by John Buchanan

Well, it has finally arrived, or at least almost…….’getting away from it’ time – the holidays!!

I must say this year our family holidays will be quite different to those we have experienced for the last 8 years. Normally I am totally immersed in cricket, either a Test series, or preparing for an upcoming.

Like all big families, the Australian Cricket team arrive into Melbourne with more luggage than you can poke a stick at. During this 8 year period, we have seen the family grow in age as well as size. Our youngest was 5 and oldest was 16 when we made our first venture south to join the celebrations; while the Haydens, the Gilchrists, the Husseys and so on were flighty young couples, no children, and no need to bring the grandparents and/or nannies for babysitting duties.

Holidays are a special time of the year, and while we had a Test match to prepare for, I think we were all pretty good at making sure we were able to have fun when we could.

Like everything we do though, if we can get the preparation right in the first place, then the time that follows has a much better chance of delivering what we would hope.

With this organisation and preparation, I think we were able to achieve the best of both worlds – the family holiday and the serious stuff of a Test match.

We were able to devote ourselves to the important part of holidays which is family time. Work, or Test match preparations was allocated time slots in each day, and while these times were a priority, it did mean that once this work had been completed, the family ruled.

It is ideal not to take work away with you on holidays; but if you must, compartmentalise it so that when you are with you family, you are totally there with them, not drifting back to work.

With family time and getting away from it comes the chance to freshen up. Throughout the course of a long year, all of us become fatigued mentally and physically. The holidays are designed to recharge those tired batteries. Everyone has different ways of doing it from simply doing nothing but sleeping or catching up on those books that have been gathering dust by the bedside table to being more physically active, walking with your wife, swimming, golfing, fishing.

Ensure by the end of the holidays your energy levels have returned – you are freshened up and looking forward to the challenges the new working year will present

Combining the cricket with the family holidays, meant that the playing and support staff needed to make sure the Test match preparations were spot on. It required us to maximise the use of our time.

If you feel that work needs to be done on holidays, do not over allocate time. Using this method forces you to fine focus on what is important and maximises the time used.

The real beauty of holidays is that it frees the mind from our everyday working life. It is a wonderful place to be and often it provides us with brilliant flashes of what the future may be. Allow yourself every opportunity to dream, because this dreaming has been generally locked away during the year. Do not discount your fanciful pictures of life and what could be. Talk them over with family and see where it takes you. Remember, the only limits to what you can achieve are the ones you set yourself.

Make sure there is plenty of dreamtime in the holidays so that you can look forward with freedom

And finally, holidays is about having fun. Enjoy talking and doing things with your family. We can find fun in the simplest of activities or the most expensive. Wherever you choose to find yours, make sure you get plenty of it!

Bring back the child in all of us – have a fun filled holiday.

So whatever you do these holidays, make sure you –

• Prepare well
• Make family the priority
• Leave the holiday refreshed
• Fine focus if and when required
• Dream looking forward
• Have fun

John Buchanan is the former coach of the Australian Cricket Team. He is in demand as a speaker, corporate coach and sports coach. John Buchanan is available to share his philosophy for success expanding the benefits well beyond the cricket team and into any area. www.buchanancoaching.com

8 Reasons to Listen to Music While you Exercise

By Rosemary Marchese

Are your workouts getting you down just as much as the lack of time you have to workout properly? Did you know that music can help you to train harder? Can you think of a better way to reinvigorate your workouts? Here are 8 of the latest reasons why you should get your Ipod up to speed and get the music pumping while you work out!

1. It makes the time appear to go faster!
2. Workouts will feel more enjoyable.
3. Heart rate doesn’t climb as high.
4. Blood pressure doesn’t get as high.
5. Lactate levels do not get so high.
6. The rate of perceived exertion is less – so you actually feel like you are exercising at a lower intensity when you are not!
7. There is a modest reduction in the circulation of the stress hormone called noradrenaline. Noradrenaline is responsible for increasing heart rate, blood pressure, contractility of the heart and fuel use. This has to be good news for all of us!
8. It is thought to have a relaxing effect – reducing muscle tension so that blood flow and lactate clearance is increased.

