This article by Jon Tevlin was published in the Star Tribune on March 17,2012
Sally Packard had waited seven months to get the chance to talk to the teenager who stole her car, and with it some of her independence.
The car, a 1989 Dodge, wasn’t worth much. But it was important to Packard, 76, because she needed it to drive to mass at the Church of St.
Sometimes you learn the most important lessons in the most unlikely places.
I remember well. It was back in the Summer of 2004 in the East Mountains in Albuquerque New Mexico. I had just moved in with my new husband who lived in a 2500 sq ft home on 3 acres. I was fascinated by the novelty of being in the country as opposed to living in the second largest city in the world, Mexico City. There were plenty of chores for me to do around the house and the property. He had tilled up at least an acre of the lot for gardening, had a greenhouse full of plants and raised chickens. I, on the other hand, thought food came from the produce or dairy section at Wal-Mart. It was exciting and interesting to just go out to the back yard and pull out onions and pick peppers to make stir fry.
I’ve always liked animals and I was glad to take care of the chickens. I would go in the chicken coop and gather the eggs daily. Every week I cleaned the coop and gave them fresh straw. They gathered around when they would see me coming with bucket full of food scraps. I quickly learned the routine and I really enjoyed it. They seemed to like it too, especially since they hadn’t gotten the coop cleaned out so frequently in the past. I had my picture taken doing chores and e-mailed to my dad. He never imagined his suburban princess would become a farm girl.
We moved from Albuquerque to Michigan, and our poultry-raising stopped. We tried gardening, but the landlord was not too happy about us growing potatoes in his flower beds. Once we moved to Wisconsin, my husband built a great chicken coop and some laying hens and we were back in business. By that time we had our daughter, so my chicken raising activities were quickly delegated back to my husband; especially when he bought the frying pan special, 25 roosters which he would raise for meat. I definitely drew the line with the butchering activities.
When my daughter was about 18 months and steady on her feet, she would help round-up the chickens back in their pen or in the chicken coop. She had no issue grabbing a stick and chasing them around. She also loved to go gather eggs and have them scrambled for supper. She’s never been afraid of them, even when the rooster scratched her and became chicken soup the next day.
We moved to Minnesota a year ago, and the chicken coop went up right away. We now have eleven golden-laced Wyandottes and a rooster. My husband is in charge most of the time, and my daughter and I occasionally help. My job now is to sell fresh eggs at work to pay for the feed.
This story has taught me some valuable lessons:
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I read it on a cartoon in John Maxwell’s book Five Levels of Leadership. There’s two characters talking in an office setting and one says to the other “I give 110% to my job: 40% on Monday, 35 …”
If you truly want to respond to your customer’s needs, whether they’re internal or external, follow these steps to make sure you deliver 110% every day.
In our last episode, we discussed how to be prepared to impress your interviewer when you are looking for a job. By the way, you can adopt the same strategies when you are looking for a promotion or a new position within your organization:
I have a friend who started a business helping people find a job. She helps her clients write their resumes and cover letters and then conducts a thorough job search to match their skills. Recruiters are partnering with her to help find the best matches for available openings. We’ve had many good chats over lattes. We brainstorm about possible strategies for her clients and I share what I’ve learned about effective job searching through a lot of research and some good interviews.
A while ago, I read an excellent blog post describing a few strategies to help job seekers stand out from the crowd. One of them really caught my attention: “come bearing gifts.” What this means is that job seekers should do thorough research about the company interviewing them, identify potential areas for making a positive impact and outline a strategy for bringing in new clients. I’m convinced that a high percentage of job applicants will NOT do any of these. And that is what can make YOU stand out.
Here are five strategies that will help you to “come bearing gifts”:
This is material for the next post, but just remember to close the sale and ask for the job. Do you want to know how? Stay tuned!
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PS Make sure you check www.virtualcareerconsultant.com
Inspired by today’s post on Chris LoCurto’s blog, I decided to explore the reality of change in my life (or maybe this was too long for a comment).
I just found another item to add to my resume: “Change Expert”. Not because I love it, but because I’ve done so much of it. According to the Holmes & Rahe stress scale, I should have been really sick a long time ago. I’ve experienced 13 of life’s 43 most stressful situations in the past 8 years. Most of those years, I’ve had at least 5 items on the list happen at the same time or within a few months. Some of these changes were totally out of my control. They say that stress is the difference between the ways things are and the way you want them to be. Us trying to control the world causes high stress. A great result of going through so many personal changes in my life is that they have prepared me for more controlled types of change in my career.
Contrary to what my personality style would indicate, I LOVE change at work. I used to think that I was bolted to the ground, safe in my comfort zone, and it turns out I’m a closet adventurer! If there is anything new, innovative, creative, better, sign me up! I’m there! I love starting something from the ground up. I like the drawing board, brainstorming new ideas to make things faster and better.
Stillness and sameness equals death, in your personal and professional life. People ask me how I do it. Well, I don’t. God does. Here’s a quick story. I’m terrified of drowning because some dork swimming instructor scared me to death when I was five. I have chosen to hold on to that fear and have refused to learn how to swim. My dear husband has been determined to show me out of my comfort zone with “shock therapy”. He ‘surprised’ me with scuba diving lessons in a swimming pool once. I think I used up the oxygen tank in 20 minutes, hyperventilating under water until I realized I was safe. I hated every minute of it.
Next surprise was a vacation to Maui, and he bought tickets to go snorkeling in the Molokini crater (hello!). It took me about 10 minutes to jump in the water (with all the flotation devices I could hoard). Once I let go, it was the most enjoyable experience ever. The way I did it was by picturing God’s hands holding this volcano crater like a fish bowl. The beauty of the ocean life beneath me was breath-taking. After that, every time I face change and fear, I picture those hands holding me up and it makes the experience a little easier and enjoyable.
How about you? Do you enjoy change or do you fear it with a passion?
Please share your thoughts and Like, Share or Tweet… or post your comments here. I know you can do it!
Thanks!
Getting along with people is sometimes a challenge. In the work environment, it can be even more difficult. Let me tell you about a time I had some challenging relationships at work and what I have learned since. Some details have been changed to protect the innocent.You may not be able to change their behavior, but you can definitely change yours.
I have a special shout out for my friend Amy. She’s an amazing leader and someone from whom I have much to learn. Thanks for reading and sharing my blog!!
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Very recently I learned the term ‘disfluency’. It refers to the ‘crutch’ words we use in our speech when our brain is trying to think of the next word to say. “it’s like, you know, uh, like when you totally don’t know what to say, you know?” I’ve mentioned before that I recently joined Toastmasters International to dust off my speaking skills. I have set the goal of becoming a professional speaker in the next five years and get back into delivering stand-up classroom training.
I therefore invite you, language-conscious readers, to launch a campaign to ‘dislike’ the ‘likes’ -this is probably a symptom of chronic Facebookitis-, hush the ‘ums and ahs’ and stop pretending we’re talking to people who know everything, you know. Retrain your brain!
