Improving Your Intellectual Reading Life

Last week I shared some thoughts from the book, The Intellectual Life. This week I want to share thoughts on my favorite portion of the book where Sertillanges discusses reading. There is one point I disagreed with but other thoughts I fully agree. He begins the section on reading with, “Now reading is the universal means of learning, and it is the proximate or remote preparation for every kind of production.” (p.145). Reading is vital to our educational growth for life and our vocations. He adds that our learning is through connection and collaboration with other minds which reading connects us with great minds and great experiences. He then moves onto a point that first bristled me as he mentions “we need to read little”. Why mention that in a section on reading. He then clarifies that he is emphasizing balance in life. We need to set time for reading but also time for self reflection and do other activities in life. I fully agree with that. In his clarifying on “reading little” he reminds the reader that in the book he discusses a wide variety of topics so there needs to be a breadth of topics we read about. He proceeds to another thought I disagreed with: that we should not read passionately. I firmly disagreed with that as that is against my concept of being a Bookhead that there should be an internal passion for reading. Reading between the lines he was a monk and a professor in an age that emphasized intellectualism. Religion at that time had an aversion to the passions of humankind so the use of passion to reading may be contrary to him. Instead he emphasizes reading intelligently meaning concentrate and reflect on what is read. Critical thinking is important in my mind towards reading so I fully agree with his thoughts there; but I believe a passion is needed as well to be enthusiastic about reading. Being passionate about reading helps in building other readers. Both reading intelligently and building a passion for reading is important I feel for all readers. Sertillanges discussed four kinds of reading and expands on them in the text. “…I distinguish four kinds of reading. One reads for one’s formation and to become somebody, one reads in view of a particular task, one reads to acquire a habit of work and the love of what is good; one reads for relaxation. There is fundamental reading, accidental reading, stimulating reading or edifying reading, recreative reading.” (p.152). With my work as a therapist and in my former teaching work my focus was usually fundamental and edifying in the area of psychology and spirituality. An area of reading I need to work on is recreative reading as I do not read much fiction. He continues in this section on reading to give advice of being open to reading the great thinkers from the past and present to learn from others. His big emphasis too is to read what interests you. That goes back to his concept of reading little meaning focus in on your interests in reading but be open to building a breadth of knowledge. As I mentioned last week there is so much of interest in the book as a whole and also in this section on reading. One final quote from the book I will share is, “No one can teach us without our own effort. Reading puts truth before us; we have to make it ours. It is not the dealer in the market place that feeds our body. What I eat must turn into my substance. I alone can bring that about.” (p.168). This reminds me of the phrase you are what you eat. Similar in our mindsets and thoughts we are what we read. We need to take ownership of what we read and make choices to put the reading that impacts us into our daily lives. Reflection: What type of reading do you enjoy the most? How do you go about choosing the books you read?

Appreciating a Passion for Reading

I just finished a book that caught my attention with the title, Rise of the Reader. As much as I love reading I could not help reading what the author, Nick Hutchison had to say. Nick is a speaker and a coach who is the founder of BookThinkers, bookthinkers.com a resource that connects authors to readers. The author shares his personal journey on reading that became a passion for him. His turning point in his life books was in his college years when he worked a Summer internship. One boss turned him onto positive growth podcasts and he noticed many of the ones he enjoyed spoke about personal growth books. He quickly learned he could grow in so many ways by reading so the passionate habit began to grow. A powerful thought he learned early is mentioned on page 5, “The best investment you can make is in yourself. The most cost effective investment in yourself is not a formal education, a week long retreat, or an online course… it’s a book. Why? Books only cost you $20 and take just a few hours to consume, yet they hold the same power to change your life as any of those other resources. The potential return on investment (ROI) is insane!” Imagine the good and progress that could happen in the world if more people would capture that mindset. The same spirit in that quote permeates the book. Nick in the book provides a wide array of tips on building a reading passion and making the most of your reading. In his forward he provides a tip I often remind people of who tell me they don’t have time to read : read 15 minutes a day once in the morning and once in the evening which would be about 20 pages a day. Do that for 5 days a week and that is about 100 pages a week. Then realize in a 52 week year you will have read 5,200 pages about 20 books a year. That is a pretty good start for a reading journey. Of his many ideas on reading I like his emphasis to be intentional in your reading. With each book have a purpose for reading the book. He also emphasizes there should be an output to put what you read into practice and that helps us ingrain in our lives the concepts learned in reading. Of course with those thoughts you can imagine rightly that most of the reading mentioned is nonfiction books. He doesn’t leave out the issue of enjoyable reading of which fiction writing is so important in enjoying good stories and we can often learn life principles in fiction. Near the end of the book he mentions some of the impact of reading in his life journey. “well, throughout my reading journey, I have upgraded the lens through which I see the world many times. I am constantly searching for new world views – new lenses-- that allow me to become healthier, wealthier, and happier.” (page 125). This is a reminder of how reading helps us grow and keep growing throughout or lifespan. This is just one of the many benefits of reading. The last portion of the book he shares tips on a variety of healthy and wealthy habits for living that he has gained through the books he has read. Reading through these tips helps to understand what reading adds to our lives. This is a book that will help passionate readers reaffirm their passion for reading so it is a great gift to avid readers in your life. At the same time it is a helpful book to someone you may know who wants to get into reading but has mental roadblocks like they were never good in school or do not have time. The author debunks those myths and provides tips and tools for reading success. Reflection: Think over the books you have read. Which ones helped change the lens through which you view the world around you and what you want out of life?

