Cake for Breakfast

Italian food really is good. The days begin with perfect Italian coffee and cake for breakfast, followed by delicious biscuits and more good coffee at tea time. Lunch is a feast traditionally consisting of a pasta course followed by a meat / fish and vegetable dish and then dessert (how people eat that much for lunch and not sleep all afternoon is beyond me). Hot summer afternoons require gelato. Lazy warm evenings are welcomed with drinks shared with friends and dinner on the square lasts for hours with wine, pizza, panacotta, espresso and limoncello providing a feast. 

I spent the last few days in Padova for a conference and in amongst the work, we had plenty of time to enjoy Italian living. Good food shared with friends and family is the focus, time is not important and stress is just not worth it. It really is quite a clever way to live life. 

The conference on "life-designing: building hope and resilience" was thought-provoking, relevant and inspiring. Essentially, as the world becomes more uncertain with accompanying changes in the labour market, the notion of "career" is evolving too. It is no longer about clearly delineated paths with marked steps. People increasingly have to design their own lives and careers, with uncertainty a prominent feature, transitions numerous and the boundaries between life domains becoming increasingly blurred. Once again, I was reminded of how much I love what I do and just how blessed I am to be working where I am in the team of which I am a part. It is all quite exciting really! I did a presentation and truly experienced flow - the state of being engaged in the task facilitated by a match between the demands of the situation and my skills and resources. I'm grateful to be in the minority of people who find their jobs satisfying. 

So what are my reflections from the last few days? I think relationships and the principle of connected lives accompanied with reciprocity is going to become more and more important - where we find ourselves today is because of people and where we find ourselves tomorrow will be because of others. Kindness and generosity go a long way. I think people need to know how to make the most of current opportunities - it is becoming more and more difficult to engage in traditional career planning. Today will always be a platform for tomorrow. Skill development and transfer are important. But people also need a capacity to act that matches their capability. 

We spend a lot of time talking about how complex the world is and that this complexity is only expected to increase exponentially. But, paradoxically, I think people's needs are becoming more simple. One large research study found that across thousands of people, time and time again, people rated "a happy family" and "a good job" as their top goals. And this is exciting because there is a lot that is in our control that contributes to the fulfillment of these two desires for ourselves and others.   

 

Hope for the future needs to be nurtured, nourished and treasured. Why is it so precious? Because hope is the belief that things will be better tomorrow accompanied by a belief in myself to make it so.