Energize / making better choices / a trick from Canva's Founder and more

Welcome back to Future You, edition two… and just when you were beginning to question, was it a one-hit wonder??

I’d like to start by saying thank you to everyone who took the time to show their support, whether that was reading, liking, commenting, sharing or messaging me - the feedback and words of encouragement really mean so much. One thing I’ve realised recently is it’s easy to forget the courage it takes to put yourself out there and share your work with the world. We attend a pilates class and think it’s great or read an article someone has written and it inspires us to make a change. But then we get swept up again in the busyness of life, and people never know the impact they’ve had.?

Feedback and reviews are my latest currency of choice. This is not me fishing for them!! Rather, a small reminder about how much a well-placed (and authentic) piece of encouragement or review can mean to any creator, individual or brand - it is often what motivates them to keep going.

It’s a funny thing, sharing your work with the world, you know you need to do it at some point, but there are also endless excuses available to convince yourself that now is not the right time. For me, the tipping point was finally getting so over my own excuses - I couldn’t stand to hear them anymore.?

Recently, I was chatting with one of my best friends, Khanh Ong. I always knew Khanh was special and that he would be famous. After appearing on MasterChef twice, authoring a cookbook and being branded King Khanh on billboards while competing in Survivor last year, it’s safe to say he’s made it (if the blue Instagram tick wasn’t sign enough)! Every time I speak to Khanh he is doing something else - launching a t-shirt label and podcast, filming his next TV appearance, partnering with another cause or brand. His ability to never settle but to keep striving is inspiring. I haven’t actually interviewed Khanh on his journey but one thing he said stuck with me. When discussing MasterChef, Khanh mentioned that he has “never waited until he was ready to do something”.?

Here’s to being more like my engaging, go-getter friend Khanh Ong and not waiting until you’re ready to throw your hat in the ring. After all, progress beats perfection every time.

Ever since I found myself fighting long-Covid last year, I have focused on the concept of managing your energy rather than your time. It is our energy that allows us to get out of bed and make things happen. Regardless of all the time in the world, if we are lacking energy we won’t be able to achieve our full potential.

Enter Simon Alexander Ong (no relation to Khanh…it must be something to do with the last name) and his book Energize. I was lucky enough to hear Simon discuss Energize in the Journey Further book club (well worth joining for their fantastic reading list and summaries alone). An energiser himself, Ong left his career in finance to pursue his higher calling as an award-winning coach, speaker and author. All I can say is… thank God he didn’t stay in finance!?

Based on the principle that your energy levels determine your state, who you attract into your life and how you do what you do, Ong breaks down how to maximise your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy and protect it to achieve the greatest impact possible.?

Packed full of interesting case studies and actionable plans to make changes, Ong writes in an inclusive and uplifting way. There are far too many great concepts for me to try and cover (see Journey Further summary above) however, one of my favourite stories was about his client Emma and how they elevated her consciousness around the ways she had been sabotaging her progress. This allowed Emma to ask ‘what the best version of myself would do’ when she was feeling down or low on energy. Somewhat similar to the WWJD bands Millennials may remember from school, honouring the best version of yourself (or someone else) rather than what’s left of you can help you to make choices that maximise your personal energy and progress you towards your goals.

A book for life, as we head into the colder, darker months in the northern hemisphere I highly recommend having Energize by your (bed)side.

The quest to make better choices is not a linear journey, to say the least. In fact, at times it reminds me of a game of snakes and ladders. You have a few days, weeks or months in the right direction and then boom you’ve landed on a snake and slithered backwards again. A volatile trajectory, this yo-yoing between good choices and self-sabotage can become downright exhausting.?

There are many different theories on how to improve your judgement or at least make it more consistent when it comes to making better choices; weighing up the trade-offs, using a ranking system, deferring to a higher power (or better version of yourself), as touched on above. However, my favourite and what I believe to be the most foolproof so far, is taking a values-based approach.?

Values give us direction when things feel challenging or confusing. It’s one thing to know what your values are (a key first step) but we’re not stopping there. If you don’t know which takes priority it makes it almost impossible to make judgements in line with what is most important to you.

The following exercise will allow you to identify your top five values and identify what they look like in terms of behaviours. I came across it in an app I use but I believe it is very similar to the Personal Values Assessment free online test.

