Balance — notes
As part of my #weeknotechallenge I have decided to challenge myself to doing a different style of weeknotes every week.
Im now on weeknote #47!
The many other weeknotes in the challenge are linked below, i hope that even one of them will inspire someone to write or do something differently with their weeknotes/blog in future.
‘Traditional’ Weeknotes , Gif-Notes , Sketch-Notes, Shanty-Notes, Week-quotes, Animal Crossing — Notes , Poster — Notes, Haiku — notes, Achievement — notes, Hanami — notes, Meme — notes, Retro — notes, Comic — notes, Story — notes, Slang — notes, Tweet — notes, Blog — notes, Hansai — notes,Show & Tell — notes, Taskmaster — notes, Lyrical — notes, Rap — notes, Wellbeing — notes,Football — notes, Superhero — notes,Hot or Not — notes, Olympic — notes, Lesson — notes,Hamilton — notes,Poké — notes,Limerick — notes,Lil’ — notes,Emoji — notes,Bin it off — notes,Festival — notes,Mental health — notes, Idk what this is called but it looked cool on YouTube- notes,Guy Fawkes — notes,Green — notes, Choose your own adventure — notes,The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly — notes, Attention — notes, Festive — notes.
This week I am going all Buddha on you and talking all about balance and its importance.
One thing i have noticed is these weeknotes are actually really good for balancing my own wellbeing. At the end of a week i get to write a little summary in my online journal and get whatever is living ‘rent free in my brain’ down on paper. That means i can leave it behind and tie a nice bow around it, starting fresh the next week.
Would really recommend this! It can get quite lonely being the only weeknoter sometimes…
Perfect Balance
The best way to talk about balance is the spiritual way. Balancing between the two parts of something. (Although it is often greyer in life). This is often represented in Yin and Yang in Taoism.Or in Avatar, the fish Tui and La.
Basing a weeknotes around balance means i must also embrace the balance between Ying and Yang so that is what i am going to be doing with all my points.
It’s not about there being ‘right’ answer it’s that both coexist and need to find a balance.
Cutting down
One thing i have been doing this week is writing ( I know shocker). And the bit that has been a real challenge for me is cutting down the word count.
Yin:
Cutting down can be such a frustrating chore! You think you have done a great job with loads of cutting to realise you have only cut 100 words and need to cut 500 more!
I know it can make it more concise and stop people from waffling…
Maybe i am approaching from a yellow energy perspective and Ineed to be more red? My worry is that whatever i cut could end up being the most important part for someone else but not from my perspective… It has me stressing.
Yang:
Learning and developing a new skill is great and this is a muscle I’ve not had to stretch for a while. Normally Ijust write what Iwant and only I decide what gets cut down.
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It has really made me think ‘Is there any way I can say this in a lot less words?’ Having to condense your point without losing its meaning is a skill i want to develop more because it will come in very useful as i progress my career and have to write more documents like this.
Sometimes trying is all you can do
Monday this week was Blue Monday. I only found out about this last minute so didn’t have time to prepare much but i wanted to do something for it like i did for mental health and international men’s day.
I decided that because everyone else was going to be talking about wellbeing i thought i would do an activity so bring some light-hearted spirit.
Yin:
This issue was that only a few people turned up. If people are busy or don’t want to take part, I can’t force them (especially as it was last minute) but it’s just one in many of times I’ve been disappointed in attendance like this. Whenever I put together a game or activity and the uptake is low it just makes my wellbeing worse when all I’m trying to do is improve/uplift others. Maybe I’m focusing too much on helping others and should focus on myself more?
Yang:
But then I do improve the wellbeing of the few people that attend so maybe it’s not always about having large numbers if you can make a small difference? My curse (or blessing) is that i can’t help but try. Sometimes i just want to slink into the background and do nothing but the 9–5 but it’s just not my way.
Out on the sesh
This week we also all took part in a team session to talk about a number of subjects, what we have done well and what we can improve.
Yin:
I didn’t sleep well the night before and this was coming off of the blue Monday activity so I’m not sure i was in the right frame of mine for this meeting. There as so many things we could improve in the team, I’m constantly thinking of ideas for anything and everything i come across can improve. The point i raised was about getting some ownership to these improvements and having others step up to take them on.
We also talked about social activities and working together as a team. Which is a lot harder than it sounds! I do remember saying ‘what’s the point’ a few times in the breakout room (sorry). Between us all we could come up with some absolutely incredible ideas and activities but why should we do it if people don’t want to do it or don’t have the time?
Yang:
It was interesting reading this article with the team. A lot of the things that were talked about we have mostly ticked off in the team. It seems like we are perhaps further ahead then we initially thought. This is mainly thanks to Lisa among others.
One of the conversations in my breakout room was maybe we hold ourselves to too high of a standard and whilst i can’t speak for the team i can agree personally about myself.
In the breakout room I also got thanked for all i do to help with wellbeing which was a nice uplift after the day previous.
Just like the work in change, i think it’s about making those small changes. Inspiring or uplifting that one person. Planting seeds that will grow in time.
It’s just a bit hard sometimes, you know?
Hope you enjoyed this format, and hope i managed to balance the Yin and Yang without it sounding rant-y or too optimistic. Quite the challenge! Its a bit like doing a spiritual retrospective.
The point i was trying to make is about the classic ‘two sides to every coin’ the world would be a much better place if we thought more about others and also understood where both sides are coming from. I think its also healthy to think about things from positive and negative sides to balance your thoughts.
Sam out.
P.S If you have read this far. I am working on a weeknotes that may take a few weeks but I’m hoping it will be worth it and overtake my rap as a crowd favourite…
No pressure.
