Category Archives: career

Jan22

The Year Of Healthy Living

Posted on by
Standard

Back in the waning hours of 2009 I wrote what remains to be one of my favorite posts concerning the things I had accomplished the previous year. I promised to follow-up with a more traditional approach to the new year with both resolutions and a lovely idea courtesy of Ms. Holly Hoffman, picking a theme for the year. My choice: The Year of Healthy Living.
Well needless to say, I got a little sidetracked and here it is quickly approaching the end of January and I have yet to deliver on my promise. So for that I am sorry but in the spirit of my chosen theme-the year of healthy living-I am making the conscience decision to set aside my unrealistic perfectionist tendencies and simply pick up where I left off. After all mental health is just as important as being physically sound.

Although I would not classify myself as a sickly person, I think just about everyone I have ever known would agree (with no exaggeration intended) that I have cheated death on more than a few occasions. From tornadoes, to sinking houseboats to fires and car accidents, it seems I have been inches from an untimely end more times than I care to count. I am probably also the most accident-prone person in the world. Case en point: Just in 2009 I dislocated my jaw, suffered a severe concussion after a nearly drowning when a boat flipped over on top of me, broke my toe and my hand and then endured nerve damage to my shoulder. I also survived hypothermia, and pneumonia as well as a pretty severe allergic reaction to inhaling rhododendron while on the fire line.

I tend to be anemic, cold averse with extremely low blood pressure, have poor circulation, brittle bones and heart disease (the scary kind that makes you drop dead at 50) runs rampant in my family. I have already endured a hysterectomy for cervical cancer, gall stones, a ruptured liver duct, petit-mal seizures, at least seven broken bones and am nearly blind in my left eye from a degenerative disease of the cornea.

Most people I tell this too just stare at me. I suppose I am blessed to have made it to 30.

So on that depressing note – I have decided to make this the year of healthy living. I intend to be more cautious, eat better and exercise more. I will not avoid the doctor and the dentist for fear of another crazy diagnosis but instead be much more proactive about my health.

After all, I have three beautiful babies that I really want to be around for, for as long as I my time on this Earth allows. I know it won’t be easy and I will have to make some tough choices but I figure it people I admire like Holly can do it, than so can I.

Wish me luck.

I think I’ll need it!

Dec29

Heading Into The New Year With Anticipation (Part I)

Posted on by
Standard

Almost a new year.

I can’t believe that 2009 will be over in a matter of days. It really has been an incredible year, incredibly fast that is. It seems that each year gets a little more hurried as I pack more and more into my life. It can be crazy and insanely tough, but honestly I wouldn’t change a thing.

It is about this time each year that I start looking back and wondering just what I will get myself into next year. Many people write out resolutions but I want to do something different this year. I’ll probably still make out a list, but in addition to that I am going to write down a list of all that I have managed to accomplish over the past 12 months. Not only does it give me a great big boost of confidence, which at times I sorely need, but it also reminds me that I CAN achieve anything I want to, as long as I just keep moving towards my goals.

The idea came to me from a fairly ordinary source. I go through a review process at work every six months. After my first one, I realized that while it may seem simple to recall all of the reasons why you should be kept around or even better be given a raise, it can actually be pretty hard, especially if you are as crazy busy and pressed for time as I am. My mentor suggested I keep an “accomplishments” folder to help me remember. Basically it works like this: every time I get an email that in any way praises something I’ve done I print it out. When I meet a tough (read IMPOSSIBLE) deadline, I make a note of it and toss it in the folder. After six months I can easily pull out my folder and summarize everything I’ve done to improve the organization.

It worked so well for my job that I decided to do something similar for each year for all the other parts of my life. So now I keep a folder with pretty much everything that was flattering, an accomplishment, a triumph of spirit or just a great learning experience in it. I am now approaching 2010 with my first complete list in hand, ready to go over it in preparation for another incredibly wonderful, but insanely speedy year. And as cheesy and idealistic as that sounds, I find that as I look over it I really do feel much more optimistic about how I am spending my life.

