Advice for the child I was

June 1, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
4 Comments

196__Rodney.jpgI’m not really sure when this photo was taken but I know it was well over 40 years ago. It’s me when I was just a few years old, before I learned so many of life’s lessons.

As I look into the face of that happy, innocent child, I wonder what advice I would give him. If I could go back to the mid-sixties and give my ‘young self’ some life advice, what would I say?

I think I’d tell him not to worry about the small stuff so much. I’d also tell him to cultivate a strong reading habit.

Some of my strongest advice would be in the area of faith. I’d recommend that he stay as close to God as he could and to learn how to lean on him through the good and the hard times.

I’d tell him to make the most of his relationship with his mother because he’d only have her around until his early twenties. (Thankfully I did have a great relationship with mum, but she still passed away far too soon.)

One of the things I’d be sure to say is to make sure you take lots of risks. Not reckless risks that would endanger him or others, but risks that ensure that he didn’t ever wonder ‘what would have happened if only ….’.

I’d tell him to treasure every relationship.

I’m sure that there would be plenty to tell that young boy. There are lessons that I’ve had to learn the hard way that would have been easier if someone had the right words to say back then.

Overall, I don’t have many regrets but I certainly wouldn’t want to go back and do it all over again. I’ve had a pretty good life so far and while it’s likely that I’ve passed the half way mark already, I still feel as if life is just beginning in some ways. I’m also finding that a lot of the advice that I would give that young boy is the kind of advice that I’m giving or need to give to the two young lives God has entrusted to me now.

If you could go back and give some advice to yourself when you were very young, what would you say?



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Dispensable

May 11, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

It’s good to be back. I will admit that I could have spent some more time on holiday, resting and relaxing, but it’s the day to day stuff of life that makes holidays so special when they come along; and I love my job so that helps.

I spent the past week on Rottnest Island with extended family.

The weather was perfect and being with family is always a good thing.

I swam, I read, I cycled, drank good coffee and enjoyed good company.

Today looks a little different. I’m back at work, on air at Sonshine FM.

The interesting thing I find about holidays is that they prove just how dispensable I am at work. Don’t get me wrong, I think that’s a good thing.

When I get wrapped up in my work I can start to think that I’m absolutely necessary for the smooth running of wherever it is that I’m employed. Wisdom comes with age and as I get older I realise more and more that I have a part to play but that the world won’t fall apart if I’m not at work. Holidays help to remind me of that and reinforce the fact that the world doesn’t really depend on me. It’ll keep turning with or without me. I’m completely dispensable.

Announcer Peter Rowe did a wonderful job with my morning radio programme and the world didn’t fall apart over the past fortnight.

Does that mean that I don’t matter or that my efforts are for nothing? Absolutely not, but it does remind me of where my striving and attention is of most use. Who would miss me the most if I was no longer around? My radio audience? No. My workmates? No. My friends? No. They might all miss me to one degree or another but it’s really my family who would miss me the most if I wasn’t around.

That’s a great indicator as to where I should be putting my efforts and energies in life.

How about you? Have you discovered that you’re dispensable, yet at the same time valued and needed by those who love you?



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How it all stacks up

January 6, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

dishwasher.jpgIs there really a correct way to stack a dishwasher?

If you believe that there is a correct way, you probably also believe that you follow the correct procedure. In fact, you probably believe that you are the only person who is doing it right.

Pauline and I have slightly different ways of placing dishes into the dishwasher. Both ways work so I’m fine with whatever happens with the washing process at home.

On the other hand, the dishwasher at work is never stacked right. When you have a dozen or so people stacking the machine you’re bound to see dishes, cups, mugs and cutlery in the wrong place. I sometimes open the door and look into the machine in utter disbelief. “How could anyone think that a mug should go there?”

And just when I’m tempted to hunt down and kill the offender I remember that it doesn’t really matter … at all. How people stack a dishwasher really isn’t all that important as long as the contents get cleaned. I suddenly realise that if I get caught up on little things like that my life will be more complicated and less enjoyable than it should be.

Are there little things that annoy you that really don’t matter? Have you chosen to get bent out of shape over trivial things? Are you making life difficult for yourself in focussing on stuff that has no lasting effect on anyone or anything?

