The News That’s Fit to Print

In my blog entry on “What Is News?”, I suggested that traditional news sources do not do a good job of keeping us well informed because they overlook so many important, positive stories. Let’s remember that they are in the business of selling newspapers, magazines or programs, and that they feature the stories they know we will pay attention to. If we, their audiences, start paying more attention to success stories and good ideas than we usually pay to disasters, they will start reporting more positive stories.

There are many sources of news today, some of which deliberately share good news. Here is a somewhat random list of good news at global, regional and local levels, and my sources. If you feel moved to do so, add your own list. Or, if you live in Southern Maine, and want to post some positive stories happening in the area, you can do it at Good News Portland.

- Founded by Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawon MCConnon in 1984, Project H.O.M.E. is a housing, employment, education, and healthcare organization breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia. The program now consists of 447 housing units, three businesses that provide employment to clients, economic development initiatives, a home ownership program for the working poor and a state-of-the-art learning center offering comprehensive education and occupational programming. It earned national awards in 2004 and 2005, and has been selected by HUD as a model program. (Sources: Maura O’Brien, program intern, and World Wide Web)

- In one day, on May 3, 2008, 50,000 volunteers literally cleaned up the country of Estonia. This was the culmination of an exciting grassroots campaign called Let’s Do It. The campaign successfully mobilized 4% of the population of Estonia to clean up 10,000 (more…)

Work-Life Balance Can’t Be Achieved Through Time Management

Time management can be extremely helpful in teaching us organizational and self-management skills.  However, it cannot help us simplify or balance a life where we have already made too many commitments to too many activities.  What we need is some help in challenging those commitments and the values that made us choose them in the first place.

Recently, I gave a talk on “Achieving Work-Life Balance”.  The young professionals at my presentation participated in an activity where they identified something they thought they should do or be, and then imagined being released from that “should” without any negative repercussions (practical or emotional).  They found it almost impossible to do.

What this points to is that most of us live the lives we think we have to, not the lives we would like to.  We experience (more…)

On Doing The Impossible

In his 2008 Valedictory Address to the graduating class at Notre Dame, Joshua Hammack made these challenging remarks:  “Speaking of the impossible, I believe that word takes unfair blame for people’s unwillingness to try.  It seems like whenever you have an audacious goal, someone wants to focus on its impracticality.”

Never is that more true than when the audacious goal is our own - and we are usually the “someone” who is pointing out its impracticality. (more…)

Getting A Job In Any Economy

A lot of times, clients will ask me something like, “Are there any jobs out there?” or tell me with conviction that this is a difficult time to get jobs.

 It’s clear that they think something scary is going on and they’re in a bad position.  Listening to statewide and nationwide unemployment statistics will tend to support this view.  What they won’t do is help my clients discover whether that news has anything to do with them, personally. (more…)

Hunkering Down - Not a Recipe For Success

     Our local university offers a non-credit course on career change three times a year and asks me to teach it.  Typically, 12-20 students sign up - but not since the downturn in the economy.  In the last several months, it has been offered twice.  Two students signed up in January and six for the class that started in March. 

At our first session in March, several of those six were dumbfounded.  Why so few people, they wondered?  At a time when more people’s jobs are less secure than they’ve been in years, why would people not have signed up in record numbers?

     Why indeed. Why are many people economizing personally when their wages have remianed the same?  Why are we not buying stocks when they’re on sale?  Why are so many companies so illogiacally cutting back on sales and marketing?  Why are they not taking advantage of deeply discounted advertising rates? (more…)

What Is News?

            I was having lunch with my friend Greg, who I don’t get to see very often.  Our drive to the restaurant had been pleasant, the food was good and the day was sunny, but Greg was distressed.   It seems he has a bunch of e-buddies who regularly share information with him about what is threatening the peace and safety of the nation.  He is also careful to watch the national news each evening. He’d received a lot of negative news the day before, found himself sharing it with his wife – who had very different ideas about it, and they wound up in an argument. So Greg was doubly distressed.

I asked him if he thought it was important to tune into all this negative news, since it obviously was making him unhappy and affecting his relationship negatively. He said yes, because it is very important to be informed.              Later I started thinking about that comment.  Clearly, he believes that his “news” sources (I put the word in quotation marks because so much “news” is actually opinion) do a good job of keeping him well informed.  But I disagree.  (more…)

Maintain a Confident Attitude in Tough Economic Times

Economic down times are an invitation for a person’s whole outlook to turn negative. There is constant news of layoffs and rising unemployment. Although pessimism and discouragement are understandable, they are not helpful. They tend to rob us of energy, convince us that action is useless, poison our relationships, make us ill and destroy our ability to bounce back. Clearly, keeping a positive outlook is important. It is not easy to do, but with practice we can learn to change our interpretation of negative situations and keep our minds on a positive track. We can also learn to take bold action to improve our situation and extend assistance to others.

(more…)