An article in our local rag interested me this morning.... it was about a UN study which argues that we are giving our children too many toys to compensate for not spending time with them, because 'we are too busy....'
The most disturbing part about it, was that the children when asked what they wanted most, replied 'more family time.' Our children it would appear 'get' it while we adults appear to have 'lost the plot'..... at least that is what the article suggested..
And as always when I read something interesting, I start applying it to my word and that of my coachees.... so..... just out of interest how about we have a think about the following quetsions.
1) How many 'toys' (and not just children's toys here) do you have in your home now compared to the home you grew up in, and did you as a child feel deprived?
2) How many 'activities' or 'adventures' have you been on in the last month? (don't include organised regular activities)
3) When you were growing up what did you enjoy doing the most- what are your favourite memories? (Did they involve an object... ie a toy or a free activity or adventure?)
4) What would you like your children/ families memories to be about 2011?
5) Are you making that happen?
If like the 5 other people I have asked this morning your answers were... 1) a lot more, no,To 2) not very many, 3) picnics, park, beach, bike rides etc.... all adventure based, 4) like the ones I had, 5) Mmmmmm not really...
Then..... do something about it... the weekend is not very far away.... how about asking your children/ family members to create a memory with you.....
Have fun......
I am reading a particularly interesting book at the moment...
Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.. and although I am still to be convinced by some of the argument the book did get me thinking about how we practice and what we practice...
In particular I started thinking about a topic which has come up and awful lot this week.... communication..... we usually wait until communication breaks down before we do something about it.. but what if we decided to proactively practice our communication....
So .... I am going to pick a frequently discussed coaching topic... "real conversations' v' 'talking' and challenge anyone out there who reads this to do the following exercise with their family, whatever it's shape and size, function or disfunction.....
Your challenge is to sit together in a room for more than 30 mins and have a 'real' conversation.. that is a conversation where you learn something about someone else in the room... about what they think or believe...
And here are the rules......
1) the topic must be general.... not related to an individual in the room- so no school, work, or activities based conversation
2) it must not involve planning something (eg:- a holiday) or logistics
3) the participants must all be involved... so no 'I have no idea or I do not have an opinion'
4) it needs to be a topic big enough/ novel enough to learn something new
5) Everybody has a right to be heard and a right for judgement to be suspended on their ideas
Some topic ideas....
- Do people engage in enough face to face conversations?
- What is the most important lesson from the past we as a society are failing to listen to and which one do we do well?
- What does being a refugee mean, and what circumstances would force you to be a refugee?
- Do we really have freedom of speech?
- What is democracy and what does that mean for us on a daily basis?
- If your family was running the country what would you do differently and what the same?
- Or another of your choice.....
Controversial and real??? Have fun practicing a real conversation and I would be very interested to know how you got on...
