Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Learning While Commuting

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Commute, Learning, lunchtime, Monday, motivation, project, traveling, Waiting, Work

I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but it bears repeating again. If you are still working at an office, you are commuting. Whether you have to negotiate the freeways, drive across the country, or catch a bus or subway, you’ve got time to burn on these treks each day. Why not put that time to good use?

Learning is a great way build your motivation because it helps us build our skill set. This skill set can be used to improve something we do at work, start a new hobby, or used for a home project we’ve been trying to figure out.

For those of you that drive, I’d recommend Audible, so you can listen to a book while you are driving. If you are not driving, I’d recommend watching YouTube or an educational video you get from Udemy or some other educational resource you enjoy.

Think about it. How many of you have the energy to take a learning course or something like this when you get home after a hard day’s work? Probably not that many. You may intend to, but family responsibilities may not allow that, particularly if you have kids, who have been waiting for you all day.

When I worked, I always listened to something educational or uplifting. All the news that was on, was reporting numerous accidents, bad news, or some silly duo who talked about frivolous stuff that had nothing to do with educating me. Yes, we all want to be entertained, but there is so much to learn that I tried to incorporate some type of learning each day on my way in.

You may have other times you can do this. Maybe listen to an audiobook or watch a video while you are eating your lunch, at the dentist or doctor, or on a long trip on a plane, bus, or train. All these are excellent opportunities to improve yourself, while you are just sitting somewhere biding your time.

I hope you have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Your Environment Can Be Motivating

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Coffee, Comfort, Environment, family, Friends, K.M. Allan, Music, Snacks, Snow, Work, Writing

It’s snowing in my hometown. What a great way to wake up! Snow is such a nice thing to wake up to. I’m drinking my coffee, sitting in my favorite chair in my home office, and I’m listening to some of my favorite instrumental music. I find my environment motivating, which is the topic of today’s Motivation Monday edition.

One of my writer friends in Australia, K.M. Allan, author of the Blackbirch series, has a laptop, her cats, a whiteboard, and typically a cup of tea and some goodies to snack on. This is her environment to write. Mine is a cup of coffee, a comfortable chair, my laptop, and some music I listen to through my airpods. The point is that your environment can be motivating or demotivating.

What do you like to drink? Tea, Coffee, energy drink? Do you have a comfortable office chair? Do you like to listen to music while you work? Do you have any specific gear you like to work with? These are all questions to ask when you are going to work. Your work environment can be a huge source of motivation, particularly when you’ve found the right combination of things to make your work interesting and fun.

When I was a corporate recruiter, the work could be very monotonous. Most days it was terrific, but there were some days it was absolute drudgery. So, I started at looking at ways to flair up my workspace. I bought a chair and replaced my employer-issued one. I bought some new pens, pen holder, new legal pads, and I also got a few big jars of pretzels, licorice, and assorted nuts. I brought in a picture of my family. I also brought in my Bose bluetooth speaker. Once I had this set up, the drudgery days became less so. I could see my family and this motivated me to grind through my calls. I had snacks within easy reach so I wouldn’t have to get up from my desk until my calls were done. Oh, I even bought a Keurig coffee maker so I could have coffee on demand. You see, I learned early on that the environment I worked in made a huge difference between drudgery and adventure, discomfort and comfort, and meaning and meaningless. You can do the same.

What can you add to your environment to make it more comfortable? What can you add to your environment to soothe the mind? What can you add to your environment to overcome the drudgery in your work? What can you change in your environment to add meaning to your work?

Happy Monday, folks! I wish all of you a great day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Kickoff Activities

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Activity, habits, Hobbies, Kickoff, Monday, Movitation, To-do List, Work

Each Monday, I get myself started with a kickoff activity. It is the one thing that gets me going on the rest of my tasks. My kickoff activity is journaling. Journaling while drinking a cup of coffee or anything caffeinated, is something that gets my creative juices flowing. When I was working, my kickoff activity would be going through my email and identifying priority emails to respond to, getting my call list out, and double-checking my calendar for activities and meetings for the day.

Kickoff activities are those that trigger other activities during the day. When I start journaling, I contemplate a lot of different things. This contemplation helps me organize myself for the day. Another kickoff activity is my to-do list. Mine is pretty much on autopilot, unless something comes up that is out of the ordinary. It may seem boring, but my day is the same. I have key items I like to accomplish each day. I focus on four key areas: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Social. Physical is eating right, getting enough sleep, hygiene, and exercise. Mental is reading, writing, and learning. Spiritual is reading spiritual things, meditating/contemplating, listening to good music, and journaling. Social is blogging, social media, staying in touch with friends and family, and getting out in the community. Although, I am more of a home body now because of COVID, I still try to interact with folks at the grocery store, gym, and anywhere else I go.

One great way to interact socially is playing video games. The one I play a lot is Call of Duty. There is all kinds of interaction in this game because it is online and networked. Every simulated battle contains 11 other folks who I can interact with during the fight and afterwards. These folks could be local, or on the other side of the world. Since I play in the wee hours, it is likely that I will have Europeans, Asians, and other nationalities online, when most of the US is asleep.

What are you kickoff activities on Monday? What habitual action do you take to “kickoff” everything else?

