Wednesday, October 15, 2008

4 Keys to Success

I attended a seminar today hosted by our local chapter of IABC. It was facilitated by Ritch Davidson and was about having fun at work. Ritch works for Playfair, a California-based company that is dedicated to helping college students and businesses to succeed and have fun while doing it.

It was probably one of the best such seminars I have attended and I thank whoever brought it to our town, but that's not what today's posting is about. 

I have attended many such seminars, taking copious notes and making promises of applying the principles. I generally stick the notebook on the shelf and if lucky a few months later go back and look at my notes to see if there's anything of value there. Sometimes it works, but I have found that you should expect to come away with one good idea that you may be able to put into daily usage. I expected pretty much the same today.

After getting started Ritch said something that caused me to put down my pen, listen and know that I had found one perfect example that I can apply everyday of my life, and hopefully teach others its importance.

He started with "Let me give you the 4 keys to success".  Up until this point most of the information had been in the way of an introduction and the attendees had been taking notes hoping to find something there later. As he started, each poised their pen ready for the words of wisdom that would help them enjoy their jobs and be successful.

He started very softy:
"Row, Row, Row your boat"
"Gently, down the stream"
"Merrily, Merrily, Merrily"
"Life is but a dream"

He then said "Let me explain"

The first line says work, but even more importantly, not just row your boat, but row, row, row so you should work hard.

The second line says go with the flow, don't stress,  take it gently.

The third line, says have fun and using the triple inference, have lots of fun.

The fourth line is the one that could be open to a bit more interpretation, if you don't do these things, life could be a nightmare or a gentle dream. But I believe most of my dreams are about things I do and I love, so therefore I feel that it means life is what you put into it.

I will be doing more research into fun at work and the Playfair company and you should expect to see more in the future.

As I have stated here before, it may not be original but I like it. It will be easy to remember and I'll keep that nursery rhyme in my mind as the stress starts to mount.

Oh and by the way, I also got some great ideas on how to have fun at work.

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