Four Tips for Living a More Than OK Life

I have been asked many times what is “Living More Than OK” about? What am I trying to get across to people? When I think those questions, the first thought that comes to my mind is a thought from Dr. Martin Seligman’s book, “Flourishing”, ‘happiness, flow, meaning, love, gratitude, accomplishment, growth, better relationships – constitute human flourishing. Learning you can have more of these things in life is life changing.” That is the basis of Dr. Seligman’s book considering the importance of positive psychology principles for daily living. His Dr. Seligman’s thoughts relate well with the message I am trying to have people think about in their own lives.

1. Wake Up and Live

I am trying to wake up people from their reality TV slumber and remind them that we all are created for more than simply existing. That we can move beyond boring ok-ness to living more than ok... spiraling up to abundant living. Abundant living is similar to Seligman’s thoughts on flourishing living. Throughout my years of observing life. I have observed too many live in a passive survival mode. That is what TV tries to capitalize on. As people come home from working a hard day they become hooked staring at a large screen in the living room giving them entertainment. In reading time management articles over the past couple of years, I have noticed the trend being stated that more people waste time on the Internet that watching TV. Still both use the same passive watching of a screen. It is just that with computers and iPads the screens have become smaller.

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2. Fighting Okness

What I am encouraging is a move from passivity to a continual growth process in the individual life journey. It is the plateaus of ok-ness that bring on boredom. This stagnates our life, and sad to say a person can become comfortably bored living years of existence in the cycle of work, TV and beer until retirement, then it narrows down to TV and beer. Then looking back with a life of regret over what they wish they would have done in life. Again I am hard on TV, as over the years I have seen the dedication to what is called reality TV, which is not really reality. The whole concept comes across to me sad in seeing millions of people voyeuristically, wasting time observing other people living their lives rather than actively living their own lives.

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3. How to Think Versus Daydream

In my book I look at various aspects of positive psychology such as happiness, thankfulness, personal growth, meaning and resilience. I cover these by discussing the foundation of these with critical and creative thinking. I promote taking time to think over personal dreams and life purpose instead of daydreaming. I emphasize, being more active in life is important by considering adding natural high activities and taking risks on new activities in one’s life. There is no effort in my book to prioritize the various topics, as I believe we are each uniquely created with various personal interests and strengths. As I state in the forward of my book I am trying to wet the appetites of the readers to grow deeper in the topics they find more relevant to their life journey.

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4. Read

Other than the theme of continual individual growth there is a unique theme I emphasize in the book. That is my essay on being a bookhead. Granted, I am an avid reader, so I promote reading from a personal interest standpoint. But more so as I do research on reading, I believe that reading is important in helping the individual move from being passive to active in their living. Reading might be construed as a passive activity, but it is reading that actively engages the mind creatively and analytically to make choices for personal growth. I am presently continuing practical research on reading and that will be the main topic of the next “Living More Than OK” book I do.

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So if you feel like you are tired of being stuck on a boring plateau of ok-ness order a copy of my book and start actively “Living More Than OK”.
You can order it online at these merchants:
AuthorHouse

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

You can also order it through your local bookseller as well.
Keep spiraling upwards in your life!

Reflection: Do you feel stuck in a boring plateau in your life? Brainstorm ways you can break out of the rut to be more active.

Reflections On The Past Of Living More Than OK

This week I am doing personal reflections on the beginning inspirations of my blog, which turned into my book. My hope is that it will give you a deeper feeling for where I am coming from in emphasizing continual self-improvement which that I call, “Living More Than OK”.

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How It Started

When I think back to the year 2009, I am still thankful for having the privilege to take the course on Positive Psychology with lectures by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar. That opened my mind in a deep manner about the wellness model within psychology. His encouragement at the end of the course was to seek ways to promote positive psychology concepts. It was after that when I began to think about starting my blog. Of course negative self-talk filled my mind with -- who would bother to read anything I wrote. Still by reframing my thoughts, I settled on if doing it, even if it helps only a few people live a better life. Writing the blog I felt was worth the effort.

