The Last Day of the YearSunday, December 31, 2006It is New Year's Eve, one of my favorite days of the year. This night has been magical for me since childhood. Ushering in the new and replacing the old - 2006 will only be memories and never to be repeated. The New Year has so much opportunity. I always watched Dick Clark on New Year's Eve. In 1986, I braved the elements and made my way down to 45th street with 15 other college friends. You could see Dick Clark up on his platform and the police were mounted on their horses. The ball was hanging on the top of the pole by what looked like a "thread." 10...9...8...7...6..5..4..3..2..1...... The dropping of the ball was underwhelming. It was a bumpy ride down and you really couldn't tell when it was at the bottom. The 1987 lights lit up and the crowd roared. It was cold and rainy and miserable. The crowds were unbearable. I kept feeling hands on my wallet. The pick pocketers were out in full force. I was born in New York; my whole family lived there for years. I was no more a New Yorker than the tourist next to me. However, I was standing there with thousands of people experiencing Times Square on the last day of the year. I admire Dick Clark continuing with his tradition, even after his stroke. If you want to watch him, he will be on ABC tonight. Happy New Year! Labels: Life posted at 12/31/2006 07:13:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
Next Year is A New YearThursday, December 28, 2006This is not the most profound title. Despite all the talk about making resolutions for the New Year, there is something tangible that you can feel from about 11:55 p.m. to midnight on December 31st. It is the passing of a year - all the good memories and all the challenges. 2006 was not the best year for me personally. In May, I twisted my lower back playing volleyball. A month later in June, the back of a chair broke off and sent me flying backwards and in the emergency room hours later. I experienced some of the worst back pain I have ever had. In October, I woke up with nasty pain in my neck. Within a day, I was on strong drugs that would barely dull the pain and I was unable to sleep. After two weeks of sleeping upright on a chair in the family room, the pain started to go away, but I was left with profound weakness in my left arm. Further tests revealed that I had a herniated disc in my neck that irritated a nerve root that controls the muscles in my shoulder. After many x-rays and MRIs, I learned much more about my spine than I really wanted to know. I started to realize what getting older meant to my body. The invisible changes in many parts of your body go undetected until you go under the microscope. I am preparing to head to the neuro-surgeon this afternoon to get his advice on what to do with my herniated disc and/or the nerves affected in my shoulder. My wife and I have been praying for no surgery. I am ready to close the door on 2006. There is something about starting the New Year with new expectations. We need something to hope for. My faith gives me ultimate hope; however, saying goodbye to a challenging year feels good. Maybe I will stay up and watch the ball drop this year. Probably I will head to bed at ten and let the passing of 2006 go quietly. I will wake up to a new day, a new year and new opportunities. Labels: Life posted at 12/28/2006 12:48:00 PM | 3 comments links to this post |
Merry Christmas!Monday, December 25, 2006 Merry Christmas from our house to your house!Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home. ~Carol Nelson He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. ~Roy L. Smith posted at 12/25/2006 07:14:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
Stay Away From EmailSaturday, December 23, 2006Are you on vacation for the holiday? If so, I challenge you to do something that might seem impossible. Day in and day out, we are slaves to email. Some of us get several hundred emails a day. Most are junk or messages that can be filed away. I affectionately call email my ball and chain. There are several times when the old ball and chain do not follow me around. One of them is when I am on vacation. Yesterday was the first full day of vacation for me and my email program sports a pleasant "Out of Office" message when someone sends me some mail. If you are on vacation, are you checking email? If so, are you profiting from it? Give yourself a break this vacation and leave email at the office. Most of you can check it from home, so it is all too convenient to be burdened by the beast. Don't do it! If you check your email throughout your vacation, you will never get a mental break. You need this mental break, just ask your family. Every email you read sends you spiraling downward into the black hole of problems you left behind. Why do you want to re-ignite the stress you worked so hard to get rid of when you left the office? Stay away from email this holiday season. All the email and the myriad of problems that come with it will be there when you get back. Labels: Email posted at 12/23/2006 08:00:00 AM | 2 comments links to this post |
