Oh what a week it has been………….. My eldest daughter has applied to college, my middle one to secondary school and my son wants a hyper golden retriever for Christmas!

This blog post will start with the sharing of a few more of those little moments, followed by a look at what an alternative CV might look like. I will finish by talking about revelations around my strengths and weaknesses and what has led November to start being my most favourite time of year!!

BURKEES, CUBICLES & HUMPS

I certainly can’t blame my language barrier for saying the wrong thing….. at the most perfectly wrong time!! But this week I did just that. But first some other players had some wrong wording going on.

Last Sunday as my son came out of rugby training he announced that the trainer had them doing Burkees and that they were really hard. This of course led to me having to ask what on earth a burkee was? (Not all that up to date with the Rugby lingo just yet). Described perfectly I soon realised that this was not in fact a rugby term but instead my sons intention was to say that they had done burpees. When corrected (politely) he insisted that the trainer had said Burkees….. Oh he is a man in the making.

Next up was my little Bella!! She was showing me a new case she is using to keep her nail kit in. She explained she had the file, the false nails and the thing you push back your cubicles with!! I was double folded laughing. This girl is a farmers’ daughter for sure….

Then it was my turn! During lunch at work this week we had a discussion about the mumps currently going around in certain colleges. One of the girls mentioned that it probably won’t spread as college students certainly avoid rubbing off each other (sarcastically saying so of course). I hyperventilated briefly as myself and my eldest daughter had applied for her to go to college only the night before……

Over dinner that evening, with all the family seated, (which never happens) I went on to ask my daughter had she heard what illness was going around the colleges, Oblivious as she was I went onto tell her that it was in fact the humps….. yes I said the HUMPS…. To my near 17 year old daughter. Two red faces at the table, followed by long silence, followed by laughter that  is still ringing in my ears!! Talk about a slip of the tongue….

MY ME CV – A QUIRKY ALTERNATIVE

Over the past few weeks we have been discussing truths about ourselves that you would never put on a CV but possibly should. If nothing else I believe HR folks reading them would be more entertained by this version then by the one that reads similar to all others.

As a result of these discussions I decided to give it a go…… to prepare my Alternative CV, the one that best describes My Me. Here goes.

CURRICULUM VITAE

I am a hardworking, team player with excellent communication skills and……. That is what all the others wrote and I am not all the others….

I am me. Below you will find my alternative CV. The one that will demonstrate my true colours.

FIRST NAME

MALIN. I was given this name as it in Sweden didn’t rhyme with anything in particular and it had no r’s. It has nothing to do with Malin head but it a Swedish name which is taken from the Woman of Magdala (maybe a rhyme or an r would have been better).

Pronunciation: Málín

SURNAME

KELLY. Went from the most common surname in Sweden, Andersson, to the most common surname in Ireland.

TRAITS (GOOD & BAD)
Unique – There really is no one else like me. Really
Impatient – Prefer NOW
Visualiser – Yep…. Same as daydreamer but in modern terms ‘Mindfulness Practitioner’
Passionate – Borderline obsessive
Maturish – Old but I’m not that old, young but I am not that bold
Special – At least that is what my mother says
Pepsi Addict – We all have bad habits
Quick Witted  – Seeing the fun in life
Giggly – Both at the right and the wrong time
Discombobulated  – What’s going on?
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – To good of a word to leave off the list.

WORK EXPERIENCE

A well experienced, probably one of the best, jugglers you would ever see. I juggle;

• 2 Businesses
• 3 Kids
• A Home
• A Husband
• Friends
• My Passion for Writing
• Hiking, Running & The Gym
• Reading

And if time permits…. Myself!

EDUCATION

My mainstream education is twofold;

1. School of Life – Here I probably learnt most of the things I know.
2. School of Mistakes & Failures – Has provided me with the best learnings.

HOBBIES

• Everything that drowns me makes me want to fly
• Everything that kills me makes me feel alive
• Oh and then there is that hobby that will just never be shared…. Classified information.

THE ONE THING ONLY ONE PERSON KNOWS ABOUT ME

Wouldn’t you like to know! There is a reason that only one person knows.

REFERENCES

If you want honest references please contact one of the following;

• My Mum
• My Kids
• My Accountant
• My Hairdresser
• My Local Barman

STRENGTHS -V- WEAKNESSES

As part of my MyMe journey I have been thought to reflect and turn things around on their head. This is an exceptional challenge and in particular when you learn that what you once thought was your strengths sometimes are the opposite. They are your weaknesses…..

