Note: This is part of a series of blog posts I’ve been doing about adopting a more positive mindset. You can find the others in my list of blog posts. You may know the phrase: “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” The problem is, sometimes you won’t succeed no matter how much you try. I know this goes against much of what our society believes, but as Shawn Achor points out in Big Potential: “In work and in life, when we repeatedly stumble and fall along a certain path, rather than dusting ourselves off and trying again (and again), it might be time to ask if we are simply on the wrong path.” <p. 216> You can also think about this in terms of picking your own battles. Sometimes
I’ve written before about the challenges of eating while attending work conferences (conference food part 1 and part 2). But on my most recent trip, I noticed a couple of new oddities that got me thinking. Fancy vs. regular hotel Have you ever stayed in a fancy hotel? If so, you may have noticed an oddity about them: in some ways, they don’t offer as many amenities as regular hotels. Especially when it comes to eating and drinking. Take breakfast. A lot of hotels offer a continental breakfast as part of their fee. It might not be a great meal, but it’s something. Or at the very least, you can get free coffee and tea. You might have a little coffee/tea maker in the room, or perhaps the lobby
Note: This is part of a series of blog posts I’ve been doing about adopting a more positive mindset. You can find the others in my list of blog posts. You might already know this, but Americans are bad at recognizing when they need to take a break from a tough situation. And we might be even worse at admitting we need a break at all. As Shawn Achor points out in Big Potential: “We are told from a very early age that we shouldn’t avoid our problems.” (p. 172) But he also points out that by not taking those breaks, we’re actually missing out, and not just on the fun of a vacation. We also lose a competitive advantage – because time off make us more productive. Achor mostly talked about the imp
I was going to continue with the positive mindset posts this week by writing about the importance of taking breaks. But instead I’m going to model by taking a break from that. Because I definitely need a breather this week. Last Thursday, February 28, I had my beloved cat Salem put to sleep. She was 20 1/2, and she was very ready to go. She’d let me know she was on her way out when she stopped eating, and I could see it in how hard it was for her to get around. (For those who read my previous blog post about being mindful of the cats’ eating, it turns out their weight loss wasn’t related to their food after all. For Osiris, it was because he has hyperthyroidism. For Salem, it was because kid