The Role of Boredom

At first thought in 2009, the word boredom came to my mind as I thought through how I viewed how many people live their lives. Then discussions with my College students about how boredom negatively affected their studies and personal lives further intrigued my thinking for the need to encourage positive psychology principles. All of this moved me to read research articles on the subject. It made sense that a life of boredom increases negative effects in daily life. A tragic example of this was seen in the Summer of 2013 in Oklahoma as three teens murdered a college age baseball player as he was jogging. Reports stated the teens were bored and simply killed him for some excitement.

Of course that is an extreme case for most people, the boredom of life means wasting their life away. Too many live below their potential, which I have observed in many college students by their own admission in discussions. I have seen the same in work settings over the years. That is why I stated back in 2009, just OK living is going through the motions with no purpose or meaning. I don’t see it as a way the best way of living.

We were created for a better life than just surviving.

The words of Jesus that inspired my study came from “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10). This is more the way I think we should be living life. Abundant living is living life to the full.

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What is the goal of life?

Boredom steals from our living and destroys and in some cases sadly, even kills. Abundant living and practical ways to live to our full God given potential is what I have always tried to explore ins this blog and hope to continue to do in the future.

The first questions I posed back in 2009 still hold true for me today: How can we continually move beyond boredom to living a joyful and abundant life? A continual growth mindset of “Living More Than OK” realizes that as we grow beyond what is ok in our life we plateau to a new level of ok-ness. So, the goal of abundant living is to not settle on the plateaus, but to keep growing to new levels of “Living More Than OK”. That is what I have been trying to get across in this blog over the years.

Reflection:
How does boredom in life negatively affect you? What are ways you have learned to keep your life moving to new levels of living more than ok?

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Moving Beyond Boredom On Your Career Journey

Every hour of work feels like a never-ending blur of the same blahness of the previous hour. What once was an interesting job is now a routine of “can I just make it through another day”. This work morass hampers our work productivity and affects how well we do on work revues. This can even hasten a layoff in these financially tough times where companies are looking for people to be rid of. The burnout and blahs are often a result of boredom taking over our work life. Our career life can be debilitated by boredom and the feeling of being in a stuck zone.

In the work world one major cause of this is we become so familiar with our work that the initial excitement of learning to do well fades away. The routine activities reach such familiarity we find ourselves floating through on autopilot with no excitement or enjoyment of what we are doing. We settle not to aim for excellence but the OKness of just getting by with the minimum effort just to keep the paycheck coming. This can make us feel like we are in the Stuck zone; stuck with doing the same work activity day after day. Being in the Stuck zone carries with it a depressive lack of feeling; a numbness of just going through the motions. When we are in the boring stuck zone we have a nagging feeling that this is not the way to spend our work life. What are some ways to move beyond this boredom in our work and career area of our life?

Look for a renewed sense of calling in your work is a starting point. You may respond "but I am not in a calling I am just doing a job for a paycheck". You can turn a job into a calling. Take a relook at what you are doing as calling can relate to the sense of purpose in our work and career. Whose lives are you touching through your work? What is the bigger picture of life going on in your work place? Is it just about you or something bigger than you? Try to find the bigger perspective in your work. Purpose can rebuild some fulfillment in your work.

Our mindset attitude also can help with moving beyond boredom as boredom is often rooted in our attitude. Having a mindset for excellence instead of just getting by can improve your feeling levels to conquer boredom. Education and learning gets a bad rap but it is through learning we can increase our work skills and turn a job more into a career feeling and maybe even a calling feeling. Are you working where the HR department offers trainings? Check out their training opportunities. On the internet there are also training websites that help you improve in your work skills. Local community colleges and universities may offer continuing Education courses that relate to improving your work skills and continuing education credits are usually lower cost that normal college credit courses..