Can you imagine a ‘Group Exercise to Music’ class at the gym without the music? Well besides the fact that helps with choreography it is also a stimulating and positive environment to be in while exercising. If exercising alone with headphones is not for you then perhaps get to your local gym and try a Group Exercise to Music class. And for those of you not so familiar with gyms, these days you don’t have to be super coordinated and wearing lycra pants to fit in. There are a whole range of classes to music to suit all types, including (but of course not limited to):

1. Les Mills BODYPUMP™ classes – a weights class to music whereby all the major muscles are worked out using a barbell and weights. Each class is made up of ten songs with each song having a purpose. The first and last song are for the warm and cool-down respectively while the eight songs in between are each specifically targeted at: legs, chest, back and butt, triceps, biceps, legs again, shoulders and abs. I promise you a great workout in these classes!
2. Step classes where you use a step to get a great workout for the lower body in particular as well as getting the heart pumping. Although there are some basic step classes for beginners the more advanced classes will require some coordination.
3. Circuit classes – great for those a little less coordinated. These can be aimed at improving cardiovascular fitness as well as muscle endurance. They often use resistance exercises interspersed with cardiovascular exercises for short intervals between 40 to 60 seconds.
4. Dance classes – a whole range available in gyms now…check out your local clubs.
5. Freestyle aerobics – although these are the more traditional group classes and for some, it is not so fashionable now, there still are classes for those of you keen to test out your coordination but have loads of fun at the same time!

Of course this is just a small sample but it does show you that you have lots of options when it comes to using music as a tool. Whether exercising on your own or in a group environment, music may be the key to reinvigorating your workouts!

Rosemary is a registered physiotherapist who has combined her expertise in health with fitness. She has over 15 years of experience teaching and consulting in the fitness industry. She is the co-author of the best-selling text book ‘The Essential Guide to Fitness: For the Fitness Instructor’, which was specifically written for those people wanting to start a career in the fitness industry. She is also Editor for Ultra Fit Magazine, which presents the fitness industry (experts and participants) up-to-the minute fitness industry research and workouts. For more information on Ultra Fit Magazine or Rosemary’s book, visit www.ultrafit.com.au.

by Rob Wilkins

I have been reading a book by a Molecular Biologist; John Medina, called “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School”. I have often talked to people about why corporate classroom learning fails to deliver and this book firms up some of my thinking on the subject. My biggest takeaway is why we think we can multitask when the brain is not hardwired to do this! (You will need to read the book!)

Learning is an individualised act but more importantly is an act that requires a disposition towards critically thinking about what we are engaging in. A lot of the time Classroom learning should be about taking time out to reflect and discuss and not about improving performance directly on the job. Improving performance is better achieved “on the job” as there is context.

Here are some of the key takeaways from Johns book for me and why on the job learning is so successful:

• Brains need to be oxygenated. When on the job, learners are moving around to get whatever they are being shown, tagging along or trying something for themselves. The brain is oxygenated by this breathing and revived by the increased blood flow.

• Adaptation to new skills happens by gaining experiences in what it feels like to adopt new skills, how the situation reacts to making a move, what to do after something does not go as expected, which things create added problems, etc. Setbacks call for innovative alternatives!

• When on the job, learners make sense of new learning in their own way, taking different amounts of time to grasp each part of it, having trouble with different facets, needing different amounts of attention and coming by some of it quite naturally.

• The learners pay attention because it’s like a conversation, they expect to engage based on how much they observe. Their attention won’t be undermined by multi-tasking, boring lectures or a lack of context. This is not the fault of the lecturer but rather not being able to get the same type of learners in the same place at the one time.

• The learners acquire the new skills and information in the same context they will put them to use. The situations will be recalled more easily and how they acted and what they did to respond to setbacks will be able to be used more frequently.

• Sleep is important for the brain! Because they are not changing their schedules, individuals will not see training as an interruption to be prepared for. Therefore, it’s possible they have gotten more and better sleep than the typical classroom student and their ability to store and build their knowledge is enhanced.

• Finally, the learners are immersed in multi-sensory experiences that engage all their senses to take in what they are first shown and then given a shot at themselves. Their experiences when they’ve succeeded would include the sounds, sights and tactile dimensions of the moment. This may be why experiential learning seems to have more impact in the classroom.

Neurological studies are informing us more and more and if we are going to do our minds and the minds of learners justice then we may need to stop and think about whether learning needs to happen in the classroom.

Rob Wilkins is a Learning and Development professional with over 20 years experience in Corporate Learning and Development, Management and Executive Development, Learning Technologies and Organisational Performance Improvement. Currently completing his Masters in Knowledge Management and Business Information, Rob is considered a specialist in eLearning and Personal Learning Environments with a strong Knowledge Management influence guiding his research and professional development. Email: dawilkos@tpg.com.au : or more of his insights on a daily basis: Blog: http://roalp.blogspot.com

By Dr Adam Fraser

As a workplace performance consultant working with thousands of people each year, the number one complaint I hear is that people don’t get enough time to spend with their family. Yet when most people get home what are they thinking about? ……. WORK!!!! Due to the rising levels of stress and pressure fewer and fewer people are truly engaged and present with their family members at the end of the day. Most people arrive home and even though they have physically left the office, mentally they are still there.

