Reinventing Yourself For Survival

Never in our lifetime have we experienced such a scary and "depressing" time in our country's economy. I guess it doesn't take a genius to realize why it was called the "Great Depression" - great in size not in magnitude of coolness.

It is times like these that test the true metal of a person. The ability to stay positive - to maintain a focused course through the turbulence present in the journey of making ends meet. More of are friends, neighbors and family members are unemployed, or fear that they will be the victim of the next set of budget cuts. Our credit card debt is on the rise, and we are trying to maintain a lifestyle that maybe was too rich for our blood to begin with.

So what do we do to combat these feelings of desperation? What do we do to allay the fears that sometimes consume us? How do we position ourselves to survive these storms and hope to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes of economic despair? The answer is more simple than you think, but as scary and exhilarating as anything you have done in your life. The answer is REINVENTION.

Reinventing yourself in a way that not only allows you to ride the current wave of downturned economy to the shore of calm and peace, but in a way that will afford you the ability to live a more authentic life, with true happiness as your ultimate reward.

Now is the time for us to think back at a more innocent time in our lives when adults would ask us "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Think back on what your answers were. Usually those answers were directly linked into your passion and your happiness. Whether it was a baseball player or zookeeper, the innocence of your answers gave insights into your true happiness. You didn't know what kind of salary a zookeeper made, nor did you care. You just cared about how cool it would be to work with exotic animals and maybe help teach others about them.

Now we make decisions based on responsibilities - mortgages, kids, health insurance, etc. and we live our lives working to live instead of living to work. When I look at my life, I say, "You know, I've probably got another 30 years left where I will be productive in the workforce. How do I really want to spend them? Do I want to spend them fighting the battles of others' wars to the betterment of their pockets and dreams, or do I want to fight my own battles?"

If you work for an employer who shares the same ideals and goals as you do, and you couldn't picture yourself doing anything other than what you do, because you LOVE what you are doing, and have always dreamed of doing this when you were a kid, then CONGRATULATIONS. You are living an enriched and authentic life. If not, then it is time for you to look in the mirror and say, "What do I really want to do with the rest of my life?" What legacy will I leave my children, when they think of me as a parent and as a person? What actions can I take to change my quality of life so when I wake up on Monday morning, I spring into action because your life is fueled by positive uplifting experiences?

I am not telling you to go out and change your life tomorrow - quitting your job and start backpacking across America. I am asking you to be honest with yourself, your spouse, your family, and your friends, and share with them what would truly make you happy. After you have established that, then as a community of loved ones, each of you support each other to attain the lives of true contentment, enrichment, and happiness.

I am very lucky that I have a wife who is following her passion as a Kettlebell instructor. She gets a charge out of being healthy and helping others become more healthy. It is a true labor of love. I am even more lucky because I have a wife who supports me in my pursuit to become the "Next Walt Disney . . . .or as I like to say it. . . the First Randy Rossilli, Jr."

The economy has not been our friend; however, we wake up each day invigorated by the experiences we will be having and the quality of life our career choices have provided our children. When we go to sleep at night, we are aware of the the struggles we have fought through and those that lie ahead, but they are struggles that we are wrestling with on our own terms for our own rewards.

So I ask you today to make a pledge not to work to live, but live to work. When put that way, it is more like what one of my idols, Thomas Edison said - "I never worked a day in my life, it was all fun." You will never work another day in your life, you will experience your life to its fullest, and in turn, positively impact the quality of life of everyone around you.

I have more to say on the topic, but will reserve that for another time. A time at which I hope you have taken some time to figure out:

"What you want to be, when YOU grow up?"

Getting Social In Schools?

Social networking. . .are you hip to it? Are you someone who got in early on the MySpace craze, did you just start Facebooking, Tweeting. . . are you LinkedIn? It seems like everyone is doing it. . . Moms, Dads, grandparents, kids. . . everyone is staying "connected" using some form of social networking.

It has worked great for me for both personal and professional reasons. It has reconnected me with friends from years ago, it keeps me connected with my current friends and family members, it connects me with people who have similar interests, it allows me to make announcements regarding new projects, properties and advances we have made at Nightstand Creations, and it has even reconnected me with a legion of "new" friends, who were a major part of my life some 15 years ago - who make me feel both proud and a little bit old. That legion is made up of former students of mine, who have now grown and become adults. . . parents. . . active contributors to society. =) I love this reconnection and enjoy their energy. It is great knowing where they came from and seeing how they have evolved.

One former student is really embracing this social media . . "craze?" kind of old to be a craze still, it is kind of now its own thing.

He asked the question in his blog about the idea of social media becoming a curriculum.

As someone who knows a little bit about how educational models evolve, I think we are still about 5+ years away from the adoption of social networking as a classroom tool. It could and should be implemented today as a way of extending the intruction beyond the classroom, and inviting parents and caretakers into the instuctional process. That notion has always been a littel scarey to the teacher, whose pride keeps their classrooms as closed as possible.

The Internet in schools is approximately 15 years old, and schools are just adopting policies that require teachers to maintain regularly updated websites. Social networking is 5 years old. Technology is more readily used by teachers, so I will give the benefit of the doubt to my former colleagues and say that it won't take 15 years to adopt the new technology, this time it will take them only 10. =)

Then again, it won't be "new" any longer, which still falls into the mold of the beauracracy-driven education industry will be last to the game, instead of first or second. . . . which our children and nation deserves.