The next step to the process is rather than go through a review as I would at work, I will share the list (in summary form) here on my blog with all of you. In doing so maybe it will help to inspire someone else to keep pushing against the odds, that there is in fact light at the end of the tunnel even if that tunnel seems interminably long sometimes.

To go one better in part two of this post I will also including my usual list of resolutions in addition to my accomplishments.So here you go. Read, comment and share your own accomplishments!

2009 in a nutshell:

Over the last year I crossed over that invisible line between what I used to think was “old” and the reality of being 30 years old and knowing that age is completely relative despite the scary realization that my first-born also became a preteen this year. I completed the second year of a job that I really want to become my career despite a couple of life-threatening incidents including an insane asthma attack during my first interior ignition on a 2000 acre prescribed burn (got it all on film though) and a midnight boat accident that trapped me underwater with alligators and a  dislocated jaw and also gave me a concussion and an odd scar on my nose.

I came through some of the most challenging moments of my marriage, with a renewed passion and stronger bond with my husband than I ever thought possible.While not a prince on a white horse, he’s the sexiest, most compassionate and forgiving frog I could have ever hoped to kiss and spend the rest of my life with. D, I love you.

My kids achieved amazing milestones including a first band concert for my percussion-playing 12-year-old and a  first bus ride to kindergarten for my five-year old (with only minimal tears from me). I nearly cried when my little boy wrote his own name, when my daughter said “mommy hold me,” and when my oldest son beat me at checkers for the first time without me going “easy” on him. There were soccer tournaments, surprise parties and a boy-scout camporee. I introduced them to snow, snakes, frogs, turtles, bats, birds, fire, lichens, bugs and the values of conservation including a river clean-up and the first ever right whale festival. It is amazing that their successes, their wonder make me feel successful as well, as a parent, as a woman, and as a person.Having happy, healthy, curious and vibrant children is a reflection of the tireless combined efforts of both me and my husband, a team we are both embarrassingly proud of.

I grew professionally, designing and implementing the first social media program for the state agency where I work. In addition to that program I created a handbook (that is regularly updated and re-released) for that program that was shared state-wide, then nation-wide, and used to create similar programs for other wildlife agencies. I spoke at both a local and a regional conference on social media and conservation, and was then asked to serve as a member of a state-wide task force to help promote wildlife conservation through social media. The first DVD I ever produced received a near perfect score by an independent panel made up of wildlife communication professionals from all over the country, giving me both the confidence and the credibility to go forward with additional videos and the resources to create an entire video production program within my division. I completed fire training, passed my pack test, held an alligator, shocked fish, identified lichens, helped build a cave gate for bats and may have discovered a new habitat for a crayfish. Pretty cool.

I achieved good grades in graduate school despite working 60+ hour weeks and traveling extensively, not to mention caring for three children. Amazingly I was also accepted into an MS program for conservation ecology after being told my whole life that science and math weren’t my “thing” – and I am excelling within the program! I was asked to guest lecture not once but twice for a college course and even discussed co-teaching a class on social media with an old professor.

I am finally approaching my pre-baby weight going from a 12 to an 8, but actually feeling healthier than I ever did before my three children and realizing that I haven’t actually stepped on a scale daily for months and knowing I’m okay with that, a true sign I am really recovering from years of disordered eating.

Neither of my two main blogs have brought me fame or fortune, but I know what it feels like to be at the top of a Google search (I outranked the Texas stripper with my name) and to be featured consistently on sites like Brazen Careerist and Damsels in Success. I received an excellent review by a top-ranked blogger and made the move to WordPress without losing any readers. I started a business of my own with my family, including a family story blog that my kids are having a ball with helping out on. It really feels good to be creating something lasting and possibly lucrative with my children that doesn’t involve exploiting them as a stage mom.

So as you can see, I’ve had an incredible year. Stay tuned for part II when I go over what I intend to do next year!

