Play is serious business for Dale Sidebottom.
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As the creator of top-rating podcast "Energetic Radio", an app-based positive life program called Jugar Life, a TEDx speaker and the father of a five-month-old boy - Dale is the human equivalent of the Duracell battery bunny.
However, at 36 years old, the Shepparton-born motivator and team-builder has spent the past few years convincing people to play more, relax, and enjoy life.
Now, he's scored a worldwide publishing deal for his book All Work No Play described as a "guide to feeling more mindful, grateful and cheerful".
“I hope it helps people who are struggling with stress or mental health to connect again,” he said.
Dale said he hoped his book could even help people shrug off last year's lockdown "cabin fever" and COVID-19 fatigue.
The 192-page book is packed with games and exercises to help people stay alert, mindful and positive throughout the day. There are also practical ideas on how play can be used to keep things positive in relationships and at work.
His tips and advice are backed by comments from scientists such as education specialists Professor Alison James and Dr Craig Daly.
“People call me an entrepreneur, but I think of myself as more of a ‘funtrepreneur’," Dale writes.
But life wasn't always like this for Dale Sidebottom.
As the only son of Shepparton's Karyn and Kevin Sidebottom, Dale grew up with two sisters and plenty of sport-mad Sidebottom cousins who went on to play cricket for Victoria or footy for Collingwood.
Dale describes a Shepparton boyhood competing in sport, at work, chasing dollars and trying to keep up with the indestructible work ethic of people around him.
As a young teenager, he went bricklaying with his dad, started a lawnmowing business and sold fake brand sunglasses to his classmates.
“I found the thrill of discovering new ways to generate an income intoxicating,” he writes.
After Year 12 at Wanganui Dale scored a PE teaching traineeship back at his old school before heading off on a four-year teaching degree at Ballarat University.
However, despite the support of his family and the Shepparton community, Dale said the drive to work and achieve something took over his life.
“I had a need to always impress people and seek their approval. I lived life trying to work harder than anyone else around me.
“I would work upwards of 18 hours a day. Then I'd absolutely crash. On weekends I would write myself off with alcohol because that was the only way for my brain to switch off,” he writes.
He said his bad behaviour resulted in broken relationships and unhappiness.
By the time he was 30 he found himself divorced, out of a job and homeless.
Looking back, he believed his non-stop work work ethic and money-chasing had resulted in selfish and narcissistic behaviour.
“I could never relax . . . I was always on the chase and never feeling satisfied,” he said.
He said he spent about six months "in a really bad place" before he underwent counselling with Shepparton's Pat O'Connell.
“He led me to an important place where I started to appreciate stillness and my own company,” he said.
Today, Dale lives in Melbourne with wife Bree and son Sonny and uses his hard-won life experience to motivate others to take a step back and create space in their lives for play and gratitude.
He coaches corporate staff, sporting teams, teachers and ordinary working people to be mindful, calm and kind in their lives.
His positive energy and motivational speaking talents have taken him to more than 20 countries and the TEDx stage with his message of "play-based mindfulness".
“For me every day is an opportunity to laugh, play, smile and connect with others. This is achievable for everyone - you just need to remain open to it,” Dale said.
All Work No Play is published by Wiley and available at all good bookshops.
Dale Sidebottom's Jugar Life and podcasts can be accessed online.
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