Appreciating Reading Thoughts from Great Writers

I am back at writing in Living More Than OK after a lengthy hiatus. From the stress of working on the dissertation, (which still isn’t done- but closer), to other problems I decided I should still take time to do some work on my blog. With my starting to write again in my blog I thought it best to share some thoughts on one of my favorite activities reading.

Reading has been a lifelong passion. I recently finished a book On Stories, by C. S. Lewis. It is a collection of Lewis’ essays on writing. C.S. Lewis has always been one of my favorite authors with his fiction of Chronicles of Narnia and his non-fiction on spiritual issues such as his Mere Christianity. In this compilation of essays he shares about the works of some of the favorites authors he enjoyed reading such as Charles Williams, E. R. Eddison, Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers. He discusses some of their great works and why he enjoyed their writings. His discussion got me interested in looking into some of the writings of Williams and Eddison as I have read Tolkien and Sayers.

In his essay “On Stories” he emphasizes the importance of story. He looked at various aspects such as excitement. With excitement each reader has their own feelings of what excitement means. He also brings out how stories many times bring out the supernatural or what is marvelous about life. Along with what is marvelous about stories that are good often bring a sense of awe to the story line with the characters.
With his thoughts on awe he moves also to free will. Lewis writes, “We have just had set before our imaginations something that has always baffled the intellect: we have seen how destiny and free will can be combined even how free will is the modus operandi of destiny.” (page 21). This balance is seen in stories and can help the reader in understanding real life that we face in our daily journey. Our lives as we reflect often show a balance of Destiny and free will at work. This thoughts relates also to how story to Lewis is important to pleasure and the pleasure in story can aid in our enjoying pleasure in life. As he puts it, “And in the same way the whole story, paradoxically enough strengthens our relish for real life. This excursion into the preposterous sends us back with renewed pleasure to the actual.”(page 20). From this though we can learn to appreciate how the pleasure of reading can bring new levels of pleasure as we live out the story of our lives.

I also enjoyed in the book how Lewis shared how his fictional works began with pictures in his mind. “One thing I am sure of. All seven of my Narnia books, began with seeing pictures in my head.” (page 79). This shows the importance of visualizing in our lives. He used pictures in his mind to help create the stories. By thinking of pictures in our minds we can improve our level of creativity.
Excitement, awe and pleasure are important take-aways from our fiction reading. As I look back on the fiction works I have read over the years I see those terms and others that come to play. Reading often opened up feelings of curiosity to learn more about things I read about in books. Also I can think of times I read when I was young and it gave me an appreciation for the amazing world around me to seek to travel and see other cultures.

Reflection: How do you relate excitement, awe and pleasure to the books you read. What favorite authors do you have and what do you learn from their writings?

Bookheads Appreciate and Support Libraries

As an avid Bookhead I appreciate the importance of libraries. The local public library was where the love of reading first began for me. Over the years libraries have been perfect places for focused study when I was a college student. Just roaming through the bookstacks gave me new ideas of topics to study and learn. From my past experience I have always been thankful for libraries.

With my interest in books and libraries it was while I was searching for books about books I stumbled upon a book entitled, The Artist’s Library. The authors are Erinn Batykefer and Laura Damon-Moore. The book was a pleasant and insightful read as I enjoy reading about people’s passions. As librarians their passion for books and the services of libraries were evident in the pages of their book.

The book is a creative outflow of a project the two authors were involved with called the Library as Incubator. They interviewed people in the art world, such as writers, artists, performance artists, using a question “What does the phrase, ‘library as incubator’ mean to you?” (p. 15). The book highlights throughout the text some of the participants in the project and their thoughts concerning libraries. One example of an initial response by an artist is this: “An incubator is a warm place that encouraged things to come to life. Information is the seed from which one grows. Information informs our work. Interaction with other users and librarians cross-pollinate our ideas and passions…” (p. 15). What an insightful thought on a purpose for the library experience. I could have read a book of just responses like that one, but the authors provide an interplay of the various artists thoughts with practical descriptions of the important services libraries provide for the public.

There was much I learned about libraries from reading The Artist’s Library as well as reaffirming my own thoughts from my experience over the years with libraries. Some of the artists shared how their time in libraries opened new possibilities in their minds for projects they were working on as well as future projects. Possibility making is one aspect why I encourage students to explore libraries for new topics to expand their thinking about life and their journeys through life.

The ideas in the book show that the library is more than just a place to find books to read, even though that is my favorite part of libraries. They remind that libraries are a place to find information for research, many libraries provide monthly programs on important issues and topics, and they also often showcase display works of art for patrons to enjoy. There is so much a library provides a community if you take time to explore your local library.

Another aspect of the book I enjoyed is that they provide interactive reflections for the reader. For example this one here: “Think back to the first library you ever visited. Write about or draw moments from that experience.” (p. 55) For myself that reflection took me in my mind back to the children’s section of the Barberton Public Library, in my hometown in Ohio. My first remembrance was for the Summer reading program. I remember the colorful posters and all the books on the display racks and shelves. That experience was the start of my Bookhead journey of enjoying reading.

After reading the book I checked out their website about the book :
www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=13166 I encourage you to visit their website as the story of the project continues. The book was published in 2014. If you click on the link and then click on the various headings – artists, writers, performing arts you will find more stories of artists thoughts on the importance of libraries since their initial work in 2014.

I recommend The Artist’s Library, to anyone who enjoys reading and libraries. It should be mandatory reading for librarians to continue their passion for their career choice. The book provides a deeper understanding and appreciation for the importance of libraries. Do not be a stranger to your local library. Take advantage of all the resources there.