What is going wrong? Why are we performing better at work than we are at home? One of the reasons why people are finding it hard to switch off at the end of the day is that we are not tapping into the mindset of the home environment. Every external environment has a specific mindset and when we successfully adopt that mind set we become less stressed, more present and more successful in that environment.

For example the mindset during most peoples working day is one of fast pace, time scarcity, competition, high expectations, and decisive decisions. Compare that to the mindset of our home, which is slower paced, nurturing, supportive, and far less focused on outcomes and performance. Obviously these two environments are very different and making the mistake of entering one environment with the mindset of the other is a recipe for disaster. The research I have done into this issue revealed that most people are carrying the mindset of the work environment home with them and they are expecting their home to run like their office. One executive from a large financial institution articulated this problem perfectly. “Because I work such long hours I rush home at the end of the day, the problem is that my mind is still in work mode and I try to run my home like my office. I walk in the door and I finish my wife’s sentences because she doesn’t talk fast enough, I yell at the kids because they are not time efficient. I drive my family crazy!”

The result of this inability to switch into the home channel, leads to family tension, disengagement and a serious decline in personal relationships. The key to switching from work to home is finding your “third place”. Your third place is where you alter your mind set to suit that of the environment you are going into; it is a formal time where you consciously switch over. A coaching client of mine who works in a high-pressure environment has his third place down to a tee, the result is that despite the stress of his job he manages to be incredibly patient, supportive and attuned to his home environment.

When he enters the house at the end of the day, he goes straight to his room without talking to the family, takes off his suit, has a shower, does 5 minutes of meditation and then writes down all the things that were bothering him. Then he goes out to greet the family. This ritual allows him to release the stress of the day and switch onto the home channel by altering his mindset to suit his environment.

Other people I have worked with have their own variation of the third place. Some people use the train trip home, while others uses the gym. One female executive parks her car three streets away from her house and sits in her car for 5 minutes practicing meditation to calm down before she walks in the door. That is her third place.

One thing that the third place does is that it helps you to be more “present” when you are with your family. “Being Present” is a term to describe living in the here and now. It’s about focusing on the current task so much so that you lose yourself in what ever you are doing. If you are writing a report, focus entirely on that report without thinking of the other things you need to do later in the day. Likewise if you are having a conversation with someone totally immerse yourself in that conversation, don’t let your mind drift. So often we have conversations and we are not really present, we might be talking to that person but we are thinking about other things. Business is built on relationships, the greatest complement you can give another person is your undivided attention. We all have a highly tuned BS detector, and we know when people are not truly engaged or listening to us. Some people believe that being present is the key to team building. Companies spend millions of dollars a year getting people to build better relationships within an organization. They usually spend this money on personality profiling, but isn’t the first step getting them to engage and be present with each other? In addition some psychologist are now talking about the concept that people are creating fewer and fewer memories. The reason for this is that memories are created in the present and the fact that most people are either obsessing about the past or worrying about the future means that they are not laying down current memories.

The third place facilitates the chance of being present at home because when you are aligned with the mindset of that environment you are far more likely to focus on the what is happening in the here and now.

What will be your third place?

Dr Adam Fraser appears on ABC radio 702 and is a regular presenter on TV, most recently appearing on Channel 7’s Sunrise. In addition, Adam’s exercise training business “the energy factory” has trained celebrity clients such as “Guy Sebastian” and “Tammin Sursok”.Click here to contact Dr Adam Fraser at The Energy Factory

by Glenn Capelli

1. The First Russian

The first Russian brother’s name is Morov. Look at all the good stuff you have been doing in 2008 and work out what good stuff you need to continue to do more of. Maybe you have made some progress with health or maybe you are doing some nifty creative things. If so, plan to do that little bit more. As the Australian song-writing philosophers Kev Carmondy and Paul Kelly say ‘From little things, BIG things grow’.

2. The Second Russian Brother

The Second Russian brother’s name is Lessov. Look at the factors that make up your life and work out what you are going to do less of in 2008. Maybe you will decrease your intake of unhealthy foodstuff. Maybe you will continue to cut down on other unhealthy habits. Maybe you will work smarter and do more with less. As the philosophy of Burt Bacharach and Hal David says ‘We don’t need another meadow, there are cornfields and wheat fields enough to grow’ (and then goes onto say what we can do with some Morov is ‘love sweet love’).

