we thought that a couple of things that have enabled Cedric’s kind to survive through 200 million years is that somewhere along the line they became very observant and very fast to take action at the right time, from apparent total inertia to explosive movement.

So here’s the thought. Secrets of survival – be highly observant and move very fast when opportunity knocks. In business it’s called “speed to market”.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Sandimal 2 – Elma the Elephant

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

In this second of our “Sandimal” posts from the beach, we feature the obviously intelligent Elma the Elephant, who is clearly using her time on the beach to do a lot of remembering as well as sunbaking.

elma

Elma prompted us to think about how a lot of people at this time of the year seem a bit fixated on bad things that happened last year and using that as some kind of motivation to expect good things this year. We prefer the old NLP technique of focusing on good experiences and successes we have had, whether yesterday, last year or many years ago and using that to put ourselves in a state of high expectation of achieving outstandingly positive results and multiple successes in the year ahead.

Happy remembering!.

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Beach Notes: Sandimal 1

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

The other day, on our morning beach walk, we came across some skilfully sculptured animals in the sand, the work of some anonymous artist. We loved the demonstration of imagination and creativity at play.

We will share these “sandimals” in coming weeks.

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We thought the posture of Fido on the beach, the picture today, was a good reminder of how pleasant – and useful for our sanity – it can be to take time out to do nothing but relax and dream.

For many or most of us it is too easy, in the daily hustle and bustle of business, to become unduly serious and forget the creative power of allowing ourselves to relax and give our imaginations some room to range. And if we did that more often, who knows what brilliance might shine forth?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

The Ties That Bond

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A Guest Post by Linda M. Lopeke, The SMARTSTART Coach

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Not feeling the love in your social media relations?

Social media is a channel for building relationships from the comfort of home while cloaked in the anonymity of the internet. A place where your own actions and behaviours determine whether you thrive or dive. A place where your voice is a more likely to be unheard, lost in the gathering crowd, or (worse) deemed unremarkable. The same place where lasting friendships and stellar reputations can be made (or lost) in 140 characters at the touch of a send button.

If you truly seek to connect and fully experience the wonder of social community, you must first accept that the same standards required for successful face-to-face interactions apply to creating distant ties that bond. Satisfying relationships are born when you communicate effectively and establish mutual trust. Only then can bonds grow strong enough to meet our human need to connect. If you remain anonymous, or are incongruent in your actions, comments and tweets, the digital world will likely be a lonely, meaningless place for you.

In the virtual world, everyone is suspect until proven otherwise. And body language is expressed in punctuation, personality in photos and multi-media and both are responded to by sharing, digging and re-tweeting. The good news is it is entirely possible to feel close to someone you have never met. Sharing the truth about who you are is one way. Seeing the truth about those you encounter along the way is another.

Don’t overcomplicate the friendships you establish online. Just wear your truth. Unpretentiously. Confidently. Through trial and error, you’ll soon be able to quickly see who is loyal, interesting, and trustworthy and who is just there to pimp a link or push another product.

Ditch the fake personas, wannabes and also rans. Care less about what people think about you and more about whether or not you have anything useful to contribute. Be harder on yourself than others, but don’t take any of it so seriously you start measuring your own worth (and that of others) in meaningless friend and follower counts.

There are many ties that bond across the digital divide if you let them. The mentor who can teach you things you won’t learn in any book. The v-friend you feel comfortable reaching out to and sharing private information with. The e-lover who is neither friend or frenemy but who could turn out to be either in a nanosecond. The i-quaintance whose name you recognize but with whom your relationship is more casual than committed. There’s even the f-buddy who fails at social media because they’ll never see you as anything other than an outlet for link lust or an opportunity to pimp themselves.

Ahh, the digital playground. Where everyone wants to plug in and get naked. And everyone else needs to learn how to play safe and follow the unspoken rules.

Take care! —
Linda M. Lopeke
SMARTSTART: Success-to-go for people working @ the speed of life!

Thanks, Linda! I couldn’t agree more!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Make social media work toward your goals!

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Beach Notes: A Long Tail We Don't Like

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

The bluebottle (a.k.a. Portuguese man o’ war) is just a little bubble critter with a long tentacle. But there is a nasty sting in that tentacle and the aftermath can be very unpleasant. When we see a row of these washed up on the beach we assume there are more in the water, which usually makes that a swimless day for us.

longtailbluebottle

Are there bluebottles that you avoid?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh