Job hunting....inspiration

I am job hunting...we all know how fun that is; the highs of getting through the first pass, and the lows of either or applying and applying and applying...and then ultimately rejection. I hear men deal with rejection better than women, but perhaps that is a whole other blog.

Everyday I struggle with finding inspiration because "it just wasn't meant to be" is no longer working for me, when will it be "meant to be????"

Yesterday I thought to reach out to a site I have been following for a while which I find to be interesting, educational and well, right up my alley, Positive Psychology News. I found this article by Gail Schneider about grit and being mindful: http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/gail-schneider/200904231820  I believe I have grit, the determination to succeed at everything I put my mind to.  But I also realized at a time  like this I need to take a moment to be mindful.

It is just as critical to our success to let the work we have done actually have a chance to work, we need to step back and let things happen. During that time we can enjoy life in the moment rather than always thinking "what next".

The next time you feel like a salmon, swimming up stream, step back and be mindful. Life will be more enjoyable and we may be surprised on how things just happen without us stressing over them (at least I hope so, keep your fingers crossed for me!).

Anyone else hunting for work? How are you handling rejection?

Stand Up to the System, Not the Man

I read this magazine called The Sun, it is awesome, if you don't get it you should.  http://www.thesunmagazine.org/. Here is my favorite cover:

The point of all this is....I was reading the dog-eared page which was from Mahatma Gandhi, "All Men are Brothers" and it stated this:

"Man and his deed are two distinct things. It is quite proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself. For we are all tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the divine powers within us are infinite. To slight a single human being it to slight those divine powers, and thus to harm not only that being but with him the whole world."

At a time when we all seem to want to attack individuals, like S. Truett Cathy, or our President or the Republican runner for the next presidency this little tidbit is a good reminder that it is the system we should be resisting, not the man. What good comes of attacking an individual, in my experience, very little. It is when we stand up against a system that we can truly make changes.

Truth is I was just about to rant about a blogger I use to like to follow who seems to have become to big for his britches, but better to just do what I do as a stand against what he does and be done with it. Who cares about that one person, stand for what you believe in and you will make a difference.

Are you tired of all the negative news? I know I am, and I fear that even the world where I could go for positive notes has gone a bit negative... the blog world. Many bloggers I follow seem to have decided to become self help writers, and instead of making me feel better they make me feel like I am not doing enough.  Rather than saying "hey you can do it!", they are saying "hey are you doing enough?", are you climbing high enough, putting yourself out there enough, doing what is right enough. Yeah, sometimes I do need a push, but many times I just need someone that says "you can do it, now go, get it done". I prefer inspiration over a crack on the head.

And I prefer my inspiration to be well...inspirational. Amanda Hite is the type of person I turn to for true inspiration. This is a few years old, but still one of my favs....

Such a powerful speaker, who supports a fabulous non-profit, Share Our Strength: (http://www.strength.org/.)

So all you bloggers out there, stop knocking me on the head and start inspiring me. There is enough bad news in the world, I don't need someone to make me feel bad, I need someone to make me feel like I can make a difference. And while I am at it, I will work hard at being inspirational instead of self help.

Supply and Demand, the concept never ceases to amaze me, particularly when you are referring to "vintage". My mom and I were discussing Golden Books (she had been at an estate sale), and we were trying to remember where mine were. I do have some books (Golden and Elf) that after discussion I took from our family cottage as we are cleaning it out to rebuild it. So I decided to find out what I had....Oh My....

When I found out the price of this one:

I was shocked, its a book....and actually not my favorite. I laughing told my mom I could tell which the favorite was as it was  in the worse condition, "The Puppy that Found a Home"

 and then I found out what that one would go for.....

And it made me think how amazing it is that the saying one person's junk is another's treasure is so true. While these books are not junk to me as they hold precious memories, I would never pay more than $5 for one, maybe, just to bring back that memory. But, others might, and that's what makes supply and demand such an amazing thing. You never know when some piece of junk just might become popular and therefore expensive.

Are there any "vintage" things you have just for the memories and would be amazed if you found out they were worth some cash? What would you pay for an item that brought back memories?

So my brother brought up the concept that we human beings can't help ourselves, we are overconfident by nature, and here is a test to prove it  http://tim-richardson.net/joomla15/finance-articles-profmenu-70/73-over-confidence-test.html.

At a time when confidence is what I need (job hunting) I scored a 2! Apparently I am ridiculously confident. But really? I retook the test because I had not looked at the answers and got a 7, because I threw in ridiculous numbers. Aren't we always going to try our best when answering such questions rather than throwing 1 to infinity at it? Is that overconfidence?

I find this concept interesting albeit a bit scary....what do you think?

More on this topic from McKinsey, great stuff:

https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategic_Thinking/Hidden_flaws_in_strategy_1288