tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49040341155156320962024-03-13T08:22:35.376-07:00Live In Your DesignAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08491804241439773571noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904034115515632096.post-83705610520037042772013-10-23T08:36:00.001-07:002013-10-23T08:36:22.184-07:00Life Is Like A Cup of Coffee - Part 2<div style="border-bottom: solid #4F81BD 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent1; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 4.0pt 0in;">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I was amazed during
the last month as I worked with people on their journey to discover their
passion in life to see just how far they have drifted from that unique design
for their lives. </span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">People
intuitively know what they like. It amazes me to see how many people end up a
thousand miles away from that intuitive knowledge. They start jobs just to get
started in a career and then get stuck in that job or occupation field due to
many reasons. Some include things like,</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><i>Reliance on the salary they earn due to
financial commitments they got themselves into</i></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><i>Fear of stepping out into the
“unknown”</i></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><i>Not believing they can do anything other than what they
currently do</i></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">This causes
people to “drink
bitter coffee” </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">on a daily basis. As mentioned in my
previous post, bitter coffee refers to the product of too much coffee and too
little water. Life can be like bitter coffee when the mixture of the things
that makes up our experience are wrong. People that drink bitter coffee have approximately 10 to 50% job satisfaction </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">and that causes them to be unhappy
individuals. The real problem comes in when they go home after a day’s work.
What the people at home get is not the happiest and friendliest individual but
one that causes stress on the family. Everything can spiral out of control in
the home and one’s personal life all because of the wrong occupation. Bob Dickie, President of Crown Financial Ministries, addresses this very issue in his latest<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://robertdickieiii.blogspot.com/2013/10/step-2-avoid-anchors.html" target="_blank">blog</a></span> and I recommend this read to all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">As I have
assisted well over 1,200 teenagers, students and adults in the last few years
in this discovery process through an amazing tool called<span style="color: #6fa8dc;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: lime; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.crown.org/Resources/Career/CareerDirect.aspx" target="_blank">Career Direct®</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">, I have
come to the following conclusions:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">People make
occupational decisions based on:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Parent’s expectations and unfulfilled
dreams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Where the most money is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Peer pressure<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Their interest at the time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This c</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">ould
very easily be the recipe for disaster in a lot of people’s lives in terms of
career and ultimately their sense of purpose. I would like to take this
opportunity to take you through the things I have learned the last few years as
I have consulted with individuals and families through the use of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.crown.org/Resources/Career/CareerDirect.aspx" target="_blank">Career Direct®</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> as an assessment tool. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">Filtering Coffee to get to the perfect cup!</span> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">When using the filtering
process</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> as demonstrated in the picture below to
get to the PASSION of one’s life, I like to use the four levels that<span style="color: cyan;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: cyan; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.crown.org/Resources/Career/CareerDirect.aspx" target="_blank">Career Direct®</a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> uses: Personality, Interests, Skills, and Values.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="background-color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: white;">Level 1: Personality </span> </span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As detailed in my
previous blog post, personality plays the biggest role in understanding one’s
passion. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BEZWMQzO72Y/UmbeE7tFLfI/AAAAAAAAAyg/MrD-r8QbzTg/s1600/filter.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BEZWMQzO72Y/UmbeE7tFLfI/AAAAAAAAAyg/MrD-r8QbzTg/s1600/filter.png" height="269" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Making the right career choice starts with understanding one’s personality. When we understand our unique personality and actually celebrate it, we are in the best possible place to make good decisions about our future. Remember that our personality could change but 1%! It is character that is the variable. Character can go a long way to help with our general mood and demeanor when we are misplaced in a career field, but ultimately it is our personality that will allow us to experience joy or defeat.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="color: white;">Level 2: Interests</span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">People’s
interests are triggered or developed through exposure. There are a lot of
things people are interested in and it is very important when using the
filtering process to understand what is significant regarding career choice and
what is not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The best
resource in understanding what interest is pointing too in a specific career
field, is personality. As we learned, personality will hardly change over a
lifespan of 80 years, so I guess it makes sense to consult the one thing that will be consistent in our
lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I literally
take each one of the interests that are significant in one’s profile and filter
it through the personality. Individuals might be very interested in a specific
activity but the question is whether that activity can make one happy for 60%
of waking time that you will spend at your job? Personality will very quickly
show you whether that interest is something that will make you happy for most
of your waking time on a consistent basis or not. Sometimes personality will
point out that the interest is just a hobby or maybe a once a week activity
instead of an everyday activity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Interests can
be divided into three areas: activity, occupation and subject. It is important to
find the correlation between the different interest areas and then filter that
through the personality. Once you have done that successfully, you can have
that alignment between personality and interest. In other words, the two speak
to each other and are
actually having a wonderful conversation. </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">There is harmony between the two and
that is what we are after. That settles levels one and two. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background-color: #3d85c6; color: white;"><b>Level 3:</b></span><b><span style="background-color: #3d85c6; color: white;"> Skills</span><span style="background-color: #3d85c6; color: #eeeeee;"> </span> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Level three
has got to do with understanding and identifying your skills. This is probably
the easiest level to identify as your grades would reflect your skill and
competency levels. Your friends’ and family’s input would also attest to what
you are good at. One
thing to take into account is the difference between natural skill and acquired
skill. The difference is not as obvious as one might think however.</span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Let me
explain a scenario to illustrate the difference and how this can have an effect
in your fulfillment as a person. Let us assume that I am not the most skilled
artist. I want to improve and so I go for 3 lessons a week for three years.
