Category: Entrepreneurial Wellness

March 2022 Vol 4 Issue 3

Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):

Specializing in Entrepreneurial and Organizational Storytelling

Let me tell your story!

Welcome Mid-March 2022! Spring is here!

Most Saskatchewanians know that winter often isn’t yet over when the calendar says so. (A blizzard could still occur in the next six to eight weeks. Last year, we suffered crop-destroying frost after the May long weekend.)  . . . Yet haven’t the last two weeks of moderate temperatures and bright sunshine been a balm to our winter- and pandemic-weary souls?

In my neighbourhood, dogs who are out on walks with their owners, now appear without their winter coats and booties. Children are out in rubber boots, gleefully jumping in the puddles. (Look out for the sinkholes!). Spring officially began last Sunday (March 20th) and I hope, good reader, that you’ve had at least some time outdoors to enjoy it.

While the relief of longer daylight hours, the fresh air and warmth that come with spring make it my favourite season, I’m publishing this month’s issue a week later than usual. The rigours of tax season and winter/Covid exhaustion are two reasons why.

In the news, burnout has risen for entrepreneurs and professionals across all industries. For some of us, elder and/or childcare is added to the mix. Think too of our province’s health care workers, who have laboured, flat-out, for the public over the past two years or more. What do they and we do, when our proverbial wells have run dry? What helps to relieve burnout?

In this month’s issue, as part of my newsletter’s theme of “entrepreneurial wellness,” I share some simple strategies for identifying and addressing the problem from the writing staff of the Mayo Clinic.

Then, in “Storyteller’s Corner,” I feature a poetic meditation that may speak to you in these challenging times.

The Calgary-based, not-for-profit organization, Soul Sisters’ Memorial Foundation (which provides education on mental health), recently featured the poetry of ullie-kaye, a St. Catherine’s, Ontario artist. Special thanks this month to coach and facilitator Deanna Litz for sharing that posting, over Facebook.

As we try as a country to address international atrocities such as the war in Ukraine and our global climate crisis, I hope this month that we also remember local and personal challenges, like “burnout.” Can we find strength in the love and community of family and friends? . . . And in spiritual observances, such as Lent, and the forthcoming Ramadan and Easter?

My hope, good reader, is that each of us knows that our thoughts, emotions and actions –and how we express them–matter. And may we also know that we are not alone in enduring the challenges of these times.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

Principal

Storytelling Communications

www.elizabethshih.com

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IN THIS ISSUE:

ARTICLE 1:Feeling burned out? How to recognize and manage it

STORYTELLER’S CORNER:

A poem from Canadian artist, ullie-kaye

SHOP NEWS

ABOUT US

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Article One: Feeling burned out? How to recognize and manage it

In a recent article on the Mayo Clinic website, staff writers define “burnout” as “a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.”

Yet “burnout” isn’t considered a medical diagnosis. Some researchers believe depression, personality traits, family and socio-economic circumstances determine who experiences burnout and how long it will last.

Across North America, business surveys (including Deloitte’s) report that between 52% and 77% of workers say they have experienced burnout at their current jobs. Entrepreneurs often report even higher numbers.

Further, 91% of corporate workers say that “unmanageable stress or frustration impacts the quality of their work, and 83% say that burnout can negatively impact [their] personal relationships” (my emphasis).

The “Harvard Business Review” cites that in the US, workplace stress leads to nearly 120,000 deaths and nearly $190 billion in spending each year. Statistics are not much better in Canada.

Indeed.com reports that burnout has indisputably risen in the past three years by about 9% from pre-Covid numbers, as boundaries of space and time, between work and home, professional and personal, have eroded.

When focusing on “job burnout,” the Mayo Clinic cites 10 questions to help you diagnose it. If you answer “yes” to any of them, the writers say burnout may be the cause:

(1) Have you become unduly critical at work (either of your own work, or others’)?

(2) Do you have to drag yourself to your desk/workplace and do you struggle getting started?

(3) Have you become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients?

(4) Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive?

(5) Do you find it hard to concentrate?

