The Human Voice & Managing Your Work-Life Balance

THINKING YELLOW

Yellow is creative from a mental aspect, the colour of new ideas, helps us to find new ways of doing things. It is the practical thinker, not the dreamer. It is the best colour to create enthusiasm for life and can awaken greater confidence and optimism.

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"The human voice: It's the instrument we all play. It's the most powerful sound in the world, probably. It's the only one that can start a war or say 'I love you.' And yet many people have the experience that when they speak, people don't listen to them." Julian Treasure

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening?

Julian Treasure is a sound expert, and in this TedTalk he demonstrates some useful vocal exercises and shares tips on how to speak with empathy, he offers his vision for a sonorous world of listening and understanding.

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THE STONECUTTERS BLOCK

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 100 & First blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” Jacob Riis

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"We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to-do’ list.”?—Michelle Obama, former First Lady" Michelle Obama, Former First Lady

To achieve lasting change, you must view this process not as a one-time activity, but as a cycle in which you constantly re-evaluate your evolving feelings and priorities, and adjust your work and life choices accordingly.

Interviews conducted by Ruiz-Castro & Lopu, found that for people to make real changes in their lives, they must continuously remember to pause, connect with their emotions, rethink their priorities, evaluate alternatives, and implement changes — throughout their personal and professional lives.

Here are the 5 steps to the cycle that we must engage in to manage our work-life balance:

1. Pause & denormalise
2. Pay attention to your emotions
3. Reprioritise
4. Consider your alternatives
5. Implement changes

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QUESTION TIME

Questioning techniques are important because they can stimulate learning, develop the potential to think, drive clear ideas, stir the imagination, and incentive to act.

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1. Is it more important to win this battle or to maintain this relationship?