The new year is quickly approaching, I am typing this on December the 15th, only 16 days until the new year. With the new year brings my resolutions. I have so much I want to accomplish that I have to pare down my list. I will have a refined list this year and I will get it done. This is my hope for me and you.
How though will we do it? We will grind! We will wake up and grind every day. There is no secret to success, other than trying failing and trying again. My only wish for you and myself for next year is that you grind. I will not wish for it to be easy because it will not be easy. I will not wish for success because we will fail more than succeed. I will not wish for you to be comfortable because comfort does not help us grow. I will not wish for you to be satiated because hunger moves us better than anything. I will wish for us to never quit grinding though.
Don’t let anyone stop you next year including you!! happy holidays and Happy New Year!!
I am a pretty big sports fan. I grew up in Cleveland Ohio so I am a fan of all the local professional sport teams that are based in Cleveland. One of the teams is a professional football team named the Cleveland Browns. Right now the quarterback for the Cleveland Browns has not played a full game in the last three games due to an injury to his shoulder.
American football is a sport that seems to have injury to players as part of its DNA so an injury is not scandalous or controversial, the extra layer to this story is that, someone leaked to the press that doctors cleared the quarterback to play the day after the shoulder injury. Now fans and everyone are weighing in on the quarterback and most of the comments are not positive.
Peer pressure can force us to do dumb things and when it comes to your own well being it is important to listen to (what is often the most quiet voice) you. You should know how you feel and if you need to recover go ahead and recover. If you are sick and need to stay home and get some rest go ahead and do that. It is very important to listen to your body and mind and when needed to take breaks.
Do you work in an office, factory, warehouse or home? Were you on time for work yesterday or today or everyday of the work month for the past month? Do you live in the United States? If you have answered no then yes, then you are part of the nearly 30 % of Americans that are late for work. Being late for work cost money, is inconsiderate to our colleagues and just not a best practice for work. Most that arrive late for work are not doing this intentionally and would love to employ a strategy to arrive on time.
Self talk is the way we talk to ourselves another word for self talk is inner voice. Everyone does it and when we learn to use it correctly the sky’s the limit. What time do you need to be at work to be on time? How did you answer that question? Did you say something like, I must arrive to work at 7 am? What if you changed the response from at to before? I must arrive at work before 7 am.? There is a comedian who does a funny sketch about people being late for things. He mentions how being on time is easy because you just have to be early. You have hours and hours to be early but you only have minutes to be on time. A quite talk with oneself can change when and how we arrive for work or any of our appointments’. So take some time and have the talk with yourself today and be kind to yourself.
Sitting is the new smoking. What did that just say? Obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, body fat and cardiac disease, have all been linked to prolonged periods of sitting. I know it is wild but a study has come out with some pretty gnarly results we can experience if we sit for a long time.
This is pretty bad news when you consider that, 6 out of 10 employees sit for about nine hours a weekday as part of their job. That’s tough isn’t it? You have to work to earn money to live but the work that you are doing is literally killing you. Do not fear though the same study that informed us of the danger associated with sitting gave us a Prescription for sitting. Get up every half hour and move for five minutes. That’s it, do it now set a reminder on your phone for every half hour. Your future self will thank you and think of all the Apple watch and fit bit awards you will earn!
I have always felt like motion is important and when I think of motion I always think of two things one is Newtons law
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Isaac Newton
and I think about the song that Muddy Waters sings. A rolling stone gathers no moss
So lets all get together today and get in motion even if it is just for five minutes every half hour!
In an earlier post of mine I mentioned that we need to take back our weekends. I am trying to do this and friends and family are too, however work is demanding and it does not always seem possible but, it is. We can have a healthy work life balance if we make the effort to do so.
Turn off the phone When you leave work today (I am typing this up on a Friday) turn off or put your work phone away. Stay as late as you need to get your work done for the week but, when your work for the week is done do not start on next weeks work, that will be there on Monday.
