This Time of Year

This time of year seems to be stressful to even the calmest of people. There are so many factors that can increase your stress. Food must be prepared. Diets must be stuck to. Houses must be cleaned. Trips must be taken. Family members must be seen, and in some cases "dealt with." There are just so many things to think about when planning for the holidays. The important thing to remember, though, is that this season is about family. It is about being thankful for what you have, and the fact that you even exist.

There are many ways that you can show your thankfulness. One way is to tell people just how much they mean to you, not just at the holidays, but all year round. Another way is to donate to charity. It can be money you donate. It can be food or clothes that you donate. It can be your time that you donate. All donations are appreciated, especially at this time of year. The best way to show God how thankful that you are for the life you were given is to live your life the way that He intended. Don't live your life in an unhappy state. Get all that you can from this wonderful life that you were given. Don't, under any circumstances, take it for granted. This time of year is a great time to reexamine your life, and the choices that you have made. If some of them are not pleasing to God, make some new choices. Get a jump on your New Year's Resolutions, and find that sweet spot.

Greed Should be a Four Letter Word

The following post is for those who have already found their sweet spot, and are already living in it. If you are still in the process of finding your sweet spot, or you know what it is, but have not yet figured out how to turn it into what you do for a living, you should continue on that journey. This post is geared more toward those that are already living in their sweet spot. That is not to say that those of you still working toward the sweet spot won't receive anything from this post. By all means, continue reading. It will be something to keep in mind for when you have achieved your sweet spot goals.

If you are successful in finding your sweet spot, just as God intended, you should feel lucky. Even though God designed you, as well as everyone else, to live in your sweet spot, there are many people (the majority of the population), who do not know what it is that they have a passion for. However, just because you have found your sweet spot, doesn't mean that there aren't still things that you need to think about when it comes to your sweet spot, and what it is you were meant to be doing. As almost everyone knows, anytime that we are doing what God has planned for us, Satan is going to step in and make waves. This is what happens when we let greed take over in our lives. Statistically speaking, we are a much greedier nation than we were years ago. We think we need to have material things. We think that we need to compete with others in order to be successful. This is simply not the case. In order to be a success, we need to be happy. Competing with coworkers, family members, neighbors, etc. does not create happiness. It actually takes away from happiness by creating stress.

Although God wants you to have the best life possible, that doesn't mean that you need to have more "stuff" than anyone else. The happiest people are the people who have exactly what they need, and enjoy their lives. Keep this in mind while you are living in your sweet spot, and don't let greed cause you to step out of your sweet spot.

Greed is one of the worst words in our vocabulary, and it really should be considered one of the four letter words.

Who Are You? (Who, who...who, who)

Hopefully with this title, you notice the reference to the song by The Who. For those of you who only know me through this blog, I am going to go ahead and let you know that I am a classic rock kind-of-gal. I love classic rock, which, frankly, is odd for someone that is my age.

All kidding aside, though, this is an important question for me to ask you, and for you to ask yourself. Who are you? If you don't know the answer to that question, you definitely need to sit down and examine your life. While it is okay for you to take a few minutes to think about this, it's a whole different ball game for you not know the answer to this question. Once you find the answer to this question, it is much easier to find your sweet spot.

An interesting realization that I have most recently come to, however, is that whoever I am, I am the only me. I bet if you try hard enough, with only one guess, you can figure out what made me come to this realization. Give up, yet? It was the book Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado. What immediately grabbed my attention was when he said that since God only made one me, if I am not being the me that He created me to be, there is no me in this world. Because I am the only person exactly like me, if I am not being myself, I am depriving the world of the person I am supposed to be.

I know, it sounds kind of confusing. Once you catch on, though, you are going to want to be the you that God created you to be. This is reason enough to find your sweet spot. If you are living in survival mode, and just trying to get through the week, you can't be who God wants, and has created you to be. You are the unhappy person that people don't want to talk to. And, Heaven forbid they ask you how you are doing. ...

