The million dollar lesson

Yesterday my husband Josh launched the world premiere of his first short movie "The Million Dollar Question". As I watched him present the film to the ca. 40  viewers I was beaming with pride. "That's my husband" I thought. I also noticed how his sweater had shrunk slightly since I spun it too long in the washing machine. While it would have bothered me as presenter, Josh didn't seem concerned at all.

Someone said recently that true love is when you inspire each other. What I learnt yesterday was "Just do it" and to focus on initiative rather than perfect timing or "Do I have the right skills?"

I once attended a Business Link workshop for self starters. The speaker was an experienced businessman who told us that when he bought clothes he didn't focus on the price. He would ask a shop assistant how much the items were and negotiate a price. He also told us about having lost tens of millions of pounds in bankruptcy. Later he posed the question: If someone wanted help with a business, would they go for someone who never lost a business or the person who lost £70 million? Answer: The latter. Because he has done it. He has been at the top and tried things. He has the experience.

When soon-to-be Swedish Princess Sofia was asked about questionable past model photos, she replied that they are experiences, not mistakes. "Just do it" is better than "Do it perfectly".

Now that's a million dollar lesson.

Dreams

As I walked around the Chemist's a few weeks ago, I thought about where I could get hold of some extra money to get some of the latest beauty products. I suddenly remembered an ad at the University where I work. A researcher was looking for participants for a dream study. The compensation for participating was a £20 shopping voucher which I simply couldn't resist. However, when the researcher at Department of Psychology first started advertising the study, I wasn't sure whether to participate or not. The study involved being woken up by an alarm four times per night for two nights and record your dreams on a dictaphone in the middle of the night.

I waited for months to decide, reflecting on what the effect would be at work due to lack of sleep, if I could ever find the "right" night to do it (maybe a Friday night?), the complications of analysing my dreams afterwards and the amount of time it would take.

Despite the worries about losing deep sleep for two nights, the desire for the shopping voucher grew stronger. I told my husband about the project and he decided to participate in the research project as well. Eventually we got the equipment and questionnaires. Let the research begin!

Waking up in the middle of the night was much easier than I thought. I was able to go to work, and was only slightly tired during the workday.

Also, the questionnaires turned out to be much easier to fill in than I expected. I just ticked the options that applied and wrote down ca. 10 things I had done during each day before going to bed.

Easy peasy!

The experience of taking part in the project taught me that while things may look hard on paper, they are probably much easier in reality. I have gained confidence and feel less hesitant about volunteering, using advanced recipes or taking on new tasks at work.

The biggest gain was not the boost I got from the new hair conditioner and make up I was able to buy, but the reminder that things often seem harder then they are. Trying won't hurt!

Do you have a similar story? Let me know!    

Love,

Hermine