One thing that has always helped me in my attitude towards work has been the spiritual aspect of my work. Whether it was shipping and receiving for a company in Ohio, Janitorial work through college days, customer service, or my most recent work with students at a University I keep a spiritual component in my work mindset. Part of the spiritual is the big picture purpose of my work. Another part is I think of who am I working for? The company, the customer, the paycheck? Ultimately even though in a secular environment I believe I am working for God. That mindset guides me to work for as much excellence as I can in all I do. All my activities at work I am doing in God’s presence. It guides me to work in an ethical way so at the end of the day I can say with no regrets I gave it my best.

Another area of moving beyond boredom is to keep improving the work experience. This allows you to tap into your creative thinking to improve your work life. Write a list of 5 areas of your work you really enjoy. These are the flow activities where time at work flies by. They are probably areas where your natural strengths shine through. Brainstorm how you can keep improving in these areas. Then look at 5 weak areas to your work. These are the areas that make you dread Monday’s blues. They hamper flow and make the day drag on and on and on and on. You get the point! Brainstorm how you can attack these areas and either get help with them or come up with more enjoyable ways to do them. The writings of Michael Michalko are wonderful to help in developing your creative thinking in the workplace.

These are just a few ideas to help in overcoming boredom in your career life. You can research on the internet and find others or in your personal brainstorming come up with other ideas. The important thing is if you are in a stuck zone in your work you don’t necessarily in these financially tough times have to throw in the towel you have the power in your mind and attitudes to Move beyond the boredom.

Reflection
Take time to do the exercise noted above:
Write a list of 5 areas of your work you really enjoy. These are the flow activities where time at work flies by. They are probably areas where your natural strengths shine through. Brainstorm how you can keep improving in these areas. Since these make use of your strengths see how you can enlarge these 5 areas in your work. Then list 5 weak areas to your work. These are the areas that make you dread Mondays blues. They hamper flow and make the day drag on and on and on and on. You get the point! Brainstorm how you can attack these areas and either get help with them or come up with more enjoyable ways to do them.

Life-long Learning to Overcome Career Mediocrity

Sometimes boredom affects our work lives as we settle into the ok-ness of mediocrity in our day to day work life. We go through the motions of the 9-5 longing for the end of the day. Each day becomes longer and longer. Even if we are working in more than a job for ourselves -- a career or calling. It can lose its luster from the initial passion we had at the first day of our dream job. We become stuck in the same patterns and do not grow in knowledge about our career areas so this important part of our life becomes stagnant.

As time marches on changes occur for every one’s career. New ideas, new procedures, and new people come along into our daily work. We also change as well from being thankful for the dream job and eager to do our best at the beginning of our job. With lack of growth and allowing routine to take over how we view our work turns us into cynical, griping, and feeling stuck on a never ending hamster wheel. I want to touch on a couple ways to improve our work life through life long learning. To break out of boring ok-ness in our career and move us into growing and increasing in work satisfaction.

I recently came back from a the Texas Counseling Association conference in Austin, TX. This is one way to reignite your energy in your work. At conferences you can attend training sessions that can help is learning about new changes occurring in your career area. Some sessions help in brushing up in old skill areas and others focus on new creative ideas. Also conferences will have a guest Keynote speaker to energize the attendees and help them breathe new life into their work.

This was very true of our first day main speaker, Bill O’Hanlon, a famous psychotherapist in the Solution Focused school of thought. His talk to us was to help us refocus our passion in the field of Counseling. By stories and examples he helped to reignite my thinking on counseling as well as giving new ideas to try out. I had come into Austin to the conference worn down from a hectic work setting. His session started to perk me up as I was tracking through each of his four main points. This is an example of how Conference times can help you feel pumped up and refreshed to tackle your work setting with new ideas to improve and conquer workplace boredom.

Another aspect of the conference setting is meeting other people in the same career field. In the conference setting you can have coffee or lunch with different people in your career field . Through these interactions you can obtain new ideas of what others are doing. Or commiserate with others in knowing you all face the same struggles. Sometimes a venting session away from the work environment can be of help.

