Stuck in a rut? - Volunteer.

When I first graduated college, I was a little lost. I had left the structure and safety of graduate school, where I was surrounded by similarly aged people who held similar interests to me. Once I entered "the real world" I lost a lot of that. Sure, my coworkers were awesome people, but it just wasn't the same.

I had joined Team in Training and met some good people through the program, but an injury prevented me from continuing with the program. For a while I was at a loss. I wasn't meeting people who held similar passions with me. I followed the typical work-home-sleep routine. I had my friends on the weekends, but they were now scattered across the country and some had started the very busy family life. So, they were often away. It could be lonely at times.

One day at lunch, the topic of how to meet new people in your adult life came up. One of my coworkers suggested that I try volunteering somewhere. She had a friend who started volunteering at the Shedd Aquarium and was loving it.

During the conversation, I remembered one of my favorite places as a child, The Field Museum. My late-uncle used to our large brood of cousins there for our weekends. Just the thought of the place brought back sweet nostalgia of exploring the maze-like halls filled with dinosaur bones and exotic creatures and cultures. I think I submitted my application to volunteer that day .

Volunteering fulfilled me in many ways. I felt like a kid again; memorizing dinosaur stats and learning and sharing stories of discovery and science. I met some great people, some who have became life-long friends.

When my old career was up in the air due to a rocky econonmy, volunteering kept me stable. The type of volunteer work I do involves the sharing of information, and led me to my new career in education. By giving myself as a volunteer, I was able to gain so much more. Bankrate.com even included me in an article about using volunteering as a career stepping stone.

So if you feel like your life is at a standstill... try volunteering. Contact institutions who are in line with your passions and skills and see if they could use a hand. You will learn new skills, rekindle old excitements, and meet like-minded people. Give it a try. Whats the worst that could happen?

See you all tomorrow.
-P

Personal Update and a Little Sarcastic Motivation

It's been a busy couple of days. I am still getting the schedule for the summer together and finding a strategy that will continue to work during the school year. My list of blog posts to write has grown over the past couple of days, and I have taken to writing them down in my iPad which I carry around with me at all times.

I haven't had time to fully write them yet. Yesterday we made a 4 hour round trip to celebrate my wive's nephew's birthday and today we took a trip to my mother's to visit with my grandparents who are in town. So I haven't been on top of my blogging or social media.

But, I still want to get a post in, and there are many other aspects of my life that are going well. For example, I was able to run for 50 minutes straight this morning. This is pretty specatacular because it is the first time I ran that long in over two years. I am feeling stronger, faster, better and more motivated.

Speaking of motivation, as I was brainstorming ideas for blog posts I remembered an episode of Weird Things podcast where they were talking about an article from the Onion that had been making the rounds of acedemia. I remember listening to the episode back in April on one of my runs (that were actually more walking than running at the time), and I immediately went home and looked up the article.

Here it is. It's the most motivational piece of writing I have read in a long time. It's spot on to how I felt about life at the time, and somewhat still explains why I am doing a lot of the activities I am doing right now.

I don't want my passions to take second stage to the motions of life. I want my passions to drive me. I want to look back on my life at the end, and have many more memories of "That was awesome!" than "I wish I would have...".

In a way, this silly Onion article put me on the path of doing the blog, purchasing web domains, and working on various other projects. Read the article, and if it motivates you take action. Learn, Try, Grow, Do.

See you tomorrow.
-P

How to Be Succesful: Rewiring Your Brain to Be Happy in 5 Steps.

Yet another Life-Hack TED talk from Netflix. This one is Shawn Achor's talk about The Happy Secret to Better Work. Watch the video here:

Shawn's premise is this: You can't become happy by achieving success, but must instead be happy in order to achieve success. If you define happiness by your successes you will always push your definition of success one step higher, and therefor happiness will always be on the horizon. Instead, train yourself to become happy, and you will have an easier time at school, work and in your social life. This will lead to success.

