Finding Your Passion & Success

“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a finger print - and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” - Oprah Winfrey

If you met me only recently, it may surprise you to know that it took almost a decade in the industry for me to find my passion. I have always enjoyed what I have done; and my roles were all fulfilling in different ways. However, it took a few significant moments in my career for me to really think about who I am and why I do what I do.

The year 2016 was a turning point for me. I found the courage to speak seek career advice from a senior Cyber Security leader. To say that took a LOT of courage is an understatement. I was so stressed about a casual coffee that I was running for the bathroom with 2 minutes on the clock. In that instant, I became religious and I prayed that he would not be angry I was going to be late.

This was the first time a leader really took time to ask me “why is it you do what you do?” Without thinking, I blurted out “I want to find the truth and help people.” After that conversation, my sense of purpose was solidified and all of my future decisions since then have been influenced by that one conversation.

I am a bit ashamed to admit and share this publicly. It took me working for almost a decade to get to that point. I had become so focused on achieving chargeability and molding myself to fit what was expected of me. My purpose became working for recognition, changing aspects of myself so that others would perceive me in the right light; thereby achieving success.

In my chase for success, I had lost myself. It took me almost leaving the industry to find the courage that I had had when I decided to join the industry.

My gut instinct kicked in and I found a new beginning. To those who have read my previous entry about self doubt; this was the moment that helped me overcome my inner naysayer. I was going find the truth, challenge the status quo and help people.

As I found my purpose, I found my passion. I learnt that my career was beyond more than just what I did at work. I rediscovery who I want to be, and set aside the the mask I had put on to satisfy others expectations.

I was fortunate to have been supported by a number of great managers who enabled me to spread my wings and challenge myself. Sometimes they even gave me a nudge into the deep end. The more challenging the situation I faced the more determined I became to push further.

How can you find your passion?

• Take a step back every once in a while and reassess your situation. Ask yourselves: why am I doing this? Am I engaged? Am I excited? If not, when did that feeling go away?

• Do you feel like you are your authentic self at your work, at events, or other professional situations? Are you happy this?

• Do you feel supported to push yourself into challenging and unknown situations. This can be at work, at home or among friends. We all need people to give us a nudge from time to time.

• Do you know how to find opportunities? It can be a casual conversation with your manager at work. It can be joining an industry group. It can be giving a presentation at a conference. It could also be changing your focus area; moving into a different part of the industry.

• Finally; take a look at the chart below. These are the four foundational building blocks that helped me get to where I am today. You may not need all of these four aspects. Take a look; have a think about what you need to achieve your version of success.

My challenge to you is to start that self assessment. Think about the last time you woke up in the morning and really looked forward to your day. If this was today; amazing! If it was a while ago or you can’t even remember. Take pause; start an activity that is relaxing for you and think about what it is that you may have lost and how you might be able to get it back. You don’t have to do this on your own; reach out to your support network.

Remember, it took me a decade to figure out just who I am. There is no too long or too late. Your passions, goals can change as you progress. What I am passionate about today; may change in a few years time; the same can happen to you.

Keep chasing your dream; don’t let anyone stop you!

Disclaimer: All statements and comments are my own. They do not reflect the views of any past or present employers.

Insights: Self Doubt & Imposter Syndrome

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

The little voice at the back of my head sounds a little like this, “Wow, you’ve done it now. How is it possible you can suck this much and still agree to public speaking engagements? You should quit while ahead and spare yourself the humiliation.”

The above is an actual quote from that little voice at the back of my head. Growing up, I was taught the importance of keeping grounded. Unfortunately the same voice has also fed my imposter syndrome and sent me down the self doubt tunnel.

Unfortunately I don’t have a magic pill to take this away. For years I avoided seeking opportunities at work that were outside of my immediate responsibilities. The only time I put my hand up was when I knew I could do 100% of the job and do it well. From time to time I would be dropped in the deep end; it was terrifying but some how I always managed to stay afloat. The little voice at the back of my head ate away at my sense of achievement.