I feel something so right doing the wrong thing and I feel something so wrong doing the right thing!!!

As this post is already long enough I won’t write more about this now. Instead I will ask you to list your S&W and try to turn them on their head! It is some learning curve….

To finish…. I think November has become one of my favourite months of the year!! It has certainly started on a high note and I believe it is set to continue as I have to do a reflection at mass (oh, oh), as I am travelling to the Big Apple, my city, with my mum and two brothers and as I can talk about and listen to Christmas every day for the next 6 weeks!!!!

So let’s go November!!

PS. Thank you to OneRepublic for some great quotes!!

So I would have for many years branded myself as a “good girl”, a well behaved woman.

In recent times this status has been tested…….. tested good and hard and has made me understand that being that good girl, that well behaved woman is not necessarily the right way for me to find MyMe.

It is known that well behaved women rarely make history….. I do want to make history!!! I don’t mean that I want to land myself in a history book, I just want to make my time count and matter, for ME, not just for others.

The best part…. I have every opportunity to do it!! May take a little imagination, a little boldness, lots of craziness and a whole lot of self-care.

So guess what, I am going to take out all the colours of the rainbow and paint my life in spectacular colours. My colours.

MINDFULNESS V CRAZINESS

As you know I have recently taken to hiking!! Try to do one or two hikes per month to replace some of my running while healing my ankle. On one of my recent hikes I caught myself in three moments which made me truly question my sanity!!

It started with a ferns bush, yes a ferns bush. I was climbing on a wood path up towards the top of the hike when a breeze passed. Whatever way it behaved but it managed to pick on one ferns bush out of a big bunch, which made it look like the ferns bush was waving at me……. You couldn’t guess what I did, I waved back. Yes I waved back and said hello (out loud). To a fern bush…..

This was closely followed by my apology to a bird that I scared out of his/her nest and a crawling through the woods to catch a photo of a mushroom. An important mushroom with lots of memories from my childhood, a “flugsvamp”. (think it may have looked like I was hunting for a bathroom spot)

Following my hike I just had to enquire about my sanity…… when telling someone the story they said “That is not craziness, you have mastered mindfulness”.

So is mindfulness and version of craziness or craziness a version of mindfulness? One would wonder…….

RESTRICTIONS

I recently visited a friend of mine and in the true spirit of Halloween her 5 year old son was telling me all he knows about the characters from scary movies. In the midst of telling me about Jason from the movie titled Friday the 14^th he went about telling me about why Jason turned evil. It was because he drowned in a big river and no one saved him.

To really help me visualise the river he ran up and down the kitchen floor saying in a big river like this or like that one he said pointing towards the fridge. On the fridge was a picture of a fountain and outside the window a lake. So I had to ask was it similar to the one outside or the one on the fridge to which he replied, like only a five year old can; “Like the one on the fridge, only straight.

These conversations is what has made me write this last piece of the blog. Because in children we see no restrictions, inhibitions or filters. They say what they need to say, express emotions they need to express, be who they need to be and most certainly behave the way they need to behave in a given moment. (this is possibly not the way we want them to behave but…..)

I was recently asked to consider how I behave towards others , why I behave in certain ways and most importantly what it gives back  to me to behave in that particular way. Challenging question right……. and one that will come with the realisation that some relationships places restrictions upon us which prevents us from being fully and holistically ourselves.

A classical and none personal example to give would be how we behave when the boss walks in the room. How we do not necessarily say what we want to say, how we don’t challenge their opinion, how we do not engage in learning fully, how we leave the seat next to them empty. All because we are afraid of what may happen if we say the wrong thing, how they will react to feedback or correction, what they will think about our abilities and comprehension. But guess what…. They are humans too and put the same restrictions on themselves as you do on you.

In my own world; last December (if memory serves me right) I let go of one small restriction when I let a client know to not forget me if a specific opportunity would come up. I knew in my gut that they would not have considered me for this opportunity based on my current behaviours in my role there. Now…… it has taken a year….. but what a challenge that is about to come!!!

It is only when you can begin to let go of such restrictions that you will get to know who you truly are and surround yourself with relationships that makes you shine!!! Plough straight through those big bold barriers!!!

So as a new week is dawning and another Monday is looming!! Hope you have your paint brushes out to colour it crazily magical! I do.

Bring it!!!