After three years I have learned almost everything there is to learn and has
actually become quite good. I then enter a drawing competition that allows two
hours to complete a pencil drawing and after two hours of giving my best, I get
a grade of 93%. Also in this drawing competition is a young lady that has not
taken the lessons I have and after two hours she also gets a grade of 93%. In
fact, she only used one of the two allotted hours to complete her drawing. We
both received a very good grade for the work we put in. The difference between
us was not the output (results) but the input (our energy levels). You see, it
took me the full two hours to achieve the 93% grade while it only took her one
hour. I would probably be exhausted after this exercise as I worked from my
acquired skill whereas the young lady would probably be energized by working
from her natural skill. She might even ask if that was the warm up exercise,
while I would pray that it wasn't.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The take away
is to understand what your <i>natural</i>
skill is and to make sure that it correlates with your interest and that both
fit under the umbrella of personality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background-color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Level 4: Values</b> </span> </span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Most people
would not think of values when making a decision on what to study or when applying
for a certain job. Values are actually the last filter in the coffee filtering
process and to me, probably the most critical one. People tend to do what they
think (or want) in the moment, and that could be the undoing that causes a lot
of pain in life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let me
explain by using an example:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let’s assume
a young man of 18 years is generally a very quiet and reserved individual that
also likes to be very precise and organized. He also does not like change and
is not very adventurous. Everything I just mentioned is personality traits that
will not change significantly over a lifetime of 80 years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He befriends
some guys his age that are very sporty and adventurous and before long he gets
dragged to all their activities and explorations. He even starts to enjoy being
around them and then actually assimilates to the way they view life. The way he
sees and perceives the world has just changed. The problem however is that he didn't change in the way he does things. Let’s say that he graduates and are
lured to become a Ski instructor in the Swiss Alps with his friends. How long
do you think he will last in the Alps? I think that it would not be very long,
because as a precise and organized person, he might not like to share a room
with 5 others that might not be as precise as he is. The schedule might change
on them a lot due to the weather and he needs to talk to strangers a lot. That
might not be the best environment for him. The way that he viewed the world
through his friends’ eyes, in other words the values he made decisions on, just
caused him a great deal of discomfort and displeasure.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><b style="background-color: white;">Coffee that Produces</b><b><span style="background-color: white;"> Passion </span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 115%;">In order to drink the good
coffee that comes through this filtering process, all of the four areas need to
be aligned and correlated. I call this correlation the
golden thread that runs through your life. That is what produces good coffee
and the unique thing that happens when you take a sip of that coffee is that it
produces passion in your life. This passion flows every day without you having
to <i>borrow it</i>, <i>work it up</i> or <i>talk yourself into it</i>. I wish this on every person
walking the face of the earth today. May each of you enjoy a great cup of
coffee!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08491804241439773571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904034115515632096.post-37963397327516619892013-10-07T14:01:00.000-07:002013-10-08T09:07:09.868-07:00Life Is Like A Cup of Coffee...<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Life Is Like A Cup of Coffee...</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ever wondered why most people say that they are not happy in
their current job? According to a Mercer survey of 30,000 workers worldwide,
between 28% and 56% of employees in 17 spots around the globe wanted to leave
their jobs. According to a Right Management survey between April 16 and May 15,
44% of the participants indicated that they were totally unsatisfied with their
jobs while 21% said that they were somewhat unsatisfied with their jobs. That
is a staggering 65% of unhappy employees. This should ring alarm bells to
employers, as a demotivated workforce means lower productivity and poorer
service. Something is wrong with this picture!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These surveys only mention the current workforce and do not
reflect the unemployed, job seekers, college students and graduates that must
still enter the workforce. With the current economic stress around the globe
forcing employers to rather look for part time employment rather than full time
employment, this does not look bright for the world of employment opportunities
in the near future. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With this in mind, the question that immediately comes to mind
is whether there are any solutions to this very concerning trend. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The answer in my own mind is that there are certain things
we can do as individuals to better educate and equip ourselves in order to