Outside of conferences another helpful way to keep the mind actively improving in your career area is webinars. These are workshops online where you can gain information on a wide variety of topics. Many online educational companies have webinars for Continuing Education Credits for certifications and personal growth. Just the other day I enjoyed a webinar sponsored by an organization I belong to – The National Career Development Association. It was a session on Career Counseling Tips by Dr. John Krumboltz of Stanford University. He is one of the great minds in Psychology. I have mentioned his book on Happenstance, Luck Is No Accident, in other articles on this blog site. The webinar brightened a difficult day and gave me some new ideas to share with my co-worker. So do not ignore webinars as part of your life long learning.

One other area to consider that I cannot pass up since I am a certified Bookhead, is keep up in reading about your career area. As I stated at the beginning, I mentioned career information is always changing. So it is important to keep up with journals and books that relate to your career field. This material can stimulate your mind and help in your work creativity. The increased knowledge as well improves your ability to be in a state of flow in the work you do. This then provides more confidence and allows you to enjoy your work more than just going through the motions on the job.

These are just a few ideas to help in improving your work life through lifelong learning. One other item about conferences-- usually they are held in the larger cities in the U.S. So this gives you an opportunity to do some sight seeing on the side. That is a reason I usually include my wife and daughter on conference trips so we can turn it into a mini family vacation.

Reflection:
Think over your career field. Search on the internet and look for associations or organizations you can join to enliven your career. Search for any magazines or new books at the library that relate to your career area as well. Answer the question How can I improve myself to be a lifelong learner?

Get High On Life With Your Natural High

Living on the Border I hear often the news on the drug cartel wars in Mexico. I believe the number of dead in Mexico is now up to 26,000. I have stated before and still believe so, that the drug users in America and those who want drugs legalized have blood on their hands. Drugs are not essential for life and happiness. They provide a short lived false happiness with long-term destruction for the body and mind. Drugs are not the way to have a More Than OK life which I try to promote. Yet the drug users are fueling the violence in Mexico over drugs.

I have seen too many real life stories of the destruction in personal lives and families due to drug use. Most people can probably recall a friend or family member whose life has been destroyed by drug and alcohol use. I still remember a student talking about his problem with Marijuana to me saying, “they say grass is not addictive but it is.” That is the big myth many try to have society swallow. Marijuana is safe and a good drug they say. The reality is Marijuana is destructive. It stunts mental capabilities and destroys self motivation to improve to have a more than ok life. The student had started smoking grass when he was young and now it was interfering with the education he wanted to obtain.

With the lure of the high feeling, people are seeking in going for drugs, the “just say no to drugs” does not seem to be the best way to stop drugs. For strong critical thinkers who weigh out the pros and cons of things in their life just say no comes across as the clear smart way to go. But positive alternatives need to be brought up for people to do to take the place of the don’t do “just say no” slogan.

That is why I would like to re-mention a website I have mentioned in the past and encourage you to check it out. It is www.naturalhigh.org At this website they are trying to show alternative positive and healthy ways to go for a natural high instead of a drug induced high. Their emphasis is to young people to show them non boring ways to enjoy life with out drugs. I like that they bring up the subject of boredom; as in boredom research, life boredom is one reason young people try drugs to give their body a sensation that they think is exciting. The natural high website provides testimonies that young people can relate to in encouraging them to go for passions in their life with activities instead of sitting around stoned on drugs.

Here is a sample of a Natural High video of a young musician, Cassadee Pope, Lead Singer of Hey Monday. Her passion, her natural high, is singing and making music. Check out this video of her thoughts on her passion and being drug free-- http://www.naturalhigh.tv/?tr=y&auid=6781852 I appreciate how she brings out that real fun is being in control of that fun not being zoned out on drugs and not knowing what you are doing. She knows with drugs the quality of her performance and quality of her music would go down. Her comment on fun is important as that is the big lie of the drug crowd of Hollywood and popular rock/pop musicians. They push the lie that the drug life is the party fun life. In reality it is whitewashed pain, depression and death.