Reflection: Think through why are libraries important to you? What are your favorite memories about libraries? Feel free to leave a comment.

Quotes Challenge the Mind and the Heart

I enjoy quotes. Often in emails to students I will sign off with a motivational quote to help them in their life journey. An uplifting quote can aid in perking up a difficult day or be an encouragement with struggles you may be facing. There are numerous quote websites you can go to search for quotes with many of the sites listing the quote on a creative background. There are also books of quotes you can purchase and one that I have in my library is a book of heartfelt thoughts – Thoughts Spoken From The Heart: Over 500 Thoughts That Bring Meaning To Your Life written by Lolly Daskal. These are not quotes from various people rather these are meaningful thoughts from her heart.

I came across Lolly Daskal’s writings by happenstance of noticing her topics coming across my Twitter feed. She does writing for Inc.com, Fast Company and Psychology Today. She is founder of Lead from Within, a global leadership, executive coaching, and consulting firm based in New York City and has over 30 years of experience. Her website is http://www.lollydaskal.com where you can check out some of her articles.

I would like to share with you samples of her quotes from her book that stood out to me.
“Instead of waiting for confidence, act as if the change you desire has already taken place.” This one stood out to me, as it reminds me of Dr. Alfred Adler, the famous philosopher and psychiatrist, who used the “as if” technique in therapy. If a client wanted to be more confident what would that look like? He would encourage them to go out and act like they were confident even though at the moment they did not feel like they were confident.

“Passion is the secret to many success stories.” This thought by Lolly Daskal reminds me of the many books I have read over the years of successful people. When you study the lives of those successful be it in business or the arts they have an underlying passion in their life that they follow. It makes me think what am I passionate about?

“Self-confidence is not about the impression you give to other people, but who you are on the inside.” Recently I saw a t shirt that read “I’m Different”. We are each uniquely created people with our own talents and strengths. Our self-confidence needs to come from a healthy pride in knowing who we are and accepting of ourselves. Granted I add we need to continually grow to improve but be proud of your unique God given strengths.

“Never compare yourself to someone else. You never really know their life behind closed doors.” It is so easy to compare our lives to others and think that the grass must be greener in their pasture. It is best to compare your life with how you want to improve by looking at yourself in the mirror instead of trying to be like someone else. It is possible the person you think is so together is looking back at you wishing they had your life.

“Make your values your guiding star for life.” This quote reminds me of how ancient mariners would often use the stars to guide their ships. What are the stars you use to guide your life? Lolly so rightly brings up in this quote the importance of having solid values to guide our lives. As I have mentioned in the past we each look at life from a world view and mine is the Christian worldview. So the basis of my values are principles found in The Bible and in trying to follow the life of Christ as much as possible. We each need to think through what values are guiding our lives.

I hope in sharing a small sample of the quotes in Lolly Daskal’s book that will encourage you to seek our quotes in your life. Some quote websites will even send quotes to your phone daily. Do stop by her website listed about and check out some of her articles she has posted.

Reflection: Which of the 5 quotes from Lolly Daskal spoke to you the most? What is one of your favorite quotes? Do a search on quote websites and choose a thoughtful quote for your day.

Encouraging Reading to Improve Futures

With my college students I encourage them to read as it is important for their minds and their futures. I often am greeted by stares and replies that reading is boring. I believe that response is the result of years of mind numbing television that is passed off as entertaining. I try to emphasize to them what Dr. Ben Carson says about reading, “Reading activates and exercises the mind. Reading forces the mind to discriminate. From the beginning, readers have to recognize letters printed on the page, make them into words, the words into sentences, and the sentences into concepts. Reading pushes us to use our imagination and makes us more creatively inclined.” That quotes is from Dr. Ben Carson’s book, Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence. That quote and Dr. Carson’s life are examples of how reading is a foundational block to success.

In my recent reading about reading I came across thoughts from two books at my local library that encourages reading in young people. The first book is Born Reading, by Jason Boog. The subtitle is very important is this era where reading is becoming less and less of a passion. His subtitle is “Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age – From Picture Books to eBooks and Everything in Between. For the sake of a brighter future of humanity we need more bookworms.

Jason shares a major impetus for writing the book was his desire to share his passion for reading with his daughter. In the introduction of the book he discusses a study “How to Make a Young Child Smarter” in a 2013 issue of Perspectives in Psychological Science that showed increases in a child’s IQ through interactive reading. The article stated the earlier the better. So much of the book discusses interactive reading. This shows the importance of parents taking time to read to their children. Then when the children begin to read have them join in by reading aloud to the parents. The interaction increases by using the reading time to discuss the story or material that is being read.

Over the years we have often used after dinner time to read through a book as a family. Often it was our daughter doing the reading or we would take turns reading sections of book we were working through at the time. As Jason emphasizes, our reading time would include questions afterwards or sharing what the reading was about. That increases the effectiveness of interactive reading.

Jason discusses electronic readers and mentions research and even thoughts from App designers that encourage limiting the use of electronic devices with young children. He mentions a quote from one librarian that mentions how tablets have become the new babysitters. I see this in children in therapy whose parents complain they only want to play games on tablets and not do anything else. Yet who is allowing the children to be on the tablets gaming all the time? Parents need to take charge and have young children do more than stare at the tablets continually. I enjoyed reading Born Reading and thought one way to turn our faltering country back to a creative and critical thinking pro-growth country, would be to give every parent this book as they leave the hospital with their new born child.