A Last Minute Christmas Gift for Your Virtual BossThursday, December 21, 2006Wow, My site is getting pounded today. My traffic was unusually high for 8:00 in the morning. I checked my analysis tool to see what everyone was searching for when they landed on my home page. "Christmas gift for boss" is the number one search term today. I thought I would give one last word of advice for those of you who land on my blog for the first (and hopefully not last) time. Don't bother. Don't bother giving your boss a gift. If you haven't bought him one yet, you probably should just forget the idea. If you are at a loss as far as what to buy her, don't head out to the mall in a blind search. It is really not necessary to give your boss a gift. Give yourself some peace. However, if you are compelled to give a gift and have no idea what to give him, let me help you out. Consider me a proxy for your boss. I like red wine, particularly California cabs and merlots. Send me a donation and earmark it "gift for the Blogging Boss." I will appreciate it more than your boss, guarantee. You will be able to stop googling and move onto the next person on your list. Everyone will be happy. Have a great holiday! Labels: Office/Holidays posted at 12/21/2006 08:00:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
Business Christmas Cards, HumbugMonday, December 18, 2006I may be perceived as the Blogging Scrooge after I posting this one. The fear of negative comments will not keep me from sharing a bit of humbug. This Christmas card thing is annoying me this year. What am I talking about? The Christmas cards I get from vendors thanking me for their business. I read the company name and mumble to myself, "Who is this person, I don't even know him." "Thanks for your business and look forward to working with you in 2007?" To my knowledge, I never did any business with this company in 2006 and talking about 2007 is somewhat presumptuous. I know these companies have a lot of cards to send out; however, when the card is hand-written and conveys the wrong message, you just wonder. I can hear Charlie Brown yelling "Doesn't anyone know what Christmas is all about?" After a year of no relationship with a company, despite attempts to throw some business their way, I get this highly personalized communique because it is Christmas. Well, it just doesn't mean much to me. These gold-lined - trendy cards would be best sent to someone else. That being said, I received a really nice card from one of the vendors. The note inside was written by the person with whom I had a business relationship with during the past year. I know this person and the holiday message is appreciated. I didn't throw that one away. I have received cards from vendors for years and let them stack on my desk. When I returned from Christmas holiday they were thrown in the trash. Some of them were unopened. Yikes! This year, I decided to proactively manager clutter. Christmas cards received from people that I do not have a relationship with is a form of spam for me. I already get thousands of spam mails a week. Do I really need more spam coming from snail mail? Humbug, humbug I say. It is all humbug. Labels: Office/Holidays posted at 12/18/2006 08:00:00 AM | 1 comments links to this post |
How Are You Doing with Your Goals?Friday, December 15, 2006The end of the year is fast approaching. How are you doing with your 2006 goals? Hopefully you visit them regularly and have an idea on which ones you will hit and which ones you will miss. The last two weeks of December are traditionally unproductive, so you can start to analyze how you did. During the last week of December, I will be formulating my 2007 goals. In order to do this effectively, I need to see where I fell short on my 2006 goals. I am not going to beat myself up for not reaching each all of my goals. If you have read my other posts on goal setting, you will know that I set levels for each goal. I don’t expect to reach the highest level for each goal. That highest level was set to stretch me. You need to remain positive as you look at what you accomplished this year. Even if your results are disappointing, remind yourself that you did something that most people do not do. You actually set goals for the year! If you didn’t set goals for 2006, do not fret. You can start to set your 2007 goals and get ready to action on them next month. The most important thing is that you take the time to determine what it is that you want to accomplish next year. I will post my goals and results after Christmas. I know I did not hit them all, but I had some real success. I am looking forward to finishing my goals for 2007. If you are not convinced that goals are important, consider some of these quotes: Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. - Aristotle Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner. - Les Brown Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That's dedication. - Cecil B. DeMille Labels: Goals posted at 12/15/2006 08:00:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