Nov18

Things do happen for a reason…sometimes you just have to wait…

Posted on by
Standard

I haven’t posted in a while. I have been incredibly busy with work and school and family-but that is not the topic of this post. I recently made a tough decision. I have decided to go a different direction in my educational career, a choice that will ultimately change my entire life.

I have always been the creative type – one of my favorite pictures is one of around age 2 taking a photo of my mom in front of our house. It was a little Brownie camera but I loved it. Just recently mu husband and I were trying to re-organize our home office and we came upon box after box after freakin’ box of photo albums…all mine. Seems that I just couldn’t stop taking pictures and even today I am teased for always having a camera somewhere on my person.

In addition to photos, I love to read and to write. I have been winning awards for creative writing since elementary school and I don’t say that to brag. I simply have a love of story telling and when I get ideas I have to stop and write, whether on the backs of bev’ naps, brochures, receipts, etc. I know a lot of people think I’m just a little strange.

What makes things stranger is that I think in “video” when I hear music. For example, when I hear a song, my mind puts together a video in my head, even if I have never seen an actual video on TV for that song (which is often the case since I haven’t had cable in nearly 5 years and I refuse to buy one of those new TV’s when my nice practically new on plays all my DVD’s just as well.

So you may be wondering after all of this, where’s this big change?

So here it goes.

As a young girl, the child of two civil engineers, the granddaughter of a high school administrator, marine [spy], and an English professor with a double doctorate in psychology and English, it was naturally expected that I would do well. And in many cases I did. I was accepted into many of the advanced programs offered, went to camp and was an avid Girl Scout for years.

The one thing that I was never encouraged to really try in was science, despite a very early love of dinosaurs and history. For whatever reason, science, ecology, biology, chemistry – all seemed the domain of the young boys and I knew not to question it.

When I finally  made it to college I really enjoyed the PR and Journalism program at the Grady School of Communications at UGA. I learned so much and really had the chance to develop my writing and persuasion skills and felt confident heading out into the world.

I only had four interviews before getting hired, by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division. A job I continue to hold, and one I love….know why? Because it opened my eyes, Everyday I learn more and more – how could I have missed this stuff in school? The subtle yet complex interactions between species, habitats, air and water quality….I was absolutely in shock that these things are not mandatory for all young people going through school. How can we ever expect to “save the planet” if we don’t understand the planet in the first place??

I began to really read and tag along in the field as much as possible. As a public affairs specialist it was up to me to convince people that our programs and projects are important and worthy of funds. I thought to myself, how can I do that if I don’t “get it” my self?

Now two years into what I hope will be a long career, I have seen up close a mom and calf North Atlantic right whale (less than 350 left in the world), held a federally threatened bog turtle and the leathery egg of a loggerhead sea turtle, as well as learn to measure the wingspan of an American Oystercatcher and help attach a radio transmitter to the back of a marbled godwit. I have stood a few feet away from 40 foot flames while assisting with a nearly 2000 acre prescribed burn. I have photographed bats and marveled at the thinness of their wings, swamped for bog restoration and banded geese at night.

I don’t say these things to brag, not at all, but to show that I have seen more of this state in my two years with DNR than in my nearly 27 years of living here. I am astounded that ever school child doesn’t learn about the most wonderful thing about our planet in more depth, the natural world.

So here is the change. Although I love grad school and the program I was undertaking – an MA in environmental non-profits, I have decided to switch programs to an MS in Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development, with a certificate in the non-profit program, one in Environmental Ethics and another in Native Plants. I know the course-load is harder, but I just feel like being an ecologist will finally fill some void…some innate sense to seek out what I do not know. I am an addict…to learning. And I am hoping that  by completing this program, I will finally figure out where I belong.

Wish me luck!! (and if you have ever made a huge life change, I’d  love to hear about it!!)

where now?

Jan17

life at the crossroads…

Posted on by
Standard

So I have been blogging for two long years now, primarily over at my professional blog, and well, things are changing.

