bryntingsandotherthings

[bryntingsandotherthings]

Happiness Is Never Easy

I few months ago I wrote this for the Strathclyde MBA blog. With three months of the MBA completed and the first set of exams finished I thought now would be a good time to reflect on my experience so far. The MBA experience so far has been a complete mishmash of emotions ranging from anxiety and despair to euphoria. My expectation before I started was that I would be challenged and pushed to breaking point in all areas of my life. I was effectively putting my life on hold and saying goodbye to my family for one year. With three young children, all under the age of eight minimising the disruption and impact on them was the number one priority for me. In order to study I would be travelling four hours a day to and from Crieff and working part time with my current employers while studying fulltime. My biggest anxiety other than time management going into the course was the travelling. I didn’t need to worry about the commute, I have handled it relatively well and benefited from well-placed assignment weeks and study weeks. The biggest challenge for me has been the group work, it is the source of the most frustration but also the biggest learning and satisfaction. There is no way to plan or prepare for the learning experience provided by the group work. Being thrown together with a different group each class with a whole mix of backgrounds, cultures, languages, personalities and experience is demanding in all aspects. After the initial awkward introductions, due to the time demands it soon becomes clear the people who you will naturally gel with and work well with and those who you might not work as well with or may in some cases just plain dislike. The part that I was not expecting is how important it is to try your best to work with and gel with those who you don’t naturally warm to. There is no time to get embroiled in petty differences and only hampers your ability to produce your best work if these differences dominate. There is no way to ignore or pretend these differences don’t exist and it is important to be authentic but the biggest learning experience for me has been to learn to value others opinions when you don’t agree with them. In some situations, there doesn’t have to be a wrong answer it is just a case of making the best choice. I am generally a person who receives validation and satisfaction from being right and having to suppress this urge to look at all perspectives and angles of a situation and minimise my own personal bias in my judgements has been a real challenge yet also very rewarding. When working as a group has been a challenge and there has been difference of opinion the sense of achievement and satisfaction when you persevere and create something of value is not something I was expecting or prepared for. I was not anticipating just how much the MBA has broadened my perspective, helped me realise the depth of my bias and weaknesses and on a more positive note helped to appreciate my strengths and building my confidence. At times, it has felt like the longest three months of my life as assignments, exams and other pressures all mount up and you are not quite sure how you will find the time to complete everything required. Now as I look back I can't quite believe that the three months have passed as it only seemed like yesterday we were all meeting each other for the first time trying to suss each other out. The MBA has exceeded expectations on many levels, there have been some highs and some real lows but overriding emotion is contentment and happiness. I’m not sure whether that happiness comes from the learning or the sense of achievement as you receive better than anticipated assignment results. The one thing I am sure of is I am looking forward to a well-earned break and time with my family and then embarking on the next stage of the course. Any doubts or fears about embarking on an MBA have long disappeared I feel like I have learned so much about myself, been pushed out of my comfort zone, made some good friends and am a better person for the experience.

[bryntingsandotherthings]

#christmas #onlymykids #powells

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Fun Day at Glamis Castle (at Glamis Castle)

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#Easter #family #chocolate #fun #memories (at Letham, Angus)

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#growinguptoofast #niamh #no1daughter

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Put Em' Up!

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Bryn's First Day At School

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EVERY day people say I'm brave, that I'm courageous and I hate that. I'm just doing what I have to do to survive, to live another day.

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Family :-)

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Bye Bye Facebook

A lot has happened in the last two months since I posted anything on my blog. You will be relieved to know that I won't try and cram everything that has happened into one post to make up for lost time. We have been without broadband for around two weeks as we have recently moved home. This has been a frustrating experience but at the same time it has been an eye opener into how dependent I am on the Internet. Like many people I have over time developed a habit of procrastinating. When procrastinating is combined with the Internet it generally leads to lots of hours spent on Facebook. Since we have been without Internet I have had an opportunity to reflect on the time I spend on Facebook. The question I keep asking myself is, is it really worth having a Facebook account? I love technology and I am signed up to a number of different networks like google+, LinkedIn and Flickr. Recently, however, I have found Facebook almost intrusive and I have struggled to see the advantage to having an account. For me the main advantage to having a Facebook account has always been to keep in contact with friends and family who live abroad. I have also found it useful while studying at university especially for marketing modules. After a week or so I decided to test whether it really is worth having a Facebook account. So a couple of days ago I deleted my account and I was quite surprised by my experience. The first thing I realised was just how much time I was wasting and I have enjoyed spending more time with my wife and son. Undoubtedly, moving house with a young family and seeking full-time employment after graduating has also helped to make me realise how much time I was wasting aimlessly navigating through various Facebook pages and profiles. The second thing I have learned is just how much of an impact constant Adverts were having on me. Since deleting my account I have used google+ more and have really enjoyed the simple, advert free style. It is almost inevitable that Adverts will pop up in google+ as it becomes more popular but for the time being it is refreshing. Thirdly, I learned just how invasive Facebook was in my life. I used to enjoy all the news and links that would come to me and it appeared to make my life easier as I did not have to seek all this information. In reality, though, it was more of a controlling influence. I do not want to come across portraying Facebook as evil or a bad thing as it has benefits. It is also debatable whether google+ is any better. However, Facebook definitely had too big an influence in my life. I had become tired of the constant Adverts and "suggestions" that make Facebook so invasive. There is a strong case against the value of a Facebook account but it can be argued that it is not Facebook but in fact myself that has allowed the intrusion into my life. I have come to the conclusion that despite it's advantages that Facebook has more of a negative impact on my life as it tries to cram more and more into it's service to add value to it's customers. I am glad I have deleted my account and while they may keep my details for another couple of years I wont be signing up anytime soon.

[bryntingsandotherthings]

"...it saddens me that we even have to have a women's movement and a men's movement but really there was no choice. I couldn't stop the feminist movement from hi-jacking my work in London at my refuge in Chiswick. They wanted funding and my work, twenty-five years ago - as the first refuge in the world seemed heaven sent for them. No matter that I told them that out of the first hundred women that came into Chiswick sixty-two were as violent as the men they left. I couldn't get any coverage for the truth. 'All men are bastards and rapists' is the only truth that the women's movement were prepared to hear....Now, with the help of this evil movement father's role in family life seems to be irrelevant....."

Erin Pitzey

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Bryn copying his mummy outside ASDA

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‎"My sister Lois, legally blind from birth, not only coped but served well as a public schoolteacher for 33 years. She had that same reflex possessed by those pioneer souls who quietly picked up their handcarts and headed west, a reflex we all need. So if various trials are allotted to you, partake of life's bitter cups, but without becoming bitter."

Neal A. Maxwell (July 6, 1926 – July 21, 2004) - Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

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My son is definitely unique

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Bryn in training for the future