Should You Give Your Boss a Christmas Gift?Wednesday, December 13, 2006I posted last week about Christmas gifts for your boss. You can read that post here. One of my readers had an interesting view on this topic. John wrote: Eric, I would not give a boss a Christmas gift and as a manager, I wouldn't feel comfortable receiving a gift from an employee. I believe that giving gifts is a personal act that should be reserved for close friends, family and charitable givings. It is important to keep appropriate boundaries between employees and management. Just my opinion and thanks for the posts. John has a very valid point. If you do not feel comfortable giving a gift to your manager - you should not feel obligated to do so. In fact, it is a bad idea in many cases. John is a manager who does not feel comfortable receiving gifts from employees. The issue here is boundaries. Boundaries are important in your professional and (yes) personal life. Maybe one day I will talk about the boundaries that we need to set with our friends and relatives. I respect his opinion and suggest that it is good advice. If you eliminate giving gifts to bosses, you eliminate all the potential problems that can result from your well-intentioned act. However, that being said, there are cases where a manager will need to graciously accept an unsolicited gift from an employee. I have received gifts that were really meant to say "thank you." There were no side effects and no boundaries crossed. It was really okay. Actually, I appreciated the gesture and received it appropriately. Generally, I think John's suggestion is a good one. Too often managers do not properly set the boundaries and in some cases use an act of kindness against an employee. Thank John for your comment, it got me thinking. However, I decided not to give back the bottle of wine I received - I have a rule. You always accept a good cabernet. Cheers! posted at 12/13/2006 08:00:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
Some Good Advice for Office Christmas PartiesMonday, December 11, 2006I was over at David Lorenzo's site Career Intensity, and read a good post on surviving your office party. The post was written by BinaryDollar and part of David's blog carnival for the weekend. You will find my "Burnout" post there as well. Go check it out: Survival Rules For Your Company's Holiday Party Labels: Office posted at 12/11/2006 08:00:00 AM | 2 comments links to this post |
Office Christmas PartiesThursday, December 07, 2006A friend sent me this link today, which is a great deal on Flash memory. For those of you who are not geeks, you are wondering what the heck is flash memory. I wish I could say that. Here is the deal: Buy.com continues to have great deals on flash memory drives. ACP-EP 2GB Snowdrive or Surfdrive for $52 with free shipping. Use Google Checkout to get $20 off. A $20 mail-in rebate (original UPC) and a $7 mail-in rebate (photocopy of UPC) are available. A great deal if you have access to a photocopy machine and don't mind dealing with 2 rebates. I have a Christmas theme going this week. There are things that we all have to deal with over the holidays that we rarely stop and think about. Office Christmas parties have some interesting dimensions that no one wants to talk about. 1. How many of you feel your office party seems to be obligatory? The company is having one because it is a thing you do to help retain employees? 2. How many of your spouse's are excited to go to the Christmas party this year? Are they chomping at the bit to mingle with people they do not know? 3. How many of you invent conflicts so that you do not have to go to the Christmas party? Basically you lie with a smile and tell your boss how disappointed you are that you will miss the treasured event? 4. How many of you have a tremendous party hosted by your company and it is something you look forward to? I found some interesting tips on how to survive the Christmas Office party over on "askmen" and "iVillage" (wanted the male and female perspective). None of the advice was particularly compelling. It leaves me wondering why we have them at all. Labels: Office/Holidays posted at 12/07/2006 08:00:00 AM | 3 comments links to this post |
A Christmas Gift for Your BossWednesday, December 06, 2006Christmas is just around the corner and the number of days to shop is dwindling. Is your boss on your Christmas list? Even if you do not like your boss, did you ever consider giving him a gift? It is really not necessary to give a gift, but a card is a nice gesture. However, if you are shopping for a Christmas gift, you should consider making it personal. While I believe giving gifts should always be from the heart, it is easy to make a boss gift more obligatory. It is often a good idea to pool money with others in the office and buy one gift from all. Why? You can concentrate on giving one gift that has special meaning to your boss instead of many "I -don't-know-what-to-give-him" gifts. The aisles in department stores are littered with insipid little box gifts that I would not even send to a cranky old relative. Find out what your boss likes, such as golf or his favorite red wine. Believe it or not, most bosses, the good and the obnoxious will appreciate a gift that is personalized. posted at 12/06/2006 08:00:00 AM | 1 comments links to this post |
Amazon's Customer VoteTuesday, December 05, 2006 Want to try to get a 26" LCD HDTV for $200? There will be 500 of them for sale on Amazon soon. Check the link out to learn more. http://www.amazon.com One word of caution: this is a bit like winning a lottery. If you have a good strong ISP, you may be one of the lucky ones who actually get on the order page. If you do, make sure you have all of your account information up to date in Amazon and your one click buy option ready to fire! Good luck! Sylvania 6626LG 26" LCD HDTV 500 units at this price Amazon Price: $599.99 Winning Price: $200.00 posted at 12/05/2006 07:00:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
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