Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Some Thoughts on The Secret

I just re-watched The Secret the other night because I felt like a needed a reminder. In general, I believe in the Law of Attraction and have worked it successfully throughout my life--even before I had a name for it.
It always makes me think about this time when my friend said...and I can't remember why she said it..."It's just...I mean...WHY DOES SHANNON GET EVERYTHING SHE WANTS?!?!" And this was post-college, not a 6 year old throwing a temper tantrum. I giggled. I always did get what I wanted. And it's cuz of The Secret.
But anyway, this time watching The Secret, I was struck by something they said which I think could be taken in very wrong ways. In the sections where they were talking about money and material things, then mentioned how you need to act like you already have it. Then it (whatever "it" is that you want) will come to you.
Now, to me, that seems like an excuse to go out and buy a bunch of fancy toys just so that you can "feel rich" and in turn money will come to you. That's what it *seems* like they are telling you. But I think that the truth is that you will start worrying about your debt which will bring about more debt. I don't know.
The whole money aspect of The Secret might be a bit off. Maybe tomorrow I can be more organized in my thoughts about it.
But on a side note, I started repeating the mantra mentioned in the movie..."Money comes easily and frequently" and it has. Haha.

Monday, October 1, 2007

8 Hour Days--What I Learned About Myself

So it's been two weeks of my "work 8 hour days" goal and so far it's been going pretty good. I'm going to continue it this week, which should mean that it becomes a habit. We'll see. I do like being productive, but somehow eight hours does seem a bit much.
I mean...OK when I was a teacher, I would put in a good 8 hours of work. It was hard. But there was a bit of down-time. A bit of playing with the kids, a bit of after school chatting with teachers and so on. That makes actual work time a bit less...maybe 6-7 hours (and on Wednesdays I got to go home at 2.). Before that, I worked in technical support and my actual working time was almost zero. I'm not even joking when I say that I might have worked about one hour out of the nine hours that I was there (Alas, this company was acquired and eventually everyone was laid off, so don't ask for a job there...). Somehow, despite this, I was able to pull off the image that I was one of their best employees. Those were the days...
So it's actually quite hard for me to literally work a full 8 hours. Anyway, here are a few things I've learned about myself:

  • I work better by using time limits blocked out for different activities than I do by setting activity goals.
  • I can get a lot of work done in just an hour if I actually put my mind to it.
  • Brainstorming is quite effective. A few times, I've set aside some time for brainstorming and it makes the rest of the task much easier.
  • If I don't get an early start, it won't get done. It's funny how eight hours is eight hours whether you're talking 9-5 or 1-9. But there's just something about getting half the day's work done before noon that makes ya feel good. Two days I woke up unexpectedly late and by the time I had my breakfast and checked email and so on, it was past noon. These days were horribly unproductive for me.
  • Exercise at home is a great solution. I've had problems in the past where I can either focus on a serious exercise program and then the rest of my life falls out of whack and I become seriously unproductive. Or I can kick ass in the productivity department, and not at all feel like exercising. This past week I was able to balance by doing exercising at home. My husband and I are doing Power 90x. It's strange because the actual time spent working out is sometimes longer than if I went out for a jog and came home. But the feeling is somehow much different.

Well, those are the things I can think of so far. I'm going to try to keep it up because I do like feeling productive....