Another book that was a standout in encouraging reading is Raising Ravenous Readers by Linda Schwartz. It focuses in on children 8-12. The book is more a variety of activities to help promote reading. Two major focuses of the book was to help young people find material to read based on what they are interested in. I know many college students have told me their struggle with reading was in school always being forced to read material that did not interest them. This can be turned around if in the important ages of 8-12 students are introduced to libraries and finding books on topics that interest them. Linda Schwartz promotes the use of libraries in her book.

She also like Jason Boog, emphasizes the importance of interactive reading in making some time as a family for reading. Have conversations with children about the books that they are reading. A passion for reading can be developed by simply reading to children for 20 minutes a day. I like how she emphasizes libraries but she also importantly mentions visiting children sections of bookstores. I remember hearing a story at a counseling convention of how for a contest, one small town school had winners in a state poster contest. The winning students received Barnes & Noble gift cards. The principal took the students to the nearest big city that had a Barnes & Noble store. She said the students had never been in a bookstore before and were amazed. So, opening young children’s minds to bookstores helps to build a passion for reading as well.
Bookworms need to keep multiplying by encouraging reading. The two books listed here can help in giving you ideas on how to encourage reading in young people in your sphere of influence.

Reflection: Who inspired your love of reading? How can you encourage a new generation of bookworms in your sphere of influence?

Career Passion In The Hundred Foot Journey

From Barnes and Noble website

My wife, daughter and I went last weekend to see the movie, The Hundred Foot Journey. We thoroughly enjoyed it and from the laughter in the theater most everyone did. The cinematography alone inspired us to want to visit small country towns in France. The story opened up a view of the initial clash of two cultures, Indian and French then the unfolding of how although different they learned from each other. The characters were full of a wide range of emotions from of course humor as was noted but also jealousy, prejudice, appreciation, and happiness.

The movie is based on the book by the same name written by Richard C. Morais. The story looks at a family who had a successful Indian restaurant in their homeland that was burned down during political upheaval. The mother of the family tragically dies in the fire. The father leads the family to Europe to settle. By happenstance of car problems they wind up in a small town in France. Then further happenstance and what the father feels is the mother’s spirit guidance, he purchases an old beaten down restaurant for sale with the desire to turn it into an Indian Restaurant with his son as the main chef. The problem is the location is right across from a well-respected French restaurant in the village.

from foter

The movie focuses in on the humorous tension between the father and the owner of the French restaurant, whose husband died so she is a widow who pours all her energies into the French restaurant. The Indian son who learned all he knew of Indian cooking from his mother becomes intrigued by French cooking and desires to expand his talent and knowledge by working at the French Restaurant under the culinary tutelage of the French owner. That increases the tension between his father and the owner of the restaurant.

That is all I will say of the story as this is not a review and my daughter says I always say too much about movies ruining them for others. Kind of like the Geico Maxwell the pig clip, (if you have not seen it click on the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64cBC3IgcCw ), that appears in movie theaters during the ads and spoils the movie endings for those standing before him.

The angle I want to view the movie from is from the career angle. Probably since much of my work over the years has been helping college students on career issues this stood out to me. We see in the movie Hassan who is the Father’s son and chief cook at the Indian restaurant has a natural talent for cooking that was cultivated by his mother in the original restaurant. In considering careers we need to consider and understand the natural talents that we have. Explore your skills and how they relate to the work you do. Some people are stuck in jobs where there is a talent and skill mismatch. Explore on the internet jobs that relate to your skills you are strong in. There are many free skill assessments on the internet.

from foter

Hassan’s attitude about his culinary work captured my attention. He carried a humility about his skills. This allowed for his curiosity and desire to improve to flourish. He could have settled on making his father’s Indian restaurant become more popular in the small town and vicinity. That would have given him a good life most likely. Yet his inner desire to learn and grow as a chef allows him to take the risk to join the team at the French restaurant. In doing so he helps that restaurant improve as well as continues the growth of his culinary skills. In our careers we need that same curiosity to keep growing and learning. This attitude aids in helping conquer boredom in the workplace as well as opening up new opportunities. Our attitude shapes the passion in our work also and you definitely see career passion alive in this movie.

The movie as mentioned earlier brings out happenstance events or as I mentioned last week, life chaos, that affected how Hassan’s opportunities in the town advanced. If the brakes had not failed they would have not found themselves living in that town. If the racial prejudice event had not occurred a major turning point in the French restaurant owner’s life may not have happened. Granted this movie is fiction but the chaotic events are very true to life and fit well with what Dr. Jim Bright brings out in his chaos theory of careers. How do we make the most of the chaos events that come into our lives?

Then one final thought from the movie comes from the final segment of the movie. In keeping with my promise not to spoil the movie I will only mention that a change occurs for Hassan that allows him to reflect over his life values. In the end you see him connecting his career and other aspects of his life to his personal values. In our career journeys to have the most fulfillment in our work time we need to explore our values and see how they connect with the work we are doing. How do those values balance the various aspects of our lives such as work, family. and leisure? For most of us our career journey is longer than 100 feet. It is well worth exploring how well our career journey has gone and how work adds to our life experience.

Reflection: If you have not seen it yet, go see The Hundred Foot Journey as well as read the book. Reflect over your natural talents and skills – how do you use them in your workplace? How curious are you about your career area? Are there areas where you can grow and continue to learn? How do your personal values relate to how you do your work?

Lowering Poverty One Library At A Time

A few weeks ago I went into my local library to see their new books in circulation. I came across the book, Creating Room To Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy. It is by John Wood, who left a lucrative job with Microsoft years ago to follow his passion. A passion many would think crazy since he was making great money at Microsoft. His dream and passion was to build school libraries around the world in Third World nations. His aim was to promote reading and education.