I remember seeing classmates high back in high school. They had bloodshot eyes, blank expressions, and often talked nonsense. I always thought observing them how is that fun?? How is that really living?? Especially when you consider the number of tragic young deaths due to alcohol and drugs involved in fatal driving accidents; many who believe the lie wind up dead. Positive examples and stories such as Cassadee’s should be playing in the main stream press so young people know how to really enjoy life and follow their passions. I question why our media does not promote stories like the ones on the natural high website. They instead follow the stories of pop stars who promote drugs and sexuality. If positive values and natural highs were promoted to the youth and followed by adults; if people would rise up against the lies that promote alcohol and drugs help people to really live life to the fullest, we could stop the drug trade in its tracks.

Teachers and Counselors in schools need to promote this naturalhigh.org website to their students and parents. Of course natural highs are not only for young people. Everyone should be searching out for ways to build natural highs into their lives. The Natural High website provides ideas and the continuing journey of this blog relates to that issue as well. Living more than OK living is about having those natural highs in our lives to truly enjoy life as God would have us live abundantly. Being a bookhead reading is definitely a high time for me as it expands the mind and fiction taps into the creative side of the mind. Music of all types also is a high inducer for me.

The key is to find the natural highs that work to make life more meaningful for you. As mentioned in the past explore new hobbies, prayer, meditation, build new friendships, seek ways to volunteer your time to a cause. These are the things that create flow in your life. These flow times create a sense of timelessness and enjoyment that are better than the drug induced highs. Build up the natural high times in your life and spread the news of going for natural highs. Instead of just saying no to drugs we need to point people to saying yes to natural highs.

Reflection:
Go to the above listed natural high website. Spend some time looking it over. Write down two items that impressed you from the website. Take some time and write down your top 5 natural highs, those things that create a sense of flow and peaceful enjoyment in your life.

Shine and Rise Above Boredom

A negative side of boredom is that it keeps us empty and feeling trapped in life. It keeps our aspirations down to just get by. My wife, daughter and I enjoyed a weekend recently in Kerrville at the Kerrville folk festival. I had been wanting to attend it for years as I remember enjoying the University of Chicago Folk Festival when I lived in Chicago. We need those times of breaking away from our routines to something different. The night we went we were inspired by the folk music of legends Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary fame. It was sad that Mary is no longer with them due to losing her hard fought battle with cancer. Their concert ended with all the children in the audience going up to sing Puff The Magic Dragon with them.

The inspirational part of their concert to me was to see both men continuing to grow in creating new music. They could have sat for an hour playing all their favorites and the crowd would have loved it but they each in an individual set, played some new songs as well as old favorites. This is an example of not getting trapped into set ways but rising above by keeping creativity flowing.

I came across this song by the metal band RED called Break Me Down which speaks to me about the battle of boredom. I felt the lyrics were descriptive of the sense of nothingness, being trapped in the shadows that we experience when we are controlled by boredom. The phrase, “I find a stranger trapped within” fits well with boredom as when boredom is with us too long we do feel strange as that is not the way we were created to be. Take a moment to reflect over the lyrics of the song. As usual when I do one of these song exercises I have the weblink to the song so you can listen to it. Try it out, if you do not enjoy metal rock you can always stop it and just reflect over the words. The link I am using puts the song to an anime video. I am including it as my teen daughter enjoys anime. Also I believe it sort of shows the battle that goes on in our life journey. Here is the link:
http://www.last.fm/music/Red/_/break+me+down"Break Me Down"
Songwriters: Armstrong, Anthony; Graves, Robert Douglas; Rauch, Jasen of RED

A long day alone, Emptiness is so real, Never having peace of mind
Running from what I can't see, And there is nowhere left to hide
Turn and face these empty eyes , All alone, heart untold, Trying to find

Break me down replace this fear inside Take this nothingness from me
I want to find, I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down

I try to find myself, I find the stranger trapped inside
And I'll take one more step away, From the face I used to recognize
Familiar shadows closing in, Suffocating fear descends
It comes alive, uncovered eyes

I'm trying to find, Break me down replace this fear inside
Take this nothingness from me, I want to find
I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down

Replace this fear inside, Take this nothingness from me
I want to find, I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down

Break me down, I want to find, I want to shine, I want to rise, Break me down
Break me!
Here are some of my thoughts from the lyrics as I think over our battle with boredom in life, We were made by our Creator to be people who “find”. Meaning we have innate curiosity to grow and learn and explore new things. Observe young children, their eyes are always darting about looking at new objects in their environment with a deep curiosity. Boredom keeps us trapped in the shadows of our comfort zone and hinders us from exploring new ideas, new places, new environments, new books ( I had to get books into the list as a faithful bookhead).

