| Lik-See's website |
| Links: (websites I enjoy, nothing really to do with the monthly topics) |
| http://www.howstuffworks.com/ This is an interesting website where you can have fun educating yourself�good website too if you have absolutely nothing to do but want to learn something useful. |
| http://www.bahiker.com/ Excellent website about where to hike around the San Francisco Bay Area. Great description of trails and plenty of pictures. |
| If you have any comments, suggestions, thoughts, etc. about this website, please email me at [email protected] Thank you! |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Good website to news events in different parts of the world. |
| Hey, I hope all is well with you as we get into spring. This month's topic is the internal motivation to work, specifically understanding what motivates us to do what we do and pursue when it comes to our job, career and vocation. Lik-See, 04-08-04 I call it internal motivation because the external motivation to work is the obvious necessity to financially support yourself and/or your family. But pretend for a moment that you can take the motivating factor of having to pay the bills out of the equation: what would you be left with in terms of why you enjoy work? Or do you view work as enjoyable apart from sheer necessity? Why or why not? I feel compelled to ask these questions for a couple of reasons: 1) We spend much of our best waking hours and energy at work, which means we spend much of the best time and energy of our lives working. However, a common mentality is that what we pursue and really want to do in life is often separate from the work we do. We look forward to more free time, weekends, vacation, and even retirement but rarely do we say we get excited about getting back to work Monday morning...but we still (have to) spend 30-40% of the time we are awake at work. Are we spending most of our conscious hours doing something yet wishing we were doing something else? 2) Most of the internal motivation to work can be easily overshadowed by the fact that the nature of work is very demoralizing at times, which all of us have experienced one time or another. It can be due to the work environment itself (personal stress, deadlines, politics, mis-management) or situations where opportunity doesn't match what we can or want to do (unemployment, layoffs, job availability). Maybe working - using our skills & time to do something useful - isn't the bad thing, but all the stuff surrounding it is what sucks the life out of actually enjoying it. I'll probably touch on this more next month. Anyway, I doubt I'm saying anything new or profound...just articulating things which may be hard to stop and think about, especially in the midst of a long work week. |
| WHY THIS WEBSITE EXISTS: To share and stimulate thought and insight on life issues we can relate to. |
| Quotes: An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence. -- Balzac Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction. -- Anne Frank When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home. -- Betty Bender The purpose of quotes on this website is to provoke thought and may or may not be an endorsement of the person being quoted and his or her beliefs. |
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| Question of the month: Aside from the external necessity to work, what do you like most about working? a) interacting and working with others. b) putting my talents and skills to use. c) taking on daily challenges which I wouldn't have as much of otherwise. d) doing good for the benefit of others & society. e) knowing that work will afford me better opportunities (promotion, travel, meeting different people, earning more 'fun' money, prestige). f) knowing that I have a structured schedule to attend to daily instead of doing nothing. g) nothing - I can't stand what I do. I just want the paycheck. |
| General Note: just to let you know, I update this website with a new topic around the beginning of each month. |
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| LSC's basement: For this month, here's another one of my favorites - in terms of a restaurant in San Francisco, I really like Tadich Grill. |
| http://www.terragalleria.com NEW LINK! This is an excellent website which has beautiful pictures of different places in the world. |
| You know you can't stand your work when: 1) you can't wait until the weekend comes and it's only Monday morning. 2) you always take breaks and leave work on the dot. 3) you've taken days off mid-week just to get away from your work. 4) you feel like the day is wasted when the weather's nice and you're stuck in the office. 5) the highlight of your work week is the new restaurant you tried during one of your lunch breaks. |
| ARCHIVES: for website topics from previous months, click here. |
| ANTI-PET PEEVES: For a growing list of things I really like, click here. |
| There's something fulfilling about doing work, which is easy to forget, especially when you know your attitude and situation at work isn't the most positive. Some thoughts on the possible, deeper motivation to work: -it allows us to create and manage things that would be out of order without our expertise and effort. -it gives us a sense of accomplishment and purpose, even in doing simple things. -it gives us a sense of camaraderie with other in pursuing a common goal. -it provides tangible opportunities to utilize what we excel at and improve in areas where we aren't that strong. -it helps us enjoy our rest and relaxation better, knowing we've put in a hard day's work. -it helps us avoid being listless, restless, discontent, basically feeling useless and inefficient with what we're doing with our lives. |
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| Good place to be: hard at work |