My vision is SO distorted. This picture is how I see my world. Wavy lines, twisted shadows, and an almost unrecognizable image.
My worldview, my personality, my experiences, my circumstances all pull at my senses so that what I see is a shadow of what is.
I find it fascinating that the Bible tells me I see things as puzzling reflections. Almost as if God understands my condition and that He is willing and able to work on my vision for and with me.
You know what truly amazes me? God knows me completely. And He loves me, anyway. And I can say that about you, too. Regardless of how we see things, what images and shadows and distortions we hide from or shadow box....we are loved. We are valuable to the God of the universe.
What big confusing mirror image would you like to have straightened out? Maybe you should talk to God about that.
Have a great weekend.
Boredom can suck the joy right out of life.
We need to know enough about our limitations and bents so that we can thrive in the things we choose to do with our time. And in the things we need to do with our time.
Now. That said. I had a conversation with a friend who has taken on a two year project that requires her to do data entry and fix accounts. And she hates it. The job is self-directed and she is in a small room with two others but little interaction. And one coworker plays music she doesn't care for. She said she's thinking about finding a different job.
This woman loved her previous tasks...was a cheerleader for her company just a few short weeks ago.
I've been in her shoes. A job that doesn't fit chafes like cheap wedges or tight polyester pants on a ninety degree day. And I've been painted into the tiny corner where I wanted to leave a job so much that I took a significant pay cut and would have considered any job just to escape.
What was my problem? Terrible fit. And here's the rub. I love a creative outlet. I NEED a creative outlet and these jobs had plenty of creativity. But...here was my pattern. Assess. Dream. Plan. Pull off. Rest. Assess. Dream. Make it better. Rest. Assess. Recognize that I had done it, done it better, and reached a wall.
My job, creative as it was, lacked the carrot that kept me chasing after the challenge.
And then I began to hate my job, finding the negatives, picking apart the details, and planning my escape.
I'd like to help my friend avoid this scenario because her current duties aren't a good fit in a company she loves.
Here is the advice I gave her.
Challenge herself to crack a two-year job out quicker and with greater efficiency so she can cross names off her list, turn the paper work over and shorten her pile, and move to a task that fits her better. She's a natural list maker and does like a good detail, so this could help.
Communicate: I suggested that she talk to her supervisor and tell him or her that she is struggling. After all, no one wants to lose a great employee over a misfit job description.
Creativity: I also told her to take frequent mental health breaks. To put ear phones in and listen to music that makes her feel alive instead of suffocated. To find the areas where she can stretch and grow and learn.
My current position is not creative in nature. However, it constantly challenges me and I learn something new every day. As I've told you before, one of my hot buttons is learning. I love learning. Medicine is a field that will never bore me.
Do you love your job? Aspects of it? Can you tweak something small that will add joy to your job?
How do you feel right now?
Exhausted, overwhelmed, overextended, bored, or on top of the world?
Maybe you need to give yourself permission to take a long nap. Lack of sleep or rest can suck the life right out of life. If your sleep account is overdrawn, schedule a day of rest in your very near future or go to bed an hour earlier every night for a week. Avoid caffeine after lunch if you are sensitive to the effects. Or quit playing the snooze alarm game and just set your alarm for a half hour later than normal so your last half hour is actual sleep. Look at your productivity levels. Do you feel most productive in the morning? Do you love to work with the midnight oil burning? Rearrange some of your duties and responsibilities to fit into those times of productivity.
Overwhelmed and overextended are danger signs. Can you escape some duties that are flexible, rethink the way you do a task or give some details away to another person? Or choose to make those details unimportant for a period of time. Your well-being and sanity are more important than tiny details.
When was the last time you listened to the cues your body is sending you? Do you regularly hit a mid-afternoon slump? Or a mid-morning crash? Eating breakfast, or adding protein to and cutting out processed white flour, white sugar from the food you do eat could make all the difference in how you feel? Try water instead of soda at lunch. Look for lunches that contain real food, not highly processed fast and hot "meals", or chemical concoctions that do not give your body the fuel it needs.
I spent a lot of time at the coffee shop yesterday. I had my pre-work hour long shift, went to work, and then worked a closing shift for someone who needed me to.
It was a full day. On top of that, I had an article I had to write/finish with a deadline of this morning.
Stress was part of the day. Plenty of stress, self-imposed. I've had a month to work on the article, and I did, for the most part. The article involves reading a book, and coming up with recipes that dovetail with the book for book club meetings. So, I used lots of brain cells trying to get this all done. I finished trying out the recipes this weekend and they were typed in, tweaked and ready to go. However, the article itself needed writing. I wanted the extra shift at the coffee shop and work-work was still a large pile of things that needed to be done.
