In our JOYFUL ART OF BUSINESS™ series we explore how to combine the positive benefits of our professional endeavors (“business”) with the overall positive emotional return on our efforts (“joy”). The act of engaging in professional endeavors, in any capacity (i.e., as an employee, employer, entrepreneur, contractor, volunteer, paid, full time, part time, intermittently, etc.) is an expression of our ideas and creative talents (“art”). All of this is in furtherance of our mission to surpass our goals! Our episode today is, "GO BIG or GO HOME! (Except for with people, money and health.)"
You are the type of person who gets the job done! People admire your tenacity, focus and intensity! You are squared away and run a tight ship. You live life to the fullest and you work and play with glee and exuberance! You don’t have any regrets as you have left no stone unturned in ensuring your life is better than your dreams. In fact, you are often the person who is asked to handle the most intense and challenging work projects. Other people trust that your seemingly inexhaustible resources of energy and determination can make the impossible, possible. You love the big risk, big reward action! No safety net, no submission to fear. You are addicted to the adrenaline rush of the biggest adventures in life. Start a business from scratch with no money, no connections and no credit? No problem. You are a believer in what is achievable with a well planned strategy and sheer will driving the execution plan. You have been rewarded for this zeal and extraordinary focus in work, in competition and in your personal pride in surpassing your goals!! In fact, you often are confused by what you perceive to be the lack of desire and dedication in other people (‘how can they stomach giving such a half-hearted effort?!’). When you show up to the game of life, you come to win. You give everything that you have to everything that you do and you leave it all out on the field. These traits have served you well professionally, financially and in many aspects, psychologically. You are able to immerse yourself in your tasks and truly feel alive and inspired the majority of the time! What could possibly be the problem with this fired up, passionate, authentic lifestyle? How could there ever be a negative ramification of giving your all to everything that you do (e.g., Go BIG or Go HOME!)? Give it your all! Except… 1) People. Don’t give your heart up front. I know that you are incredibly decisive. When you make a decision, it is made and you are pleased and relaxed. So, when you find a person that is wonderful, you commit wholeheartedly! This is not the best approach. You overwhelm other people and they may not want to spend time with you. Remember, the intensity that you feel is not typical. This often works to your benefit in your career but it is a detriment with interpersonal relationships. You must force yourself to tone it down, turn it down or use any other method to make yourself less of a force of nature. You must dole out small doses of your commitment and then force yourself to do nothing and wait for reciprocity. If they do not reciprocate, you must cease your actions to “take the relationship to the next level.” Give them space and time. 2) Money. Time is your friend. Small doses of action and long term strategy are the key to long term stability. Go big by spending everything you have will likely hurt you, your loved ones, and your ability to enjoy life. Budget your risk money (a tiny percentage of your overall resources) and have fun with that. Never exceed this budget. The financial graveyard is littered with the ruins of many great minds who failed to restrain themselves financially and ended up destitute. You are better than this outcome so force yourself to practice mundane, predictable long-term financial focus. 3) Health. Everyday consistency. We all know about the person who abused their health with poor diet, abuse of alcohol, lack of exercise, excessive exercise, abuse of performance enhancing drugs, etc., and ‘got away with it’! Yes, but why play a game that deprives your only physical body of the best possible outcome. If you cheat and ‘get away with it’ you have lost. It is your body. The only one you will ever have. Taunting and testing it to its limits is foolish and only hurts you. You are better than treating your physical form like a garbage receptacle. Healthy diet, exercise and self care are ‘boring’ in some aspects yet they result in a higher probability of longer and higher quality of life. This is your winning concept to focus on [...] This is our EDUCATORS’ EDEN™ series wherein we explore the paradise that the most passionate, creative and committed educators create for themselves, their students, peers, administrations and institutions! This episode is, “Why Don’t Students Read…the Syllabus, Assignment Instructions, My Email, etc.?”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela It is exciting when we educators create and disseminate the tools to enable out students to succeed! We are eager for them to enjoy learning new content, to enlarge their vision of the world and to uncover their hidden talents via our course. Our intention is for them to have every available opportunity to prepare, plan and provide their best quality work! This drives us to provide clarity and communication to make their tasks as well defined as possible. What is required, when it is required, how it should be submitted, where it should be submitted, how it will be evaluated and graded, when it will returned to them, etc., are all important details that we want them to have by the start of the course! Thus, they will be able to plan ahead to achieve all of their academic goals in conjunction with all of their other responsibilities throughout the course term. We are in a constant improvement process to enhance and improve our syllabus, assignments, instructions, class communications, etc., to make them clearer and more comprehensive. Ideally, our students will be able to use these documents as guides to ensure that they understand all of the requirements and are meeting their own individual academic goals. The most pristine and powerful documentation is useless if it is not accessed. The deflating reality is that in some instances our students decide not to read the documents that we worry so much about (in terms of making them better and more effective for our classes). A great novel that is never read by a student is not a great novel for that student. The same principle applies to our class content. We educators lament, “The answer is in the syllabus. Why don’t they read the syllabus that I provided to them instead of asking me a question that I have already answered?” We lose perspective in that instant and selfishly focus on all of our labor, our love of the course content, our intense effort to create documentation for make their lives easier. We must step back and accept and respect the choices that our students make in their own lives. Some students read nothing in the entire class (no assignments, no syllabus, no instructions, etc.) and earn grades that satisfy their individual needs. Some students read everything provided in class and have skill deficiencies that prevent them from earning their desired grade in the class. No matter what choices the students make [...] This episode is the debut of this new series (COURTNEY! I