Rethinking Your Family Roles

Posted on 16 May, 2012 by Sam

For most of us, we learn our family roles at a young age as we try to discover our place in the world, and they stick with us for the rest of our lives.

But whether good, bad, indifferent or confusing, we don’t have to inherit the roles established through youth or circumstance… we can choose to rethink the roles we want to play within our family.

And ‘family’ can refer to the people you choose to surround yourself with, not just your biological relatives, despite the oft-quoted adage that “you can choose your friends but not your family”. So what are these family roles we adopt, and why would we want to change them?

What are family roles?

I think of them as any physical, emotional or relational tie that we have to our family as a whole, or to individual members. They can be labels we take on, behaviours we repeat or feelings we associate with our family.

An example of some of the roles I’ve inherited are: black sheep, big sister, rule-breaker/boundary-stretcher, courageous (if a little crazy), rebellious daughter, golden granddaughter and international jet-setter. There are many more, and you would perhaps get a different list if you asked my family members to provide it instead, but these are roles that have affected my relationships with all of my family and that I accepted as part of my identity.

It is the last of these – international jet-setter – that has caused me to rethink my family roles recently in my 12th year of living overseas.

Understanding & Changing Them

I realised that part of me had assumed that ‘international’ also meant ‘distant’ Read more of this article »

Learning from Practice

Posted on 13 May, 2012 by Paul, Sam

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:40 — 6.9MB) | Embed

For some people, learning from practice might seem second nature – but the benefits of practising regularly at something go beyond the steady improvement you might expect.

The saying that “practice makes perfect” is oft quoted, particularly from hopeful parents to their children; so what does this mean and how can we adopt an everyday action approach that delivers greater-than-anticipated results?

What Do We Mean By Learning from Practice?

At ActionPodcast we know that regular, consistent action is far more effective (and sustainable) than spikes of intense activity. When we work at something little and often, we start building a set of skills that take us from a state of conscious effort towards automatic ability – the more you repeat something, the easier it becomes.

Read more of this article »

Four Killers of Consistent Action

Posted on 9 May, 2012 by Chris

It used to be hard to find out HOW to do something (e.g. get fit, find a job, write a book) but in this day and age, information and people who have already done it are easier to find and connect with than any time in our history.

Today, learning the steps to success is usually fairly accessible.

But what stops us from taking the necessary action, and do that consistently is the real challenge.

At ActionPodcast we know that even the best strategy and best of intentions don’t always lead to success.

We also know there are many things we humans do, that are completely within our control, which significantly reduce our chances of achieving what we want.

We call these the Four Killers of Consistent Action and most people usually have one dominant or default response to a new challenge or opportunity that slows or prevents their success. Read more of this article »