What Hat Are You Wearing? 🎩

Today at a glance:

• My Dad’s Newsletter 👃

• Am I Wearing the Right Hat? 🧢

• What’s Your Top Hat? 🎩

• It’s Time to Hang Up Your Hat 👒

• Journal Prompts 📝

• Random Acts of Wiseness 📆

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 12 seconds

🧢 Am I Wearing the Right Hat?

Paul Young (and Marvin Gaye) sang, “Wherever I lay my hat (That’s my home)”.  

Perhaps I can change that a little - we know that it’s our hat when it makes us feel at home.

For some of us, finding our career path comes easily.

For others much of our working life is one of exploration and disappointment.

Some of us never find our true niche and wonder why our work doesn’t feel fulfilling.

I certainly took the best part of a decade to find my true vocation and the progress that went with it.

No work comes without it stresses and strains.

I have found that there is a difference between those normal challenges and that sense of discomfort that comes from being in the wrong job - a feeling that, from my experience, can come almost immediately after starting a role or after several years of fulfilling that role to the satisfaction of others.

I don’t know who originally said “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are” (it’s been ascribed to many people, including Kurt Cobain and Marilyn Monroe) but responding effectively to those times of unease can help to avoid that waste.

📝 What are the hats that I am wearing?

🎩 Where’s Your Top Hat?

There’s plenty of times in life when we’re expected to wear several hats.

The obvious example is within the family.

Amongst others, I wear the husband-hat, the son one and the father one but the same can apply to various aspects of our lives.  

Roles sometimes come into conflict and, when it comes to taking sides, it’s important to know which is the top hat - which purpose or role takes priority.

At one time I was the chair of the management committee of a community centre.

I was present at meetings not just as the chair but also as the leader of the community centre’s main user-group, as a  representative of all the user groups, a representative of the wider community and as a governor of the primary school that was attached to the community centre.  

I didn’t always juggle all those hats well.

I can recall a time when I had to sign a letter on behalf  of the committee even though I disagreed with its contents.

The recipient of the letter understood the criticisms contained in the letter to have come from me and for a while the relationship between the two of us was rather soured.

For the wearer of the hats, identifying the top hat enables greater clarity of thought and improves decision-making.

For others involved, it avoids misunderstandings and potential hurt.

📝 What is my top hat? What takes priority?

👒 Know When It’s Time to Hang Up Your Hat

Life goes on.

There’s always more to do and it’s tempting to just continue ad infinitum, especially if we enjoy the work, it’s paying well and we feel needed.

However, there is a time to step down and our desire to remain in post can stunt our growth and prove to be a blockage in the development of another person’s purpose.

I have found that hanging up my hat has had benefits not just for me.

My departure has given others the courage to try out new hats that they had never considered before.

And they have found that they fit!

Of course, I am not hatless.

I’ve a new purpose and started a new adventure. It’s exciting!

📝 Are there any hats that I need to hang up?

🗓️ September’s Random Acts of Wiseness

It’s nearly a new month, and you know what that means!

Every month, I share the Random Acts of Wiseness: small daily activities to help us all get wiser.

To celebrate the launch of Journal Wiser next week, September’s activities are all journal prompts!

To get involved, download the activities for free here:

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😊 Thank You!

Thanks for checking out this issue of the WISER Newsletter. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear it!

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Catch you in the next issue!

Thanks,
Michael

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