It can be quite remarkable where inspiration can come from, (I thank you friend and fellow blogger!) it got me thinking about my own job and what it means to me. I have been working at the same job for nearly nine years--minus a couple of maternity leaves. I realized my job provides me more than something to do AND a payday. I'm not denying those two are the main reasons for working at a job. I am considering more of the little things that make a job interesting, things that make me want to continue working there. I have compiled a short list, with my reasons for why I will continue to work at the job I am in.
The People. My workplace is a mix of veteran and recent additions. Some people don't stay long for whatever the reason, but others have been there so long, they're almost fixtures in the place. They all have their strong points, which is what I would like to focus on. I think I can safely say I have learned something from everyone I have worked with. Some people have a knack for doing things faster, more efficiently, or just plain better. I like to think I can get through my workday just a bit better now because of routines or tricks I have adopted from others.
Let's not forget the reason I am at work is people needing a place to stay to do what they do to make their living, or they may be taking a break from all that! No matter what the reason, many of the people I interact with have their own stories or concerns. There have been many times I take something from those conversations or interactions as well.
The Variety. As I mentioned in my first point, my job is heavily people-oriented. My day may follow a basic pattern, yet everyday is still different. I definitely do not work in a cookie-cutter job! That variety is truly the spice that helps to keep my job interesting. I can be in the middle of a mundane, yet necessary job, and suddenly be called to do something far more stimulating at a moment's notice.
The Reputation. I feel a certain amount of pride feeling that my work is contributing towards the upholding of a respected reputation. (Even though the work attire isn't to die for). I do feel as if I am a vital part of maintaining the image and reputation the establishment has built.
The Appreciation. I am fortunate enough to work at a job where management does tell us we are appreciated, and I feel for the most part as a staff member, treated well. Guests as well show their appreciation, whether it be the occasional tip, positive service survey, or a direct face to face compliment or "Thank You" (even if I am just doing my job).
The Flexibility. A late entry to the game after it was all said and done. I realized I had omitted a fairly major reason I like my job. The place is a 24/7 operation, which allows more flexibility than say an office with the standard 9-5 business hours (Which I find funny, as this isn't the way the world runs anymore, it seems.) I can start later in the day, be available in the evenings, and for my own personal situation, work part-time for the time being. You can be sure I do offer to work the shifts I can do, if they need me to work more often, and I don't complain(much!) about working stat days. It's all part of the flexibility. They let me work the later shifts and less days, so I in return try to be accommodating when asked. All about the give and take, and I can feel good that I'm not just taking!
Personal Satisfaction. I enjoy having a job where I can go, do my day's work, and feel in my own way I got something accomplished--even though I have to go in the next day to do it all again, albeit in a new form, perhaps with different people, and circumstances. Talk about job security! I say this having done this job both on a full and part-time basis.
I have done other jobs to keep the money flowing, but looking back, they were jobs I did for the most basic reasons on does a job.
One last point I would like to bring up. I have learned that even on the very rare day that everything seems to be going wrong, a workday is only eight hours long, and that I can leave it all behind when that time is up. It's no longer my concern then. I can put some space between before I head back in for another shift.
Seeing these points displayed in front of me makes me realize that although we know change is inevitable, and can be good, I see no reason to change jobs when I know that like any attempt made in life, I am experiencing a continual learning process.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
More than a Resolution... Time for a Change!