(6) Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?

(7) Do you feel disillusioned about your job or business?

(8) Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or simply not to feel?

(9) Have your sleep habits changed?

(10) Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, stomach or bowel problems or other physical complaints?

Global pandemic circumstances can underpin work-related burnout, since Covid has made it difficult to control scheduling, assignments and workload. The pandemic has also brought a lack of needed resources.

Other factors precipitating burnout arise when work expectations are unclear, when you lack authority over your output; when you face dysfunctional workplace environments (such as bullying or micromanaging); when your work alternates between chaotic and monotonous, so that you need constant energy to remain focused; when you experience a lack of social support (in the office or at home) and a lack of balance between work and life.

Left untreated, burnout, as many of you know, can yield to substance abuse, heart disease, high blood pressure, Type-2 Diabetes and weakened immune systems (all the more worrisome in pandemic times).

So how can we manage work-related and personal burnout?  Many of the following factors from the Mayo Clinic will be familiar to you, but are worth considering:

(1) Discuss your concerns with your supervisor, business partner or client, “to change expectations or reach compromises or solutions.”

(2) Reach out to co-workers and friends, to seek support and collaboration. Corporate workers can use Employee Assistance Programs, or related services. Entrepreneurs are wise to take out medical insurance plans, often through their local Chamber of Commerce.

Counselling/psychotherapy may be the most crucial support. Remember that you are not reducible to the work you do, so that you do not feel your identity diminished by vocational struggles.

Be sure to allow yourself time to cope with emotional and physical pain. Bathrooms are sometimes outfitted with “headache” rooms, since repressing pain raises greater adversity over time. Psychologist Kristin Neff (whose work I have featured in prior issues of TYSN), has written that “suffering = pain x resistance.” So the more you resist/repress or fight your pain, the more you will suffer.

(3) Make time to practice relaxation activities, such as yoga, tai chi, meditation or hypnotherapy. Many apps are available, are low- or no cost, and can be used, even if you are on-the-go.

(4) Get regular physical exercise (Health Canada recommends 150 minutes of cardiovascular work, weekly) to help manage stress. You may find that watching a screen while exercising can distract your mind from work or family issues.

(5) In combination of the above factors, get plenty of rest. We all know that sleep restores well-being and protects our health.

(6) Practice mindfulness, by focusing on the flow of your breath and by allowing feelings and sensations to pass, without interpretation or judgment. Openness and patience can be gleaned from this process, which can help in workplace or entrepreneurial settings.

(7) For many of us, try to take a few continuous days of holidays, at least twice per year, when you can largely “unplug” from work-based messages and/or larger family circumstances. If you are heavily involved in caring for extended family, try to find a “substitute” or respite person, while you rest and recharge.

(8) My own tip to add is that spring has officially come and it can be highly therapeutic to take refreshing, daily walks in nature! By communing with nature in this good weather, engaging all of your senses in the new life that surrounds you, you can lighten mind, heart and spirit.

While most psychologists today suggest that “burnout” may be inevitable for most of us at some point, we need not stay stuck in a “burned out” state.

By recognizing symptoms and actively working to relieve them, our work and personal lives can be restored to health and well-being.

And now it’s your turn: Have you experienced burnout in the past two or three years? Have you found practicing the preceding kinds of tips to help? Please write in; I’d be delighted to hear from you.

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STORYTELLER’s CORNER . . . . 

STORYTELLER’S CORNER: Words, Stories, Riddles and Jokes on Writing and Editing . . .

This month: Some meditative poetry from Ontario artist, ullie-kaye

In keeping with the theme of “burnout,” this month, I’m sharing some poetry from St. Catherine’s, Ontario artist, ullie-kaye. She writes and publishes poetry that expresses loss and pain, even as she reaches forward toward inspiration and joy.

You can find her page, “ullie kaye poetry,” on Facebook, where she describes herself as a “bestselling author and empath, . . . [who] writes for a world that seeks repair.” She also has an Etsy shop where she sells her own artwork.

