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Are You A Renaissance Soul?....
 Does it drive you nuts when someone asks what you want to be doing five years from now?
Do you have too many passions to pick just one?
Do you prefer to have life evolve organically rather than along a straight line?
Could be, you're a Renaissance Soul. And though your free spirit may seem out of balance to those who prefer a linear path, there are strategies for focusing your many gifts into a fulfilling life.
In her book The Renaissance Soul, Margaret Lobenstine suggests choosing four key interest areas, or "focal points," you'd like to focus on "for now." ("Forever" could be frightening to Renaissance souls). Through weekly worksheets for each focal point, she encourages planning activities that support it. Then she recommends finding a "J-O-B" that moves at least one of those focal points forward by providing income/benefits, energy, time to work on passions, training and equipment or networking and publicity opportunities.
The ultimate goal is a life that combines - and makes a living from - your passions.
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A Job? A Career? Or A Calling?
 How do you think about your work? Positive psychologists have concluded that the way you view your work in any field figures into your satisfaction level.
Do you work simply because you "have to"? Do you look forward to breaks and the end of the day? Are you motivated primarily by money and health care benefits? If so, you have a job.
Do you work mostly because of the money but also because of the possibility of advancement and pay raises? Do you see your work as a steppingstone to somewhere better? Then you have a career.
Do you love your work so much that you sometimes think you'd do it for free? Do you believe you're contributing to the good of the world? Do you think about your work even when you're away from it? Then you're likely engaged in a calling.
In the world of work, it seems that perception can be reality. And those who see their work as a calling experience more satisfaction in their lives on and off the clock.
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An 80-20 Reminder
Here's a tip for cleaning up e-mail overload that can also serve as a reminder of that old time management principle, the 80-20 rule.
First, the e-mail tip (in the unlikely event that you ever let messages pile up so high that you begin to get messages that your mailbox is almost full).
You can quickly get your inbox down to a manageable size by sorting messages according to size, then deleting the big ones first.
Which brings us to something called Pareto's Principle, which applied to time means to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of your work that really matters. This lets you work smarter because you're working on the right things.
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Leash Law No. 27: Sib Sitting
Need a babysitter? Sibling sitting is worth a try when the one left in charge is mature and has had the safety training you'd expect from an outside sitter, and there's a healthy relationship between sibs. A trial run with the parents just down the street at a neighbor's could be a good start. In any case, it's up to the parents to set ground rules that are understood by everyone involved.
Ths is one of 74 leash laws offered in "The Dog Ate My Planner: Tales and Tips from an Overbooked Life."
Copyright 2011 Pat Snyder |