My perspective on life in general has changed tremendously over the last 24 months, for a number of reasons.  I graduated college, had another baby, got an awesome job, went back to college, got published, had my blog picked up by several independent sites, made some awesome blogger contacts, got married…

I love to blog, I love to write…and I am quickly learning that doing what you love is far more important than bringing home a paycheck, at least in the idealistic world in my head. I guess I never really been in sync with our capitalistic country that praises  the good girls and boys who play nice, work 9-5 and have neighborhood barbecues and outings at the local country club.

I have a family to support and granted writing for free will not keep the roof over their heads or put food in their bellies, but what kind of example would I be setting if I spent my life being miserable. Would they look back as adults and pity all that I had given up on, opportunities missed?

I tell my kids that anything is possible, that all they have to do is believe and then of course put in a ton of hard work (nothing great is ever easy you know). How can I sleep at night if I don’t follow my own advice?

I really want to become a role model for them, and to do that there have to be some serious changes made.

I made a list of new years resolutions like millions of others all over the world. I am afraid however that I have already abandoned the list and it is only the 17th day of the new year…

I really want to write about the things I am passionate about, and I worry that I am limited by my professional blog.

I am thinking seriously of shutting it down and hoping that my loyal readers will migrate with me over to this blog where I feel that I can really write more about life, balance, family, and of course the old standby, saving the planet.

If  Ryan Paugh can do it, well why can’t I? Maybe I am not a successful as he is, but he makes some very good points for making a change. After all I am turning 30 this year….so I guess I am not really a millennial for much longer. (certainly not by Brazen Careerist standards since they stop featuring you when you hit that magic number). Well we got a runner Logan, I am growing up through my writing and so maybe my blog needs to grow up too.

Oct18

Just how much SHOULD be online?

Posted on by
Standard

This particular topic is the cause for frequent arguments in my household. With the seemingly omnipresence of the Internet – everyone is online, often living out a completely separate life via social networking sites such as MySpace, LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook.

At the same time identity theft is on the rise, as well as other online threats. Which leads me to my question….just how much should be online?

I did a post a while back about living a transparent life. While I still agree that networking and having an online identity is good and even necessary in some cases, I am beginning to see the merits of the argument for the opposite side.

Just to stop and to clarify, I am on the borderline between Gen X and Gen Y and have a very active online life. And although I came into the game a little later than many of my Brazen pals. I readily admit that I am addicted to email, blog on a regular basis and really enjoy catching up with pals on Facebook.

However, I have also been the victim of a selfish, unprofessional and slightly vindictive reporter, so I am also aware of the dangers of having too much information available for the world to see.
So how much is too much?

I do not publish under a false name or identity as some bloggers do. I am proud of what I write and what I am contributing to society. Lately though, I have begun to wonder about the world that exists outside my online community, which of course includes my family, my job and life.

There are some things the world maybe does not need to know about. For starters, having too much personal information regarding your family, particularly your children, is never a good idea. As paranoid as it may sound, we live in a different world than our parents did and kids are no longer immune from from media hounds looking for a story, or predators for that matter. And I don’t just mean children of celebrities. It seems that just about anyone can become a person of interest in this day and age and if you have kids, they are considered fair game for that person trying to dig up information on you. So it would seem, that keeping them offline entirely is probably a good idea.

Something else to consider, personal, financial and employment information. This seems like a no-brainer to me, but I heard recently about a fellow blogger who was duped (incredibly so, because she is a very intelligent person) by someone claiming to want to help her with her blog. She had posted information about what she did for a living and even what the salary ranges are for her particular occupation. I will respect her privacy and not go into more detail, but I realize that the only reason she was tricked was because of the extent of the information that the online predator had about her. (collected from Facebook, her blog and LinkedIn) Curious I did a google search on myself and was somewhat surprised about the amount of information out there. I can honestly say that maybe I have been a little too lax in allowing my personal identity to be broadcast to the world.

I often wonder at times just who is reading my blog and am beginning to think that maybe having an online life is not always the greatest thing. I mean, should I worry about mentioning my professor, or my boss? Are they reading and will they seek retribution? Am I worried for nothing?

