Have you ever had a birthday where you didn’t get many well wishes because people either didn’t know or simply forgot? How did it make you feel? If you’re like me, probably not so good.
It doesn’t take long to gather up a list of your friends and family members’ birthdays, and to place it on Google Calendar to repeat on a yearly basis. However, this small investment in time will create a wealth of happiness for those special to you.
Be the guy that remembers birthdays.
“We just wanted to let you know that we think you’re the biggest fucking geek.”
It came out of the blue and left in a flash. Two girls, popular girls, whom I barely knew and seldom interacted with, approaching my friend and me at a Saturday afternoon high school football game. Looking back, I assume they talked about what they would say to me beforehand, as their words expressed what they felt in unison. I guess later I would wonder why they were telling me this, but at the moment, all I knew was a humiliation that left my stomach in tingles and my psyche in shatters.
Not long after, on that same afternoon, an upperclassman called out to me, saying “Hey Birch, where’s the flood?!”
It was the mid-eighties, and rolled up jeans and pants were all the rage. Still, I had no clue what he was talking about. Finally, I figured it out when my friend Brent looked down at me jeans, and said, “Why don’t you just roll them down?” For whatever reason (certainly not lack of embarrassment), I refused to comply. Looking back, I guess it was my stubborn attempt to hang on to a small slice of pride.
I relay this brief story not indignantly, and not with self pity; rather, I mention it to illustrate, that after twenty-five years, things like this stick with people. Be mindful and aware of how you communicate with others. Imagine the effects of what you say and do will have on others. And finally, ask yourself how you would like to be remembered.
Hangaber (for hamburger), brefkast, gluten-freed, busser (for buttox), I tooted!
I’ve been listening a lot to the late Jim Rohn lately, and he is so inspirational.
In the most recent tape, he describes his goal setting technique, which is as follows:
1) On a piece of paper, create the following five headings: What do I want to do? What do I want to be? What do I want to see? What do I want to have? Where do I want to go?
2) Then, he suggests that you list 6-8 things under each heading and how many years you think it would take to accomplish it.
3) After doing this, you should then pick four goals from distinct time frames (1, 3, 5 & 10 years), leaving you with a total of sixteen goals.
I have to say that doing so left me a bit overwhelmed, so I decided to focus on just two of them and see how it goes.
One of my goals involves finances, and the other involves simplification.
What are your goals, and what are your thoughts as to how many to concentrate on at one time?
Simplifying your life involves more than clearing out the physical. To obtain true clarity, your mind must be uncluttered as well.
Try these two tips to clear your head and see if your life changes for the better:
1) Trust Others. Don’t waste precious hours complicating your life worrying about people taking advantage of you or letting you down. Will this happen sometimes? Of course! But it will happen occasionally whether you worry or not, so why put yourself through that agony?
2) Your passions should be done for love alone. Don’t complicate your life by worrying about how you’ll monetize something; focus instead on creating value; by stalling (worrying about how it will make money, etc.) you’ll lose time that you could be helping someone. And if it is something truly valuable, than the people and money will find you.
“Knowing that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” -Steve Jobs
It’s difficult for me to think of my own death. However, I have found value in visualizing how I would like to be eulogized and remembered. Doing so has helped me to prioritize and focus on what is truly important.
What kinds of things would you like to hear about yourself after you’re gone? What kind of person do you want to remembered as?
Common financial advice involves the idea of scrimping and saving & being as frugal as possible.
While there is a time and place for this, if taken to an extreme it can actually be detrimental.
Say, for example, you use this philosophy with the way you dress, and therefore show up to work with old, ratty, and uncomfortable clothes. Your colleague in the next cubicle, who’s work output is about the same as yours or even slightly below, shows up in clothes that are new & are of high quality. Not only does he look better, but he feels better as well. When the time comes that there’s an opening for advancement, who do you think is more apt to get the promotion?
In situations like these, if you invest in yourself, the payout will often times be much higher.
Take one day, or even one hour, to look on your fellow man the same way you look at your son or daughter.Love them despite their faults, despite any wrongs you feel they may have caused you.
Do this as an experiment, and see if your life changes.
Recently, we’ve had some issues with my daughter where she’s totally “melted down.” Going ballistic because there are no snacks in the car or a slinky is the wrong color has not been out of the ordinary.
This being said, her “melt ups” are of epic proportions as well. Laughing loudly in public spaces, singing to her hearts content, saying the goofiest and wildest things with a huge shit eating grin on her face – These things, too, are commonplace.
Too often, in these situations, we reprimand our children, telling them to “calm down” and “be quiet.” We take the joy out of their moments, and gradually curtail their reactions into what we think is appropriate. What we really should be doing, however, is encouraging and enjoying these spontaneous bursts, and learning from them how to act ourselves.
By allowing yourself to be goofy and happy in a way only a child does, you’ll come to feel and remember an enjoyment of life that you forgot you knew.
Writing a good resume is an art, but that doesn’t mean it’s overly difficult.
Opinions abound, but if you keep the following 5 points in mind, your resume should benefit instantaneously:
1) Ignore the “stick to one page” rule if applying for anything other than an entry level position. Employers want to see that you have experience relevant to the position, and the more you have the better.
2.) Keep your verbs parallel. For example, most resumes list previous positions with a list of actions that the applicant was responsible for. When doing so, make sure all of your verbs are in the proper tense. For previous jobs, all of the verbs should be in the past tense, and if listing a current job, the verbs should be in the present tense.
3) Tailor & tweak your resume to the position you are applying for. This isn’t to say you should lie. However, look at the job description that you are applying for, and look back at your previous positions to see if you have experience in doing the things asked. If so, be sure to list them on your resume under the corresponding position.
4) Keep it simple. Employers aren’t interested in knowing that you aced your AP vocabulary tests. Instead, they want to know what you know, and they want that made clear and concise. Getting to the point quickly and clearly is a skill that’s rare in the workplace, so if you accomplish this, your value will rise.
5) Use an email account that won’t bring any undue scrutiny. Fuzzyslippers@yahoo.com, bigbadwolf27@hotmail.com & belleandthebeastforever@aol.com aren’t the types of addresses you want your future employer to see. If you don’t have a vanilla sounding email address, than please create one specifically for your resume. A suggestion might be to pick an address that has your name (or part of your name) in it, or something that relates to the profession in which your seeking employment.
The next time you’re applying for a job, try the steps above, and hopefully it’ll be the difference maker for you.