It took me a long time to even realise my “grounding” voice was holding me back. That little voice at the back of my head is the invisible naysayer who was with me all the time! It was preventing me from pursuing opportunities under the guise of protecting me. It tried to protect me from stress, failure and humiliation.

At one point in my career, I was considering leaving the tech industry altogether. I was job hunting and applying for positions anywhere else. I realised in that moment I was taking a plunge into the unknown and that the voice in my head was now contradicting itself. It wanted me to take the “easy way out” and leave the industry; but it also wanted me to stay in my comfort zone. This brought about a moment of realisation; I am the one who is ultimately in control of my life. This is my journey.

Being completely transparent, that little voice isn’t gone; it is still very much a part of me. I still have moments, days where it comes out and rears its ugly head. I’ve learnt to be aware of when I should ignore it and when I can use that voice to challenge myself.

How did I do it?

• I found my identity, who I am and my values.

• I found my voice, agreeing to opportunities before the little voice has a chance to dissuade me.

• I do not wait for universal acclaim or someone else to push me to take up an initiative. If I have an idea built on good intentions; I get a few trusted opinions and give it a try.

• I built myself a good network of professional contacts, some also became my friends and confidants. I go to them for advice, opinions. Often I find myself giving them advice that I could benefit from!

• I found my passion. When I was asked by a mentor “why are you in this industry.” My instinct was “I’m here to find the truth.” Now, I managed to find a voice to also speak that truth.

• I no longer seek or chase external validation. I don’t need to seek compliments to prove anything to that little voice.

• I also got a Post-it quote from a mentor/friend of mine “Shut up B****. You’re doing fine!” It acts as a kicker / reminder for when the internal dialogue gets going.

Do you also have a similar voice? Have you stopped yourself from pursuing opportunities because you were afraid of failure? What do you do to keep your own internal voice at bay?

In my next post I will be sharing how I found my passion and make achievements in an industry I was discouraged from joining right from the start.

Disclaimer: All statements and comments are my own. They do not reflect the views of any past or present employers.

Insights: The Detractors

Hello Readers!

Welcome to the Insights series of the Hot Chocolates and Chit Chat section of my blog, I hope that by sharing my experiences and insight, it will help make your career journey a little easier.

Before I start, I want to be clear that this series is not about painting any individual, company in a bad light. This series is also not meant to scare you away from pursuing a career in Cyber. I want to pass on my experiences so that it can help support and guide you whenever you need it. My ask is for you to pass on your learning to others.

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I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass. — Maya Angelou

Best intentions may not always result in the best outcomes. I believe as humans, we have an innate desire to be helpful. However when this desire is misguided it can often have unintended consequences.

I want to take you through a few different stages of my life where each of these pieces of advice; offered with the best intentions could have had a potentially disastrous impact on me, my life and my career. I believe I am blessed to not have been limited by their lack of imagination.

At the age of 17, as a senior high school student, I busied myself with choosing a university degree. Being a first generation immigrant, my parents had expectations of me, culturally there were expectations of me. To help me decide, I sought the advise of my High School Career Advisor…

“Information Systems? That’s very ambitious of you. Have you considered something else?”

I still believe that the career advisor had my best interest at heart. It just wasn’t the right advice for me. Fortunately, growing up in Australia I grew a stubborn bone; where the more people attempted to dissuade me, the more I wanted to give something a try. So her discouragement decided for me that I would ultimately compromise with my parents to study IT at a university of their choosing.

Of course my parents were difficult to convince; between the two of them, I was constantly reminded that I would be wasting all those ENTER scores. Given the dot com boom had come to an end, mum became constantly worried about my job prospects upon graduation. It was a frustrating time, but I understood that my parents just wanted the best for me. They wanted me to be able to live a comfortable life without having to work 14 hours a day at a sweatshop or have fingers that have turned black from working with machine grease. They did what they thought was best for me.

In my final year, I became interested in Digital Forensics, so once again, I sought the advice of a university advisor. He kindly suggested that I reconsider as Digital Forensics was a very male dominated field and would be unsuitable for me. He also took a look at my transcript and advised that I was being ambitious with my career aspiration.

