Return of the Agile Timelord

Hello!

It's been a while hasn't it? So what in the hell happened?

Well actually, quite a lot. Some of which I'll go through right now and an update of how I hope to proceed.

There has been a noticed delay in between posts and this is down to a multitude of reasons:

• In the past few months I've married my wife (Hooray!), honeymooned and increased my workload
• Being more social, seeing friends and going out more has adjusted how I spend my free time
• Exhaustion - change in personal and professional circumstances changed how much time I could dedicate to this blog
• Illness - at one point over the summer I had trouble breathing, a blog post is slightly less important than oxygen

So, where do we go from here?

• Although my initial plan to publish a post every day was noble in its intent, it was taking up far too much time on a daily basis. Whilst some can produce media and content every day, my current circumstances do not permit that, as such I must adjust my approach.
• Goals, despite implementing the agile framework I was demotivated by not achieving everything I set out to do. I still believe in goal setting however like the daily posts, my approach needs to change.

So, realistic expectations, a more refined backlog and being less hard on myself. Seems achievable. 

What's next?

• Continue
• Reading at least one business and one fiction book a month
• I want to continue learning and expanding my horizons
• Listening to podcasts
• EOFire, Entreleadership and Fat Burning Man are helping me make more positive choices
• Watch videos
• TED talks, Agile videos, continue personal development resource
• Activity
• Continue walking to work, utilising FitBit and other nudges
• Changes
• No more daily posts
• Continuing the blog, but as an altered beast with less posts but better content

So there we go, in essence this has been a true retrospective of a failed sprint. I've picked myself up, dusted myself off and I'm raring to go, but this time with a more sustainable plan. More tortoise than hare, but still kind of a hare.

Thanks for reading!

AT

Accountability: Confidence Section

Hello!

In this sprint I said I would read a book on confidence, with no amazing book jumping out to me I decided to look into something different.

Paul McKenna's Instant Confidence.

Hypnotism you say? Yes. Although sometimes I'm not so suggestible as others I thought this would be an interesting foray and different approach into personal development.

The book comes with an accompanying audio file on CD which you listen to to get you in a calmer state where you become more suggestible and open to influence. It's calm and interesting, the suggestion (in STEREO!) comes at you in drips and drabs to help you build up your self esteem.

So, did it work?

Kind of. 

So the crux to confidence is similar to positive thinking and happiness; you need to build up yourself with the inner voice. Shaping the discourse surrounding your self image determines how confident you are.

McKenna argues, and is right in saying that all confidence is, is surety. I am not confident. However, this in itself is an oxymoron and an impossible sentence. By stating 'I am not confident' expresses my confidence in believing myself to not be confident.  I am confident in my failings. 

To change this, I need to readdress where I focus my energy and start telling myself more about the good things I can do and expressing what I'm good at. By telling myself I am confident I can actually become confident. What I need to do is to stop telling myself I'm not confident and that I'm awkward in social situations, if I continue to do so I will become even more awkward and uncomfortable.

'Fake it 'til you make it' is a clunky but simplistic way of illustrating it, but it's true. Perceptions feed into reality, by defining my own personal perceptions and shaping the surrounding discourse, I can shape the world and myself.

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

Thanks for reading!

AT