Random: January 2008 Archives

It's been several  cloudy months since we've seen her, but she's back in all her glory.

Incidentally, we've had some fantastically clear days lately - if it wasn't for the piercingly cold weather I'd love it to be like this all the time. The replenished vitamin D is raising spirits across the city.

Over the weekend I caught up on some reading, specifically a book I've been meaning to read for several years now. The book in question is by no definition lengthy, but contained within is a poignant wisdom I had not come to expect. The book I'm referring to is Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

The subtitle reads, "An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life" - and it really does deliver on that promise. I won't give too much away about the book, for those that haven't read it, but I will say that it got me thinking about the kind of change that happens to us throughout our lives.

It's funny because I guess I never realized that change is more than just the point at which things become different. It's very possible to see that things are changing, get a sense of the tide and make the appropriate steps to adapt. This is by no means common. People often resist change. Once things go a new direction, for some reason we inherently see it as a bad sign, rather than an opportunity to achieve something better.

Interestingly enough, in my experience, people generally set their expectations pretty low. We get cozy in a situation, and we start to think that it might be the best we ever will have it. This can apply to a job, relationship, matters of faith, what have you. For some reason, humans have a natural predilection to assume that things are only in a state of decay. That the natural order of our lives is that we grow, hit a peak, and then start a swift decent.

Although I'm still young, and it's early in my career - I really started to think about the every day change that happens at work. Little things really start to add up, and over time the entire workplace climate can change. It's interesting, because in a way- I could start to pass up opportunities because I believe there will be a natural cycle to things. I may think that things went really well in the past on a given project, so I should expect to achieve those same results again. If those results aren't achieved on take #2, then perhaps on take #3.

The big eye opener for me is that there could always be better opportunities just waiting. Even though I have perfectly tasty and free cheese now, it may eventually turn in to old cheese. Mold may even start to grow. I think about my resume. I don't think I've even updated it in 3 years. It's really interesting how complacent we can get.

At the end of the day, I have to keep in mind that there may not only be fresher cheeses out there, but perhaps even new varieties of cheese. One can never know... I may even like them more.

Someone much wiser than me once shared, "You'll never regret taking a risk, but you may always regret playing it safe."

As I've been writing this blog the last few days, I'm starting to realize how therapeutic it can be. I think, and then I type. No rough drafts or pre-prepared banter, just brain to keyboard. This reminded me of Doogie Howser, M.D., a fairly popular TV show that ran from the 80s in the 90s.

If you remember, each Doogie Howser episode ended with him typing a diary entry on his computer (which, if I recall correctly was an IBM PC clone, with a blue screen with white letters - classic WordPerfect style).

He would pour over the excruciating details of his daily interactions, and eventually sum it all up with a cliche.

Nonetheless, this got me thinking. Did Doogie know that he was the original blogger? What he did at the end of each day isn't too different from what I'm doing right now - writing about what I'm thinking about. Maybe Doogie actually thought other people were reading, maybe he didn't realize that the whole dot-com boom and bust would have to come around before he'd have the readership he deserved. I'd have so many questions for 14 year old Doogie. For instance, would he still write about all the older women that caught has fancy at the hospital? Would he offer to pay his parents for the broadband charges? Would he eventually start writing out of his local Starbucks?

So many questions... if only he was still writing.