What’s your favorite part of your job?

What specifically are you looking forward to this week? What gets your juices flowing? What do you brag to your friends about? What makes the time fly by?

One way I like to start the week is to remind myself why I am doing what I do.

Work is a messy place for most of us. A mix of the rewarding and the maddening. Sometimes it feels like the maddening aspects are taking over.

If we can catch ourselves feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, unhappy, or stressed before too much time goes by, we have a better chance to take evasive action.

We can begin the week by reminding ourselves of what we love about our work. Why we took the job. What we’re trying to get out of it.

Even if our rationale wasn’t anything particularly noble, personally motivating or sexy, remembering that we took the job in order to pay the bills (if that was your rationale), can help us maintain a positive perspective in the face of even the most difficult days on the job.

As you jump into this week, take a moment to note at least one thing that you either love about what you do or that you know makes this job worth keeping and bringing your best game to.

On your side,

- Karl

I somewhat violate the spirit of this column to be so excited about having a day off. After all, we’re trying to find work we love where we can apply ourselves with enthusiasm and love going to work each Monday morning.

Having said that, though, “All work and no play…” You know how the saying goes. (And even if you don’t, you probably have no problem filling in the rest of that phrase.)

Hence the importance of enjoying our holidays and other days off.

For those of us who feel guilty, we need to cut ourselves some slack! It’s not human to value work higher than all other aspects of life. The best part of a day off is the culture-wide permission to do something for yourself. Far from being selfish, enjoying a day off is the very best form of self-care.

For those of us who are work-aholics, we need to expand our repertoires of validation, value and self-care. Leaving work at work is a helpful tool to force us to practice doing something else. Built right into the system, we have these holidays where so many around us are thrilled to be anywhere but the one place that we cannot imagine not being. The new forms of activity, relationship, and interest will serve our souls well.

So what do you have planned for your day off today? Something personally rewarding, I hope.

February 1st is the real beginning of the year.

January 1st is the calendar start of the year. February 1st is the practical beginning of the year.

The holiday festivities and hangovers are finally behind us. Our idealistic New Year’s Resolutions are a distant memory.

Some of us are startled by how February was able to sneak up on us. “Oh <insert your favorite expletive here>!” we blast. “Where did January go?”

Instead of condemning ourselves for letting an entire month slip by, I suggest simply designating February the official beginning of the “practical year.”

Oh yes, some of you are well into your year, and you are to be congratulated. (However begrudgingly.) This reflection is not intended for you.

For many of us, though, the beginning of February marks an opportunity to turn the “I shoulds” and “I wants” of January into the concrete “I wills” of February.

February 1st offers the opportunity to make and own a new decision… the decision to turn our ideas into action. Our goals into plans. Our to-do lists into accomplishments. Our “I’ll start it tomorrow” into “I’ll finish it today.”

It’s the beginning of a new month. It’s also Monday. The perfect combination to make just such an adjustment. Given that February is the “practical” beginning of the year, let’s get started!

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

The urban skyscape sparkles from being scrubbed clean. The incessant storming pausing to catch its breath. I want the freshness that is outside to infuse my work and infect my attitude.

More of us are familiar with dreary weather leading to dreary feelings. What about good weather?!

I‘ve got to tell you, this is the morning to get outside if you’re anywhere near me in Southern California. Crisp, bright, bracing and fresh.

Don’t even think of disappearing behind those solid walls or settling yourself underneath those oppressive florescent lights until you’ve had a deep breath of cold morning air and an invigorating walk outside.

When struggling to get back to work on Mondays, we need all the help we can get. It can be difficult to leave the weekend behind. Instead of spending the first part of the day grieving its loss, we can give our attitudes a jump start by noticing and enjoying the special beauty bestowed by the recent rains.

Give yourself the gift of a fresh start to the week. If the weather is on your side, embrace this fickle friend before it turns. May its freshness restore and renew your energies at work this week.

Some Mondays are easier to face than others.

Today is dedicated to the others.

When we dread Monday morning more than we look forward to it, it’s time for change. Change of job, change of responsibilities, or maybe change in relationships.

But we all dread Monday mornings on occasion. And on those occasions we do not need to find a new job as much as we need to find a new approach. We need a way to face the day in spite of the strong urge to pretend it isn’t there.

For those of us who talk to ourselves, our best bet is to remind ourselves that the benefits of facing the day far outweigh the costs of avoiding it. While the feeling is completely the opposite, the facts suggest otherwise. We would be wise to heed the facts.

We know this. We know that avoiding problems simply allows them to escalate. We know that to put off a difficult conversation is to communicate nonetheless and probably not the message we intend. We know that paperwork does not do itself, and that piles only get bigger when we are not the ones taking them down.

If today is one of those Mondays that you would prefer not to face, then have a friendly chat with yourself. Remind yourself that the facts are your friends, friends who can be powerful allies when addressed in a timely and direct manner.

Some Mondays are easier to face than others. All Mondays are better faced than not at all.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

Happy New Year!

Another warm, sunny day for the Rose Parade. A thrilling or disappointing Rose Bowl game depending on your loyalties. Any late night festivities are but a memory.

This morning most of us fortunate enough to be working are back at it.

In one sense, we’re picking up where we left off.

In another sense, it’s a brand new year and we’re at the start of something.

We might be tempted to conclude that New Year’s is a day like any other. We’d be right, though, only in the one sense.

