Pat on the Back

It's employee review time at work and I am grateful to say that my own went very well. Areas in which I was challenged to improve on, I did and my supervisor had great comments. In fact, he considers my downfall that I don't take time off. He is correct that I don't require much time away and I had previously seen that as an asset. The company believes otherwise and, in one of those interesting twists that make this life, well, interesting, I have been ordered to find some time off.

As far as the people I supervise, I have a great staff, so their reviews glowed as well. There is, however, a problem child. Parts of the job he does as well as anyone else and other parts of the job don't seem to mean much to him and he falters there. Reaching him to help him shore up those areas has always been challenging and I had to be honest in my review with him. The report to the big boss did not present him in the most flattering of lights.

In my honesty, he had some great things to speak of. But he also has those areas in which he is not strong and shows no compulsion to get stronger. He is one of the younger members of the staff and I wonder if I was ever like that, coming to the conclusion that in areas where I was weak, I word hard to get strong so I have tried to manage him different ways but nothing seems to get through.

It reminds me of my discovery of The Secret. While much can be argued on both sides regarding the book and movie, something there reads true. You learn about things when you're ready. Perhaps he is not ready.

I just hope he gets there before unemployment becomes new normal.

Eureka

It's Move In Day at my daughter's college, part of the Welcome Weekend celebration. While I would be spending the day fitting all my junk into the small studio apartment she's moving into, she would rather apply time to other pursuits.

Shopping.

She is enamored with the blue and silver color scheme and has been for as long as I can remember. The first time she mentioned it was when she wanted Christmas presents for her room and she wanted everything to be blue and silver. I wondered if this really was an 8 year old saying this with authority. She got what she wanted.

Back to the present. She went on a shopping hunt to get a new bike to make it easier to travel around campus and she needed a blue comforter to fit a full size bed (a luxury in college - I got a twin). The majority of the afternoon was spent at various big box stores trying to get what she wanted, keeping me in the loop with regular updates. That's probably the newness of college. She had already moved out and spent the summer at a dorm/apartment, but this is a real studio apartment of her very own.

At one store she found the comforter she wanted, but it was for a twin bed. On one of her later updates, she called me from the parking lot telling me about the bike she got at the last store she visited. Then she told me she was going to see if this store to see if they had the right comforter. Then she stopped herself and said, "they do have it." I could hear the smile in her voice because she knew that I knew she was manifesting using the Law of Attraction.

She called back a little later. "I got it."

But I already knew she did.

Enlightened Multitasking

Saying that work life is increasingly challenging would be to state the obvious. We see all around us the result of budget cuts, fiscal strain and the stress of our co-workers as they try to cope with their own duties - already a challenge - and then with new responsibilities that they have to absorb as the result of layoffs.

Just today, I am doing my own thing, the new duties recently added, covering for a vacationing co-worker and working with my wife to transfer my son to a school less than a mile away instead of going to the county line as the school system is trying to send him. Add to that, answering e-mails and phone calls from people who complain that they're not getting what they need from me in a timely fashion and they don't understand why while at the same time, slyly questioning my competence.

My solution is simple. When it comes crashing down, banish the ego. Up until now, my ego would have had me lash out and yell at them that they did not understand what I was going through and why am I the only one this is happening to. The burgeoning enlightenment within myself immediately gets present, concentrating on breath so that I am immediately drawn into the moment. When that clarity comes, I see that the reason the pressure is on me, is that it's on everyone else, too.

It is also helpful to take a gratitude break. After all, I am grateful that I work in a career field that I love and after the working hours are over, I am blessed to go home to a family I am grateful to have. Those two things, and so much more, lift my spirits and enable me to redouble my efforts to get the job done. I get to leave the building each day and head for home filled to bursting with gratitude vibes that keep me going.

A Good Day To Be Grateful

As practitioners of the Law of Attraction know, manifesting is much easier in a positive and grateful environment. As readers of The Prophet Within know, I have had challenges in this arena of late. Today was not one of those days. Today I am left feeling positive, thankful and hopeful of what is to come.

I am grateful for, for example, helping my daughter solve some of her travel logistics problems. She's coming back from visiting her Marine boyfriend and the flight caused a few challenges. Nothing major, but she thought of me to help her get through it. It gives me a warm feeling to realize that even though she is an adult, she knows that she can still look to dad to help or to talk. We did a bit of both today and it felt good.

Later, my son and I continued our burgeoning tradition of spending a half hour to 45 minutes reading. Just reading. We go off some place where televisions and video games aren't and we do something as old fashioned as all get out, but still valuable nonetheless: we crack open our books. I've been a voracious reader all my life and so has my daughter. It's nice to pass down the habit to the next generation. His choice of reading material is 9 year old stuff, in this case a graphic novel, but he's putting his mind to work and when we closed the books for the night, we were both smiling. Seeing his toothy grin had me swelling up with gratitude that he is in my life.

I'll hit the bed tonight full of things to thank God for, including being able to share these thoughts with you on this blog. Thank you.

Dealing With The Negative Family

This weekend it came to my attention that my stepchildren don't like me. I'm not the only stepfather that has had that revelation come to them, but it was a punch in the gut anyway. The questions came, of course. What have I done? What could I have done better? Why do I work so hard to be a good role model if they don't care. Then again, as I remember, I wasn't very fond of my own stepfather for various reasons, some imagined I'm sure and some legitimate, as well. But I thought I had learned those hard lessons and tried not to repeat what I considered his shortcomings.

The old, unenlightened Tim would have confronted them with the information right away and demanded an explanation or given them the silent treatment: "Fine, if that's the way you guys want it." Even now there are two ways this could play out: I could retreat and deal with them on a minimal basis or I could stay steadfast in my positivity and have faith that God and His universal Law of Attraction will bring this to a positive outcome. I'm choosing the latter by manifesting specific positive events and emotions.

Part one of the manifesting is being grateful that I have grown past the person I used to be. If they don't like me now, they would hate that guy.

And It Comes To Me As An Epiphany

My son and I are at Waterfront Park and the epiphany hit me so hard I had to open up my netbook and get the idea down. As you can see, time to blog, really blog, has been nearly nonexistent. Part of the problem is my day job and how busy we've been. There, it's the busiest summer ever with the least amount of people to carry out our duties.

At home the negativity has been strong and coming from all sides. I have done what I could do to maintain my positivity in the face of my time challenges and the other bad vibes flowing. The resulting outcomes have been randomly good and bad.

So here I am taking advantage of a good thing, watching my son play in the park. We've been out quite a bit of the day because people in my house raise eyebrows when I want to go out alone. No matter. Having my son tag along has always brought me joy.

As I watch him run, play and laugh with the other kids, bam (to steal a catchphrase from the famous chef). These joys can be turned into greater positivity. I don't wish to classify joy as large or small, but in this case it serves to show the segmentation as part of the main point. I was worried about doing 500 word blog posts but I can blog my positive spirituality in smaller bites, too. It means more updates, sometimes more focused ideas and it will serve to remind me to be grateful to God every day.

Perhaps you could compare it to a Christian that returns from “backsliding.” I'm stronger in my beliefs now more than ever. I am attracting positive outcomes every day and I hope to inspire all who will listen to bring those outcomes into their lives as well.

Optimism.