Decide who you are. Decide the person that God created you to be. Find out who it is you are supposed to be, and be that person. Find your sweet spot, and run toward it. Make your life uncommon!

ihatemyjob.com

I know that it sounds like a fun site to go and view, but at the same time, it's kind of sad. And, it's not the only one out there. There are hundreds of website where one can go and vent about how much they hate their jobs, their co-workers, and even their boss. If you just go to google, and search keywords JOB, HATE, QUIT, or any other related words, you will get millions of returns. It's terrible, in my opinion, to feel the need to rant each and every afternoon about how much you hate your job. It seems to me that you should absolutely, positively find another job, if you are so unhappy that you need to gripe to total strangers about your horrible career. If you are having to turn to the Internet to a bunch of people that you don't know, and that you will never see, to complain about your life, it is obvious that you have griped and complained too much to the people in your life that you do see, and that love you. Do me a favor. If you feel like you need to go to this website, and let off some steam, think about it first. If you are at this point in you professional life, maybe instead, you should take a long look at your career, and decide if, just maybe, you are not living in your sweet spot. It seems like an unhealthy idea to go to a site that is so negative. Instead, focus on the positive, and FIND THAT SWEET SPOT!! (I feel like Ty Pennington shouting MOVE THAT BUS!:)

Don't Watch Office Space

Although Office Space is a great movie, you shouldn't watch it, unless you are ready to actively seek your sweet spot. If you haven't seen Office Space, it is a comedy about a man who HATES his job. He hates everything about it. He hates going in every morning. He hates his boss. He hates the lady that works at the desk near him. He has nightmares about his job, and his boss. He gets hypnotized one day, and stops caring whether or not he has any job security. Ironically, though, instead of being "let go," he ends up getting promoted. It is a funny movie, but if you don't absolutely love what you are doing for a living, it may send you over the edge, and cause you to give your two weeks notice. Of course, it may do the opposite, and make you realize that you are not alone. Some 70% of the working population is unhappy in their career choices. While watching this movie, you will see why.

The love interest in this movie informs the main character that nobody likes their jobs, but you just have to get out there and find what you do love. Jennifer Aniston plays the love interest, and whether she knew it or not, she was speaking of the sweet spot. She wanted the main character, who was so miserable at work, to find his sweet spot. If he could just find his sweet spot, he would be a happy person.

Am I saying that if you are living in your sweet spot, you will never have any troubles? Of course I'm not. I'm not delusional. I realize that everyone has problems. I am stating, though, that if you can just find your sweet spot, you won't dread going to work every morning. That should certainly alleviate stress.

After you have found your sweet spot, it is time to pursue your sweet spot. It's time to use the knowledge of the sweet spot to find a way to make what you love to do, or your sweet spot, what you make a living doing.

I have now changed my mind. The title of this post is "Don't Watch Office Space." Now, I want to urge you to absolutely watch Office Space. Find it on TV, rent it, go out and buy it if you have to. Make sure you see this movie. When you have finished watching it, take Jennifer Aniston's advice, and find what it is you love to do. Find your sweet spot.

Your Sweet Spot

If you haven't read Max Lucado's book, you probably are wondering what it is I mean when I say "your sweet spot." The sweet spot is the zone in your life where you were meant to dwell. If you aren't living in your sweet spot, then you are not living the life that you should be living. When God created you, He knew that there would be a certain thing that would make you happy. When you find it, you have found your sweet spot.

There is most definitely a reason that you were created, and that reason can be realized when you find your sweet spot. You live to your full potential when you find your sweet spot. I knew all along what my sweet spot was, but I tried to convince myself, constantly, that it was something else. I think that I always knew that teaching wasn't my passion in life. I love teaching, and I love the children that I work with. I have recently come to realize, however, that even though I love teaching, I don't love being a teacher. When I bought Cure for the Common Life, I realized an even more upsetting thing. I realized that not only do I not love being a teacher, but knowing that, I now know that I am not living my life the way that God created me to live. I don't love teaching. I love writing. Writing is my sweet spot, and until I make what it is I love to do, what it is I do (writing as my career), I am not going to be living in my sweet spot, therefore, I will not be glorifying God in the way that I should.

Now that you know what it is that I am talking about when I speak of your sweet spot, figure out where your sweet spot is, and how it can help you cure your common life.

My Sweet Spot

What is it that you have always loved to do? For me, it has always been writing. I have had a passion for writing for as long as I can remember. One of the chapters in Cure for the Common Life suggests that you think back to the activity that made you happy as a child. I know for me it is writing. I struggled, though, with this suggestion, because I couldn't remember keeping a journal, or writing poetry as a child. I don't remember creating any fantastic stories, or having any extraordinary talent at writing. I do remember loving language arts, which, thanks to the FCAT and other standardized test, we really don't have time to teach. I remember all of my classmates groaning when we had to diagram a sentence, but I secretly loved to do that. Even remembering that, I still didn't think that I had a "love" for writing as a child. I remember having skill at it, though.