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – 4 Lessons

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Balance, Changes, Lessons learned, Life, Pandemic, Patty McCord, vaccination, Work

All of us experienced lockdowns in one way or another in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic touched everyone across the globe. In this video, Patty McCord discusses what the pandemic taught us over the last year. I wanted to share this today, because I am getting the COVID vaccination today. My folks and I need to get this thing because they both have underlying conditions and since I live with them, need to get vaccinated as well. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

Have a great Tuesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking/Thankful Thursdays – Lifelong Learning

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Fun, Hobbies, lifelong learning, online schools, school, Skills, Sources, staying competitive, Work

I’m a big advocate of lifelong learning. I am taking a python course currently on Udemy, but have a few more courses in the pipeline for the year. I want to get better with Excel (pivot points, charts, etc.), digital marketing, and data science. These are all on Udemy and are available for a small fee. I got all these courses with 10+ hours of content for about 40 USD. These courses will keep me busy for a while and provide me with the skills necessary to act in my new position in my religious organization for the State of Michigan.

I can’t stress how important it is to remain up-to-date with technology. My parents struggle with most of this, and frankly, so do many in their generation. Most of us in my generation learned technology as part of our jobs. We had to learn it because we needed these technologies to compete in the marketplace. Simple things like searching the Internet, using an email service, an online calendar, or a cloud-based storage system (Google Drive, One Drive, or iCloud). These things are so simple to me, but a mystery to those who have never used them. The world will continue to progress and leave these folks behind more and more.

Now, more than ever, it is important to learn technologies like ZOOM, Skype, or other video chat service. Because of lockdowns, schools and businesses particularly have had to use these types of systems to teach students and interact with their clients. They are also so cool to use to stay in touch with friends and family. My wife and I either Facetime or use ZOOM when she needs help with paperwork or something in AZ.

So keep learning. It is fun, it keeps you engaged, and will give you capabilities you may need in the future, as our societies become more “digital”. It’s also really fun to engage with people all over the world and make new friends. I have friends all over the states, friends in Europe, Australia, and even Indonesia. These technologies have shrunk our planet and give us access to other cultures. This helps us understand why other countries do what they do.

If you’ve never used services like Udemy or Coursera, feel free to ask questions in the comments section. I’d be happy to connect with you directly and help you out. I am not affiliated with any of these educational companies—I’m just willing to give you a helping hand in case you need help. These services are terrific and provide me with the ability to learn all kinds of things that I either find interesting or need to know to do something I want.

Here are some links for your use, should you take this up for yourself:

https://www.udemy.com/

https://www.khanacademy.org/

https://www.edx.org/

https://www.coursera.org/

These are some top online educational sites I have used and recommend. Most of them are absolutely free (except Udemy) and will require you to pay if you want a certificate of completion to use for college credit or employment purposes (Coursera and EdX). Udemy charges a fee for all its courses, but these are typically around 9.99 USD, if you are patient and wait for many of their sales events, which literally happen monthly.

Well, that’s it for today. I hope all you have a terrific Thursday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Grace

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Discipline, earn, God, Grace, heaven, Jesus, Karma, realization, Work

Jesus said, “Come unto me and be lifted up.” Many assume God’s grace comes to us merely by asking for it. It does, but only when we make some effort to attain it. You only get what you earn. Nothing is given freely.

It is so easy to see really bad people doing bad things and wondering why they never have to pay the price. They do. Karma has no time limit when it comes to paying back our debts. Karma always wins. People think they are getting away with cheating on their taxes, cheating on their loved ones, or pretending they are doing something noble, but in the end, Karma always comes back to bite us–in this lifetime or the next or the next or the next.

“Soul exists because God loves it.” – Sri Harold Klemp. These words have changed meaning as I have matured on the spiritual path of ECKANKAR. Gods love is much different from the love you have for your pets or loved ones. It is an impersonal and powerful love. As I have mentioned earlier, the body Soul occupies (the one you exist in today), is meaningless to God. It is only a shell that Soul uses to learn while it is here.

God’s love is for Soul, which is imperishable. But Soul must work, discipline itself, and put effort into realizing the grace of God that is already there, ready for the taking. How do you realize it? You have to attain a state of consciousness that aligns with the ECK, or what many call the Holy Spirit. Imagine loving your enemy, as Jesus did and said. This is God’s love. God doesn’t care whether you are an evil person, a good person, a hard worker, or a sloth. God’s love comes to everyone equally. IT doesn’t play favorites. Some of the ignorant may think he chooses them over another, or favors them over another, but these are absolute falsehoods. God’s love is equally distributed to all.

God’s love comes like a wave. This wave goes out into creation and returns back to IT. Everyone gets God’s grace, but few recognize it, because they lack the ability to realize it. What does realization mean? It means that you believe in something and accept it wholeheartedly. You know. There are few in this plane of existence that have attained God realization, or the actual experience of God, but it is attainable. Those that have, have a different experience of life than the rest of us. They see the beauty in the simple things. They see God in everything.

Well, I’ll end this little talk here. I hope all of you have a terrific day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – 5 Quotes

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5 Quotes, Contribution, Four endowments, Goals, Imagination, Stephen Covey, Work

Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.

Stephen Covey

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

Stephen Covey

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

Stephen Covey

Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.

Stephen Covey

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

Stephen Covey

Happy Hump Day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – Top 5 Soft Skills

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Calm, Interaction, self-improvement, self-management, soft skills, Work

Top 5 Soft Skills

If you don’t want to read this article, check out the video at the top. It’s about 3 minutes. What are the top 5? You’ll have to click on the link to find out! I promise it’s worth your time.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday

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Belief, Carol Dweck, challenge, improvement, Work

You’ll really enjoy this Ted Talk by Carol Dweck. In it, you’ll discover some surprising results in the education arena, by merely changing a student’s mindset.

Enjoy!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Action, commit, inspiration, Stephen King, Work

Today’s Quote:

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King

This quote is all about taking action. You can think, dream, and plan something, but without taking action, you just won’t get where you’re going. You don’t need the stars to align, you don’t need to wait another day, you just need to get moving.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a terrific Thursday!

Until next time…