Jennifer's Blog: Thriving

"It started off as just another busy day in the office - so busy that I missed my scheduled flight out to Geneva, got myself booked on to the next one, then proceeded to go the wrong London airport, and when I did get to the right one, proceeded to fall over my suitcase at the check-in area...

With time to kill until the next (and last) flight out, I picked up a copy of Arianna Huffington’s book 'Thrive' simply because...well I admit, I liked the name of the book! There are countless books out there written by successful (as well as failed) industry experts, academics and gurus, and the trend to address topics around career, wellness and work-life balance seems to be on the increase.  With a healthy dose of objectiveness and some scepticism, I proceeded to delve into this book – and to my surprise kept reading it.

As I promised myself to never miss 2 flights in one day again, I found the topics in 'Thrive' were coincidentally completely relevant: questioning how we measure success today, and how to maintain balance.

There are several tactical ideas provided by the author to apply during our working and non-working days: the practice of “mindfulness”, meditation and “digitally detoxing” when we can.  The importance of sleep and the effects of sleep deprivation are raised again, and of course statistics referred to are that working mothers are the most sleep deprived individuals of all. It reminded me of the Citymothers event in March at which Miriam Gonzalez Durantez commented that 'The only thing that really binds us is we are all knackered!".

So is with sincere curiosity that I look forward to trying out other ideas described in 'Thrive', for example: asking my next dinner guests to check in their smart phones as they hand me their coats, or try the “phone stacking” game next time out at a restaurant with friends (all phones to be stacked together on the table).  I think I may even go a step further and not bring both my blackberry and smartphone to the playground next Saturday afternoon! When recently asked before departing on a week’s annual leave whether I would be taking my blackberry with me, I attempted to explain that actually I would be better off without it during my holidays to return back refreshed and re-energised. In practice, it was hard to do – but only until the local networks failed to upload new emails anyway!"

Jennifer is a Senior HR Manager currently working for an independent Asset Manager in the City, having previously lived and worked in Paris and Zurich.  Jennifer works full time in the City and commutes from Kent, she has a 2 year old son and has a live-in au pair for childcare.