We were also created to “shine”. God has given each of us talents and natural gifts to help us enjoy life more and to brighten the lives of others around us. But instead of shining with the talents we have our lives our dulled by the feelings of nothingness. It tells us there is nothing special about us, that we can’t do anything. There is that word can’t again. By breaking out of the nothingness of boredom we are free to shine in our talents so as to enjoy our life journey better and our shine can help brighten others lives.

Another aspiration placed in us by our Creator is to “rise”. We all want to be noticed and be recognized. Arrogance takes this aspiration to the extreme. At that point we are usually outwardly or inwardly disdained by others. There is nothing wrong with rising above the okness of life. There is nothing wrong in improving our talents and striving for excellence. On our trip to Kerrville I spoke with a cheerful hotel worker about my blog. She liked the title as she said she felt really great about her level of spirituality but the other areas of her life she admitted were just ok not really flourishing. I believe we can keep rising in a balanced way in all areas of our lives.

The song kept repeating the phrase, “Break me down”. I am not sure what the artists mean by that. I see it in the sense of taking an honest look at where we are at. As I have mentioned before boredom is a sign post trying to tell us either to take time to chill out and enjoy the present moment, or time to make a change in our lives. Break out and try something new. Take a trip to a folk festival, pick up a new book, learn a new hobby.

Reflection:
What is your Curiosity level? Are you still trying to “find” new things,(hobbies, music, sports, books, new friends) to improve your life?
What is your talent you have where you wish to rise and shine?

Go for Natural Highs

From my involvement as a Counselor in local drug/alcohol groups and as I think back to my high school days knowing students who used drugs, their quest seemed to aim at getting high. They were bored and they wanted to move beyond more than ok and the booze and drugs gave them that immediate high, euphoric feeling that took them away from the dullness of their existence.

Back in high school as a Christian, I could never figure out drug users and those who drank. Even my oldest brother who was an alcoholic, as I observed him drunk, I did not see what the enticement was. Once in senior high school chemistry I remember two students at my table were laughing about how they got smashed at a party saying how fun it was. One said he drank 12 beers. Out of curiosity how one person could drink that much I asked how could he drink 12 cans of beer? His buddy laughed saying he threw up 3 or 4 times. They were laughing but I did not say anything. I just thought “what fun?!”. I never enjoyed having the stomach flu and throwing up! It sounded like the party experience was that!

In reading books and research articles on boredom I do know that one reason why people do alcohol and drugs is they want that high. They want the feeling of something beyond boring okness. The problems are the crash after the high are headaches, grogginess, forgetting what they were doing while high, (which is often very foolish things). There is also the creation of an addiction to the alcohol or drugs creating anxiety, depression, paranoia, and criminal acts to feed the addiction. I remember always thinking to myself in high school as I considered the foolishness of drugs, that I would rather enjoy myself being in control of my full faculties and knowing what I enjoyed so I can do it again. Instead the chemical high places people in a mental stupor to do foolish and even deadly things to themselves and others all for the sake of fun?? I will take a natural high any day.