So I chose to have a good attitude, and to let the details fall into place, and just do what I could to the best of my ability to do it. I also chose to pray about those details, because frankly, I need all the help I can get.
And. At eleven o'clock at night I was in bed with all the things done I needed to get done.
And I managed to have some pretty meaningful conversations throughout the day. Had I chosen to stress about my to-do list I'm afraid it would have been an entirely different scenario altogether. My conversations would have been peppered with self-defeat, anxious thoughts, and probably lots of spinning tires with no forward motion.
Do you have a looming burden? Have you prayed about it? Can you take one step at a time and whittle away until it seems less threatening? Maybe spending a peaceful hour at a coffee shop or discussing things over with a someone is what you need.
Mondays can feel insurmountable.
If your weekend was busy enough that you could not accomplish all you set out to do, let alone have an opportunity to relax, Monday can fall like an avalanche.
But, Monday is just another day. We have given it significance greater than it deserves.
Think about it. Monday (and Friday) are just days. And each day is a gift. And each day has it's own blessings and it's own trials. Don't let the Mondays in life steal the choice you have to look for the blessings. Don't put your life on hold waiting for the Fridays to begin living. And don't put off the choices that you should make on Wednesday until next Monday. Look up. Look to the source of hope and help you have. Look for the blessings in your day. They are there, maybe buried under the rubble of a disappointing weekend or a pile of work that has piled up on your desk, but they are there, just look.
Did you read the links I provided yesterday? The brain rot article was extra fascinating to me. One point in particular resonated (don't you
love being able to use Reader's Digest Words to Ponder?) with me.
The section where he mentioned that stress is something to be expected,
and we all know about the stressors in life (mostly changes like
relationships, homes, jobs, health) but that being with chronic
complainers and negative people is as lethal as stress to our well-being.
Which reminds me of a really stress filled time at work several years ago. When we got
our new Windows based computer system half the staff had limited
computer experience. And our whole schtick was to go completely
paperless. Let me give a hearty laugh right now. Har. Har. Har.
Paperless DID NOT happen. However, stress bloomed like those super
growing trees that promise ten feet of growth per year. Part of the
problem was the OOPS factor, our DOS based data didn't carry over as promised.
So everything had to be re-keyed into the new system. That was just one
of the issues. The stress and tension was so big I thought we might lose a few staff people. (No, not death, quitting, but there were times
death might have been welcomed.) Anyhoo, we somehow survived that
trial intact. We each kind of found a niche and learned it and then trained
others who needed to know it. We still occasionally have a serendipitous
moment when we stumble onto some sneaky and helpful shortcut. Long way
of saying, stress and negativity definitely was the color of the day,
week, month.
Oddly, a few months later I began breaking molars.
After the second one cracked and needed to be repaired I realized that
during the tension of that couple of months my whole face hurt. I
had been clenching my teeth, probably even as I slept, and I weakened
teeth that had been repaired when I was younger. The weak areas were
vulnerable to my stress. I became so aware of that little bad habit that
to this day I feel my stress in my face. When my face feels tense I
eventually check my stress level and work on some ways to decrease that
tension.
The office has been quiet the past two days in spite of experiencing, with our entire city, a boil
alert. We had a huge sewer implosion and it had the potential of
contaminating our entire water supply. So we were unable to drink or
cook with water unless it had been boiled for at least a minute. Each of
us brought in our own water, a drug rep brought in water. Washing
hands was a conundrum. Wash our hands with soap and contaminated water,
then follow with hand sanitizer, or skip the contaminated water
altogether? But we survived with minimal complaining.
And a co-worker, who
reads my blog periodically, reported that she was going to look at a
negative as a positive. Instead of complaining that we have to park far
away from our office (with the ready reminder of the security guard
parked at the mouth of the parking garage where we are not supposed to park) she was going to restate the trek as an opportunity for extra
exercise. Especially since she usually packs a Bible, a Bible study book
and several bottles of water as well as her lunch. Ha. Ha. Way to go.
Get that cardio on, Baby.
Have a happy, uplifting, positive
weekend. What activities do you have planned and how can you frame them
so that you can see the good bits and minimize the not so good ones?
Does the way you look at the world really make a difference????? I did some poking around on the internet looking for
stats and details about negativity vs positive mind set. Here are some
very interesting links I found. I didn't drill down and look at the
cited details so I can't say I agree with everything. But I found this information to be thought provoking. And
I'm a big fan of thinking things through.
Brain Rotting
Attitude
Issues and Relationships
Health Issues Don’t store up treasures on earth! Moths and rust can destroy them, and
thieves can break in and steal them. Instead, store up your treasures
in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy them, and thieves cannot
break in and steal them. Your heart will always be where your treasure
is.” Matthew 6:19-21 CEV
