Are you a spectator or a player?

August 30, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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aflball

It’s almost finals time in the AFL and for the next few weeks we’ll hear about football, football and more football.

It’s time for all the armchair critics to surface once again. Thousands of people who have watched endless games of footy on TV will come up with better game strategies than all the coaches and players.

Funny how we all suddenly become experts when we’re on the sidelines. It’s always easy to see how things can be done better and criticise those who are actually out there having a go. Why would we want to put ourselves on the line and actually do something when we find it so much easier to stay where we are and find fault?

Of course that kind of attitude isn’t just reserved for football or other sports. We see it happening in every area of life don’t we?

Those in public office need to be kept accountable but so often those trying to call our leaders to account have never bothered themselves with trying to do something to benefit the wider community themselves. With an Australian Federal Election just over a week away are we sitting on the sidelines shouting about what our politicians are doing wrong or are we working for a better, fairer country?

We like to criticise people in all kinds of leadership roles but we’re often less keen to take on the responsibilities that leaders accept. Whether it’s at work, politics, sporting clubs, churches or anywhere else, there are always those who will be prepared to give of their wisdom but not so many who will give of their time, resources and efforts.

Life isn’t a spectator sport. If you want to be one of the ones making the rules and deciding on directions, get onto the field and get involved. But beware, once you start playing you need to be ready to face the spectators who invariably think they know better.



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Farewelling My Forties

July 21, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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20130721-200658.jpg

The sun has set. It’s gone down on a decade. The sun has gone down on my forties.

The sunset in the photo above is the one I witnessed as my family and I returned from an almost three hour long whale watching cruise. We travelled from a riverside jetty near the mouth of the Murchison River in Kalbarri, past some small waves and out into the open seas to see some humpback whales swimming off the coast.

As we made our way back to the jetty I looked behind us towards the sea. The sun was getting lower in the sky. It dropped slowly at first and then it seemed to pick up speed as it dipped into the ocean, lighting up the sky.

I realised that this would be the final time I would see a sunset while still in my forties. Tomorrow I’ll be fifty.

Tomorrow the sun will rise, just as on any other day. The world won’t change. I won’t feel dramatically different yet there is still something in those significant birthdays that cause us to look back and look ahead.

When did you last celebrate a ‘significant’ birthday? Did it feel the same as any other day or did it feel somehow different? What did you do to mark the occasion?



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Life’s Too Short …

April 11, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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coffee

I’ll admit it. I used to drink lots of instant coffee. These days I just can’t bring myself to throw some powder into a mug of hot water and call it coffee.

I’ve also decided that from now on, when the smiley lady on the airplane asks if I’d like coffee, I’ll be saying no. I’ll be polite but I’ll say no because what she’s offering doesn’t really taste a lot like coffee. It may have tasted like coffee some hours beforehand when it was made but it certainly doesn’t by the time they serve it up. I almost suspect that real coffee has a fear of flying and so they’ve found some kind of weird substitute.

Life is too short to drink bad coffee.

Life’s too short.

I’ve seen a number of statements in recent years about life being too short. Life’s too short to worry about what other people think. Life’s too short to drink cheap wine. Life’s too short to be anything but happy. Life’s too short to wait. Life’s too short to wake up with regrets.

I would agree with some of those statements more than others but the interesting thing is that many of them are about life being too short to bother with stuff that doesn’t maximise our own life experience. In light of eternity, this life is incredibly short but surely this short life is about more than squeezing the most out of the years we’re given purely for our own benefit.

Life’s too short to withhold kindness from others.

Whether it’s just giving away a smile or giving a large part of our lives to help others, focusing on those other than ourselves should be a priority during our short time on this planet. Put kindness on your bucket list.

We can find a million reasons to withhold kindness from other people but life is richer when we share something of ourselves with no expectation of return.

It doesn’t matter who we are, we all face struggles throughout life that remain unseen by most people. When we withhold kindness due to the way a person acts or the attitudes they display we may very well be withholding kindness from the person who needs it far more than those who are ‘nice’ to us.

Life’s too short to hold grudges.

When I encounter people who have cut others out of their lives over petty issues it makes my head spin. I know that we sometimes need to retreat from certain people, sometimes for a season, sometimes forever, but the stubborn refusal to forgive damages everyone concerned.

Forgiveness isn’t just a quick case of ‘forgive and forget’, it’s a process, sometimes a very long process, but if we refuse to undertake that process we remain slaves to the hurt.

If you want to read about some ‘big forgiveness’, head to the Forgiveness Project. The founder of the Forgiveness Project, Marina Cantacuzino, has a great take on forgiveness.

Forgiveness is an inspiring, complex, exasperating subject, which provokes strong feeling in just about everyone. Having spent all of 2003 collecting stories of reconciliation and forgiveness for an exhibition of words and images which I created with the photographer, Brian Moody, I began to see that for many people forgiveness is no soft option, but rather the ultimate revenge. For many it is a liberating route out of victimhood; a choice, a process, the final victory over those who have done you harm. – Marina Cantacuzino

Life’s too short not to consider the bigger questions.

The older you get, the more you realise that life is short. Very short. These days I look back at the decades and it feels as if I’ve only just got started on this journey of life, yet I know that it’s extremely likely that I’m more than half way through my time here.

While I hope that I’ve still got a good number of years ahead of me I really can’t be certain of when this fabulous journey will come to an end.

