An Eggstra Happy Easter!
You may have a child who looked up grandmother’s old coffee pot and found a hopefully old lipstick in the drawer in the bathroom? It is undeniably Easter, this most yellow season. Time to pick up the child within you and stop thinking about your job for a while. To help you in this quest to recharge your batteries, I offer three simple Easter games from different parts of the world. Who knows? You may start a new tradition at home?
Zwänzgerle (Switzerland): Challenge each other in a game where you punch holes in a decorated egg with a coin. Toss the coin on the egg from a “moderate” range. If you miss and the egg does not break, your child gets to keep the coin. If you succeed, you win the egg and your coin. This is an old Swiss tradition that allows kids to earn some pocket money.
Egg knock (Germany and Austria): Get a painted, hard-boiled egg and place yourselves opposite each other. Tap the egg tops against each other until one of the eggs do crack. The winner is the one whose egg is not broken.
Egg rolling (the US): This works best with multiple players. Everyone needs a painted, hard-boiled egg and a long stick of some sort (a baseball bat or a golf club works well). Place the eggs in a row and set each player at his eggs. At “Go!” the players start rolling their eggs toward the finish line. This game is the highlight at the annual Easter celebration on the White House lawn. But perhaps a challenge in parts of Sweden that still has snow.
You may choose instead to sit quietly and color your eggs for breakfast, or what if it is enough to just sit quietly and enjoy the yellow sun for a while.
Wishing you and your family an eggstra Happy Easter
Petra Brask
“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.”
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Any toads on your conscience?
What is the meaning of the word efficient? The dictionary says it is when you with a minimum of effort achieves a desired result. OK, but what is the opposite then? Maybe it’s when you exhaust yourself and still feel that you are barely halfway?
Let’s look at an example from a far too common participant of ours, just to see if you can recognize anything.
A “normal” working day
You get up in the morning, having slept well and hopefully your brain has taken the opportunity to sort all the information you received the day before. This means that you wake up as a clean, strong and handsome hard drive, ready for new adventures. What’s the first thing you do when you get to work then? Getting coffee or tea? Yes, so far so good. It’s what you do after that puzzles me.
You probably open your e-mails and start with anything easy, fun and quick fix, so you get it over with and have the feeling of at least having accomplished something today. While you do, you’re glancing at a big fat toad at your desk, on your to-do list or just on your conscience. You know you have to deal with it, but not now. Cause now you’re already late for a meeting.
When the meeting, taking longer time than planned, is finally over you head back to your desk, put there is no point in doing something of value, it’s almost time for lunch. You eat lunch, and how eager are you now to do something important, tough, a comprehensive project? Not much! You check your e-mails. You find a few colleagues that you might need to talk to. You glance at your desk and note that there are now three toads there. Three?! There was only one this morning!
The morning toad is even fatter and quite unappetizing at this point. It croaks a guttural sound for you and you close your eyes and try to shake off the nauseating feeling. It’s almost time for your next meeting. The three toads follow you into the meeting room, they sit on your shoulder and you feel the stomach acid rising.
It’s almost the end of the day and you think that the toads will have to follow you home. The working day is not large enough to accommodate them all. But maybe if you work over a bit? Surely, you could handle them? When all sessions are complete, and you are about to address the toads, you realize that you are too tired. It is better to go home and do them after dinner instead. There are thankfully an evening as well and it is important to be flexible.
A ‘normal’ evening
Relieved by your decision you bring home the toads on your conscience, in your bag or on your computer. When you walk through the door to your home your dog greets you happily, your partner less happy and the children half heartily, they’re watching a TV show.
You are about to un-pack the toads from work when you with a fright discover that beside your dog are two more toads. What now?! In the hallway is a package of a book shelf that should have been installed in the living room… two years ago … In the hall is also a broken bicycle tire that you promised the kids to fix last year … Is it really time to use the bikes again?
Along with the toads from work this is just too much for you. What do people expect from you anyway? That’s enough! Now it’s really time for your own quality time.
Your family pulls and tugs at you as you try to read the morning paper, which you never have time to read in the morning. You give up after five minutes when you realize that you barely have time to set food on the table before all the childrens’ activities dominates the rest of the evening.
After dinner and after having packed up everything and everyone for tomorrow, you are so tired that you fall down on the living room couch. The living room without book shelves, who cares, who needs books anyway? You mutter while sinking into the current news show on TV. It is important to keep up with the news. That’s what you’re still thinking as you remain in the couch for two more broadcasts.
In average, we spend 11.5 years of our lives watching TV. Quality time?
At ten you are glancing at the 3 toads from work, but realize that you are too tired to think. You notice that there are some work e-mails, which you dutifully attend. It is important to respond quickly and be accessible. And then you have at least tidied away some for tomorrow, since you really must address the toads!
When you put your head on the pillow, you consider the idea of an amazing moment with your sweetheart, but no, you’re too exhausted. The idea is tempting, but … you fall asleep. The energy is depleted. Next to you lies someone with a book and is annoyed about the fact that … Well, what? The light turns off. There is a new day tomorrow.
And what happens the next day ..?
It can be hard to break the pattern, creating new habits. But there is a lot of time and energy to release in your everyday life. Just think how wonderful it would be to avoid carrying the fat toads.
Wish you a Happy Easter already now, since I and the family take the opportunity to use the holidays for some travel and reflection time. The blog is back again on Friday, April 20.
Wish you a nice weekend
Petra Brask
“Most of us spend our lives as if we have another one in the bank.”
Ben Irwin
Petra Brask & Partners' Blog 