I enjoy blogging but have been told that I sometimes cross the line with my posts.

I want to continue doing what it is I do, which hopefully is reaching out to other bloggers, PR students, writers, and anyone really who is on the same wave-length as me. I do not want to put my children or career at risk however so I have much to contemplate.

Does anyone else experience this dilemma or have I finally let Big Brother get to me? Feel free to share your own experiences, positive or negative. We are all online these days and a part of a larger world than our parents ever could have imagined. Is this good, bad, or nothing new? Maybe I am a little crazy, but without comments I may never know!

Jun16

Too happy? Your Wallet Could Suffer.

Posted on by
Standard
Are you a glass half full kind of person?


Having a family and being young and broke to boot, I am constantly on the lookout for ways to either save money or to increase my bank account. I am dabbling in investments, have a savings account and a 401K through my employer. I never thought however that my personal happiness might have anything to do with the size of my purse. Wrong! at least according to the latest issue of Money magazine.

In an article titled “Want to be Rich? Don’t get too happy” columnist and money coach Jean Chatzky spells out why too much happiness can actually be a bad thing in the financial department. She is not the first too broach the topic.

She points to a study done by Ed Diener of the University of Illinois which shows that there can be too much of a good thing even happiness. Apparently being blissful can lead to overspending and less attention to wealth building [read complacency]. Those who rated an 8 or a 9 on the happiness scale versus a 10 were more likely to strive to increase their wealth and to hold on to what they had, probably because they had worked for it to begin with. These slightly less happy folk were also more likely to go to college and to vote.

So does that mean the eternal optomists are doomed to a cheerful but broke life? Not neccessarily. Chatzky gives a couple of tips on how those glass half full types can ensure that they too will approach retirement with a fully developed nest egg.

1. Surround yourself with the right people. It is all about balance. According to the article if you are having financial woes you may need new friends. If you tend toward pessimism then find a few optimists, swing the other way, add a pessimist to the mix. Either way you will balance out your personality and possibly help out your financial situation in the process.

2. Challenge yourself. Super bliss can make even the most intelligent person become complacent. Even of your approach to life is working, you should always be prepared for the worst, simply because nobody can predict the future, no matter how hard we try. You also may become so caught up in “your way of doing things” that you fail to notice when it is no longer beneficial. Ever hear the expression “having blinders on?”

Okay, so maybe I really don’t have anything to worry about seeing as I don’t really count myself among the blissfully unaware. (At least not since puberty.) But I will take the article to heart lest I become complacent in my miser-like ways.

Do you find that too much happiness impacts your ability to build wealth? I know that many Brazen bloggers are looking to increase both their wealth and their happiness, so I open up the discussion. Is it possible to have both?

Jun2

Being Imperfect Can Help Your Career

Posted on by
Standard

There is a great article out in this month’s edition of Body and Soul magazine. The column by staffer Terri Trespicio details why it is important to cut yourself a little slack now and then.

Suffering from perfectionism myself, I was drawn to this article with a kind of fascination usually reserved for writing and re-writing and then writing again my blog posts

The point of the article is that there are steps we can take to break out of the perfectionist mind-set in order to empower our decisions so we can move forward with our lives both personally and professionally. Thanks to Terri for the great article.

Hopefully these things will help you as much as they did me.