Values Assessment

1. Pick 10 values that are significant in your life.
2. Select the top five from the list and rank them in order of importance.
3. Write each value and define what it means. Now list behaviours associated with this value.
4. Next time you are faced with a choice or decision consider your values and which comes first for you.

For example, my top value is Health. Defined as: to put my health first.?Behaviours include:

• Regular check-ups
• Listening to my body
• Eating for energy / top performance
• Regular exercise and rest
• Meditation, journaling and setting boundaries.

One of my favourite success stories is Melanie Perkins and her journey with Canva - Australia's most valuable privately held tech company. Not only is it motivating to read about a fellow Aussie female of a similar age and her (and her partner’s) ambitious dream to revolutionise the design and publishing industries, it is the process and lengths they went to - doing things that others wouldn’t have, the unwavering dedication to their dream - that is the truly inspirational part.

There is rarely such thing as an overnight success story and, while I won’t run through Melanie and Cliff’s journey which started in 2008 when they were 19 and involved taking up kite surfing at one stage, just to qualify to attend a conference run by Silicon Valley investor Bill Tai, there is one key takeaway I wanted to share.?

In an interview with Guy Raz on his show How I Built This, Melanie talks about sitting on a flight back to Perth from San Francisco, having been there for three months trying to build a tech team and land investors. Feeling defeated and as though she had nothing to show for all her time and efforts on the ground, she turned her attention to writing a list of things she had achieved. One of those things including staying alive - self-admittedly a little grim but an achievement nonetheless!

Brilliant in its simplicity, this is a strategy any of us can employ when we’re feeling down or defeated. And one I regularly mentally run through on particularly challenging days; in the same way you might create a list of gratitudes.?

So, next time you’re beating yourself up for not being where you want or hoped to be, or being particularly harsh on yourself, why not flip the narrative and look at all the things you have achieved? Positive reinforcement for the win.

There is little I love more than innovative partnerships and the latest one from Evian and Rothy’s is a smash hit. Using 72,000 repurposed plastic bottles collected from last year’s US Open, Evian partnered with sustainable fashion and accessories brand, Rothy’s, to create a seven-piece all-white court-side capsule collection. A testament to its success, all styles have sold out in less than a month.?

But I’m not featuring this for the shopping suggestion. Rather, this is an exceptional example of creative thinking and how a brand can turn a problem or disadvantage (single-use plastic) and reimagine it as an opportunity (sustainable fashion). Bonus points for keeping it relevant to what they do and ensuring the partnership is on-brand.?

Is there a disadvantage or problem in your industry that a relevant collaboration could help turn into an opportunity??

In case you missed it, play is becoming a popular topic lately. Many creatives have long known that the uninhibited act of play can lead to breakthroughs and some of their best work.?

I have noticed an unfortunate trend when it comes to my generation of Millennials. Many of us are so focused on work and deriving our value from what we do that we have little in the way of hobbies. The work hard, play hard culture has mainly consisted of working hard and drinking harder leaving little room for extra-curriculum activities.

Don’t believe me? Try introducing yourself without mentioning what you do for work…

Getting back some interests (most people cringe at the mention of hobbies often conjuring up images of miniature train sets) is a great way to live a more balanced life. Not only does it make you more interesting, but it helps to recalibrate your sense of self and purpose so your self-esteem is not solely linked to what you do for work.?

The trick to interests is not to place pressure on them with expectations about output or the end result. ‘Beginner’s mind’ they call it and it’s a great place to operate from.?

In the past two years, I have allowed myself to restart tennis, cook more and learn German. Despite my dad’s prayers, there is no way I will ever make Wimbledon and my German is still scheisse but that is not the point. You learn so much from allowing yourself to be a beginner and doing things for the sake of it, is much more fun than when you are trying to produce something worthwhile.?

If you didn’t have to do it perfectly, what would you try?

“Life isn’t about who you were yesterday, but who you have the potential to be tomorrow and what you are going to do about it today.” - Simon Alexander Ong

Thanks for engaging with this month’s Future You. I hope you found this instalment insightful - if you did, why not share it with a friend or colleague who could also find it useful.

And if you read, implement, innovate or try this at home, please share your thoughts on this month’s topics - or let me know your interests (no judgement for miniature train sets) in the comments below.

Best,

SJ