Since I love reading I thought a story of someone encouraging literacy and reading around the globe would be a great read. I was not disappointed. Through the book I saw how one person who had personally been enriched in his life through reading saw the power of reading. His underlying goal with starting Room To Read was to have children everywhere in the world to have access to books in their own language. His resulting hope was to increase education in poor areas which would result in lowering poverty rates. Literacy would unleash in children to dream big dreams for their futures.

One emphasis that came across through the book was the emphasis to help especially young girls in countries where they are short changed in the educational process. Some of the countries mentioned in the book where libraries and also schools were built are: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Zambia, and many more. Part of the dream that developed too was when John realized that teaching these young children in English was helpful, but the children also wanted books in their own language. What they found was that many of the countries did not have children books in the various languages. So a whole new publishing arm of his dream came to pass to create new books in the various languages for the children. This opened up opportunities for authors in the various countries as well. It was like seeing Dr. Jim Bright’s Chaos Theory of Careers in action.

Each chapter of the book is an exciting journey to see the excitement of children around the globe being able to read books. Schools gaining libraries with actual books in them when before there were just empty shelves. Whole villages would come out and celebrate the new libraries that they had a part in building. As part of the library development was built into the program, by having local ownership by either sweat equity involved in the building process, or paying a portion of the building process. It is an excitement that needs to keep pace in our country as well if we want to keep dreams, creativity, and mental growth alive in our young people. Here is the US the emphasis on a steady diet of videos is turning our young people into passive non-thinking zombies. So book reading needs to be an important part of education here in the US as well.

I was glad John Wood shared that the passion for his endeavor to build libraries around the globe came out of his personal upbringing. He shares how his parents brought him up to appreciate education. He also gained an early love for reading that stayed with him over the years from his mother. He shares in the book a quote from his grandmother that shows that the importance of reading went back several generations, “If you have a good book in your hands, you will never be lonely.” (page 29). Obviously his early love for reading was the impetus behind a dream that has helped build thousands of school libraries in poor communities around the world.

John Wood could have stayed in the comfort and prosperity of his job at Microsoft. Instead he took the risk to leave it behind for a passionate dream of creating hope and dreams in the lives of young children around the world. His dream is a positive change agent in improving young lives through the importance of reading and books in the lives of children. Only time will tell how this affects each of the children’s futures.

Click here – John Wood Room To Read-- to listen to a short Youtube video by John Wood about his organization.

Reflection – Why is reading important to you? How can you help promote reading in our country and around the world? Here is the website for Room to read. Check it out and see the great work they are doing around the world: www.roomtoread.org

The Magic of Renewed Career Passion

There are various reasons why a passion for a career can be crushed. Sometimes it is negativity in the workplace from co-workers or dysfunctional management teams. Sometimes it is life events such as health concerns or losing significant people in our lives. Sometimes it is just plain burn-out. What can we do to renew the passion for our career? There is no one perfect way for everyone but one thing I learned recently through a movie is be open to that which is seen and unseen in finding the way to renewing a career passion.

The movie I speak of is The Magic of Belle Isle. The main character is Monte Wilder played by Morgan Freeman, ( which is what drew me to the movie). He is a novelist who has written popular Western novels. He is spending a summer in a tourist town Bell Isle. His nephew helps set him up in a summer home of a friend and encourages him to write. The viewer quickly discovers that Monte has lost all his desire to write. First it comes across that it is because of alcohol that he doesn’t write, but soon the truth comes out is that the alcohol is a result of the pain of his wife dying of cancer years earlier. Monte is disabled due to an accident that ruined a promising sports career when he was younger and was first married. He was surprised his wife stayed with him after the accident and through many years of marriage. He had been wheel chair bound since that accident.

Thinking over all that has affected Monte’s life it is easy to see how he could be so bitter clinging to his bottle of liquor each day. It brought a question to my mind. Does remaining bitter make for a better life? Obviously no by seeing the result of his life in the movie. The good news is that people can change from bitter to brighter in their outlook on life. Sometimes in our career life that change of outlook is needed. Sometimes we can change it through our own will many times it is helped by our connections with others around us. In Monte’s case help came in the form of a single mother with three daughters that befriend him. The middle daughter is a pre-teen who once she hears Monte is an author wants him to mentor her in writing. By the end of the movie Monte regains his passion for writing and gives up his passion for drinking.

A couple of important ideas that came across to me in the movie was Monte’s emphasis on imagination. He states, “imagination is the most powerful force ever made available to human kind.” That is so true that creativity and the imagination add so much to our life existence. Also in my mind it is a pointer towards the fact that we are created and should be seeking the Creator of all things. Then in speaking of creativity Monte encourages the young girl to learn to describe what is there. Then he goes a step further to always look for what is not there. That thought of what is not there helps our imagination build new possibilities in our lives. What was there in Monte’s life was bitterness and despondency. What was not there in his life, were new friendships and possible ways to rekindle his writing. Thankfully in the end he is open to seeking after what was not there in his life.

Then as a person who enjoys reading there was an important quote about reading from the mother as they were having their first dinner with Monte “A book is a friend that does what no friend can do, be quiet when you are trying to think.” In our noisy world we need to have times to quietly read and reflect over our reading.

I always enjoy the rare movies like The Magic of Belle Isle that are funny, thoughtful and touching. This is a movie that afterwards one can reflect over and learn truths about our life experiences.

