Blackbird's Bullets #12: #ChallengeAccepted book, staying fit while #WFH, and more
Welcome to all the new subscribers! BlackBird’s Bullets is a weekly newsletter I’m crafting on Sundays and now sending from Slovenia to 23 countries in most parts of the globe. Asia and the North/South pole aren’t represented yet, so if you have friends living there — please forward them this edition in exchange for some good karma points.
Writing a weekly newsletter with a number in the title adds a numerical reminder of how fast life is passing. During the lockdowns, we might feel it’s not moving anywhere, but nothing stopped. There seems to be a disconnect in the time perception between private and professional life. At work, we have projects and forecasts, months and quarters, and a rhythm dictated by Wall Street, while outside of working hours, it all slows down with the Government-mandated lockdowns and school closures.
I rebel against this holdup in my private life by building this site and this newsletter as a lockdown-proof creative outlet. Seeing what’s happening worldwide, I’m grateful for living in a wonderful country within the European Union, where I can work from home and keep the activities rolling despite the global pandemic. If you’re reading this newsletter, chances are, you are just as fortunate. Count your blessings. 🙏
Here’s this week’s attempt at spreading positivity:
- 📗 #ChallengeAccepted is the title of my next book. Subtitled From Impostor to Leader: becoming the boss you’d like to work for, it’s meant to serve as a guide, a handbook for helping people navigate their ways from the first-time manager to a leader, written in an easily digestible form. I’m targeting publish date before November, and you can pre-order it in the Amazon Kindle stores across the globe.
I’m super grateful for all the encouraging feedback I’ve heard back already — it seems to be an exciting topic for many new, upcoming, and even experienced managers and leaders from the US and the EU. I’m excited to start writing — and sharing drafts to my subscribers — in February! - 📖 I’ll be writing the second book in public, but I wrote the first one in secret, surprising everyone (including my family) that I’m really doing it. During the writing process, I devoured plenty of writing books, and one of the best was Zinsser’s On Writing Well. It’s a beautiful read for everyone.
- 🎙 This podcast talks about sedentary work-related spine health and back pain. Here’s a quick and dirty excerpt:
- move well, move often (stand up and take a walk every hour)
- Big 3 exercises: push-ups, air squats, stairs
- It’s not optimal to sit at your desk all day then have a 45-60 minute blow-out workout.
We might have mastered #WFH by now, but I’m noticing it’s making me more sedentary. No more airport walks or flight-chasing runs through the Frankfurt’s airport tunnel. Our channel Team is starting a Fitbit Channelge (not a typo!), and the tracker nudges me that there are still too many hours when I’m not making even 250 steps! What gets measured gets done.
- 🎳 I’m excited about all the new tools that are going to help us with the virtual collaboration. Teamflow is trying to bring back the presence of being in the office, the energy of working in the same room, the spontaneity of hallway conversations — the joy of feeling like a team. This means that you can just walk up to them when you want to check in on someone. Interesting concept and I can imagine the future of this combined with a VR set!
- ⛺️ A hiker’s body was found in the tent in Florida, and the authorities couldn’t identify him. The internets refused to accept this and went for their hunt—what a story.
See you next week. Stay Hungry; Stay Foolish.
Peter K.
🇺🇸 P.S.: my Goodreads giveaway promotion for the US customers is still running. Enter for a chance to win one of the 100 copies of The Elements of Lifestyle.
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