Sunday Open Thread — July 8, 2007 | how to save the world

What I’m thinking about, and planning on writing (and podcasting) about soon:

Leadership: I don’t have a very high opinion of self-professed leaders and so-called leadership programs. But we still live in a society where there seems to be almost a co-dependence between followers (“tell me what to do and how to do it”) and leaders whose self-esteem is based on the subservience and adulation of others. How can we free them both from their addiction?

The Long-Term Cost of Stress: Our natural stress-responses are fight-or-flight adrenal responses, and as suited as they were to gatherer-hunter culture, they are maladapted to modern forms of (mostly psychological) stress, and to the chronic, relentless stresses that most of us face. I think this damages us from a very young age, and probably accounts for most modern chronic physical and psychological illnesses.

Vignettes: Coming up soon, vignettes #4 and #5.

Blog-Hosted Conversations: Plan is for 30-minute conversations, once a week, on the subject of identifying and acquiring the essential skills and relationships we need to be models of a better way to live, and what those models might look like. I’ve recorded some practice podcasts, readings of my own works just to try out the new medium, but I’m not happy with them. I’m also unhappy with the quality of recent Skype calls — too many dropped calls, lost sentences and strange audio artifacts to make a pleasant listening experience. Need to find a better way. Still working on this.

Open Thread Question:

If you’re really happy at work, why? Is it because you’re doing what you love? Because you’re doing what you’re good at? Because you’re working with people you love? Or because you’re appreciated? How important iseach of these four factors?

4 Responses to Sunday Open Thread — July 8, 2007

Siona says:

July 8, 2007 at 21:04

For your open thread, I’d say all of the above… and I’d add that, as well as feeling appreciated, it’s because I appreciate, deeply, the work, and I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the world.I don’t know. Perhaps it’s obvious, but gratitude, for me, is such an integral component of happiness.
David Parkinson says:

July 9, 2007 at 11:49

I’m very happy at work because:- I only work about 25 hrs/wk, leaving me a lot of time for outside interests and activities- I am able to work on things that I think are of enormous importance (related to food security) and will become more important as time goes on- I am engaged in the community, and not just pushing paper around- I like to think I’m good at this work, and people acknowledge thatI understand how lucky I am to be able to say these things.David
CG says:

July 9, 2007 at 18:56

excuse me, just testing
SB says:

July 9, 2007 at 22:56

I’ve been away from the web awhile — there are 64 unread articles waiting for me, right here — Because of illness, I no longer “work”, and I miss it desperately. Still. Sometimes, just running an errand — waiting in an office, or putting gas in the car — I see people working, laughing with each other, and I envy them. I know there is substantial literature on what makes for happy workers, but at least a bit of it — I think — is temperment — or something else, unrelated to any specific job. I liked every job I had, mostly — there’s always something, isn’t there — but usually only insignificant somethings. But I know some folks who have hated every job they’ve had. And I can tell, somehow, that they’ll go on hating every job they have, no matter how many times they change jobs.I quit every job I had, too — maybe that is the secret, being willing to leave, able to leave, if the insignificant becomes significant.