With 2008 rolling in at midnight, a number of people are talking about resolutions for the new year. Some are sharing their own resolutions. Some are offering the advice to make very few resolutions because no one ever keeps them anyway, or they’re suggesting that resolutions by ignored all together.
I actually gave up on resolutions a couple of years ago because I was getting frustrated at not meeting them. Somehow, in the discussion that took place in my head, the resolutions were replaced with goals. It was no longer a case of, “I resolve to (some unfeasible feat).” It became, “This year, I’d like to (task), and this is how I’m going to do it.”
My goals for the new year became a to-do list, and I found myself more capable of doing what I wanted (except for when the program I was using to keep track of my to-do lists was no longer available to me because I migrated to a different OS before I discovered the joy that is Todoist).
So…don’t make resolutions for 2008. Really think about where you’d like to be a year from now, and then set those goals, break them into smaller steps, and make them part of your to-do list (or a similar motivation tool). See how far you get!
Happy New Year’s!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 9:37 AM EST
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I tend to fluctuate on whether or not I’m productive, and I have yet to find what defeats my low periods. My inner geek thinks this method might be worth looking into, even if it looks like it would take a bit of work to apply (and I’m not sure where I would put it and track it to make sure I was following it).
The idea is a simple enough one. You write conditional statements that look a bit like programming, and then test each condition each day. If you fail the condition, you do whatever was being tested.
Personally, I think you’d have to implement it in such a way that it could easily be tracked. That’s were I run into trouble when my motivation runs low. I’ll forget to record something, and then I’ll realize I forgot to record it, which will lead me to no longer care. Then my motivation will come back, and I’ll try to implement everything all over again.
But that’s just me. Perhaps the geeky (or even less geeky) among you will take to this and realize it is a fantastic way to stay on track.
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:15 AM EDT
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Last month, Rosa Say asked people in her Ho’ohana community to step up this month and post on hospitality and customer service. Despite the fact my job, teaching, is primarily about customer service and making people feel comfortable, relaxed, and generally good, I stared at the request and thought, ‘But I have nothing to contribute to the conversation.’
Last week, Scott Ginsberg posted the following Qreativity note to his Facebook: Is your service philosophy so good … that other companies STEAL it?
I used to participate in a Renaissnce recreation LARP (live-action roleplaying game). Toward the end of my time in the game, I ran the gate for one of the larger events, one that brought people from all over the country. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. People found out I was running the gate and volunteered to help me out. Our job was fairly easy: we greeted people as they came in, collected the entrance fee and all the appropriate releases and medical forms, and sent them on their way.
There was no shelter, so I acquired a portable gazebo that we set up for the gate crew to hide out in (It was March in South Texas.) We put a bunch of chairs inside the pavillion around the two tables. I had brought some water and snacks for the gate crew, and then others brought us more as the weekend wore on. Performers came up to practice in the quiet around the gate, which meant we had entertainment. Others just came up to visit me, and often ended up helping out. It was a calm, relaxed, fun weekend at that gate.
After the event, one of the women who had worked on the gate posted a message to a list for an in-game group we were both part of. She was part of a small group that ran a much smaller event in her area of the country, and she was praising me for how I ran my gate. In fact, she was planning to steal what she saw and implement it at her own event.
I was flabbergasted. As far as I knew, we’d just sat there, processed people in to the event, snacked, chatted, and generally had fun while we worked. I asked her what specifically she would be stealing, and she said it was all about my organization and the spirit I cultivated around the gate by including food and encouraging people to come visit and entertain us. By doing so little, I’d made the gate crew, the first people seen at the event, a lively, efficient bunch.
Sometimes, providing good service is as simple as taking care of those who are supposed to be providing the service.
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 7:58 AM EDT
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Hobbies are great things. They help us figure out how to spend our free time. They help us unwind (hopefully).
They also allow us to find ourselves. When you find a hobby, it’s like finding part of yourself. It’s giving yourself the opportunity to do something you enjoy, and might not be able to do otherwise. It’s possibly finding a hidden talent or passion, and then working to grow it on your own terms. You can then decide whether to do it as a past time, or to incorporate it into your professional life by finding a way to weave it into your current job or change your job to make use of these newly uncovered skills and interests.
Hobbies are also great networking tools. These days, very few hobbies are completely self-contained, even if the activity itself is. Forums, message boards, and mailing lists have probably been set up for every single possible topic you can think of (and maybe some you wish no one had thought of), so it’s become easier to find others with similar hobbies and interests. These communities provide the members with several resources, plus the opportunity to be a local expert themselves. Meeting people with whom you have something in common leads to authentic conversations, a hallmark of good networking. (Naturally, there are people who still manage to come across as smarmy in these situations.)
While it’s still advisable not to put hobbies on your resume, you can incorporate them into your interview practice to help reflect who you are, to possibly build a bridge between yourself and the interviewer.
While hobbies are really for relaxation and self-expression, never forget they have other practical uses.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers, Creativity, inspiration, and motivation, Networking at 7:40 AM EDT
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I’d seriously thought I was the only person who operated this way, especially since my students always look at me like I’m out of my mind when I try to convince my students that they’ll get more done this way., but now I know I’m not!