I can still vividly remember how much that conversation annoyed me. I thanked him for his time, left his office, marched down the stairs, out of the ICT building into the sun. My mind was made up. Hell or high water I was going to work in Digital Forensics with law enforcement.

I truly believe that the best way to deal with naysayers is to just ignore them. I turned discouragement into motivation for me to learn and improve my chances of reaching my goal.

Naysayers don’t go away regardless of how much experience you have or how much of an expert you are in your chosen area of expertise. Some naysayers genuinely want to help; however, they are often limited in their own ways. Some lack their own self drive and so feel better when dragging others down. Some are simply projecting their own fear of failure upon you.

It took me many years of practice to learn how to tell the difference between genuinely good advice and heart-felt advice that can diminish your potential. There is no rule or formula for me to share for you to be able to tell the difference. Hell, my parents were the first people to tell me to turn away from studying the in the area that has become the building block of my career! These days they will admit they “were rather silly back then” and now both promote technology as a must-consider career path to all their friends and their friends’ children.

My advice is:

1. Trust your gut and trust yourself. Thinking back, I always knew in my gut I was on the right path so no matter who the advice came from, it just seemed like noise.

2. Build a small network of peers and find yourselves a mentor (or a few); who you trust to get objective advice from.

3. Do the homework and research, make a plan and stay engaged. This is a fast moving industry with new areas of focus popping up. The only way to know about them is to be active. Just the other night I learnt there is a small group of people who specialise in automobile security.

In the next post of the Insights series, I will be talking about Self Doubt; the worst kind of super charged naysayer.

Until next time!

Disclaimer: All statements and comments are my own. They do not reflect the views of any past or present employers.

Perspective & Perception, all in the eye of the beholder

It is an honour to have a platform where I have the opportunities to share the values I believe in and support.

Recently, I was invited to give a online class to high students around online safety. One of the topics I chose to focus on was Cyber Bullying.

When making slide packs for presentation, I take a more graphical approach to slide pack creation.

Initially I landed on an image of a girl looking upset in front of her computer. In my mind this was a good visual representations of someone who is upset by what they just saw on their computer.

For years now, I have developed a habit to never send / release / publish any document without having a second or third pair of eyes over it. This time, I would be really inspired by the feedback (as evidenced by the writing of this post!).

I showed this to my boss, Chris, and he gave me an angle I hadn’t yet considered.

Why did I land on a girl being upset? I hadn’t thought about the underlying message this sent. Sure I was on the sadder end of Cyber Bullying many years ago. (Before the term was even coined!) It was likely my own bias that gravitated me towards the image.

Armed with this feedback, I re-created my slide with a new a series of images. I chose a mix of famous professionals, singers, an actor, a footballer, and overall, mixed between men and women. They all represented a group that is privileged by their position in the public limelight, but, all still afflicted by Cyber Bullying, nonetheless.

Similar theme, but very different underlying message…

The important take away for me in the change of this slide, is that we are all a product of our own experiences. How much of what we put out there is based on projection? When I created the first version of my slide, was I projecting? Was the young sad girl a version of my unresolved feelings from personal experiences? I am left to wonder how much of these unresolved feelings seep into our personal and professional lives unknowingly; subconsciously influencing how we behave, respond and act?

It’s OK to have biases, and its OK to stick to our guns and what we believe in. But I think it is also important to look at your messaging from different angles to appeal to the wider audience. One way to do this is to get someone else to review your material and apply their own perspective alongside your own.

The next time you need to release a report or give a presentation, get it reviewed by someone who can challenge your thinking and provide constructive feedback. You will be amazed at what you can learn about yourself.

Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 12

On the final day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to thank my mentor M.

Thank you for:

• Giving me your valuable time

• Listening to my thoughts, ideas, concerns

• Providing me your advice

• Encouraging me to bring my ideas to fruition

M, embodies the qualities that I have always sought in a mentor. I am able to better myself because of his advice.