  1. Remove your mental filter. – Perfectionists often only hear the negative news, letting the positive reviews go in one ear and out the other. Try readjusting your mental sieve and allow some of the good stuff to stick
  2. Discover the joys of getting it wrong. – Start looking at your flaws as opportunities for personal and professional growth. Nobody likes to be wrong but being able to accept and learn from mistakes will make you a better person both in and out of the boardroom. Dan Baker, Ph.D and co-author of What Happy Women Know, says this, “Think of making a mistake as paying tuition, once you’ve paid, you might as well learn the lesson.”
  3. Compare yourself to others, realistically. –Maybe you do enough of this, but you probably don’t see others with the same foggy filter you see yourself with. Try taking notice of your peers. Do they take shorter/longer lunch breaks, make the occasional typo, and lock themselves out of their cars? If they are not perfect then why should you be.
  4. Put people before things. – Put the people in your life before your stuff. This may seem like a no-brainer, but how often (and be honest here) do you find yourself late getting home again because you just had “one” more thing to get done at the office? How many relationships fizzle because one person is already married…to their job? It happens all the time so take a good look around now. If you log more hours at your desk than say the average mouse pad, you need more face time with your friends and family. Even if you are a busy CEO, taking some quality time will pay off in more ways than one as it is well established that happy workers (with happy families) are much more Productive, efficient and effective.
  5. Prioritize your perfectionism. – This too is hard to hear, since with all perfectionists, of course we want to be great at everything. The article states this however, “Instead of trying to master everything, pick some things you want to excel in.” As Penelope Trunk once stated in her book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, (and I am most definitely paraphrasing) specialization is a wonderful thing. Being a little good at everything (or half-assed at everything) will not win you any awards and will definitely not fatten your wallet. Pick a few tasks/topics/subjects etc. you really excel at and work on them. For me it is persuasive advocacy writing and graphic design particularly in regards to wildlife publications. I am by no means a scientist and can’t list the statistics of every endangered species but I can create a really pretty picture with words and photos that will make even the most hardened ant-environmentalist want to read more.
  6. Let a dirty sock be just a dirty sock. – Ahhh… the joys of a clean house. I admit that I am severely embarrassed to have people over to my house without say a month of advanced notice. Ok so maybe I am not that bad, but hey with three kids and both my partner and I working full time there is not a whole ton of time left over for house cleaning. The article claims that seeing small-scale messes as a personal failure is actually a cognitive disorder (do they make a pill specifically for the racing heart and cold sweaty palms I feel whenever I open my 10-year-old’s closet door, right before the entire contents come crashing down on my head? Probably) Anyhow, I take great pride in my work and my family and am starting to let go of the dirty sock as global disaster mindset. All three of my kids are turning out pretty darned well and I am succeeding at work and in my personal life so I must be doing something right, even if it’s not the laundry. Rather than react emotionally, see things like socks, dishes and dust for what they are, everyday facts of life that need tending to, not evidence of your incompetence.
  7. Focus on wellness not weight. – Another big one for me. After three kids I will never pass as a super model but being okay with myself is a constant challenge. In addition to personal (sometimes unrealistic) goals, there is also the added pressure of working is a somewhat public industry. Appearance does matter in public relations, however taking care of your self, having trimmed neat nails and clean suitable clothes are a heck of a lot more important than being the one on the office with the tiniest waist.
  8. Age gracefully. – A few wrinkles does not make you a bag lady, it adds character really! According to Baker what makes us truly attractive is more about confidence, carriage and hard-won wisdom rather than firm skin or how much you resemble a fashion model. And just a tip from me, those women who do go all out to look 20 years younger often come off as unprofessional or unapproachable or worse “that old woman from accounting with the peel on face and skin tight leopard-print skirt who gives me the creeps.” Don’t be that person.
  9. Counter the negative with a positive. – This goes back to number one on the list. Often perfectionists only hear the bad things and assume they are doing it all wrong. In order to stop this kind of thinking, try to automatically counter your negative thoughts with three happy ones. As corny as it seems, even having a list works wonders when you are at risk of sliding into the dumps. My list is wallet sized and changes periodically, but serves to remind me that I am a good mom, a good writer and a successful businesswoman.
  10. Kick black and white thinking to the curb.– Last of all get rid of the all or nothing mindset. There are shades of gray in just about every situation on Earth. Remind your self those temporary moments of insanity (having an extra dessert, a bad hair day or being 15 minutes late) does not mean you are fat or lazy or an incredible slacker. Give yourself credit for all you do right and understand that in the end we are all just human.

What do you do to beat your perfectionist tendencies? Does any one have some creative ideas or feel more should be added to the list? Send me a comment!

To read the entire article check out the June edition of Body and Soul Magazine.