Reflection: What is not there in your life that you would like to work towards having in your life? How is your career and work aspect of your life at this point in time? Is there a new perspective you can go after to reignite new passion in your work?

Creative Expressions for Your Career Journey

I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as I viewed the 2011 National Career Development Poetry and Poster winners on the NCDA website. This ends my two years of being national chairperson for the contest. I have enjoyed being a part of promoting the contest here in Texas and these past two years on the National front. The NCDA has a volunteer chairperson every two years so new people can add input into improving the contest.


The purpose of the contest is to allow all ages to dream of their career ideas using the creative mediums of poetry and posters. Creativity can touch all areas of our lives even our work life. We spend over 100,000 hours of our lifetime is the work area of our lives. So the contest concept is to encourage people to look at their vocational life so as to move towards something they will enjoy doing in that significant time frame.


As I look over my vocational side of my life, I have had all types of occupations, library and janitorial work through my high school and college years. There have been various companies I have worked for in shipping/receiving, warehouse work and customer service during college and after college. More recently I enjoyed working with students at a South Texas college and university. I am thankful as I have enjoyed my various jobs for the most part. I believe it is helpful to take time to savor our more enjoyable times in our work life. Poetry and posters are one way to do this.


By creatively savoring our career journey we can gain insight on improving our present work situation. It gives a new angle to looking at the routines of our work and see how we are making a difference for other people and the world through the work we do. Writing a short poem about your passion for your work can be a motivator as you keep the poem nearby at your work station. We can also possible open our minds to new career shifts as well.
We can also learn from seeing how others view their careers. That is one reason I enjoy the NCDA career contest. By looking over the poems and the artwork I can learn how others appreciate their work dreams. I encourage you to take a few minutes and look at some of the winners’ poems and posters by clicking here on NCDA Career Contest.



Read over some of the poems and view some of the posters. Take some quiet time to think over what you felt or learned from the poems or posters you looked at? Reflect over some of your favorite moments in your various work situations. Maybe it was a special impact you had on a co-worker or customer. Maybe is was a project you had a passion for and you saw it come to fruition. Work can be a constant drudgery if we have a negative attitude. Work does not have to be that way. I believe work is not meant to be that way. We can keep an attitude of creative expression to keep spiraling up to better service and positive relations with those we serve with and the customers we serve. That is what I saw exuded in the students career dreams and the dreams of the adult winners. So as you start your work day go into it with a positive attitude of creative joy.


Reflection: If you enjoy poetry writing write a poem about your philosophy of work and enjoying your career. If you are not a poet try drawing a picture of the same concept. Or you can make a collage of pictures and positive words about enjoying your career in a poster format. Creatively express yourself. Also check out the NCDA website www.ncda.org in September to see the theme for next year’s contest and join in on the career creativity.

Surfing Through The Difficult Waters of Life

Recently our family saw the movie, Soul Surfer the weekend it came out. We went to it as we heard it was a true story and inspirational in nature. It is the true story of Professional surfer Bethany Hamilton. She is a young lady from a surfing family. One day while practicing she lost her left arm at age 13 in a random Tiger shark attack. In real life she was attacked October 31, 2003 by January 10, 2004, she bounced back, competed in a surfing competition and finished fifth place.

IT is a powerful story of resilience in the life of Bethany from losing her arm to not giving up and coming back to go on to be a professional surfer. The movie is based on a book that was written back when the tragedy occurred. The movie shows the range of emotions of her family and from Bethany. Being so passionate about the water and surfing it is understandable in a way to see her wanting to go back into surfing soon after having lost her arm. Then as she tries in a local tournament her failure catches the best of her and the disillusionment affects her life.

In the disillusionment period she goes with her youth pastor and youth group to help with the Indonesian Tsunami victims. Through this experience, in stepping back away from surfing it gave her perspective in seeing that without her arm she could still help. In this sequence there is a touching yet comical scene as she helps a little child overcome the fear of the water. Then coming back home she sees the mail from other handicapped people she had encouraged by competing in the local tournament where she felt she was a failure.

There are various elements in her life that reawaken the passion for surfing. With family support and hard work on her part she trains for another competition. Her family helps out in her training and she doubles up her discipline and work in training to do her best. She does well enough in the next competition to keep her drive going to where she is a now a Professional surfer.

Resilience is the bouncing back from hardship in our lives. IN this story her spiritual faith is seen as one element in her resilience. She has her share of doubts from the standpoint of why would God allow this when she is so passionate about surfing. Also seen just how the positive side her spiritual faith and her Mission work in Indonesia gives her hope and expanded purpose that even though losing her arm she is possibly more useful in touching people’s lives.

I would say her family is another element to resilience to help in her bouncing back. They were 100% behind her in whatever direction she wanted to take whether to stay in surfing or find something new. OF course they knew sea water was in her blood. It is touching to see her family cheering her practice on and then when she enters the competition.

The final element of resilience I see in the movie is her discipline and hard work shines through. This is so important and is so lost in our culture. Hard work is not emphasized. Just get noticed on a reality tv show or promote YouTube videos about yourself and lady luck is supposed to open the door for you according to the American idol culture we live in. IN reality it takes hard work and passion. Before the attack Bethany’s passion and hard work is seen and after the attack and she knows that surfing is what she really wants hard work and passion is seen again. These are two vital aspects of resilience if we want to succeed in what we are doing. The passion is the motivator of the hard work and discipline.

