(Can’t see the video? Then try watching it at Work Happy Now - Hard Fun and The Beautiful – The Rain Edition)
Where we are free to talk about the hard, the fun, and the beautiful of our work week.
This week has been a doozie. Now that I’m looking back on my week and sharing it with you, they all seem like doozies. I guess that’s the magic of reflection. By putting a magnifier to life, I’m able to see the little nuances of work that are truly enjoyable.
I never thought that being overwhelmed by multi-tasking would be enjoyable. Of course it’s hard to deal with in the moment, but a few days later it’s quite funny.
Let’s begin:
Hard
Multi-tasking. I’m really bad at it. After I switch to a new task, I have trouble remembering where I was in my previous task. Sometimes I totally forget to even go back to my previous task. So I was writing a pretty important email, then I remembered that I needed to change an image on my sidebar. So I jumped into creating this image, got lost in it, then got lost in something else and this went on for awhile. I finally went to bed. I got up the next day and remembered the email that I was supposed to send to a potential client. Arrrgh! I didn’t miss a deadline or anything, but I just wanted to be on top of my stuff.
Waking up super early. I wake up at 6 am during the week and around 7 am on the weekends, so I’m not a stranger to early rising, but 5 am is a bit much. It threw off my whole cycle. My pooping schedule, my sleeping schedule, and my eating schedule. It’s amazing how I am so used to my routines.
Fun
A friend who signed up for the eCourse gave me feedback. She told me that the course could use some improvement. I was so happy to see someone giving me feedback. She was telling me to do extra work and that’s awesome. This feedback will help me take my eCourse to the next level. To me that’s fun. You know that you love what you do when you enjoy getting feedback that gives you more work.
Beautiful
Rain. Living in Austin, Texas we don’t get enough rain. We are in a severe drought. It’s not so much that I’m worried about the crops and having drinking water, I am, it’s just that a person needs rain in their life. When an area has 100 straight days of sun, it can get exhausting. Rain helps me appreciate the sun. It’s the Yin and Yang that help me keep my emotional balance. So this past weekend I stepped out to take my dog for a walk and it was raining. When the rain hit my skin I could feel my whole body smile. It was a little weird for me too. It was just that really cool, “yes, this is the good stuff” feeling.
What about you?
What has been hard, fun, and beautiful in your life? Let us know in the comment section.
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Marketing is a pain in the butt, but every business has to do it. Check out Mark's post Marketing Just Isn’t Sexy at the Heart of Business. He has a new course coming out in a few days called The Heart of Business Momentum: Three Journeys to an Ongoing Flow of Clients and Money. Mark isn't an affiliate of mine. He just does wonderful work and I want to shine a little internet light on it.
If you liked this video you'll probably like these too:
Hard: Getting up on time. As it gets darker in the morning, it gets harder to get out of bed. Can't wait for the "fall back".
Fun: Going to my voice lessons every week. It's work, but it's fun work, with definite, appreciable results, when we're done.
Beautiful: The leaves turning as Fall begins here in the Midwest. I love Fall, especially fall rain, which we've had a lot of this week.
Hi Emily, I miss the leaves changing colors. I grew up in PA and it was like Universe/God was rewarding us before the winter kicked in. Living in Austin, TX we don't have such vibrant colors. I'm going to visit PA in a couple weeks, I hope to catch the trees changing color.
Hard. Technology. Lance helped me turn off the volume on Twitter! I hired someone to help make changes on my blog. Overwhelmed by it all. I need to "Play" with it all more but it doesn't seem like fun or play to me.
Fun. Hiking at Pinnacle Peak. Getting a new bike this weekend.
Beautiful. The weather in Arizona. No more extreme heat for 9 months. It's why I moved here. Beautiful...my husband's generosity and kindness.Beautiful...life...my amazing life!
Karl these are great questions that could be reflected on every Friday. Off to sign up for your e-course.
Hard. Getting up at 5 a.m and having to drive a new route to work. I have a hard time being flexible in this area. I like the way I've been going and it is hard for me to accept that for two weeks I won't be able to go that way.
Fun. Planning a dinner party for all my friends. I love those guys and girls and it will be awesome to have them all in one room.
Beautiful. Going out to get the paper and noticing the yellow and leaves on the ground. Fall is coming.
These are fun weekly updates Karl - I really like them 🙂
Okay so to start, how you wake up at 5am or even 6am is something else. I mean, I know, I know, if you have to do it, you have to do it, but still. For work in the past I used to wake up at 7am and it is not that I have trouble in the am. I don't drink coffee and once I am up, I up and perky and ready to go, but what gets me is how unnatural this is to the human cycle. We were meant to wake up naturally not to the sound of a buzzing alarm. Some days our bodies need more sleep, some days less - the point being today's society in terms of work, is not set up to accommodate this. I guess the only way around this, is the type of job one gets (i.e. how flexible are the hours)
Okay so me:
Hard - sticking to what I was supposed to do. I have a project due Monday, it could have been done by Wednesday, and here we are on Friday and it is only 1/3rd done.
Fun - Getting to know some new people 🙂
Beautiful - again I have to say my morning walks. I absorb so much beauty during them from the environment around me.
Ooh! I love the little poster you added in the back that makes it clear you're doing a hard, fun, beautiful video. 🙂
It's so good to focus on and regroup weekly. My twitter-length recap:
The hard: Buying & assembling lamps, moving, blarg.
