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Light it Up!

Mar 22, 2017 | 4:52 PM

Contributed by Stephanie Staples at Your Life Unlimited

 

I can’t count the number of flights I have been on in the last year. I pretty much get on a plane to go to work. The glamour of being a professional speaker is balanced with the exhaustion, loneliness and tedium that comes with business travel.

Once in awhile, someone crosses your path that makes you look up. Pay attention. Smile. Laugh even.

And so it was with Bruno this week. The Westjet flight attendant who was doing the safety demo. The safety demo that even those obedient Type A’s typically tune out of. Bruno brought us back to life.

Lip syncing to the female voice en francois, he milked that safety demo for all it’s worth. He put his body and soul into it. Little by little people started laughing and more and more people started looking up from their books and devices. When he was done with his ‘show’ – and really that’s what it was (I cannot adequately describe his demo, just trust me when I say it was epic), the passengers erupted in applause and he did a lovely curtsy in appreciation.

“Gotta have fun at work.” he said to me as he walked by.

Indeed.

What’s going on at your work? Is it fun? Well that part of Bruno’s job was not fun. He made it fun. He was purposeful, deliberate and intentional about creating a fun environment for himself and therefore others as well.

If you are already having fun, smiling and laughing enough at work, you can stop reading now. Good for you! If you are not, you may want to ask yourself what part of your job (or home-life) you could Bruno-ize.

Where can you create fun? Add positively? Add surprise? Delight someone? Organize a little opportunity for connection?

Be the one who lights up the plane – or the room.

We spend a lot of hours at our jobs, if we have to be there anyway, why not make it a little more of a happy place to be?

The alternate is to stagnate. To fall into the doldrums. To let negativity win. To be part of the problem rather than the solution.

Live Your Life, Unlimited. The other options suck!
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Imagine the courage it took for women, especially decades ago, to enter a career in Law Enforcement. A tough, male dominated world at a time at the best of times, years ago it certainly was not a trendy thing to do. Enter Sherry Benson and Angela Epp, women with what I like to call Brass Ovaries!

Sherry, a former RCMP constable and Angela, a current Winnipeg Police Service Sargeant, share their stories with me on this week’s Your Life, Unlimited radio show and I bow to them both for their courage and tenacity.

We talk resilience, self-care and even -gasp- menopause!

Listen in, even if (especially if) you are an ‘innocent bystander’ to menopause!

Some of the trusted web sites that Angela mentions:

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Stephanie Staples, CSP* is the author of When Enlightening Strikes – Creating a Mindset for Uncommon Success, an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, and the recipient of the 2014 Manitoba Woman Entrepreneur Award for Contributions to Community. Stephanie empowers audiences & clients across North America to bring their ‘A’ game to work and to life. Stephanie has a special interest in working with and empowering nurses and healthcare providers. She happily calls Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada home. You can get loads of complimentary resources to help with issues such as work/life balance, wellness, stress management and happiness in general, as well as find out more information about her coaching and speaking services at http://www.YourLifeUnlimited.ca.

* Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), conferred by the National Speakers Association is the speaking profession’s international measure of professional platform proficiency. Less than 10 percent of speakers have earned this credential and are recognized as some of the best in their fields. Stephanie was one of only five professional speakers in Canada (and the only woman) to attain this designation in 2013.

The post Light it Up! first appeared on Your Life Unlimited.

Contributed by Stephanie Staples at Your Life Unlimited