Of course it is that time of year when we all resolve to make the coming year our best yet. I have made a decision to make more than a resolution. I realize I have been sitting in my own rut for so long that I haven't really made any progress on what I want out of life. I am not looking to make a radical sudden change, as I don't think I can sustain that. About two years ago, I did make a resolution, and that was to try to see more of the positive in life. I was getting to a point where I could see that buying into negativity was bringing me down. I do know that the emotions and flow of energy around me has a power, for either good or bad. I have had enough of the bad. I don't like how I feel after being around people who have absolutely nothing good to say about anything, so I am making a choice to not be a part of that. I'm not talking about random complaining or critisism that may actually make things better. No one can be up all the time, me included! I am talking about people who seem to have a perpetual dark cloud following them, and everything bad seems to happen to them. I remember feeling somewhat surprised when I did a reading based on birth signs and according to it, I have been living through a period of what is considered to be bad luck. Reading further, it claimed that my luck and prosperity would vastly change around 2015, and it looked to stay that way into the foreseeable future. I know this reading was just entertainment, but it got me thinking about luck. Until that point I didn't consider myself to be an unlucky person. I suppose it must all be in the perception. I know nothing except my own experiences, and in my own summation I thought I was reasonably lucky, or maybe I am just seeing the positive where I can. (It will be interesting to see if anything happens in 2015 to support any of this birth sign reading). At any rate, I am not going to mump about 2014 thinking I'm unlucky!
After much reading on the topic of self-esteem, I realized this is an area of my life I could use improving in. For as long as I can remember, I always thought people were better than me, and therefore I pretty much gave up my right to speak up, to be treated fairly, or to take a stand. Despite this, I always managed to have at least one or two people who were good, true friends. These people are still important to me, and made me feel lucky, even if the stars say I am not!
I feel that everything that happens in life can teach a lesson, provide insight, or just add the spice of experience to the pot.
I look back over some of the posts I have done, and realize exploring them is part of the tapestry of life. My post on regret made me realize that we don't have all the time in the world to figure things out, so we really should grab opportunities when they present themselves, or an avenue I need to explore, making my own opportunities.
I am realizing as I grow older (yikes!) no one has the right to make me feel like crap, I am responsible for my own happiness, which I plan to be! At the same time I am not going out of my way to judge and put others down. I may not agree with or understand others' actions, but sometimes it just isn't necessary. The world is an ever changing place, so why can't I be an ever changing and evolving person? I can still be fundamentally the same person with some new, and improved thrown in for good measure.
Although most of the changes I want to make will come from within, it is time I addressed the outside a bit too. Having kids changed my body somewhat, and I'm sure metabolism, activity level, age, etc. is also playing some part. I remember telling myself that during those years I didn't really give a crap what shape or weight I was. I'm not looking to be one of those super-thin or ripped looking women, but I would like to loose some of the extra mass I have accrued.
I'm writing this post planning to get some things accomplished that I have been holding back on. The kids are getting older, and by September I will have all three of them at school. Sure, I will probably work more, but I am hoping it will also translate into more time for me to do "me" stuff. I am not always going to put myself on the backburner, as I feel that is in part what is compelling me to want change.
In summary, I am hoping for a period of time to learn, explore, create, and have fun. The other big thing I want to continue with is to make sure the wonderful people in my life know how much I love and appreciate them, especially if I don't get the chance to express it as often as I should.
Life can be a bitch, but it can also be compelling, exciting, and intriguing! I want to feel it all!
After much reading on the topic of self-esteem, I realized this is an area of my life I could use improving in. For as long as I can remember, I always thought people were better than me, and therefore I pretty much gave up my right to speak up, to be treated fairly, or to take a stand. Despite this, I always managed to have at least one or two people who were good, true friends. These people are still important to me, and made me feel lucky, even if the stars say I am not!
I feel that everything that happens in life can teach a lesson, provide insight, or just add the spice of experience to the pot.
I look back over some of the posts I have done, and realize exploring them is part of the tapestry of life. My post on regret made me realize that we don't have all the time in the world to figure things out, so we really should grab opportunities when they present themselves, or an avenue I need to explore, making my own opportunities.
I am realizing as I grow older (yikes!) no one has the right to make me feel like crap, I am responsible for my own happiness, which I plan to be! At the same time I am not going out of my way to judge and put others down. I may not agree with or understand others' actions, but sometimes it just isn't necessary. The world is an ever changing place, so why can't I be an ever changing and evolving person? I can still be fundamentally the same person with some new, and improved thrown in for good measure.