This video hits hard for me. I've been know to be negative about the future, and Shawn is right if you base happiness on successes you will always be hunting for the next slightly bigger, slightly better success to hang your happiness on.

Shawn claims that you can rewire your brain by doing 5 things for at least 21 days. Here are those five things.

1. Write down three Gratitudes - Find three things that you are grateful for each day. Finding three new things each day will train your brain to find the positives in life. We often focus on the negatives; which lead to stress and disappointment.

2. Journal about good thing that happened to you in the past 24 hours. Once again, journaling will help you focus on the positive.

3. Exercise - Increases the efficiency of your circulatory and respiratory system which feed your brain all the nutrients and oxygen it needs. It also causes your brain to release positive feeling chemicals.

4. Meditate- In our go go go society it is important to train your brain to focus. Find a quiet space and do nothing for a short period of time. I have seen articles and talks suggest a minimum of 10 minutes. I will expand upon this in a future blog post.

5. Random Acts of Kindness - Each day write a letter or e-mail to someone in your social group praising them or letting them know how much they mean to you.

If you do this for at least 21 days Sahwn believes your brain will begin to adapt and feel happier, and a happy brain means increased motivation and activity. Give it a try.

PS: Even though my 30 days of creation challenge is done, I am going  to continue to blog once or twice a day for the duration of the summer. Tomorrow I will start two new challenges. Challenge one: 21 days of happiness (adapted from Mr. Achor's talk). Challenge two: 30 days of organization.

So, I will see you all tomorrow. Build those cathedrals.

-P

Five Deathbed Regrets... and why Gaming is Good.

I have been on a TED talk kick lately, as you can likely tell from previous blog posts. Currently I am working my way through the eight episode package about life hacking on Netflix.

 There is a talk by game designer Jane McGonigal who talks about why playing games will extend your life and the top five regrets that people have on their death bed. Here is the aticle Ms. McGonigal References: from the Guardian.

Here are the top five regrets people have on their death bed:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
Be a wolf not a dog.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard. This one is especially poignant as a new father. I need to make sure I keep doing it for her, but I also need to do it with her.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. This is especially hard for me. I am a work in progress.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. I think I really need to work on getting that weekly (biweekly game night going).

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. Isn't that this whole point of the blog?

I was listening to Tim Pychylof iProcrastinate Podcast the other day, and he said something especially deep. He was asked about what he thinks about the concept of tomorrow in regards to people saying that they will "do it tomorrow." He responded, and I paraphrase, that always living in tomorrow is not the best idea. One of the only truths we have is that eventually, for all of us, there will come a day where there will be no tomorrow.

Let's not have regrets when that day comes.

-P

Day 29/30 Almost there!

Are You a Wolf or a Dog?

Yesterday's image of the ants and grasshopper reminded me of an old Aesop's Fable that went something like this:

A hungry wolf happened upon a well fed dog. The well fed dog asks the wolf to join him in his life of leisure. The wolf agrees at first. Upon closer inspection, the wolf notices the dog's fur has been worn down at the neck and inquires as to why? The dog explains the collar as to which all dogs must wear. The wolf leaves the dogs company deciding he'd rather starve than be a slave.
 

I realized upon reflection, that this fable does not only represent the liberty vs. slavery question, but it also represents the two ways of decision making.

You can live your life as a dog making all the easy decisions and playing everything safe. This will guarantee that you life a comfortable life, but in return you will be living the life that society deems is proper. You will not be able to follow your dreams and passion.

Or you can live your life as a wolf. You have the freedom to pursue your own dreams. Though the reward is great, the risk is equally high. You could find a feast or struggle with famine. You will need to hone your talents and constantly improve your skills and knowledge to minimize the risk and maximize the reward. The life of a wolf is much more difficult.

Neither existence is right nor wrong. It is up to you to decide. Are you a wolf or a dog? I know what I wish to be.