AM CURIOUS) and the show topic is, "Aren’t You Scared Traveling All Around The World As A Woman?" No. I struggle with this question as I don't think of myself as any different from anyone else. So, I don't dream in gender, or age, or nationality, or any other individual trait. I simply dream. Then, I do. To me this question is like asking me, "Aren’t You Scared Traveling All Around The World As A 63 inch (1.6 meters) tall human? I am aware of my height but it is not something that I think about in terms of stopping me from traveling. Of course, there may be some instance where I am too short to reach something (and then I ask for help from a person or for a ladder). There are certainly cultural norms that I must be aware of and respect as I travel (in the US and everywhere else). We all have to do this so I don't think that it is a unique burden for me. 1) Why do I travel? Because I want to. I travel for work and for the pleasure of seeing my planet. This is my planet just as it is your planet. Why shouldn't we explore as much of it as we are able to (and desire to)? When I travel for work it is because I want to work and I want to learn as much as I am able to in order to provide my clients, students, business partners, investors and you with accurate information. The world is 'out there' so if I choose to stay in one location and miss out on learning about what is happening it will be my loss and a deficiency in my ability to address international business solutions. Watching a television show about someone eating an apple is not the same as me eating an apple in real life. I need to experience real life to be able to provide real solutions in my work. I also need to more fully understand the context and reality of different parts of our planet. My ability to understand an apple is much greater if I eat it myself than if I read about it or watch someone else eat it on television and it the same with other experiences. I have been to India, South Africa, Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, etc., in order to better understand my planet. 2) You are a female so it is an issue when you travel. How do you address it? I agree. I am female. I am not alone (as per my gender identity) in my enjoyment of exploring my planet, “Females are estimated to comprise 50 percent of frequent fliers, according to Travel & Leisure's Begley. If a woman has a family, she may make 70 percent of all her family's personal travel decisions, Begley continued. Forty percent of business travelers today are women, while just thirty years ago female executives comprised only one percent. A glance around any airport or train station confirms that things have changed.” (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4611.html) I do study the locations that I will be going to (in the US and internationally) to make sure that I have lodging, transportation and logistics to provide the safest probable outcome. This is how I address my gender (and height and everything else that I am). I do not suggest that anyone (of any gender identify) randomly go places without researching the location and planning ahead. Again, I am not alone in my concerns, “In corporate travel, female executives are often interested in two specific areas: safety and connectivity,” (http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20130213-business-travel-gets-a-female-touch) Here are some potential resources for travel information from the US and Canadian governments (always pay attention to travel warnings): http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/go/checklist.html http://travel.gc.ca/travelling/publications/her-own-way 3) Are you ever alone? Yes. I am often on a plane by myself. That is not unusual for business travelers, as, “Sixty-three percent of male business travelers say they often travel alone. That compares to 48 percent of female business travelers.” (http://www.cnbc.com/id/48433282#) 4) Don't you travel more than most people? Yes. I did not realize this but as we often discuss on the show, data is our friend. I talk to my friends and people in my daily life and they are always sharing about some fascinating trip somewhere I haven't been (or not been to recently). So, I am always thinking that I travel an average amount. Also, I grew up as a 'military brat' (my parent had a career in the US Army and retired as a Lt. Colonel). I was born in Germany (Nuremberg) and moved around the world my entire life when I was growing up. I am not 'from' any specific place and am very used to moving around and learning about new parts of the world. I also spent the majority of my time growing up in the US living and going to school on military bases (which are more diverse than many other parts of US society). My personal experience thus skews my perception on travel and exploring our planet (compared to someone who was born and grew up in one town). I was shocked to read that [...] In the MYTH WARRIORS™ series we are targeting ideas to begin to assess whether they are credible or not. We are warriors fighting to establish clarity between what is accurate and what is simply a myth (or falsehood) in life. This episode is, “Everything Happens For a Reason.” Our options that we discuss in this show are: 1) Everything happens. 2) Everything happens for a reason. 3) Everything happens for a specific reason (religious based, scientifically based, etc.). This is intriguing show! Please join in as we explore some ideas that will challenge our assumptions about “what we know.” I did not anticipate that I would be so drawn into examining my own ideas about our world as I was in this show! I am not a theologian, a historian, a philosopher, a physicist or anything other than a layperson with curiosity about these topics. If you do not want to think about the questions this show poses, just go to another episode. My intent is for all of us to be “unsure” about “what we know” by utilizing a process of critical thinking and inquiry. A) In addressing option 1, “Everything happens,” how do we know what is ‘everything’ and what is actually happening? In the show we discuss that we may be experiencing reality right now or we may not. We may instead be experiencing a facade of reality (or a simulation) like in the movie, The Matrix (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/plotsummary). Or, we may be simply viewing shadows that we are mistaking for reality (e.g., Plato, The Allegory of the Cave see https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm). B) In addressing option 2, “Everything happens for a reason,” how do we begin to ascribe a reason to our still undefined ‘everything’ that we perceive to be ‘happening’? C) In addressing option 3, “Everything happens for a specific reason,” this is where people may become angry in asserting that they have the ‘correct’ specific reason to explain the still undefined ‘everything’ that we perceive to be ‘happening.’ Some people have a religious or spiritual faith that they assert is the specific reason. They often have a requirement in their belief system to share their knowledge with other people to help them (save them from the consequence of having the incorrect specific reason). Some people have a scientific specific reason that they are working to prove via evidence. For example, Albert Einstein spent decades of his life [...] |
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