Although most of the changes I want to make will come from within, it is time I addressed the outside a bit too. Having kids changed my body somewhat, and I'm sure metabolism, activity level, age, etc. is also playing some part. I remember telling myself that during those years I didn't really give a crap what shape or weight I was. I'm not looking to be one of those super-thin or ripped looking women, but I would like to loose some of the extra mass I have accrued.
I'm writing this post planning to get some things accomplished that I have been holding back on. The kids are getting older, and by September I will have all three of them at school. Sure, I will probably work more, but I am hoping it will also translate into more time for me to do "me" stuff. I am not always going to put myself on the backburner, as I feel that is in part what is compelling me to want change.
In summary, I am hoping for a period of time to learn, explore, create, and have fun. The other big thing I want to continue with is to make sure the wonderful people in my life know how much I love and appreciate them, especially if I don't get the chance to express it as often as I should.
Life can be a bitch, but it can also be compelling, exciting, and intriguing! I want to feel it all!
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Getting the Creative Juices Flowing...
As the end of 2013 came closer I found I wasn't having many creative thoughts to ponder. I don't know if if was preoccupation with Christmas and all the associated emotions that go with it. Fast forward to the new year and BAM, just about every night I am back to having vivid, interesting dreams that leave something unanswered. Sometimes I would love to be able to somehow hook up my brain to download what I seen during my slumber, just so I could show people what I am talking about. This would only work with some of my dreams, as the majority of them are disjointed, lack structure, or would just be too weird to share with others. Some of them stick with me and are just begging to be written down, moulded and shaped into something that would make an interesting story. These are the type of dream I have been experiencing of late. A large percentage of these have involved a common element: planes. Some of them have involved watching someone else get on a plane, others involve helplessly watching a plane plummet to earth, sometimes exploding, sometimes staying surprisingly intact. The last type of plane dream involves being on one, not always knowing the destination, and letting the adventure unfold as the dream progresses.
The last plane dream I had involved a plane that was very wide. The back row was ten seats across, and the whole top half of the plane was made of clear material--assuming it was glass, but the point is, that it was see through. The seats could be turned, and I can remember turning to face the passengers sitting along the back row. Most of them were people I knew. I could see the high tail of the plane from my seat, as well as everything above and on either side. The runway looked as if it had been cut through a forest, as there were trees as far as the eye could see on both sides. I remember the takeoff, as we rose above the treeline. The entire flight continued above forest. No bodies of water, and very little evidence of elevation until about what seems like an hour later. We the passengers are all engaged in conversation. No one says anything about where we are headed, yet no one seems to worry about that detail. At this point, a voice comes over the loudspeaker to tell us we are landing prematurely, no reason given. We circle around a forested area, then land on a runway that looks like a clearing. As we slow we see a hangar, and what looks like a small office building beside it. Once at a stop, the passengers disembark, and we all line up outside the hangar. A few crew come out and put the plane we arrived on inside, and close the doors. The flight crew stay with the aircraft and our group is just left standing there. We stand about for a short time. Someone pulls out their phone, and attempts to figure out our location via GPS. Moments later, the man walks away. The rest of us discuss the situation briefly before copying the first man. The phones do little to help us, other than to show an aerial view similar to the one we viewed just before landing. I flick the screen over and over, trying to get a sense of where we might be. I see what looks like a sparse grid of roads to the north of our present location. The group we started with breaks up based on the information their phones provide. Some people head west with enthusiasm, others to the south. Some of the people just disappear. I find that three others think the information I saw seems promising, and we all head that way, looking for a road, anything to get a sense of where we might be...
It goes on, but this is an example of despite my best efforts to describe what I saw, no one else will imagine it exactly the same way. This dream was relatively straightforward with a couple of weird moments or twists, that my imagination threw in. Some of the other plane dreams I've had are so discombobulated, that all I can do is separate out the pertinent elements and use my imagination to fill in the rest like a story.
