22 June 2018 - SpaForce

My dad says to me “you only get one shot at this life. Its not a rehearsal”.

While he may not be one of the great philosophers I think this sentiment is spot on and a good mantra to live by. 

I feel I’ve had more than my share of major surgeries already and allegedly I’m only half way through my life. Without medical intervention you would not be reading this. It makes you wonder what’s coming as my body and mind accelerates it’s gradual decline. 


I celebrated my mid life crisis with spectacular aplomb. We bought a shiny new sports car. Before purchasing it we made a ‘for and against’ list of should we proceed. In the ‘against’ side was all the budget saving and practical reasons. In the ‘for’ column was one item, a big smiley face.  We made the purchase. We still love that car. It’s a symbol of achievement, freedom and of making the most of the time we have here and I have a big smiley face every time I drive it. 

Having been surrounded by our own illnesses and those of loved ones too, then you realise that time here is precious, make the most of it. 

So that’s my mantra of life too. You only get one shot at this. So do things that make you happy. Be with people who appreciate you and whom you also want to be with. Spend your time doing a job that can consume you positively in a place that respects and appreciates the value you can bring. Something that gives you the fire in your belly to keep chipping at, improving, making those changes for the better. 

When Gemma said she fancied a spa day with Salesforce family then we made it work. A group of 8 gathered one Saturday at Whittlebury Hall for a day of relaxation and pampering, with a side order of Salesforce. 


Making time for yourself nowadays almost feels like a guilty pleasure. We should always be working, learning or doing something for others. So for one day we gave back to ourselves. We stopped, relaxed and had fun. 

SpaForce was born. The 8 of us realised that taking a day to stop is just as healthy and productive than doing all the usual stuff we do. Yes, we did talk Salesforce and even offered the venue our talents to upgrade their systems and processes to the best CRM in town. 

We also talked about more deeper things. Our own personal journeys; what’s brought us down, how we picked ourselves back up again, how we are better people for the life experiences we’ve had. In some respects the day could have been called ScarForce, to represent both the physical and mental scars we have acquired over the years. You need to feel in a safe place to share that sort of stuff. The average Meetup may not always be the right space for that to happen. Mental health and general wellness are things we should not neglect. The output from a happy and healthy person is more powerful than and longer lasting than someone on the road to burnout. 

It was the Salesforce Community that initially brought us together but it was SpaForce that brought us closer. 

We’re going to do this again, SpaForce 2019 will be a thing. Interested in joining us?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5. Cancer Diaries - Solution Architect

Image
If you remember, the last thing I wanted to happen was have chemo. Chemo is the thing I am most scared about in this whole process. It's toxic and utterly consuming.  As a side point, I had been managing to sleep reasonably well. I had been focussing on the present and quietly talking to myself by saying, "there is no chemo here, you are in bed and all is ok, there is nothing to fear here, so sleep". Basic techniques to keep me centred throughout the day too, being as mindful as I could at work, concentrate on the task and then get absorbed in a TV programme or be social in the evening.  But it was now time to meet my Oncologist and this was the conversation I most dreaded. This conversation would bring home the dark reality of the situation. Time to put on the big girl pants and face the music.  It's not often you feel sorry for someone's job but no one ever wants to meet the Oncologist, or wants to sit in their office, ever. Their news rarely brings joy. It'...
Read more

24. Cancer Diaries - Project Closure

Image
A project is a defined allotment of time in which to deliver change. At some point a project will come to a close, whether it be at the end of a phase of work, or when the money runs out. Whatever the reason, there are tasks to complete to help wrap up the project and to move onto other things; project closure.  It's the same for me and my breast cancer journey. I gave myself a milestone of completing all the big, impactful treatments - the chemo, 2 surgeries and radiotherapy and then drawing a line under them when they were all finished as a way to say my journey was done.  Often in projects, when a phase is completed the team celebrates. It is used as a mental note to acknowledge the end. It's also very useful to highlight this to clients too, but thats for another blog.  I decided I wanted to do the same and so we devised a project closure road trip. We decided to return to the place we fled to last year on the day of my official cancer diagnosis, to a hotel right on t...
Read more

15 November 2023 - In memory of Gemma Blezard

Image
I first met Gemma in November 2017 when Bluewolf hosted the London Admins Community Group at their office. Gemma was our contact point. She sat in the audience and heckled us the whole evening. I immediately liked her.  After that moment Gemma became a regular of the London Admins and also volunteered to speak at our meetings, one memorable talk was about her certification journey and how she had her eye set on becoming a Certified Technical Architect.  It was also late 2017 when Gemma was working on her Architect certifications that she realised that there wasn't the support or content to help her achieve them. So, she created it herself and decided to share it with the world, under the monica, Ladies Be Architects. Only 10% of the Salesforce Certified Architects were women, and few people came from a non technical background; Gemma wanted to change that. The LBA grew traction as more content was added and promoted. The group grew as there was a real thirst for this knowledge...
Read more