The fun: Playing bridge with friends, making strawberry smoothies.
The beautiful: Getting in the flow of my work and loving it.
Karl,
You've got a wonderful perspective and are very inspirational. Keep rocking man.
Hi Karl,
Don't be too hard on yourself about the multi-tasking. I'm quite sure we are NOT meant to multi-task: Even computers don't actually multi-task, it just looks that way to us. I recommend re-reading Leo Babauta's articles on doing less (i.e., no multi-tasking) but doing less really well. 🙂
Here's my summary of the hard, fun, and beautiful this week.
Hard--After putting in extra time last week (including when I was at home sick with a really nasty cold)to ensure that I met a deadline (I was given 9 days to accomplish a slightly smaller version of a project that a colleague had worked on for several months last year!), I was told my boss wouldn't be able to look at it until the following week. Sigh... It's also a bit challenging at the moment realizing that I likely won't have this job in about three more weeks. That in itself is a good thing and I will be celebrating the escape from a toxic office--but so far I've not been able to get anything else lined up. The number of things I need to do to get "Plan B" into place is feeling a bit overwhelming! Okay, one thing at a time....
Fun--well, my Mum and I are heading off to Granville Island for the afternoon. It's a really neat place with a huge farmer's market and lots of artsy stores, galleries, etc. While I'm there, I'm going to get tickets to a couple of events at an upcoming Writers & Readers Festival, and enter one of my poems into the writing contest they are holding. I have also been doing some preliminary footwork for setting up my own consulting business. I really need to find/make the time to do a bit of marketing research and figure out which of the many skills I have --and enjoy exercising--are most in demand.
Beautiful--The way the morning light catches the leaves on the trees and makes them appear to shimmer--or burn in the case of leaves that are starting to change colour. Perfectly woven spider webs with dew drops on them that look like little opals as they change colour in the sunlight.
Okay, I'd better get to my most important things for the day--like firing off a few more resumes!
Best wishes to everyone for a fabulous Friday and weekend.
5am? That's late morning for me (I normally get up around 2 or 3 am) 🙂 . It sure is character-building however!!
I wish it would rain here; 'way too chilly/cold. I love rainstorms; they bring out the best of emotions.
I love this idea - what a great way to wrap up the week and make it more meaningful.
Hard: Staying focused, dealing with my wandering and somewhat scattered thoughts and actions. Maybe something to do with the autumnal equinox? Seasonal changes always seem to affect me.
Fun: Doing yoga with my husband in the evening after work!
Beautiful: I realized I could take some of my work into the living room, where just outside the window lives a huge morning glory vine in full bloom. It certainly doesn't know it's fall yet, and its beauty has filled me up this week.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Karl,
I'm beginning to think multi-tasking is WAY over rated. I find I do a better job when I focus on one task at a time and then move onto the next one. I don't mind an interruption like a phone call, or someone showing up in my office, but then I (try)to go back to that which I was working on. Like you, I forget where I was when I multi-task.
For me, this week..
Hard - Staying off of my blog and the blogs of others so I could concentrate on work or chores.
Fun - Going for a drive with my husband - we always have a lot of laughs.
Beautiful - Looking at the mountains. Oh, how I love the mountains.
Hi Tess, I used to think working with the coding of my blog wasn't much fun, but over time a few minutes here and a few minutes there and now I get excited about making changes on my blog.
Hi Keishua, I hear ya about the early wake up time. It's not easy adjusting to change.
Hi Evita, waking up by our own internal clock is something we should all live by. It's tough to live by other people's schedules.
Hi Nathalie, never played bridge, but I love strawberry smoothies.
Hi Nathan, thanks!
Hi Sue, setting up a business is always exciting. Good luck! You always have such insightful comments. Hope you have fun with your mum.
Hi Barbara L., 2am or 3am. You are crazy! You must be tired by the time 5pm comes around. 😉
Hi Patty, focus is one of my tough things too. My scattered brain likes to do 3 things at once. The problem is that I never get anything accomplished.
Hi Barbara, I love the mountains. That's one thing that Austin doesn't have. I need to go on a trip into a mountainous region very soon.
Hi
Hi Karl,
The rain sounds like a real winner for the week - very cool!
For me:
Hard: This feeling that I was just falling further and further behind in some of my blogging activities early in the week.
Fun: Working with a friend to create some videos.
Beautiful: Deciding mid-week to take a day off from work and stay home and just concentrate of blogging. And it was beautiful to do this, so peaceful for that day and for the good feelings it brought.
Hi Karl:
Hard: I want to be a squidoo giant and the deadline is getting close, so I'm making squidoo lenses as if there were no tomorrow.
Fun: Thursday I went to my sister's house and watched Spiderman and Batman YouTube videos with my two little nephews.
Beautiful: Yesterday I was jogging on a path that runs along the ocean and it had already gotten dark. When I looked to my right I could see all of these little lights off in the horizon. They were ships waiting to sail across the Panama Canal.
Hi Karl,
The rain sounds like a real winner for the week - very cool!
For me:
Hard: This feeling that I was just falling further and further behind in some of my blogging activities early in the week.
Fun: Working with a friend to create some videos.
Beautiful: Deciding mid-week to take a day off from work and stay home and just concentrate of blogging. And it was beautiful to do this, so peaceful for that day and for the good feelings it brought.