Seven Days

"Find a job you like and you add five days to every week." ~ H. Jackson Brown

It is the start of a Friday work day for some of us, others are well into it and others are much further into their weekend already. The day is one that so many people look forward to in anticipation. It is a day looked forward to on Monday.

In contrast, Monday is the dreaded day by those settling into their Sunday evening.

We spend nearly five days in a sour mood just waiting for two days...the weekend. One could quantify it loosely and state that we spend over 70% of our life in misery or just short of 30% in happiness.

Doesn't that seem a bit wasteful of your life?

Why not try to enjoy the entire week instead of taking only those two precious weekend days? I don't want to suggest that the weekend and time off is a bad thing. Quite the contrary, having time away from work is good and allows you to renew yourself. But you can do that during the week as well.

The work day doesn't have to be miserable, but you have to like your job in order to get over it. If you don't like your job, then make movement, change jobs, change careers, do something.

Get back that 70% of your life.

For the week, maybe take Wednesday evening and attend a church service, an evening class or go see a movie. Just create an easy and non-burdensome activity that you can choose or choose not to attend.

By gaining back your week, you gain back your life and attitude. When those things improve, your personal life will improve, your work performance will improve and best of all - life just seems to improve.

Get back those lost five days and look forward to not just Friday, but every day.

Stay inspired my friends.

Six Degrees

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” ― Anne Frank, diary of Anne Frank

There is an organization doing what it can to help others. Sure, there are many other great organizations doing the same thing. Same, but this one is different. It is called www.sixdegrees.org and owes its roots to a game.

A popular trivia game called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon in which you played a connection game that ultimately led each participant to be connected to a celebrity by the name of Kevin Bacon.

In an attempt to turn it into something for a better good, Kevin took the idea and turned it into doing something for others. Six Degrees is about giving people the opportunity to promote charities which help others. That is the whole idea.

From their website they state, "Any one person (including me, Kevin Bacon) is connected to any other person through six or fewer relationships, because it's a small world. SixDegrees.org is about using this idea to accomplish something good. It's social networking with a social conscience. Through this web site, you can support your favorite charities by donating or creating fundraising badges — as well as check out the favorite causes of other people, including celebrities."

Here you have another opportunity to involve yourself, another opportunity to make a difference. Not only can you donate to your charity but now you can promote that charity. Just another way to make life a little better for those around you.

So get on board, find a charity and get it posted. You'll do good and in turn, goodness will come back to you.

Stay inspired my friends.

Trying to Make Mistakes

"REGRET - It hurts to admit when you make mistakes, 

but when they're big enough, the pain only lasts a second."

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” ― Elbert Hubbard

It has been a while since I've shown something from the folks at Despair, Inc.

I have always thought that in our attempts to always remain positive and maintaining a great attitude, we have to be able to laugh at ourselves as well.

With these folks, sometimes you can motivate people by doing just the opposite. But it also provides some very funny "food for thought."

Shown above is one of their many 'demotivational' posters. This particular one is titled REGRET. You'll never regret having tried and failed if you never tried in the first place.

Stay inspired my friends!

Waves of Change

“The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling.” ― George R.R. Martin

The new day comes and your thoughts are to the work which lay ahead.

A job in which there is not enough time or manpower.

You think of what is on the "to-do" list. Not only are there new tasks to complete today, but there are items left over from your previous work day. A never ending stream of work that seems impossible to complete. Such is the ever increasing demands that many employers place upon the modern day employee.

Management by human cost reduction and pressure to do more upon remaining employees to produce more.

- There will be fewer employees to complete the work.
-- "no money in the budget, we must reduce cost to remain competitive."
- There will be fewer opportunities for overtime to complete the work.
-- "no money in the budget, we must reduce cost to remain competitive."
- There will be fewer raises for the increased workload each takes on.
-- "no money in the budget, we must reduce cost to remain competitive."

More work, faster and more more efficient is the mantra in order to keep your job these days. Quality will suffer although you will hear many companies exhort that "quality is their number one concern."

So what can you do?

Many jobs have become that of a child digging a hole on the beach. The faster the child digs, the quicker it fills in with sea water and more sand. An endless fight against the ocean and sand that seems never to be won. But we keep digging, performing the job we are asked to do. Just realize in your mind that change is inevitable.

The tide will go out and allow the hole to be dug until the next tide or cycle of business comes around. Management will come to grips with the situation and change will happen. For many it feels miserable to work so hard and not feel that any head way has been made.

Keep plugging along, keep doing the work that you do so well.

A time will come when you may feel the need to move onto something else. I can not say if you should stay or leave. You will have to make that decision. It will be a decision based upon many factors in your life. But don't over think it. Many times that first gut feeling is the right one.

Whether it be digging a hole in the sand waiting for the tide to go out or building a sand castle, enjoy what you do as best you can. Change will happen just as the ocean moves with the tide and the softness of a breeze.

Stay inspired my friends.