There was this comic strip panel that made the rounds in the 80’s, in the panel Garfield the Cat is wearing his pajamas and is frowning and slumped over. His thought bubble reads “I hate Mondays.” When asked in a Gallup poll how people feel about Mondays, 70 % of the people polled replied to the poll that they hate Mondays. Mondays can be tough especially when coming back from long weekends.
Monday is a change of sleep pattern and pace. Some of us are still in “weekend mode” and Monday morning requires exiting weekend mode and getting into “work mode”. Usually I am a big fan of Monday mornings. Monday is the beginning of something new. Everything that happened last week is over and now we have new opportunities and challenges. Sometimes though it takes a while for me to get out of “weekend mode”, and on those days it takes me a little longer to get started. On those days I have to find ways to start my week.
A good strategy for me is to start Mondays with a last week wrap up and begin to write out work tasks for this new week. Once my tasks are written I find one “easy win” task and try to accomplish this one first. The win helps motivate me and gets my Monday morning started.
Strategies can help us when dealing with the Monday Blahs. Whatever your startegyuis I know that you can do it! Good luck and have a great week and Monday!
Ever since Robert Zemeckis brought the world Back to teh Future in 1985 I cannot help but imagine teenagers and adults all over the world have wondered what they would do if they could jump in the DeLorean and meet their past selves.
What would we warn our past selves off? That one bad relationship that we have scars from? The job we took right after university that had the boss from hell? If you have lived enough you are going to make missteps’.
We learn from failure not from success
Bram Stoker
The mental exercise has been done again and again. The more I consider my past the more I realize that the past has made us who we are today., not really the past but how we react and process the past has made us who we are today and I am not sure that I would want to change anything simply because I am happy now.
One thing I would of course want more of is money or maybe wealth not money. I would love to have the stability and luxury that comes with wealth. In the current pay to play system of the world money provides people security, and control of their time. I would if I could change anything get that security and control.
So if I had to tell my past self anything it would be to buy Amazon stock. as much Amazon stock as I could afford and hold onto it. Amazon opened at 97 cents per share and as of this post the stock was selling at 95 dollars a share. The Amazon stock has split 4 tines as well.
If I bought 100 shares for a little less than 1000 in 1997 I would have just over 2 million dollars! I did not buy that stock so for now I have to get back to work.
He was the king of Corinth and a brilliant man. In the Iliad Homer described the king as “the most cunning of men” (Iliad, 6:153). Sisyphus was so cunning that he cheated death twice. Sisyphus tricked Hades and Thanatos. Sisyphus got his comeuppance at the hands of Zeus though and was condemned to push a boulder up a hill for all eternity. Every time Sisyphus neared the end of his task the boulder will and does roll back down hill. Today any task that feels like it will never end or is stuck is often described as a Sisyphean.
We have all been there. The project is rolling along swiftly we are making our deadlines and then we hit a brick wall. There is one task or part that seems to never end. What do we do now? How can we handle a task that seems to never end or what do we do when we are stuck?
When you feel stuck it is important to understand what you are stuck on and why. Not why you are stuck but why the project is taking place. What business problem are you addressing? Often the answer will change the direction of a project sometimes it will not. Sometimes it will reinforce the importance of the project. The most important thing that why does with projects and life is refocus.
Write down. When you write something down you use the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain for movement, reasoning, judgement, planning and problem solving.
Talk about it. When you speak you also use the frontal lobe. Speaking and writing will help with problem solving and reasoning.
Finally reach out for help. Sisyphus didn’t have the support structures that many of us have today. Friends, family and colleagues are often looking for ways to help and want to help we just often do not ask. Never be afraid to swallow your pride and reach out for help.
I was in the movie theater with my favorite person in the world. Before the trailers for other movies we get treated to a barrage of commercials. One commercial makes an impact on me and sends me down a rabbit hole. The commercial has images of women, men and children doing everyday things, going grocery shopping, picking up dry cleaning, yard work. The same folks are later seen in the commercial being arrested or hospitalized. Then in bold black letters the words Opioid addiction affects everyone.
The rabbit hole was opioids and the United States. Opioids have been in use in the United States since 1860 when soldiers were prescribed opioids for pain from war injuries. The civil war was going on and injuries were common. The injuries were painful and opioids numbed the pain. Opioids worked well but were and are highly addictive. Opioids naturally come from the poppy seeds and required fields and crops to produce. The difficulty in agriculture was a barrier to entry for production of opioids.
Over the years drug companies that were more concerned with profits than health found ways to synthetically create opioids.
Capitalism created, morphine, heroine, OxyContin and now fentanyl. All these opioids were and are extremely addictive and one of them, the last one is very deadly. Fentanyl has some of the highest rates of use and highest overdose numbers.
The more I read bout opioids and really any drug epidemic in the United States the more I see capitalism at work. Pure capitalism is profits above all and that is exactly what the drug business, legal and illegal, does.
People and corporations should not work for a profit. Profits should be side affects of building and supporting a healthy community.
Until humanity puts people over profit the world will not advance.
I took my kids to the movies to watch the Pixar instant classic named WALL-E. The name WALL-E is an Acronym short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth class. WALL-E is one of the main protagonists and a robot. Earth is so full of trash that it can no longer support human life. Humans are living on a space cruise ship waiting for WALL-E to clean up the planet. The humans have been gone so long they have unlearned botany. The captain of the ship learns that earth can support them and he teaches himself botany kind of… His learning of botany is where the title for this post comes from. “We will grow Pizza.” The captain says this when, he is speaking to a child about earth. He understands that planting and sowing is how food is made on earth but pizza is kind of complex and as of now there is not a pizza seed or plant.
