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KINDNESS, FUN AND POSITIVITY
By Gary Latham
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” – Iron Mike Tyson With the Olympics, lockdowns, and my brain surgery everyone is thinking about thinking, or at least how to cope. In the past month the buzz word’s been mindset. Largely a sporting term, borrowed by the world of business, employed across life in general. Measuring performance in sport is easy because there is a scoreboard to do exactly that, but scoring brings pressure. The vogue mindset is to ignore the scoreboard if you want to end up on top of it. Strange really, it’s a bit like being a Buddhist in order to make a million bucks. The old school theory was success came to those who thrive under pressure. I was brought up on the phrase “pressure makes diamonds”. Now the special ones ignore it. It’s easy to handle pressure if you don’t see it. So how do we handle pressure? I listened to an interview with Ben Crowe a mindset coach whose client list is headed by tennis Ace Ash Barty. While Ash works hard and smart with her team to ensure she is prepared for competition, perfect practice makes perfect, it is her mindset that draws the highest admiration. Confident in her team, generous in success and most of all she is having a great time. This the pressure free road she has built to success. Crowe mentions that Roger Federer lives his life by three words. Humility, Gratitude and Humour. Fiercely competitive Federer rarely is seen stressed and even now as he ages and no longer dominating, he is still a winner. Challenges and loss can be seen as adventures and rewarding with the right mindset. What is my mindset? While I never set out to condense my outlook into three little words, but it was done for me by Timely CEO Ryan Baker. Kindness, Fun and Positivity. Kindness took the longest to learn and was the hardest to put into practice. Yes, in my early days I could be a real shit. One of my few gifts is emotional intelligence but I wasted it too
often on making others feel bad. I finally realised that if I could make someone feel bad, I should be able to make people feel really good. Same power and effort but a much better result. What really cemented the switch to kindness was dealing with younger staff. As the age difference grew so did my compassion. I also believe the earlier in life/careers you can make a difference in people the bigger the difference will be. Fun is probably the easiest to put into practice. Who doesn’t want to have fun, why wouldn’t you. We spend so much time chasing things that will bring us happiness why don’t we just start by being happy. Positivity is my pick of the three as I find it the most useful. It gets me through so many things. Please don’t think for one second think I don’t have dark times and periods of doubt. I just chose not to dwell there. Many people have told me how brave I am. They forget bravery is only discounting about what might happen. Outcomes are rarely as bad as our expectations. It’s better to save your energy to deal with it then waste it worrying beforehand. The secret to positivity is acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean rolling over and giving up. Shit things happen to me, my family, and friends. Some we bring on ourselves, some we deserve, and others are just totally random. I have a three-step process assess, accept, and action. There are times when we have every right to be sad, regretful, or remorseful. Honestly assess the situation and turn things around. In extreme times and cases this is easier said than done so slow things down before you turn things around. Mediate, relax, exercise, and eat well. Sometimes you just have to look after you. Find acceptance and move on to better brighter days. Hair Biz Year 15 Issue 5
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