3. The Third Russian Brother

The third Russian Brother is named Ridov. What are you going to get rid of in 2008? What habits are you going to kick? If you carry some cynicism – boot it. Cigarettes – chuck them. Too busy to care – give apathy the flick. Too stressed to think – breathe and decease the stress - before it deceases you! As the Diva Philosopher Diana Ross tells us ‘Stop! – In the name of love.’

4. The Russian Cousin

The cousin to these three Russian Brothers is Toss-In. What new stuff are you going to toss in to the brew of your creative life? Travel wide. Think beyond. If you only listen to Classical music, try some punk. If you only listen to Bachman Turner Overdrive, try some Bach. Give your senses a little bit of the new and different. As the Dave Gray album states, it’s a ‘New Day at Midnight’. Look forward and think well.

Get your mix of the Three Russian Brothers and Their Cousin right. Good Learning!

Glenn Capelli is the author of Thinking Caps book and radio pieces as well as being a top Keynote Speaker. www.glenncapelli.com. You can contact Glenn at glenn@glenncapelli.com

By Catherine Saxelby

When you’re busy and feel overloaded, nothing picks you as quickly as a quick cup of tea. Now there’s new research to prove that tea out-guns coffee when it comes to lifting your mental performance and overcoming fatigue throughout the day.

Your grandmother would have told you what I’m about to say - there’s something about tea that refreshes and helps you relax and revive!

Honestly whenever I feel a little ‘worn out’ or in need of a break, I love a cup of good old-fashioned tea. English Breakfast with a shot of milk is the favourite brew but I’m also partial to a delicate Ceylon and most things herbal like lemon and ginger or anything with a little peppermint.

For years, scientists have been puzzling on what it is about tea that recharges your batteries. They knew tea contained modest levels of caffeine - around half or a third of what’s in coffee - but the lift you get was not simply a caffeine effect, as powerful a brain stimulant as caffeine is (and one of the key reasons we love our java).

One experiment in the 90s had volunteers consume three hot beverages and then take a maths test requiring concentration, memory and focus (something all of us would dearly love each morning!). Those who drank hot water with added pure caffeine fared better than those who just drank a cup of hot water (the control group). But those who sipped the tea outperformed the rest. So the researchers concluded - there was something else in tea apart from its caffeine.

New findings about tea

Now researchers believe they have found the answer. It’s a natural amino acid called theanine (pronouced thee-ah-neen) that virtually unique to tea. It works on our brain to enable us to stay alert yet relaxed. It’s a different feeling to that jolt of adrenalin we get from a strong coffee. It lets you pay attention to the task in front yet still take in what else is happening around you without overstimulation.

A recent Australian review, conducted by Dr Janet Bryan from the University of South Australia, has analysed the findings from 15 peer-reviewed studies on the benefits of theanine and caffeine in tea and how they work together.

It reveals that tea, consumed regularly throughout the day, can help maintain alertness, attention and accuracy, and soften the more acute negative effects of higher doses of caffeine.

The caffeine-theanine combo

It seems that tea’s combination of a low level of caffeine and the theanine is the key.

Tea has caffeine, but in low doses, and the combination of that with the theanine, has an effect on the performance of complex tasks such as switching attention and being able to ignore distraction – tasks that may be hindered by overstimulation and which are important tasks for today’s hectic lifestyle.

In contrast, a high dose of caffeine, like the spike you get from coffee, actually appears to hinder alertness in the long run.

The report indicated that tea is significantly associated with lower perceived fatigue than coffee. The theanine in tea exerts slow and constant effects resulting in a relaxed yet alert state of mind.

More health benefits from tea

The advantages of tea don’t just stop at brain power. Don’t forget that tea, both green and black, is a healthy way to stay hydrated. Tea has 4 top health benefits. It:

1. is a great source of antioxidants known as flavonoids. Antioxidants help maintain healthy cells and tissues by reinforcing our body’s natural defence system and may slow the ageing process and ward off cancer.

2. contains virtually no kilojoules or calories when drunk on its own (without milk or sugar).

3. keeps your heart and blood healthy - there is a link between regular tea consumption and heart health. Drinking three cups of tea per day may decrease the risk of heart problems by 11 per cent.

4. helps you cut back on caffeine overall so you get a good night’s sleep and avoid the “coffee jitters” (irritability and shakiness if you overdo the caffeine).

