To stress, or not to stress?

Hello there!

Welcome to my LinkedIn newsletter, 'MARK MY WORDS' where I will be putting a spotlight on the common problems business owners, managers and charity leaders face and more importantly, insights, top tips and strategies for overcoming them!

I was blown away by the positive reaction, comments and support for the first edition, so thank you!

COVID sucks

I recently had my second bout of COVID19. I was lucky not to be too debilitated from it but needed 4 days in bed to recover from the flu-like symptoms I experienced after eventually testing negative. I'm usually a person who is pretty much on the go most of the time and I generally get energy and joy from the different work and projects I do and the people I meet and from those in my network. But I had to listen to my body to rest. I had to cancel several appointments, meetings and catch ups with people. "I could just do that zoom call surely", I found myself saying to myself whilst sweating profusely and aching (this was before the heat wave of this week!). But no. I had to listen to my body. To start with I could feel the stress levels rising: from not knowing how long I would be out of action, to worrying about feeling like I was letting people down with cancelling appointments. Of course, everyone was understanding and lovely and I had to have a word with myself that these were just postponements rather than cancellations! So, it felt apt and a bit ironic that my next podcast episode is on the very topic of stress whilst having this recent experience!

New podcast episode - helping organisations and individuals cope with stress

Each month I interview a business owner, charity founder or leader to share their story about how they came to do what they do and their top tips and insights on my podcast 'MARK MY WORDS' available on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.

This month, I interviewed Ches Moulton 'The Stress Master' about his work helping organisations and individuals cope and manage stress. Check out the full episode here (35 minutes).

In the interview, Ches explains the different types of stress and how it boils down to how you think, feel and behave to people, places and things. He also talks about the importance of volunteering and giving back during his career.

And finally…(because its important to have fun and not take life too seriously all of the time…)

You may have seen or even taken part in my LinkedIn poll from last week?

I do a lot of training with MAKE YOUR MARK UK and run a lot of icebreakers! I was thinking about the '2 truths and a lie' exercise that can be fun with groups that may know each other a bit (but not extremely well).

So for a bit of fun - can you identify which is the lie out of the other 2 truths for me?

?I can reveal that the LinkedIn majority were indeed correct! The lie is that I can fold a tortilla wrap! I just can't! It seems like such a simple task, yet one I repeatedly just cannot master! (And from early indications, it seems that many others also find it hard to grapple with this, right?!)

As always, if you would like a chat about how I may be able to help you and your organisation, book a free discovery call here. (Conversations about tortillas are not essential).

Mark Smith