Understand the scope of your role When your work for the week is done… What is your work for the hour day week month year? We have entered into the age of generalists at work and as such the scope of many workers has grown so much so that employees are really not sure when their work is done or what exactly they are responsible for. Learning your place and scope at work will help you disconnect when you are done for the day week and month. If yoiu work for a good employer scope of work will be clear, most do not and scope of work is often muddy at best. A tactic that can and should be taken is a “Signing off” procedure everyday. You can sign off when you leave for the day or week through an email letting your manager know your accomplishments or through a verbal check out letting them know the accomplishments and giving them the chance to let you know if there is something you missed.
Set it and forget it You’ve signed off and turned off the phone and now it is time to set work off. Change your focus to what really matters you, family and friends. Its the weekend make plans and do something with loved ones, it can be as simple as a matinee or as elaborate as a short vacation. Stay in a hotel for one night and be a tourist in a neighboring city, take a train, plane or bus ride and explore an attraction you’ve seen on Tik Tok, go to the park and play some pickleball. Do something that is not work, you earned the weekend.
Once we have taken back the weekend we will work on taking back our evenings and eventually our lives. The pandemic and technology have blurred the lines between work and leisure time, let’s start a movement to make the lines clear and present.
…with all this taking back the weekend talk i had to post a music video of him for us to rock to…… You are welcome
In 2006 there was a movie starring Dane Cook, Ashley Simpson and Dax Shepard. The three are employees at a super store like CostCo or Sams club. Bothe Dane Cook and Dax Shepard are vying for the attention of Ashley Simpson. It is well known that Ashley Simpson only dates guys who are or have been the employee of the month. Dane Cooks character a slacker finally finds a reason to get excited for work and try’s to be a good employee. Part of his transformation to a good employee involves getting to work on time. In a pivotal scene Dane Cook wakes up on time without the aid of his alarm clock.
Waking up without an alarm clock is called precision sleeping and it happens when our bodies become accustomed to a schedule. Early risers swear by the benefits of waking early. Here is a pretty good read on the importance of waking up early.
“I would have it inscribed on the curtains of your bed and the walls of your chamber: If you do not rise early you can make progress in nothing.”
Willian Pitt Chatham, British statesman
I have benefited from waking up early and have expereinced waking up just in time and I can say that while it can be hard to set up a schedule waking up early has far more benefits than waking up just in time or late. one major benefit of waking up early is control. When I set and adhere to a schedule that involves waking up early I have a sense of control of a big part of my life. I think that waking up on time without an alarm is a major way to demonstrate our control.
At the end of the day, you can’t control the results; you can only control your effort level and your focus.
There is very little we can control in our lives and schedule is one of the big ones that can make a big difference. So moving forward let us all aspire to be one of those people that wake up without their alarm and conquer their days.
A project is planned, perfected, practiced and them performed. That is an idea situation however many projects are not planned, practiced or performed and almost no project is perfect. I worked with a project manger who planned out his project for 8 months and did no performance, that manager was let go for lack of performance. The planning perfecting and practice stage of a project are important however when any of these stages prevent action on a project than the stages should be looked at and reconsidered.
Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
Voltaire
A podcast that I am a pretty big fan of called People I Mostly Admire, interviewed psychologist and author Thomas Curran. Thomas wrote a book titled The Perfection Trap. In his book Thomas explains that the pursuit of perfection and being a perfectionist is not a good thing. Perfectionism causes burnout and depression and in his book Thomas gives us tools to avoid perfectionism and embrace the power of good enough.
A wise Italian says, the best is the enemy of the good.
Voltaire
Chasing perfection as with any pursuit must be done with temperance and common sense if it is not the one chasing perfection risks jeopardizing their mental heath and destroying their relationships with family and friends.
Perfectionism is a trait that is often associated with obsessive compulsive disorder and is often not diagnosed or treated because it is a useful trait. People who are not your friends or loved ones will use your perfectionism to promote their own agenda.
Today we should understand that while perfection is good perfectionism should be avoided.
Perfection is impossible; just strive to do your best.
Angela Watson
You are enough and your best is enough and you can and will do your best everyday.
There are videos every where you go, if you travel in public spaces. Most communities use surveillance videos to deter public crime however, the video itself does not deter crime it is the potential criminal knowing they are being recorded that deters the crime.