Thank you!

Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 11

On the eleventh day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to thank the AWSN Cadets Melbourne committee. I knowI have talked about the Cadets before, but I really want to highlight the impact of the work they do.

This is a very inspiring group of university students and early career women who want to make a difference in the industry. I only wish such a group was around when I was at university. Or that I had the courage to start a group like this! Being a part of the AWSN Cadets would have been invaluable for me back in those days.

Can’t wait to work with you all again this year!

Find out more about the AWSN Cadets program: https://www.awsn.org.au/index.php/awsn-cadets/

Thank you AWSN Cadets Committee!

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 10

On the tenth day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to give a huge shoutout to the team at Heal’r, especially Tanya. Thanks to Heal’r I have learnt so much about my physical and mental well-being.

I joined Heal’r back in August, at the time, I just wanted a place to go and exercise.
I met Tanya at Heal’r for an assessment, where I signed up to the program half skeptical when she told me about my weak left ankle, my misaligned hips and that Heal’r takes a holistic approach to looking after their members.

Yeah ok… I’ve heard all that marketing speak before…

Fortunately for me, my day job is about being proactive and advise preventative measures. So I took heed and started to follow advice. Started changing the way I walk, moved my feet differently to strengthen my left ankle.

Fast forward 2 months, on my birthday, as I was heading to meet my husband for a birthday dinner… I stepped on an uneven bit of concrete, rolled my left ankle and landed on it.

I was diagnosed with a broken foot, I had fractured the fifth metatarsal in my left foot. My GP was amazed I had not damaged my ankle. While I was complaining about my foot pain, he busied himself with tests to check if my ankle was OK.

As I am now 95% recovered, I am almost certain that if I hadn’t started steps to strengthen my left ankle, I would have been nursing a broken left ankle + a broken foot. Which I imagine would be much much worse.

Instead, I’ve been able to recover relatively quickly, my GP was definitely impressed. I ditched the moon boot and have been taking in all the recommendations to improve my physical and mental health. Because at the end of the day; that is all that matters. I attribute a lot of my recovery speed to the help Tanya and the Heal’r team gave me in and out of class to help my body manage the healing process and regain strength.

Thank you Tanya and Heal’r team for taking a holistic approach to helping people. I am very grateful!

Thank you Heal’r!

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 9

On the ninth day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to thank my friend Hellen for being instrumental in a huge part of my adventure! I know I’ve written a post earlier on in the year to thank her. This series is for me to show my gratitude for people that have had a big positive impact on me, so I’m going to do this again.

Thank you Hellen for putting your creativity into designing a logo for me, it has now been turned into vinyl stickers, as well!

It is an amazing experience to work with really talented creative people who are able to string abstract words and ideas into something material. I really had no idea what I wanted, just said elements of what I liked. The rest is history…

I’m so honoured to call you my friend. Thanks again!

Thanks Hellen!

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 8

On the eighth day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to thank my Discovery desk/pod buddies for a fun year filled with memes, laughter and intellectual chatter. This is likely the most lively and fun pod I have been a member of following my VicPol days.

Thank you guys for…
- Nagging me to buy LEGO UC Millennium Falcon set…
- W & D for my ever growing list of LEGO sets to buy
- J for my 1-gazillion-and-1 questions about everything and your calm demeanor
- W for teaching me still-very-basic-but-better-than-non-python skills
- D for all the good reads and writing advise
- J & W for letting me know that my husband is a vampire and methods for me to protect myself against such things.
- S for your dance, in 2020 we will get a video!

Thank you all for making coming to work fun!

Thank you desk buddies!

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 7

On the seventh day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to give a huge shout out to the Fitted for Work and their mentoring program.

Fitted for Work is a not-for-profit organisation to help women experiencing disadvantage. The services they provide includes providing women with professional clothes for interviews, mentoring to help them get back to work. I went through the training earlier in 2019 to become a mentor for women looking to get back to the workforce.

It has been a very rewarding journey to have worked with my mentee. I have learnt a lot from her, particularly her courage, resilience and perseverance.

