Now, here I am, in a job that most would envy – a marketing position in a growing segment of an industry I’ve loved. And somehow, I’m still not content. It’s not that my job doesn’t challenge me (it does, even on days that I’m not working), and that I don’t believe in what I do. I thought that my job would provide the fulfillment that I needed.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

Maybe it’s because I work from home. Maybe it’s because I’m not involved in the community. Maybe it’s because I no longer find common ground with the people I once considered friends. Whatever it is, there seems to be a void that no number of hours can fill.

About a year ago, I discovered “The Quarterlife Crisis” – a couple of books that talked about what it feels like I must be going through. I’m planning on looking into the online groups dedicated to discussing the phenomenon, and maybe starting a local group. Living in a college town, there have to be more people here who feel this way!

I’m also re-dedicating myself to documenting this process, here, on my blog. Maybe it can inspire someone else who’s struggling. And if not, at least it gives me a voice.

Here’s to the future!

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked   ”How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t mattter.  It depends how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the  heavier it becomes.”

He continued, “And that’s the way it is with stress management.  If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.  “As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.”

“So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don’t carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.  Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.”

So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don’t pick it up again until after you’ve rested a while.

I end up suffering from information paralysis. I’ve got too many newsletters, too many books, and in the end, too many to-do lists.

This section of Emma by Jane Austen reminded me so much of myself:

“Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old. I have seen a great many lists of her drawing up at various times of books that she meant to read regularly through – and very good lists they were – very well chosen, and very neatly arranged – sometimes alphabetically, sometimes by some other rule. The list she drew up when only fourteen – I remember thinking it did her judgement so very much credit, that I preserved it some time; and I and I dare say she may have made out a very good list now. But I have done with expecting any course of steady reading from Emma. She will never submit to anything requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding.”

I’ve spent even more time lately making lists, as recommended by the good man David Allen, author of Getting Things Done and Ready for Anything. Perhaps one of the most striking things I’ve read by him is regarding getting things off your mind and onto paper.

“Stress comes from unkept agreements with yourself. You can relieve that stress only by canceling the agreement, keeping the agreement, or renegotiating it. But you can’t renegotiate agreements with yourself that you forgot you made. Because psychic RAM has no sense of past or future, things filed there push on you to be done all the time. They must be made conscious and kept so, to alleviate the pressure.”

Now that I’ve seen the list, I’m going to start letting a few things go. I’ve got a horrible habit of being a horder, so even letting information go is difficult. Starting today I will reduce the number of email newsletters I get and never read, and set aside assigned time to do things that are important to me.

So, maybe tomorrow I’ll re-arrange my inbox filing system so that I can be closer and closer to that inbox Nirvana that so escapes me.

Here are some of the sites that I’ve read (and should read again)

• Inbox Zero: Action-Based Email
• Inbox Zero with Google Apps
• Why emptying your inbox is dangerous for your productivity and how to keep sanity without Inbox Zero

Any readers out there living in inbox zero bliss?

No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.

Rice farmers worked throughout the course of the year – unlike European farmers who would rest, and essentially hibernate while the fields lay fallow. The rice farmers worked at side tasks during the off-season, making baskets and taking care of the fields so that they were prepared for the next growing season. During that season, they were in the fields starting before dawn, weeding and working.

The rice farmers not only worked hard, they had meaningful work that defined their lives. They figured out how to do things on their own, and perservered against the odds. They worked three thousand hours a year, and taught their children to do the same.

I’m not sure if I am striving to be like a rice farmer because I admire their 3000 hours of work (That’s 8.2 hours a day, 365 days a year), or their perserverence. Either way, I do love me some rice.

Has our culture become so plug and play, so “make your own adventure” that we can no longer function within the rules of a traditional society? I read book exerpt last night about a “Results-Only Work Environment”.  Sure, it sounds like a great concept. You work the hours that are best for you, because you’re paid for a chunk of work, not a chunk of time. The biggest problem that I forsee with that is that we’re not working in independent silos. We’ve got to meet with each other, discuss with each other, and answer to one another for projects at the appropriate time and location.

In the meantime, take 15 seconds and read the instructions! We’re not writing them for fun – we’re writing them because there are specific reasons for what we need.

In one of today’s newsletters, there was an article from Page 6, about Lydia Hearst speaking out against her own company’s practices.

LYDIA Hearst is trashing her own family’s media empire for continuing to live large during the financial meltdown. “Hearst Corporation, which my family owns, continues to host parties even as it folds magazines like CosmoGirl,” the blond heiress writes in her Page Six magazine column in this Sunday’s Post. “It seems excessive . . . At least Hearst recently cancelled the company Christmas bash. It’s time to work through this crisis, not party through it.”

I’m glad that she understands that in these tough economic times, we need to be cognizant of helping each other maintain a basic standard of living, not holding elaborate parties which cost more than 5 employees annual salaries.

From Page6

• A corporate lawyer (yes, even at 9 I wanted to be a corporate lawyer, not just a lawyer)
• President of the United States (at 10, I was securing votes from my mom’s college professors)
• A librarian (seriously, I thought that librarians got to read all the books in the library when there weren’t people who wanted to check out the books).

Now that I’m a bit older, and a bit wiser, I don’t want to be a laywer. I don’t want to go to law school. And after this debacle with the election, I’m 99.8% sure that I don’t want to be the President. That leaves being a librarian. And unfortunately, I’ve learned that librarians don’t get to read all the books. So, how in the world can I read all the books that I want? Well, easy. I’m going to start my own book review site. Everything I read, I’ll write a review. Maybe I’ll start reaching out to book publishers – if they send me copies of the books, I can guarantee I’ll write an honest review. And I’ll build a network of people who trust my reviewing abilities.

And maybe, someday, my job will be reading. In the meantime, I’m quite content in continuing at my day job, and spending my nights reading and writing.

Guess I’d better get back to work.

Read more…

I’ve had my fair share of humiliation and suffering from putting things in writing that I didn’t mean for public reading. And, of course, those things were read.

So, from a novice, here are a few things that I wouldn’t post on open blogs, for what little it’s worth:

• Don’t complain about your job on a regular basis unless you’re ready to look for a new one. You would be incredibly surprised at what your boss is reading (hi boss!)
• Related, don’t give away company secrets on a blog. Especially with the economy the way it is, all of our companies need to be somewhat guarded on when it comes to future planning.
• Don’t give the gory details of your personal life. Sure, your blog is your space to share your stories. Be funny, be cynical. But be wary of posting all the photos from your weekend drinking binge.

Alright, I’m off my soapbox. I’m off to read more blogs.