Spontaneity: To Nurture Our Lives

October 29, 2013 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

You wake up, switch the alarm off, stretch and stand to your feet.

You race down the stairs, inhaling the fresh, cooked breakfast. The wife has done it again! Today, however, something strange happens. Your car keys are missing. No recollection of where they could be. Then, thankfully, your wife finds them. Alright, you’re not going to be late for work. I mean come on, you’re never late.

You’re almost to work when the unexplainable happens, again. You make that usual right turn and enter bumper to bumper traffic. You take this street specifically to avoid traffic. And usually there is no traffic. Now you’re definitely going to be late!

You barely make it to work on time. Break time sneaks up on you and the only thing on your mind is the uninvited intrusions from earlier. You’re a person who values punctuality, organization and a special order. For your entire life you’ve painted every aspect of your life.

I ask you to not just read my words but allow them saturate within your mind and soul.

For the avid believers who feel they can literally shape their life any which way they want. No matter how perfectly you plan each day, hour, minute or moment, you cannot decide every aspect of your life. Take part and envision a day when everything went according to plan. Probably a great day I imagine. I love those days!

Marinate your mind with this question. Where does life’s spontaneous adventures originate? Unfortunately, they don’t originate from those perfectly planned days! You think Steve Job would have been a future tech prodigy if he hadn’t first been fired from Apple? Ruth Graves Wakefield had a bad day when she realized she ran out of the baking chocolate she used for her chocolate chip cookies. This spontaneously forced her to chop up Nestlé’s Semi-Sweet morsels. Thus, creating the chocolate chip cookies we have today. The spontaneity event of each day is what keeps the future an adventure. And those are the days that become stained memories for our hearts. Embrace the uninvited intrusions and you might just meet that right person or influence a positive change in somebody’s life.

Understand I’m not saying you shouldn’t keep a planner or an organizer.

No, pride the organization in your life! But do not allow yourself to think you have ALL control. If you knew each day from beginning, middle and end, I imagine you would grow quite bored. With my education still in progress and working a full time job and taking care of my son, I know I would certainly grow bored if I knew every aspect of my future! Yes, it’s scary and sometimes it’s dark. However, if you search with your heart there is always light in times of darkness.

Life is too fun to know its inner workings!

Today, something spontaneous will happen to you friend! Go ahead, smile at it!

Bad or good, it will change your life for the better!

About the author: My name is Anthony Johnson. I’m 23 years old. I have a son, who truly means the world to me. I’ve been writing for about ten years. It became a serious passion of mine about six years ago. I’ve done all types of unpublished writing such as; fictional short stories, poetry, inspirational and of course motivational pieces. My hobbies include running, biking or anything that will keep a sweat going for me! I’m also a huge advocate of board games with family and friends! I enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I consider myself a man/father trying to change the world one day at a time. What more could I actually ask for!?

I am Who I am, But Who am I?

October 8, 2013 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

I am who I am, but who am I?

This question struck me like a lightning bolt! I imagine I’m not the only individual to be struck either.

After struggling with a pessimistic thought process for years, I finally realized I’m as normal as the guy or gal sitting beside me on a train or bus. What makes us different and unique is how we decide to fix our pessimistic mindset. Many of us constantly climb this world looking one way… downward! There’s a constant battle between our mind and heart. We want and need what the heart knows to be right! However, our mind argues that we are pathetic, feeble and most times unworthy!

Let me take you back a few years, when I thought for many years I was unworthy of anyone’s company.

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3 Issues You’ll Deal With When a Non-Immediate Family Member Dies

October 4, 2013 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

You weren’t close with Uncle Fred, seeing him only on the holidays or the occasional dinner at your parent’s house. Even though you knew about his heart condition, his death still came as a shock to you. Your natural response to grieve is understandably accompanied by the urge to do something constructive. Since Uncle Fred was a non-immediate family member, you won’t be expected to make any of the arrangements. Still, reaching out to offer help and support would be cathartic.

You would think that, after centuries of dealing with death, there would be a cut-and-dry way to go about it. Unfortunately, there isn’t. Everyone is different and grieves in different ways, and for some reason — even when it’s expected — it takes you off guard. Though you feel helpless and are trying to deal with your own grief, there are things you can do to ease the suffering around you. And that alone can have a therapeutic effect.

Explaining It to the Kids

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6 Common Investing Problems and How to Deal With Them

September 12, 2013 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

Whether you’re new to investing or it’s something you’ve been doing for years, it’s likely you’ll come across these common problems. [Read more…]

Change in Pace: 3 Ways to Improve Boring Meetings

September 10, 2013 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

Meetings are boring, but surviving them seems to be a right of passage in the American workforce. Part of your job description could probably be listed as “endure endless meetings” – even when you are the manager running the show. Meetings do not have to follow the same stale formula without any deviation. You can make the exception to the rule through mixing extra planning and liberal doses of creative thinking into these office gatherings.

Involve everyone

The simplest antidote to a boring meeting is to get everyone involved in the discussion. People become more invested in a meeting when they feel like their presence matters.

Involve the entire group in a meeting and you can enhance the quality of decisions. A study done at Cal-State Northridge found that group discussions are effective in making more information available, generating more ideas, reducing individual bias and producing a decision with fewer errors.

It can start with taking attention away from the person leading the meeting and turning the spotlight back on the group. Encourage people to speak out with ideas and suggestions. Ask open-ended questions. Breakout into group discussions. Give everyone in the meeting a chance to get involved in the decision-making process.

Avoid information overload

Meetings can feel overwhelming if there is too much information to take in all at once. You can prevent this problem by setting an agenda ahead of a scheduled meeting. The agenda can guide what things are discussed in the meeting and offer a road map for the direction of the meeting.

It helps to tackle one issue at a time. Multitasking can serve a good purpose in some situations, but can be a negative influence in a meeting. WebMD notes that the average person can actually lose time shifting between two tasks and take longer to accomplish each task.

One meeting cannot focus on every problem at hand. Set priorities and tackle issues one at a time in order of importance. When things are more specific, it can allow for shorter meetings and better results.

A good rule of thumb is to focus on the issues that are most pertinent to the people in the meeting. This will make it easier to solve problems because you can involve those same people in creating a solution. It allows them to take ownership of the meeting and become more engaged in driving the discussion in positive directions.

Make it count

Meetings represent a significant investment of both time and money. There is no excuse for having a meeting that does not accomplish a tangible purpose.

Make each meeting count by following up on the decisions made in the meeting. The founder of GoDaddy, Bob Parsons, notes that effective leadership requires always moving forward. A leader, according to Parsons, should never stop investing, improving or doing something new because a lack of improvement causes organizations to die.

When you solve problems in meetings, apply those solutions outside the conference room. A meeting that produces measurable results is not a waste of time. Measure progress and offer positive reinforcement to the whole staff when goals are met. It will reinforce the original meeting’s value.

About the Author: Samuel Perry is a PR consultant who lives in Arlington, Va.

Photo used from Flikr by Robert Couse-Baker

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