This is definitely a must see movie from the standpoint of a positive story and what we can learn from it to improve our lives. I could imagine the change in peoples’ lives regaining new drive for their passions if crowds were attending this movie. OF course that has not happened. The critics knowing it is a true story of a Christian have done all they could do in their power to stop people from watching it. The Village voice reviewer trashes it simply because she is a Christian. This was one of the more terrible reviews I have ever read as he is blantantly going against the film just because the Christian sentiment in it.. Any critical thinker watching the movie can see the director does not go over board on the Christian angle. It has to be there as that is who she is but it is not overtly sappy spirituality. Another famous reviewr was a little more mild in his review but again since she is a Christian harps on his opinion that the movie does not deal with real struggles and she seems to rebound too quickly in his viewpoint. Well it was her life not his. Plus I don’t know what movie he was watching as you see the turmoil of the parents and you see Bethany’s doubts as well. The truth is she did rebound quickly due to her youth, her family support, her faith, her passion and her discipline. All things we can all learn from. Reading the critics made me know why more people went to see a movie about a cartoon bunny that plays drums and a horror slasher film than Soul Surfer. Such a sad commentary on a society that definitely needs to hear the message and example of resilience in this film instead of brain dead cartoons and horror movies.

Reflection
What can we learn from a movie like this? Since I am a low risk taker one thing I immediately pick up on is this is another reason I would much prefer being in a swimming pool that going into the ocean with all kinds of dangerous creatures. But seriously think and reflect on a hardship time in your life. What did you learn from it and how did you bounce back? Then from the standpoint of after the first failure in coming back she took some time off to do a mission trip to Indonesia. We need to remember sometimes it is good to step back and try something different in your life to gain a new perspective.

Passion for Life – Dig In

Do you have a career or outside of career passion in your life? What gets you excited about living? Part of Living Life More Than OK is having something that energizes you. It is an engine that drives your purpose for living. For some people it is their career. They have a sense of calling about the job they go off to every day. For others they consider their job from a practical standpoint to pay the bills and their passion may be a hobby or a volunteer service they do outside of their job.

Our passion in life helps us to dig in to life and make the most of this life journey. A song that comes to mind about having passion in life and really digging into life is “Dig In” by Lenny Kravitz. When you have a passion life is more like a party to enjoy rather than suffer through. I often use this song with University students to show them how to enjoy digging into their school life on campus. Below you can click on the title to hear a video of the song and take sometime to reflect over the song

Dig In By Lenny Kravitz

It's time to face it Come on in and Join the party
Life has been waiting For you to care Don't try to fake it
Jump on in and Get it started There's so much lovin'
For you to share There is nowhere to run There is no way to hide
Don't let it beat you Say "Nice to meet you" And "Bye"

Once you dig in You'll find it coming
Out the other side And once you dig in
You'll find You'll have yourself A good time

Wake up and shake it You didn't make Your contribution
There ain't no time For you to spare If you ain't part
Of the game Then how can you Find a solution?
Nobody said that It would be fair

When the mountain is high Just look up to the sky
Ask God to teach you Then persevere with a smile Yeah, yeah, yeah

Once you dig in You'll find it coming Out the other side
And once you dig in You'll find You'll have yourself
A good time Once you dig in You'll find it coming
Out the other side And once you dig in You'll find
You'll have yourself A good time

Once you dig in You'll find it coming
Out the other side And once you dig in
You'll find You'll have yourself
A good time Once you dig in You'll find it coming
Out the other side And once you dig in You'll find
You'll have yourself A good time

Once you dig in Yeah, yeah, yeah And once you dig in
You'll have yourself A good time Once you dig in
You'll find it coming Out the other side And once you dig in

There so much in the song to help us grow in life by reflecting on its meaning. Lenny is a master musician and great lyricist. If we learn to be passionate about life even though it requires the hard work of digging we will have a good time. Also as with positive psychology, it doesn’t say life is a warm fuzzy breeze all the time. Life has its difficulties but we are responsible to join in and create solutions that work for us. Sometimes life is unfair yet we can find solutions to redirect our reations to life's unfair times. I especially like the reminder that God is there to help us persevere when the mountain may seem too high.

Take a look at your life and see if you are digging in or allowing life to cover you up. Come on in and join the party.

One final note before the reflection . I came across this video on msn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBgZNINN6MU Check it out as it shows how Lenny Kravitz is a class act and down to earth musician. A youth Choir from the First Baptist Church of Lewisville, TX was performing Lenny’s song “Fly Away” in New Orleans as part of an outreach. Lenny Kravitz happens to hear them and he comes by and joins them. Truly showing life is about having a good time. This must have been a great encouragement to the youth musicians to experience Lenny Kravitz join them for a jam session.

Reflection:
What are you passionate about in your life? What does “Digging into life mean to you? Write down a couple new passions you would like to explore for your life journey.

Moving Beyond Going Through The Motions

Stepping into a new year is a time to re-evaluate the previous year’s journey and start anew. I will continue in this blog to speak to topics of Positive Psychology and Spirituality that can help in living more than ok lives. Moving beyond the boredom, the sameness, the going through the motions that keep us from living a flourishing, abundant life; that our Creator created us for. That is why I would like to start the year off thinking over the words to this Matthew West song, The Motions. Click on the song title to hear and see a video of the song and then reflect over the lyrics below.


