decide you can - episode 6 (growth mindset)

We're back....after a wee bit of a hiatus - largely due to some frantic work schedules and life not stopping but there's also a bit of us wanting to be proud of what we produce from Decide You Can. We recorded a couple of episodes over the past few weeks but didn't feel like they were a good enough representation of what we're passionate about, what we're focused on and where we want to go. But now we're back, loving life and our next episode!!

In this episode we're taking the quote change your thoughts and you'll change your world and showing how we apply it to the idea of a growth mindset.

When you get into the detail or activity of work you can sometimes be more task-focused than impact-focused and react in a way that, on reflection, wasn't true to you or wasn't as positive as it could have been. To us our quote this week makes us think about being present in each situation we're faced with and, in real time, identifying the ways we can see each situation as a chance to grow and learn. It's a challenge to stay in the moment and truly understand how you react but, once you begin to master it, you'll start to reflect on how you wouldn't have reacted any differently and be proud of the positive impact you're having on others as a result.

We make reference to Amy Purdy who is a poster-girl for changing your thoughts ...she is such an incredible and inspiring example of changing her world with a mindset shift saying, "if my life were a book...how would I want the story to go?" Amy keeps with the inspiration later in her talk and sums her mindset up perfectly:

Our borders and our obstacles can do two things: one, stop us in our tracks or two, force us to get creative.

We also take it closer to home and think about people close to us who have had a positive impact and who we can draw inspiration from... Susie even reflects on her trigger phrase, "what would Laura do" forcing her to approach a situation from a different perspective....mine!!

So if things are overwhelming take a second to think about how you could react in a positive way, that you'll be proud of when you reflect on it later, and see it as an opportunity to learn more and grow. 

If you change your thoughts you can change your world!!

As always if you'd like to share your ideas or thoughts on this, or any other topic we've chatted about you can find us on Twitter, Instagram or decideyoucan[at]gmail[dot]com.

decide you can - episode 5 (power of positivity)

We're are a little bit obsessed with the brilliant storytelling and messages in Shawn Achor's TED lecture so decided to reference it in this week's episode....one quote in particular stood out for us. 

If we study what is merely average, we remain merely average

Here is an excerpt from his TED talk:
"Instead of deleting those positive outliers, what I intentionally do is come into a population like this one and say, why? Why are some of you high above the curve in terms of intellectual, athletic, musical ability, creativity, energy levels, resiliency in the face of challenge, sense of humor? Whatever it is, instead of deleting you, what I want to do is study you. Because maybe we can glean information, not just how to move people up to the average, but move the entire average up in our companies and schools worldwide."

In this episode Susie and I take a bit of time to talk about Shawn's points and our take on positive psychology whilst also understanding how our own responses to positivity in the workplace affect others.

As we reflect on the positive events for each of us in the past week we also think about how we could ensure we're keeping momentum going to remain positive and productive in our week ahead.

We hope you enjoy this positive episode and would love to hear your thoughts on how you stay positive in your working life.

As always if you'd like to share your ideas or thoughts on this, or any other topic we've chatted about you can find us on Twitter, Instagram or decideyoucan[at]gmail[dot]com.

decide you can - episode 4 (finding flow)

One month in to our podcast journey and we've got another episode that we're excited to share with you. Last week we spoke about buy-in which was close to Susie's heart and this week we talk about 'flow' which I love to think (and talk) about. 

Flow is when you're 'in the zone' (or if you're in Melbourne people say they are 'kicking goals' ...which I'm still not fully on board with).  It's the most productive part of your day or week and you've found a balance between being motivated and challenged . Being productive feels good and so when you push too far over the edge of that it can quickly become stressful or overwhelming. Today's episode is about how you bring yourself back into flow and some tips and tricks to find that balance.

I find myself referencing Jess Lively often on this podcast (and in daily life) so it's no surprise that it was through her I heard the term 'comfortably edgy' and the Kurt Vonnegut quote I found this week goes some way in explaining what comfortably edgy means to me:

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

Susie and I discuss the balance of not being too comfortable (and therefore unmotivated) and not being too busy or 'on edge' (and therefore overwhelmed or stressed) and share some examples of our own coping mechanisms to get back to flow.

For us we found 4 key things help us stay productive:

• Talking something through (finding a sounding board);
• Making a list to keep focus (and writing things you've already done);
• Focusing on one thing at a time (being present in each task); and,
• Sleep (to keep your brain working at its best)
  
  As we share our own examples of stressful situations and how we have brought things back under control using the techniques above we both get to a good understanding of our own responses and ways to stay positive and focused. For Susie this was an Instagram challenge she did documenting 100 happy days and her reflection on this challenge is wholly positive.

We finish off our episode with a brief chat about the time of day we find flow and, despite being similar in so many ways, Susie and I find out that our times for being most productive are very different! Maybe that's why it was difficult to concentrate on homework when we shared a room as teenagers!!

