Reskill & Retool your most valuable asset…

Have you every thought about what it might take to keep your amazing brain in tip top shape?  As you enter a new job or are assigned new tasks you are learning, rapidly.  However if you STAY in that same position, or your job becomes monotone or static you could be at risk of a slow brain death.  How you manage your career and its money maker are of huge importance as you leverage employment opportunities and aging well.  At WorkBC we value you, your skills and incredible contribution to the labour market… but do you do Brain Burpees? 

So how do we keep our minds nimble, stretched and firm? How do fearless leaders stay on top of their game? IS Muscle Memory a thing? Can we be too old to be taught new tricks?  

Matthew Solan Executive Editor, Harvard Men’s Health Watch says “active aging involves more than moving your body. You also need to move your brain.”  “When you exercise, you engage your muscles to help improve overall health,” says Dr. Ipsit Vahia, director of geriatric outpatient services for Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital. “The same concept applies to the brain. You need to exercise it with new challenges to keep it healthy.”

A fun way to do this is to sharpen your No. 2 pencils and go back to school. “New brain cell growth can happen even late into adulthood,” says Dr. Vahia. “The process of learning and acquiring new information and experiences, like through structured classes, can stimulate that process.”

About 17% of adults older than age 35 are enrolled at a four-year college or university, or a community college, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. And because more campuses now offer free or discounted tuition for seniors (with no earned credits), there are more opportunities for older adults to explore a variety of subjects and interests.

“The focus is not to earn a degree, or even take multiple classes, but to focus on a class to keep mental activity thriving,” says Dr. Vahia.

It does not have to be a traditional academic course either, he adds. “It can be about learning new skills, like speaking a foreign language, learning how to paint, or to play a musical instrument. You can even study how to improve current ones like fixing a car or becoming more computer-savvy.”  

We’ve been speaking about the changing world and its demands for sharp and skilled workers for almost a decade— This is not new… however, NOW more than ever leaders in World Economics speak to the skills challenges we face globally.  The World Economic Forum is a wonderful resource for those eager to keep up on the rapidly changing Labour Market Landscape.  Learn about the Human Centered and Technology Skills required to compete and bring home the infamous bacon.  Let’s say this in the most non cliche way… “The world needs you! ” primed for Re-skilling, Re-tooling and Re-building.  Come on Princeton let’s get your Skill On!! 

Harvard Business Review hosts a number of podcasts to support the needs of Business Leaders in todays culturally rich field of Human Resources.  From Workplace Dilemma’s,  Mental Health, Ideas, Technology, Women at Work, Crossroads of Business and Culture, to Cold Call Case Studies, there is learning for every leader. This week at The Skills Centre we take a look at the valuable investment of Self Care and Emotional Wellness and the complexities of real life in business.  The trick is to practice what you preach while leading the way in the industry of Leadership and Wellness.  Enjoy!

Balancing Self Care at Work : PODCAST

The Anxious Achiever is a podcast that makes us rethink mental health and work, with candid stories from leaders who’ve been there.

This episode connects with our thoughts this week working with Employers who are truly invested in the well being of their teams.  In this 30 minute podcast you will hear about what’s it like to lead a team when optimizing self-care and emotional wellness is the point of their work? Goop, a company founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, explores all aspects of mental and physical health and advocates for a rarefied and often controversial brand of self-care. But does working at a place like Goop create anxiety in and of itself – anxiety to be balanced and perfect and constantly share your emotions?

Host Morra Aarons Mele speaks with Elise Loehnen, Chief Content Officer at Goop, about her own experiences with anxiety at work, how she manages employees and their mental health, and what self-care really means.

Click BELOW To Listen 

PODCAST

The Skills Centre in Princeton welcomes you to contact us if you are looking to support your staff with training, resources or initiatives to move thru the dynamic world of work with the skills and training for your Supervisors, Staff and Leaders. 

Performance… Practical solutions and winning results means putting People first!

Anyone feel unprepared for Thanksgiving?  Other than COVID restrictions, Thanksgiving might be exactly what we need. 

We might be feeling unprepared because its not going to look or feel like past years (and that sucks), or maybe the stress of COVID has successfully take joyful feelings away (and that sucks too).  Maybe on top of COVID, life is throwing a few harsh experiences your way (that really sucks). 

Why might we need Thanksgiving?

Not referring to the turkey or the extra day away from the office (if that is your story), the reference is to what OPPORTUNITY Thanksgiving brings.

The opportunity presenting itself is the opportunity to Take a STOP.  Take a BREATH.  Take a MOMENT.

Breathe it in, GRATITUDE.  Breathe it out GRATITUDE.

The opportunity to take a moment and deliberately focus on finding gratitude is a gift.  Gratitude is an emotional muscle.  The more we use it the stronger it gets.  The stronger it is, the more readily available to us.

Living in gratitude is not living with your head in the sand.  All is not rosy.  Not for any of us.  We don’t want to neglect the important feelings of sadness, remorse, confusion.  But we want to ensure we temper those other emotions with a practice of focusing on the good. 

Focus on what’s missing or how you’ve been wronged

you’ll live as a hostage to self-pity, blame and bitterness.

Focus on what you cannot control,

you’ll live in a state of powerlessness.

Focus on all the potential dangers

you’ll be captive to worry and fear.

You can’t be worried and grateful at the same time

Here’s the Opportunity.  Go outside.  Sit on a bench, chair, stump whatever.  Close your eyes.  Feel the wind, feel the rain or the sun, hear the birds or the cars.  Focus on each on separately.  Breathe in and breathe out. 

Know what that means……You’re Here.  With every moment you are here, is a moment where you have opportunity.  Opportunity for change, for happiness, for self care, for caring for others.  That’s what being here has provided you with.  The yet to be discovered opportunity of being HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.  Peace, Joy, Health

The normal definition of the term disruption is :  A disturbance or problem that interrupts an event, activity or process.  COVID did interrupt our normal way of living day to day.  We are working from home more, travelling less, wearing masks, washing & sanitizing more frequently, exercising social distancing, restricting our group sizes, raising barriers between us and our customers.  That amounts to lots of changes in the way we go about our day to day lives.  

But was it a real disruption?   Are we changed for the long term, or just the short term? Has COVID created the conditions for us to pivot and change the way we live entirely?  Is Dr Bonnie Henry right, “its not for forever, its just for right now“?  Or are there things that have changed, that will not return.  Has the future been accelerated for us.

RBC Thought Leadership has published an interesting synopsis of 8 ways that COVID has changed the way we do things.  Its an easy read, well laid out and succinct.  If you like “rabbit holes” their Appendix of research attached to the article, is full of materials examining what is happening in our new way of being, on all levels.

We are paying particular attention to the changes in how we work, gather and how we learn.  That’s the core of the business down at the Skills Centre.  We are not entirely disappointed that post secondary is having to pivot and offer more programming online.  Certainly as a rural learning organization we welcome the doors opening on more variety in distance programming.  We are watching and readying for any new opportunities to serve our community and make life in Princeton good for everyone.  

Happy to Serve, Have a good weekend.