I really don’t think there is a right way to stack a dishwasher. There is a way that makes the most sense to me, a way that I would prefer to see things done, but that doesn’t make it ‘the right’ way.



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Life is a risk

August 26, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
8 Comments

somersault.jpgAs a parent you like to know that your children are doing their best at school.

What you don’t want to hear is that your child has done something that may get them suspended. So imagine how a Townsville mum felt recently when she found that her daughter was in danger of suspension … for doing a cartwheel in the playground during recess.

According to this story from News.com.au, Belgian Gardens State School in Queensland, Australia, has banned all forms of gymnastics during breaks, including handstands and somersaults.

Kylie Buschgens was surprised to find that her 10 year old daughter, Cali, had been busted and punished for doing something that most of us would consider healthy.

Apparently two teachers took Cali upstairs and forced her to sit down for the rest of the day and not do anything. Principal Glenn Dickson said gymnastics activities were a “medium risk level 2” that posed a danger to children.

Glenn, let me enlighten you. Crossing the road is a risky activity but we can’t stay on one side of the road for the rest of our lives. Life is all about weighing up the risks and benefits of various activities. Yes, there is a risk that children will hurt themselves during physical activity but there’s an even greater risk that these children you’re trying to protect will die of heart disease in later life if you manage to teach them, through your policies, that physical activity is not worth the risk.

I suppose the question is who is being protected here. Is the school trying to protect the children from harm or are they more interested in saving themselves from any possible damages claim?

And we wonder why Australia has a problem with childhood obesity.

Of course it’s not just an Australian problem.

There was a similar case in the USA in 2004 when an 11 year old girl received a one week suspension for repeatedly refusing to stop cartwheeling on her playground at San Jose-Edison Academy.

Do you think we avoid too much risk? Are we playing it too safe with our children? Have you seen a change in the behaviours that parents or schools allow for their children? Are we creating more problems than we are solving?



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Living with Regret

July 18, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
8 Comments

If a new survey is correct, you’re probably dissatisfied with your career or study choices.

This story from The Sydney Morning Herald suggests that a lot of Australians are unhappy with the way things have turned out for them. The findings come from a worldwide survey undertaken by global recruitment firm Kelly Services.

Among the key findings of the survey, 71 per cent of Australians wished they had studied further while 48 per cent wished they had studied something totally different.

Another 16 per cent said they chose the wrong career, while 25 per cent were still unsure about their career choice.

The global survey sought the views of 115,000 people in 33 countries including almost 19,000 in Australia.

It wasn’t only Aussies who were found to be regretting their choices.

Australia ranked in the middle of the 33 countries with 50 per cent happy with the way the country’s education system prepared them for working life, slightly higher than the global average of 49 per cent.

So are you happy with how things are turning out for you? Do you think you’re in the right career or that you undertook enough study to get you where you want to be? If you could do it all again, would you?

The ache of regret

Regret is an interesting thing. Our regrets are often based on an unreal idea of ‘what might have been’. We become dissatisfied with an area of life and decide that life would be so much better ‘if only’. If only I’d studied more. If only I’d taken that other job. If only I’d married sooner. If only I’d stayed single. If only I’d traveled more. If only ….. and the list goes on.

Of course we really have no way of telling if life would have been any better or worse if we’d taken a different path so it’s an unfair comparison. It’s a comparison that will never let us see our life in a positive light because our imagination tells us that other choices would have turned out so much better. It’s a comparison that will prevent us from living this moment and moving forward. Regret can be such a damaging and paralysing thing.

Regret can be a helpful thing when it informs our choices for the future and lets us move on but when it holds us to the past it can steal our joy and destroy our lives.

If I had to start all over again there would probably be a few things I’d change but when I look at how life is working out I’m pretty satisfied. That doesn’t mean that things are perfect or that nothing goes wrong in my life. There have been ups and downs but my life is full of people I love and it doesn’t get much better than that?

I guess a lot of it comes down to whether we let life’s circumstances hold us back and dictate the way we see life. If we start regretting our choices every time life throws up some kind of difficulty we’ll be disappointed most of the time.

I like what Paul said when he was writing to the Philippians.

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Are there regrets you need to let go? Is it time you stopped living with ‘what might have been’ and started living with ‘what’s still to come’?



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