Thank you Fitted for Work for the assistance you provide those in need.

Thank you G (mentee) for helping me see what true resilience and courage looks like.

I am very grateful to you!

If you are interested in Fitted for Work, check out their website, support a very worthy cause!
https://fittedforwork.org/

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 6

On the sixth day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to thank Chris, my boss. Chris makes up for the other 50% of the support behind what I have been able to achieve. Chris was the first person who gave me the nudge to get into mentoring and public speaking.

Sometimes I wonder if he uses Jedi mind tricks on me and learnt that…
1. I work well under pressure.
2. I don’t actively seek out opportunities, unless they find me first.
3. I have issues with saying no.

Thinking back it seems like he’s been doing things to covertly nudge me on a path he knew I would do well on before I realised it myself. It is pretty scary, because I’ve never worked directly with anyone with that kind of foresight.

Thank you Chris for:
- Nudging me onto the path I am currently on.
- Your consistent support for my ideas including the crazier ones at work.
- Your support for my extra-curricular work outside.
- Your advise and words of wisdom. Most of which I often don’t understand until a much later date…
- Trusting me to act as you while I act as Steve… and have the humour to laugh when I suggested I broke my foot to avoid doing your job.
- Offering to make me a foot out of LEGO to replace the broken one.

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 5

On the fifth day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to thank Jane Frankland for giving me the opportunity to really push myself in 2019. I met Jane a few years ago at a workshop where Jane helped us develop our personal brand.

In 2019 Jane gave me the opportunity to tick off two of my “never have I ever” items.

The first being never have I ever developed an online training module…
The second, never have I ever recorded a podcast…

My jaw dropped to the floor when Jane sent me a note to ask if I would create a module for her online mentoring program The Secret Code ( click to opt in / sign up). I had never done anything like it, I also never thought of saying no… That is until, I found myself struggling to record my content then having to listen to it.

I am so honoured and grateful that Jane has helped me to push past my own limitations.

Thank you for believing in me and giving the platform to continually challenge and develop myself.

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 4

On the fourth day of thank-you-mas…

I would like to give a shoutout to Steve.

A long time ago, someone told me that I should not be working in IT if I have an interest in fashion.

Well, Steve is a eco-ethical-farmer, OG Cyber Sec from way back and really smart business person. So, eat dust whoever thinks you can’t be multi-talented!

Between Steve & Chris, they got me on to the team as a temp to help out build the Discovery function. I never looked back from my two months secondment. When you have good people, interesting work, you just put your head down and you keep going.

Some of my past work experience taught me to not stick my head up too high, when you ask for things that others perceive you don’t deserve, you will have your self esteem crushed in a second and it would be your fault. Steve is 50% of the reason why I’m able to built the platform I have today. He will roll his eyes and say “but you did all the work.” Yes that is true, but I can tell when I have a manager who empowers and enables.

I was able to present publicly averaging once a month in 2018 because I was encouraged to.

My blog is his idea. “You should write about this.” Steve said.

“You should collate these examples and present about them.”

“Nah you go do the talk, so people associate Discovery with you and it becomes your brand.”

W-T-A-F?! I went for a while quietly waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Steve to remind me that internal Discovery work came first and I should stop going on holidays to give presentations and network. (True story, paraphrasing words that were said to me once upon a time.) I’m still waiting… though I don’t think that moment is likely to ever come.

On top of all the work awesomeness, he’s also educated me a lot on farming, and the kind of impact some practices has on the land. I have so much respect for the amount of respect he has on the environment and world.

Thank you for all the support you have given me.

Thank you for all your honesty and transparency.

Thank you for giving me a ton of ideas and make it seem like I was the one who came up with them; and avoid being credited for it.

Steve like a few other great managers, is one in a million. Find yourself a manager like Steve.

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 3

On the third day of Merry Thank-you-mas…

I would like to take a moment to thank Jacqui, I don’t recall the exact sequence of us connecting. I shall call it serendipity that we kept on running into each other at the same train station… while I was busy doing pokemon gym battles… (I’m totally an adult!)

