Word-Of-the-Week #677: Escape
July 27, 2017 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #677: Escape
Escape – break free and get away!
Are you tired of your (lady, man, job, etc) because you’ve been together to long, like a worn our recording of a favorite song? Do you like Pina Colada’s and getting caught in the rain? Sorry but I just couldn’t resist! Rupert Holmes song just kept popping into my head when I was writing this.
This is part 2 of Minda Zetlin’s Chicago Tribune article, Take Your Vacation and Everyone Benefits. We left off with her saying, “You’ll be better off if you just take all your vacation time, and so will everyone who works or lives with you. Here are some ways to make vacations work:
- Don’t give in to vacation shaming
Nearly half of Americans in the Alamo Rent A Car annual vacation survey said they had experienced “vacation shaming” in which colleagues make them feel guilty for taking a vacation and leaving others to pick up the slack.
If this goes on in your workplace, don’t give in to the pressure.
Tell those who complains that you’re more than happy to help them out when they take their own vacation. If they proudly proclaim that they’re too busy to go on vacation, let them know that their productivity is likely suffering.
- Plan well in advance
A well-planned vacation is a vacation that actually happens. Plus, research shows the benefits of going on vacation begin before the vacation itself.
You can get eight weeks of increased happiness simply from planning and looking forward to your vacation.
- Plan to avoid checking in while away
Another big advantage to planning well in advance is that it can save you from checking in, or worse, actually working while you’re on vacation. Do you want to be the person who conks out early in the evening in some exotic locale because you were up a couple of hours before your family or friends checking email and dealing with office matters?
Because you’re planning well in advance, you have time to bring other team members up to speed on the matters they might have to handle while you’re away. You can make sure all your important contacts, both inside and outside your company, know when you’re leaving and when you’ll be back. Also, let them know you won’t be able to check email to reinforce that you’re truly away.
- Make sure the people who work for you take their vacation time as well
It’s especially important to take all your vacation time if you have people reporting to you. Your employees will take their cue from you, and if you never take vacation time, they may not either. That’s bad for your workplace.
If you truly don’t want to go away, take a staycation or consider finding a weeklong project that you can work on at home.
Don’t engage in vacation shaming. No one in your company should be indispensable and it should be feasible for every employee to take a week or two off during the summer without having to check in.
If that doesn’t sound like your workplace, it’s time to institute some changes for everyone’s benefit.”
This week is all about planning your escape. Where would that be? Are you game for my vacation challenge? How would it feel to plan your next vacation to a brand new place so you can experience the joy of surprise in the unexpected?
My personal recipe for a great vacation – mix equal parts of uncertainty with non routine, then add a generous sprinkling of the unfamiliar topped with loads of curiosity!
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Word-Of-the-Week #676: Outmoded
July 20, 2017 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #676: Outmoded
Outmoded – no longer fashionable or widely accepted.
Would you like to be a trend setter? How would it feel to increase your productivity? Are you using all of your vacation time?
This week Minda Zetlin’s Chicago Tribune article, Take Your Vacation and Everyone Benefits, is the perfect follow up to our last 3 WOW’s on Curiosity, Routine & Unfamiliar.
Are you one of the millions of Americans who’s married to your job, taking only a few days off every year because of your many important responsibilities? If so, research suggests you aren’t doing yourself or your employer any favors. Not only that, you’re becoming outmoded. Many Americans are finally starting to take more vacation time.
A wide range of experts emphasize the importance of taking time off for productivity, mental and physical well-being and more. Despite that, Americans took fewer vacations, with average total days off every year dropping from just over 20 days between 1978 and 2000 to about 16 days in recent years, according to research by Project Time Off.
But the picture is starting to change a bit.
In 2016, Americans took an average 16.8 days off, the second year of growth after bottoming out in 2014 at 16 days. It may not sound like a staggering change, but according to Project Time Off, this is the biggest increase we’ve seen since used vacation days began dropping at the beginning of the century.
Despite the improvement over the last two years, there are still 54 percent of Americans who did not use all their paid vacation time last year, Time Off has found. Its research is based on an online survey with 7,331 American workers who work more than 35 hours a week and receive paid time off from their employer.
New research by the vacation search engine Liligo also shows an increase in the average length of summer vacations based on bookings in its database, which are up from an average 10 days in 2015 and 2016 to 14 days in 2017.
Taken together, these findings may suggest a change in Americans’ attitudes toward vacations.
It could be because of growing recognition among employers of the importance of vacation time or it could be that in a time of skilled labor shortages and low unemployment, employees are less fearful that a week or two away from work will cost them advancement opportunities, or possibly even their jobs.
Whatever the reason, you should jump on this trend, because your relationships (at home and at work), your productivity, your mood, your health and more likely will benefit.
And, if you are one of the sad Americans who isn’t taking your time off, then consider this: You are doing your job on a volunteer basis for a week or more every year.