-P
Day 28/30 (Two more to go).

Competing Against Myself - "You Run Marathons"

Tomorrow I am going to run the Warrior Dash in honor of St. Jude's.

Here is another story about how I kept putting off this whole get your life together thing.

In 2007, I ran a marathon, and I signed up for another. About halfway through training for my second, I got an injury which prevented me from competing in it. After that, I stopped training. I don't know why.

In 2010, I signed up for the Warrior Dash because, hey, why not? It sounded fun and challenging and so I started training. Not really. I ran on and off for a couple of weeks. Then nothing.

When I arrived, it turned out my brother and his friend were also running the race. They showed up in full zombie viking attire (even won the costume contest that night). I didn't even take advantage of dressing up and having fun with it.

I just ran the race. I stayed right behind my brother's friend for the first third of the race. Then I overtook him after a mud pit incident. He was hot on my trail for the next third of the race. For the final third of the race, we swapped positions for about 5 minutes. I was giving it everything to keep up with him. I'm in running attire. He's in furs and carrying a giant cardboard hammer on a broom stick. Except for the costume, he... he looked fine. Finally, he looked at me, grinned and said, "C'mon PJ. You run marathons. I can't beat you." He then kicked it up a notch. I tried to keep up, but the lactic acid was burning and I couldn't keep pace. He finished about a minute ahead of me. "Wow. I can't believe I beat you!" He patted me on the back. "Sorry." I shrugged it off, but decided next year I would beat him.

The next year... I am ashamed to say I walked the race. The year after that, I didn't even go. This year, I started training too late. I let life get in my way. But momentum is on my side. For the next 12 months I am going to train to beat my old self. PJ runs marathons. I can too. I build catherdrals.

-P
Creativity Challenge 23/30 - Almost there.

Becoming Better - Build a Cathedral

As I enter the dark jungle that is personal blogging and reflection in order to catch happiness, I am making sure I am prepared. I am reading, reading, reading. Currently I am reading Personal Branding for Dummies, and the author retold a parable that motivated me:

Many years ago a trio of masons were checked upon by their master. When asked what he was doing the first mason replied, "I am laying bricks." The second mason was asked the same question and replied, "I am making sure all the bricks are square and plumb." The third mason was spreading concrete onto the bricks. When asked by the master what he was doing, the third replied, "I am building a cathedral."

This story shows how a simple frame shift in your point of view can improve your self-esteem and self-worth. All three masons were building a cathedral. Only the third realized the true meaning of his work.

It reminds me of an interview question I was asked when applying for my current job. When asked what I taught, I realized that the interviewer was looking for something deeper than the content. I should have answered "students". Even though I was teaching students I didn't have the confidence to realize that my work was building something great.

Everyone should stop and think about why they are doing what they are doing. Really stop and think. There is probably a great outcome to your work and you don't even realize it. Once you do, it will empower you.

However, if you cannot find any cathedrals being built, perhaps it's time for a change?

See you all tomorrow. Keeping on chasing happiness.

-P
Challenge - 17/30

 

Believe in Your Students - Even the Bad Ones

I am a teacher. Part of building a better me also involves exploring ways to be a better educator. This following video shows something very important to me. I think I do my best to follow all the advice in this Ted Talk, but I know I can be better at it. If you aren't an educator, but manage people or want people to do their best for you, the advice given works the same way; just substitute students with people or employees.

First, students won't learn from you if they don't like you.
Second, they won't like you if you show that you don't like them (verbally or non verbally).

If you want to improve motivation and inspire students, believe in them. Show them you believe in them. Even when they fail; Believe in them. Sometimes you will be the only person that believes in them. Even if you don't like them; Believe in them. Did I mention...? Believe in them.

If you believe in them, they will work for you, they will learn. They will believe in you.

-P
Creative Challenge: 15/30 -50% of the way there!!!! WOOT WOOT