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Take your job and shove it!

When I first immigrated to Canada, I did not have an education or the necessary skills to get a good job. The first job I ever had was washing dishes in a Chinese buffet. This was a huge restaurant. It sat something like 600 people, and on a Saturday night there was 600 people in the restaurant, as well as a line up outside.

My job consisted of picking up dirty dishes from the service stations, bringing them to the kitchen, washing them and bringing them out to the buffet. If you ever had a crappy job, you can relate to my experience there. I stayed at that restaurant for over two years. Here are some tips about how to survive working in a “crappy” job, or at least how I used my creativity to do so:

1. The time passes really slowly when you do not like your job. To make it more bearable, I tried to concentrate on what I was doing, rather then thinking about how much I did not like doing what I was doing. By concentrating on the task at hand, we stop the seemingly never-ending thought process in our mind. It allows us to relax and elevates some stress. Many meditation practices teach exactly that principal.

2. I started thinking about washing dishes as a game. I tried to improve how fast I was putting the dishes through the machine. How efficient I was at picking up dirty dish containers - any aspect of my job that I could improve. I didn’t do it because I wanted to be the best dishwasher, or because I really liked what I was doing, but because it gave me a way to challenge my self. It was that challenge that kept my interest up and made it more bearable for me to go to work everyday. It sounds stupid, but it works. In personal development circles this is called “Goal Setting”.

Sometime having a boring job isn’t our choice. Success doesn’t come instantly, sometimes we have to have a “crappy job” to be able to survive. I hope that these couple of tips I just shared with you, will elevate some of the pain. Our creativity can be a great resource at times when “we have to do what we have to do”. I always think of Mcguyver (a reference to a TV show from another era) when I think of creativity. What would he do to get out of this one?

Intuition, the invisible guide.

Nobody can deny the existence of intuition. We all know that we have it, but almost no one can tell you how it works or how to use it effectively. It is like most intangible, abstract assets we have, put aside as something unimportant. In school we are taught how to do complex mathematical calculations or analyze chemical reactions, but not how to use a gift that can greatly enhance our life and personal development.

So what is intuition?

Some describe it as a gut feeling, or knowing before something is going to happen. Others talk about heart and listening to its guidance. I think that both definitions are fine, the important part in the definition, is the fact that we have an innate ability to sense right from wrong, that isn’t based on any logical analysis, but rather on an internal compass that can guide us to unbelievable success in life.

Intuition was used in many areas of our life since time immemorial. There were numerous examples of people picking stocks using only their intuition, making business decisions based on what their gut feeling was at the time. Many of those were extremely successful, but many failed miserably.

So which is it?

Is intuition something reliable that all of us can use, or is it something that is like the luck of the draw, works out only some of the time. The answer lies in the fact that intuition, like anything else in our life, can be more or less developed. It can sometimes be in a dormant state, so the messages that we get from our intuition seem blurry and unclear. I think most of us can relate to the confusion when it comes to having a gut feeling about something. We know it is a right thing to do, but we are unsure and end up hesitating.

How can we then develop this ability further and eliminate this confusion?

The answer is simpler then we think. All we need to do is trust our intuition and act on it. At first we will get it wrong many times. The more we act on our intuitive impulses, the clearer they will become. It is as simple as a concept of “Use it or Lose it”.

Plastic surgery in China.

I heard a report on the radio today that along with the busy holiday season, it is also a busy time for Chinese plastic surgeons. Apparently with the rise of middle class in China, there is also a huge rise in the demand for plastic surgery.

According to a busy Chinese surgeon in ShangHai, people come to her, more and more, to change the shape of their eyes, get rid of wrinkles and other popular procedures. Plastic surgery seems so popular that there is even an artificial beauty pageant that’s held in one of the major cities in China.

I found that report interesting. I also find very interesting how identical people are all around the world. Here we have a 2000+ year old culture that given a chance is susceptible to the very same patterns of behavior western culture is often stereotyped for. Race doesn’t matter, economical structure doesn’t matter - at the core we are all the same and want the same basic things in life, good or bad.