(Can’t see the video? Then try watching it at Work Happy Now – The Hard, The Fun and The Beautiful – Double Whammy Edition)
Where we are free to talk about the hard, the fun, and the beautiful of our work week.
My brain has been cloudy this past week. I’m right in the middle of a good blog post and this fog comes over me. I never really get writers block, but I do get “the fog.” I can still trudge through and get it down, but it’s hard. When this happens I do wish it away and I shouldn’t because it’s a part of the process.
Navigating the fog can be fun if I just slow down and I don’t try to bully my way through the post.
I know you’ve been there. No matter what work you do, sometimes there is the mental fog that just slows everything down. When you are trying to meet a deadline it can really be a pain in the butt.
Hard
The fog. For no good reason, my brain isn’t firing at an optimal level. My mind loses focus or I just can’t get some of the words right. I understand that this happens to everyone, but it’s just difficult to deal with.
Being called flaky. A colleague/friend of mine called me flaky. I called his cell phone instead of his work phone. It was an honest mistake. I accidentally changed his main number to his cell phone in my cell phone. He called me an airhead to be exact. I felt offended at first, but I also realize that this is how he sees himself. If he is this hard on me, he is probably 10x harder on himself.
Fun
Interviews are starting to come more regularly and so are the links back to my blog. This is a great feeling. I love that people care so much about work happiness.
Beautiful
My wife. I don’t tell my wife that she is beautiful quite enough. She is beautiful inside and out. I noticed how beautiful she was when she gave me a double whammy of beauty. She was getting ready for work and she was halfway dressed. She had put on her skirt and bra, but was shirtless. I didn’t know this at the time. I asked from the other room if she knew where my keys were. She didn’t hesitate. She came right out of the bathroom and helped me look even though she was right in the middle of getting ready for work. It was awesome. I gave her a big kiss and told her how beautiful she was. She is the complete package of beauty, brains, and caring.
What about you?
What has been hard, fun and beautiful in your life? I’ll see you in the comment section.
Are you on Twitter? Then check me out at @workhappynow. You’ll be glad you did.
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Peter of The Change Blog had a really good guest post called, “Focusing Your Mind On The Difficult,” because when we try to do stuff that is hard it scares us. It’s the only way we will get smarter and stronger.
If you enjoyed this post then try this one out. I think you’ll like it:
Hi Karl:
Hard: It’s been raining a lot here in Panama and I had to miss two days of exercise because of the rain. The day before yesterday and today I just went jogging in the rain because I couldn’t stand to keep missing my daily hour of cardio.
Fun: Playing superheros with my two-year old nephew. He was spiderman and I was iron man.
Beautiful: The avocados I buy at the little fruit shop around the corner from my apartment building.
Karl,
Great news on the growing popularity around work happiness – and for your position within all of that!
Hard: Malfunctioning equipment, and a shortage of people while it was all happening. This meant downtime, and frustration levels up.
Fun: Lunch with a colleague and a vendor – both great people and so easy to connect with!
Beautiful: Taking my son to the orthodontist, and we have to stop on the road for a deer who is taking her time to cross. All in a perfect setting – woods on one side of the road, and a field on the other.
I like the juxtaposition of the hard, the fun, and the beautiful.
I know what you mean about the fog. I know some people follow the Zone diet to stay in the mental zone throughout the day. For me, I try to organize my work to leverage my power hours.
Hi Karl – I think it’s fair to say that flakiness is often a form of creativity. Hey, I’ve been there too.
Hard: getting enough sleep; Fun: creating a collage about a dream I had, then getting lots of insight from it; Beautiful: the King Tut exhibit at the de Young museum.
WOW! I know what you mean about the fog. It has been a killer week for me and the brain fog. Thank you for inspiring me to push through it instead of giving into the fog and not getting anything done.
Karl, I love how you identified where that guy’s insistence that you were an “airhead” came from (and not for nothing, but I might call him a knucklehead for calling you an airhead!): he’s unhappy with himself, but prefers to take it out on others. You’re wise for seeing that.