When we plant seeds we are setting up ourselves for the future. Living now and planning for the future is a fine line. We should not spend all our time planning for the future so that we do not enjoy now however we should know that the future will come and if we haven’t planted anything we may not eat.
“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Planting seeds is a good choice and action. It is doing good things now that will give us good results in the future and allow us to enjoy now. There is never really a wrong time to do good.
So lets all do as much good as we can today and I guarantee tomorrow will be brighter and better for everyone.
We have all been there, a situation comes up and we want to do one thing but allow our selves to be convinced to do another and then we regret the not going with what we originally thought we should have done.
There is nothing wrong with stopping and taking stock of a situation and making a decision. The average person will make about 35,000 decisions a day. Most of the decisions will be small and the outcomes of the decision will seem inconsequential however there will be some big ones that you will need to make and the outcomes will make a huge difference in your life. For those decisions you should make a sound judgement in your heart and then go with it. If possible always do the good or moral thing. Never let criticism or judgement of others be your guide find the truth and do that.
Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
When you wake up and the morning and go to bed at night you are left with yourself and that is the person that you must make sure is ok with whatever decision you have made. It seems like people have strong opinions about the actions of others and will always be critical no matter what happens.
The best thing you and I can do for ourselves is find the good decisions and make them at least 35000 times a day
My wife gives the greatest gifts and that’s because she loves me. When you love the person you are giving a gift to it shows and the gifts tend to be more treasured than a gift given out of obligation or reluctantly.
Giving gifts is something humans have done since the beginning of time. The ancient Egyptians were the first to give gifts on birthdays, The Greeks and Native Americans gave gifts during religious celebrations.
One of the greatest gifts ever given to any man or woman alive today is their life. The odds of you being born are 1 in 400 trillion. A lot of things had to happen to make you happen and a lot of people were involved. The easy way out is to say that you were gifted life by a creator or the universe and I am not here to argue against that concept however consider this your life is a gift from your mother and father. Their lives from their mother and father. If you think about it the reason you are here is because of everything everyone in the world did prior to your life so your life is a result of the whole world. Are you treating your life as a special unique gift from your ancestors? Imagine if we did do that…
What would a life lived as if it were a gift from previous generations look like? I think that life would be less rushed’
Life is not a race, it is a gift. Enjoy it, don’t rush through it.
Daniella Kessler
A few weeks back my wife and I went to a restaurant with our dog to eat. We were but on the list because the restaurant was full and the three of us waited out on the restaurants patio. Maybe it was the company of two of my favorite souls, the drinks’ or the beautiful weather but I was not in a hurry to go eat. I loved every moment the three of us spent waiting.
I think the life would be more grateful.
If you’re awake, you are blessed/ Life is a priceless gift, appreciate every minute of it(:
Unknown
8 Years ago I did participated in a grateful exercise. I bought 50 blank cards and envelopes from the store and wrote out to 50 people in 50 days why I was grateful that they were in my life then I mailed out the cards. Time passed months even and I was at the park on a jogging trail I was waved down by the someone he stopped me and let me know that my letter to his wife made her so happy. Being grateful takes practice and it is worth it! Being grateful changes our perspective and can change our situations and even if it doesn’t change the situation it will change the affect that the situation has on your life.
I think the life would be more giving.
Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.
Tony Robbins
You have talents, passions, maybe even some wealth. If you are not giving that back to people the talents, passions, and wealth is wasted. Becoming more is only accomplished by charity.
Next time you feel the urge to hurry, complain, or be selfish consider how great and rare a gift you were given (1 in 400 trillion!).
On the website for International Women’s day the site asks the visitor to “Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.”
As a exercise today I have really tried to imagine this new type of world. What does a world without bias, stereotype or discrimination look like? It is hard to imagine because we do not live in this world however I imagine that world would not be free of differences but celebrate the differences and work together to achieve good for all genders.
The bets way to imagine something is to practice doing it. It is small wins and steps that give us the skills to grow our imagination. Today work hard to celebrate, acknowledge and respect all genders and do as much good as you can for all people
This weekend I just finished watching the season finale of the most recent season of The Expanse. The Expanse is a sci fi show on Amazon Prime. The show follows the crew of a space craft as they navigate through discovery and a political minefield set in the future. I am a huge fan of space. I love watching and reading about how humanity has been to and is going to space. Rocket travel huge when it comes to getting to space. Rockets provide the velocity to send objects up and out of the earths atmosphere.
Liquid Oxygen is one of the fuels of choice for rocket launching. If the oxygen that has become hot it needs to vent.
If the rocket does not vent it can explode and cause catastrophic damage to the rocket and crew or payload the rocket is sending.
People are the same as rockets, we need to vent sometimes. If we just take all the emotion dumped on us from the world we may explode (especially the negative emotion).
Everyone vents out the unneeded, some call toxic emotions it is how, when, and how long that seems to make a huge difference.
It can be very tempting to vent to good listeners every time we see them, this should probably be avoided. No one wants to be a “buzz kill”. Our relationships are defined by our interactions and even though venting is needed it is also toxic. If we are always venting to that good listener we have inadvertently created a toxic relationship.
Venting takes place before a launch. If you find yourself constantly venting about the same situation and make no changes then you are not really venting in the sense of venting to create action and this is also toxic. There is a fine line between venting and wallowing in something toxic.
Wallowing is when you roll around and relax in something. The last thing we want to do is roll around and relax in negativity.
The trick is to be like a rocket, vent and rise above toxic situations and negative emotions. You can accomplish so much when this happens.
So today is Martin Luther King Jr day in the United States. I cannot express the change this man made and what it cost him and his family! The United States has a long way to go but the progress so far was hard fought. Thank you Dr King!
The Corrigan Encore 