What is a natural high? From the website www.naturalhigh.orgthey say a natural high is “ is an activity, art form, or sport that you LOVE to do and makes you feel good inside; A Natural High does not involve drugs and alcohol”. So it is doing a hobby or activity that you really enjoy and brings pleasure to you, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of Flow which I have spoken of before fits well with the going for natural highs. In his book Beyond Boredom and Anxiety he presents the elements of flow. He states that the person is aware of their actions but you are not thinking about how to do the actions. Awareness and action merge into a oneness. Flow happens when a person’s ability is of a level where they can move through the activity be it, playing an instrument, painting, sports activity, or any other favorite activity and not have to think through the steps. They can flow through the activity. There is a timelessness and being in the moment during the feeling of flow. So being in the state of flow is a natural high as a person is feeling a oneness with the activity and not consciously aware. His book reveals how Flow moves us beyond boredom and what I call more than ok..

So what are some ways you can go for a natural high in your life. One important thing to realize is we do not need to be high all the time. As Lars Svendsen, a philosopher in Norway, says in the Philosophy of Boredom -- boredom is. We all experience it. Life is not a Hollywood action movie. So much of our life is in the ok zone and can feel boring. Yet to have a full life and make the most of having joy in our journey and living more than ok overall, we need those high times. We need to realize though that natural highs are the way to go. If everyone is enjoying a life of natural highs there will be no need for the illegal drugs. Going for Natural highs will help lower crime rates and stop the senseless killings as we see presently in the drug wars in Mexico. For the addict they need to see what times and what feelings trigger the use of their substances in the desire to get high and replace them with activities, hobbies, and other alternatives to drugs and then go for the natural highs. For the non addict as wel, l to enjoy more of life they can find flow activities that can bring natural highs into their life experiences.

A good place to go for new ideas on natural highs are websites like the previous one mentioned or another website I discovered that focuses on natural highs – www.naturalhighs.ning.com
At those websites you can view testimonials on the personal enjoyment of natural highs. Also there are videos and blogs on the topics as well. With these websites and personal brainstorming on natural highs that fit your likes and desires, there is no need for anyone to go for the false, damaging highs of drugs and alcohol. And I strongly say damaging for the individual addict, their friends, and family not to mention the cost to employers and society. That goes for marijuana too, the darling drug of Hollywood and rockers. I remember working with a student once who told me, “Sir they say marijuana is not addictive but they lie. It is” He had started smoking it at age 12 and by the time he was in college he was hooked. He told me his addiction to marijuana had dulled his learning ability. It had also sapped him of passion for a career. Instead the addiction tempted him to just hang around, do nothing, and be high. The best way to combat the drug problem is to give young people and everyone alternatives to drug induced highs and that is by supporting and promoting natural highs.

Reflection:
Take some time to explore the websites below on natural highs. Tell others about them as well. Then take 15 minutes to brainstorm natural highs you wish to go for in your life.
Websites on natural highs.

www.naturalhighs.ning.com

www.naturalhigh.org

Going With Flow In the Workplace

With my last posting I introduced incorporating awareness of flow in our interest activities we enjoy doing, as a way of growing in Living More Than OK. In this I mean activities with the emphasis on active, something where you are an active participant – painting, sewing, fishing, or gardening. Television is not a flow activity as we just sit there passively absorbed into the screen.

I would like to continue thinking of Dr. Csikzenmihalyi’s thoughts on flow in the context of flow and work. With flow the focus is often in doing activities we have a passion and interest in doing. Work often has a negative connotation -- something we have to do. I remember one warehouse where I worked in shipping, one worker had a saying, “I owe, I owe, It’s off to work we go”. That is so true of many people in their work lives. It is a duty they do not enjoy and often go home full of frustration which affects their personal life. So is it possible to make work a flow experience? And why is flow important in the work setting? In his research on flow, Dr. Csikzenmihalyi reveals how it helps improve our creativity and helps people be more engaged in what they are doing. SO there is a better chance of having a more satisfying work experience. Since we spend about 85,000 hours of our life in the workplace it makes sense to utilize techniques that will help us enjoy our work time.

In Dr. Csikzenmihalyi’s Beyond Boredom and Anxiety he studies the issue of work and flow. He used Surgeons as his main example. Many would think the main reason to be a surgeon is the money . Interviewing surgeons he found that the primary reasons were intrinsic as to the challenge in defeating a disease and helping patients be cured. These are intrinsic factors that can bring flow into their work. Also increasing competence keeps them growing to meet the challenges they face in their work. So elements of flow can be brought into the workplace to enhance our work experience.