What follows is one of my favourite poems from ullie-kaye. I emphatically do not share it to cajole world-weary entrepreneurs, cubicle workers or political refugees to work even more, which would be grossly unfeeling.

Instead, this poem finds what we do to be part of a larger, spiritual force that recognizes our worth as human beings, even on days when we do not feel it.

Here is ullie-kaye:

“. . . carry on.

until you understand that life was not meant to be easy, or perpetually beautiful, or without pain or risk or loss. you will not know what miraculous things you are made of. you will not know to what extent your strength can push you through and what it feels like to build a bonfire inside your very own lungs that roars and billows and fights to the bitter end. you will not recognize the sound that tragedy makes when it begins to sing hallelujah into the vocal chords you believed to this day, were fast asleep. and you will never understand how capable you are to sit in silence and listen to the voice that says, ‘carry on, child, your work is not yet done here.’ ”

Do you have stories to tell in poetry or other writing? Please write in; I’d love to hear from you. 

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SHOP NEWS:

In light of the harrowing war in Ukraine, I want to thank two colleagues for lending their names and organizing support for our colleagues and friends in Eastern Europe. My former coach and friend, Deanna Litz, has promoted the work of the World Central Kitchen.

  

The WCK has served nearly one million nourishing meals to desperate Ukrainians who are fleeing Putin’s atrocities. Visit the WCK website to read more of the charity’s remarkable work in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

 

My own spiritual group is responding to the humanitarian crisis  by responding quickly and keeping overhead costs down, so as to invest as much as possible in support for Ukrainians.(please consider donating to  https://presbyterian.ca/pwsd/2022/02/28/ukraine-crisis/),

 

And on a related note, another valued colleague and friend, Ukrainian- Canadian Christina Cherneskey, a PR, strategic media and communications specialist, has used her podcast platform to share the plight of friends in Ukraine, including an impromptu interview with marketing expert and artist, Meron Sembaliuk.

 

You’ll find the impromptu interview here, and on Christina’s Facebook page (“Christina Cherneskey”).

 

Christina also recently discussed the situation with Saskatoon’s own (equally amazing) Lenore Swystun, on Lenore’s radio show, “Civically Speaking” (CFCR 90.5 FM).

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In other, more workaday news, I recently passed the 10-year mark for publishing Tell Your Story Newsletter! Archives on my website date to 2014, but three prior years of issues live on a former harddrive.

 

My former coach, Steve Slaunwhite (of Ontario), and e-newsletter pioneer, Michael Katz (of Massachusetts), offered praise over LinkedIn: Thank you, good friends, for making my month!

 

Steve first coached me to begin newsletter production in 2011 and Michael’s seminal book on the topic taught me the essential strategy to do it. So I’m living proof of the collaborative process of business-to-business communications and marketing!

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Elsewhere, an overdue thank you goes to Julie Barnes of Julie Barnes’ Creative Services for sharing project leads and being an always positive, writerly colleague.

 

Julie’s work often appears in “Saskatoon Home” Magazine and online and in print.

Julie is a voracious reader, whose titles on “Goodreads” are always worth noting. I (not-so-secretly) hope that she will publish a manuscript of her own, to share her talents yet more widely! Meantime, her writing on her garden and work in it are truly impressive!

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And an energetic shout-out to Northern Ireland-based, ESL teacher, Carl Cameron-Day, of TEFL.Org.

Carl is an internationally experienced ESL teacher, tutor, exam invigilator, and—as I know him—a wise advisor, who hosts webinars for more recently certified ESL teachers.

When a work week takes me off the trail of the ESL teaching that I love, I am always the better for tuning in to hear Carl’s insights on the profession.

His wry sense of humour adds to his charm. 🙂

ESL types can hear recordings of these webinars on YouTube and on Facebook, filled with tips and best practices.

There are always new people and stories to promote in “Shop News.” But this is a wrap for mid-March.

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ABOUT US:

Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country.

Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications.” I now teach new and prospective immigrants to secure better jobs by improving their English language skills; I continue to write communications documents that help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to close more sales by communicating more effectively; and I research and write chapbooks that promote the legacies of major companies.

Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my CASL-compliant website (www.elizabethshih.com).

After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss projects with you!

Please visit my website for more information (www.storytellingcommunications.ca).

 

February 2022 Vol 4 Issue 2

 

Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):
Specializing in Entrepreneurial and Organizational Storytelling.

Let me tell your story!

Welcome Mid-February, 2022!

As I sit by my office window drafting this issue, it’s a sunny, mid-winter day, filled with sunshine and gale-force winds! While a toque or hood would have been wise to wear, when I took my daily walk, the fellow pedestrians I met  looked as grateful as I felt to be walking in such mild temperatures!

Although we are all beyond weary of the past two years of the pandemic, you (my readers) have spoken or written to me unequivocally in favour of following the guidelines of medical professionals. Painful though the implications, many of us feel the need to act to control the spread of Omicron and its micro-variants. More painful still would (and will) be further devastation and deaths than Covid has already caused! While accepting restrictions does not resonate with everyone’s values, we know that taking care of each other and ourselves saves lives.

That being said, of course quality of life also matters and it provides the theme of this month’s newsletter: reading books can provide great diversions–and not only the literature and theory that some of us read in graduate school (lol)!. The pandemic has not stopped authors, including local ones, across a spectrum of fields, from publishing amazing work.

Letter writing to friends is an art that some of us have returned to. And online newspapers and magazines (a surprising number of which are available for free with a public library account), hold unplumbed riches to mine (such as The New York Times for my ESL teaching)!

Also,  as coach Deanna Litz reminded us over Facebook recently, our physicians can provide us with complimentary passes to our National Parks, in SK, ON, MB and BC–for winter sports and activities. And the same public library in Saskatoon that I mention above also offers no-cost passes for admission to our premier museum of the arts, the Remai Modern.

When we have just a few minutes, both off- and online word-games can provide a wonderful diversion. So “Article One” this month is devoted to the outrageously popular word game, Wordle! Although I’m a late convert, I definitely feel its addictive pull!

And in “Storyteller’s Corner,” I share a meditation–not a joke, this month–about the nature of our existence that can spur us onward, when we feel exhausted by Covid times.

May the increasing light and warmth that come to us between now and spring, good readers, bring you better health, the meeting of your goals and plans, and gratitude for the blessings and gifts (people, projects and more) that still grace our lives.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

Principal

Storytelling Communications

www.elizabethshih.com

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IN THIS ISSUE:

ARTICLE 1: What’s with Wordle? An Engineer’s word game goes viral

STORYTELLER’S CORNER:

A meditation from Brazilian poet and artist, Mario de Andrade

SHOP NEWS

ABOUT US

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Article One: What’s with Wordle? An engineer’s word game goes viral . . . .  

Many Saskatchewanians have played the online word game, “Wordle,” whose yellow, green and grey square emojis appeared on Twitter in late December. It has since “gone viral” as the subject of social media postings from academics, marketers, journalists and other, wordy types.

So, what’s the story of Wordle? In an article to “Chron.com” updated last week, writer Naomi Tomky gave us the “scoop” . . . .

“Wordle” is a simple online word-guessing game, designed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner, a lover of word games, Palak Shah. Late in December, Wardle also sent the game to his family’s online chat, where its popularity encouraged him to share it with the world. Wardle chose “Wordle” as the game’s name, by playing on  his own last name.

Looking like “a tower of children’s blocks,” Tomky writes, Wordle consists of a five by six grid, consisting of yellow, green and grey square emojis. The game is quick and easy (not to mention free) to play. Each day a new mystery word appears for readers to guess. Such has been its appeal, Tomky writes, that its “shareable, colourful results”  have captured the attention of millions of readers, “intriguing what felt like all of the internet.”

Last month, Wardle signed a seven-figure agreement with The New York Times (TNYT), selling the game to the newspaper giant. So Wordle will soon appear there, along with other word puzzles, notably the newspaper’s famous, daily crossword and other, pre-existing games  (e.g., Mini, Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed). Currently Wordle is still playable for free, online (see link at the end of this article). But since TNYT offers many word games as part of its games subscription, users fear that it will shortly require readers to subscribe.