For example, I remember winning the D.A.R.E. essay contest. I remember that my best friend at that time was really mad at me, because she had spent days, or maybe even weeks, writing her essay, and she won second place, while I got first. I remember being shocked at the awards night, when they gave me my prize (a duffel bag), and asked me to read it to the people in attendance. I hadn't expected to win this essay contest. I remember writing that essay in about an hour. How could I win, when I had put so little effort into this? Thinking back to that night, though, it hit me...I did have a love for writing, and obviously talent at it. Anyone that is that talented at writing must love it.

Writing is my passion. It is my therapy. It is my ambition. It is my talent. It is my goal. It is my "high." It doesn't matter how long I go without writing, when I decide to take an afternoon and write, it flows naturally. I know how much I love to write, and I know I am talented at it.It always amazes me, though, when I read something that I have written, because I realize just how much I love doing it. It's obvious when reading something that I have written, that this was written by someone who really enjoys doing it.

My challenge to you today is to figure out what it is that you love to do. Figure out how to incorporate it into your everyday life, and begin your persuit of your "Sweet Spot." If you don't know what your sweet spot is, check back on this blog in a few days. Until then, stay uncommon.

The Start of Something Big

Do you find it harder and harder to get up in the mornings? Is the thought of going to work making you feel sick? Do you notice that you are taking more and more days off as the time passes? Do you have work related stress and anxiety that seems to be building up more and more? Does this sound like the beginning of an infomercial to you? (just seeing if you were paying attention)

If you answered yes to any of these questions, there are a few things that you need to know. The first thing that you need to know is that you are not alone. There are so many people in the world that feel exactly this way. Unfortunately, these people rarely do anything about it. They continue to be miserable in their places of employment, and they eventually make others miserable, because, if they are not complaining about their jobs, they are in such bad moods, that they bring down all of the people around them.

The second thing that you need to know is that this is not the way that you are supposed to feel about going to work everyday. You should not start thinking on Friday about how much you don't want Monday to come. You should not spend the entire week trying to get to Friday. That is not a healthy way to live your life. No one should spend everyday wanting to get to the end of the week. We were put on this earth to enjoy the lives that we live. If we are constantly looking for the end of the week, we are certainly not enjoying the first four days of the week.

The most important thing that you need to know is that the reason that you are not happy with your current work status may be that God gave you a different talent than the job that you have requires. It doesn't matter what your job is. It doesn't matter how long you have been doing that job. It doesn't matter how much money you make at the job. What matters is one thing. Is this the job that God had in mind for you when He was creating you? Until you know what it is that God had in mind for you, you will never be truly happy with your job, which in turn means, you will never be truly happy in the life that you are living.

Now, I have peeked your interest, but you are wondering, how do I find out what it is that God had in mind for me when He was creating me? How do I know if this is it, or not? What do I do if this is not it? Those are just some of the questions that I had when I began to investigate the life and career that I had chosen. Although it seems like something that may take years to uncover, deep down, you know whether or not this is the work He had in mind for you. I knew. I think that I had always felt that my current job was not my "calling," if you will. I knew that I enjoyed what I did, and that I was certainly not miserable, but I also knew, all along, that I was not totally fulfilled, either. There was something more, and I just couldn't pinpoint what it was. Then, of course, there was the old saying that "The grass is greener on the other side." Was that my problem? Did I just think that there was something more to life? That was where the line got incredibly fine. I knew that the other people that I worked with complained now and again, but there was no way that they felt the same way I did when they got home.

Flash forward to about a month ago. I was in the local Walgreens when I just needed some chocolate and a little inspiration. Long story short, I had been at a meeting at work, and when I left, I was in such a bad place. I stopped by Walgreens for a Ghirardelli Chocolate Caramel Square when I found myself on the greeting card aisle. There it was...The book that would change my life. The author: Max Lucado. The book: The Cure for the Common Life. I have read many of his books before, and I think he is a fantastic writer. I found two different books, and I was torn between them. Someone (God) was nudging me to get this one. I bought it, and I even kept the receipt for a while, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it. Before I read it, I went back to Walgreens twice, and looked at the other book. I couldn't make myself take this one back to exchange, though. I decided that God must really want me to read this book, and thus, my journey began. I started the book, and I couldn't put it down. I know that sounds cliche, but this was real. It's like I was reading about myself.

If you feel like God had a different plan for you when you were being created, join me in discovering The Cure for the Common Life. It may involve some work, and also a leap of faith, but trust me, this is the way to find the zone in which you were meant to dwell. Take this trip with me, and let God help you with the start of something big.