I was recently going through my iPod when I came across my favorite podcast series The Moth. The Moth is an incredible series of storytellers brought together under one electronic roof to tell true stories live, without notes or PowerPoints. Just good old-fashioned story telling. And there are some amazing stories to be heard for sure. I settled on one I had heard before and it makes me laugh, so I listened again. It’s a story by A.J. Jacobs, who is a New York Times bestselling author, Esquire editor, and self-described human guinea pig. His story is called Outsourcing My Life. Without dragging you through the whole story, take a listen to the story right here, and when you’re done, read on. It’s short, captivating, and very funny.  Read the rest of this post

Do you frequently feel stressed at work?  If you do, you’re probably not alone.  Chances are that others on your team feel stressed too.  OK, so you feel stressed. Big deal right? Who isn’t stressed these days? We all have a great deal that is expected of us and most of us feel like we have very little control over whether or not we are able to perform well.  Unfortunately when our day-to-day work environment or corporate culture make us start internalizing these attitudes, we start to experience what Martin Seligman terms “learned helplessness”.  Learned helplessness is a perception of inescapability and the acceptance that things just aren’t going to get any better. Once we fall into this state, it’s a vicious circle that keeps feeding our stress and leads to depression and the belief that we are worthless. Ultimately, this robs us of our creativity and our ability to solve problems.  Read the rest of this post

This morning I spent some time with a team going through some serious morale issues.  Lots of things seemed to be getting the team members down, but when they broke it down to the “root cause” it seemed that the team just wasn’t having fun anymore. There is no sense of playfulness at all. In fact, the few times they did try playing a bit, they felt guilty and were the object of organizational scrutiny for “playing” on the job.  Read the rest of this post

I’m a super passionate person about my work. I love to be 100% engaged in everything I do. But to be honest, I get bored easily.  Sometimes it’ll be some small thing that I get bored with during the day. Sometimes, I’ll get bored with something more significant in my life.  Either way, my boredom with whatever it is that’s boring me acts as a wake up call.  It let’s me know I’m moving or thinking in the wrong direction. It makes me pause to consider how I can reframe something to be more exciting, more interesting, more innovative.  In fact, when I’m really attuned to my boredom, I use it as a pause to refresh my viewpoints. So, in a strange way, getting bored can be kind of a good thing for me.  Read the rest of this post