Your story about your wife melted my heart a little. What a lovely anecdote to share, and how lucky you both are to have each other.
For me this week:
Hard: Turning down a job offer because, even though I could use some income right now, it didn’t resonate with who I am, or where I’m headed. In other words, I didn’t get the sense that it would be FUN, loving, respectful of me individually, or anything else I hold dear. It would simply be a paycheck. Not as hard as I thought it would be to say no, but my ego (which is fearful of not having enough money) wasn’t necessarily pleased when I pulled that trigger.
FUN: Going to see PUSH physical theater this week with a friend. The way some people use their bodies to communicate is just AWESOME! I went home inspired to go beyond my usual physical limits in things like running and yoga because I had just witnessed people using their bodies in absolutely jaw-dropping ways. If they can do it, I can do a bit more for myself, too.
Beautiful: Settling into myself a bit more; recognizing that who I am right now, without anything changing, is more okay than it’s ever been. It’s a nice feeling; I’m laying new tracks in my mind about what it means to be me, and it feels very good.
Happy weekend!
Hi Karl!
I like how you achieve a balance by looking at the hard, fun and beautiful. So often we get hooked on the hard part and boy that old negativity will flow into a sweeping mental tsunami, bashing ourselves til we bleed.
For me, hard is staying focused – fog and flaky I’m well acquainted with!
The fun? Going with the fog and flaky, having a good laugh at myself and embracing my lack of focus. The beautiful – making a difference in someone’s life (either thru smiles, hugs, encouragement or humor ) and of course, daily walks in nature or just looking out my window.
No doubt in my mind your blog will be successful! Great material! Don’t sweat the fog or flaky – our minds need a break from the constant whip of task-oriented thinking!
LOVE the part about your wife being beautiful. 🙂
Hard: I’ve been having brain fog too, but it finally seems to have lifted today, and I am ready to work.
Fun: Theater audition season is here for me, and I’m working on my audition pieces, which is a lot of fun now that I have a good teacher.
Beautiful: My friend’s daughter. I just saw her for the first time in six months, and she’s huge, walking and talking and just gorgeous.
Hi Karl
Great to hear about your week and yeah, I too so enjoyed what you said about your wife! That was very beautiful and I am sure she appreciates that a lot too!
As for my week:
Hard: Dealing with some unexpected “to do’s”. You know how it is really nice when you plan out a nice schedule for yourself and know when you will get done this or that, and than one new task comes out of the blue and throws everything off. Well, no biggie in the long run, but that is what I guess could be seen as “hard”.
Fun: Finding out that I am going to Long Beach, California next week! Woo-hoo can’t wait to feel some sun on my skin!
Beautiful: Some feedback I received about my sites this week. It just really, really made me melt and realize what a difference I am making in some people’s lives.
Karl,
If this dude sees you as flaky it’s a good thing he hasn’t ever met me. Due to my ADHD I’m always doing things a little backwards or should I say very backwards. LOL Like Megan said, you recognized it for what is was. His stuff!
The hard:
Haven’t felt good this week. I was rarely sick living in Michigan and since I’ve been in AZ I keep getting this viral thing each season and my doctor thinks it’s from extreme tempature changes. I feel I have no control over it and it’s frustrating. It does make me appreciate my health!
The fun: Hearing that my grandson can say “cat.” He says 3 words now. Also looked at photos I took from the last visit and had a perfect one of him waving hello. He had just learned. It’s so cute I think I will post it.
The beautiful: My hubby who lost his job in April and decided to start up his practice here found an awesome office for a super deal. It’s one of those “too good to be true” experiences. Yet you know it happened because it’s suppose to happen like that when you’re on the right track.
Also hired a designer to create adds, biz cards etc and they turned out beautiful. We both feel things are coming together just in time for tax season!
Congrats on your growth…you’re on the right path!