Here are some ideas. Part of the flow process is having a goal orientation. In your work do you have set clear specific goals you are aiming for.? These give you a sense of direction to focus on in guiding your work energy. Being in flow relates to being absorbed and focused so the goals give you a basis for your focus which builds your concentration powers.

A balance of challenge and ability helps with flow in your work. If you are not challenging yourself in your work and settled for just doing enough to get by you get in to a rut of routine which creates boredom and not flow. So within the goal creations in your work set the level high enough to make your work challenging. Place time in your schedule to grow in your knowledge and ability for your work. This is the importance of lifelong learning. If you are not growing in knowledge for your work and work is getting more challenging then frustration and stress occurs instead of flow.

As to increasing your abilities and opening up opportunities for flow in your work ask yourself these questions and reflect over ideas to improve your work.:

In looking at your work activities can they be done better, more efficiently?
What steps will make my work contribution more valuable?
How can I make my work personally meaningful?
Are there tasks where I feel incompetent?
How can I learn and improve the needed skills?

Here are some examples of flow in the workplace. Consider a Supermarket clerk who makes it his purpose to instead of just bagging the groceries to pay special attention to the customers in giving a cheery hello and offering to be of help in taking groceries to the cars if need be. A physician who cares about his patients in a holistic manner. Being concerned about their total well being is more important then rushing through as many patients as possible. Or a reporter who is interested in reporting from the standpoint of truth and not just sensationalism to make a name for himself.

Take some quiet time to reflect over the previous questions and see what areas of your work you can turn into flow time. Brainstorm ideas and possible new ideas to use in your work.

Moving Beyond Boredom to a Life of Joy

Welcome to the first blog of Living More Than OK. About three years ago I began reading up on the issue of boredom and life. This resulted from an encounter I had with a student in my office for Career Counseling, who happened to be struggling with his classes. In the discussion of what was the main problem other than uncertainty on a career focus, he mentioned that he was easily bored with his classes, especially the liberal arts basic courses. Boredom would overtake him and he would start skipping class. Over the next couple years, I informally kept track of students who brought up boredom as a negative effect on their education and life. Within one year at least 14 students brought up the issue of boredom as a major factor in their difficulty with college. As I read literature on boredom, it affirmed what I was seeing in some of the students, that boredom can negatively affect students’ progress.


Although this hit me at that point in time to encourage researching the issue of boredom, I had been working with college students for about 8 years and the word boredom would come up time to time. Personally, I had a hard time relating to where my students came from as I had never been that bored in education. I always had and still do a love for learning. As I looked at my other areas of life boredom really did not seem to bother me. This will be an issue for another blog! Yet books and articles I’ve read show boredom is a problem for many people.


One quote that struck me about boredom is from Lars Svendsen, a Philosophy professor in Norway. In his book A Philosophy of Boredom he states – “Boredom is inhuman as it robs human life of meaning, or possibly it is an expression of the fact that such a meaning is absent.” In my work with college students I always emphasize there is so much potential in life for their personal fulfillment and doing great things. Are we robbing ourselves from all that life can offer by living boring lives of just ok? How can we reach for more potential in our lives and live more that OK?


Just the word ok is intriguing to me. In naming the blog I thought how I often respond “OK” when I am asked how I am doing. But isn’t living just ok beneath our potential? Isn’t OK living kind of boring? Living in boredom is living in a cloudy maze similar to a depressive fog. Just OK living is going through the motions with no purpose or meaning. I don’t see it as a way of being, as we were created to be. We were created for a better life. The statement of Jesus comes to mind, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10). This is more the way I think we should be living life. Abundant living is living life to the fullest. Boredom steals from our living and destroys and in some cases sadly, even kills. Abundant living and practical ways to live to our fullest God given potential is what I wish to explore is this blog. How can we move beyond boredom to living a joyful and abundant life? Hope you enjoy the journey.