are you using all of your runway?

A friend sent me a rather nerve-wracking clip from YouTube of a Ukranian cargo plane taking off from Canberra airport.  The plane was so heavily loaded that it had to use the entire length of the runway (and I mean every last centimetre of it) to get airborne. (Please note there is some language near the end of the clip from the control tower guys filming the takeoff.)

The footage reminds me that there are days when it seems easy for us to get going and ‘take off’ in our work or our domestic responsibilities.  Everything goes well, we’re streamlined, focused and feel light, confident and powerful.  Nothing is much effort and we have that sense of being able to 'do this with our eyes shut'.

At other times, we’re more like the Ukranian plane.  Weighed down, sluggish and finding it a real challenge to get off the ground at all.

Those are the days when it helps to use ‘all of our runway’ to get airborne.  We have to go further, try harder and have faith that - so long as we keep up a steady momentum - we’ll get there.

The sense of accomplishment that comes from flying after a challenging, against-the-odds start can be far greater than the pleasure we feel from achievement when we ‘coast’ to success. 

If it feels like an uphill takeoff that you’re facing now - a learning curve, a long or difficult challenge or a sense of having 'too much to do' - think of the Ukranian plane. 

Place yourself in a position where you can utilise every last inch of your runway to give yourself a flying start, despite the odds. 

• Prepare and start your project early
• Know exactly what resources you have
• Avoid procrastinating
• Keep clear on your goals
• Ignore distractions
• Be professional
• Go, go, go!

What’s happening this week at WorkLifeBliss?

A lovely afternoon was spent in Chester with Amanda Alexander from Corporate Mums, UK – sharing stories, challenges and business ideas for 2012 and wandering through the picturesque English countryside with our families.

Amanda has been working in this field for nearly a decade and we had an interesting conversation about Australia’s international reputation for very long working hours.  We might have been the country that introduced the 8-hour working day, but we're now the country who is last to turn the light off at night.

It was food for thought while we hiked through an area known as 'Little Switzerland' (gorgeous views across to the Welsh mountains) - something Amanda and her family finds time for regularly, and I questioned my own use of time and how I/we could do things differently at home to include more of these sorts of experiences...