15 Minutes a Day

Posts Tagged ‘Change’

Overloaded Donkey Cart OR My Life as a Donkey

The last couple of months have been “interesting.” There is an old Chinese curse that says “May you live in interesting times.” 2010 has definitely been that for me! In the last couple of months my post-concussion syndrome headaches have reasserted themselves. They haven’t been as bad as they were initially, but they’ve still been very hard to deal with. I’m on a different headache preventative Rx, but they still come and go. They just make dealing with everyday life difficult. So I decided to make a few changes in my life in order to try to relieve stress and, hopefully, prevent headaches.

1. I decided to take a break from school. I’m not quitting. I’m not even stopping working on my dissertation. I’m just taking a few months off from classes. I’m thinking that I will start back up again after the New Year. I’ve just been so tired with everything and everyone but school has made the sacrifices for me. Work has been wonderful. My family and friends have been supportive. Mark has been phenomenal! I just need to take some time to relax a bit.
2. I’ve decided to stop watching so much TV. I have already cut out the commercials by recording everything I watch on DVR first, but so much of TV is just pure drivel lately. Even the “educational” channels like Discovery, TLC, National Geographic, and Biography have turned to mush with sensational, shallow, and hollow TV shows. It’s really quite sad… Not even the SciFi (now Syfy) Channel has embraced the lowest form of SciFi for movies and gone away from its original mission and started showing “professional” wrestling and Ghost Hunters.
3. To replace all of my TV watching I’ve decided to read more. I suddenly find myself in various stages of several types of books, depending on my mood. I just finished The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (more on that later…). I’m also reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Ethics: The Heart of Leadership, Socialnomics (as an Audible.com book), and Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason (another Audible.com book). All are interesting and the topics vary pretty widely.
4. I’ve also decided to take on a mini-project called Photo365. The idea is to take one photo each day for a year and post it on the web to share. Yes, this is another social media thing. I’m going to start on September 1st and go through August 31st, 2011. Once I start uploading photos, I’ll post them on http://365project.org/ and share them here, on Twitter, and on Facebook. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it.
5. I also plan to blog more often. I’m considering starting some series on life, photography, interesting questions to ponder, the aforementioned reviews of what I’m reading, and probably some op-ed pieces too.
6. I’ve taken a break from Toastmasters. I was in two clubs and was also being encouraged to participate in leadership roles. While I enjoy the Toastmasters program and have learned a LOT about public speaking, I find that a) I want to dive in and fully participate right before b) I collapse in an exhausted heap from even thinking about diving in and participating fully. I will return to it, but I just found myself having to say “No” and feeling lousy because I really wanted to say “Yes” to everything I was asked to help with.
7. Finally, I’m going to get into an exercise regimen. I joined Curves and really enjoy the program, but all of the headaches I’ve been having, coupled with all of the pressure I’ve been under lately, have made getting there to DO the exercise quite difficult. Starting Monday, I’m getting back on that horse and will go AT LEAST 3 days each week.

Have you ever had to do anything like what I’ve done here? How did you handle it? Any advise? Please comment. I’d love to hear from you.

When I first saw this video, all I could say was WOW!!! I haven’t bought this book yet, but it is on my list. This summer I have given two presentations to HR groups about social networking. I really have to agree that social media is NOT a fad. This is the biggest change in communication since the invention of the printing press because it frees up average people to voice their own views and to connect or stay connected with each other. One of the things I like most about it is that I can connect with people I would not have otherwise met.

Watch the video & think about what I’ve said. What do you think about the stats included in the video? How has social media tools and technology affected your life or the lives of people around you?

The only constant in the Universe is change and yet it is the most reviled thing in the Universe. So many people long for the days of yester-year when this or that was “perfect” and is no longer that way today. The World War II generation complained about the Baby Boomers who now complain about Generations X and Y. Each worries that the next generation will ruin everything they have worked so hard for and yet each successive generation talks about how the prior generation screwed up the world for them. Change happens. To complain about it and continuously look back is useless except to learn from past mistakes. Holding grudges, picking nits, prolonging arguments; these are no way to live.

I tend to be a person who embraces change and rolls with the punches that change throws my way. I don’t say this to brag, but to advise. Change is going to happen. As leaders, we need to work hard to prepare our followers for the coming changes. If we know there is a reorganization coming, then as leaders we need to help our workers shine so they find a place in the new organizational structure. If we know there are layoffs coming, we need to prepare our followers for that inevitability so they can land on their feet and keep going. I would also hope that leaders in this program will also stress the need for followers to educate themselves. Not everyone is cut out to pursue a graduate degree, but a culture that values education is one that can innovate its way out of tough situations. That’s my two cents…