A lot of the great opportunities I have been involved with and wonderful people I have met I can trace back to her. She is one of the very few I have met in my career to date that walks her talk and just genuinely want to help people without expecting anything in return.

She has a day job, but also founded AWSN (Australian Women in Security Network) in her own time. Her work over the past few years have made a difference to many in the industry.

Find out more about what AWSN is and does on their website: https://www.awsn.org.au/

One of the first things that really got me into supporting students and early career professionals was through AWSN Cadets, an AWSN outreach program that is designed to support female identifying university students and early career professionals.

Thanks Jacqui for giving me the nudge I often need to set foot in the ring!

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas Day 2

For the second day of my twelve days of thank-you mas…

I would like to give a huge shout-out and thank you to the boys and girls of the Computer Crime Squad / E-Crime Squad.

As a young female warned against joining the workforce in a male dominated industry; I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with right in the beginning.

I must have struck the first job lottery as the team is a highly experienced and skilled team that did not often hire beginners to the team. I was one of two fresh recruits!

Not only was I welcomed as a member of the family from day one; I also learned loads from them! The skills that I am complimented on the most were all instilled on me from those early days.

One former detective colleague drove 3 hours with me to a country magistrates court to watch me give evidence and give me feedback and tips on how to testify as a witness (Thanks Tony). This is the kind of experience I could not have gotten anywhere else.

I was also encouraged to refine my sense of humour; leveling up in the pranks department. (But that will be stories for another day).

Thank you all! I’m very grateful to have known you and learnt from you.

The Twelve Thank-yous of Christmas

Hey everyone!

Welcome to my 2019 twelve days of thank you… technically it will be 2020 in a few days but… whatever! My blog, my rules!

2019 has been a really big year for me, I want to thank the people who have been a part of my 2019 journey. They are not in any particular order, the order of the posts do not reflect their contributions. Ranking is not in the spirit of what this is about.

The first person I want to thank this year is my friend Kathy.

Kathy was the reason why my career took the turn it did. She was the first person who suggested I should look into what the Discovery team did as I would be pretty good at it…. this was 2015… the rest is history.

Kathy is OG Cyber Security with decades of experience under her belt. She was building Security Operations Centres (SOCs) over a decade ago. The breadth of her experience is difficult to match. She is also active in the industry, supports many people who work with or previously worked with her.

She is humble and my personal inspiration.

She has the best war stories and often has me laughing for hours.

Thank you, Kathy. I am very lucky to have you in my life!

Achievements 2019 a Jane Frankland Challenge

Hi Everyone! It is almost Christmas, we made it!!

In true procrastinator form, I procrastinated on this post I am about to write…

Jane Frankland kindly nominated me to participate in her #JaneFranklandChallenge2019 while I really should have videoed this… I believe I spent all my recording credits working on videos for achievement #3.

Here is the link to the original challenge post.

Having said all that, I’ve never sat down and came up with a list of my achievements. This has been a challenge in itself; albeit a rewarding one. I am reminded of Jane’s wise words “celebrate the small wins.”

Here are my achievements in 2019 (in no particular order)

1. Started my own blog (almost forgot to add this one… oops?)

2. Won Blackhat Asia 2019 Scholarship and attended my first Blackhat conference

3. Created Jane Frankland”s Secret Code online training module including:

   • Design,

   • Plan,

   • Develop,

   • Write the script,

   • Create the power point presentation content and

   • Record myself presenting the content

4. Recorded first ever podcast with Jane talking about my career and my module for the Secret Code (sign up to the wait-list HERE).