So what happens then? What happens after this life? If this life is so short and eternity is so long I need to discover whether this is all there is. Life’s too short not to consider the bigger questions.

I’m unashamedly a follower of Jesus so it’s my belief that this life is just a short, shabby lead in to a glorious future. You may think I’m wrong but have you actually taken the time to fully explore the possibilities?

If this eternity thing is real, and I fully believe it is, you owe it to yourself to check out the evidence yourself. Don’t rely on what others are saying or what you think faith is about. Investigate the evidence and be open to discover something that could change your thinking and your life.

Life, at least on this earth, is short. Eternity is forever.



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What do you really own?

April 8, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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work tools

My old soldering iron died a few days ago so on Saturday I dropped into a major hardware chain to grab a new one. I got a great lesson in how not to do retail.

Once I had chosen a soldering iron I headed to the tool counter where there were three staff members chatting. The assistant on the customer side of the counter moved slightly, just enough to allow me to put my item on the counter, but continued chatting with the other two.

They kept their conversation going while the female assistant scanned my item without even acknowledging me. The only time she spoke to me was when I handed over my plastic card and she asked which account I wanted to use.

I can’t speak for everyone at the company concerned, and I’m sure they have plenty of dedicated staff members who provide excellent assistance, but for those three staff members it seemed more about going through the motions while waiting for pay day.

When a friend heard about my experience she told me about a similar experience at the same store which caused her to go across the road to a smaller retailer where prices where slightly higher. The other retailer couldn’t compete on price but they cared enough to give good advice and great customer service. It’s not hard to understand why they made the sale that day.

What’s going on?

These incidents got me thinking. I reckon the small retailer in my friend’s story did the right thing because they owned the business. They weren’t just waiting for pay day. In fact, if they didn’t do the right thing, there would be no pay day. Owning a business means that you rise and fall with the successes and failures of the business. If the customers stop walking through the door you can’t just go get another job.

Also, if you own a business you usually work in an area of interest or even passion. Someone with a love for food is unlikely to buy a gardening business. They’re more likely to start a restaurant or buy a cafe. It follows that the business is less likely to feel like a drudgery to the owner because they’re doing something that creates a real spark for them.

Ownership changes everything.

Obviously it’s not practical to have every business only staffed by business owners but it is possible to build a sense of ownership amongst employees. It might be a different kind of ownership but ownership does change everything.

I don’t own the radio station where I work but I have a strong sense of ownership. I own the vision and the values of my workplace. I truly believe in what we’re doing and I believe that I’m playing a vital part in furthering our purposes as a radio station.

That ownership extends to a wide range of areas. It means that I’m constantly aware of the fact that I represent the station at all times, not just when I’m at work. I don’t want the radio station’s reputation to suffer, therefore, if it’s under my control, I won’t do anything that would see that happen.

If the time ever comes to move on to a new job you can be sure that it’ll be to something that I can feel passionate about; something that gives me that sense of ownership.

What do you own?

Ownership isn’t just restricted to work. I have a sense of ownership for a range of things in which I’m involved.

How about you? Do you own your job or is it just a way to fund your life? Do you have other interests and involvements that create a sense of ownership for you?

Post Script: I was asked to forward details of the hardware store incident to the chain which I did yesterday. The manager of the hardware store concerned has phoned me to say that she is investigating what went on over the weekend. She has reviewed CCTV footage which backs up my explanation of events and she is not happy. She has promised to get back in touch with me once her investigation is complete and she has spoken to all involved.



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Nice place to visit … glad I don’t live there

March 14, 2013
by Rodney Olsen
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cassette

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

I did a lot of living back in the eighties but these days my greatest connection to the decade fashion forgot is some of the music from that era. I hear a lot of eighties music but now and then I hear a song from that period that I haven’t heard for so many years that it just transports me back there. It wasn’t all good, in fact there was some appalling music released in the eighties, but there were some classics.

A lot happened in that 10 years. In 1980 I turned 17, got my ’72 TC Cortina and the license to drive it. I even drove it, with a couple of friends, all the way across Australia to see Sydney and Newcastle.

The eighties took me from my teen years into my mid-twenties.

I completed my apprenticeship and became a qualified chef. I then left cooking behind and went looking for a real job.

On special occasions I would wear a three piece suit. It was brown.

I learnt what George Harrison meant in his song Teardrops, when he said, “In the heart of the lonely man, in and out of love more often where most others can.” Unrequited love is never easy.

My hair was various lengths throughout the decade. I still have photos of my incredible mullet.

I hung out with some great friends and shared houses with some good mates. I discovered some excellent music and went to dozens of concerts.

Later in the eighties my mother died. I cycled across Australia for the first and second times. The girl who’d held my heart for many years finally decided she wanted to be more than friends. Eleven months later we went back to being friends.

The eighties was also the decade that I finally organised myself to get into the radio industry, which is where my heart was all along.

A lot happened in the eighties. It was a decade of discovering a little bit more about who I was and who I was becoming.

So would I want to go back there? No thanks.

I wouldn’t want to go back there because I didn’t meet Pauline until January 1992. We married in December the same year.

It would have been so wonderful to have shared those times with Pauline. They were amazing years with some incredible highs and lows but all that time the real love of my life was living just 20 or so kilometres away. I wish our paths could have merged so much sooner. Maybe the connection wouldn’t have worked if we’d met earlier – I don’t know – but I really do wish that we could have had those years together.

What were the eighties for you? A time of happiness or regrets? Highs, lows or both?



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