More importantly would be the opportunity to use the calendar with its annual and seasonal cycles to help us stay fresh, start over, and/or change course. As satellites use the gravity of the planets to propel themselves forward, so we can use the spirit of freshness the New Year brings to propel ourselves forward.

New energy, new ideas, new perspectives, new attitudes, new approaches, new relationships, new strategies. And on and on we might go. On and on you should go! The new year is an opportunity to use the annual cycle to structure a rhythm of newness into your routine.

It’s too difficult to be endlessly creative and energetic all of the time. It’s too easy to let busyness and urgencies dictate your priorities year after year while time slips through your fingers.

Start this year off by choosing to begin or renew three values, projects or attitudes. There’s no need for a huge laundry list of “good” ideas. Neither should you sell yourself short by taking the easy “way out.”

Seize the initiative. Tap into the spirit of newness that the New Year offers. Design your own rhythm of newness.

How might you use the New Year to catalyze or renew your priorities?

Back at it after a long holiday weekend.

Remind me where my desk is, please. What was I working on? And you are…?

It’s so nice to have a four-day weekend. (I hope you got one!)

Getting back into the swing of things can be a challenge. The key is to bring the benefits of any rest and relaxation you experienced over the holiday back to the office.

When we leave the good feelings at home, we end up resenting the return to work.

In other words we want a holiday hangover.

But only if the break is a blessing that propels us forward and not an escape whose inevitable end depresses us.

There’s another break coming up this week. If the Christmas break didn’t work well for you, is there something different you can do to make the New Year’s holiday different?

What are three benefits you want to experience from the time off this week? Maybe reconnect with an old friend. Get some time to yourself. Read a book. Throw a party. Reflect on the lessons learned this last year.

Next give yourself permission to pursue those three outcomes. Be intentional. Pick up the phone today. Make them happen. If an initial idea doesn’t pan out, then adjust it and try a modification.

Finally, go back to work next week with a holiday hangover! Bring the blessings of the break back to work with you. Let the rest, reflections, and relationships spill over into the energy and enthusiasm that makes work rich and meaningful.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

There’s still another week or so before we get some time off for the holidays.

BUT…

But it’s in the air. The spirit. The anticipation. The preparations. The madness.

And you and I are supposed to remain productive at work! That’s funny.

We need to change our definition of “productive” during the holiday season. I’m convinced it’s a losing battle to police productivity levels according to ordinary standards. There’s just too much going on. The wise leader recognizes the seasonal dynamic and adjusts.

Both you and your team have people coming to town to visit or are planning to travel away. There is shopping to do and preparations to make. Some of us decorate. Some of us host parties. All of us are affected by the holiday madness.

Having said that it is unrealistic to demand ordinary productivity during the holidays, neither do we have to throw out any expectations of job effectiveness altogether.

Once we recognize that people are distracted by the holidays, we can adjust in ways that make room for the accompanying realities of these distractions. Providing some space during the day to take care of holiday business frees people to focus back on their jobs sooner and in higher spirits.

Allowing longer lunch breaks, permitting some online shopping during work hours, relaxing about personal calls, and/or allowing people to use one of their sick days for personal use—are all ways to make room for the realities of the holiday season.

Not only would you be building goodwill with your team, but with the holiday chores and accompanying stresses removed from the situation, everyone will be back to work with one less distraction.

Choose the holiday spirit you want in your office! Holiday joy or holiday madness.

I want to work. I want to work hard.

I want my work to be meaningful and rewarding. I want my work to charge me with as much energy as it requires from me.

I want to make a difference. I want to make a contribution. I want to play at the top of my game. I want to be fully engaged… and then some.

Why then am I ignored? Why then am I taken for granted? Why am I considered nothing more than the generic job description whose rote list of chores I am tasked to complete?

Why am I treated like the enemy? Why are wage increases treated like a form of extortion instead of a simple exchange of value? Why are promotions considered crass grabs for power instead of appropriate placement in order to maximize potential?

Why am I considered an expense to be minimized instead of an asset to be maximized?

Something is backwards. Something is upside-down.

Does anyone else see it? Is anyone else interested in change?

It is time for a new wisdom in the workplace. A new attitude toward the energetic and productive interplay between people and profit. Fresh perspectives on the structuring of power, the measurement of success, and the unfathomable potential of the human spirit in its pursuit of life, liberty and work that we can love.

It is time. It is past time. There is an urgency in the air. The unemployment lines lengthen as the powerful dither. The numbers of those who hate either their job or their boss multiply. Can the accumulating stress across an entire nation be sustained for yet another business cycle before something gives?

I want to work hard. I want to engage fully.

What about you? What are you experiencing? Where do you see need for change? More significantly, where do you see opportunity for change?

Life is change.

For those who find change unsettling, unnerving or outright frightening, coming to terms with this fundamental reality can be quite the challenge.

In fact, some of you may not even accept my premise. Life is change. I suggest you reconsider. Much that is frustrating, much that catches us off guard, much that proves to hold us back, arises from our resistance to change.

The issue of interest to me is the direction of change. Change is inevitable, but is it change for the better or change for the worse?

Better being more mature, more deeply or broadly skilled, and more richly connected. Change for the worse being becoming more childish, stale professionally, and increasingly isolated among others.

Viewed as a developmental process, change becomes either a positive dynamic that is worth nurturing or a negative one worth avoiding. The key being you.

Yes, you.

Embracing change is embracing yourself. Who you want to become. What you want to learn and do. Where you want to live and work. With whom you want to partner, collaborate, work and play.

Instead of something to be feared, change becomes the very path toward your future.

Good thing. Because life is change.