Catherine Saxelby is an accredited nutritionist and tea lover. She has worked for the tea industry and Liptons over the past 10 years. For more tips and ideas, go to her website at www.foodwatch.com.au

by Andrew May

Go slow

Our modern way of living teaches us that faster is better. Speed is the new king and our lives are measured in bits and bytes, dissected into milliseconds and micro-detail. Is it any wonder our health, relationships, sex lives and performance begin to suffer?

We are not designed to go flat out, around the clock. Life is meant to be a series of sprints interspersed with periods of rest and recovery. It is impossible to be ‘on’ 24/7. While we regularly need to boost the throttle into turbo drive and plough through those To Do lists, it is equally – and vitally – important to spend time in cruise mode, or time going slow. The challenge is our culture has conditioned us to think that slow is evil; slow is seen to be the enemy of achievement. Slow is perceived as weak, passive, soft. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Slow Movement

As humans are becoming more and more disconnected from the things that really matter, the slow movement offers a return to a connected lifestyle. The slow movement? Yes, really. It’s a loosely connected international movement that’s aimed at providing an alternative to today’s fractured, fast-paced, and increasingly unhappy, overworked and burnt out world. It’s all about slowing down life’s pace, and taking time to enjoy the things that give us pleasure. It’s about reconnecting with food, with people, with place, with life: these are the things that offer us meaning.

Hapa Hapa

Hapa Hapa is Swahili for ‘slowly, slowly’, and this concept is much more part of the African culture. When I was a middle distance runner, every summer the Kenyans would come out and train with us for a few months. Looking back, I failed to heed the lessons they were teaching us. Train hard and recover hard. The Kenyans use to do 3 things – run, eat and sleep! In contrast, whenever I felt really tired I’d keep ploughing ahead (as do so many athletes) thinking that all I needed was to get some more miles in the bank and then everything would come good. In retrospect, I really do believe I would have run much faster if I had taken more notice of the Kenyans and rested more when I felt tired. In other words, adding some Hapa Hapa and going SLOW in order to go FAST.

Recovery in Sport

My good friend, David Misson, introduced a recovery system with the Sydney Swans a few years back where players accumulate 100 points each week to ensure they are recovering properly for the upcoming game. An elite AFL player can cover more than 20 km in a game, and the majority of this at high intensity. With so much energy being expended on game day, the primary focus in between games is managing injuries and getting the players ready to peak again, ready to perform. Each week the players tally their recovery activities, different tasks are weighted according to their ability to facilitate recovery for the upcoming game. An ice bath or a massage might be twenty points, yoga scores twenty-five points, an easy stretch ten points and so on. During the pointy end of the season, Misso gets the players to double their weekly targets and aims for 200 recovery points each week.

The Recovery Toolbox

The Recovery Toolbox is based on a format similar to Misso’s point system. In the business world we try and play a five-day test match every week, a Grand Slam every fortnight, and an AFL Grand Final every day. Is it any wonder we are continually tired?

The Recovery Toolbox combines both indoor and outdoor activities, with the total goal being 100 points a week. Add Indoor activities plus outdoor activities for the previous week and tally your score. How did you go?

Cross-recovering

So rather than getting 100 points by dancing four times a week (or choosing any of the other activities where you score 25 points four times a week!), I’d like you to accumulate points from a range of activities. You’ll notice these activities are predominantly ‘slow’ tasks. Fitness enthusiasts often feel ripped off when they first see this scale. Fitness junkies do everything hard and fast – but the simple fact is that going to the gym and belting out a Pump Class, or riding your bike up a mountain for four hours, while great for strength and cardiovascular fitness, doesn’t really help you recover and press the ‘re’ button.

30 weeks of 100 recovery points

Why don’t you give it a go? Set yourself a four week period and see how your scores add up.
For thirty weeks of the year I want you to flip the switch and make sure you focus on recovering properly. Think back to the Recovery Toolbox. Each week your goal is to get 100 recovery points. Why not buy a notebook and fill out your recovery points every week so you ensure that you make it up to your goal of 100 points, thirty weeks a year?

And what about the other twenty-two weeks of the year? You’re not entirely off the hook. The remainder of the time, your goal is to get a minimum of 70 points each week. So aim to get 100 points when you can, and when it’s just not possible, make it a 70-point week.

Happy recovering!

Click this link to watch me talk about Recharge 100 on the Today Show

recharge-100

Andrew May is is considered Australia’s leading expert on performance and productivity and is the author of the bestselling book, Flip the Switch. Andrew speaks at conferences across the globe, mentors CEO’s and senior managers. He is published throughout national and international media, with regular segments on 2UE radio, Mix 106.5 Body and Soul and Channel Nine’s TODAY show.