Some employees can recoup the vacation time they didn’t take in the form of extra cash or severance pay when they leave their jobs. But if this is your plan, don’t count on it.
Because so many Americans aren’t taking their vacation time, many companies carry this loss on their balance sheets and some are seeking to get rid of that liability by instituting use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies or unlimited vacation policies (in which case, paid time off doesn’t accrue). Some companies are counting on employees being afraid to take a lot of unlimited PTO, of course.
You’ll be better off if you just take all your vacation time, and so will everyone who works or lives with you.”
This week is all about not becoming outmoded. Would you take more vacations if you knew it would improve your relationships (at home and at work)? Or that it would improve your health? Would you like to be in a better mood more often?
Stay Tuned – Next week “Ways to make vacations Work!”
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Word-Of-the-Week #675: Unfamiliar
July 13, 2017 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #675: Unfamiliar
Unfamiliar – not within one’s knowledge; strange.
Do you experience anxiety or tension in unfamiliar situations? When was the last time you learned something new? Is there a new activity you would like to try?
This week features 4 strategies to Tune in to Your Curiosity from “The Power of Curiosity. Discover how cultivating an inquiring mind can help you lead a happier, healthier life,” by Todd Kashdan. His follow up excerpts, “One of the best ways to better appreciate the power of curiosity is to start exercising it more consciously in your daily experiences. By doing so, you can transform routine tasks, enlivening them with new energy. You will also likely begin to notice more situations that have the potential to engage you, giving your curiosity even more opportunities to flourish.
- Build knowledge – Knowledge opens our eyes to interesting gaps about what we don’t know. When a marine biologist goes snorkeling and is able to name specific fishes by the size, color, texture, and shape of eyes and fins, he or she is going to be acutely aware of the unusual features that the rest of us will miss — a pattern of orange stripes that are vertical when they are usually horizontal. The child who can name 45 states is much more interested in discovering the five he or she doesn’t know than the child with only three states in the brain bank. The person learning to play the piano will hear more nuances in a piano concerto than the person who doesn’t know treble clef from bass clef. If you want to be curious, start accumulating knowledge.
- Thrive on uncertainty – We rarely look forward to anxiety and tension, but research shows that these mixed emotions are often what lead to the most intense and longest-lasting positive experiences. People who take part in new and uncertain activities are happier and find more meaning in their lives than people who rely on the familiar.
Most of us mistakenly believe that certainty will make us happier than uncertainty. Imagine that you go to a football game knowing that your team will win. Most people would say that, yes, that would make them happy. Yet knowing the outcome in advance takes away the thrill of watching each play and the good tension that comes with not knowing what will happen next. You will likely be surprised to find how big a role surprise and uncertainty plays in your joyful experiences.
- Reconnect with play – We can add play and playfulness to almost any task, and the attitude of play naturally builds interest and curiosity. This dynamic was captured wonderfully in a National Public Radio story about an assembly-line worker in a potato chip factory whose job was to make sure that the chips rolling down the conveyor belt were uniform and aesthetically pleasing before being bagged.
This man found the job dreary. So he developed a game that made it more interesting: He searched for potato chips resembling famous people and kept a collection (imagine silhouettes of Elvis, Charles Manson, Marilyn Monroe and Jimi Hendrix). Because he was constantly scanning odd and bizarre shapes for celebrity resemblances, the day moved quickly. He also became incredibly efficient at catching misshapen chips.
- Find the unfamiliar in the familiar – One way to become more curious is to intentionally circumvent expectations, labels and assumptions about “seemingly” familiar activities and events. It’s easy to prejudge an activity because we think we have seen it before or avoid an activity entirely because we expect it to be boring or unpleasant.
In a recent study, researchers asked people to do something they reported disliking and pay attention to three novel features when they did it. This small exercise altered the way they viewed and felt about the activity. For example, an 18-year-old male bodybuilder who scoffed at crocheting spent 90 minutes practicing the task. The three novel discoveries he reported were 1) how demanding the process of making small stitches could be (he hadn’t anticipated that this “easy” task would tire him); 2) that it could be meditative (“time flew by”); and 3) that the crochet stitches could be tight enough to create flip-flop sandals (which was the project he worked on).
When the study subjects were contacted weeks later, those individuals who were asked to search for the novel and unfamiliar in their laboratory task were more likely to have done the task on their own without being asked or prompted (though it is unknown if the bodybuilder continued crocheting). This same little experiment can be applied to any activity in your life. Consider the list of low-interest, but necessary, activities in your typical day. Choose one of these ho-hum activities and, as you do it, search for any three novel or unexpected things about it.
Also keep in mind that, even though recurring situations may look identical on the surface, any event — especially one involving people — has some degree of novelty each time it occurs. Be on the lookout for even the tiniest thing that is different, special or notable, and chances are good that you’ll find something.”