As always if you'd like to share your ideas or thoughts on this, or any other topic we've chatted about you can find us on Twitter, Instagram or decideyoucan[at]gmail[dot]com.

decide you can - episode 3 (buy in for our ideas)

We're back again and excited to share our next episode with you - it's a whole 3 minutes longer than our usual episode and that's largely because this was a topic we both have loads to talk about.

Susie started us off with an awesome quote that goes some way in summing up our intentions when we are problem solving and trying to implement something:

Almost every successful person starts their journey with two beliefs: the future is better than the present and I have the power to make it so

We talk about the different approaches we each have as we try to get buy-in from those around us to help move our ideas forward. The key message we come back to is that it's important to ensure emotion doesn’t get too heavily involved to allow your ideas to stand up and be accepted on their own merit. 

Buy-in and idea generation is one that we both have to practice in our day to day lives and so it's always interesting when it's brought up for discussion, even if it was by our own design! I think that knowing it is something we both deal with regularly means it makes it easier to use each other as sounding boards for future ideas.... Susie will often come to me to seek out my thoughts on a topic and I do the same with Susie. It's helpful having someone further removed from a situation that can remind you that whilst the idea might be great, is it what someone actually needs right now and do they realise it?

The topic of feedback was raised a few times and building the resilience to not take it too personally is something which plants the seed for another discussion at another time (we're already 3 minutes longer this week!).

My closing reflections cover off the challenge Susie set me last week where she suggested I take the advice of Dan Pink and apply 20% of my week to my own development or doing something that was very different to my business-as-usual week.

We really hope you enjoy this week's episode as much as we enjoyed making it. As always, if you'd like to share your ideas or thoughts on this, or any other topic we've chatted about you can get us on Twitter, Instagram or decideyoucan[at]gmail[dot]com.

Follow our blog on Bloglovin

decide you can - episode 2 (choices from our classroom to careers)

We're back this week and excited to share our second podcast episode with you.

Following on from last week where we discussed our learning styles this week we take a different slant on it to go into a bit more detail about how you can drive your own education and career.

There was an article in the media in Australia this week about 'flipping the classroom' and showcasing a school where the students decide who their teachers are, when they study and what subjects they want to learn...even creating their own subjects to help them learn in an environment that keeps them focused and engaged. We consider if this is a concept worth encouraging in more schools and if it's a theory we can work into a professional environment. 

Whilst we discuss this we focus more on our own experiences of school and the choices we made that set us on different paths - if we had the choice to do it differently, would we?

We can't help but be inspired by people who talk so passionately about a topic and TED lectures are the perfect place for that. One that has always got me thinking differently about our approach to maths in everyday life is Adam Spencer's TED lecture on monster prime numbers.  "Numbers," he says, "are the musical notes with which the symphony of the universe is played." His ability to articulate maths with such enthusiasm and passion makes me wish I'd spent more time learning about it when I had the chance! 

Susie mentions a TED lecture that caught her attention and made her think differently about work so I'm going to take this week to try it out and see how I might do things differently.

Finally we talk about a quote that got us thinking this week...

Sometimes the wrong choice brings us to the right place

It was so interesting to discuss these topics as it did lead us on to consider if the choices we made were the right ones or if we would do it differently. Ultimately, we can both agree that the decisions we have made have brought us to a really great place in our lives. 

decide you can - episode 1 (learning and development)

Our first episode is a bit of an introduction - to us, to our lives and to the topic of learning and development in work and how we apply it to the rest of our lives.

In this episode of decide you can we talk about our learning styles, I recommend we put the amazing TED lecture by Kelly McGonigal about stress management into practice throughout the week and Susie takes us through how her learning style for her distance learning can help her as she learns new skills in a new role. We finish up with our quote of the week: decide you can (we had to discuss it in our first episode really) and what it means to each of us.

whilst decide you can has been with Susie and me since childhood it was also mentioned on the Lively Show featuring Lara Casey so if you want to hear more about it then check out Jess & Lara's wise words on her podcast.

So our first episode is done and ready for you to listen here!!

tweet us [at]decideyoucan
instagram us [at]decideyoucan
email us decideyoucan[at]gmail.com

a gentle introduction

Welcome to decide you can - a place where we discuss our 9 to 5 experiences, motivation and inspiration and how we make it work for us.

decide you can is a phrase rooted in our childhood...we both look back (I'm sure with fondness) and remember rolling our eyes as our mum used to say, "turn the corners of your mouth up and say 'I can, I can'!" As a child/teenager/young-adult you don't always want to listen to the wise words your mum says... but we both know she's right. 

decide you can, for me, is a way I can express positivity in what I do...it focuses me on changing my mindset and I feel like there's a lot of power in my decision. I spend a lot of time doing barre workouts and focus on a huge decal saying, "you are stronger than you think" when the workouts get tough - decide you can feels like it goes hand in hand with this.

It's about strength, options and a positive outlook.

Our podcast is a place for us to share ideas and track our own progress as we learn and grow in the corporate world and live our lives in a way that keep us happy, engaged and focused on having a positive impact.

Hopefully you enjoy hearing from us!