Wednesday, March 31, 2010

...my...my...how time flys....

I did the unthinkable one year ago this upcoming week.

Some people seem to think that if you’re not too busy, you’re not really crucial to the organization. These people revel in having full schedules, long working hours and too much work.

Repeat after me: Work does not give you stress. Feeling bad about work gives you stress.


This means that changing your work hours, your responsibilities, your priorities or your work environment is meaningless, unless it also changes the way you feel at work.

Those stress management courses will not do the trick either, unless they can achieve just that. If you’re stressed, you must take charge and make whatever changes are necessary to go from feeling anxious, inadequate or drained at work to feeling appreciated, proud and energetic.

In the midst of this economic turbulence we're facing, I decided to leave my job as a vice president of a company to pursue some long-neglected passions of mine: building a positive atmosphere and teamwork, not listening to someone “drone-on about his financial situation”, helping companies with commercial interiors, and something so self-indulgent I can hardly bear to utter it (getting paid).

What I'm leaving behind is admittedly a middling (but respectable) career in upper management, but one, from the point of view of the working class people, you just wouldn't throw away a big title. My parents didn't go to college, and to them "pissing away" a position as a vice president is about as stupid a move as you can make....but they won't say anything of course.

My grandmother (God rest her soul), for whom was in her teens and early twenties during the Great Depression. Those are the days of waiting in line for blocks of government-issued cheese. I wouldn’t have told my grandma what I’m doing…..leaving a job during very difficult times. She wouldn't get it.

If you're sensible, and lived through such tough times, right now you're thinking about "How to Protect Your Job in a Recession," this is the title of a recent Harvard Business Review article. And here I am throwing mine to the wind! (It was the wind that woke me up one night after announcing to my wife that I was quitting -- is it the word "quit" or the memory of the rattling window that now sends a chill down my spine?) I've always been prone to digress from the straight path, and now I suppose I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

Speaking of money, I do have some savings, but most businesspeople reading this would probably gasp at my foolishness if I told them how much. A few months ago I almost told it to someone I know when I bumped into him at a restaurant while having lunch - he'd apparently been laid off from the banking industry. We briefly commiserated about the uncertain economy and our places in it, but I got the sense he had a pretty thick financial cushion. The tip-off was when he mentioned he had just returned from a trip to the Far East...to "clear his head about it." I thought to myself...here this guy is out of a job and he goes to Asia for several weeks. I had General Tso’s chicken last month…does that count?

Face it…job dissatisfaction is rampant and the work environment may consist of anything from bad bosses, demanding clients, unrealistic expectations. Do not discard it as a minor annoyance as it can make you despondent, cynical and negative. So don't wrap 'happiness' in a gift box and throw it in a dustbin but rather carry it on your face as wide as possible. This is the factor that is going to build your personality and your character....and set you free from bosses that are 'full of themselves.'

Wake up! Face it, even though you dislike it…..your workplace may be filled with people who wait for a chance to hurt you or pull you down or lock you in a dark cave. But equally there will be someone who cheers you up every time you fall. So find coworkers you like and enjoy working with them. Spend your maximum time with them. You can choose to be happy at work with your choices of work companions.

It’s a relatively small step from "liking your job" to loving it. It doesn’t take much and the things we need to do are relatively easy and available to all of us. But the difference in outcome is humongous. As long as you like your job, you’re only a pale reflection of what you could be if you loved it. You’re realizing only a small fraction of your full potential. You’re not having nearly as much fun as you could have.

Millions of people settle for jobs they like. The problem is that when you like your job there isn’t much pressure on you to change. Liking your job isn’t bad for you. It’s certainly much, much better than hating your job – which can make you sick or even kill you.

But when you love your job you are in a completely different league.

So I’m saying that we shouldn’t settle for any less anymore. Let’s make happiness at work the norm rather than the exception. It may take some work, but each and every one of us can get there.

First make that decision for yourself – decide that from now on, you will be happy at work. Then find out what you can do to get to love your job or what you can do to get a job you love. Then do it.

I did.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Size and length actually matter....

Most mowers have adjustments for raising and lowering the mowing height. Be sure to set your mower on a solid surface such as a driveway or sidewalk and determine what height you get from various settings. Then, set your mower’s cutting height to match the appropriate height of cut for your particular grass.

