Tag: career

Could you be better?

~ K ~ Leave a comment

I’m pretty good at my job. Sure, I know I have room to improve, make myself and my company better, make more money, etc.  And if I worked for someone (other than myself),  I’d say I’m a solid B+/A- worker. I get the job done and I do a great job at it.

But that made me wonder: What if I was better at another job (or career) and I just don’t know it?  Hell, I know I could be a great ticket taker at the movie theater. I wouldn’t be pulling down an awesome salary but I would be awesome at it.

So with an easy job; yeah, I would be awesome. But what if there is a job out there that I would be even better at…there was “more” for me to excel at at? I would reach a higher level of success at that job instead of my current job?  How do I figure out what that is?

How many of us are really good at our jobs but in another career field, we would be awesome?

Clearly, I’m awesome at a lot of things. And I’m modest too. I just don’t know what I would be better at. What talents and knowledge haven’t I tapped into?

What makes you great? Do you know?

  

How to Stay Demotivated in Life: Worthless Advice that is Great for Years to Come

~ K ~ 3 Comments

Sigh…it is so easy to stay motivated when you have a bunch of positive people around you, a stable work environment, and a loving family.  But is that really the best you deserve in life?  To be a highly motivated individual that contributes positively to the world?  A person who is chipper and upbeat; who gets knocked down but still gets up again?

Let’s get unmotivated and demotivate ourselves, shall we?  Here are some worthless advice tips to help you become the loser your girlfriend’s parents warned her about.

Hang Around Losers

Remember how when you were young you had goals and dreams?  No? Me either.  One of best ways to get those silly dreams out of your head is to hang out with losers.  Now, you can find them at your local bar, in friend’s basement, or maybe down at the local park.  The only requirement is for you to stop trying to make yourself better by hanging out in studying groups, book discussion groups, or trade groups.  Just accept that these people are the best individuals you will ever find in life and you’ll never do any better.

Find a Career You Hate and Stick with It!

Remember you took that job as a temporary gig until you found your dream job?  You promise yourself that you’ll do the best you can at it but it is only temporary….  Now, here you are 3, 5, or even 12 years down the line and you are still there in hell staring at your egg salad sandwich (yummy).  So much for keeping your eyes and ears open for a better job opportunity, right?  You might as well stay in your terrible job until your retire…or your company goes bankrupt and your meager retirement funds disappear faster than a donut at a fat farm.  And don’t you dare join a trade group that might help further your career; that might motivate you to better your career and actually enjoy your job.

Watch Mindless Reality Television

Whoa, Einstein…put that book down and turn on your TV.  Why read a book when you can watch a bunch of worthless TV all day long.  As soon as you get home from work, mark sure you turn on that TV and just watch TV.  Maybe learn how to make a bird cage out of willow branches for the imaginary bird you will never own.

Eat Junk Food

Nothing makes you feel like a total loser that that chocolate bar you just pigged down.  Oh, it tastes wonderful as it melts in your mouth.  What is the saying…ounce on the lips, a pound on the hip.  Skip the salads, fresh fruit, and clear water.  Instead focus on yourself and your personal enjoyment.  Your kids love you no matter what and they’ll love you even more when you are dead far too early and you never know your grandchildren.

Take Up Smoking

Don’t listen to all those naysayers, millions of people smoke and they are just fine.  Besides smoking helps keep our medical-industrial-chemical-pharmaceutical overlords in business and money flowing through the economy.  Smoking adds to high blood pressure, lung cancer, throat cancer, and a boat load of other fun diseases to keep your doctor busy for years to come!   See?  Bad habits can be good for someone!

Never Try to Improve Anything

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.  Remember how the big rage was continuous improvement?  It was the idea that you should always be trying to improve yourself, your company, your product.  Why?  Why bother?  You just look like a go getter, a mover and shaker.  You don’t need that.  Let things be the same.  Don’t go back to school either and try to improve yourself.  Stay stagnant.

Never Complete Your “To Do List”

Lists are great demotivational tools!  You can look at how long it is and how many things you have failed to do…again….everyday….forever….  My worthless advice is to put that list up on your bathroom mirror so you can see every day how you aren’t accomplishing anything at all.

Well, I’m glad you managed to waste more of your time (and your employer’s time) by demotivating yourself by reading my post for today.  Now, share your witty comments and personal best demotivating tips below in my comment section.  Come one….you know you want to!  At least hit the “Like” button so I know you feel worse than when you started reading this.

How I became a New York Times Bestseller author!

~ K ~ 2 Comments

If you really want to be depressed, do a little research into making that creative career switch.  As my imaginary stalker Cyndi and you both know, I have a dream of writing that next New York Times Bestselling novel that will make me rich!  Oh yeah! I’ll be jet setting around the country in first class (sweet!) and wearing a tweed jacket, reading passages from my latest work to adoring fans, sipping an Americano and chuckling at my good fortune.

I got into this research mode with a stop this afternoon at the local grocery store. I noticed they had some brand new books for sale on a display table near the checkout stand.  As I flipped through a few pages of the novels, I wondered how much money the author would receive from this hardcover book.  Since it wasn’t a genre I had any interest in, I made a mental note to look up the author when I got home (which I since have forgotten the author’s name and the book’s title).  Oh well.  I decided to see what an author might expect to sell their first novel for (in terms of advances) and how many copies the first book might actually sell.  Was it ten thousand books?  Twenty thousand copies?

Yikes!  What a wake up call.  It might be as low as 500 books!  I know that everyone wants to write a novel and become a published author.  I didn’t know the pay was so bad.  I looked around at a few blogs and some people commented that they wrote because they love to write.  Bravo for them!  That is fine as a hobby but not as a career.  Some comments even alluded to the fact they would make more money flipping burgers at the local fast food restaurant than as an author writing for a whole year.

I have nothing against writing as a hobby.  However, if it is something I’m really passionate about and I want to make a living at it, then I do want to get paid more than the average burger flipper.  Call me greedy for chasing the dollar but my family does like to live in a nice house and have food on their dinner plates.

Sure, I could say “Follow my heart and the money will follow”.  A better piece of advice would be to write that novel in my spare time, try to sell it, and don’t quit your day job.  We all know that no one has spare time; it would be an evening and weekend endeavor.  I don’t mind doing that as a hobby but it sure would be nice to get paid if I am doing a part time job on the side.

Writing isn’t easy.  Characters and plots take time.  You have to develop a story, write a rough draft, and edit it.

Am I whining too much?  Sure.  I’m entitled to do a little whining.  Like everyone else, I want it to be easy.  I know it won’t be easy but it might be enjoyable.

I just hoped that by investing that amount of time into a project, it would at least spin off some additional income I could invest with.  Maybe build up my retirement that much faster.  Being 40 and having a stock market crash and real estate crash knock me down a bit, it would like nice to have an extra income stream to rely on.  A business that I only had to work on a few hours a week yet would spin off some nice cash flow.  Maybe a blog about fairy tales?  Because this is what this blog entry seems to be about!

As always, your comments, concerns, and suggestions are always welcome!