The Motions (click here)by Matthew West
This might hurt
It’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care
If I break
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions

No regrets
Not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love
Make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something

Take me all the way
Take me all the way
Take me all the way

The dull routines of our individual rat race often leaves us feeling like we are just going through the motions each day. The feeling is kind of like the Movie, Ground Hog Day, where the day keeps happening over and over again. Matthew West captures the description of the desperate boring life many people find themselves trapped in, “Cause just ok is not enough, help me fight through the nothingness of life.” This is the life over the years I have seen students and others ensnared in and I have had my times of experiencing it as well. It is the “Just OK” life that keeps us living far below the potential that each of us have in us. It is the life that tricks us into seeing our work as just a job to grunt through, rather than a calling. It is a life that causes us to waste so much time staring at mind numbing TV shows or even nonsensical, inane Youtube videos for hours at a time.

The song, The Motions, reminds us of the power of choice. That we have a choice to make how we live our lives. Are we going to stay in the numbing comfort of the recliner and live just ok? Or are we willing to take a risk to step out to make a difference in life? Matthew West as a Christian is pointing to letting the passionate love of God to consume and control our lives. As a follower of this worldview I whole heartedly concur. Yet the principle of breaking out of the “unfeeling ok”, existence to finding a passionate purpose to take control of our living, can be expanded in many ways in each of our journeys. Christians and non-Christians can live lives of passion for maximum potential living and having no regrets in life. The key is making the right choices to move from just ok to more than ok.

At the beginning of this new year of 2010 take some time to look over your life. Do you have areas where the going through the motions is dragging you down into a tiresome boring existence? As you look back at 2009 do you have nagging regrets? Looking into this New Year do you want to feel more and live more is a positive way? As we journey through the year I will be bringing up topics that will discuss issues of moving beyond going through the motions. Hope you come back from time to time so I can help you with your “fight through the nothingness of life.”

Reflection:
Take some time in a quiet setting to reflect over the areas of your life where you feel like you are going through the motions. Jot those areas down on a paper, journal, or computer document. Then brainstorm some solutions and ideas to break out of the rut. Also in the brainstorming consider if there is a passion for something that you would like to take the risk to branch out into in this New Year.

Gratitude in the Workplace

Work and thoughts of thanksgiving often do not go together. Work and complaining is usually the common duo. I have done my share of complaining about work. It usually leaves me more depressed and agitated. As I have been learning more about the importance of gratitude and the importance of a thankful spirit, in the Positive Psychology course I am taking, it has challenged my thoughts on workplace attitudes.

Does all the complaining about work ever help? Usually it spirals into deeper negativity and turns our work into drudgery and exacerbates the difficulties and levels of boredom in our work. I have read and tried the calculation out with a calculator; that we work about 85,000 hours in our lifetime from age 21-65. The big question is how do we want to spend that amount of time? Do we want to spend it in a negative manner of boredom and long-term complaining? Or do we want a work life with a sense of fulfillment and positive feelings of enjoying our work settings? There are several topics that relate to this such as finding our calling, using flow in the workplace, and utilizing our personal strengths in our work. These will be discussed on a later date. With Thanksgiving this week I thought I would focus on using Gratitude in the workplace.

You would think in our present economic circumstances of over 10% unemployment and most likely 17% real unemployment in the country just having a job would be a cause for thanksgiving. That doesn’t seem to be enough to halt the complaining about work.

First let’s look at what causes the negativity to set in. Each job has its routines. As we begin a new job we are in learning mode and everything seems fresh and new. The learning is a challenge. Then as we get into the groove we start doing everything the same way. The client interaction and paperwork starts moving in a circular cycle and becomes routine. If we focus on the routine then boredom begins to set in. The boredom can then create a sense of restlessness about our work. Negativity begins to be the lens through which we start to look at our work. Day in and day out the negativity can spiral into complaining about the boredom.
A loss of purpose also occurs when letting negativity about our work take over. When we start a new job there is a sense of learning how our work fits into the whole of the company, whether it is a shipping clerk sending finished orders to clients; a customer service representative helping a customer with a problem; or a career counselor helping a college students open their eyes to a major possibility that connects with a personality strength. Becoming more competent in our work then helps increase our purposefulness in serving our customers. If we lose focus on our work purpose and begin to focus on the negatives such as letting ourselves become overcome with boredom or petty comparisons of how other workers are doing their jobs in a complaining manner; what started out as an enjoyable dream job can turn into a hellish nightmare.

What can be done to turn the negativity around? I will discuss a couple of ideas for you to try out. These are ideas I have stumbled upon that have helped me and I am just passing them on. First of all write down a list of 5 workplace duties that are routine to you. These may be reports that you have to do; regular assessments that you perform; or certain work activities you do in a regular manner. It is often these routines that start us complaining. “Oh no, I have to do that again!” That complaining then compounds into other complaints. So find some time to brainstorm new ways of doing your routine activities. If you work with a teammate, brainstorm with them to increase the creativity. Even a small change may be enough to add a positive lift to your work setting. As a Career Counselor I can get into a routine of doing our career assessment with students and the temptation could be to just test and tell the student quickly what to major in to just get the session over with and back to my desk. To fight that I make a commitment to see each student as unique and remembering the importance to opening their eyes to the possibilities in their futures.

Another idea is to make a list at the beginning of the workweek of 5 things you are thankful about concerning your work. One may be as simple as just being grateful to have a job in bad economic times. By building up a list you are thankful for about your work, will be a natural positive arsenal against the negativity of complaining. In regularly building up a list of gratefulness about your work it may also help when you are tempted by co-workers to jump into gripe sessions which just add to workplace negativity.

Then finally renew your passion to be the best in moving towards excellence in your work. Boredom can not overtake you if you are constantly challenging yourself to be your best. If you are trying to promote excellence in the workplace a positive attitude will follow and help diminish negativity in the workplace. Try these ideas out each Monday in your work to try to beat the Monday work blues.