I am fortunate enough to be part of a great Vistage International group which has the opportunity to hear great speakers about 8 times a year. Our retreat on Friday Harbor was no exception. First we were lucky enough to be in a very serene and beautiful place, enabling us to have our learning conducted on the back deck of a large lodge with a beautiful lake just beyond us. It was definite competition for our speaker! Lakedale Resort was a great getaway from the usual hussle of our daily lives and a place that encouraged listening and reflection.
We had the speaker James Newton from Newton Learning come to speak with the group and our spouses, another bonus to have our spouses attend! We spent 2/3 of the day hearing from James on many topics which we all deal with every day, learning curves, stress, how we communicate with those around us. I hadn’t thought much of our learning curves and how some of the richest learning that we can have in life comes from the hardest of lessons. James spoke about encouraging ourselves to go through that hard learning to enounter the great lessons. He also spoke about the teenagers of today and how it can be difficult for them to experience these great lessons when they can easily be distracted with all things digital.
He then spoke about the stress curve. I found it fascinating to have stress broken down into different categories and to think about where the healthy balance of stress is. It’s not when we are so busy that we aren’t taking care of ourselves, exercising, eating right, spending time doing the things we love (not just work!), and ensuring that we have followed up on all those things that we promise people we will do, be it at work or home. It was a great reminder in this time of instant information, constant connectivity (although we all had to stand by some canoes to find cell phone reception!) and busy schedules that it is important to take time out, take care of ourselves and for us on Friday Harbor to enjoy the scenary.
Juliana
Filed under: General Tagged: | Communications, Friday Harbor, James Newton, Lakedale Resort, Learning curves, Newton Learning, Stress
