#2023 #attitudes #CreatingANewAttitude #clothes #NewSchoolClothes
Many want to see 2022 go, and 2023 come.
Others may want to see 2022 go, but would rather go back to a different time.
It’s relatively normal, if you’ve lost a job, lost a business or lost someone close to you to long for what was.
But the future has a way of coming, whether we want it or not.
So, if you are one who would rather look back, you have to find a way to deal with looking forward.
Think of the future as new clothes. Each August or September, when you started school in a new grade, it usually meant a new set of threads to wear to school. Sometimes, new clothes were necessary because of summer growth spurts, but, more often, new school clothes were a reward for moving up a grade.
Plus, you wanted to look great for your classmates, some of whom might be new.
So, in 2023, you may have to shed your old attitude and create something new. For many, the past year has brought turmoil, even disaster. Therefore, one can start by seeing nothing but great things in the coming year.
You can see the best years of your life ahead of, rather than behind, you.
As for personal resolutions, find what makes you happy and do more of it.
Figure out where you want to be, and do what you need to do to get there.
If you can’t bring back the past, don’t waste a lot of time thinking about it.
Certainly, some memories and nostalgia provide good thought therapy at times. But, resenting what is, or will be, because you long for what was is futile.
It may be difficult to be optimistic, given your personal situation. Optimism doesn’t always come naturally.
Sometimes, it has to be sought, even created.
If you have difficulty seeing the good in life, you may need some help to point it out.
It might help to imagine your attitude completely naked, and you get to bring it to the store for some new school clothes.
This time, however, you WANT your attitude to undergo a growth spurt. You want it to be adorned with bright colors. You want your 2023 attitude to look sharp, yet be free of sharp edges.
Some people just look great no matter what they wear. Others have to create their looks.
Some people’s attitudes are great, no matter what happens to them. Others have to create a mindset to offset circumstances.
So, how are you looking going into 2023? Are you looking sharp, as always? Or, do you need some new clothes?
The advantage you have is that with an attitude, you can make your own wardrobe to best suit you. Oh, you can browse store windows to get ideas, but, ultimately, you may have to sew – or sow – your own.
Happy New Year to all!
Peter
Monthly Archives: December 2022
HOLIDAY TRAVEL: THINK BEFORE YOU GO
#HolidayTravel #FamilyGatherings #traffic #AirTravel #families
This, and every holiday season, is a time for joy, celebration and reflections of faith.
It’s also a time for gifts, parties and family gatherings.
Are you looking forward to your family gathering?
Families can be wonderful, loving, inspiring and encouraging.
They can also be fraught with tension, animosity and jealousy.
If you have an extended family in which everyone not only gets along, but also is genuinely happy to be among one another, consider yourself truly blessed. Not all families are like that.
There is nothing worse this time of year than to make a big sacrifice to get somewhere for a family gathering, and either not want to be there or not have a good time.
As you ponder whether to go to a family gathering, consider what you might have to do to get there. Will you have to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or drive through hazardous winter conditions, that extend a trip for hours more than it should take? Will you have to negotiate a crowded airport, complete with multiple contagions, risk flight cancellations because of weather or other reasons and wind up not getting there in time for the festivities?
And, as you consider whether to make the trek, do you hear things like: “so-and-so will be so disappointed if you don’t come.” Or, “this may be so-and-so’s last Christmas (or Hanukkah).”
Those guilt trips are merely that because, in some cases, the so-and-so who would be disappointed if you didn’t come may simply give you a hug when you arrive and when you leave, but not talk to you very much the rest of the time – unless, of course, to tell you how he or she doesn’t like, or disapproves of, something in your life.
By all means, if you have an overwhelming sense of obligation that you can’t shake, make the trip.
Holiday family gatherings became customary when everyone in the family lived near each other. As members of the family – usually the younger ones who grow up – move away, they become more complicated. With all the advances in travel over the decades, traveling today can be difficult, not to mention exhausting and frustrating. Holidays are supposed to be fun and celebratory. Often, they are stressful and lead to hurt feelings, arguments etc.
Political polarization within families can add to the tension. The TV commercial in which a holiday dinner leads to a physical fight is not necessarily overdramatic.
Yes, all of us are born into a family. We should cherish where we came from. But, we don’t necessarily have to be obligated to all members of that family.
A good rule of thumb is: if you KNOW you will enjoy yourself at a holiday family gathering, make the effort to go.
Or, if you really want to see some, if not necessarily all, members of the family, try to get there.