The game itself has five squares across, each of which represents a single letter in the five-letter word of the day. The six rows each represent one (of the six) guesses that players have find the day’s “secret word.”

Tomky tells us that the game first went online on a “bare-bones website” last October, when fewer than 100 followers tried it. But by early January, 300K people were playing per day, and “by the end of the month, millions.”

What are the rules of the game?

You click through to the game’s website and enter your first guess—a five letter word that must exist in English.  Once you type in your guess and hit “enter,” the letters flip (a la Wheel of Fortune), but with letters in the correct position turning green and incorrect letters turning yellow.

Wordle’s coloured emoji can be shared on social media (where many of us first heard of the game), so that players can share their results without spoiling the puzzle for those yet to try it.

Tomky also writes that there is a “standard Wordle mode,” where you can guess any word in your five guesses; those playing at the “hard mode” have to use information about the letters gathered from earlier guess(es).

Each player gets six guesses per day to find the mystery word. Some players start with a strategic first word like “SOARE” or “ARISE” (to confirm or eliminate common letters and vowels). Other players just randomly choose words to start their play.

What makes Wordle so addicting?

Wardle has commented that by limiting the game to one puzzle per player, per day, he has created a sense of scarcity that drives players to participate. He and his partner (and muse) Shah narrowed the potential list of eligible five-letter words in English from about 12K to 2.5K, which TNYT reports is “enough to last almost seven years.”

What other similar games can we play online?

Tomky writes that “a slew of imitators” have used the same template to allow people to guess words, such as swears (“Sweardle” and “Lewdle”), a game based on song lyrics, and versions where the word changes with every guess, or which gives you a ridiculous number of tries (e.g., 26) to guess each day’s answer.

What’s next for Wordle?

While the agreement struck between TNYT and Wardle was private, the paper has said “the game would initially remain free to new and existing players,” without promising any longer-term access.

Tomky concludes that while some users will lose out when the game migrates to the newspaper’s website, there will also be new players—subscribers who find the game for the first time, there.

Are you new to Wordle? Give it a try as a late pandemic diversion, here:

https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

And now it’s your turn. Are there word games or writerly exercises that enjoyably divert you from the daily grind? Please reach out and share. I’d be delighted to hear from you. 

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STORYTELLER’s CORNER . . . . 

STORYTELLER’S CORNER: Words, Stories, Riddles and Jokes on Language, Writing and Editing . . .

This month–a change of pace in “Storyteller’s Corner”. . . .

In place of a writerly joke or a word-centred posting, this month I’m sharing a remarkable meditation from the Brazilian poet, musician and artist, Mario de Andrade (1893–1945). Known as one of the founders of modernism in Brazil, Andrade produced an astonishing and varied oeuvre across many media (music and musicology, literature, painting, history, photography and literary and art criticism).

This excerpt, which I’m currently seeking in hard copy,  came to me from a friend in Southern Ontario, who found it a helpful reflection in these world-weary times.

I dedicate this posting to the amazing team at the Praxis School of Entrepreneurship (PSE), and especially to Chief Visionary Officer, Monica Kreuger, who has continued to mentor and encourage entrepreneurs like me, despite the many demands she has shouldered, over the past two years.

Mario de Andrade writes:

“I counted my years and found that I have less time to live from here on than I have lived up to now.

I feel like that child who won a packet of sweets: he ate the first with pleasure, but when he realized that there were few left, he began to enjoy them intensely.

I no longer have time for endless meetings where statutes, rules, procedures and internal regulations are discussed, knowing that nothing will be achieved.

I no longer have time to support the absurd people who, despite their chronological age, haven’t grown up.

My time is too short: I want the essence, my soul is in a hurry. I don’t have many sweets in the package anymore.

I want to live next to human people, very human, who know how to laugh at their mistakes and who are not inflated by their triumphs and who take on their responsibilities.