I  have been mowing lawns since I was a kid, and have never really liked it...at least that is what I tell myself. Neither did my dad (in his t-shirt, shorts and dark socks with dress shoes).

My first source of income was mowing lawns. Ahhh...the joys of mowing and getting paid for it. So why do we do it? The thing is that lawn mowing makes absolutely no sense, if you think about it.

Power mowers are dangerous, loud, and probably bad for your hearing (maybe that’s why I don’t always answer JoJo sometimes). They also put out lots of emissions (far more per gallon than your catalytic-converter-outfitted car). At least that's what I tell myself while I put the mowing off until another day.

Lawn mowers also kill off the plants that would otherwise serve as homes for insects, birds, and usually other animals as well. And they sometimes kill the animals (snakes, frogs, etc.) themselves. Yeah that’s it…”back to nature.”

From what I gather, talking with neighbors and friends, a lot of us mow because we feel we have to fit in, or because some towns have so-called weed ordinances (laws that specify how wild our lawns can get), or because our wives tell us to.

Go ahead, by the way, and tell me I'm sexist (see "wives" above), but the reality is that mowing has, since I was a kid back in the 60s and 70s, always been primarily a man's job. When I see a woman mowing, I usually figure she's lesbian, or single, or, if the lawn is really long, that she's pissed off enough at her husband for putting the mowing off that she's taken matters into her own hands.

There's always the occasional man or woman who claims to like mowing. I sometimes hear people actually say they like it for the fresh air or exercise. Of course if people really mowed for fresh air and exercise, they would use natural, emission-free, hand-powered push mowers—the reel kinds, with no engine.

So why do we really do it?

For most people, though, the main reason for mowing is aesthetic. People think the lawn should look a certain way—i.e., "look nice." Or they think their neighbors feel that way (which they probably do).

If the motivation is genuinely aesthetic, though, then something just doesn't make sense. An uncut lawn actually has variety to it. It can have anything you want, from wild cup plants to luscious fruiting and flowering bushes—the kind of stuff people drive off into the country for hours to see when they're on vacation trying to "get away from it all."

Sometimes with a glass of iced-tea I still see my dad in my mind's eye... in his dark shoes and socks mowing our lawn when I was a kid. I was actually shy about his appearance then, but sometimes long for those days now as an adult. Thanks dad for teaching me how to mow the lawn properly and actually enjoy doing yard work properly. I too want my lawn to look as nice as yours always did years ago…I will just be doing the job in tennis shoes instead.

And my next book? "How to mow the lawn." --Fixing a faucet. --Carving the Thanksgiving turkey. --Impressing the fairer sex. --How to behave when a lady faints. --Mixing the perfect martini or mowing the perfect lawn. Being a man has become a lost art, but help is on the way. With more than one hundred "lost arts" documented throughout the book, “How to Mow the Lawn” will never let readers feel as if they don't know what to do should a manly situation come up.

Things I can use in everyday life....*The Great Outdoors: how to defend yourself against wild animals * The Perfect Host: getting rid of guests politely. This is a book that teaches men the basic survival skills they need to win the hearts and minds of the women they love and get through the pitfalls of life.

I guess my dad was right....mowing the lawn is important.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

..."Daffodils" (1804)....

OK...let's face it...2009 was a shitty year and we don't need to revisit it again...record unemployment, stock market crashes, swine flu...damn.

Spring is here. It's God's way of saying there is hope that things will 'renew' again. New leaves, new grass...and the season favorite..new daffodils. Count on them! They say in one 'bright hello' that we have hope again. Perhaps if you look deep into the daffodil...most of the pain of such a crazy year seems to drop-off a little. Maybe ...just maybe things are getting better.

The Dow is up, the sun is shining, Dilly is feeling better and more importantly we have all had the time to heal from last year. Let's focus on what the daffodil has to offer...a fresh 'new beginning.' Take the time to enjoy....and let's move into the future...but first, let's visit the past. Let's go back to 1804: Territory of Orleans organizes in Louisiana Purchase. Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis for Pacific Coast. Senate and Tribune declare Napolean leader of France. Haiti gains independence from France. New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery. Congress orders removal of Indians east of Mississippi to Louisiana...and the daffodil started that spring...like this one.

"Daffodils" (1804)
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).