But if you know a trip to a family gathering will be stressful, and getting there will be a big sacrifice for you, then you may want to rethink making the trip.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go. But, if you do, go having weighed all the considerations.
Sometimes we view these occasions as automatic. They don’t have to be. You have choices, even during the holidays. Try to celebrate wherever you will be the happiest.
The best of holidays to all.
Peter
EMPLOYEES NEED TO EVALUATE EMPLOYERS, TOO
#JobInterviews #interviewers #applicants #skills #employers #employees
In any job interview, the applicant wants to impress.
In the past, it was thought that being conservative, looking good and answering questions politely was the way to go.
The applicant’s posture was, more or less, quiet confidence. The interviewer held most of the power.
In today’s job market, the prospective employees have more power. They should size up the employer as much as the employer evaluates them.
Experts say that employers need the employees as much as the employees need jobs – perhaps even more so.
So, when approaching a job interview, an applicant should ask as many questions as he or she answers.
The applicant may have quiet confidence, but can be more demonstrative with his or her confidence, experts say.
Employers, too, are looking for “soft” skills – friendliness, the ability to work with others etc. – as much as they are looking for job talent.
Applicants should demonstrate those soft skills as well as their talent.
Remember, the employers who just want you to be grateful they are offering you a job are probably not the ones you want to work for.
A job is not just a paycheck. It is a lifestyle. If the expected lifestyle doesn’t fit your needs, walk.
Therefore, employers have to be tuned in to the expectations of employees. If one hires someone who ultimately doesn’t want to be there, or is hampered by outside obligations, like children, they may not give the employer what he or she wants from him or her.
Given the worker shortage and people’s need to earn a living, both sides have to be flexible to match the proper job with the appropriate worker.
Most employees want to be good, productive workers in good work situations. Employers have to, perhaps, be less rigid in their requirements and compensation, and more adaptive to the needs of workers if they want to keep good people.
Certainly, not everything can be determined by resumes and interviews. A person can look great on paper, say all the “right” things in an interview, and either be a total bust or bolt after a couple of days.
Applicants should presume that, if they take a job, it will work for THEM, as well as their employers.
The lessons here are that potential employees, in today’s market, have choices. Employers need help, in most cases.
Job applicants should be themselves, to a great extent, in an interview. Interviewers should not just be box checkers when analyzing applicants.
Flexibility on both sides finds good fits.
Peter
DARING VS. STUPIDITY
#daring #stupidity #RiskTaking #innovation #phones #technology
In a restaurant ad, two guys are having lunch, when the boss for one of the guys calls him.
He dunks his phone into his drink.
“I have insurance,” he tells the other.
In a second ad, for a vacation package, three guys go on vacation. When they are all in the pool, one guy pulls out his phone to take a selfie of the three. He drops his phone into the pool.
Good thing he saved all that money on his trip, to paraphrase the narrator. (As an aside, did he put his phone in his bathing-suit pocket before jumping into the pool?)
The first ad begs the question: would your phone’s insurer cover your loss if it knew you deliberately dunked your phone? Also, what would the boss say if he knew that not only did you ignore his call, but also dunked your phone?
There are another ads that show people leaning over a cliff walk to take a selfie. Yes, the person comes close to falling, but he (or she) probably got a great picture. Then, we have the ads in which drivers playing with phones crash.
Does modern telephone technology put something in one’s brain that prompts a person to take such risks?
Certainly, the technology is great if used appropriately. If the guy in the first ad did not want to talk to his boss during lunch, he could have just sent the call to voicemail and called the boss back afterward.
The three vacationers would have been better off to take the selfie on the pool deck, with the pool in the background. If the phone got dropped, presuming it had a protective case, no damage would have been done.
One might say that these scenarios illustrate combining technology with daring.
Others might say they illustrate stupidity.
To paraphrase Albert Einstein, the difference between daring and stupidity is that daring has its limits.
We certainly don’t want to encourage people to always take the safe route. Innovation often requires daring, and over-caution can inhibit innovation.
But daring, as well as genius, should not necessarily be limited. Perhaps smart and daring people know how to limit stupidity better than others.
Most innovative people look for options that those who gravitate to safety would never consider.
Certainly, folks of a certain age remember their parents preaching safety and security above all else.
But the innovative never stop dreaming, though they initially may gravitate to the safe option. The safe option(s) can buy time for ideas to gel. Once that happens, the innovator can use his hours away from his safety and security to bring his or her idea to fruition.
In short, be daring, but be smart. Be safe, but don’t ditch your dream just to be safe.
And, when the call comes that could bring your dream to fruition, don’t dunk your phone.
Peter