Thanks to my overactive dream state, I now have more material to use creatively for quite some time. In fact, right now I have more material than I have time to process it all. For now I will be writing out material as an overview and put down details in point form to keep it fresh until the day that I will have time to revisit it.
This is just me dealing with the dream on a surface level. I should also be digging beneath the obvious to see if the dream was merely entertainment or if my subconscious is actually trying to inform me of something. During my waking hours I will admit I find flight interesting. I enjoy flying on planes for the most part, while being wary of the fact the pilots and the aircraft are all that is keeping me that high up. I also love the speed of flying, that I can go one thousand kilometres or more in a fraction of the time it would take me to drive it. 2013 was the first year in a long time that I did not personally take a flight somewhere. I know without having a dream that I want to change that for 2014. Like my dream I do not know where I would want to go at this exact moment, but I have ideas. We'll see, the year is young yet! Maybe I need to take a flight to further spur my creative juices--worth a shot!
The last plane dream I had involved a plane that was very wide. The back row was ten seats across, and the whole top half of the plane was made of clear material--assuming it was glass, but the point is, that it was see through. The seats could be turned, and I can remember turning to face the passengers sitting along the back row. Most of them were people I knew. I could see the high tail of the plane from my seat, as well as everything above and on either side. The runway looked as if it had been cut through a forest, as there were trees as far as the eye could see on both sides. I remember the takeoff, as we rose above the treeline. The entire flight continued above forest. No bodies of water, and very little evidence of elevation until about what seems like an hour later. We the passengers are all engaged in conversation. No one says anything about where we are headed, yet no one seems to worry about that detail. At this point, a voice comes over the loudspeaker to tell us we are landing prematurely, no reason given. We circle around a forested area, then land on a runway that looks like a clearing. As we slow we see a hangar, and what looks like a small office building beside it. Once at a stop, the passengers disembark, and we all line up outside the hangar. A few crew come out and put the plane we arrived on inside, and close the doors. The flight crew stay with the aircraft and our group is just left standing there. We stand about for a short time. Someone pulls out their phone, and attempts to figure out our location via GPS. Moments later, the man walks away. The rest of us discuss the situation briefly before copying the first man. The phones do little to help us, other than to show an aerial view similar to the one we viewed just before landing. I flick the screen over and over, trying to get a sense of where we might be. I see what looks like a sparse grid of roads to the north of our present location. The group we started with breaks up based on the information their phones provide. Some people head west with enthusiasm, others to the south. Some of the people just disappear. I find that three others think the information I saw seems promising, and we all head that way, looking for a road, anything to get a sense of where we might be...
It goes on, but this is an example of despite my best efforts to describe what I saw, no one else will imagine it exactly the same way. This dream was relatively straightforward with a couple of weird moments or twists, that my imagination threw in. Some of the other plane dreams I've had are so discombobulated, that all I can do is separate out the pertinent elements and use my imagination to fill in the rest like a story.
Thanks to my overactive dream state, I now have more material to use creatively for quite some time. In fact, right now I have more material than I have time to process it all. For now I will be writing out material as an overview and put down details in point form to keep it fresh until the day that I will have time to revisit it.
This is just me dealing with the dream on a surface level. I should also be digging beneath the obvious to see if the dream was merely entertainment or if my subconscious is actually trying to inform me of something. During my waking hours I will admit I find flight interesting. I enjoy flying on planes for the most part, while being wary of the fact the pilots and the aircraft are all that is keeping me that high up. I also love the speed of flying, that I can go one thousand kilometres or more in a fraction of the time it would take me to drive it. 2013 was the first year in a long time that I did not personally take a flight somewhere. I know without having a dream that I want to change that for 2014. Like my dream I do not know where I would want to go at this exact moment, but I have ideas. We'll see, the year is young yet! Maybe I need to take a flight to further spur my creative juices--worth a shot!
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