Living our values: a true story

As someone who works hard to live by their values, this week has been one of the those weeks that reminds me how important it is to be clear about my values, and to check in on them occasionally to make sure that they remain relevant.??

It makes my heart sing seeing my values come to life, to be reminded of their relevance and to see meaningful progress – my personal gauge that a commitment to consistency in energy and effort in living my values is starting to pay off. One of my values ‘opportunity’ has delivered in bucketloads this week, and after some reflection, I was reminded that being targeted in the opportunities that I pursue is something that I have had to work on. Compared to my initial strategy of pursuing opportunities with a relentless, scattergun approach, I use a much more targeted and considered approach today which to be frank, provides way better outcomes.

According to the Oxford dictionary, an opportunity is defined as a time when a particular situation makes it possible to do or achieve something.

It also suggests that a synonym for opportunity is chance.

This week has resulted in opportunities being delivered in abundance, and as much as I could argue that these opportunities occurred by chance, my belief is that could not be further from the truth.

So where to start……….let’s start at the start.

Monday.

On Monday, IMPACT Community Services kicked off Stage 2 of our Discovery Coast Model of Care Project. Mark Donato spent the week with our team, assisting us to progress this vital piece of work. During stage 1 of the project, we gathered some valuable data that identified the need to engage a consultant to support IMPACT Community Services to develop an innovative and bespoke model of general practice that is aligned to the needs of the Discovery Coast community.

Mark will therefore work with us to research financially viable models that aim to:

• Reduce the unwarranted demand on emergency resources;
• Support General Practice and;
• Provide residents with appropriate, affordable and accessible primary health care locally.

Watching this project unfold reminds me that we could not have done it without the vision and support of the IMPACT Community Services Board. A big thank you to Leanne Rudd Martin Barrett Giovanna Lever, ACEcD, GAICD Luke Sinclair Vanessa Fryer Jarryd Townson for committing funds to this project and realising the opportunity that we have to improve the lives of people within the Discovery Coast Community.

Tuesday.

On Tuesday, I was part of one of four Surf Life Saving Queensland Women in Sport focus groups. Each group was provided with the opportunity to extend on the survey feedback of past and present female members (conducted in November), to better understand their experiences as members and volunteers. With over 36,000 members of which almost 50% are female, as a past Surf Life Saving Queensland Director and current member of Bundaberg SLSC, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this important conversation.

I look forward to watching this vital piece of work progress under the leadership of Deputy President Carol Fox , President Gerard O'Brien and the SLSQ Board, and CEO Dave Whimpey .

Wednesday.

My commitment to partnering with the Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand to bring leadership opportunities to the Bundaberg community has been strengthened over the last two years with the help of Dr Geoff Augutis , who joined me as a IML advocate for the local area.

As part our planning for the next 12 months, we were tossing around suggestions for potential speakers for the bi-monthly hybrid Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand MemX events, and Geoff recommended Gabe Marzano ?? and Melonie Taylor . I hadn’t met either of these ladies before, and on Wednesday I got to meet both of them!

Apart from being absolute superstars in their various fields, they are amazing humans and have agreed to volunteer their time and be speakers at our upcoming events. Please connect with them and learn more about the work that they do AND pop the 4 April and 6 June between 7.30-8.30am into your calendar to ensure that you don’t miss out on their upcoming sessions. Further info on these events will follow once details have been confirmed.

I am also thrilled to share that Steve Williams will be our speaker at the 7 February event, setting us up with self-care strategies that we can introduce into our practice over the next 12 months. I am so excited that Steve is also able to join us and appreciate his ongoing support.

Phew.

Thursday.

Hard to believe that there could be more but there is. Before I get to what happened on Thursday, I’ll take you back a few steps.

Last year, IMPACT Community Services applied for an opportunity for me to be part of the Queensland Alliance for Mental Health (QAMH) Wellbeing First pilot program. After being selected to be part of the program, I completed Stage 1, an 8-week program facilitated by Stephan Hitchings and Helen GLOVER focused primarily on design thinking tools, their application and the skills required to solve a problem. It complemented my existing skills in this space beautifully and set us up for stage 2 which kicked off in Brisbane yesterday.

And what a day it was. Lead by QAMH CEO Jennifer Black and facilitated by Helen GLOVER , we got the opportunity to explore the mental illness and mental wellbeing continuum’s and were reminded that mental health is not the absence of mental illness.

We also got the opportunity to focus on the QAMH Wellbeing First Core Beliefs and Service Principles and consider how our individual projects will align to these. ?

The Wellbeing First initiative images a future state where everyone has access to locally designed wellbeing supports and where the nation’s growth is measured not just in economic terms but also in its mental wellbeing.

It feels ambitious, however after meeting the other participants yesterday, I am super confident that we have what it takes to start creating change in the mental wellbeing space.

I look forward to working with my design team on the problem that we have identified and thank them in advance for the contribution that they will make to my project over the next 8 months - Nathan Spruce Nicole Amey Jenna Williams, Staci Rae, Luke Arnold and Jonathan Bailey.

Will keep you all updated on progress and what we learned along the way!

Friday.

Since July last year, I have been working with Hayley and Damon Forrest from Dynamic Body Labs. My focus was reducing chronic knee pain as a result of early onset arthritis, and increasing my bone and muscle strength so that it supports me to live well as I age. Last year my knee specialist stated very clearly that weight is a key factor in current and future mobility, and therefore losing some kg's was essential.

Today, I received the results from my 3-week check in. I have lost 7.3kg since commencing my individualised program and can now lift more than my body weight. The best bit is that I can do more than 20,000 steps in a day and wake up the next day without pain.

This opportunity to improve my health would never have presented without the help of Alana Sinnamon , and her willingness and openness to sharing her own experience. It would also not have happened without my commitment to changing habits and routines that were not supporting me to live my best life.

So, there you have it. Lots of great opportunities over the last week that I genuinely believe would not have happened by chance. Instead, I believe that they have occurred as a result of living my values with intentionality and purpose, and with the support of the amazing people that I have around me.

Some questions that I have reflected on this week that might also be useful for you:

• How long has it been since I reviewed my values? Are they still relevant and if not, does anything need to change?
• Am I living my values with intentionality and purpose? If yes, what evidence exists to support this?
• Who do I have supporting me to achieve my values? Do I need to change or extend my support network?

Once you have had a chance to reflect, please share as it is great hearing other people’s stories and learning from their experiences.?