Hi Karl — I liked what you said about just allowing the fog when it sets in, without beating yourself up about it — my sense is that dropping our resistance to creatively blocked moments is what has them pass away.
Hi Karl,
Moments of absent-mindedness can happen if we’re trying to juggle too many things at once, mentally, or get distracted. Before you start beating yourself up over the brain fog, are you getting enough sleep, exercise, water, Omega-3s and good quality food/nutrition? An insufficient amount of any of the above will bring on the brain fog from time to time.
I had a really busy week last week and all that energy that got used up (and–I confess–not replenished with adequate sleep) caught up with me this week. Consequently, I lost the motivation to complete the actions I’d committed to doing for my Be the Change action circle, got discouraged trying to come with a statement that describes my purpose (the inner editor criticized everything as too contrived, etc, etc.)and almost gave up even trying to get to my circle last night after waiting almost half an hour in the pouring rain for buses that were doing no shows. I finally got to my circle 15 minutes late and drenched, but I’m so glad I persevered in my efforts to get there, even though I felt like turning around and going home.
The fun: I’d agreed to dance (Belly Dancing)at my Mum’s Halloween party last Saturday and I had a lot of fun performing again. I usually just do one very choreographed piece that I’ve rehearsed to the point of being able to do the routine in my sleep, but this time I also added in a new song where I just made things up as I went along, and got other people to stand up and dance with me–way less formal and lots of fun. This week, my sister and I went out on the one really beautiful,sunny day we were graced with and took some photos at a park near where I live, which leads me to …
The beautiful: We still have quite a few leaves left on the trees in my corner of the world, and it was so neat to watch the leaves as they floated in these spiral dances toward the ground. It was so quiet in the park near the lake that I could hear the leaves snapping off the twigs and branches before they fell to the ground. We got some great photos of some Canada Geese doing their morning tai chi/yoga (or at least that’s what it looked like), some ducks, and a very magical looking tree that looked as though some kind of tree sprite was about to step out of the tree. It was so great to spend that time outdoors and just being in each moment.
Hope everyone has a relaxing, enjoyable weekend.
I live in a fog, too. When I was younger people called me Spacey Stacey. I always took it in the negative, but what I’ve realized is it is my creativity…that was squashed for so long.
Hard: Change. Lots of change for me and finally coming clean with what I want to do with my business.
Fun: Tonight’s dance lesson night with my husband. Fun!!
Beautiful: (Does your wife know you shared that story?!?!?) My life. My husband. No matter how frustrated I get, my life is beautiful.
have a great weekend!
Hi Marelisa, Love playing super heroes, especially when I’m at work.
Hi Lance, Malfunctioning equipment is hard because when it goes wrong it messes up our whole day.
Hi J.D., The fog got me and it was in my power block of time. Very frustrating.
Hi Patty, The King Tut exhibit would be so cool to see. I’m jealous.
Hi Chris, Giving into the fog is just giving our power away.
Hi Megan, Turning down a job offer is hard. I sometimes get sick to my stomach when I turn a job down.
Hi Suzen, Going with the fog is the only way.
Hi Emily, It’s amazing how fast kids grow.
Hi Evita, Unexpected “to do’s” stink. There never is any warning.
Hi Tess, I’m getting over a cold too. Lousy germs.
Hi Chris, Great point.
Hi Sue, I love your Hard, Fun and Beautiful comments. Alway so detailed. We can’t force motivation. I’m glad you persevered and still found a way to enjoy yourself.
Hi Stacey, Sometimes the hard stuff allows us to see with clarity.
Hi Karl.
I like your personable nature that comes across in the video. It is enjoyable to see you take a positive light towards some things that are obviously frustrating.
As far as hard, I would say that maintaining focus from session to session of effort is difficult, but I manage to do so for the most part.
Regarding fun, I make sure to get in some solid enjoyment at times by running or enjoying with music-related activity.
About the beautiful, there are some roses of different colors here that would fit that category, and they smell good.
Thanks for making me think about these things so I opened up my mind.
Cool video and cool concept.