Aging in Wonder

You may have experienced it.

It’s a typical busy day in the office. You’re fielding calls, answering e-mails, greeting people as they come into the office.

Then someone calls who is angry before you answer the phone. They are ready – expecting – a confrontation. They have reasons to be upset and are determined you’ll hear them all.

After forty years of experience in the business world — often as the front desk person – I’ve learned how to respond.

I’ve learned how to unruffle feathers. I’ve learned when it’s important to be firm and when to give in, when to insist on what’s right and when to turn the other cheek.

If you’re the target of a complaint – whether or not it’s justified – here are my suggestions for responses to avoid, and some you might want to try. Read more…

Attitudes, Work anger, complaints, customer service, service

Most people talk excitedly about the New Year as a new beginning, a fresh new start. For some reason, I haven’t been able to get into it this year.

Maybe it’s because I’m always making promises I don’t keep, and it gets old after awhile. Why make year-long resolutions when I’m not fulfilling my week-long promises?

I heard one man say he hesitated to make resolutions for things he should already be doing. I tend to agree with him.

Others advise you not to make resolutions; set goals instead. I agree with them, too. Read more…

Attitudes, Work Goals, Impulses, New Year, Resolutions, Time Management

This is a continuation of a 3-Act Play. See Act 1, “The Conflict,” and Act 2 “The Consultant and the Boss”

Productivity Consultant:

Boss-Cheryl, I trust you’ve worked this week on being more aware of Cheryl’s time and energy restraints. And Employee-Cheryl, I hope you appreciate the changes that Boss-Cheryl is willing to make on your behalf.

This is how you can help her.

1. Budget your time like you budget your money.

I know you’re a Dave Ramsey fan, and you use his envelope system well. You decide what you’ll spend on groceries, clothing, fuel and entertainment, then you stick the cash in an envelope. You know that when the envelope’s empty, the buying is finished.

However, there’s an important difference between income and time: Income can grow; time is static. Read more…

Self-Discipline, Work Attitude, Blogging, Choices, Time Management, Writing

Act 2: The Consultant and the Boss

See Act 1, “The Conflict,” where Self-Employee-Cheryl rebels against the work schedule that Boss-Cheryl has set for her, while also complaining of interference in her personal life.

Productivity Consultant:

As usual, both of you bear some blame for this conflict between work schedules and personal life. I’ll address my first comments to you, Boss, because it seems you have some unrealistic expectations.

1. First, purge your to-do list.

You add things to Cheryl’s duties that just pop into your head. Sometimes they’re not necessary or even helpful. But you know that once it’s on that list, it nags and nags at her.

Worse, you make her use an Outlook reminder that pops up and reminds her of what she hasn’t done. Just “as the LORD gives and the LORD takes away” – since you put it on that list, you can take it off! Read more…

Self-Discipline, Work Attitude, Blogging, Choices, Time Management, Writing

Act 1: The Conflict

Employee:

I wish my boss would get off my back.

Sure, she schedules me for only 26 hours of work a week. And when I want to go off on a trip somewhere, all I have to do is give her a couple of weeks’ notice. Oh, yes, she also provides health insurance.

But she’s put this schedule on my desk, telling me which hours to work, when to take lunch, even when to do my housework.

She tells me that if I want to have any personal time in the morning, I must get up at 5:30, be dressed and ready to walk at 7:00, eat breakfast and be at my desk by 8:30.

And those items on the To-Do List she keeps piling on?! What an unreasonable, insensitive nag!

Well, I’ll show her! I’m taking a break and playing a game of FreeCell! Then I’m going to the kitchen for a snack.

Boss:

Go ahead! Play your games. Eat your apple.

But don’t come complaining to me that you’re behind schedule on two of your three blogs, your family reunion commitments, and following up on another possible paying job. Read more…

Self-Discipline, Work Attitude, Blogging, Decisions, Time Management, Writing

Someone (Hm-m-m!) once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Good advice for a blog, as well, don’t you think? So this morning, in the interests of giving this blog some focus (while also procrastinating),  I have examined the topics and frequency of previous blogs.

Blog frequency? Two at the end of May, eleven in June, four in July, one in August. The frequency has obviously fallen off.

Topics? Six essays on aging, five on nature and other observations, four on attitude, two on health, and one on family.

Therefore, to

1. increase blog frequency,
2. create accountability,
3. address niche issues (aging well with grace, wisdom, wonder and joy) and
4. also have fun writing about subjects that catch my fancy,

I am publishing the following editorial calendar for all the world to see. (So far, that’s a world of 10 people who have left comments, 35 “unique visitors” and 30 spammers.)

Mondays: Posts about Aging: health, diet, exercise, attitude, etc.

Wednesday: Pop-up Proverbs. My intention is not to look for these, hence the term “Pop-up.” But if they were to pop up in an e-mail from a reader (that’s a hint), it would count. In lieu of pop-ups, there’s always Grandma’s Little Notebook of Sayings.

Friday: Cook’s Choice. This means personal essays, musings about sharks, snails, storms or other (self-defined) insightful observations.

Talk to me: What do you think? Still too broad? Too self-serving? If so, what type of articles would be more helpful and/or entertaining? Book reviews? Cultural commentary?

Anyone out there?

Self-Discipline, Work Blogging, Writing

#7 – On the power of one

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Jeremiah 29:21
The Old Testament

Why I like this.

This portion of a letter sent from the Old Testament prophet to those in exile under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon struck me as good advice to anyone who is in a circumstance not of their own choosing. Jeremiah is telling them to make the best of it. Read more…

Wisdom, Work Attitude, Bible Verses, Money

Learning how to develop this blog has been – and is – great fun. Discovering anything new has always made my brain feel good.

As most of us know, if you want Internet-related help these days, you ask somebody younger. In developing this blog, my help has come from a son, a son-in-law and virtual blogging mentors. I have been amazed at the amount of free instruction they make available to anyone who wants to learn.

So, appropriately, I want to express my appreciation to: Read more…

Wonder, Work Blogging, Discovery, WordPress, Writing