Category: 5 Share Friday

1. Quote I’m pondering this week “Age may wrinkle the face, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” – Danish Proverb

2. This week my wife Mandie found a gem online. I’m reminding myself to review it each morning in order to make the change from sorry to thank you. It rewires the brain and creates a more positive interaction, amazing, see below:

3. This week we had a Black Kale error on our veg delivery and accidentally ordered 4 bags of kale. Since we’ve been looking at boosting our immune system for the winter we’ve found this Kale pesto to make at home. It’s not only tastetastic, it’s full of goodness too. It’s a simple 5 minute recipe and you can easily swap the almonds for walnuts to make a truly winter tasting pesto

4. Talking of walnuts one of our neighbours has a fabulous walnut tree in their front garden. He came over to give us a nice bag of them. Yesterday evening I put on some Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel, sat down with my 14 month old son and we washed them in a bowl together. They then went in some old tights and we hung them in the basement for drying. They’ll be nice and ready for Christmas!

Walnut trees are more common than you might think, have a look here to help identify one and have fun collecting and eating non supermarket nuts.

5. Last week I found myself overcommitted, not leaving enough time for new short deadlines at work. I had to let go of something and chose to drop training at work on how to learn. I was so enthused about attending this training I almost used a ploce word here to emphasise how disappointed I am (I’ve just learned ploce, what a great term).

There’s always a bright side to things however, and this situation made me look at my own ways of making sure I have my usual space to learn each month. Taking inspiration from a recent Microsoft post on ‘building a culture of learning’, I’ve used Trello to make my own learner board. What a fantastic idea, the Microsoft post is a 3 minute read and well worth it for those interested in understanding the importance of continuous learning for the modern workplace.

1. Quote I’m pondering this week “For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” —Cynthia Occelli

2. A year on – this blog was a year old recently, yay! Every week for 52 weeks I’ve written 2 pieces, 1 of which includes 5 share Friday. This week was the first week I didn’t do a general post. Why? I’m starting a new writing project, one which means I’ll need to begin fortnightly posts here instead of weekly ones. I will of course continue the weekly 5 share (my most popular post).

Due to increased writing I’m reading Bird by Bird: Some instructions on writing and life,  a fantastic book that anyone who writes anything (emails, letters, blogs, any writing at all) would benefit from reading.

3. I recently watched this 5 minute video from Nick Vujicic, a man with no arms and legs. At 2:35 in you’ll see him teaching one of the most profound things I’ve ever watched. His TED talk  is also interesting watching. In a week that’s recognising mental health, Nick’s view on changing obstacles into opportunities is inspiring and life changing. I’ve watched both multiple times and when my children are older I’ll introduce them to his outlook. If the only thing you do with this 5 share is learn about Nick then you’ll feel it was well worth it.

4. The miracle of Kefir – Autumn is here and the trees look stunning! Especially in Vilnius, Lithuania where I’ve just returned from.

What comes in September and October is the onslaught of colds and flu and we’ve had our fair share in the Purvis household recently. Since moving to Denmark I’ve not been making water kefir and so this week I’ve ordered grains and we’ll get back to it. It’s fantastic at keeping immunity up in a natural way. it also tastes delicious. If you aren’t familiar then here’s a good starting point, you won’t regret it.

5. What I’m reading online – The nature of history and history of nature. Stephen Jay Gould is one of my favourite scientists. He did what all great scientists do, he questioned. This led him to question the trends in hard science, that is the science the majority of people believe in.

I’m learning more about soft science, the science that’s less measurable and less controlled (therefor more real), where some believe it’s not even a science. Stephen Jay Gould was infamous within the scientific community yet lesser known to the general public..If you watch his many interviews you can see he was nonplussed about how the scientific community viewed him and in part this helped make him one the most important scientists of the 20th Century. He challenged conventional thinking and paved the way for many scientific breakthroughs today. If you haven’t heard of him I encourage you to learn more here.

1. Quote I’m pondering this week “If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” — Fred Rogers

2. Most impactful read –  6 things you may be doing that you’ll seriously regret in 10 years. One I’m going to improve this year is neglecting friendships i.e no longer doing it. Since changing jobs last year and having less time to be with friends due to commuting and travel, I’ve made it a thing to speak or meet up in the future. That future keeps moving further away, so I’m going to take back control. Take a look at the list and why not make some positive changes in your life?

3. Biggest change this week – feeling the positive impact of cutting out snacks during the day. Since arriving in Denmark I’ve had free access to the most wonderful chocolate, sweets and snacks imaginable. Take a peek at our Unity snack area below, all of which are available for free 24 hours a day.

Not only this, I’ve also been eating taste-tastic Danish pastries (they really are something else in Denmark).

The Longevity Diet book reminded me that refined sugar and hydrogenated oil will not add to a long and healthy life. I’ve now switched the free sugar to free nuts.

4. Funniest moment of the week – watching the videos from the Danish ‘Do it for Denmark‘ campaign (from a few years ago). You need to watch to believe, it’s hilarious and real. According to the campaign vacations give the propitious outcomes…There are three 2 minute videos and Danes had the chance to win holidays if they got pregnant, imagine that?

5. Book we’re reading with our kids – Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda. I often find that children’s books get a message across more effectively than adult ones. In today’s age where we’re inundated with technology and activities, children are becoming overwhelmed as well as adults. Helping our kiddos understand that being in the moment is the way to live a full life is important to us. I’ve broken some copyright laws just for you and pasted snippets below, it’s a fantastic book.

I wish you all a terrific weekend!

1. Quote I’m pondering this week “Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.” –Frank Tyger

2. Favourite discovery this week: A blog post by a former colleague, which led me to her website happydayspsychology. Years ago, I was a young manager of a team and the author Emma worked in HR where her support and coaching was something I greatly missed when leaving EA to join Microsoft (where HR was focused on protecting the business). Now I’m at Unity I’ve returned to a more coaching, mentoring and proactive HR, one with people like Emma and it’s amazing. Her post on living the life you want includes the idea of creating a dream or vision board what a great idea! I’ve started one already.

3. In my continuous quest for increased productivity through music I’ve definitely found video game music is the most effective. I’ve been going through many genres over many months and when you think about it, video game soundtracks are specifically designed to simultaneously stimulate your senses and blend into the background of your brain, that’s the point of the soundtrack. It has to engage you in a task without distracting from it. The most impactful and quite frankly stunning soundtrack for me in the last couple of weeks is EA’s Battlefield 1, I’ve even noticed a reduction in my bruxism. You can find it here on Spotify and here on Apple Music.

4. Change I’ve made this week: In line with lessons from the book Longevity diet I’ve started a daily routine of walking 15 minutes to a coffee shop for a drink rather than just using the rather handy machine at work (thus increasing my walking). I’m also experimenting with skipping lunch, replacing it with a snack (fruit, almonds and walnuts). I’m already feeling less sluggish and more energetic. I’ll continue for a few weeks and update here on progress. If you haven’t seen the book you can check out a good summary here

5. Game I’ve started to play – Meow Wars by Taco Truck Games. I rarely make time for solid stints of gameplay nowadays. What with a family, Denmark to explore and a new job with lots of interesting challenges, it’s been hard to justify. Yet Meow Wars (made by a former colleague from my time on Minecraft) is a great card battle strategy game! If that’s your thing I recommend you check it out.