But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.
Luke 12:2
When someone is recorded while in the action of a crime or violation they know the likelihood of being caught is much higher when they are recorded in the action and therefore chances are high that they will not commit the crime.
A camera with AI technology can spot people of interest or situations that look out of the normal but because real time surveillance is basically a myth stopping crime while it is happening without a security guard present is a tough ask. There is live surveillance or as close to live as you can get but even with live surveillance the action of stopping the criminal in the act requires boots on the ground at the right time.
Technically the speed of light is 300 000 kilometers per second so no one is really seeing something as it happens. We are all processing things after the fact. Time is funny. Time is almost impossible to define and yet we all use it everyday. The best definition I have seen for time was: Time is the observation of the degradation of matter.
The past, present and future are only illusions, even if stubborn ones
I could go on and on about how time is a kind of silly human construct however today I am more interested in how the subjective nature of time. I see some people live full robust lives that affect everyone and their lives are short. I think about Jesus of Nazareth being under 40 and making such huge waves with a message of love and compassion, then there is Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Martin Luther King Jr., Keats, Mellvill and Orwell. This list is long of folks that lived short lives but made huge contributions to society. The “time” they had was used well. Time is at best a persistent illusion that when not considered or used correctly doesn’t really matter. We should all be less concerned with when and more concerned with what.
I was at a work site earlier today and I heard a leader have a discussion with the technician at the site concerning some type of hardware. The leader was a new leader and did not understand why the hardware was set up the way it was and had called technician to change the hardware. A veteran employee noticed the technician working on the hardware and mentioned to the technician and the leader as to why the hardware was set up that way. The change was canceled by the leader and then the leader made a comment about the importance of communication.
Educators teach our children to look, listen and learn. There are 4 types of listening and they are 1. Deep listening 2. Full Listening 3. Critical Listening 4.therapeutic listening. Different situations require different types of listening.
At work I often find that I need to engage in deep listening occurs when the listener is trying to gain insight from the speakers perspective and involves paying close attention to the users verbal and nonverbal clues. Thinking about work more deeply, I would say that I use deep and full listening. Full listening Full listening involves paying careful attention to what the speaker is saying. When I am learning a new skill at work full listening is a very important tool.
Whether I need to use full, deep, critical or therapeutic the fact remains that listening is critical to success.
“The art of conversation lies in listening.”
Malcolm Forbes
So lets make a conscious effort to all become better listeners today, tomorrow and everyday forward
My mom took me and my three sisters to church at young ages. In church we went to service Sunday school and bible study. Our church like many churches in the United States taught me and my sister dogma using the scriptures. As I grew up I mistook dogma for data and faith for fact. Later in life with other perspectives I was able to tease out some of the data and definitely understood that all of my Christian belief is faith not fact.
I have been down somewhat of a rabbit hole with consideration in Christian data versus dogma and wondered how did the dogma for the Christian religion become part of the Christian religion.
The rabbit hole lead me to a profession I never knew existed and that is a Christian ethicist. I stole this exert from the Wikipedia page concerning Christian Ethicists “Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate modern interpretations of those principles; Christian ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal ethics.”
So at the churches build a doctrine for their believers to live by and to a certain extent each induvial builds a doctrine to live by. We build our doctrine by learning, listening and should include loving family, friends and living sentient beings.
If you find yourself at a crossroads where your church’s doctrine demands you do something that is not loving (like condemn someone who is homosexual) perhaps it is time to rethink that doctrine.
The willingness to change one’s mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality not weakness.
There is nothing wring with change. The big question for change, dogma. laws and actions, should be why.
Why do I believe this doctrine?
What good is this accomplishing?
Is it good?
One major ethical question is always how do I want to be in this world? That one is huge for me when it comes to religious doctrine. I never want to be someone who would hurt or harm or do anything but love others.
Most people, when directly confronted by evidence that they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously. Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce the mental armor of self-justification.
So my hope and prayer is this. I pray that me and all of humanity would be considerate of all life when they make moral and ethical decisions and doctrine.
The Corrigan Encore 