penetrate the world of work with confidence and surety. Bob Dickie, President
of Crown Financial Ministries, wrote a very insightful <b><i><a href="http://aide-de-camp.typepad.com/captain_robert_dickie/">ARTICLE</a></i></b> in Fox news
recently explaining the new norm in terms of the world of work and how to
prepare oneself to find success in an uncertain world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the next few blog posts, I would like to address a way
to better understand and position one for entering the world of work with hope.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>How does your coffee
taste?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am a coffee drinker. I love filtered coffee and through
the years I have tried to get to the right combination of ground coffee and
water in order to produce the perfect cup of coffee. I failed many times to
produce the perfect cup however. I either added too much coffee and to little
water, or too much water and to little coffee. This always ended in two
different tastes, namely extremely bitter or terribly weak!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I tried to perfect the process of coffee making, it
dawned on me that life could be compared to a cup of coffee. Life could be
bitter, weak or what we always seek…the perfect cup! It must smell and taste
just right. Unfortunately that is not the norm. People keep trying and testing
to find that balance where their coffee tastes just right! I realized that it
is all in the combination of coffee and water. Whatever goes into the filter is
what will come out in the cup. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life as we experience it is a result of the input that has
come into our mixing filters. The result is what we experience on a daily basis
in terms of how we see and experience the world around us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I realized that this has to do with the way my character has
been formed from birth to the present. I am experiencing either bitter, weak or
fantastic coffee on a daily basis! The age old Nature versus Nurture debate
comes to mind and frankly, I do not want to enter that debate at all. What I
will say about it is that both nature and nurture play a significant role in my
development as a person and “yes” in the taste of my cup of coffee.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At birth I have a genetic inheritance in my personally that
Geneticists tell me has approximately 30% influence in my personality. This can
be traced 4 generations back. I am also told that personality changes at most
1% over a period of 80 years. As I pondered on these observations and facts, I
started asking the question, “If I have approximately 30% inherited personality
traits and I am not going to change in my personality over my lifetime, then
where does the other 70% come from?” Most people will say that it will be
formed through influence in my life as I grow up, but the problem I have with
that statement is that personality doesn’t change and at what point does my
personality decide that it has grown enough? You see, I realized that the
influence from outside myself builds and develop my character, but my
personality still remains and has done so from birth. I am not going to attempt
to answer the 70% question, other than to suggest that according to me it could
only come from the giver of life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I started thinking about Character (from the outside in)
and Personality (from the inside out) I realized its importance in my work
life. We so often head into a direction that feels right, or looks exciting. We
end up studying in that direction and enter the work market in those fields,
only to realize a year or two later that we are miserable. How did this happen?
Well, I come back to my coffee filter example. Just because you made coffee,
doesn't mean that it going to taste perfect. We so often mix the wrong
quantities together expecting to experience a great fulfilling taste.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just as a person has a personality, so too does a certain
job. What happens to people is that they enter the world of work in a specific
job and soon the person’s and job’s personalities will either gel together, or
will they will clash. As I learn about the fact that personalities don’t change
more than 1%, I realized that the person or job will not change in their
personalities either. What normally happens is that the person will have to
work very hard in their character to motivate themselves every day to endure.
Every day they pray for strength, feed off the encouraging word of family and colleagues
or read and repeat positive references. <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">This only helps till 11 am.</span> The rest of the day becomes a drag till
finally you are saved from the torture, only to go through the same routine the
following day. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The real sad part is that we spend plus minus 60% of our
waking time at work. If we enter the other 40% waking time with only 10 to 50%
work fulfillment, it will have a negative effect on the way we spend that
remaining 40% waking time. This is where most people struggle. They overdo it
totally by hanging out in certain places that might not be the healthiest
alternatives, or they become couch potatoes feeling sorry for themselves. This
will not just affect your own life, but also those that do life with you. Your
work fulfillment has a direct influence on your relationships with those closes
to you as well as with those around you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would like to show you in next week’s blog how to get the
perfect mix regarding filtering your life to taste like a perfect cup of
coffee.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08491804241439773571noreply@blogger.com0