5. Listened to my own recorded voice.

6. Became an industry adviser for AWSN Cadets

7. Became an industry adviser for Cyber Security course at a Melbourne based university

8. Became a mentor for women re-entering the workforce through Fitted for Work.

9. Spoke at Women in Tech Fest 2019 in Brisbane

10. Spoke at my high school to talk about a career in STEAM (Technology specific)

11. Acted in the role of both my manager Steve and general manager Chris at the same time! BOOYAH!

12. Turned down speaking opportunities (did not align with my values).

13. Nominated two awesome people for an industry award, one of my nominees won! YASS.

14. Built the biggest Lego set available - The Millennium Falcon (really solid attempt at procrastination this one!)

15. Quit hot chocolate and milk tea for a month and put the money saved towards Smith Family Christmas Charity packs.

16. Broke my first bone (Achievement unlocked!)

17. Joined a health center, to look after my physical and mental well-being.

2019 has been a pretty big year for me. I’m not even sure this is an exhaustive list; as it is not habitual for me to document such things as achievements. As someone who documents her analytical journey I’m really terrible at documenting my own personal journey.

If you are a silent reader to my blog, I would highly recommend you take up Jane’s challenge also. Please remember to use the hastag #JaneFranklandChallenge2019!

Bring on 2020, I will be ready for you soon.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

Thank you Hellen!

“I’m going to make you a logo for your website, you can’t not have a logo!” - Hellen Li (Graphics Designer, my friend).

A few months ago on a cold day, between sips of hot chocolate, or was it tea… [my memory fails me]. Hellen let me know, under no circumstances should I have a website without a a symbol representing me and what message I want to share.

In my years of being alive, I’ve learnt in general to not take people’s words for granted. I’m just grateful to have friends, I don’t expect any of my friends to actually go out of their way to help me.

You can imagine my awe as we sat in Godiva afterwork one evening, as Hellen pulled out her notebook and showed me hand drawn sketches of what she had in mind.

Thus began my logo journey…

I’m beyond grateful for all the help and support I have received along the way. I would also like to thank my friends, Chrissy, Nicole and Kathy; also my colleagues Steve and Jarrod. All of whom have been hit with a barrage of pictures as the logo evolved.

The logo represents:

• Shield - traditional controls that are built on known knowledge

• Owl - wisdom and knowledge

• Door - waiting to be opened and reveal what remains hidden

Eyes Skyeward, inspired by Discovery is here to provide you with the tools to open the door.

PS. Sticker versions of the image to come!

Productive Procrastination

Welcome to my Hot Chocolates & Chit Chat segment; where we chat about all things non-Discovery / Cyber. Because there is a life to live outside of Cyber; and having hobbies that aren’t “Cyber” related does not make you “not Cyber”.

“You know, sometimes I amaze even myself.” - Han Solo

I am a self titled Queen of Procrastination.
Need to study for an exam? My room needs tidying.
Need to prepare for a presentation? My carpet needs vacuuming.
Need to launch a personal blog after the technical issues were ironed out? Well… read on and you will find out…

It was quite the escalation when I bought the Lego Collector’s Millennium Falcon set, their biggest at 7,500+ pieces. Why an escalation? My previous Lego set was a 1000 piece BB-8. My Lego loving enablers who also happen to be my team and honorary team mates strongly encouraged the purchase; saying:

- It’s on sale!
- I have one! I paid more money for this!
- It is a collector’s item that will only go up in value! This is more an investment.
I don’t normally succumb to peer pressure; but in this instance, becoming a proud Millennium Falcon Lego set owner was my first and top priority.

Once I got my hands on the giant 14.6kg of box that came up to my knees, I busied myself with building my own Millennium Falcon. I took progress shots, proudly displayed my work in progress and scolded Peter (the husband) when he played with the partially assembled Falcon.

“You should really launch your blog,” my inner voice would say as my hands attached weapons and sections. I’m never great at thumbing my inner voice away, but that week, I was brilliant at it.

All good procrastination must come to an end; eventually I became a proud owner of a complete Lego Falcon, loaded up on Lego street cred and with a new conversation icebreaker for my fellow geeks!

I use procrastination as a way to manage stress. When I work on tasks that have a known outcome like following the instructions and building a Lego Millennium Falcon, it gives my brain a nice break from overthinking the various possible outcomes of the unknown; like publishing a blog. But maybe that’s just me.

What do you do to combat stress?

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