Forgotten appointment undermines claim of interest.
Karl Edwards
Category: Working Matters
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Loving Monday: Smiling Out Loud
Today calls for a good laugh.I don’t know what it is. I’m in an inexplicably good mood, and I want to joke around with everyone in the vicinity.
Best is when I get to laugh at myself. An idiosyncrasy, a silly mistake, some aspect of showing up completely human when the workplace expected a machine. When I can laugh at myself it frees others to let down their guards and laugh too.
The only way to make sure the important things stay important is to remind ourselves that they are not THAT important.
Humor is my secret perspective-restoring weapon.
It seems like more of a secret than it really is, because it is so counter-intuitive. Most people can’t even imagine cracking a smile in a tough situation much less poking fun at it.
Humor is my favorite and most effective tool for keeping a cool and sharp head when things get crazy busy, far too intense, or reactions spiral out of proportion to what’s actually going on.
And of course, a good laugh is refreshing. Like a cup of cold water on a hot day, smiling out loud throws an surprising and exhilarating splash of joy into our faces.
Startled, we join in the lightness of the moment, appreciate that we’re all human and on the same team, and then get back to work.
Yes, today calls for a good laugh. And so do a good many more.
Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.
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Loving Monday: Mustering Energy When The Tanks Feel Empty
We all have Mondays—even seasons of Mondays—when we aren’t sure whether we can muster the energy to face a new week.(I’m not in a position to speak to the darkest seasons of depression or chronic anxiety. The best gift you can give yourself if such pervasive darkness or fear handicaps your life is to seek a professional counselor or therapist.)
Here are a few suggestions that I find helpful when I struggle to stay in the game.Build in some personal achievement benefits to your job. Learn a new skill. You might learn a bit of html so that you can communicate better with your IT department. You might learn how to read a financial statement so that you can better understand how your performance affects the bottom line.
Set a secret objective. In addition to reaching your sales goals, increase the caliber of client you’re seeking. Besides solving the disgruntled customer’s problem, try sending them away thrilled and thanking you like you’re a hero.
Do something refreshingly kind. Treat everyone to ice cream or  a bottle of specialty soda. Offer to complete an unpleasant chore for a struggling co-worker.
Contribute to building a healthier office culture. Write an article for the company newsletter. (Or start a company newsletter!) Publicly and personally thank co-workers for a job well done. Communicate and coordinate work flow changes more quickly and more often.
The main characteristic of all these tips is that they get your mind off of your foul mood and onto your interests, aspirations, co-workers and office culture. In each of these small actions you experience that you are worthwhile, have something valuable to offer, and that your choices make a difference.
If you had a hard time getting going today, try one new thing tomorrow. Experiment. Discover what helps shift your focus, fosters a different attitude, or offers a fresh perspective to you.Â
Instead of waiting for a massive mood change, try making a small action change.
On your side,
– Karl Edwards
Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.
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Quote to Consider: Choosing to be Wise
“Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise.”Samuel Lover
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Karl Shares Six Words… #67
Trouble ignored is potential breakthrough denied.
Karl Edwards
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Quote to Consider: Seriously Now
“The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.”Margot Fonteyn
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Karl Shares Six Words… #66
Commitment inspired by receiving second chance.
Karl Edwards
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Loving Monday: Forgiving Yourself Creates a Way Forward
We are often our own biggest barrier to getting off to a good start each week.I am not referring to our foibles, mistakes, flaws, errors, shortcomings, or crimes.
I am referring to our unwillingness to forgive ourselves for those foibles, mistakes, flaws, errors, shortcomings, and crimes.
Sure, mistakes are costly. No doubt about it.But mistakes can be corrected and serve as a learning opportunity. In other words, there is a future worth pursuing on the other side of most problems we cause.
If we beat up on ourselves for being less than perfect, feel we need to punish ourselves, or—worst of all—attribute negative or derogatory judgments about our characters, then we make it almost impossible to move forward, get going again, or jump back into the game with energy, determination and poise.
The key is to notice whether we focus on the error and its solution, or we focus on ourselves and our deficiencies.
In one case we participate powerfully in the creation of a constructive learning opportunity out of which we can adjust, experiment, and grow. In the other case we spin helplessly in a self-imposed quagmire of self-condemnation, perpetual second-guessing, and plummeting self-esteem.
If you have messed up recently, even if in a big way, the way forward will not be found in beating up on yourself.
The way forward lies in forgiving yourself. Only then will you be free enough inside to shift your focus constructively to the learning, adjusting and changes that will result in a new way forward.
On your side.
– Karl Edwards
Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.
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Quote to Consider: Every Step Matters
“Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”Jacob A. Riis
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Loving Monday: Wishing You Were More
Have  you ever thought that you should be more than you are? More experienced, more skilled, more relational, more organized, etc.?
Our hiring practices can lead us to believe that there are ideal people out there somewhere. And we mistakenly conclude that we are not one of them.
We compare diverse, complex individuals against our idealized preferences as laid out in a depersonalized list of job responsibilities, qualifications, and characteristics.
(We’ll leave the disasters and complications that such a process creates for the hiring process for another article.)
For today, though, I want to look at how we inadvertently buy into and compare ourselves with these idealized myths of the omni-competent professional.
Well of course we always come up short against such an unfair and unrealistic comparison.
Many of us react by thinking we should be other than we are… more than we are. We think we are lacking in some regard, deficient, or inadequate.
The result of such thinking is disastrous.
Once we believe that we are not enough or wish that we were more than we are, we begin behaving accordingly. We sabotage our own well-earned giftedness, (more…)