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Mistakes We Make: #12 of 13

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MISTAKES WE MAKE #8

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Mistakes We Make: Part 3

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THIS NEW DAY: The Power of Clarity

Times are tough and from appearances they’re about to get tougher. But here’s the thing:

Times have always been tough. At no time in recorded history has life been a cake-walk for anyone anywhere. Everyone has challenges and they either rise to meet them or they don’t.

This is today’s position. Whether you’re talking about on the governmental front or the front centering on your personal life. We all have challenges.

And so it’s important to keep those challenges in perspective. To stay calm and clearheaded, because the absence of calm is anxiety and the absence of being clearheaded is being mired in confusion.

Anxious and confused isn’t the best frame of mind or state of being for making the decisions required of us to rise and meet our challenges.

So what can we do to minimize being anxious and maximize clarity? READ MORE

Tags: challenges, clarity, confusion, solutions, anxiety, calm, serenity, peace, coping skills, vicki hinze, writers' library, life skills

WORKING AT HOME: THE GOOD, BAD & UGLY

WARNING: This is a no-edit zone...

What’s the upside? Are there perks? What’s best about working at home?

What’s the downside? Are there drawbacks? What’s worst about working at home?

When we’re stuck in a 9 to 5 job, married to a desk, or we’re torn between being at home with the kids when the family really could use a second income, our thoughts often turn to working at home. We dream of working at home. How wonderful, we think, it would be to not have to get up and go to work.

Sometimes in these dreams we go so far as to do a pro and con list. These are the benefits and drawbacks of working outside the home, and these are the benefits and drawbacks of working at home.

In the past two decades, I’ve done plenty of both, and there are benefits and drawbacks on either path--some of which you might have considered, and some that perhaps have yet to come to mind and make it onto your list. As in most situations, when you look beyond the work itself and to the realities of living with doing the work on a daily basis, things you didn’t think of and couldn’t know come up. It’s those things I’d like to discuss in this series on Working-at-Home.

The ugly is obvious to us all, but let’s do a little comparison of the good and the bad.



THE GOOD

You set your own hours.
You determine your own workload.
You set your own agenda.
You elect which jobs to take on, and which ones to refuse.
You can be at home with your kids, or with the parent residing with you, or with the spouse who works from or is confined to home.
If you need time off, you can schedule it.
You’re the boss, and the perks are many.
You choose, you decide and you assign/attribute focus--all are your choices.

THE BAD

You set your own hours.
You determine your own workload.
You set your own agenda.
You elect which jobs to take on, and which ones to refuse.
You can be at home with your kids, or with the parent residing with you, or with the spouse who works from or is confined to home.
If you need time off, you can schedule it.
You’re the boss, and the perks are many.
You choose, you decide and you assign/attribute focus--all are your choices.


Note that the entries in the “good” and “bad” column are exactly the same.

The reason for that is each of these points can be positive or negative--a benefit and blessing--or a bane and curse. Which column--good or bad--each item ends up in depends on one thing: READ MORE...

HARLEQUIN COMMUNITY'S 100,000 BOOK CHALLENGE

The Harlequin community is committed to reading 100,000 Books this year to benefit the National Center for Family Literacy.

This is an unprecedented opportunity for all of us to help fight illiteracy at the grass roots level.

If the Harlequin community achieves its goal of 100,000 books read, it will be donating the equivalent number of books to this charity--and this charity is working hard to find solutions to the literacy crisis, so we need to do our part to make sure this a success.

That Harlequin book donation is equivalent to $700,000. You know how much that kind of donation can benefit women and their families.

We all want to make a difference in the lives of others. Here’s a shot to do just that. Reading impacts lives; we know it does. So get involved. Be a part of making a difference.

register and participate. Blog about the books you read this year.

WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU HAVE TO DO?

Read a book and create a book review. Do that, and you’ve added one more book to the total--and the National Center for Family Literacy is one book closer to getting those books!

We love reading--so much so that sometimes we feel we need a license to do more of it. Well, consider this your license (you’re reading for a worthy cause, a critical purpose) and go for it!


Here is the link to the challenge rules and an introduction. Please, please, use it!

Blessings,

Vicki

Vicki Hinze
www.vickihinze.com

Tags: read, books, novels, literacy, authors, writers, novelists, creative writing, competition, challenges, donation, writer's library, vicki hinze

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