February 4, 2011

Am I getting influenced by the slacker’s generation ?

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“Money won’t make you happy… but everybody wants to find out for themselves.”

Zig Ziglar

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I used to think that money and wealth were the ultimate destination, but not anymore.

How much time and energy do you invest in the accumulation of money?

Is this what you really care about?

What if there would be something else to run after?

Like fun?

Like a better work / Life balance?

Like giving back to society?

Am I getting influenced by the slacker’s generation?

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January 30, 2011

Time for volunteering activities, anyone ?

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37 % of Canadians are giving some of their personal time in one way or another. It can be for sports and leisure activities, for social services and education or it can for religious activities. On average, each Canadian gives 166 hours every year of volunteer work. That is quite a lot considering our busy schedules. This represents 4,75 work weeks based on a 35 hours a week schedule.

Another surprising number is that 58 % of young people between the age of 15 and 24 give some of their time compared to 36 % of people over 65 years old.

I would have lost my bet on this for sure…

What are the activities ? Participation on  some Board of Directors and in social clubs, raising funds, serving and distributing food, coaching sports team, helping elderly people and the list goes on. There is a link below that will make you more aware of the needs and different community organizations.

When we put our attention on supporting other people. It may or may not always come back to us from the people we help specifically, and that’s okay. We want to do our best not to “keep score,” as many of us often do, but instead to look for opportunities to genuinely help those around us. When we do this, we remind ourselves of the power of support.

How much time do you invest for others?

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Here is a link for residents of the Montreal Metroplitan Area.

More than a thousand community organizations are looking for volunteers.

http://cabm.net/en 

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November 29, 2010

Reasons to work by Seth Godin…..

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Reasons to work

  1. For the money
  2. To be challenged
  3. For the pleasure/calling of doing the work
  4. For the impact it makes on the world
  5. For the reputation you build in the community
  6. To solve interesting problems
  7. To be part of a group and to experience the mission
  8. To be appreciated

Why do we always focus on the first? Why do we advertise jobs or promotions as being generic on items 2 through 8 and differentiated only by #1?

In fact, unless you’re a drug kingpin or a Wall Street trader, my guess is that the other factors are at work every time you think about your work.

 

July 5, 2010

Coco Chanel

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“There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.” 

Coco Chanel

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After she lost the love of life ( Arthur “Boy” Capel), all was left to Coco Chanel was time for the other passion in her life; her work. This is where she put her time and look at the results that she produced. Concentrated efforts can sometimes give impressive results.

Many times when you like what you do for a living, work becomes play, and play becomes productive and both of them together can be very enjoyable.

What do you do to have fun at work and still be productive?

 

June 13, 2010

Sweat and Struggle

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“Don’t feel entitled to anything you don’t sweat and struggle for”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939- )

American activist and founder of the Children’s Defence Fund

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Did you ever hear the saying “Easy come, easy go”? There seems to be an unwritten law in nature that takes away what we don’t deserve or what we didn’t work hard enough for. There is no way to prove it, but we can witness it over and over again in the form of people winning the lottery and spending everything very quickly, or children who inherit from rich parents without having to work for their money. Another variaton of this is when people have such an easy life that they are unable to cope when disaster strikes.

Do you often try to take some shortcut in order to get what you want?

 

April 18, 2010

When killing time can kill you

Posted by stephenlafond under 36525 days, Time, Time magagement | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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“Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them”

Dion Bousicault ( 1820-1890)

Irish-born actor & dramatist

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How could anyone in their right mind want to kill time? To want to kill time, in my opinion, is a confession of imbecility because time is what life is made of. Sometimes, we are at work thinking of what we could do on the weekend. However, when the weekend comes, do you ever find yourself doing nothing? So you wasted productive time at work because you were daydreaming, and now you are wasting free time because you did not plan in advance. You are caught off guard at the last minute.

I have a  personal example that happened to my wife and I a few times. We have 3 young children who still need a babysitter when we go out. Sometimes, we had the chance to find a babysitter at the last minute. This was great, but since we had only about 60 to 90 minutes of free time together, our options were limited. By the time we agreed on what we both wanted to do, 20 to 30 minutes had already gone by.

So I asked myself; how can I avoid this kind of situation when our time is so limited and so precious?

Solution: I made a list of dozens of activities that require very little time and that are enjoyable. Since then, we can use these precious minutes in a smarter way.

Exception: Sometimes I choose to relax because I want to, and in this case, it’s not a waste of time.

When we know exactly what we want and what we like, it’s easier to use our time in a smarter way.

Do you often find yourself “killing” precious time ?

 

 

April 14, 2010

Bill Cosby On The Key To Success.

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“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

— Bill Cosby, Comedian

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It’s the same concept with time; just like it’s impossible to please everybody, it’s impossible to do everything with the time that is given to us.

So many things and so many people are competing for our attention, this why it is so crucial to choose what are the most important for us in terms of  family time, accomplishments, friendship, work , personal time and so on.

Will you take some time today to choose what are your Top 5 or Top 10 most important projects?