Start the day by tackling your largest or most cumbersome project. Seriously.
When you start by getting the big bad project out of the way, it gives you this natural euphoria that pushes you through the rest of your day. It’s actually done and you don’t have to worry about it. You feel relieved that the project is done. Plus, it doesn’t give you a chance to talk yourself out of doing it. It’s just better for you all the way around!
Try it out for yourself. See how much farther you get through your to-do list!
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:02 AM EDT
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Shortly after borrowing MarioKart DS from my roommate, I realized I wasn’t getting much work done. I set up a marquee screen saver that read: “No MarioKart until you’ve edited something.”
Not much got edited after that, but my interactive writing queue became emptier after that.
Once I got my MarioKart habit under control, I hit a “zone” period. To help keep myself going, the marquee was changed to read: “You’re on a roll! Keep it up!” I ended up accomplishing two weeks’ worth of work in three days.
It’s occurred to me that because I can see my computer from anywhere in my room, the marquee screen saver is a great means of creating a message I want myself to abide by. It’s fairly hard to ignore because it’s large, bright, and inescapable!
To set one up, go to your Control Panel, and click on “Display. Click the Screen Saver tab. Select Marquee out of the list, and then hit “Settings”. Here, you can create your text, change the background color, and format the font. Make sure your message is readable, and in a color scheme that will catch your attention. (For me, I avoid the bright colors because I naturally gravitate away from those colors. My current screen is maroon with silver writing because that will catch my eye.)
In case you’re curious, my current screen saver (a result of my frustration with not having enough hours in the day and trying to catch up on a big task) reads: “Some progress is better than no progress. Establish your priorities.” It’s helped reduce my stress, and I’ve accomplished more than I thought I could this week.
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 7:59 AM EDT
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“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.”- Mark Twain
I don’t know if I agree that courage is resistance to fear, but I do like the thought that it is the mastery of fear.
If we acknowledge fear, but assert our mastery over it, then we can do so much more than if we try to ignore the fact that we’re afraid.
The fine line between courage and cowardice is knowing you’re afraid and being willing to do something about it.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:08 AM EDT
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“If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.”- Vince Lombardi
So often, my students tell me they can’t do the skill we’ve just discussed. A lack of self-confidence is often part of what has brought them to me anyway, so I smile softly and ask them why? They always tell me they don’t know why, but they know they can’t do a problem. I make them try one anyway, usually with a, “Give it a try. You just might surprise yourself.”
This conversation usually repeats itself while the student is working on mastering the skill, but when the same skill shows up later, the student often tackles it without thinking, simply because they know they can do it.
Sometimes, we face a skill that we’re positive we’ll never master, or a situation we’re sure we’ll never make it through successfully. Because a fear of failure has become ingrained in our society, so many of us walk away from the skill or situation, giving up on ourselves for fear of failing.
What we’ve really done is sold ourselves short.
When you try something outside your comfort zone, when you refuse to let yourself give in to the fear of potential failure, you give yourself the chance to grow, to find out you can succeed in unfamiliar territory. That is one of the greatest confidence builders out there.
Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to try. Amaze yourself with what you can do when you put your mind to it.
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:14 AM EST
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I’ve always liked the song at the end of Bedazzled. The chorus tells us, “If you want to be somebody else, change your mind.” It’s so true. If you don’t like how things are going in your life, it often takes little more than just taking a different perspective on what’s happening to help change things around for us.
Over the weekend, I was reading David Lorenzo’s Carnival of Career Intensity and found this post that really echoed that song line. In this case, the mindset that needed changing was how he viewed his job, and I love the change he made. My job really struggles to help me make ends meet and cuts up my day in such a way that taking on any second job that isn’t a freelance job impossible. I’ve been told repeatedly that any sane person would have walked out long ago, but I’ve stuck with it.
Am I crazy? Probably, but I also love my job. It lets me do something that I would do regardless of whether or not I had a job that paid me to do it, and I love the company. I already pretty much have a hobby of teaching, and my current job pays me to do it. Yeah, I do some administrative work I’m not wild about, but I want to see things move smoothly, so I do it to help out.
If you’re finding your energy at work flagging, you might seriously give this article a read. If it doesn’t change your outlook on your job, then maybe it’s time to find a new job.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers, Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:22 AM EST
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I’ve never been able to just sit down and freewrite. Given how much I love to write, I have no idea why this technique has never worked for me. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I tend to do so much of my prewriting and free associating in my head naturally that writing it down just feels foreign.
It’s a technique that I do recommend to my students when they are wrestling with any sort of dilemma. Some of them find it very helpful, and I think that’s largely because it gives them an outlet, a way to jog loose their thoughts and feelings, and allows them to uncover and nurture a more authentic response to their situation.
For us “grown-ups”, it’s the same thing. Once we have an outlet to let us break through our own mental blocks, it’s easier to reach the creativity and answers that may have eluded us.
If you think you might want to experiment with writing as a way to help you work through something, consider this list of suggested methods to help you out.
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 7:31 AM EST
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