This week is all about embracing the unfamiliar. Can you remember a time when you experienced the joy of surprise and uncertainty? How easy is it for you to suspend judgment and see things as they are, not how you expect them to be? When was the last time you “played” at work?
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Word-Of-the-Week #674: Routine
July 6, 2017 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #674: Routine
Routine – what you do every day that is habitual, unvarying, and unimaginative.
How much of your day is feels habitual, unvarying, and unimaginative? How would it feel to instead have everyday filled with interesting and enjoyable experiences?
This week features the 5 Benefits of an Inquiring Mind from “The Power of Curiosity. Discover how cultivating an inquiring mind can help you lead a happier, healthier life,” by Todd Kashdan. His follow up excerpts, “Curiosity is something that can be nurtured and developed. With practice, we can harness the power of curiosity to transform everyday tasks into interesting and enjoyable experiences. We can also use curiosity to intentionally create wonder, intrigue and play out of almost any situation or interaction we encounter. It all starts with wanting to know more.
5 Benefits of an Inquiring Mind
Curiosity, at its core, is all about noticing and being drawn to things we find interesting. It’s about recognizing and seizing the pleasures that novel experiences offer us, and finding novelty and meaning even in experiences that are familiar.
When we are curious, we see things differently; we use our powers of observation more fully. We sense what is happening in the present moment, taking note of what is, regardless of what it looked like before or what we might have expected it to be.
We feel alive and engaged, more capable of embracing opportunities, making connections, and experiencing moments of insight and meaning — all of which provide the foundation for a rich, aware and satisfying life experience.
The 5 important ways that curiosity enhances our well-being and the quality of our lives:
- Health – In a 1996 study published in Psychology and Aging, more than 1,000 older adults aged 60 to 86 were carefully observed over a five-year period, and researchers found that those who were rated as being more curious at the beginning of the study were more likely to be alive at its conclusion, even after taking into account age, whether they smoked, the presence of cancer or cardiovascular disease, and so on.
- Intelligence – Studies have shown that curiosity positively correlates with intelligence. In one study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2002, researchers correctly predicted that high novelty-seeking (or highly curious) toddlers would have higher IQs as older children than toddlers with lower levels of curiosity. Researchers measured the degree of novelty-seeking behavior in 1,795 3-year-olds and then measured their cognitive ability at age 11. As predicted, the 11-year-olds who had been highly curious 3-year-olds later scored 12 points higher on total IQ compared with low stimulation seekers. They also had superior scholastic and reading ability.
Other studies have shown that high levels of curiosity in adults are connected to greater analytic ability, problem-solving skills and overall intelligence. All of which suggests that cultivating more curiosity in your daily life is likely to make you smarter.
- Social Relationships – It is far easier to form and maintain satisfying, significant relationships when you demonstrate an attitude of openness and genuine interest. One of the top reasons why couples seek counseling or therapy is because they’ve become bored with each other. This often sparks resentment, hostility, communication breakdowns and a lack of interest in spending time together (only adding to the initial problem). Curious people report more satisfying relationships and marriages. Happy couples describe their partners as interested and responsive.
- Happiness – In one of the largest undertakings in the field of psychology, two pioneers in the field of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, PhD, and Chris Peterson, PhD, devised a scientific classification of the basic human strengths. This system was the end result of reading the works of ancient philosophers, religious texts and contemporary literature, then identifying patterns, and finally subjecting these ideas to rigorous scientific tests. Their research eventually recognized 24 basic strengths. And, of those 24 strengths that human beings can possess, curiosity was one of the five most highly associated with overall life fulfillment and happiness.
There are other important relationships between curiosity and happiness. In his book Stumbling on Happiness (Knopf, 2006), Harvard University psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, PhD, shows that, while we think we know what will make us happy in the future, we are actually less likely to find joy as a result of a planned pursuit than by simply stumbling upon it. It follows that by cultivating curiosity and remaining open to new experiences, we increase our likelihood of encountering those surprising and satisfying activities.
- Meaning – If we are going to find a meaningful purpose or calling in life, chances are good we will find it in something that unleashes our natural curiosity and fascination. Indeed, curiosity is the entry point to many of life’s greatest sources of meaning and satisfaction: our interests, hobbies and passions.
While being passionate about something naturally renders you curious to know as much as you can about it, it also works the other way around: The more curiosity you can muster for something, the more likely you are to notice and learn about it, and thus the more interesting and meaningful it will become for you over time. The greater the range and depth of our curiosity, the more opportunities we have to experience things that inspire and excite us, from minute details to momentous occasions.”
This week is all about creating a routine of curiosity. Would you like to be smarter? How about having better health as you age? How willing are you to being more open to new experiences?
Stay Tuned! Next week 4 strategies to help you “Tune in to Your Curiosity.”
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