Life is a Four-Letter Word…

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here. I wanted to come to write something exciting and interesting, that would get people thinking…

Instead I’m back with not a huge amount to say!

Odd for a guy who likes talking…

Mental Health Awareness Week (or Weak)?…

It is Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 in the UK and the response has been phenomenal.

People all over social media are raising awareness and talking openly.

My worry as always with these things is whether it will continue into the future beyond just this week (and probably World Mental Health Day later in the year).

Breaking the stigma around mental health and allowing people all over the world to feel comfortable talking and sharing their stories with mental health isn’t something that happens with a single action, or several actions, during a single week.

Breaking the stigma is a continuous effort that needs to become commonplace is our society and workplaces. Until employees feel comfortable saying they need ‘a day as they are struggling with anxiety’ in the same manner they would ‘need to get over a cold’, our work is not finished.

Credit to everyone and every organisation who is doing something this week!

See if you can do it again next week, or the week after, or every week for the rest of this year.

A picture is worth a thousand words…

This is something I’ve been working on personally for the previous couple of weeks and will be continuing to do so over the next few months. It will be an interesting journey to say the least and one I would welcome you to follow me on.

I am going to write a book.

The book will be a mental health survival guide for people working in the professions.

It will clearly have wider reach and implications than that, able to be used by anyone who has an interest in mental health.

The idea is to share the lessons I have gained from my experience with mental health whilst working in professional practice. I will talk about some of the common pitfalls and mistakes that can happen. I will talk about some of the bigger picture issues that you should be aware of in practice (and business in general). I will (finally) talk about those people who were workplace bullies… (j/k your secret is safe…)/

I will also help people find their happiness in work and in life, covering ‘life balance’ (I dislike the term work-life balance; we only have one life and work is a subset of that!).

The book won’t be revolutionary. It will just be tried and true practices that we all know and believe are right; but don’t act on, don’t talk about and all told in my usual satirical and searingly honest style.

It’s going to be a journey but I’m going to try and blog it all along the way. Once things start in earnest I’ll be sharing the new social media platforms and website etc.

My Twitch Stream brings all the boys to my yard…

It really doesn’t, but this song is stuck in my head…

Now it’s stuck in yours.

I’m sorry.

I’ve been on hiatus recently trying to thing about what to do with the stream. I still enjoy playing games, but the audience I am capturing isn’t one who enjoys games. As such I am considering moving my content over to YouTube as just bite-sized videos for anyone to watch, without the stigma of it being on a gaming platform.

I will probably still stream games, but I just wont emphasise it as much.

I’m currently playing a lot of Division 2 (waiting for the raid to launch…) and MTGA. Both are really enjoyable. Mostly though, I am so eagerly anticipating Cadence of Hyrule! A mash-up of Crypt of the Necrodancer and Zelda. Once that’s out I’ll be back streaming as often as I can play.

What’re your Four-Letter Words?…

So to go with the title; life can be many things, but here are a few of the four letter words that describe my life over the years…

ROLE > SICK > LINE > WIFE > FALL > HOME > CATS > TRAP > LOSS > PAIN > ROLL > MINE

All of these should be fairly self explanatory. Please feel free to share your four-letter words.

Thank you

Andrew Salkeld