Thus, human dignity is defended and we move towards truth and honesty.

It is the essential that makes life worth living.

I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch hearts, people who have been taught by the hard blows of life to grow with gentle touches of the soul.

Yes, I’m in a hurry, I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.

I don’t intend to waste any of the leftover sweets.

I am sure they will be delicious, much more than what I have eaten so far.

My goal is to reach the end satisfied and at peace with my loved ones and my conscience.

We have two lives and the second begins when you realize you only have one.“

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Do you have a story to tell or share (as I’m sure you do–perhaps many?) Or do you have an excerpt of writing to share? Please send it to me; I’d be delighted to use it in an upcoming issue!

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SHOP NEWS:

Special thanks to my former business coach and ongoing program facilitator, Deanna Litz, at the Praxis School of Entrepreneurship.

One of our country’s busiest entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial coaches with international reach, Deanna still manages to make humourous and insightful social postings that always inspire me.

I’m grateful to her for continuing the conversation with me that began last year in my coaching with her, through Powerful Nature Coaching and Consulting.

Deanna has untold depth acquired from her many years with Praxis and from a very full and varied life beyond: I recommend her and her services to you highly and will update you on them, in future issues.

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And a very hearty “thank you” again this month to Chief Visionary Officer Monica Kreuger and the team of the Praxis School of Entrepreneurship (see this month’s “Storyteller’s Corner”) who have built a new program–“digiSMART” (the latest in a suite of  their “SMART” programs) that I will in part, attend, and in part, facilitate.

So, with that in mind . . . . attention all business owners who want to grow their tech skills! Are you feeling left behind in the digital journey?

Are you tried of hearing about the next great app for building your business, when you haven’t had time to learn the basic features on your phone?

Does the idea of using social media or SEO make you want to run and hide (or break out in a rash)?!

Have you protected your business from the growing numbers of skilled hackers, out there?

The first cohort of the new program starts on February 15th, so if you want to register (or learn more), I urge you to ACT TODAY.

Registrants pick the training that they need–whether all, or just a few, targeted modules.

And best of all, it is completely FREE to entrepreneurs who are residents of SK, ready to take their businesses forward, ready and willing to learn more about the digital world and how it can help their businesses and themselves grow.

Most modules will be held Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7:15 am–8:45 am (from mid-February to June), online by Zoom, or at the PSE office at 131 Wall Street (Saskatoon). These hours have been chosen to enable participants to continue to run their businesses.

A weekly Q & A will be held. There will also be twice monthly coaching, by the Amazing Deanna Litz, along with access to resource materials.

Contact the PSE’s helpful (and equally amazing) program administrator, Elaine Mantyka, to learn more at (306) 664-0500, or at elainem@globalinfobrokers.ca

I look forward to seeing you on Wall Street!

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And a definite nod this month goes to colleague Jordon MacKenzie of ABA Technology Solutions, who continues to guide me through IT support, for which I’m  always thankful!

Despite losing a close family member in recent months and starting a very busy “day job,” Jordon continues to provide amazing after-hours tech solutions when they’re most needed.

Thank you, Jordon!

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And a final hearty thank you this month goes to my brilliant bookkeeper,  Heather Stuart, who has shepherded me through another year (one of many) of PST posting and–even more importantly–will assist me in filing my upcoming business and income taxes.

Thanks very much for your patience and wisdom, Heather. When you take new clients, please let me know, so I can recommend you with five stars!

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There are always new stories to promote in “Shop News,” but this is a wrap for mid-February.

Stay tuned for new updates, acknowledgements and local entrepreneurial  training opportunities, next month!

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ABOUT US:

Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country.

Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications.” I now teach new and prospective immigrants to improve their English language skills; I continue to write career and communications documents that help small and medium-sizes bizzes (SMEs) to close more sales by communicating more effectively; and I research and write chapbooks that promote the legacies of major companies.

Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my CASL-compliant website (www.elizabethshih.com).

After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss projects with you!

Please visit my website for more information (www.storytellingcommunications.ca).

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