Up Your Nose
Early on in the parenting rollercoaster, my wife came to me and said, “I need a night to myself.” Since that conversation, Wednesday Nights have been a sacred time for my wife and a coveted time for me with my daughter. This time together reminds me to be playful and to laugh out loud.
Every Wednesday Night we spend time together and every Wednesday night we have new adventures.
These journeys have included: make believe walks through the neighborhood, trips for sushi, and various other wanderings. Most Wednesdays are pretty magical. However, last week I was resistant. I was tired, grumpy, and anxious about some upcoming business decisions.
I started to scheme a way to get out of Wednesday Night Duty.
Possibilities came streaming in; maybe I could find a sitter or sit her down in front of a movie. The movie I was thinking of, Cars, complete with special features, would give me at least two hours to squeeze in some work. But Sierra wasn’t having it, no sitter, no movies, just forced quality time.
Now some of you might think I’m crazy. Who wouldn’t want to have fun and play instead of work? But let me ask you this? Have you ever resisted something that you knew would nourish your soul?
So, with my scrunched up face and the two of us bundled head to toe, I disgruntledly agreed to go find puddles to jump in. It didn’t take long for me to realize how ridiculous I can be about not having fun. My serious side, filled to the top with anxiety and worry, was no match for Sierra. Within minutes we were both soaked from head to toe and having the time of our lives.
Upon our return to a warm house, we decided to figure out how to use the internal video camera in my Mac and send some video clips, saying hello to friends and family.
To my surprise, Sierra was more interested in what was up her nose than the actual messages we were sending. I’m still laughing out loud. Thankfully this week, I’m committed to surrendering my own worries and fears long enough to remember how to play.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_XuSZCIza8]
Monday Mindfulness
We all get stuck in some sort of serious reality full of doom and gloom. Find your laugh this week and share with us. Sometime this week put a joke, story, or video link in the comment box below.
January 15th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Running my small business can be all consuming! I am a scout leader and run a meeting for 14-18 year olds every Thursday evening. Sometimes I find myself thinking I could get a few hours work done instead - but once I actually get to Scouts and run the meeting I realise how important it is to take some time to help others and not stay wrapped up in my own issues. If I can make a tiny difference in a young person’s life it is worth it. And actually although the meetings are intense and energy draining I find it is the only time I am not THINKING about work. (Then and when I listen to the MMM of course…!) Best Regards, Alan
January 15th, 2007 at 5:31 am
I was watching the storm of a week ago, and worrying about the winds. . . they finally died down in the night. In the morning - at my dock on the columbia - I had a guest dock!! It had lawn furniture, a Christmas tree, and even a little white boat on it! It had blown in from the river!! I tied it up till the owner could find it and take it back home. . . Life is a temporary assignment - it is wize to laugh and find the gems of smiles along the way. . . enjoy your life today. . . puddles, docks and all. Judy
January 15th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Here is a funny story if you ever feel you are having a bad day.
I LOVE MY JOB . . . . . .
If you don’t laugh out loud after you read this you are in a coma! This
is even funnier when you realize it’s real! Next time you have a bad day
at work think of this guy.
Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He
performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs.
Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio
station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a
worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.
Hi Sue,
Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother.
Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you’ve been feeling
down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to
make you realize it’s not so bad after all .
Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a
few technicalities of my job.
As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit
to the office. It’s a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite
cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered
industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the
water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature.
It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is
taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I’ve
used it several times with no complaints.
What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose
and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit
with warm water. It’s like working in a Jacuzzi.
Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to
itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse.
Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from
my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened.
The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my
suit. Now, since I don’t have any hair on my back, the jellyfish
couldn’t stick to it However, the crack of my butt was not as
fortunate.
When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the
jellyfish into the crack of my butt.
I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His
instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other
divers, were all laughing hysterically.
Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three
agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes
before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression.
When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass
helmet.
As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running
down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my
butt as soon as I got in the chamber.
The cream put the fire out, but I couldn’t poop for two days because my
butt was swollen shut.
So, next time you’re having a bad day at work, think about how much
worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt.
Now repeat to yourself, “I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.”
Now whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad
day?
May you NEVER have a jellyfish bad day!!!!!
January 15th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I don’t have any good antedoctal stories at this time, but I do have some feedback on something that has worked to make work more effecient, effective and worthwhile. This is for the workaholics of the world who have been working to many hours for too many years.
I noticed recently that the more I work to minimize the peripheral interruptions that are so common in our business lives, that I actually get exponentially more key objectives done and make more key goals than ever before. It is amazing how much unnecessary distraction we place around our work days, our businesses and our lives. This is everything from being too involved in too many departments/projects in a company to having to many steps in the contracting process to spending too much time in meetings that can be more infrequent.
I found that being good at a few things, or a number of things, can get you and your business so far, but being excellent at just one thing can make your business goals a reality. These goals can include a better life and more balance. They can include goals associated with sales or projects…really whatever you are working towards at this time. Part of this taking everything less seriously than before. Not that I don’t have the same level of committment or responsibility around the business, but that I simply won’t let it be the sole source/main source of identity or purpose in life for me.
It then includes identifying the one thing that you can become excellent at. This should be your role in your business and should be at least 75% of your focus. Others should be in the other roles or they should be removed from your business. This may mean not doing as many things with your business as you currently do. It means focusing on the niches that bring real value to your customers and real success to your business. I would rather be the best tire shop in town than a auto shop that is 15th in the market that provides everything to everyone. This example business was founded in Oregon and guess what, they became the best at one thing.
Just a thought.
John